Empty Bibles - #endbiblepoverty

My home schooled kid is wrapping up math in the other room then it's lunchtime, after that he'll handwrite One Verse in his empty Bible.  

Of all our Bibles, this one is my favorite.

"Over one billion people are still Bibleless around the globe.

The Good News is...  God became man. Jesus was the first translation. Through God’s Word, all people can intimately know Him and His gracious gifts of freedom, mercy and hope. God is at work today. With an urgency no one could manufacture, He is recovering, restoring and redeeming His people. We are grateful He’s invited us to join Him."

The Seed Company

I love the picture of Jesus being the first translation of the Good News; The hands and feet of God's redeeming plan.

Translation:  Emmanuel.

But the transcripted, transcribed, transcendent love continues today, beyond 1st world boarders, into regions where written logos have never been scripted on parchment.  And God invites us to join Him in the rescuing adventure.

The Seed Company is the fundraising arm of Wycliff Bible Translation, and they've made a way for laypeople just like you and me, to respond to this Great Commission charge.  And my children love being part of it too!

In fact, my kids heard about the Bibleless people groups at church, from their Sunday school teacher, Mrs. Bell, before I knew much at all.  Each week she read a chapter out of the book, From Akebu to Zapotec: A Book of Bibleless Peoples.  Before I knew what was happening, my middle boy started praying, "God please give the Akebu people your Bible so they can know how much you love them."  Knee deep in speech impediments, I had no idea what he was talking about with God.  Then Mrs. Bell told me everything these little five year olds had been learning about, and I started learning too.  Next, she told me about The Seed Company, and the boys and I started planning our first bake sale to raise money for Bible Translation.  For every $35 we raised, the people at The Seed Company sent us updates with the actual scripture references our money funded the translation of.

Those are the verses my kids write down on the empty pages of their Bibles.

While I know you have your favorite Bibles, just like we do, I encourage you to head on over to The Seed Company to help fill empty Bibles of the world.  Help translate God's Word into an unwritten tongue.  Click here to find your continent, your community, your people, then download information about that region and their unique needs.  The globe starts to spin and our hearts begin to beat for those who haven't yet heard the Good News of God's Great Love. Then watch little hands grasp pencils and pens as they do their best to write each verse clearly and carefully.

I am blown away that these little hearts already have more than enough of God's Word to lead them to Salvation.

Believe in The Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. - Acts 16:31

For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16

Just two verses to know and believe and be saved.

Yet we have countless translations lining our shelves, while others have never heard the name of Jesus.

I think of the Christian books I read and the bible studies I purchase, spending upwards of $35 a month.  Overfed calfs, while a billion are staving for a taste of saving truth; sweet as honey.  I'm not speaking shame, but preaching truth.  The Ethiopian heard and believed and was baptized.  Saved by faith through the reading and the hearing and the explaining.  I have enough heard, and read, and explained, to last me this lifetime and carry me safely into the next.  I want to stop hoarding knowledge and start extending it generously.  Yes, I want it for the unsaved walking upside down on the other side of the world.

And the Seed Company makes it so easy.  Even if you are unable to give right now,  click here to find a nation to pray over.  There are so many specific needs listed that you can lift up as a family.  Because empty Bibles need filling, empty hearts need filling, empty ears need filling, empty lands need filling.

#endbiblepoverty - One Verse at a time.

For those of you stopping by for the first time, "Welcome to my Living Room."  It's nice to have new friends from The Nester's 31 Day Challenge, and Essential Thing Devotions.  For more of my Favorite Things, visit me here.

From my kitchen to the ends of the earth

Today I invite you into the heart of our home. My kitchen. See it there behind the orange couch.  It’s not the biggest kitchen I’ve had, but larger than the smallest. My husband painted those cabinets a light grey when we moved in, with a promise to one day remodel it all. But I’m happy as it is; even with that cracked side of the electric stovetop and broken down microwave.

Because what I like most about my kitchen... is that I don’t see it.

Smack-dab in the middle of our home, a breezeway between Living Spaces and loved ones.

Turn around to find our breakfast nook.  Surrounded by windows, encircled by flowering plants; where hummingbirds and bluejays join us for lunch.

When we moved in I bought a glass top kitchen table for the nook, because I didn’t want to see a table.  Again,  I wanted only to see what is lovely to me;  my sons, their handsome Dad, family and friends.

Blessed here in our own little world.  Having picnics in our park, three meals a day.

Lovely, isn’t it? I could end here, with encouragement to focus in at home and love on your beloveds. Nourish them, from the heart of your home. Be content with the broken stovetop burners and chipped cabinets.  But I can't stop here; we must press on beyond our nooks, beyond our glass windows where light pours in.

The only decorations within our nook are a set of 3 dry erase board and an antique coal bin I painted bright green. On the boards I scrawl verses and prayer requests. Pictures of the children we sponsor through Compassion International are tucked in the pages of our Jesus Storybook Bible.

And deep in the belly of that little green bin... blank bibles. Each of our sons owns a leather bound bible, filled with nothing but blank pages. We bring them out and pray for the people groups throughout the world, who don't yet have a bible in their own tongue.

 And suddenly the world gets a little bigger than our kitchen nook.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

We weren't called to dwell forever in the comfort of four walls.    We are called to the ends of the earth.  Made for the ends of the earth.  Given the power of the Holy Spirit, that we might go.  But it starts here... in our home, reaching out to our hometown, then one town over, and a little farther out still...  to the ends of the earth.

Glass houses are lovely as the light shines in.  But the light must shine out too.

We must see beyond our lovely homes, to that which is unlovely.  Those in need.  At the ends of the earth.  If we are ever to lead our children to their great commission!

This is Red Letter Truth... just waiting to spill like life blood all over blank pages.  But the life blood first spills from the heart of our home, to those Living in our midst.

From our Kitchens to the ends of the earth!

I am eager to share with you a ministry the boys and I are passionate about.  The Seed Company is the fundraising arm of Wycliff Bible Translators, working together to End Bible Poverty and bring the written, red-letter truth of God's great love to the farthest reaches of earth.

Living beyond our four walls is difficult with young ones, but The Seed Company makes it easy!  Click on this link, or the button in the side bar, then go to "find a project" with your children. Get out your globe, discover where they live and how to pronounce their name; what are their needs, then pray for them as a family, and consider giving to that specific people group.

It costs approximately $35 / verse to translate God's Word into a new language.  And so, back in our kitchen, for each $35 check we write, we add a verse to our Bibles too.

Join us, as we fill blank bibles.