No recuerdo la primera vez que lei la Palabra de Dios en mi lengua de corazon

I don't remember the first time I read the Word of God in my heart language. God has used many cultures and languages to speak to me in recent months. I decided last week that I'm going to be following along with you guys in the Reina Valera Version de la Biblia. Fluency in Spanish has been something I've been working on for a while and so I think it will be cool to read the Bible in a year in Spanish. I also am going to be listening to our readings everyday in Spanish too. I'm going to see if my roommate who is Puerto Rican, but speaks about the same level of Spanish that I do, wants to join us.

Growing up there were probably twenty Bibles in my house, I've always taken for granted my ready access to God's Word in my mother tongue language. In the past six months, I've had the pleasure of doing firsthand research with people groups around the world, mainly in Africa that have just received access to the Word of God in their native language for the first time. Many people around the world have to read the Bible in their secondary or tertiary language, and so when they receive God's word in their mother tongue language, it is an incredibly intimate and personal experience, validating their cultural and spiritual identity. I was in the rural Northern Ghana conducting focus groups and I had to fight the urge to just start bawling listening to 70 year olds explain how God was no longer a foreigner to them, that church used to be a ceremony and now it is a celebration. How tribal and cultural traditions have been transformed, that because of the connection they have to the scriptures, people no longer slaughter goats when serious sins and crimes are committed in the community because Christ's blood was sacrificed once, for all.

The president of Jamaica said that translating the bible into Jamaican Patois demonstrated a tragic failure of the English language. I got chills listening to pastors share about reading and preaching in creole and having beggars who used to clamor outside the churches now coming inside and worshipping God because He now speaks their language. Rastafarians who used to walk around pretending to read English Bibles upside-down now are meeting Christ and being met where they are. I am incredibly privileged to have these opportunities, and several times I have come away with the thought that I want the Bible in my Mother Tongue language and then i'm like, oh yeah, i've always had it available. I walk away convicted by my brothers and sisters around the world and cognizant that truly the Bible is living and active.

When I read the Bible in Spanish, I can understand 98% of the words, but it doesn't seem to stick to me, like when I read it in English. Reading the Psalms in English is about the most calming thing that I can do, but it just doesn't seem to have the same effect for me in Spanish. It is a great story and I sense there is something bigger than myself going on, but it is still somewhat impersonal to me. Millions of Christians around the world are forced to encounter the Scriptures on the same level, only having access to English, Spanish, French or some other national language which is not their first or second language. I want to join with them and pray for them as we go through this year together.

Vamonos!