11 January, 2015

Where God is but a visitor

When we speak about Bible translation needs, we're really speaking about "two groups": the unreached people groups (completely unevangelized, needing the Word and the Gospel to be brought), and then also the people all over the world that maybe have a church and are established believers, but have no Scripture in their language.

The one that people usually think about when Bible translation comes up are the unreached people groups of the world, (people in the "10/40 window"), while the second category of Bible translation needs are for the hundreds of languages that are spoken in countries that may have millions of believers, but very few with access to God's Word in their heart language. In a lot of cases, this second group includes the oppressed church, or simply believers that speak a different language than the country's nationally recognized/standardized language (this group covers people in places like Russia, First Nations tribes in northern Canada, the islands of Indonesia, language varieties in Southern Italy and other European nations, evangelized African nations, countries all over South America, and on and on an on!). These people may understand some of the national language, but it's not the language they speak at home, or in the market, and it's not the language they speak to their children, spouses, loved ones. So when they go to church, they experience the Lord speaking only to them as a foreigner would, as an unfamiliar visitor might - not in the language that speaks to their heart or makes the most sense to their minds, but in a language that is not their own. And this experience can come riffled with misunderstanding about what our Abba is really like!---Their whole experience of church, worship, and prayer may be teaching them that God is not a personal God, but a formal, standardized, political god, and that He does not understand their tongue, nor care to speak with them as a friend does. In many places, the church cannot mature as it can here, because its believers and even pastors do not have access to the Word to read and study on their own, discipleship is limited, and belief remains thin, unfed, and unfulfilled by Christ's coming.

Today' PassionBite video is about the great need for Bible translation for already-existent believers. Author and pastor, Francis Chan, speaks about the authority of the Word, and the URGENT need for pastors and believers all over the world to have it.


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