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Themes: "God's Word, Christ the Way, Power of the Gospel S.H. In the mid 1930's an English missionary was traveling through the Western Ukraine. In a small mountain village, after singing a hymn in the streets and reading John 3 in the open air, he was suddenly caught in a thunder storm. The mighty thunder and the rain brought to his mind the words of a Russian Hymn, "Oh Great God."
As he traveled on into Romania visiting villages and giving out tracts, he met a man and his wife. A Russian soldier had left them a Bible twenty years earlier. But neither of them could read. The Bible was with them for twenty years but never read or understood.
Could I ask you how much the Bible means to you? Would you miss it if you did not read it for twenty years? What would your life be like and what would your eternity be like if you never had seen or read the Bible?
That year, the woman had determined that she would learn to read. As she practiced her reading, she read to others in the village. Slowly and carefully she would read out portions of the Word of god to the people of the village. Can you imagine how these people felt who had never been able to read? For the first time they were hearing God's Word read to them.
It was as she was reading the story of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus to the village people that the missionary appeared. To his amazement, he witnessed men and women in deep distress and calling upon God for salvation. This missionary was not only able to show men and women the way of salvation, but the event caused him to write the third line of a famous hymn:
"And when I think that God His Son not sparing
Sent Him to die - I scarce can take it in.
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin."
That hymn, of course, is "How Great Thou Art". Yet it was a book, the Bible, which enabled people to see the way of salvation and the greatness of God's love and mercy.
In our story about Josiah, the newly discovered Book led to repentance and forgiveness for the people. As long as it lay closed and unread, hidden and forgotten in the Temple, there was no salvation for the people. But the Book - Found, Feared, and Followed, led to blessing.
God's Word is His message to you. The Word of God is a light and a lamp to guide you and show you the way (Psalm 119:105). There has never been a book written which can equal the effect that the Bible has had upon the world. How can you ignore its message? (Hebrews 2:3).
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Jim Batterton
