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Your word is like a lamp for my feet and a light for my path

Psalm 119:105 NCV

On Saturday evening I was watching a programme called Would I Lie To You in which two teams have to determine if the opposing team is telling the truth or not. One question was “Did Archbishop Carey endorse a Bible version in Cockney Rhyme?”. To my surprise, the answer was yes and they read a passage from the Cockney Bible which made no sense to me at all.

I wonder though how precious your Bible is and more importantly, how often it is read and obeyed? Today a few of our congregation will be having a Zoom meeting as together we discuss and learn the word of God.

The verse of scripture quoted gives us two good reasons to encourage us to read our Bible. Lamp for my feet and a light for my path. Firstly it is needed both in the day time and evening too. Secondly, we need guidance and direction for our personal and family lives?

We are never encouraged to try and make life on our own. In fact, the Bible says “In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths”. Did you notice “All thy ways”? This should be a tremendous encouragement to us in today’s climate. God wants to be involved.

In these different times, we are encountering, this verse remains as valuable as ever. Guidance and direction are freely available to us if we so desire. Might I encourage you, if you are in Lockdown and do have more time than normal, would you consider spending more time reading your Bible?

This Bible did not come into English without many lives being sacrificed. I leave you with one of the pioneers of translating our Bible.

John Wycliffe

It was a bleak December afternoon, and a visitor was walking in the graveyard of the parish church of Lutterworth, England, about 90 miles northwest of London. The rector came by as the visitor examined the church’s ancient slate gravestones bearing the names of faithful parishioners of centuries past. The rector shared some of the highlights of his church’s long history. “It was in this church that John Wycliffe, our most famous rector, ministered during the last years of his life, over six centuries ago,” he said.

Wycliffe was famous, but not everyone approved of him. The rector explained: “Four decades after his death, Wycliffe’s bones were dragged from their grave and burned. His ashes were cast into the waters of the River Swift.” What had been Wycliffe’s crime, that his remains were so maliciously treated? He had dared to translate the Bible into a language his countrymen could understand.

Only for scholars?

It had been Wycliffe’s passionate desire that everyone should be free to read the good news of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. Others disagreed. They believed it was wrong for ordinary people to read the Scriptures for themselves.

An inscription on a memorial tablet on the wall of his Lutterworth church relates that Wycliffe’s Bible “drew on him the bitter hatred of all who were making merchandise of the popular credulity and ignorance.”

Wycliffe was brought to trial several times in church courts, but his powerful and influential friends protected him. He died a natural death in 1384 at the age of 55 and was buried at Lutterworth. As his teachings were forerunners of those of the Reformation, he is accorded the title “Morning Star of the Reformation,” having heralded the dawn of the Reformation.

Today, such an attitude seems incomprehensible. The Bible is accessible to virtually everyone, and its study is encouraged. It is the world’s most widely translated book, available in more than 1,000 languages and dialects.

 Your word is like a lamp for my feet and a light for my path Psalm 119:105 (NCV)

Author Edward Lawrence

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