SACRIFICE

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 never made a sacrifice. We ought not to talk of sacrifice when we remember the great sacrifice that he made who left his Father’s throne on high to give himself for us.

David Livingstone

Quoted by Curtis C. Thomas, Practical Wisdom for Pastors, Crossway Books, 2001, p. 133. Used by Permission.

If a commission by an earthly king is considered an honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?

David Livingstone

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

The way to think about self-denial is to deny yourself only a lesser good for a greater good... In other words, Jesus wants us to think about sacrifice in a way that rules out all self-pity.

John Piper
Desiring God, © John Piper, 1996, p. 202, www.DesiringGod.org, Used by Permission.

Sacrifice without obedience is sacrilege.

William Gurnall

A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 199.

Ministry that costs nothing, accomplishes nothing.

John Henry Jowett

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.

Those who give much without sacrifice are reckoned as having given little.

Erwin Lutzer

Men of Integrity, v. 1, n. 2.

To be a follower of the Crucified Christ means, sooner or later, a personal encounter with the cross. And the cross always entails loss.

Elisabeth Elliot

Nothing less than a living sacrifice is demanded. Not a loan, but a gift; not a compromise, but a sacrifice; not our poorest, but our best. Not a dead but a living offering. Each drop of our blood, each ounce of our energy, each throb of our heart, we must offer to God.

Joseph Pearce

Quoted by Curtis C. Thomas, Practical Wisdom for Pastors, Crossway Books, 2001, p. 133. Used by Permission.

[This] is the kind of totally committed response the Lord Jesus called for. A desire for Him at any cost. Absolute surrender. A full exchange of self for the Savior. It is the only response that will open the gates of the kingdom. Seen through the eyes of this world, it is as high a price as anyone can pay. But from a kingdom perspective, it is really no sacrifice at all.

John MacArthur

If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.

C.T. Studd

Quoted in: Alexander Strauch, Leading With Love, Lewis and Roth, 2006, p. 28, Used by Permission.