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Summer 1995
By: Michael Tao
A missionary story which I heard recently, has become a great encouragement to me, and I would like to share with you.
Before going to the missionary field in Africa, a pastor inherited a fair amount of money from his aunt. So he bought a new truck which he thought would be very useful, packed all his belongings in an old wooden boat, and sailed to Africa. However, his old boat started to leak in the middle of the sea, and he ended up in the water. He was there for a few hours before the rescue arrived and he lost everything. He returned to his homeland, and took the first ship to head for the same place.
When he arrived, he discovered there were no gas stations! It was back in 1920, and God helped him to lay aside his weight. He tried to build a church there, only got his first convert six years later, when he preached at his wife's funeral. He rode a bicycle across the country to preach the gospel, sometimes he had to peddle 80 to 100 miles, and preached fives time a day. He soaked the cardboard paper, dismantled them into single pieces, and dried them in the sun. Then he sewed them together and copied hymns on them. He exchanged food for these "hymn books". He continued his ministry in Africa, stopped riding his bike when 84, and died at the age of 88. Today both his son and grandson are serving the Lord as pastors.
When that wooden boat sank, and he was in the water, praying and waiting; he must have heard the voice that was familiar to all faithful men of God: "Why don't you quit? Stop making a fool out of yourself, there is an easy way out, quit now!" Yet this missionary went right back to Africa where God wanted him to be. This voice must have repeated itself so many times in those six years when no one cared for God. When he rode that old bike, with those heavy hymn books on his back, having no idea where the next meal would come from; the very same voice must have again sounded so tempting: "Ah, didn't you see nobody cares? don't waste your time, life is short, quit now!".
Another man, after finishing his bible training in United States, he sought financial support to start a church in the Northern part of the US. He met all sorts of rejections. Some pastors told him he should not build a church in a small town of 800. Some pastors even told him "the Northwest(of US) is a preacher's graveyard". That very voice must have whispered to him, "Ah, quit being so stubborn; they are right, don't waste your time; it is nothing wrong to have a better living, God loves you anyway". However this man persevered, today many people and missionaries receive God's blessings through his baptist ministry in Oak Harbor, Washington. According to him, at least 80% of his congregation is involved in at least one ministry, and there are twenty one ministries in his church.
Paul experienced much trouble when he went down to Macedonia, no church gave him financial support (Philippians 4:15). More than this, there were trials from inside and outside of the church : "when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears" ( 2 Corinthians 7:5 ).
Paul was "in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters,...of robbers,...by my own countrymen,...by the heathen,...in the city,...in the wilderness,...in the sea, in perils among the false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fasting often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn not?" ( 2 Corinthians 11:23-29 ).
During all these perils, attacks, accusations and persecutions; Paul must have heard the same voice again and again: "Ah, why don't you quit, and keep your life? If you die, how are you going to serve God?". This voice came from the tempter.
If these people quitted, no one would point a finger at them; people thought that they had been labouring beyond measure, and deserved a rest. They could step down graciously in the midst of praises, applauses and shoulder-pattings. But they did not quit - they were called to persevere in the hardship of the ministry, and were not called to give up.
There were a peculiar group of people, according to the Bible, of whom this world was not worthy to have. They "...had trial of cruel mockings and scouragings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth" (Hebrews 11:36ff). They eye-witnessed martyred death, they knew that same death would come to them. However, they did not quit.
Through the Scripture, God asks us to endure hardship as a "good soldier of Christ"( 2 Timothy 2:3). There is no such thing as a bad soldier of Christ, either you are engaged in the battles faithfully, or you are a dead man already.
Second Timothy 2:9 says "wherein I suffer trouble, as an evildoer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound". Paul suffered to an extent that he thought he was an evildoer, and it seemed as if God was punishing him. However his strong relationship with God reassured him that he suffered for the high calling from God.
Hebrews 6:10 says, "For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love...". So if God ignores our labour and work which were done for the sake of his name, he would be in the sin of unrighteousness! Would God be in sin? Certainly not! God acknowledges every single effort we put forth out of a right motive.
Hebrews 13:16 says, "But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased". This means our work and suffering for the Lord will be a pleasing sacrifice to him. Animal sacrifices were Old Testament worship ritual, which are now done away with, and they were not pleasing God anyway. However, today God tells us what the sacrifices he really desires from his children are - our faithful testimonies.
First Peter 1:2 says, "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ...". We are elected according to God's foreknowledge, but not into sin, but into the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Falling into sin, or living an ungodly life is not God's will for Christians.
First Peter 1:6,7 reminds me that when we are in the middle of God's trial, which is to make sure that we are serious enough about our call and service. We should look at God, and not at the circumstances. It says, "ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold..., might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ". More than that, he wants us to rejoice even in the heaviness of temptations. There is no reason to be an unhappy Christian. We are heaven bound!
Second Corinthians 4:17 says, "For the light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory"; Romans 8:18 says, "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us". My dear readers, we have the best deal here. The divine glory is awaiting, so we can slight the afflictions, and run the spiritual race which is set before us by God.
Among all these promises from the Bible, and all these faithful men around us; God gives us liberty to make a choice. The choice is either we can persevere and serve God faithfully; or we can draw back, and be reluctant to take an active combat role in the spiritual battle.
What is your choice?
