When Hudson Taylor went to China, he made the voyage on a sailing vessel. As it neared the channel between the southern Malay Peninsula and the island of Sumatra, the missionary heard an urgent knock on his stateroom door. He opened it, and there stood the captain of the ship. “Mr. Taylor,” he said, “we have no wind. We are drifting toward an island where the people are heathen, and I fear they are cannibals.” “What can I do?” asked Taylor. “I understand that you believe in God. I want you to pray for wind.” “All right, Captain, I will, but you must set the sail.” “Why that’s ridiculous! There’s not even the slightest breeze. Besides, the sailors will think I’m crazy.” But finally, because of Taylor’s insistence, he agreed. Forty- five minutes later he returned and found the missionary still on his knees. “You can stop praying now,” said the captain. “We’ve got more wind than we know what to do with!”
All posts by SandyM
All The Promises Of God
During an especially trying time in the work of the China Inland Mission, Hudson Taylor wrote to his wife, “We have twenty-five cents–and all the promises of God!
W. Wiersbe, Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching & Preachers, p. 242
Faith And Obedience
The Bible recognizes no faith that does not lead to obedience, nor does it recognize any obedience that does not spring from faith. The two are opposite sides of the same coin.
A.W. Tozer
I’ve Got My Word
John Paton, the pioneer missionary to the New Hebrides, was translating the Scriptures into the language of the people of the southern seas. He had great difficulty in securing a word for faith for there seemed to be no equivalent in their language. He made it a matter of special prayer. One day one of his workers came in from a hard day’s work, and leaned back in a lounge chair and said, ‘I am so tired I feel I must lean my whole weight on this chair’
‘Praise God,’ said Paton, ‘I’ve got my word. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever leaneth his whole weight on him shall not perish, but have everlasting life”.
Too Foolish To Be Believed
Several years ago, the dazed crew members of a Japanese trawler were plucked out of the Sea of Japan clinging to the wreckage of their sunken ship. Their rescue, however, was followed by immediate imprisonment once authorities questioned the sailors on their ship’s loss. Every single one of them claimed that a cow, falling out of a clear blue sky, had struck the trawler amidships, shattering its hull and sinking the vessel within minutes. Impossible!
They remained in prison for several weeks, until the Russian Air Force reluctantly informed Japanese authorities that the crew of one of its cargo planes had apparently stolen a cow wandering at the edge of a Siberian airfield. They forced the cow into the plane’s hold and hastily took off for home. Unprepared for live cargo, the Russian crew was ill-equipped to manage a rampaging cow within its hold. To save the aircraft and themselves, they shoved the animal out of the cargo hold as they crossed the Sea of Japan at an altitude of 30,000 feet.
Some things sound foolish, but turn out to be true. That includes much of what we believe as Christians. “You believe that God somehow caused a virgin to bear a child, a boy who was fully man and yet fully God? You believe that he actually raised people from the dead and walked on water and fed thousands of people with a plateful of food? You believe that, after being crucified and buried, he somehow managed to raise himself from the dead?”
To many people it sounds too foolish to be believed. But it’s all true!
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God….For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe…..Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” (I Cor. 1:18,21,25)
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Where’s Your Umbrella?
One summer, a drought threatened the crop in a small town. On a hot and dry Sunday, the village parson told his congregation, “There isn’t anything that will save us except to pray for rain. Go home, pray, believe, and come back next Sunday ready to thank God for sending rain.”
The people did as they were told and returned to church the following Sunday.
But as soon as the parson saw them, he was furious. “We can’t worship today. You do not yet believe,” he said. “But,” they protested, “we prayed, and we do believe.”
“Believe?” he responded. “Then where are your umbrellas?”
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Excuses For Missing School
“Dear School: Please excuse John from being absent on Jan. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, and also 33.”
“Please excuse Brian for being. It was his father’s fault.”
“Please excuse Sara for being absent. She was sick and I had her shot.”
“Sally won’t be in school a week from Friday. We have to attend her funeral.”
“Please excuse Jennifer for missing school yesterday. We forgot to get the Sunday paper off the porch, and when we found it Monday, we thought it was Sunday.”
Pastor Vogel, Sermon: R.S.V.P. to the Gospel
Lots of Excuses
- Coming home I drove into the wrong house and collided with a tree I don’t have.
- The other car collided with mine without giving warning of its intention.
- I thought my window was down, but I found it was up when I put my head through it.
- I collided with a stationary truck coming the other way.
- A truck backed through my windshield into my wife’s face.
- The guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him.
- I pulled away from the side of the road, glanced at my mother-in-law and headed over the embankment.
- In an attempt to kill a fly I drove into a telephone pole.
- I had been shopping for plants all day and was on my way home. As I reached an intersection a hedge sprang up, obscuring my vision and I did not see the other car.
- I had been driving for forty years when I fell asleep at the wheel and had an accident.
- I was on the way to the doctor with rear end trouble when my universal joint gave way causing me to have an accident.
- As I approached an intersection a sign suddenly appeared in a place where no stop sign had ever appeared before. I was unable to stop in time to avoid the accident.
- To avoid hitting the bumper of the car in front I struck a pedestrian.
- My car was legally parked as it backed into another vehicle.
- An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my car and vanished.
- I told the police that I was not injured, but on removing my hat found that I had a fractured skull.
- I was sure the old fellow would never make it to the other side of the road when I struck him.
- The pedestrian had no idea which way to run as I ran over him.
- I saw a slow moving, sad faced old gentleman as he bounced off the roof of my car.
- The indirect cause of the accident was a little guy in a small car with a big mouth.
- I was thrown from my car as it left the road. I was later found in a ditch by some stray cows.
- The telephone pole was approaching. I was attempting to swerve out of the way when I struck the front end.
Taken From: www.laughnet.net/archive/misc/insuranc.htm
Lord Is This A Sign?
Norman Cates shared the humorous story of a guy who prayed this prayer every morning: “Lord, if you want me to witness to someone today, please give me a sign to show me who it is.” One day he found himself on a bus when a big, burly man sat next to him. The bus was nearly empty but this guy sat next to our praying friend.
The timid Christian anxiously waited for his stop so he could exit the bus. But before he could get very nervous about the man next to him, the big guy burst into tears and began to weep. He then cried out with a loud voice, “I need to be saved. I’m a lost sinner and I need the Lord. Won’t somebody tell me how to be saved?” He turned to the Christian and pleaded, “Can you show me how to be saved?” The believer immediately bowed his head and prayed, “Lord, is this a sign?”
Are you looking for a “sign” to start witnessing? It can be found in Matthew 28:19-20 and Acts 1:8.
(Deacon, Jan.-March 1995, p. 34) By way of the Gospel Radio Group
The Maravian Brethren
There was a group of missionaries from a couple of centuries called the Maravian Brethren. They heard of various needs, and two of the most impressive stories, these are young people just like ourselves, with the same hopes and the same desires for comfort and joy. They heard of a leper colony in Africa, where there was a huge wall built around it and it was guarded by soldiers and once you were found to have leprosy you were taken in and you never got out. There were farms, there were shops, and there was a graveyard in there. And these guys asked the obvious question who shares the gospel with them? So they didn’t write books and send them in which they could have. Two of the young men went in and they never came out. That is the level at which they cared. Another couple of the young men, were trying to reach out to the slaves in the Carribbean. And they found that they had no time where they could actually find the slaves and speak to them. So two of them where sold as slaves and they lived and died as slaves. Not just for a week or two, they shared themselves, they went in amongst them. Now I’m not telling you that to make you feel guilty, I’m saying it’s that sort of thing that says I want to be able to reach these people, I want to share myself with them so I can get the gospel to them.
Ian Powell : KYC 1990 “Learning the game by watching others play”
William Booth’s Vision (Founder of Salvation Army)
He had a vision once, William Booth. He tells the story of the time when he was travelling in a coach, and he was thinking about the millions of people in his own country, who lived in opened rebellion against God, addicted to their sin and ignoring Christ. He said that at this moment I had a vision.
“I saw a dark and stormy ocean, over the top were deep dark clouds, and the wind moaned and the waves would rise up, tower, foam, crashing down only to rise up again, and then he said I noticed in the ocean, that it was filled with millions and millions of people. Poor humans screaming, cursing, crying out, dying . Well that was until I noticed that in the middle of the ocean was a mighty rock, rising out of the ocean. All around the base of this rock I saw had been build vast platforms. I noticed with delight that a few of these poor wretches would be washed unto these platforms and climb out to safety. Then I noticed that others who had already been saved in that way, working hard on the platform with ladders, ropes, boats and any other means possible to rescue other. They would sacrifice themselves, endanger their own lives, they were entirely wrapped up in their effort to save others from the dark ocean.
But as I kept looking, I saw that there were a multitude of others, who took no part in the rescue. They were busy with all other kinds of other past times. What puzzled me though is that they themselves had been rescued at onetime, yet they seemed to show no concern for others who were perishing. And this inspite the fact that they regularly attended lectures which told of how awful it was to be unsaved, and how wonderful it was to be safe and on the rock. Some of these people were absorbed in study and business, in order to make great profits which they could store away. Others amused themselves with constant paintings, sports, music, clothing or tours around the Island. Although, those on the platform said that they would obey their Lord, They didn’t seem to hear him calling, calling to them from down in the sea to where he himself had gone.
Anyhow if they did hear him they did not feel as they had time to work with him. And I noticed something very odd indeed. Those people on the platform were always calling on Him to come to them, to make them happier, to assure them that they would never fall off the rock. To answer some doubts and troubles they had with the letters he had sent to them. Sometimes they would get together at the top of the rock and look across to the mainland where they imagined He dwelled, and cry, oh come to us, oh come and bless us please. And all this while this great being was by his spirit, among the poor, blind creatures in the angry deep. Putting his arms around people, pulling and pushing them towards the platform. And as he did so he would look up all so longingly but all so in vain. To those upon the rock, and he would cry out with his voice hoarse from crying, come and help me, come and work with me.
Then I understood. All those in the sea were those cut off from God and perishing. The rock was the cross the only place of safety and forgiveness. And on the rock people used their time and abilities in two basic ways. Either for themselves or the unsaved. They were either passengers or soldiers. My friends do not be deceived by appearances. Men and things are not what they appear to be. If they are not on the rock they are in the sea. Jesus is calling all his people to love as he loves, to see as he sees, to go down to the ocean, to put all they have at his disposal, forget your pride your love of ease, your ambitions, your love of comfort, and come down to where you are needed. We’ve had a very nice time as Christian, much fun, much joyful singing, many nice outings. Go now and tell him that you will heed his voice, and go down and spend yourselves for the perishing.
William Booth finishes up by saying, now what will you do?
I See People Going To Hell
While speaking in London, evangelist D. L. Moody was approached by a British companion who wanted to know the secret of Moody’s success in leading people to Christ. Moody directed the man to his hotel window and asked, “What do you see?” The man looked down on the square and reported a view of crowded streets. Moody suggested he look again. This time the man mentioned seeing people–men, women, and children. Moody then directed him to look a third time, and the man became frustrated that he was not seeing what Moody wanted him to see. The great evangelist came to the window with watery eyes and said, “I see people going to hell without Jesus. Until you see people like that, you will not lead them to Christ.” What do you see in five o’clock traffic, a busy restaurant, a crowded waiting room, your neighborhood, or your extended family?
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All Christians
Mother Teresa:
In India I was asked by some government people, “Don’t you want to make us all Christians?” I said, “Naturally, I would like to give you the treasure I have to you, but I cannot. I can only pray for you to have the courage to receive it.”
The Church The World and The Holy Spirit
“Before Christ sent the church into the world, He sent the Spirit into the church. The same order must be observed today.”
John R W Stott
The Best Evangelist
“There is not a better evangelist in the world than the Holy Spirit.”
D L Moody
What To Take To Work
To avoid the risk of losing their religion, a lot of people don’t take it to work with them.
Sunday School
“During the war a man lay dying in the trenches. A friend leaned over him and said, ‘Is there anything I can do for you?’
He replied, ‘No I am dying.’
‘Is there anyone I can send a message to for you?’
‘Yes, you can send a message to this man at this address. Tell him that in my last minutes what he taught me as a child is helping me to die.’
The man was his old Sunday School Teacher. When the message got to him, he said, ‘God forgive me. I gave up Sunday School teaching years ago because I thought I was getting nowhere. I thought it was no use.'”
Questions of Life, Nicky Gumble, p200
If We Do Not Speak
Jesus was born in a borrowed manger. He preached from a borrowed boat. He entered Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey. He ate the last supper in a borrowed room. And he was buried in a borrowed tomb. Now he asks to borrow the lives of christians to reach the rest of the world. If we do not speak then he is dumb and silent.
J. John – in UK Focus, Aug 97 (HTB)
Some Kneeling Form
Every work of God can be traced to some kneeling form.
J. John – in UK Focus, Aug 97 (HTB)
Daily doses of penicillin
A helpful analogy of how we share our faith is that of taking daily doses of penicillin in order to remove an infection. Just as taking all the penecillin at once makes little inpact on the infection, so a bombardment of Christian truth rarely has a positive effect on an unchurched friend or family member. It is likely to so more harm than good.
J. John – in UK Focus, Aug 97 (HTB)