The Power of God's Word
The first thing that I would emphasize is the fact that all religions in the world have an instruction book of one type or one sort.
Welcome to “Asked and Answered,” the podcast that answers all of your missions related questions. With me in the studio today are Ron and Charis Pearce.
Joy- Welcome, guys!
Ron- Hello, Joy!
Joy- Hello! Okay, so this question is about studying the Bible, we know that it’s important, we know that we should, but because this podcast is about missions and the nationals, I’m hoping you can correlate the two. Why should we study the Bible, why is it so important, and maybe what we can learn from the national church?
Ron- The first thing that I would emphasize is the fact that all religions in the world have an instruction book of one type or one sort. Something that is either written down or passed along as far as how to live life and what life is all about. So you’ve got scripts in Buddhism, you’ve got Hinduism the same thing, and Islam of course you’ve got the Qur’an, in Christianity you’ve got the Bible, in animism, I found this out in Laos, in the villages where they have animism and witchcraft and all those things, generation upon generation would pass along a little book and all the leaders, the head of the household would write what they learn down in the book as far as how to get things from the spirits and all this sort of thing. It was passed along, generations from head to head to head all the way along. So they even had, and I held one of these things and looked at it, couldn’t read it of course, but here I am looking at this and you could tell all of the different handwriting, you could tell how old it was, etcetera. Then the guy said to me, “This has been passed along for,” I forget how many generations that he knew of, “and this is our instruction book.” So, therefore, every single one of the religions has some sort of manual.
Joy- Well even witchcraft right, in Wicca they have theirs.
Ron- Right, witchcraft, perfect. So, Christianity is the same thing, we have our Old and New testaments. Now, what’s the difference then? Well, in all the other books shall we say, they have something in them that is interesting, tries to be coherent, tries to touch all the bases, tries to explain to people in a very, very non-generational way what life is all about. And all of them fail, except the Bible. All of them fail at some point in various things because they were humanly written whereas, the Bible was God-inspired and all written down for us. There is the big difference and when a person in these countries around the world, when they all of a sudden open up the Bible and they see the lessons in it and they see the structure and they see the “wow” factor of the words and describe it, that’s what I was wondering about! That answers my questions, this is why this is this way! It really comes together in their mind and then they fall in love with it because they have been into all these other things and they weren’t boring but they sure weren’t scintillating shall we say, and now they are into the Bible, and it becomes a book that captivates them. I remember one of my first times in Burma, Myanmar, and I was sitting there with three Buddhist monks and they were talking about their walk with God. I said to them about the Bible, “So you have your own copy of it?” They said, “Yes,” and they pulled it out of their little knapsacks, they all had little knapsacks. They were still wearing their robes, they were living in the monastery, they didn’t want to come out of the monastery, they were born again believers, truly born again believers but they left their robes on so they could witness in the monasteries. So here they are and they had their little satchels on and they pulled their little Bibles out of the satchels and we were talking about it and I still remember the interpreter, the fellow who was the leader there, he says to me, “They are really excited that you asked about their Bibles.” And I still remember thinking why are they so excited, sort of like, we talk about it all the time. And he says, “They will explain.” So I asked them, “How is it with you and your Bibles? What do you do?” “Every spare minute, every, every, every spare minute we are trying to figure out all the various facets.” And this one brother said, he was an older gentleman, he said, “I have had my mind so cluttered over the years it’s taken me longer than the younger guys to weed out the garden,” something like that, I forget the exact words, but the idea was trying to get the bad thoughts out and get the good thoughts in and there was an excitement. So, I would say from my experience that the excitement in the world around the Word of God is something that is weaving together a family, and it is the family of God and it weaves us together around something that we are unified on believing, where it’s God’s Word bringing us together and people would say it’s the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, yeah that’s true, and the Spirit of God does bring us together as one body, all of that, but it’s His Word that we depend upon and the Spirit speaks through the Word of God to us, as well. So, therefore, that is why I am a real strong believer, from watching what’s going on in the world and the love affair that people from various religions have with God’s Word. This is the answer, this is what really pulls it together, solidifies their faith in God, answers their questions. Everything is going on in the Bible, this is where the action is.
Joy- And it really is something to think that we have our Chinese pastors in prison maybe over there reading the same stories we are. Vietnam, Israel, it really is exciting and unifying as you said, to think that way.
Ron- Oh it is and remember that they do their study in various ways. A lot of people in the world from various backgrounds, they memorize. They memorize it the same way that they would memorize their old manuals from their other religions. And they will memorize the Word of God and they will write it out. It’s very, very common and I’ve seen this time and time again, that to make sure they have got it in their minds they will write out the Word of God and they will give it to one another. I remember this one from China, this brother, he says, “I will write out a page of scripture or a section or something like that all the time.” Then I said, “So what do you do with it?” He says, “I give it away as a gift.” He would fold it all up, the paper, and it was very nicely done, and he would write it all out and it would help him in his study. He was writing it and memorizing it and looking at it and pondering it, you know all that sort of stuff and then he would walk up to somebody and say this really means a lot to me and he would give it to an unsaved person or a new believer or even an older gentleman walking with God and he would give that to that person and that person would respond to him and say thank you. It was sort of like the greatest gift that you could give and he just loved to do that. I’ve seen so many things over the years where people, it’s all around, “How can I learn more from the Word of God?” One time in Egypt, I was out in the middle of a field I think it was. When I say a field, it sure looked like a field, people lived there but it was huts and everything of that nature, it was right at the edge of Cairo. There were some walls built up with stones and things like that but it was a field. And I still remember going in with my friend and we went in there looking around and there were some Christians meeting together so we got together with them, etcetera, and I was looking at it and when we talked about the Word of God because this was a Bible producing gentleman within the country and they had given this whole community some Bibles, and up on a shelf wrapped up, and this was a dirty area, sand blowing and everything like that, poverty galore, and up on a shelf was this Bible and it was wrapped in some sort of canvas or plastic, something like that, it looked canvas, and it was taken down and put on a table, this was an old rickety broken down table, put on there, carefully unwrapped and it was put on there with such gentleness and it was sort of like, this is the only thing we own of any value. And I could see that. It was all protected and displayed that way and they were so, so grateful. And so in our discussion, we asked about how they honored the Word of God and how they grow and I don’t think education was very good in that area, to be honest with you, but someone was able to come in every night and read at their evening meal the Word of God and they centered their activities around that. You ate and then you read the Word and they would be able to memorize it. I’ve seen that in India so many times around cooking fires at night and when I would hear stories and I would see from a distance sometimes, families that would take the Word of God and read it around a campfire. And therefore, that was their life and that would be it.
Their future is glorious simply because the Word of God is getting into their hearts at a young age.
Charis- I think a lot of times too Christians here tend to read the Bible because they should and it becomes just a daily check, I read a chapter. Whereas the difference is around the world, and what we should be doing, is getting deep into the Word of God, studying it, not just reading it to complete a task for the day.
Ron- Exactly! The interesting thing I’ve noticed as well, it’s funny how these things pop up in your mind, little remembrances, one time I was in Ethiopia in the middle of nowhere. I seem to live in the middle of nowhere.
Charis- You’re always in the middle of nowhere.
Ron- So I’m in the middle of nowhere and we got out of the truck and all these kids come running up and we got out of the truck and the van and whatever it was and all these kids come running up and we went into this little church. This church was mud walls and dirt floor, this is normal, and there were a couple of 300 people there and there were about 30 kids, maybe 40 kids, all running up excited big eyes, smiling, happy, no shoes on you know, poor, poor, poor. They came running up and we went inside and had a church service, meeting, hearing testimonies, singing all that, all the kids sat at the front big eyes still looking sort of like “wowee!” Then the pastor gets up and says the children would like to greet you so I thought this is good! So they all stood up, they are repeating scripture, memorized scripture, all these kids, top of their lungs, it was deafening! They were repeating scripture and this must have gone on for four or five minutes.
Joy- What country was this?
Ron- This was Ethiopia. They were repeating scripture and I am amazed! Moms and dads in the back, I could tell, biggest smiles, here they were all new Christians within the last six months or so, and they were all just enthralled with the Word of God, they got their Bibles, they were memorizing them, this was the biggest thing in their lives because they used to have, I think, one or two Bibles in their church gathering in the area and now they were having one in each home, etcetera. Their children’s programs didn’t have materials like over here you have children’s programs, and you have colored this and colored that and this page and this puzzle and all that sort of stuff. They didn’t. All they had was memorizing the Word of God. These kids knew it and these kids were just reiterating. You don’t think that is going to sink into their lives in years to come? The principles, the lessons, the Spirit of God coming into them through that? Their future is glorious simply because the Word of God is getting into their hearts at a young age.
Joy- As usual with these “Asked and Answered” podcasts I find myself being left with both conviction and inspiration and I pray for myself and my family for a fresh perspective that the Bible is so essential, so thank you.
Ron- Let me, just before we end, let me just say this, people say a lot of times over here that people around the world they’re uneducated and, therefore, the Bible doesn’t really do them much good. I get this a lot, people saying why would we give them Bibles if they can’t read? You know, I have watched this over the years, that when the person is born again, even though they have a low standard of reading, writing, arithmetic, and all that sort of stuff, they find ways to give the Bible to someone to read for them and then they sit there glued listening. So many places in the world you’ve got illiteracy, that is true, that doesn’t mean you stop printing and distributing the Word of God. What it means is that those people on the other end knowing the power of the Word of God will find a way, and God will find a way. Therefore, these arguments stating we should only give it to literate people who have an 8th grade education, my friends, we are limiting God and His ability to open doors into their hearts and their minds and they will find a way because once they are born again they yearn, they crave like Peter talked about, they crave the pure milk of the Word. Therefore, we will at Empower continue to supply even to those who don’t meet our standards over here.
Joy- Well, thank you and on a final note, it just reminds me of a story from China that you tell about a Chinese woman who was illiterate and couldn’t read, and yet she could read the Word of God miraculously.
Ron- Miraculously! And we hear about miracles like that all the time. Hard for us to believe a miracle of that nature because we are built around empirical evidence and all this sort of thing but once in a while God will do something out of the normal!
Joy- I just hope this podcast inspires everyone else. Thank you, guys.
