Tuesday 20 March

I was talking to a friend about travelling to Dubai when she told me that I wouldn’t be able to take my Bible.   My first thought was that I was being told they were going to take away my faith at the passport counter – I was a little horrified and not sure if I could consider going after all.  But the more I thought about it the more I realised that carrying a Bible in my travel-on is not the sum of all my faith.

In fact, there have probably been many more Christians in the world who have been a Christian without a Bible than with it.  Think of the vast history before the printing press, English translations and general literacy.  Think of many in the developing world today without a Bible in their language, without the money to buy one or the skills to read it.  Or think of the early Christians, faithful before all the letters and gospels were even written.

I am blessed to have a Bible, several in fact, in different translations and available in different media - from book form to online to spoken.  But the Bible is only one way that God speaks into our lives.  As Christians we also believe that his Spirit guides our conscience, gives us ideas when we need them, helps us change to be more like Jesus and even intervenes in events at times to help us in our lives.  And no country can make us leave the Holy Spirit in a bin before going through the arrival gates, no fire can burn it, no person steal it. 

Jesus called the Holy Spirit the comforter.  In John he tells his followers, people like you and I,

“…I will ask the Father, and he will give you another comforter who will never leave you.  He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.”

- John 14 v 16 and 17

God’s Spirit is a great comfort to me.  He leads me when I’m unsure.  He lives in me.  What a joy!  What a faith.  What a God – to give us so much of himself; his words; his son; his Spirit.