Bible Translation
“I will worship toward Your holy temple,
And praise Your name
For Your lovingkindness and Your truth;
For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.”
Psalm 138:2
A Bible translation that we have been working with for nearly twenty years has just come out and this specific people group are just now receiving the New Testament for the very first time. That blows my mind. This specific group gets to read for themselves the story of Jesus Christ and what He has done for all of us for the FIRST time. That is where these people are. This specific group was once beaten for speaking their language. Up until very recently, it was outlawed. Now, this language is protected by state and national law and the Bible is one of their text books for schools.
It might be hard, especially for Americans, to wrap our minds around this. However, it was not too long ago that we here in America did not have the Bible either. This group of people did not even have a written language. It was not too long ago for us here in America either. However, now, they get to not only right their language but receive the New Testament, God’s Word.
This presents a question for me. How often do we take God’s Word for granted? How often do we not open up the Bible? How many days do we do not live it out? How many times do we not take it seriously? We have so much access to God’s Word in America. This people group has received it for the first time and are just now able to read it for themselves. This is where they are. In America, we have so many resources to endless sermons, bibles anywhere we want to grab them, online access, Churches across the entire country and a nation founded upon the principles of God. In America, we have had such an opportunity to read God’s Word.
Today, this is beginning to change for Americans is it not? As a whole, God is no longer welcome in our schools and so many other things. Have we taken advantage of what was once such a great opportunity to worship the Lord? As a whole, yes, we have. If we just look at the abortion rates, the sexually immorality, fornication, adultery, homosexuals and sodomizer, we have. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 says,
“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”
God is not a kill joy. Everything in life has rules. Think about it. Every sport, school, jobs, countries and societies have rules and laws. If everything in life has rules and laws, how much more for the spiritual things in life? God is trying to set us up for success. He desires for us to thrive. He created us. He knows what is best for us. As a whole, we can see we have taken advantage of what God gave to us as an American people.
What do we treasure in life? What do we put our time into, our thoughts and our energy? Matthew 6:19-23 says,
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”
What has our hearts? People search for something in life that will satisfy them. Do we not? God is the most important thing one can find in life. Jesus, the living Word, and the Bible is the most important thing we can find in life. This is the very thing some people search an entire lifetime for. Psalm 138:2 says,
“I will worship toward Your holy temple,
And praise Your name
For Your lovingkindness and Your truth;
For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.”
God’s Word is so important. It is magnified above His very Name. Jesus is so important. This people group that we have been blessed to be apart of, now, has a the New Testament for the FIRST TIME. Do we take advantage of God’s Word in our lives? The Bible is so important. We are to Treasure God’s Word. We are to take it seriously. As Christians, we are called to live a life that honors Jesus. Let us take it seriously.
Please be in prayer for these people as they have received the New Testament, as the project continues and for the Old Testament to be translated. Please be in prayer for these people that they would be receptive not chasing a religion or a denomination but to chase what His Word says to do. It is so important. Jesus is the greatest decision that anyone can make in life.
For anyone that watches our stuff that is the most important thing you can get out of our stuff. Live well for God. If you honor God, He will honor you. It is not that you will not face hard days. Jesus tells us that we will face hard days. John 15:18-21 says,
“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.”
However, Jesus promises that He will always be with us. Matthew 28:18-20 says,
” And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.”
Treasure His Word. Seek the truth and live it out.
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God bless 🙌
