Hudson Taylor on Self-Abandonment

"I am no longer anxious about anything for He, I know, is able to carry out His will, and His will is mine. It makes no matter where He places me, or how. That is rather for Him to consider that for me; for in the easiest position He must give me His grace, and in the most difficult His grace is sufficient. It little matters to my servant whether I send him to buy a few cash worth of things or the most expensive articles. In either case he looks to me for the money and bring me his purchases. So, if God should place me in great perplexity, must He not give me much guidance; in positions of great difficulty, much grace; in circumstances of great pressure and trial, much strength? No fear that His resources will be unequal to the emergency! And His resources are mine--for He is mine, and is with me and dwells in me."

Stephen Gates, Lakeroad Chapel

I Found Rest in Christ; John Dees Testimony

This is a greatly encouraging testimony! Listen here:

http://www.puritanfellowship.com/2010/04/i-found-rest-in-christ-john-dees.html

Would Jesus Do It?

(Thomas Sherman, "Divine Breathings; Or, a Pious Soul Thirsting after Christ")

"I have set you an example--that you should do as I have done for you." John 13:15

When anything presents itself, think: if He were alive and in my place--would Jesus do it? Or if I were about to die--would I still do it? I must walk--as He has walked; and I must live--as I intend to die. If the thing in question is not Christ's will--it is my sin. And if I die in that sin--it will be my ruin. I will therefore in every action so conduct myself--as if Christ were on the one hand--and death on the other!

"Leaving you an example,
so that you should follow in His steps." 1 Peter 2:2


*Taken from Grace Gems daily emails

Arctic Update

Dear Friends,

I thank you all for your prayers on behalf of my dear Grandmother Barb. She has improved much and yet is still trying to recover. The Lord is blessing her with much grace and the blessing of family coming from all over to be with her.

It was an amazing experience to stand with another cousin of mine both of us whom Grandma prayed earnestly for. To stand there as saved men by the grace of God and as we began to read her the scriptures and pray for her she began to pray some of the sweetest words to the Lord. At one point she said, "Jesus, I need You; all I want is You, to be with You the rest of my life" and she paused and said "O, He said I could be!" The Lord's presence was very real to us and I will never forget this time. It is a very comforting and joyous thing to know without a doubt that she is eternally secure in Her Savior Jesus Christ. Thank you for your prayers.

Please pray for brother Al Whittinghill, as he leaves today to speak to a conference of 13 Alaska native churches. I believe these will be very important and timely meetings the Lord has set before us.

Ministry is going strong in the many villages we are working in. We are already gearing up for pastoral and leadership equipping next fall. It is a blessing to see these men fearlessly and boldly proclaim the good news. It is a privilege to come under them and support them and their families as they set to reach their people.

I have also seen the great need to be of some help to the natives here. I have been picking up hitchhikers on the reservation here and have liberty to share the gospel with them. I am hoping to be able to disciple some of them and see an indigenous work come together here.

Most of all I am grateful that, by God's grace alone, my name is written in heaven. What amazing grace. God's perfect love to save the uttermost like me. What good news we have for this day!

Thank you,

- Justin

Kevin Williams, Visitor from Manchester England

Hudson Taylor's Struggle with Unbelief

This is an account taken from "Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret." At this point in the book Mr. and Mrs. Taylor have returned to London for a few years due to Hudson Taylor's health. However, the burden for inland China was still weighing heavily on Mr. Taylor especially. As the burden grows, he is finally confronted with his own unbelief, which has to some extent been standing in the way of progress further inland into China.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Summer had come again, and the streets were hot and dusty in East London. Seeing that Mr. Taylor was not looking well, an old friend invited him down to the coast to spend a few days at Brighton. Mrs. Taylor, who was concerned about his health, was glad to see him go, though she understood only in part the experiences through which he was passing. Even to her, he could not fully show the exercise of soul that was becoming unbearable.

So it was alone on the sands at Brighton that Sunday morning, that he met the crisis of his life. He had gone to church with others, but the sight of multitudes rejoicing in the blessings of salvation was more than he could bear. "Other sheep I have,"--the lost and perishing in China, for whose souls no man cared-- "them also I must bring." And the tones of the Master's voice, the love in the Master's face pleaded silently.

He knew that God was speaking. He knew, as we have seen, that if he yielded to His will, and prayed under His guidance, evangelists for inland China would be given. As to their support, he had no anxiety. He who called and sent them would not fail to give them daily bread. But what if they should fail? For Hudson Taylor was facing no unknown situation. He was familiar with conditions in China, the real temptations to be met, the real enemy entrenched on his own ground. What if fellow workers were overborne and laid the blame on him?

"It was just a bringing in of self through unbelief; the devil getting one to feel [he recalled] that while prayer and faith would bring on into the fix, one would have to get out of it as best one might. And I did not see that the power that would give the men and the means would be sufficient to keep them also, even in the far interior of China."

Meanwhile, a million a month were dying in that great, waiting land--dying without God. This was burned into his soul. A decision had to be made and he knew it, for the conflict could no longer be endured. It was comparatively easy to pray for workers, but would he, could he accept the burden of leadership?

"In great spiritual agony, I wandered out on the sands alone. And there the Lord conquered my unbelief, and I surrendered myself to God for this service. I told Him that all the responsibility as to the issues and consequences must rest with Him; that as His servant is was mine to obey and to follow Him, His to direct, care for and guide me and those who might labour with me. Need I say that at once peace flowed into my burdened heart?

Then and there I asked Him for twenty-four fellow workers, two for each of the eleven provinces which were without a missionary and two for Mongolia; and writing the petition on the margin of the Bible I had with me, I turned homeward with a heart enjoying rest such as it had been a stranger to for months, and with an assurance that the Lord would bless His own work and that I should share in the blessing. The conflict ended, all was peace and joy. I felt as if I could fly up the hill to Mr. Pearce's house. And how I did sleep that night! My dear wife thought that Brighton had done wonders for me, and so it had."

Charles Leiter Sermon

Mason Vann Sermon

Lozi Mission Update

"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." John 6:44

"...even when we were dead in our trespasses, (God) made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved - ..." Eph. 2:5

Dear family and friends,

Greetings again from Zambia. As I update you on what's happening with the Lozi work, can I also demonstrate the practicality of theology in missions? In the past few weeks, I have witnessed some of the clearest pictures of depravity and the need for regeneration. No, I'm not talking about "horrible" sins of sexual perversion or witchcraft. It's much more shocking than that. I'm talking about people in an extremely religious culture who are very familiar with the Bible, yet they are completely blind to the glory of Jesus Christ and their need for Him.

A few weeks ago, I gave the youngest son of our village headman a lift into town. I asked if he attended a church, and he predictably replied, "Yes, I'm New Apostolic." I then asked him, "What is the gospel of the New Apostolic?" People in Zambia love to use the word "gospel" - "Oh, you're a missionary. You're here to preach the gospel in our country. That's good." There's so much use of the word "gospel," you would think that they know what it means. But my question was met with a blank stare. So I helped him out, "How would the New Apostolic tell me that I can be saved? How can I have my sin forgiven, be right with God, and go to be with Him?" "Oh yes," he smiled, "just do good things and keep the commands." I knew he was going to say that. At least he could accurately summarize New Apostolic teaching. So I asked how that is good news when all of us are sinners and no one can keep God's commands. He stammered something about God judging us by how hard we try and I proceeded to share with him the true Gospel.

But that encounter got me to thinking. We've been preaching the Gospel consistently for over 10 weeks to a little group. Every Sunday we use an Old Testament story to show our need for Christ's atoning work, or we explain how that story is a shadow of the coming reality of Jesus' substitutionary sacrifice. Not a single study ends without explaining the Gospel again. So I had to know - can anyone in our study group tell me the Gospel? Stormy weather kept half the group away from our last meeting. With the 3 guys who showed up, I read Galatians 1 and we discussed the danger of false gospels. Then I asked them what was the true Gospel. Once again, that same blank stare. Again I coached them - "If I sent you across the river to preach the Gospel, what would you tell them? How can they have their sin forgiven, be right with God, and go to be with Him?" They smiled and gave vague answers like, "Follow what the Bible says." After months of hearing the Gospel over and over, you would expect them to say something about Jesus or the cross just from shear repetition. But no, it doesn't even occur to them to speak of Jesus. Why aren't Jesus and His cross the first words out of their mouth when asked about the Gospel?

First, they've been brainwashed for years with the religious speech of demonic false churches that glorify good works and not Jesus. Second, God must make their dead hearts alive in order to see and respond to the Gospel. But there may also be a third issue at work. . . could there be a breakdown somewhere in the communication of the Gospel?

You see, we've lost our only reliable interpreter, our closest Lozi friend and co-worker, Dominic. No, we did not lose him in death, though that might be easier to deal with. We've lost him in the sense of Demas, who "in love with this present world has deserted me . . ." (2 Tim. 4:10). Whether he was ever truly converted, or was deceiving us all along, we have yet to discern. All I will say for now is that, in various ways, Dominic has abandoned us, the church-planting work, his family, and his closest Lozi friends. Please pray that God will lead him to repentance. This is one of those deeper and darker trials that I referred to last month. Besides losing a dear friend, the enemy has struck a severe blow to our teaching ministry. Dom at least had the ability to accurately translate theological concepts into Lozi. No one else in our study group has that ability yet, thus our concerns about a communication breakdown somewhere between our preaching and their hearing.

Our friend Joseph is doing his best to help. He may lack ability, but he has passion. One Sunday, Shannon was being asked about worship on the Sabbath (heavy S.D.A. influence). We took them to Colossians and Hebrews, explaining that even the Sabbath was a shadow, pointing to the reality of spiritual rest in Christ. One young man was really struggling with our answers, and Joseph prodded him on, "Please don't stop asking questions. You are my neighbor, and I don't want you to go to hell!" After reading one of the passages in Hebrews, Joseph was so excited that he forgot to speak in Lozi. He blurted out in English to the Lozi-speaking group, "You see, there it is again - Jesus only!" I wish I had time to tell you all the beautiful signs of regeneration in this precious soul. Please pray for Joseph's spiritual growth, and for his family's spiritual protection as the enemy tries to destroy any potential future leader in the Lozi church. And please continue to pray for the triumph of Christ's Gospel over all the schemes of the evil one. This IS war!

There's not much to talk about concerning building progress. Our last 2-week stay in the bush was spent collecting grass for the thatch roof. There were many long days making the 8 hour round-trip drive, plus loading and unloading grass. From the world's perspective, we just shouldn't have been able to find the massive amount of grass that we needed this late in the season. But God was faithful in providing every last bundle, protecting our vehicles and the borrowed trailer, and sustaining our strength for the task. Even better, we were able to preach the Gospel a few times in the Tonga (not Lozi) village. They are begging us to start a church in their village (from mixed motives, for sure), and we intend to follow up and see what God does.

We're back in Livingstone for now. After 5 months of living in tents during the rainy season, we were all ready for a break. It's nice to have electric lights at night, internet, indoor toilets, and grocery stores just minutes away. Shannon and I could not be more proud of our wives and children and how well they endured many dark and difficult days in the bush. We'll make short trips to the land, as we are able, until the camp structure is functional. Some South African friends and several teams from the U.S. are beginning to schedule trips. We may be very busy from now until October, but we look forward to the help and fellowship.

As we near our one-year anniversary (today is 11 months since we left the States), I think it's safe to say that both families have turned a corner spiritually and emotionally. Spiritual warfare and prayer have become a reality in our lives. Love and team unity has deepened. After the lack of visible progress in building and Bible-teaching, the devil and our flesh would have us return to Livingstone feeling like failures. But by a miracle of grace, we are more full of joy and peace than we've felt since arriving in Zambia. I have no doubt that your prayers are largely responsible for such an outpouring of grace upon us. Please keep praying!

By grace alone, Sean