"80% of the world's people never own a Bible." I am listening to K.P. Yohannan's book, Revolution in World Missions. And this nearly blew me away. Along with this fact were listed many others related to the amount of Christian media and other "spiritual luxuries" that are available to the affluent West. The contrast of struggling people around the world with our gold-leafed Christianity is almost sickening.
I must admit, I love Christian "stuff". I love the bookmarks with Scripture embossed on them, and the cute handbags with crosses, or the T-shirts with butterflies that speak of new life. I think all these things are great. They are wonderful, actually. They encourage and uplift believers and sometimes allow for a conversation starter with others. But there is point that needs to be made, taken in, and applied.
When I lived in Peru, I was attending a small Bible College with a small bilingual library. I understood that English books were hard to find, since I was in a Spanish-speaking country, but one thing that I always found strange was that, even though we had as many Spanish-speaking students as English-speaking students (more actually), there were twice as many English books as Spanish ones.
Ignorantly, I believed for awhile that this was because the Spanish students must have access to these books in country and therefore did not need them in the school library. But I was very wrong. Several members of the congregation poured over the volumes available for hours every week. This was the place where books were available to them. And most of the books had not come from a Spanish-speaking country, but were actually printed in the United States.
I once went to a Christian book store in Lima. The limited supply of books saddened me. One of my favorite hobbies is browsing the aisles of books, movies, cds and other Christian media. And once I have collected it, I then often forget what I have or don't have.
One of the greatest blessings from my time there was the opportunity I had to bless two of my friends with Spanish translations of books I love. And I so easily forget that.
There are so many people who have never owned a Bible. I have three in my room right now. So many people don't have the gospel. Yet, we spend so much energy entertaining ourselves and each other.
So, what's the challenge? I am not writing to cause you to go sell your spiritual paraphernalia or to feel guilty for owning it. I just share this with hopes that God will remind you of how fortunate we are. And to ask you to search your heart and finances and see if you can't find more room there for God and the things He longs for.
