Category: missions

“Wo yi jing ding gao gen sui Ye Su…” This phrase, repeated three times, was sung to a familiar tune Susan and I quickly recognized. “I have decided to follow Jesus… no turning back, no turning back.”

It was a special honor to sing this song with young Chinese Christians who may risk more than we can imagine as they say ‘yes’ to the Lord. Dangers vary in the different provinces of China, but all must consider Jesus’ instruction to count the cost.

One young lady we met in QingDao radiated the joy of the Lord as she has decided to follow Him. When asked what would happen if her employer found that she was a Christian, she explained there was already a difference between certain workers. “A person doing my job gets paid four times what I do if he is a member of the Communist Party. If it were known that I was a Christian, I am confident I would lose my job.” Is this young lady foolish to take such risks with her livelihood?

“My cross I’ll carry til I see Jesus… no turning back, no turning back.” On June 17, 2004, in Guizhou Province, a young lady and her mother-in-law were arrested for handing out Bibles and Christian literature. When the mother-in-law was released on June 23, she was horrified to hear that her daughter-in-law had died at the hands of her captors. A husband and four-year-old son have lost a wife and mother. Were these Christians foolish to share the Gospel in their land?

David Aikman, former Beijing Bureau Chief for Time magazine, described a visit to an underground seminary in his book, JESUS IN BEIJING. In a class he attended, the students sang a song with great enthusiasm: “China, China, rise up to share the Gospel because God loves you.” Recognizing an American among them, the students added a second verse: “America, America, rise up to share the Gospel because God loves you.”

Is the cost of discipleship greater in one nation than in another? The cost of Heaven was the same… the precious blood of the Lamb. The enemy of God is the same… though his strategies may vary. The King is the same… though some have difficulty understanding the concept of supreme authority. Is it not reasonable to conclude that God expects the same of all who want to follow the Son… everything?

“The cross before me, the world behind me… no turning back, I’ll follow Him.” Focus totally on the cross, and see what the world says… no matter where you live. When we walk toward the cross, we turn our back on this world. Paul wrote, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” The world says avoid anything that causes pain or discomfort. Jesus says, “Pick up your cross and follow Me.”

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple… (Jesus then tells of a tower builder and a king who had to count the cost)… In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26-33

“The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house. All the brothers here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss. I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand.” I Corinthians 16:19-21

A greeting is “an expression of kind wishes.” This first week of school, teachers have greeted students, students have greeted one another, and parents have greeted their children as they arrive home. And with a thankful heart, I send my greetings to you.

This summer I was able to greet brothers and sisters on another continent. One of our GAC graduates works with Campus Outreach in Johannesburg, South Africa. On a short layover at the airport, we were able to visit with Kris, a young lady who loves the Lord with all of her heart. If Kris could share one thought after a year in the mission field, I believe she would say, “Grow closer and closer to Jesus! No matter what we do, He is our hope!” How easy it is to think we accomplish things on our own, but Jesus said, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” If a young missionary has learned this in a foreign land, how much more is it true for me!

In the country of Namibia, I got to greet lovely Christians who have dedicated themselves to serving children, many of whom have lost their parents to the AIDS epidemic that has ravaged much of Africa. If they could share an encouragement, they might remind us of these words of our King: “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for Me.”

In Cape Town, I was able to greet my youngest brother, Brian, his wife, Sondra, and their two little boys, Noah and Bryson. What a warm reunion. “How good it is for brothers to dwell in unity!” I also got to see many Congolese refugees that I consider dear friends. I can still feel the hug I received from Mama Marcelle in the cold rain of Cape Town. Being on the opposite side of the equator, it is winter in South Africa, but a warm greeting removes the chill of any season. What joy to fellowship with brothers and sisters who prayed diligently for my recovery four years ago. Though we don’t speak the same language, there is love that goes beyond our differences. These Christians, far from their war-torn homeland, might remind us that this world is not our home. “These people… living by faith… admitted they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they left, they would have had the opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country – a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”

What blessings we have in Christ! May we have fellowship with Him every day. He gives us reason to live… and He puts life into our greetings.

“I have much to write you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. Peace to you. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name.” III John 13-14

“God always works in the opposite spirit as our enemy”, my friend shared last week as he visited our home. He and his wife have been missionaries in Jerusalem for fifteen years. In the summer of 2000 we visited them. Shortly after our departure, this city, quite acquainted with violence, erupted. Despite such dangerous circumstances, these friends and other missionaries decided to remain in Jerusalem. They have been able to demonstrate love in the midst of hate, generosity in the midst of selfishness, and peace in the midst of war. Such is God’s strategy.

God calls His children to replace natural fear with bold faith that enables “normal” men and women to be His witnesses… even while the world around them is falling apart. In 1947, another missionary who had lived in Jerusalem fifteen years had to make a decision. Hannah Hurnard was one of only a handful of Christian workers who remained in the region as war broke out. Even through the Siege of Jerusalem in 1948, Hannah was able to show Jews and Arabs the loving Hand of a God who tells His “little flock” to “fear not”.

Through her experiences, God allowed Hannah to write HINDS’ FEET ON HIGH PLACES, a brilliant allegory of a Christian’s journey through all kinds of trials to reach the Father’s heights of joy, love, and victory. Hannah admitted the main character of the book reflected many of her struggles as a young person who was constantly tormented with all types of fears. But Much-Afraid met the Good Shepherd who promised that He could turn her greatest weaknesses into something altogether opposite. The Good Shepherd gave Much-Afraid two companions on her journey to the High Places. Sorrow and Suffering walked with her through danger and difficulty. At journey’s end, the Good Shepherd’s promise was fulfilled and a transformed follower with a new name wondered if those she left behind could also be rescued:

“Can nothing be done for them down there in the Valley? Must my Aunt Dismal be left unhelped, and poor Spiteful and Gloomy too?… If the Shepherd could deliver me from all my fears and sins, couldn’t he deliver them from all the things which torment them?”

“Yes” said Joy (who had been Sorrow). “If he can turn Sorrow into Joy, Suffering into Peace, and Much-Afraid into Grace and Glory, how can we doubt that he could change Pride and Bitterness and Resentment and Self-Pity too, if they would but yield to him and follow him?”

We have good news to share.

“I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.” Jeremiah 31:13

“The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go to the heights.” Habakkuk 3:19

In SHADOW OF THE ALMIGHTY, Elisabeth Elliot chronicled the life of her late husband. From his youth in Oregon to his wrestling days at Wheaton College to his death with four other missionaries in the jungle of Ecuador at the hands of the Auca Indians, Jim was a sold-out believer. In 1948, six years before his death, he penned these words in his journal: “God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God for it is Thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus.”

Jim Elliot died at the age of twenty-eight; David Brainerd died at the age of twenty-nine… both were abandoned to God. We are encouraged by these heroes, but how many saints will never have a book written about them? John described a strange scene in Heaven: “I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, ‘How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?’ Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.” (Rev. 6:9-11) Does God, “a consuming fire”, waste His children?

Is it good to be consumed by God? If I seek His kingdom first and His righteousness, will it be worth it in the end? If we could only hear from the “great cloud of witnesses” that has gone before! Would they tell us to hold back or would they tell us to press on? Would they tell us Jesus’ promises are false or would they tell us that even He couldn’t fully describe the joy to come? Would they council us to give less or encourage us to give more? Would they say “be careful” or would they say “be consumed”?

Would Jim Elliot retract his most famous journal entry or would he say “It is true!”? – “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 10:39

I grew up in a section of Chattanooga, Tennessee called Brainerd. We drove on Brainerd Road, we went to church at Brainerd, and I cut grass in Brainerd Hills. Only recently, though, have I learned of the man for whom my community was named.

A friend gave me a book called THE HIDDEN SMILE OF GOD in which John Piper writes about the fruit of affliction in the lives of three men of faith: John Bunyan, William Cowper, and David Brainerd. In October of 1747, at the age of twenty-nine, David Brainerd died of tuberculosis in the home of Jonathan Edwards (preacher of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”). Two years after his death, Jonathan Edwards published THE LIFE OF DAVID BRAINERD which he wrote using his young friend’s diary. Through this writing about a hidden life of ministry to the American Indians in New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, scores of missionaries have been inspired to surrender all for the sake of the Gospel. Piper quotes Brainerd’s diary:

When I really enjoy God, I feel my desires of him the more insatiable, and my thirsting for holiness the more unquenchable… Oh, for holiness! Oh for more of God in my soul! Oh, this pleasing pain! It makes my soul press after God… Oh, that I might never loiter on my heavenly journey!

How marvelous are the ways of God! He speaks through His Word, through His Spirit, and through the lives of men and women who are abandoned to Him. As David Brainerd battled rejection, loneliness, depression, wilderness, and terminal disease, he often wondered if there would be fruit. But Jesus promises to abide in those who abide in Him with assurance of much fruit. Only God knows the full result of David Brainerd’s life. Sixty years after his death, a group of missionaries serving the Cherokee Indians in Chattanooga, Tennessee decided to name their mission for the young man who had given his all.

Seeing a man “carry his cross” and follow Jesus inspires us to enter the sufferings of Christ and live boldly. Perhaps one way we do this is by entering the sufferings of those around us. Jerusha Edwards, the seventeen year old daughter of Jonathan, cared for David Brainerd the last nineteen weeks of his life. Four months after his death, a father buried a teenage daughter who had contracted tuberculosis while caring for a visiting missionary. Such men and women are a part of the great cloud of witnesses cheering us on.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12:1

“And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.” Hebrews 13:12-14