I have read now several examples of men and women of faith who, not knowing where they were going, yet placed their lives in God’s hands alone and went. Jim Elliot. Amy Carmichael. Gladys Aylward. Hudson Taylor. Brother Andrew. The disciplined devotion of their lives has floored me again and again. Such determined discipleship, such child-like faith as was theirs I would be hard-put to find in live, present example today.
Why? What has changed so much over the years that we do not now live and trust as they lived and trusted? Is it God Who has changed? Assuredly not! But I think, in America at the least, it is this: We have at our fingertips, so very easily within our grasp, almost so that we do not even need to take the effort to reach for it and it is already ours, the means and the power to rescue us from almost any calamity. And, while these things may or may not be evil in and of themselves, they tempt us away from full, unadulterated trust in God. For my own life, I have recently become aware of one such area in my life where, for all these years, I was not trusting God at all, and I never knew it! What made me aware? The life example of one of God’s servants who lived several hundred years ago.
So, first, I must press upon you books. Any sort of book you can get into your hands that will commend to you a Godly life well-lived. The Bible would be my first choice. And following that, stories of the entire host of those warriors who have gone before us into battle and fought victoriously for the advance of the Heavenly Kingdom.
But this is not enough. This is nowhere near enough. All the knowledge in the world is not sufficient to save us from the disgrace that surely waits us if we do not wake up from our slumber and march out into this world that slides distressingly nearer and nearer to the gates of Hell.
I implore you, I exhort you, and in all other terms that will let you know how very strongly I urge you (if I could, I would command, but I shall leave that word for the Spirit of God to speak to your spirit): Church, cast off from the shores you’ve anchored yourself to in your attempt to keep in safe harbor. Set the sail, throw off all hindrances, and set yourself fully in the hands of Him Whom the winds and the seas obey. The great men and women of faith from Hebrews chapter 11, the disciples who walked with Jesus, the courageous missionaries of the past - these all call to us across the ages from fiery souls that were not dampened by any confidence in mere human aid. They marched out into the great desert that is an entire world lost without drinking from the Living Water, trusting the Maker of the skies to send the rain and not attempting to create their own. They did not seek to pitch their tents by the lake so that they might never be in need. If you would be like them - if you would see the Kingdom of God advance - if you would have your own soul rise to praise Him Whose you are - in short, if you confess yourself a child of God and would live for the sake of your Savior - then you can do, must do, no less.
The world dies for lack of such as these.
