Thursday December 6 will go down the annals as perhaps one of the most historic days for the Church. Hundreds of Kenyans came together in a united effort to raise funds to complete the translation of the Bible into all the remaining languages of Kenya. This was the first time that other faiths – Hindus, Muslims, and others – joined Christians to help publish their Holy Book. But, even more significant is that it was led by President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto. The only other time when a head of state has led in the translation of the Bible was in January 1604, when King James I of England convened the Hampton Court Conference to work on a new English version of the Bible. The work was completed in 1611 giving birth to the most popular version of the Bible – the King James Version.
However, what remains most significant is not so much the money that was raised, who participated, or even who presided over the event. The knowledge of this God is the most significant and most historic thing that can happen in the life of any man or women. As a young man in high school, I came across a book by AW Tozer entitled The Knowledge of the Holy. Tozer paints the picture of an awesome, mighty, and sovereign God. After reading this book, I began to read the Bible with great fervency. My confidence in God grew so much that to date there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that I fear except God! It is unfortunate that many have concept of a God who is so inept as to be helpless in life circumstances. The truth is that a wrong thinking about God will end you up with a caricature called “God” but that is far less than God.
When Daniel of old was shown a vision of the last days, he saw a great deception overwhelm the land and a vicious persecution came upon the people of God. But Daniel declared, “but the people that know their God shall be strong and do exploits.” In other words, the knowledge of God helped these people to withstand flattery and corruption. The Apostle Paul similarly predicted terrible times in the last days. People would be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Sounds like a perfect description of our society today!
Yet, as we are fast discovering, laws cannot change the human heart. Punishment cannot deter a man or woman determined to commit evil. When a man’s conscience is dead, shame disappears and they can do anything! But, when a man or woman has a genuine personal knowledge of God, that person needs no laws, no police, no condoms, no anti-corruption authority. Why, because their knowledge of God drives every aspect of their lives. Such people are unflinching and uncompromising even in the face of evil and persecution. It was such knowledge of God that caused Joseph to take off from the seductive Potiphar’s wife. It was why the colleagues of Daniel, a civil servant, declared that no corruption was found in him. That is how Lot’s three daughters grew up in Sodom and Gomorrah and yet remained virgins into adulthood.
Larger mind
There is just something about knowing God that makes a person different. Charles Spurgeon, at only twenty years old, is reported to have said: He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe… I know nothing which can comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trials; as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead. The Psalmist also declared: Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
Prosperity does not come from accumulating wealth, but from knowing God through His word – meditating on it. That is why, giving every person the Word of God is the loftiest thing one can do. The challenge thereafter is to draw that knowledge from the book to the head, and from the head to the heart.
- The writer is Presiding Bishop of Christ is the Answer Ministries. [email protected]
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