Introduction

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16 You are invited to join us for a 40-day journey through the Bible. The Bible itself is actually a compilation of 66 books written by more than 40 authors over a period of between 1400 to 1800 years. Yet with all that diversity inherent in its makeup, the Bible has one consistent message from beginning to end: God, who created the world and everything in it, has a definite purpose for all mankind and has been at work since the beginning of history to bring that purpose about. When we read the Bible, we find that it makes several astonishing claims about itself: its human authors were not simply recording their own thoughts, but rather God spoke His word through them. As God’s word, the Bible claims to be authoritative for all peoples everywhere, at all times. This is a very bold claim to make. Other religious traditions have their own set of sacred writings on which they base their teachings. Yet most of the time, these writings are acknowledged as nothing more than the product of the human mind— maybe highly enlightened and inspiring minds—but not God Himself. The only two other religious books aside from the Bible to claim to be God’s word are the Koran of Islam and the Book of Mormon. The Bible, however, does something neither the Koran or the Book of Mormon can do. First of all, the Bible is anchored in historical events which can be independently verified through other means such as archaeology and other non-biblical historical documents. Both the Koran and the Book of Mormon contain inaccurate historical details. Secondly, the Bible alone can point to fulfilled prophecy in support of its claim to be God’s authoritative word. To date, several hundred prophecies that were recorded centuries ago in the Bible have come to pass—while the number of prophecies that have proven wrong stands at zero. If the Bible is indeed the word of God Himself, then we need to take seriously its claim to apply to all peoples everywhere—including us today. Today, approximately 1.5 billion people still have not had the opportunity to hear the message of God’s love for them in Jesus Christ. A major barrier to their receiving the good news is lack of access to God’s word contained in the Bible. The three million Dong in China are one group of people with limited to no access to the Bible. So far, the New Testament has been translated into one Dong language, but many Dong are illiterate. A team of people have been hard at work for several years to find a way to make the central message of the Bible available to the Dong. They recently completed a set of 40 oral tales based on the Bible from beginning to end, which together draw out the central themes of the Bible as a unified whole. This devotional is based on those 40 tales and the Scripture passages underlying them. Many Dong are hearing this good news for the first time. This may be your first time through the Bible as a whole, or you may have done this many times before. No matter where you are at in your spiritual walk, God’s word speaks into your current situation. It is our prayer that these devotions will help you to hear what God has to say to you today. Suggestions to help you get the most out of this Devotional: Each day’s devotion is divided into three parts: Read , Reflect , and Taking It Further. In order to get the most out of each day’s devotion, we encourage you to spend time with each section in order. Read: It is important to read the assigned scripture passage(s) for the day before looking at the rest of the devotion, to make sure that what the scripture itself says is the main focus of your devotion time. We encourage you to take your time and read the scripture carefully. Sometimes the assigned scripture portion may be very long and cover a lot of material and it will be tempting to skip or hurry through the reading. If you do that, however, you will have a hard time grasping the full picture and the reflection section will make less sense. We encourage you to try to do a brief read through the entire section whenever possible, so you have a fuller context. We will try to highlight the key verses used in the reflection section on those days, so that you can concentrate on those if time is limited, and then you can read through the rest of the scripture at another time. It may be wise to plan on dividing each day’s devotion into more than one sitting, so that you can spend more time in small segments to read and reflect. Reflect: The reflections are designed to encourage you to go a little deeper in interpreting the meaning of the passage as its author intended. They are also intended to build on each other so that the unifying theme of the Bible is woven throughout the 40 days. We invite you to take your time reading and reflecting, so you can see how the devotion applies to you personally. Taking it Further: It is important to understand what the scripture says and what it means, but bible study falls short if we don’t identify how we can apply it concretely to how we live our lives. This section is designed to give you some suggestions on how to apply the text. Answering these questions can also be helpful: What have I learned about God, God’s purposes, and/or His actions today? How is my thinking about God being challenged? What does this have to do with me? Is there something God wants me to know/be/do in response to these insights? What concrete steps can I take to use these insights in my day-to-day living? Do I need to change something I am doing? Who are the Dong? The Dong form one of the fifty-six ethnic groups officially recognized by the People’s Republic of China. Living in the mountains of southwest China, the Dong are located at the intersection of three provinces, Guizhou, Hunan, and Guangxi, with the majority of the population in Guizhou. Lush mountains provide beautiful scenery, but also geographic isolation. Most Dong live in villages and retain their traditional language and culture. They are known for their love of music and spectacular architecture, including their multi-storied Drum Towers built entirely of wood without nails. The Dong can be divided further into the Northern Dong and the Southern Dong, each with their own language. The approximately 3 million Dong are largely ignored by much of the world. They live in a poor region and are geographically and culturally isolated from much of the rest of China. Many do not speak Chinese, and the Dong language is traditionally an oral language. Many Dong are illiterate. Many in the Christian church are unaware of the Dong’s existence, let alone concerned that the good news of Jesus Christ has yet to reach them as a people. Yet God has not forgotten the Dong. They are infinitely precious in His eyes, and the good news that Jesus came and died for you and me is also true for them. Whether or not we see them, God is at work among them to bring them eternal life. We are invited to join Him in His work by learning about what God is doing among the Dong, and through our prayers. If you would like to learn more about the Dong and how to pray for them, we would like to recommend that you get a copy of the “40 Days of Prayer for the Dong” prayer guide. You can request a prayer guide by contacting us at dongteam@oursaviorpalmbay.org. You are also encouraged to visit www.dongteam.org for more information about the Dong.