3. Toilet Paper Bible
As I was scrolling down my Facebook feed, I saw something that was very challenging.
The post was about Christians in North Korea wanting to own a bible in their possession.
However, we are all aware that they cannot own one because of the persecution under
the Communist Party in North Korea. Still, the desire in their hearts for the Word of God
is so strong, they try many different ways to have bible in their possession.
One of their solutions was writing the entire bible. Since they had limited time with a real Bible,
they would just write as much as they can in their own notebooks. But what challenged me was
that one of them actually tried to write a bible on toilet papers! That’s right! On toilet papers!
This person would secretly write the bible on toilet papers since that was the only time of privacy
for them. Then they would read the Bible on the toilet for as long as they could! And stories like
this made me feel very ashamed as a Christian and as a pastor.
Jesus is coming back soon. We all know that. And as Christians who believe in Jesus and His coming,
do we treasure His Word in our hearts? Do we have that earnest longing for His Word? And don’t worry.
I am not pointing my fingers at you. I am pointing my fingers at my own heart before the Lord and
because I can honestly say that there are many times I have not treasured it, even questioning if I
really needed His Word in my life. I was busy on social media, YouTube, and watching TV shows.
But I was very lazy at reading His Word even for a few minutes a day. I believe I read the Bible because
I had to preach on Sundays, and it requires many prepping hours “anyway.” I thought that if I read
the Bible, then maybe perhaps I have this “pastor” title. But in my heart, I asked, “Do I really, seriously
treasure His Word in my heart? And I could not say yes to this question.
We are going to read the New Testament together for 12 weeks. God wants us to know Him deeper through
His Word. And if you feel as convicted as I, let’s be genuine in our hearts as we read His Word together.
There will be times when we won’t want to read it or things will become “back to normal” again. But when
those times come, let’s trust in the Lord and let’s encourage one another so that we can go deeper into
His Word, get to know God, and obey His commands. “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” Psalm 119:105
Neal