The morning sun gleamed through the wood shutters as I settled myself into my regular spot on the couch, the spot I’ve grown familiar with…the place where we meet…where I read and I talk, and listen and ponder and grow. This, a daily privilege I enjoy, just me alone with Him, in this place…the place where I am still, and write all my thoughts and prayers down.
I settled in with my high-maintenance-Starbucks drink and my Bible…me with my Bible “wealth”, ready for His words to soak in deep and satisfy. And I’m amazed at how dry I become without this…how parched and cracked and empty I am without this time with Him and His Word.
Full of expectation, I open my Bible to John 15, and the words of Jesus himself…
7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. 9 Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
Ah, to be full…and to have joy.
This abiding and obeying, always bringing joy…
And daily we meet…
And daily I read…
And daily I sit and listen…
- And yet what if I had nothing to read?
- What if I didn’t even know there was someone to meet?
- What if I didn’t realize there was someone wanting to sit?
- Someone longing for to listen to me?
- And what if I lived in a place where I didn’t even have a Bible?
- What if there was no Bible in my language?
- And beyond that, what if my language didn’t even have an alphabet?
- What if it had never been written down?
And amazingly, there are over 340 million people, one-third of the world’s language groups, in Bible poverty…
Without a Bible in a language they can clearly understand,
Without the knowledge that there is someone who wants to meet with them,
Ignorant of a God who loves them unconditionally,
Who sacrificed, and suffered, and died for them, that they may have eternal life and live forever with Him.
They don’t know of our Almighty God, who longs to reveal Himself to them through His Word…a Father who longs to sit with them, and abide with them…who longs to speak to them, and relate with them, and tell them of His love.
These people He loves, who live in remote places…
Amidst primitive and underprivileged circumstances…
These children who survive on so little…
And these adults who work so very hard…
Many of these have no Bible…
No alphabet…
No written language…
No knowledge of God’s great love…
And in the learning of the vastness of this tragedy, and in the recognizing of the privileged life I enjoy, the question echoed in my mind…
And oh how it haunted…
What is it I can do about this?
Is there anything we can do together to solve this?
Is there any way I can help them know?
Me who lives in excess…
Who indulges in high-maintenance Starbucks drinks…who sits in a 5-bedroom house, on a soft dry couch, in the warmth of the sun, and reads of life and love and joy…of grace and mercy and forgiveness and hope, such wealth in these thin pages that I daily turn…
And how can I help?
How can we help?
How can we begin to trade their poverty for wealth?
And there is an organization that allows you and me to help…
Giving us the privilege to make a difference…
To change lives with the knowledge of His great love…
To begin to trade their Bible poverty for wealth, ONE.VERSE.AT.A.TIME…
OneVerse is a program of The Seed Company, that enables us to support local Bible translators as they make God’s message available in the language of their people.
For only $26, your sponsorship gift provides the resources required for national translators to translate one verse of Scripture into their own language.
Through OneVerse, you and I can make a difference and join a team of prayer and financial partners to make it possible for this tragedy to be transformed, for their poverty to be exchanged for wealth, and for people of the World to come to know the good news of the great love of our God.
Would you join me today in beginning to make a difference?
Would you consider sharing with me in this?
For the cost of six high-maintenance Starbucks drinks, would you be willing to give a gift to help today?
This help to begin to transform Bible poverty into wealth, One Verse at a time?
Hi Jacque, these pictures obviously caught my attention. Thank you for spreading the Word in this way. Of course you know what these pictures mean to me, as I know several of the kids in the picture above. Thankfully for the D people the Word is in progress, but so many others are still in need. Thank you for getting the word out about Seed Company! Love, Monica