Dying to Read It!

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Dear Lord,

Today I find myself pondering the price that was paid to bring us the printed text of Your Word, the Holy Bible.

John Wycliffe, an English priest, was acknowledged as a subversive within Catholicism in the 14th century.  His 1382 English Bible put the holy scriptures into the common language of the people. Wycliffe emphasized the centrality of the Holy Bible to guide believers in walking with God.  For Him, the Bible was more important than church rites and traditions.  Wycliffe opposed wealth and opulence in the priesthood, monasteries, the marriage ban for priests, the absolute authority of the Roman Catholic Church, and the papacy. He had read Your Word, and his eyes had been opened. Having read the Word, he insisted that others read it too.  Thank You, Lord, for John Wycliffe.

William Tyndale provided the first mass printed Bibles for the English-speaking world.  This 16th century reformer's life and witness continues to resonate even in our 21st century world. Faced with a sentence of death if he published an English Bible, Tyndale persisted fearlessly.  His Bibles were confiscated and burned.  Eventually, he was strangled to death and his body was burned at the stake--a martyr for his faith. Seventy-five years after his death, King James commissioned the Authorized Version (1611) of the Bible which drew heavily on Tyndale's translation.  Because of this man's sacrifice of his own life for the sake of Your Word, his influence endures upon us even today.  Thank You, Lord, for William Tyndale.

So, as I sit down to read the Holy Bible yet again, I ponder Your reality as You speak Truth into my life.  I ponder the sacrifice of prosperity, ease, comfort and life itself that has been embraced by countless men and women in a quest to read but one page of holy writ.  I blush with embarrassment over the glut of Bibles in my home.  I grieve the prayerless, Bible-absent lifestyle of much of the church today.  

"We have the privilege of possessing the Bible, and that privilege is  a responsibility for which we shall answer" (William Barclay in The Gospel of Luke, 1953, p. 155).  So, again this day, I read Your Word.  I pray that it will be "a lamp to my feet And a light to my path" (Psalm 119:105).  And I heed Your call to be an ambassador of the Truth of Your Word, even when it costs me greatly to do so.

In the Name of the Word made flesh,

Amen.