Bible must permeate national life for development -Pastor

Pastor Dr. Michael Assilidjoe, President of the South-West Ghana Conference of the Adventist Church says the Bible as an organ of the Holy Spirit must permeate all facets of national life to foster development.

He, therefore, commended the Ghana Bible Society (GBS) for spearheading the great commission across the country to change lives.

Pastor Assilijoe was speaking at the launch of the Bible Week celebration at Sekondi.

This year's event is on the theme; "The Bible and National Life" and is being celebrated at Tarkwa and Sekondi for the western sector.

He said the central message espoused by the Bible is that humanity must worship the Supreme Being who created Heaven and earth to attract his bounteous blessings.

Pastor Assilidjoe maintained that the Day of Pentecost afforded believers the opportunity to communicate with God not only in Hebrew but in other languages.

He commended the GBS for their pioneering role in translating the Bible into a number of local dialects to reach out to all Ghanaians.

Mr Joseph Akwasi Bawuah, Chairman, Promotion and Resource Mobilization Sub-Committee of the Western Sector of GBS, entreated Ghanaians, especially those in authority, to be inspired by the word of God and administer effectively and ensure social justice.

Mr Emmanuel Menka Agyekum, Officer-In-Charge of the Western Sector, said the society continued to encourage the use of the Bible to transform lives by making it affordable and available.

He said as part of its Bible Literacy awareness, the GBS had translated the Bible into eight local languages and hoped to cover other languages in Ghana without adulterating its originality and sacrosanct.

Mr Agyekum said the GBS distributed one million Bibles to public junior high schools nation-wide spanning 2007 to 2013, and hoped to reach out to more public and private schools with free Bibles this year.

He said GBS had initiated an HIV/AIDS project for Christians to show love and care to such patients.

The GBS has also distributed many Bibles to peace-keeping missions abroad and has initiated a CD-Rom Bible project to make the Bible not only readable but audible.