The Importance of Bibles

This has not been my best blogging week ever. Fortunately, I took down my rules, so likely no one but me and my 4 daily readers remember my goal is to blog daily.

I recently began listening to a Texas-based radio talk show host named Scott Wilder. I first heard him as a guest host on Point of View, and I liked his style. His show went national at the beginning of March. No station in Topeka carries it, so I listen online at http://www.scottwilder.com/ and use the link for scottwildertv. It airs just after Point of View, so it's easy to remember to switch over.

Scott Wilder often discusses politics from a Christian worldview, much as Point of View does. But Scott Wilder doesn't want to be known for that. His emphasis in each and every show is the importance of Scripture in the lives of believers.

Scott Wilder is a Bible-smuggler.

He's visited numerous "closed" countries over the last 14 years, smuggling Bibles in to give to Christians. He's been to North Korea (yes, North Korea), Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and other places whose names I can't remember. Right now, he's focusing on sending Bibles to China. Each day, he asks his listeners to join him in donating Bibles to be smuggled into those countries. He has a link on his website to make it easy.

This Thursday, he spent all two hours telling stories about the places he's been and the people he's met, and what those Bibles mean to them. It changes your life when you meet a woman whose hands were beaten to mush with lead pipes because she didn't want to let go of her Bible when the authorities came to take it away.

Bibles are common in America. I suspect you can buy one at Walmart. I haven't counted but I have at least 7 in my house, of various sizes, translations and ages. I keep one in my car, in case I forget one of the others on my way to church. I have one I read from, one I study from and one I just think is pretty.

Four years ago, at the urging of a sermon series on giving by David Jeremiah, I changed my spending habits. I made a conscious effort to give money to God. I give monthly to my local church, to Point of View and to American Family Radio. I give to Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch whenever God blesses me with something extra. When something happens, like the earthquake in Haiti, I give.

I didn't use to do this. I figured I don't make a lot, and I need what I have. Well, maybe that's true. But even Dave Ramsey says there's only 3 things to do with money: save it, spend it and share it. Strangely, in God's ecomony, sharing tends to lead to more money than spending. I don't know why. I only know that since I've done this, I've been able to give regularly, pay all my bills, and still have a little left over for me.

Scott Wilder says for every Bible donated (cost $4/Bible), 5 people find Christ. He jokingly calls it "souls for 80 cents." How much is an eternal soul worth?

I will be giving to this cause. Maybe not monthly, but I will give. What better use of the temporal than to further the eternal?

Find one of your Bibles today. Look at it. Think about what it's worth to you. All around the world, people are imprisoned and tortured for owning one yet they take the risk. Why? As the lady with the beaten hands said, it's because it tells everything we know about Jesus. There is nothing more important than that.