How Passionate Are You About Reading Scripture?

In May of 2010, Uzbekistan began a new wave of crackdowns on evangelical Christians. They arrested church leaders, and Bibles, other literature and computers were confiscated. The crackdown first began in early May after a Muslim mother complained that her son had been baptized. Soon, churches and homes were raided by police, pastors were arrested and jailed, and people who owned a Bible in the Uzbek language were fined approximately $500, which amounts to two month worth of salaries for an average Uzbek citizen.  In you convert that into American dollars, we are talking about 6000 American dollars.  Is owning a bible worth risking a fine of $6000 dollars?

In North Korea is at the top of the list as the worst persecutor of Christians. It is even a crime to owning a Bible. An estimated 60,000 believers suffer in prisons.  On June 16th, 2009, a 33-year-old Christian mother, Ri Hyon Ok, was publicly executed. Her crime was one of devotion. She was caught distributing the Bible. The next day her husband, three children, and parents were put in prison.  The penalty for having a Bible includes the imprisonment of three generations of one’s family. 

Ri Hyon Ok must love the bible. I am sure it is not the book itself that she loved but the one she found in its pages. The one who made its words like honey and its consolation an energy that brings life to the very center of a person.  

In light of Ri Hyon Ok testimony and the testimony of her family, do you value reading the scriptures? If faced with the promise of execution for reading it, would you? Could you read it? If it meant the torture of your family to have the privilage of looking upon the words, “For God so loved..”is such a peek worth it?

Ask yourself, do you desire to read scripture so much you would risk your life? You may say, but we don’t live in a country where such things happen. Bibles are everywhere and all you may get is a passing disagreeable stair in a starbucks.

Jesus said, the man that loses his life for my sake will finds it.  Jesus was making an allusion to a divine value scale. A scale we can weight our desires against Christ. Ri Hyon Ok story reminds us of the value scale. Which is more valuable to you, the scriptures or your life? Which weights more on your heart? What tugs at you? Is it protects yourself or I want to read Deuteronomy? Come on, would you risk your life to read Deuteronomy?  In the end, the measure on that scale will tell you if you have a passion to read scripture to the glory of God or just a fleeting and very human interest in scripture.