The Torch of the Heros

Just when I thought I was done with school, I did something I said I would not do for a long time: I registered for a class. 

But this is not just any regular class. It is a class called Perspectives (www.perspectives.org), and it has completely rocked my world. So here's to doing things you never said you would do. Sometimes there's a good reason for saying "I will never do that", and sometimes it is finally time to do that thing that you never said you would never do. This was one of those times. 

Perspectives is a class for anyone interested in learning what God is doing around the world, which honestly should be every follower of Jesus Christ. It is not a class for missionaries only, but a class for all believers on how to find their place in God's mission on earth. I firmly think that everyone I know should take this class. Just do it, and you will see what I mean. 

About half way through the course as we were studying the history of missions, one of our presenters spoke on pioneers of the world Christian movement. 

First of all, I couldn't believe I have never heard of these people! These are the George Washingtons and Thomas Jeffersons and Robert E. Lees of the Christian movement, so I take a moment to honor them as saints, heros, and normal people like you and me who were passionate lovers of Jesus that wanted to see his kingdom spread to the ends of the earth. 

Take Jan Huss for example. He was burned at the stake for teaching that Christ had more authority than the Pope. As he was tortured, he proclaimed, "In the truth of the gospel that I have written, taught, and preached, I die today with gladness...They will roast a goose now ("Huss" means "goose"), but after 100 years they will hear a swan sing, and him they will endure." The Protestant reformation and Martin Luther came on the scene almost exactly 100 years later. That's also where we get our saying, "your goose is cooked". 

Or take Count Zinzendorf of Germany, who welcomed young homeless Moravians into his home. They shared their radical faith in Jesus Christ with him, and they then all joined together in a prayer meeting that lasted for 110 years straight. They prayed for revival, and the Moravians sent out thousands of missionaries during that time. Count Zinzendorf became famous for saying, "Preach the gospel, die, and be forgotten."

Two of those young Moravians heard about an island off the coast of America that was owned by an atheist who said, "No Christians will ever be allowed here". They took that as a desperate invitation, so they sold themselves into slavery (the only way they would be allowed on the island), and literally packed all their belongings in their own coffins. As they sailed away, they cried out, "May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of his sufferings." 

Then there is William Carey, who once preached a revolutionary sermon about how Christians are called to "convert the heathen". Believe it or not, there was no concept of missions and evangelism at that time. So the leaders approached him and said, "If God wanted to covert the heathen, he will do it without your help or ours." Basically, they told him to sit down and shut up, but that did not stop him. When spending some time with a few individuals who were catching onto his vision, the group decided that India would be a good starting place for teaching the gospel, but everyone was afraid to go. That's when he said, "I will go down into the mine if you will hold tightly the ropes." He went to India a year later and became know as the father of modern missions for his extraordinary work there. "To know the will of God," Carey said, "all you need is an open Bible and an open map." His motto became, "Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God."

Samuel Mills was a freshman at Williams College in Massachusetts who led a Bible study group that was reading William Carey's book about the conversion of the heathen. When he and some students were caught out in a field in a terrible thunderstorm, they sought protection under a haystack and it turned into a prayer meeting for the salvation of the nations. There they resolved to do something about it, and  Mills said, "We can do this if we will." Those students ended up starting 6 or 7 major missionary sending agencies. 

Hudson Taylor was an ordinary college student aspiring to go to med school when he attended church one day and was bothered by something. "Unable to bear the sight of Christians rejoicing in their own security while millions were perishing for lack of knowledge," he said, "I surrendered myself to this service." He went to China and started the China Inland Mission, which is OMF today. Taylor said, "If I had one thousand lives, China should have them. No! Not China, but Christ."

I love CT Studd, a famous cricket player in England in 1883. When he was called to missions in China, the queen of England paid him a visit and literally begged him not to go. He must have been one amazing cricket player. Hudson Taylor also got wind of this and told CT to not go to China for three months, but to spend that time recruiting others to come with him. In three months, he got 100 others to join him in going to China. Now that is using your fame to make a difference. "Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell. I wish to run a rescue shop within a yard from hell," Studd said. 

There are dozens of other pioneers who overcame opposition from their churches, leaders, and even Christian families in order to take the gospel to places where it had not yet been heard. (Take Perspectives to learn about so many more!) We live in their wake - in an era where Christianity is rapidly sweeping across the nations. We live in the best age for missionary activity, for there are more Christians in the world today than any other time in history. But the task is yet to be finished with 8,000 people groups still needing to hear the life-saving news about Jesus Christ. That seems like a great task, but if every group of 50 churches got together and sent out one missionary team to an unreached people group, we could reach the entire world with the gospel in this generation. 

"It will not do to say that you have no special call...with these facts before you and the command of the Lord Jesus to go preach the gospel to every creature, you need rather to ascertain whether you have a special call to stay at home," said Hudson Taylor.

I can't help but feel that the torch is being passed to this generation. Are we extending out our hands with hearts ablaze and eyes fixed on the prize? Like Isaiah, let us rise and respond, "Here I am. Lord, send me."