You Owe It To Tyndale - Mark Batterson

I really enjoyed this recent post from Mark Batterson.

We take the Bible for granted. We have so many Bibles and we read them so little. I hope this challenges that.

William Tyndale gave his life to translating the Bible into English. Literally. Tyndale was criticized by the religious establishment. In fact, his Bible translations were burned by the Bishop of London at St. Paul's Cathedral. His response? Greater resolve to translate the Bible into a common language for the common man.

His life mission is epitomized by this rebuke to the religious establishment: "If God spare my life, a boy that driveth the plow shall know more of Scripture than thou dost." Tyndale was charged with heresy and spent more than a year in a tiny underground prison cell. Eventually he was strangled to death while tied to a stake. Then his body was burned. His dying prayer? He cried out, "Lord, open the King of England's eyes."

That prayer was answered in the next few years when King Henry VIII ordered that a Bible be placed in every Parish Church in Britain. And it was answered again a century later when King James authorized a group of thirty-nine scholars to produce an English translation of the Bible. Tyndale paved the way with his life and death.

My point? You owe it to Tyndale to read your Bible.

And for the record, you are part of the company of translators. Your life is a unique translation of the Bible ready by everyone who knows you. They may never read the Bible, but they will read your life!