God's love all over the world!

12 December , 2020

How sweet are your word to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (Bible NIV Psalm 119: 103)

Bible words are sweet. In this often bitter world, the Word of God is sweeter than honey. Nectar (sweet) encouraged the human body, but the words of the Bible (the words of Jesus) have the power to encourage our minds and restore our weakened minds. It gives hope to the desperate heart and encourages those who are overthrown and unable to stand up.

Helen Keller overcame the triple pain of being invisible, inaudible, and unable to speak by the Bible. Helen Keller says:

” For me, it is the power of books that has regained the lost world and bathed in its grace. The Bible is my favorite reading. I have always read it since I was a little daughter . I read the Bible for courage and joy. I read and read it, and in some places the letters disappeared. I traced it with my fingertips many times, so the Braille spots were scraped off. The Bible will be my entire lives guidelines, to me you are carrying a now and the power and comfort. Triple pain, had me brought the unflagging spirit, is the Bible. My daily Bible Every time I read it, I regained my energy and expanded my aspirations, so I have to find it in a little time, study the Bible, and use it to renew my spirit. “

It is written in Psalm 119: 73 as follows. The teachings of your mouth are better than thousands of gold and silver for me. It is also written in Psalm 19:10 as follows. They are preferred over gold and over many pure gold. Sweeter than honey and sweeter than dripping beehives.

Bible words are more valuable than material treasures. There are many things in the world that can be solved with money, but there are also things that cannot be solved with money. One of them is the mental problem that each person has. The Bible is said to be an eternal bestseller because it is the most read book in the world, but perhaps because it gives more hope to more people.

Fortunately, we Japanese can read all 66 volumes of the Bible in our native language (first language), Japanese. Jesus commanded his disciples to convey this joyful news to the whole world (Matthew 28:19), and 2000 years have passed and great progress has been made in Bible translation. Especially in recent years, Bible translation is progressing at a much faster rate than before.

It is estimated that there are currently 7079 languages (7.7 billion speakers) in the world. Of these, the New and Old Testaments are completed in 674 languages (5.4 billion people), and the New Testament is completed in 1515 languages (631 million people). Partial translations of the Bible are published in 1135 languages (406 million people). However, the Bible is not translated in 3773 languages (209 million people). In terms of the number of original languages, it’s only half, but I think it’s a great achievement.

By the way, the countries with the most languages spoken in one country are as follows.

Papua New Guinea 820 words
Indonesia 742 words
Nigeria 516 words
India 427 words
American 311 words
Mexico 297 words
Cameroon 280 words
Australia 275 words

First place is Papua New Guinea. I was invited by a church in Papua New Guinea this year for Easter and was supposed to go on my fourth missionary trip to Papua New Guinea, but unfortunately I couldn’t go because of Corona. When preaching in Papua New Guinea, the interpreters changed because each tribe had a different language. Even in Papua, translation is progressing with the dedication and efforts of Bible translators, but there is still a great need. There is also the problem of low literacy, but there are still many people who cannot read the Bible in their own language.

Let’s pray that God’s love (the word of the Bible sweeter than honey) will be delivered to all the tribes of the world as soon as possible!