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Friday, July 18, 2008

The Best Thing I Brought Home With Me Was......

a Bible...an English Bible. I've needed a new one for a while and should have bought one before I came to Bolivia a year ago, but in all the trying to get last minute details finished up that is just one of the things that fell through the cracks.

Of course I could easily find a Spanish Bible here and probably even a Quechua one, but I wanted one in my own heart language…in my native tongue. How many people in the world have that same sentiment? How many people would love to read God’s Word in their own language? It’s something that we English speakers so often take for granted….readily available Bibles in a variety of colors, textures, and translations in the language we most easily understand. There are still people groups in the world that don’t have the Bible or not the entire Bible in their language. According to Wycliffe Bible Translators approximately 200 million people don’t yet have the Bible in their language.

I’m thrilled with my new Bible. It’s funny isn’t it how a new Bible inspires us to read it more even though the words on the inside are the same? Well, it does me anyway. I just want to explore it all. My new dual colored leather cover beckons me from my bedside table and I can’t wait to finish reading it all the way through. It never gets old. After all as It says of Itself, the Word of God is alive and active cutting deep into our innermost being. It judges our hearts. It is also our only completely reliable source of the Good News that Jesus came to earth as a human, willingly took the penalty of our sin, and showed us how much the Father loves us. It will be an exciting day when the entire world has an opportunity to hear and read that in their own language as I can. I pray that I never take that privilege for granted.