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Monday, June 6, 2011

Treasuring the Word of God

As a Reading Glutton, I read a lot.  I almost always have at least a couple of books going, plus an audio book.  But even though I read some good books, maybe even some edifying books, I have neglected the best book of all: the revelation of God's love for us in his Word.  I'm being honest here, I can't even remember the last time I read the Bible devotionally.  I have been mildly convicted by some of my recent reading, but today I ran across a powerful reminder of what a treasure we have in the Bible.

According to KimyalTribe.com:
The Kimyal Tribe live in the Eastern Highlands of West Papua, Indonesia. They are sustenance farmers who were untouched by the outside world until World Team missionaries Phil & Phyliss Masters brought the Gospel to their area in 1963.  Phil Masters was martyred in 1968 when he and fellow missionary Stan Dale were killed and cannibalized by the Yale tribe. . . .  From the beginning, the Kimyals have had a love and desire for the Word of God. The World Team missionaries that came after the Masters have been witnesses of this. 
The Kimyals have had access to portions of scripture in their own language, and in the languages of neighboring tribes. But until last year, the did not have the complete New Testament.  The following video shows part of the celebrations around the arrival of the first copies of the New Testament in their language.  Watch the exuberant dancing, tears of joy, and passionate prayers as they welcome these Bibles.  They act like the Bibles are a gift from heaven!
Of course they do.  In my media-saturated, Bible-saturated, Christian-radio-saturated, church-culture-saturated world, I forget that the Bible is just that: a gift from heaven!  A love letter from God!  A history of salvation!  Words of life!  Thank you, Kimyal people, for reminding me not to be a glutton, not to munch God's word like it's a bland but hopefully healthy meal, but to take it in like it's both the finest delicacy imaginable as well as the source of life.

1 comment:

  1. As the old radio preacher used to say, Amen, amen, and amen again!

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