Says there are 800,000 with five missionaries—“only two worth shooting.”
Today's gleanings
Martin Luther once said, “Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your god.”
Mary A. Kassian,
Girls Gone Wise in a World Gone Wild (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2010).
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The longer you are in the ministry, the more disciplined effort it takes to preach with freshness and vitality.”
Bruce Mawhinney,
Preaching with Freshness (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1997), 27.
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A man who is going to be a successful preacher should make his whole life run toward the pulpit
Bruce Mawhinney,
Preaching with Freshness (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1997), 29.
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Biblical preaching is a declaration of war on the kingdom of darkness.
Bruce Mawhinney,
Preaching with Freshness (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1997), 31.
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It is only when a man flounders beyond any grip of himself and cannot understand things that he really prays. It is not part of the natural life of a man to pray.
Oswald Chambers,
If Ye Shall Ask (Hants UK: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1996).
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We must remember that there is a difference between God’s order and God’s permissive will. God’s order reveals His character; His permissive will applies to what He permits. For instance, it is God’s order that there should be no sin, no suffering, no sickness, no limitation and no death; His permissive will is all these things. God has so arranged matters that we are born into His permissive will, and we have to get at His order by an effort of our own, viz., by prayer. To be children of God, according to the New Testament, does not mean that we are creatures of God only, but that we grow into a likeness to God by our own moral character.
Oswald Chambers,
If Ye Shall Ask (Hants UK: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1996).
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Our Lord in His teaching regarding prayer never once referred to unanswered prayer; He said God always answers prayer. If our prayers are in the name of Jesus, i.e., in accordance with His nature, the answers will not be in accordance with our nature, but with His. We are apt to forget this, and to say without thinking that God does not always answer prayer. He does every time, and when we are in close communion with Him, we realise that we have not been misled.
Oswald Chambers,
If Ye Shall Ask (Hants UK: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1996).
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As long as we are self-sufficient and complacent, we don’t need to ask God for anything, we don’t want Him; it is only when we know we are powerless that we are prepared to listen to Jesus Christ and to do what He says.
Oswald Chambers,
If Ye Shall Ask (Hants UK: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1996).
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Never let anything push you to your wits’ end, because you will get worried, and worry makes you self-interested and disturbs the nourishment of the life of God. Give thanks to God that He is there, no matter what is happening.
Oswald Chambers,
If Ye Shall Ask (Hants UK: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1996).
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The secret of Christian quietness is not indifference, but the knowledge that God is my Father, He loves me, I shall never think of anything He will forget, and worry becomes an impossibility.
Oswald Chambers,
If Ye Shall Ask (Hants UK: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1996).
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I think, that a man without Christ has his roots only in his own times, and his fruits as well. He has nothing to tie him to eternity, nothing to link him vitally either to past centuries or future hopes. He is a man who has nothing beyond his own day. Whereas, the believer is in actual union with the great traditions of the true Church through the centuries and linked with a priceless norm-forming and wise-patterned heritage in the Hebrew people.
Elisabeth Elliot,
The Journals of Jim Elliot: Missionary, Martyr, Man of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Revell, 2021), 258.
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Billy and I had supper with Nida [Dr. Eugene Nida, then of the Summer Institute of Linguistics]. He describes the highland Quichuas as one of the neediest works he knows of. Says there are 800,000 with five missionaries—“only two worth shooting.” Peoples oppressed by Romanism, patron system, drink, and vice.
Elisabeth Elliot,
The Journals of Jim Elliot: Missionary, Martyr, Man of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Revell, 2021), 262.
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Some quotes of value:
A man unwilling to go to the field is unfit to stay in the homeland.
Not called, but compelled.
In the eighteenth century, philosophy challenged Christianity.
In the nineteenth century science challenged Christianity.
In the twentieth century history challenged Christianity.
Communists are confident of success and willing to pay the price.
Elisabeth Elliot, The Journals of Jim Elliot: Missionary, Martyr, Man of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Revell, 2021), 265–266.
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The bad news is that I cannot live the Christian life; the good news is that he can! If I never believe the bad news, the good news is not good news.
Jack R. Taylor,
After the Spirit Comes (Bedford, TX: Burkhart Books, 2013), 35–36.
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A central thesis of this book is that the Bible speaks to all people and all cultures and that Jesus Christ is the only faithful example of divine love in interpersonal relationships and communication.
Sherwood G. Lingenfelter, Marvin K. Mayers,
Ministering Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Personal Relationships (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003), 14–15.
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wrapped in swaddling clothes, and placed in a manger. It is noteworthy that God did not come as a fully developed adult, he did not come as an expert, he did not come as a ruler, or even as part of a ruling family or a dominant culture. He was an infant, born into a humble family in a conquered and subjugated land.
The second significant fact about the incarnation is that Jesus was a learner. He was not born with a knowledge of language or culture. In this respect, he was an ordinary child. He learned language from his parents. He learned how to play from his peers. He learned the trade of a carpenter from Joseph and studied the Scriptures and worshiped in the same manner as did all young men of his time.
Sherwood G. Lingenfelter, Marvin K. Mayers,
Ministering Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Personal Relationships (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003), 16.
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A human being is completely helpless at birth and lives through a period of near-total dependency on others that lasts almost six years.
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Sherwood G. Lingenfelter, Marvin K. Mayers,
Ministering Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Personal Relationships (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003), 19.
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It is because of cultural blindness that we must become incarnate in the culture and thus in the lives of the people we wish to serve. We must begin as a child and grow in their midst. We must be learners and let them teach us before we can hope to teach them and introduce them to the master Teacher.
Sherwood G. Lingenfelter, Marvin K. Mayers,
Ministering Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Personal Relationships (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003), 22.
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We must love the people to whom we minister so much that we are willing to enter their culture as children, to learn how to speak as they speak, play as they play, eat what they eat, sleep where they sleep, study what they study, and thus earn their respect and admiration. In essence, we must leave our prison, enter their prison, and become full participants within it.
Sherwood G. Lingenfelter, Marvin K. Mayers,
Ministering Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Personal Relationships (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003), 24–25.
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The lesson here is that becoming incarnate in another culture will be a trial by fire, a test of inner strength, of personal faith, and most of all a test of the veracity of one’s love. An individual who is not ready to give up being an American for a time and to begin learning as a child is not ready for the challenge of cross-cultural ministry.
Sherwood G. Lingenfelter, Marvin K. Mayers, Ministering Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Personal Relationships (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003), 25.
