The bible itself is often quite accessible to us. Yet one of the tragedies of life is that even though we may be gifted this book for Christmas, see it in church pews, or otherwise have extra copies lying around our house, we often don’t truly dive into it on a deeper level. Think about that for a moment. When was the last time you heard someone complain that they read too much of scripture? More often than not, we realize that we don’t read it enough!
One of my professors in seminary had a lot of relatives in China, many of whom are involved in underground churches. In their case, bibles were not too common in everyday life. A pastor or group leader might have one, but for many decades, importing bibles was heavily restricted. My professor showed us a video from several years ago about Chinese Christians who received a shipment of brand new bibles. Take a look for yourself:
This is such a powerful testimony about how valuable the bible can be. More often than not, however, we take the gift of scripture for granted.
On Sunday we explore how God gives us each unique talents. We shouldn’t hide these or shy away from using them. Instead of burying them in the ground (like the foolish servant did in Jesus’ parable) we must invest in God’s kingdom to bring about a bigger return–lives changed by the love of Jesus Christ.
Of course God gives us various gifts. No two people are alike. But regardless of what you are individually good at, one thing that we all have is the gift of scripture. Jesus’ parable of the talents also applies to this kind of important gift, too. Instead of burying this precious talent or letting it collect dust on a bookshelf, God wants us to make use of it.
Concord United Methodist Church 