Samuel Marinus Zwemer was an American missionary, traveler, and scholar and was nicknamed, "The Apostle to Islam".
The challenge of the unoccupied fields of the world is one to great faith and, therefore to great sacrifice. Our willingness to sacrifice for an enterprise is always in proportion to our faith in that enterprise. Faith has the genius of transforming the barely possible into actuality. Once men are dominated by the conviction that a thing must be done, they will stop at nothing until it is accomplished.
“We have our ‘marching orders’,” as the Iron Duke {Arthur Wesley, Duke of Wellington} said, “and because our Commander-in-Chief is not absent, but with us, the impossible becomes not only practical but imperative.”
Charles Spurgeon, preaching from the text, “All power is given unto Me. Lo I am with you always,” used these words:
“You have a factor here that is absolutely infinite, and what does it matter as to what other factors may be. “I will do as much as I can, says one. Any fool can do that. He that believes in Christ does what he can not do, attempts the impossible and performs it.”
“Missions is the back-breaking, culture-penetrating, darkness-shattering initial work to penetrate and plant the church, see it flourish, get its own elders, train its own people and evangelize its own networks. That’s the task of missions. It’s not over.” – John Piper
When I spoke at Missions in the Main Hall Sunday night, I tried to give a biblical response to possible obstacles that are in the way for some people that may keep them from moving forward toward missions. My prayer is that God would use these responses to call more of you to go. Here are eight objections and a biblical response.
1. “I am not smart enough.”
“Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.” (1 Corinthians 1:20-21)
“Consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-27)
2. “My body and my personality are not strong enough.”
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7)
Dr. Helen Roseveare was an English Christian missionary to the Congo from 1953 to 1973.
In 1964, Dr. Helen Roseveare was taken prisoner by rebel forces and remained a prisoner for five months, during which time she endured brutal beatings and rape.
In her own words:
They found me, dragged me to my feet struck me over head and shoulders, flung me on the ground, kicked me, dragged me to my feet only to strike me again—the sickening searing pain of a broken tooth, a mouth full of sticky blood, my glasses gone. Beyond sense, numb with horror and unknown fear, driven , dragged, pushed back to my own house—yelled at, insulted, cursed…
Through the brutal heartbreaking experience of rape, God met with me – with outstretched arms of love. It was an unbelievable experience: He was so utterly there, so totally understanding, his comfort was so complete – and suddenly I knew – I really knew that his love was unutterably sufficient. He did love me! He did understand!
Amy Wilson Carmichael was a Protestant Christian missionary in India, who opened an orphanage and founded a mission in Dohnavur. She served in India for 55 years without furlough.
“I am the Lord, that is My Name, and My Glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images.”
But the men He made to glorify Him take His Glory from Him, give it to another; that, the sin of it, the shame, calls with a low, deep under-call through all the other calls. God’s Glory is being given to another. Do we love Him enough to care? Or do we measure our private cost, if these distant souls are to be won, and, finding it considerable, cease to think or care? “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see”—”They took Jesus and led Him away. And He, bearing His cross, went forth into a place called the place of a skull . . . where they crucified Him.” . . . “Herein is love.” . . . “God so loved the world.” . . . Have we petrified past feeling? Can we stand and measure now? “I know that only the Spirit, Who counted every drop that fell from the torn brow of Christ as dearer than all the jeweled gates of Paradise, can lift the Church out of her appreciation of the world, the world as it appeals to her own selfish lusts, into an appreciation of the world as it appeals to the heart of God.” O Spirit, come and lift us into this love, inspire us by this love. Let us look at the vision of the Glory of our God with eyes that have looked at His love!
AJ and Ruth Gibson were missionaries in Monterrey, Mexico for 5 years. They are now working on the front lines of Christian missions through the pioneer church planting ministry of 'To Every Tribe' and the 'Center for Pioneer Church Planting'.
At the heart of missionary reckless abandon lies the fundamental conviction that we as believers have been called to live as pilgrims and strangers on this earth (see, for example, Hebrews 11). Our citizenship is not here on this earth but in heaven. A willingness to face suffering and persecution for the cause of Christ and his kingdom is characteristic of those who affirm, with the old gospel song, “This world is not my home, I’m just passin’ through.” In 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 Paul exemplifies this mindset:
This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.
Drawing from Paul’s words, here’s how to be a pilgrim and stranger on earth: