Ministries:
Adult | Teens | Children

Pastor's Pen's:
2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004
2003 | 2002 | 2001

Sermon Series:
Apostles Creed
Dealing with Feelings
Jonah
Get Real
Promised Land Living

Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

Email:
Pastor Scott Carson
carson@gracechurchwi.org

Secretary Patti Hall
pattihall@gracechurchwi.org

PASTOR'S PENS 2007

Grace Church of Burlington February 4, 2007 February 4, 1555: English reformer and theologian John Rogers, also known as John "Thomas Matthew" Rogers, became the first Protestant martyr under "Bloody" Mary I when he was burned at the stake for heresy.             I doubt that you’ve ever heard of John Rogers. He was a pastor who, in one respect, did done more for the cause of Christianity than most of his fellow-sufferers. Pastor Rogers assisted William Tyndale and Myles Coverdale in bringing about one of the earliest versions of the English Bible, a version commonly known as Matthew's Bible. It ultimately cost John Rogers his life. It was one cause why he was the first one who was brought to the stake under Queen Mary’s vicious reign.             One church historian records: “On the morning of his martyrdom he was roused hastily in his cell in Newgate, and hardly allowed time to dress himself. He was then led forth to Smithfield on foot, within sight of the Church of St Sepulchre, where he had preached, and through the streets of the parish where he had done the work of a pastor. By the wayside stood his wife and ten children (one a baby) whom Catholic Bishop Bonner, in his diabolical cruelty, had flatly refused him leave to see in prison. He just saw them, but was hardly allowed to stop, and then walked on calmly to the stake, repeating the 51st Psalm. An immense crowd lined the street, and filled every available spot in Smithfield. Up to that day men did not know how English Reformers would behave in the face of death, and could hardly believe that Pastors and church leaders would actually give their bodies to be burned for their faith. But when they saw John Rogers, the first martyr, walking steadily and unflinchingly into a fiery grave, the enthusiasm of the crowd knew no bounds. They rent the air with thunders of applause. Even Noailles, the French Ambassador, wrote home a description of the scene, and said that Rogers went to death "as if he was walking to his wedding." By God's great mercy he died with comparative ease.”             While we take it for granted in America, there are few greater privileges than to have the Bible in one's own language. Over 450 years ago Erasmus expressed a hope that some day the farmer as he followed the plough and the weaver as he sat at the loom would cheer themselves with the message of Scripture. That same passion burned in the heart of William Tyndale who longed to give English-speaking people the Bible in their own tongue. Arguing once with a man who disdained this hope Tyndale said, “If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the Scripture than thou doest.” At the cost of his own life Tyndale fulfilled his ambition. Because of those who were willing to give their lives like William Tyndale and John Rogers, we today have an English Bible.             There are an estimated 5103 languages in the world but at the close of the 20th century an “adequate” Bible was available in only 225 of them, with an “adequate” New Testament in 450 languages. Translation is in progress in over 800 languages and a further  600  have  a  definite  need  for  translation.  More than half the languages of the world have no portion of Scripture at all. It’s estimated that some 150 million people do not have a Bible available in their native tongue.             Then, in many areas of the world there are severe restrictions upon the publication and sale of the Bible. In one of his books Alexander Solzhenitsyn describes a scene in a prison camp in Karaganda in Northern Kazakfistan where Ivan Denisovich wakes in the morning to the sound of a fellow prisoner reading his New Testament. “Alyosha the Baptist was reading the Testament under his breath (perhaps especially for him - those fellows were fond of recruiting): ‘But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil-doer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. Yet if a man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf’ (1 Peter 4.15 & 16). Alyosha was smart: he'd made a chink in the wall and hidden the little book in it, and it had survived every search.”             To have God’s Word in our own language with ready access to it and  complete freedom to study it, is a great privilege that most of us take for granted. Countless heroes and heroines of the faith have died so that we could have a Bible in our language. Millions today would love to have what we take for granted, the Bible in our native tongue. And most of us do not just have one Bible but many Bibles in our homes.             So why don’t we regularly read our Bibles? When you think about it, it’s shocking and sickening that so few American believers regularly read their Bibles. And let’s be honest, we always have time for that which is important to us! Just think of all of the time that we waste; watching TV, talking on the phone, surfing the Web, playing video games, etc.. Many like John Rogers gave their lives so that we could have God’s Word in English. For something that they made the ultimate sacrifice, shouldn’t we faithfully read it and apply it to our lives?             Friend, are you faithfully in the Book? A great price was paid so that you could be. We honor that investment of blood as we read God’s Word faithfully.