MISSIONS-PASSION

And people who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives...and when the bubble has burst they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted.

Nate Saint

If God would grant us the vision, the word “sacrifice” would disappear from our lips and thoughts; we would hate the things that seem now so dear to us; our lives would suddenly be too short; we would despise time-robbing distractions and charge the enemy with all our energies in the name of Christ. May God help us to judge ourselves by the eternities that separate the Aucas from a comprehension of Christmas, and Him, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor so that we might, through His poverty, be made rich. Lord God, speak to my own heart and give me to know Thy holy will and the joy of walking in it. Amen.

Nate Saint

Written just before he was martyred by the Auca Indians in South America.

A church that says no to missions is not just saying no to men. It is not just a matter of leaving men in their sins. It is saying no to God's greatest concern: the spreading of His glorious name among the peoples of the world. This is His passionate concern; it must be ours.

Steve Fernandez

Missions and the Glory of God's Name.

The motto of every missionary, whether preacher, printer, or schoolmaster, ought to be "Devoted for life."

Adoniram Judson

For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice.

David Livingstone

I've heard people say, "I want more of a heart for missions." I always respond, "Jesus tells you exactly how to get it. Put your money in missions- and in your church and the poor- and your heart will follow."

Randy Alcorn

The Spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions, and the nearer we get to Him the more intensely missionary we must become.

Henry Martyn

I do not appeal to you to screw up your courage and sacrifice for Christ. I appeal to you to renounce all you have to obtain life that satisfies your deepest longings. I appeal to you to count all things as rubbish for the surpassing value of standing in the service of the King of kings. I appeal to you to take off your store-bought rags and put on the garments of God’s ambassadors. I promise you persecutions and privations, but “remember the joy!” “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 5:10).

John Piper

Missionaries are not heroes who can boast in great sacrifice for God. They are the true Christian Hedonists. They know the battle cry of Christian Hedonism is missions. They have discovered a hundred times more joy and satisfaction in a life devoted to Christ and the gospel than in a life devoted to frivolous comforts and pleasures and worldly advancements. And they have taken to heart the rebuke of Jesus. Beware of a self-pitying spirit of sacrifice! Missions is gain! Hundredfold gain!

John Piper

Desiring God, 1996, p. 210, Used by Permission, www.desiringGod.org.

Nature teaches us that every believer should be a soul-winner. (As Andrew Murray said), “It is an essential part of the new nature. We see it in every child who loves to tell of his happiness and to bring others to share his joys. Missions is the automatic outflow and overflow of love for Christ. We delight to enlarge our joy in Him by extending it to others. As Lottie Moon said, “Surely there can be no greater joy than that of saving souls.”

John Piper

Desiring God, 1996, p. 205-206, Used by Permission, www.desiringGod.org.

Missions is the overflow of our delight in God because missions is the overflow of God's delight in being God.

John Piper

Missionary zeal does not grow out of intellectual beliefs, nor out of theological arguments, but out of love.

Roland Allen

I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light.

John Keith Falconer

Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, believed that if money could motivate the merchants of England to cross life-threatening oceans and enter the interior of China at great personal risk of loss of life, could not the love of Christ motivate missionaries to do the same for the sake of the gospel?

Alexander Strauch

Leading With Love, Lewis and Roth, 2006, p. 29, Used by Permission.

There's not one door in the world closed where you want to witness for Jesus…Show me a closed door and I will tell you how you can get in I won't however, promise you a way to get out…Jesus didn't say, "Go if the doors are open," because they weren't. He didn't say, "Go if you have an invitation or a red carpet treatment." He said, "Go," because people needed his Word…We need a new approach to missions -- an aggressive, experimental, evangelical, no-holds-barred approach…A pioneering spirit… I'm afraid we'll have to go through a deep valley of need and threatening situations, blood baths; but we'll get there. God will take away what hinders us if we mean business. If we say, "Lord, at any cost" -- and people should never pray that unless they truly want God to take them at their word -- He will answer. Which is scary. But we have to go through the process. This is how it has worked in the Bible for the last two thousand years. So we face potentially hard times, and we have to go through that…We play church and we play Christianity. And we aren't even aware we are lukewarm…We should have to pay a price for our faith. Read 2 Timothy 3:12: "Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." The church has been much purified in countries where there was lot of pressure…All I can say is to be ready.

Brother Andrew

God Smuggler Confesses, Christianity Today, December 11, 1995, p. 46.

If there be any one point in which the Christian church ought to keep its fervor at a white heat, it is concerning missions. If there be anything about which we cannot tolerate lukewarmness, it is in the matter of sending the gospel to a dying world.

C.H. Spurgeon