How blessed am I that I have the privilege to hand-write the Bible as a devotional and personal experience?
Did you know there are many people in the world who live in areas where it is illegal to even own a Christian Bible? Of course you did. So did I. The revelation I have today is that I can choose to do this. I have the freedom to do this.
I was researching this morning, and there are tons of stories on the Internet detailing how persecuted Christians around the world are forced to create and read hand-copied versions of the Bible -- even today. There are stories of Christian prayer meetings raided by government agents and police where participants are imprisoned with charges that relate to attempting to disrupt or overthrow the government. Bibles are not readily available in these locations, and they must be smuggled in. Often there may be only one real Bible in a particular area, and Christians must copy by hand the books or scriptures they want to keep for their own personal reading and study.
Then, I look around my home office, and count Bibles I have just in this one room... There are at least 12 Bibles just within view of my chair. That doesn't count the electronic versions that are at my fingertips at any given moment, or the 3-4 in the living room, or the one in my car. I count myself blessed to have the Living Word of God so accessible to me at all times, yet feel condemned by the fact that there are times in my life where I am "too busy" to read even one of them.
People are dying in the streets and in prisons because of this Book. Those people would do anything to get their hands on one -- even a hand-written version that is hardly legible. Let me not forget the value of this Word that so many people are willing to die for.
No comments:
Post a Comment