The Pastor in Senegal had just completed the final check of the Gospel of Mark in his own language. This was the first book of the Bible they’d translated. “Because we have translated the Gospel of Mark,” he said, “we have a clearer understanding of what we have always accepted by faith. We know in our souls a peace and a sense of well-being. Our prayer lives have changed a lot. Our thirst for God’s Word has grown so much that we have already done the first draft of the Gospel of Luke in less than a month.” Read the rest of this entry »

Early missionaries Cyril and Methodius gave the Slavic people an alphabet and a chance to worship God in their own language.

“We have not a teacher who would explain to us in our language the true Christian faith.”

The legacy of Cyril and Methodius—that people everywhere should be encouraged to worship God and read the Bible freely in their native tongue—continues to be a central pillar of the modern missionary movement. No one people group can claim to own the gospel. Christianity is a living faith that interacts fruitfully with diverse cultures, as we witness in the churches of the Global South today.

Robert B. Zoellick, President of the World Bank Group, has written a fascinating and helpful article on Fragile States: Securing Development. Unfortunately, I think he leaves out a critical component. Read the rest of this entry »

Subversion, espionage and a man who gave his life to disseminate the Word

Just goes to show you that:
1. Tyndale would NOT have been chosen as anyone remarkable to lead this kind of a charge—God uses the weak things of this world to accomplish great things.

2. The work of Bible translation goes way beyond work at the translation table…it has much broader implications…positive implications for society…even for those that do not subscribe to Christianity…this reminds me of the article I read recently written by the atheist, I Truly believe Africa Needs God, and his byline is missionaries, not aid money, are the solution to Africa’s biggest problem - the crushing passivity of the people’s mindset.

3. God is ALWAYS at work behind the scenes…his plans are written into creation and he will accomplish them.

4. God works through ‘secular’ means…even through ‘covert’ operations and smuggling.

5. Because of Bible translation, (Wim Willems, Protestant theology professor quoted at the end—who doesn’t mention it) many, including those in Africa, can use their own language, the language that goes to the deepest part of who they are, to find solutions to everyday life…using theological terms from their heart language…(reminds me of things said by Kwame Bediako who died this past year.
Tyndale, while not was well known as other ‘heroes’ of the faith, is to be remembered, honored and emulated.

6. Those of us called to Bible translation are, by our very DNA, the modern day carriers of the vision held to so strongly by Tyndale (and John Wycliffe for that matter).

Looking forward to what God has already planned for us to do in 2009!

The author writes in an on-line article in the TIMES, “As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God. Missionaries, not aid money, are the solution to Africa’s biggest problem.” Read the rest of this entry »

Wycliffe is currently documenting the effectiveness of how Bible agencies (like the JESUS Film and Faith Comes by Hearing) are working together in Guatemala.

The stories show Bible translation as the foundation for our ministry partners. Second-generation Christians are impacting schools and churches, as the people read and hear God’s Word.

One interview will be a teleconference between the Forum of Bible Agencies-North America (holding their annual meeting at Wycliffe USA’s headquarters) and the people of Guatemala. Bob Creson will chair this Forum.

Wycliffe teamed with Moody Radio this month to do a live broadcasts about Guatemala’s Nebaj Ixil New Testament dedication. The coverage from this event will promote the value of God’s Word and the importance of Bible translation.

The Luke Partnership: A First Step in Evangelism, Church Planting, and Discipleship
By Bob Creson, Jim Green, and Roy Peterson
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, André took his translation of Luke 1-3 to a small village chapel to read it to the congregation and get their response. When he finished, the people applauded. One 82-year-old woman commented, “Very good, my son. Today I have understood what I had never understood before.”

“The Civil War was the first ‘modern war.’ Abraham Lincoln became president of a divided nation during a period of both technological and social revolution. Among the many modern marvels was the telegraph, which Lincoln used to stay connected to the forces in the field in almost real time. No leader in history had ever possessed such a powerful tool. As a result Lincoln had to learn for himself how to use the power of electronic messages. Without precedent to guide him, Lincoln developed his own model of electronic communications — an approach that echoes today in our use of email.”

Christianity Today

“A little more than a decade before the American Revolution, Jean-Jacques Rousseau spoke of a nation’s need for ‘civil religion,’ an overarching set of shared values that could unite citizens of all faiths and no faith. Civil religion could harness religious fervor for the common good and check its socially destructive tendencies…In its most utilitarian form, civil religion is indifferent to particular religious content. As Dwight Eisenhower put it in his 1954 Flag Day speech: ‘Our government makes no sense, unless it is founded in a deeply felt religious faith—and I don’t care what it is.’

From the Economist
“America’s foundation as a refuge for Europe’s Christian dissidents has endowed it with a deep sense of the right to follow and propagate any form of religion, with no impediment, or help, from the state…But America’s religious free-for-all is very much the exception, not the rule, in human history—and increasingly rare, some would say, in the world today.”

Jesus’ authority, in Mark Chapter 11, was challenged by the religious leaders of the day. Asking him by what ‘authority’ he did the things he did, Jesus didn’t respond directly but rather asked them a question, “Where did John’s authority come from?” They wanted to say, “Not from heaven!” but because they were afraid of the reaction of people, they replied, “we don’t know.”

Jesus wasn’t trying to trick them, he was looking for honesty and a relationship. They were more interested in maintaining the status quo, rules and regulations, even at the risk of being judged by the “Light of the World.” They were heavily invested in their mental model of who God was…and they were wrong.

Had they been honest truth-seekers, say like Nicodemus (John 3) or the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4), I wonder if they’d have gotten the response that these two got from Jesus: Love…Light…acceptance. It wasn’t as if these two were in possession of ALL the right theology or practices, but they were, unlike the religious leaders in Mark 11, extended answers from Jesus…he engaged with them. Jesus was more interested in truth, honesty, and a relationship than in rules and regulations. Read the rest of this entry »

Joel Hunter doesn’t preach pop psychology or self-help messages. In 1996, he changed the emphasis of his preaching from individual faith and mutual service to the need to serve the community as a whole. God has placed us here for the sake of those not yet included in the Kingdom.

Frances FitzGerald, Annals of Religion, “The New Evangelicals,” The New Yorker, June 30, 2008, p. 28

The Meaning of Easter
Born in an obscure village, the child of a poor peasant woman. He grew up in still another obscure village, where he worked as a carpenter until he was thirty years old. Then for three years, he got on his feet, and he was an itinerant preacher. And he went about doing great things. He didn’t have much. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never owned a house. He never went to university. Read the rest of this entry »

Has the notion of sin been lost? - USATODAY.com
Is sin dead?
“…Herod respected John; and knowing that he was a good and holy man, he protected him. Herod was greatly disturbed whenever he talked with John, but even so, he liked to listen to him.” Read the rest of this entry »

“Our problems are not small”, writes Scot McKnight in CT. “The most cursory glance at the newspaper will remind us of global crises like AIDS, local catastrophes of senseless violence, family failures, ecological threats, and church skirmishes. These problems resist easy solutions. They are robust—powerful, pervasive, and systemic. Do we have a gospel big enough for these problems?” Read the rest of this entry »

Oxford to study faith in God - Yahoo News
LONDON - University of Oxford researchers will spend nearly $4 million to study why mankind embraces God. The grant to the Ian Ramsey Center for Science and Religion will bring anthropologists, theologians, philosophers and other academics together for three years to study whether belief in a divine being is a basic part of human makeup. “…faith in God is a universal human impulse found in most cultures around the world…” Read the rest of this entry »

Women and Literacy
Did you know that a 1% rise in womens literacy is 3 times more likely to reduce deaths in children than a 1% rise in the number of doctors. (Based upon a United Nations study of 46 countries)

Lots of thing matter, so does our language and culture. To celebrate the International Year of Languages, UNESCO is inviting us to promote and protect all languages, particularly endangered languages, in all individual and collective contexts.

“Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.” Without understanding the cultural context of this passage (Ruth 1:16) it’s impossible to fully appreciate the choice/decision/commitment it represents when Ruth makes the pledge to Naomi. At this point, Ruth is barren, no family, other than her mother-in-law, and is making a pledge to follow Naomi and her God into a foreign land. They have nothing and their future is bleak. God is the hero of the story, Naomi is the female Job, and the author, Carolyn Custis James, does a wonder full service for us in the book pointing out how loving God sometimes means breaking the conventional and accepted rules.

You gotta love the tag line, “Loving God Enough to Break All the Rules.”

Christianity Today did an interview with Barak Obama where he says, “…Part of my job in this campaign, something that I started doing well before this campaign, was to make sure I was showing up and reaching out…” Read the rest of this entry »