Musings from Graceland

MORE TEARS

Tomorrow I will share publically for the first time about our recent trip to Swaziland. As I search online regarding the lives of heroes of the faith while preparing what I'll say, I find myself tearing up at their audacity and sacrifice. I wanted to share some of the quotes here.

"Not called!" did you say? "Not heard the call," I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers and sisters, and servants and masters not to come there. And then look Christ in the face, whose mercy you have professed to obey, and tell him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish his mercy to the world.

William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army

"He must increase, but I must decrease."

John the Baptist

"If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him."

C.T. Studd

"What are we here for, to have a good time with Christians or to save sinners?"

Malla Moe

"The command has been to "go," but we have stayed - in body, gifts, prayer and influence. He has asked us to be witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth…But 99% of Christians have kept puttering around in the homeland."

Robert Savage

"While vast continents are shrouded in darkness…the burden of proof lies upon you to show that the circumstances in which God has placed you were meant by God to keep you out of the foreign mission field."

Ion Keith-Falconer

"And people who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives…and when the bubble has burst they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted."
Nate Saint

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

Jim Elliot

"A tiny group of believers who have the gospel keep mumbling it over and over to themselves. Meanwhile, millions who have never heard it once fall into the flames of eternal hell without ever hearing the salvation story."

K.P. Yohannan

"Do not think me mad. It is not to make money that I believe a Christian should live. The noblest thing a man can do is, just humbly to receive, and then go amongst others and give."

David Livingstone

"The more obstacles you have, the more opportunities there are for God to do something."

Clarence W. Jones

"Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God."

William Carey

"God's part is to put forth power; our part is to put forth faith."

Andrew A. Bonar

"It will not do to say that you have no special call to go to China. With these facts before you and with the command of the Lord Jesus to go and preach the gospel to every creature, you need rather to ascertain whether you have a special call to stay at home."

J. Hudson Taylor

And to end with this:

While serving in India, Amy [Carmichael] received a letter from a young lady who was considering life as a missionary, She asked Amy, "What is missionary life like?" Amy wrote back saying simply, "Missionary life is simply a chance to die."

"Here am I. Send me."

Isaiah

...and also, Elysa.