Spreading God's Word starts with getting God's Word into our own lives

Phalla Chrey, 22, in Cambodia, longs to have her own copy of the Bible (Photo: Scottish Bible Society)

The head of the Scottish Bible Society Elaine Duncan has encouraged Christians to fall back in love with the Word of God.

She was speaking to members of the Church of Scotland at their General Assembly in Edinburgh on Saturday.

Duncan told the story of a woman in a church in Cambodia who was frustrated at having to share a Bible and longed to have her own copy so that she could "savour every word".

Duncan said such an attitude was a "challenge" to Christians living in Scotland and the Western world, many of whom have several copies each in their homes.

"We just take it a little bit for granted don't we," she said.

Duncan said the Bible needed to be a part of the lives of Christians in Scotland if they were to be "geared up" for taking the Gospel to the five million people in the country, many of whom are living without any real knowledge of it.

"To empower them to live that holy life we need to get the Bible back into our own lives, to read it and to savour it word for word, because in that way our relationship with the living God is nurtured and nourished and we become better followers and disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ," she said.

She ended her address by presenting a Bible to the new Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Reverend Lorna Hood.

Upon presenting the Bible, she told the Moderator: "I read this week that a disciple is someone whose goal in life is to live as Jesus would if He were in their place. Our prayer is that this Bible will help you to do just that."

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