This little tract was given to some young missionaries as they were going off to serve the Lord.
It really can apply to all who are serving the Lord at home or in a foreign country.
Thomas H. Gill
Lord, in the fullness of my might,
I would for Thee be strong;
While runneth o’er each dear delight,
To Thee should soar my song.
I would not give the world my heart,
And then profess Thy love;
I would not feel my strength depart,
And then Thy service prove.
I would not with swift winged zeal
On the world’s errands go;
And labor up the heav’nly hill
With weary feet and slow.
O not for Thee my weak desires,
My poorer baser part!
O not for thee my fading fires,
The ashes of my heart.
O choose me in my golden time,
In my dear joys have part!
For Thee the glory of my prime
The fullness of my heart.
Jim Elliot, missionary to the Auca Indians in South America, Shadow of the Almighty
Written by Jim to Bert, his brother, on his birthday:
“For you, brother, I pray that the Lord might crown this year with His goodness and in the coming one give you a hallowed dare-devil spirit in lifting the biting sword of Truth, consuming you with a passion that is called by the cultured citizen of Christendom ‘fanaticism’, but known to God as that saintly madness that led His Son through bloody sweat and hot tears to agony on a rude Cross-and Glory!”
From his diary:
“Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me.”
“One of the great blessings of heaven is the appreciation of heaven on earth. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
Written on board a ship to South America:
“Strange that the other passengers get bored waiting around, and we hardly have enough time to get what we want done. Thank God for purpose in life. So many purposes come into existence when one works the will of God, that there is no excuse for laziness or wasted time. He is redeeming our lives, as well as our souls.”
“O Christ, I want this speaking-to-a-mountain faith, this faith that is bold, publicly, for God.”
“God is still on His throne, we’re still on his footstool, and there’s only a knee’s distance between!”
“‘He makes His ministers a flame of fire’. Am I ignitable? God deliver me from the dread asbestos of ‘other things.’ Saturate me with the oil of the Spirit that I may be aflame. But flame is transient, often short-lived. Canst thou bear this, my soul-short life? In me there dwells the Spirit of the Great Short-Lived, whose zeal for God’s house consumed Him. And he has promised baptism with the Spirit and with Fire. ‘Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.’”
Thomas a Kempis, Imitation of Christ, 1450 A.D.
Set yourself always in the lowest place and the highest shall be given you; for the highest cannot stand without the lowest. The chiefest saints before God are the least before themselves, and the more glorious they are, so much within themselves are they humbler. Those who are full of truth and heavenly glory are not greedy of vainglory. Those who are firstly settled and grounded in God can no wise be puffed up. And they who ascribe all unto God, whatever good they have received, seek not glory one of another, but wish for that glory which is from God alone and desire above all things that God may be praised in them, and in all His saints; and after this very thing they are always striving.”
“Oh, how powerful is the pure love of Jesus, which is mixed with no self-interest, or self love!”
“O fountain of love unceasing, what shall I say concerning Thee?…Thou has shown mercy to Thy servant beyond all hope; and has exhibited favor and loving-kindness beyond all desert.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German Theologian, 1937, The Cost of Discipleship
The cross is laid on every Christian. …the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise God-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.
The love of Jesus is something very different from our own zeal and enthusiasms because it adheres to its mission. What is the urge which drives us to proclaim the saving truths of the Gospel? It is not just love for our fellow-countrymen or for the heathen in foreign lands: it is the Lord’s commission as he delivered it in his missionary charge.
From Bruchko, Bruce Olson, missionary to the Motilone Indians, Colombia, South America, wrote the following on seeing his first conversion:
“How can I walk on Jesus’ trail?” he (Bobby) asked. “No Motilone has ever done it. It’s a new thing. There is no other Motilone to tell how to do it.”
“Do you remember that I was afraid to climb in the high hammock to sing, for fear that the rope would break? And I told you that I would sing only if I could have one foot in the hammock and one foot on the ground?”
“Yes Bruchko.”
“And what did you say to me?”
He laughed. “I told you you had to have both feet in the hammock. ‘You have to be suspended,’ I said.”
“Yes,…You have to be suspended. …you have to tie your hammock strings into Him and be suspended in God.”
“Oh,” he said. “I see now.”
The next day he had a big grin on his face.
“Bruchko, I’ve tied my hammock strings into Jesus. Now I speak a new language.”
I didn’t understand what he meant. “Have you learned some of the Spanish I speak?”
He laughed a clean, sweet laugh. “No, Bruchko, I speak a new language.”
Then I understood. To a Motilone, language is life. If Bobby had a new life, he had a new way of speaking. His speech would be Christ oriented.
We put our hands on each other’s shoulders. My mind swept back to the first time I had met Jesus, and the life I had felt flow into me. Now my brother Bobby was experiencing Jesus himself, in the same way. He had begun to walk with Jesus.
“Jesus Christ has risen from the dead!” Bobby shouted so that the sound filtered far off into the jungle. “ He has walked our trails! I have met Him!”
From that day our friendship was enhanced by our love for Jesus. We talked constantly about Him and Bobby asked me many questions. But he never asked the color of Jesus’ hair, or whether He had blue eyes. To Bobby the answers were obvious: Jesus had a dark skin, and His eyes were black. He wore a G-string, and hunted with bows and arrows.
Jesus was a Motilone.
The Last Words of Samuel Rutherford
“Oh, if one soul from Anwoth
Meet me at God’s right,
My heaven will be two heavens
In Immanuel’s land.”
From the Scripture:
Matthew 28:18-20
18-Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19-Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Acts 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
2 Tim. 2:2
And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.
God Bless you as you serve the Lord Jesus Christ!
Dave Michaux, Summer 1998
Chaplain Dave Online 