The Minister heard a knock on the door and went to see who it was. A young teenage girl called Mary Jones stood on the doorstep. She had walked 26 miles to buy a Bible in her own language, Welsh. He sold her three for the price of one! From this encounter, just 4 years later, the organisation we now know as The Bible Society came into existence. Over the 220 years since then about 155 Bible societies have been formed around the World, to provide Bibles and Scripture portions to the nations.
Today is Bible Sunday, the date each year when we rejoice in God’s Word and remember why the Bible matters so much - “... the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Tim 3.15b-17.
50% of the world’s people now have a whole Bible translation, thanks to Bible Society. 5.6bn people have access to Bibles online through the Society’s YouVersion. The Society’s work in making Bible translations in more and more languages points toward another 600m people having access to Scripture in the next 20 years. Wycliffe Bible Translators does similar work and tell us that 1.5 billion people still wait for access to a Bible in their first language.
We worship a God who is real, is alive and is not silent. He is a God who speaks in words. We classically hear from Him as we read the Bible. The Scriptures we find in the Old Testament bear witness to Jesus – we know that because He told us so- John 5.39b. We find in the books that form the New Testament yet more testimony of God’s work for us in and through Christ – so that we can be “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
We hear the thrill of the Gospel message and can find joy as we immerse ourselves in God’s word, by reading and studying our Bibles faithfully and regularly. This is not an old-fashioned habit we can lay aside, it is our engagement with the vital tool for the advancement of God’s Kingdom, for the enrichment of our individual relationship with God and for the spreading of the Gospel of salvation - “For the word of God is alive and active” Heb 4.12.
May you have joyous reading
Godfrey
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.