How Many Bibles Do You Have?

          Well, I was amazed again.  We had the opportunity to be present at the Wycliffe Associates banquet in our home town and to learn of just some of the things that went on since the last banquet and how the Word of God is being translated now compared to 50 years ago.  It was a bit sad to imagine myself living in certain villages around the world that still do not have a Bible.  I just glanced at my shelf in the bookcases that has my Bibles and there are fifteen of them.  Some of different translations and some of different languages.  This is not to mention the Bibles that are on my computer.  The program that I utilize the most is E-Sword, which is a free program, easy to use and one that presently has 57 different Bibles in English, Latin, Spanish, Greek and Hebrew.  So, what really amazes me or blows me away is that there are people who do not have one Bible.  This is what Wycliffe is all about.  There are, to my knowledge, which is indeed limited, only 3 or 4 agencies who are dedicated to translating the Bible into the language of a particular group of people who do not have it.  Many testimonies were given by people in various parts of the world as to what God did in their life through His Word.  Isaiah 55:11 says, "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."  
        It is possible to possess many copies of the Bible and still not know the message of how God is going to work in your life.  For years, we had a family Bible in our home but it was never read.  For one thing, it was in German and no one could read it.  My Father had a New Testament that was given to him when he was very young by the New Testament League.  The New Testament was in a drawer and never read.  The Scriptures remind us that we need to incorporate God's Word into our lives.  It doesn't get there by the process of osmosis, you have to read and apply the message of the Bible into your word.   Psalm 119 has 176 verses and 171 of those verses speak of how the Psalmist loved God's Word.  We can memorize Psalm 119 but still not have the Bible affecting our lives.  It would be mere head knowledge.  People come to know God by His Word and we are exhorted to take up the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.  How are we going to do that if we do not know about God's Word?  There are still people groups who do not have their first copy of God's Word.  They really get excited when they discover the message about God and His Word and have their own copy.  If you are reading this, you probably have your own Bible and perhaps several different ones around your home.  So, praise God today that you have His Word.  May you and I be just as excited about God's Word in our lives as those new believers that are coming to Him around the world.