William Tyndale (the English Reformer 1500-1536), in his burning zeal for the Holy Scriptures, reasoned with an ancient Roman Divine, “I defy the pope, and all his laws,” adding, “If God spare my life ere many years I will cause the boy that drove the plough to know more of the Scripture than thou dost.” For the ‘crime’ of translating the Scriptures and embracing the doctrines of the Reformation, he suffered a voluntary exile on the Continent. He was imprisoned after being betrayed by a ‘friend’ and finally martyred at Vilvorde, Belgium in 1536, by strangulation prior to his being burned. Tyndale’s final words were in the form of a prayer, “Oh Lord, open the king of England’s eyes.” A very short prayer with an enormous return. Within two years of Tyndale’s death the king’s proclamation to place a Bible in the English language in every parish church and available to the common people was proclaimed. Hallelujah! For God who answers prayer. I am sure that each of you reading this article has at least one Bible in your home or you would not be reading this. But how important is the Word of God to you? Consider the cost to our forefathers to have it readily available to you. To the Psalmist David it was his life and he writes in Psalm 119:1-8: Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law (or Word) of the Lord! Blessed are those who keep His testimonies (or Word), who seek Him with the whole heart! They also do no iniquity; they walk in His ways (or His Word). You have commanded us to keep Your precepts (or Word) diligently. Oh, that my ways were directed to keep Your statutes (or Word)! Then I would not be ashamed, when I look into all Your commandments (or Word). I will praise You with uprightness of heart, when I learn Your righteous judgments (or Word). I will keep Your statutes (or Word); oh, do not forsake me utterly! These eight verses are taken up with a contemplation of the blessedness which comes through keeping the statutes (or Word) of the Lord. Heart-fellowship with God is enjoyed through a love of that Word which is God’s way of communing with the soul by His Holy Spirit. Prayer and praise and all sorts of devotional acts and feelings gleam through these verses like beams of sunlight through an open window. You are not only instructed, but also influenced to holy emotion, and helped to express the same. Lovers of God’s Holy Word are blessed, because they are preserved from defilement, because they are made practically holy, and are led to follow after God sincerely and intensely. Beginning a New Year with a time set aside each day for a study of God through His Word is the most valuable time you’ll invest yourself in.
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