Friday, January 9, 2009

Preacher, If You Have Faith...

In the Word of Faith, we were considered 'Word people.' That meant we were students of the Bible. We kept multiple translations of the Bible handy. We not only read the Bible often but we continually read books about the Bible. We even spent time making personal affirmations called 'confessions' (as in confessions of faith) that were comprised of Bible passages. We kept our nose in the Bible, we liked talking the Bible and we liked being identified as Bible-esteeming Christians whose faith dictated our behavior and lifestyle. We were born of the Word of God and wanted the word in our hearts. If there was a crisis, you wanted to have the word pouring out of you.

If the Bible has all the answers, wouldn't you want to get the Bible into the hands of others? If we are all about the Word, aren't we supposed to give the Word to the world since the whole world does not have free access to it?


With that in mind, here some statistics at peoplegroups.org:


Xamtanga is a language of Ethiopia that was spoken by about 192,000 people in 1998.What access to the Bible do they have in any form?


Bible Translations: Not Available


Jesus Film: Not Available


Gospel Recordings: Not Available


Radio Broadcast: Not Available


Wagdi is a language of India that was spoken by about 1,621,000 people in 1997.


Bible Translations: Not Available


Jesus Film: Not Available


Gospel Recordings: Not Available


Radio Broadcast: Not Available


Choni is a language of Tibet spoken by 24,000 people in 2005. As you might guess, they have no Bible, no Jesus movie, no Bible recordings and no Bible on the radio. And there are many other languages lacking Bible translations.


My challenge to faith preachers is this: if you're so full of faith, use some of it to get the Word (that you say you love) into the hands of people who don’t have it in their language. Instead of stuffing preacher's pockets with money for new planes, even bigger houses or expenses to preach to the converted, why don't Word people pump money into organizations like the Wycliffe translators and others?


That way someone other than ourselves can be full of the Word.

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