He Is Worth It

During China's Boxer Rebellion at the turn of the twentieth century, no foreigner was safe. The Boxers opposed all foreign influences, including Christian missionaries. Diplomats fled to a compound in Beijing, but missionaries in the outer provinces had few choices.

Local officials in Fenzhou, Shanxi province, were relatively accepting of missionaries, so a number of missionaries fled there in hope that they would be sage until the uprising ended. After they arrived, the governor of Shanxi, a noted Boxer sympathizer, assigned a new magistrate to Fenzhou. The magistrate promptly posted an armed guard over the foreigners.

One of the missionaries, Lizzie Atwater, was pregnant at the time. She wrote a final letter to her parents on August 3, 1900:

"Dear Ones, I long for a sight of your dear faces, but I fear we shall not meet on earth... I am preparing for the end very quietly and calmly. The Lord is wonderfully near, and He will not fail me. I was very restless and excited while there seemed a chance of life, but God has taken away that feeling, and now I just pray for grace to meet the terrible end bravely. The pain will soon be over, and oh the sweetness of the welcome above!

My little baby will go with me. I think God will give it to me in Heaven, and my dear mother will be so glad to see us. I cannot imagine the Savior's welcome. Oh, that will compensate for all of these days of suspense. Dear ones, live near to God and cling less closely to earth. There is no other way by which we can receive that peace from God which passeth understanding.... I must keep calm and still these hours. I do not regret coming to China, but am sorry I have done so little. My married life, two precious years, have been so very full of happiness. We will die together, my dear husband and I.

I used to dread separation. If we escape now it will be a miracle. I send my love to all of you, and the dear friends who remember me."

Twelve days later, Lizzie, her husband, their unborn baby and six other missionaries were hacked to death by their guards.

Later, when Lizzie's parents in Oberlin, Ohio, heard the dreadful news of the death of their daughter, son-in-law, and unborn grandchild, they said, in tears, "We do not begrudge them - we gave them to that needy land; China will yet believe the truth."

~ AsiaHarvest.org

Philippians 1:20-21

[I]t is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Philippians 3:8-11

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

This woman could feel these words in her heart. Even in the midst of persecution and on the brink of death she counted the cost and saw Christ as more precious than anything else this world has to offer. “Dear ones, live near to God and cling less closely to earth. There is no other way by which we can receive that peace from God which passeth understanding.... I must keep calm and still these hours. I do not regret coming to China, but am sorry I have done so little.”

Even though she, along with her family were going to lose their very lives, she still did not regret answering God’s call to “Go… and make disciples of all nations.” She with child, alongside her husband and six other missionaries were willing to give everything so that the Gospel might be known to the unreached and that the glory of the Lord might be proclaimed.

She did not feel alone or forsaken by Christ in the face of death, instead she felt His faithfulness to His promise, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”   

“I am preparing for the end very quietly and calmly. The Lord is wonderfully near, and He will not fail me.”

O, that the Lord might grant us the courage and the passion to trust in His promises and “count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus.” That we might say with full conviction, “to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” And that the Lord would change our hearts and minds so that we could say with Paul that “it is [our] eager expectation and hope that [we] will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in [our] body, whether by life or by death.”

It's About Him

"Jesus is the true and better Adam who passed the test in the garden and whose obedience is imputed to us.

Jesus is the true and better Abel who, though innocently slain, has blood now that cries out, not for our condemnation, but for acquittal.

Jesus is the true and better Abraham who answered the call of God to leave all the comfortable and familiar and go out into the void not knowing wither he went to create a new people of God.

Jesus is the true and better Isaac who was not just offered up by his father on the mount but was truly sacrificed for us. And when God said to Abraham, “Now I know you love me because you did not withhold your son, your only son whom you love from me,” now we can look at God taking his son up the mountain and sacrificing him and say, “Now we know that you love us because you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love from us.”

Jesus is the true and better Jacob who wrestled and took the blow of justice we deserved, so we, like Jacob, only receive the wounds of grace to wake us up and discipline us.

Jesus is the true and better Joseph who, at the right hand of the king, forgives those who betrayed and sold him and uses his new power to save them.

Jesus is the true and better Moses who stands in the gap between the people and the Lord and who mediates a new covenant.

Jesus is the true and better Rock of Moses who, struck with the rod of God’s justice, now gives us water in the desert.

Jesus is the true and better Job, the truly innocent sufferer, who then intercedes for and saves his stupid friends.

Jesus is the true and better David whose victory becomes his people’s victory, though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves.

Jesus is the true and better Esther who didn’t just risk losing an earthly palace but lost the ultimate and heavenly one, who didn’t just risk his life, but gave his life to save his people.

Jesus is the true and better Jonah who was cast out into the storm so that we could be brought in.

Jesus is the real Rock of Moses, the real Passover Lamb, innocent, perfect, helpless, slain so the angel of death will pass over us. He’s the true temple, the true prophet, the true priest, the true king, the true sacrifice, the true lamb, the true light, the true bread.

The Bible’s really not about you — it’s about Him."

----Tim Keller Quote pulled from Darrin Patrick's: Church Planter

A Stupid Way to Read the Bible

From Charles Spurgeon’s 1867 sermon “A Song at the Well-head”:

You are retired for your private devotions; you have opened the Bible, and you begin to read.

Now, do not be satisfied with merely reading through a chapter. Some people thoughtlessly read through two or three chapters—stupid people for doing such a thing!

It is always better to read a little and digest it, than it is to read much and then think you have done a good thing by merely reading the letter of the word.

For you might as well read the alphabet backwards and forwards, as read a chapter of Scripture, unless you meditate upon it, and seek to comprehend its meaning.

Merely to read words is nothing: the letter kills.

The business of the believer with his Bible open is to pray, “Lord, give me the meaning and spirit of your word, while it lies open before me; apply your word with power to my soul, threatening or promise, doctrine or precept, whatever it may be; lead me into the soul and marrow of your word.”

Also, it is not the form of prayer, but the spirit of prayer that shall truly benefit your souls.

That prayer has not benefited you, which is not the prayer of the soul.

You have need to say, “Lord, give me the spirit of prayer; now help me to feel my need deeply, to perceive your promises clearly, and to exercise faith upon them.”

In your private devotions, strive after vital godliness, real soul-work, the life-giving operation of the Spirit of God in your hearts.

Gospel Reminder

Wisdom from B. B. Warfield and the Apostle Paul...

"There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all. This is not true of us only when we believe. It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be true as long as we live. Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing; nor does the nature of our relation to Him or to God through Him ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in behavior may be. It is always on His “blood and righteousness” alone that we can rest."
----B. B. Warfield 

1 Corinthians 15:1-11
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,
2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you-unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

(Above quote comes from Perfectionism, Part One, vol. 7 of The Works of Benjamin B. Warfield (New York: Oxford University Press, 1932; repr., Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000), 113.)

Scripture quote from the ESV Bible.

Gospel for Asia/Groceries for You

Dear Friends,

You can help send the Bread of Life to people in Asia while buying your groceries. It's quick, easy and won't cost you a thing. Here's how it works:

Kroger, Tom Thumb and Albertsons will donate a portion of your total bill to Gospel for Asia each time you purchase groceries. It only takes a few minutes to register with your favorite store's reward program. Choose one or more of the stores listed below and follow the directions to register.

It's an easy decision that will make an eternal difference in the lives of many!

Kroger
Simply print this letter and give it to the cashier at your local Kroger store. The cashier will scan the barcode on the letter and your Kroger Plus Card. That's all you need to do to enroll in Kroger's Neighbor to Neighbor Donation Program. For the next 10 months, Kroger will donate a percentage of $1 million based on your grocery purchases to GFA.

Tom Thumb
Link your Tom Thumb Reward card to GFA by completing the Good Neighbor Program Form, which you can pick up at the store's customer service booth, or print one here. Fill in Gospel for Asia's account number 8913, and return the form to the customer service booth. Once this form is processed, all your future grocery purchases from Tom Thumb will impact Asia for Christ!

Albertsons
Just email us at strategicgiving@gfa.org or call us at 1-800-WIN-ASIA (946-2742) to request one or more Albertsons Community Partners cards. Give this card to the cashier when you purchase groceries at Albertsons, and get it back after it's scanned so you can use it again the next time you shop there. Each time the card is scanned, you will be reaching more people in Asia with God's love!

Partnering with grocery stores to raise money for the mission field costs you--and Gospel for Asia--nothing. But it has proven to be a fruitful decision, helping us touch many lives with the love of Jesus. During 2010, Gospel for Asia received about $440 in donations from these grocery stores. Another local charity received over $51,000 from Kroger alone! With your help, we can reap that much and more for the mission field in 2011!

If you shop at any of these grocery stores, please take the simple steps needed to link your purchases with GFA. It's such an easy way to connect your life with the mission field. And why not encourage your family, friends, church members and neighbors to do so, too?

THANKS so much!

God bless you,

Your Friends at Gospel for Asia

P.S. You can find other no-cost ways to support Gospel for Asia here.

John Piper on the celebration of sin. Via Desiring God

Jesus died so that heterosexual and homosexual sinners might be saved. Jesus created sexuality, and has a clear will for how it is to be experienced in holiness and joy.

His will is that a man might leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and that the two become one flesh (Mark 10:6-9). In this union, sexuality finds its God-appointed meaning, whether in personal-physical unification, symbolic representation, sensual jubilation, or fruitful procreation.

For those who have forsaken God’s path of sexual fulfillment, and walked into homosexual intercourse or heterosexual extramarital fornication or adultery, Jesus offers astonishing mercy.

Such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:11).

But last weekend this salvation from sinful sexual acts was not embraced. Instead there was massive celebration of sin.

One estimate said that 400,000 people celebrated gay pride in Minneapolis. That’s more than the population of the city. The number is probably inflated, but for the first time in history, it did include the governor of the state, Mark Dayton.

The Bible is not silent about such parades. Alongside its clearest explanation of the sin of homosexual intercourse (Romans 1:24-27) stands the indictment of the celebration of it. Though people know intuitively that homosexual acts (along with gossip, slander, insolence, haughtiness, boasting, faithlessness, heartlessness, ruthlessness) are sin, “they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” (Romans 1:29-32). “I tell you even with tears, that many glory in their shame” (Philippians 3:18–19).

This is what our governor was doing on Sunday along with millions of others across the country—knowing these deeds are wrong, “yet approving those who practice them.”

Not only that, we are moving from celebration to institutionalization. On June 24 the New York legislature approved a Marriage Equality Act. This makes New York the sixth state where so-called homosexual marriages will be institutionalized: Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, (and the District of Columbia).

My sense is that we do not realize what a calamity is happening around us. The new thing—new for America, and new for history—is not homosexuality. That brokenness has been here since we were all broken in the fall of man. (And there is a great distinction between the orientation and the act—just like there is a great difference between my orientation to pride and the act of boasting.)

What’s new is not even the celebration of homosexual sin. Homosexual behavior has been exploited, and reveled in, and celebrated in art, for millennia. What’s new is normalization and institutionalization. This is the new calamity.

My main reason for writing is not to mount a political counter-assault. I don’t think that is the calling of the church as such. My reason for writing is to help the church feel the sorrow of these days. And the magnitude of the assault on God and his image in man.

Christians, more clearly than others, can see the tidal wave of pain that is on the way. Sin carries in it its own misery: “Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error” (Romans 1:27).

And on top of sin’s self-destructive power comes, eventually, the wrath of God: “sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming” (Colossians 3:5–6).

Christians know what is coming, not only because we see it in the Bible, but because we have tasted the sorrowful fruit of our own sins. We do not escape the truth that we reap what we sow. Our marriages, our children, our churches, our institutions—they are all troubled because of our sins.

The difference is: We weep over our sins. We don’t celebrate them. We turn to Jesus for forgiveness and help. We cry to Jesus, “who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10).

And in our best moments, we weep for the world. In the days of Ezekiel God put a mark of hope “on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in Jerusalem” (Ezekiel 9:4).

This is what I am writing for. Not political action, but love for the name of God and compassion for the city of destruction.

“My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law.” (Psalm 119:136)

Faint Not

"And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9

Remember this--your life is short, your duties many, your assistance great, and your reward certain. Therefore, faint not, and hold on in the way of well-doing, and heaven shall make amends for all. ~ Thomas Brooks

There is nothing which so certifies the genuineness of a man’s faith as his patience and his patient endurance, his keeping on steadily in spite of everything. ~ Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Perseverance is the badge of true saints. The Christian life is not a beginning only in the ways of God, but also a continuance in the same as long as life lasts. It is with a Christian as it was with the great Napoleon: he said, “Conquest has made me what I am, and conquest must maintain me.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Via: Lee Dodd (Daily Edification)