Contraband
Theme of the Week: Internalizing God's Word
Thomas Tewell
Monday, September 22, 2003
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Key Bible Verse: I rejoice in your word like one who finds a great treasure (Psalm 119:162). Bonus Reading:Psalm 119:153-176
My friend Tad Stewart pastored a struggling church in Teheran, Iran. It had hardly any members and few attendees. Then came the revolution under Ayatollah Khomeini. The revolutionary guards burst in and burned all the Bibles and Sunday school curriculum, and ripped up and discarded the church newsletters. Then they padlocked the door of the church and said, "Aha, We've shut down Christianity in Iran."
Dr. Stewart and his wife opened their small home. Nobody dared say where they were going. But early on Sunday mornings they came along the darkened streets to their home for breakfast and worship. The only Bibles were what the people smuggled from their homes.
Tad said when he opened the Bible and read it—because it had been taken from them—the people finally realized what a treasure was theirs. "When I read from it," he said, "you could have heard a pin drop." For the first time they took it seriously as the very Word of God. Suddenly faith became electric. Church attendance doubled and then tripled. That church made an impact all over Teheran and beyond.
—Thomas Tewell in Preaching Today
My Response: Has easy availability of God's Word led me to undervalue its content?
Thought to Apply: I never knew all there was in the Bible until I spent those years in jail. I was constantly finding new treasures.
—John Bunyan (English pastor)
Adapted from Preaching Today (171) by permission.
Copyright © 2003 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.
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Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your law. —Psalm 119:18
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