Contrast

A couple of weeks ago, I received a text message from someone I do not know, telling me: "I found your Bible." Now, I knew they hadn't found my Bible, because I was reading it at the time. But Mary and I give away free Bibles, and we put our name and contact information inside the cover, because we want to be available to help answer questions, etc. We often pray that the Bibles that go out would not sit around gathering dust. I tell people, "This Bible is free, but there's one stipulation: you have to read it."

When I got this text message, I thought someone had just tossed it aside, or maybe misplaced it, so I wanted to get it back. Through a few texts back & forth, this person agreed to drop it off at our home during the day. What I didn't know was the condition this Bible was in (see photo). Burned....

Contrast: The next day, as I was listening to the Through The Bible Radio (TTB.org) daily broadcast, I heard a testimonial of the work of God in the country of Mongolia. Some background:

Back in the late 1980's, missiologists said there were only 4 known Christian believers in the country of Mongolia. Today there are well over 100,000. So, over the last 30 years we have seen the birth of the church in this country. The Bible has only been translated into the Mongolian language for about 20 years...the complete translation of the Bible in this language was completed around the year 2000.

A man from Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia wrote in to TTB to thank them for their Bible teaching radio ministry in Mongolia, and this part caught my attention: he said,

"My most precious possession is a New Testament of God's holy word that a friend gave me. Now I am beginning to understand what I hold in my hands: it is a gift from God to us. I turn the pages slowly because it is so precious."

Contrast: In West Papua, Indonesia, the Kimyal tribe celebrated the arrival of the Bible in their language with singing, dancing, and praise to God. In the short video clip below, one man says this:

"God is an amazing God. He's given us this wonderful gift: His word. We've received the Bible. We have it in our language."

"Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?" (2 Corinthians 2:14-16)