Funding the Work of God PAGE 191 - Bible Study Verses

I found that there were a million verses in this study so I set this up for future reference or any one else. Excelent Book and study though.

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2 Chronicles 31:4 -4-And he commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion due to the priests and the Levites, that they might give themselves to the Law of the LORD. Numbers 18:21-24 -21-"To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service that they do, their service in the tent of meeting, -22-so that the people of Israel do not come near the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin and die. -23-But the Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations, and among the people of Israel they shall have no inheritance. -24-For the tithe of the people of Israel, which they present as a contribution to the LORD, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. Therefore I have said of them that they shall have no inheritance among the people of Israel." Deuteronomy 14:22-29 Tithes -22-"You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. -23-And before the LORD your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always. -24-And if the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, when the LORD your God blesses you, because the place is too far from you, which the LORD your God chooses, to set his name there, -25-then you shall turn it into money and bind up the money in your hand and go to the place that the LORD your God chooses -26-and spend the money for whatever you desire--oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves. And you shall eat there before the LORD your God and rejoice, you and your household. -27-And you shall not neglect the Levite who is within your towns, for he has no portion or inheritance with you. -28-"At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns. -29-And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do. Acts 18:1-5 Paul in Corinth -18:1-After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. -2-And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, -3-and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. -4-And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. -5-When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 2:9 -9-For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. Nehemiah 13:10 -10-I also found out that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them, so that the Levites and the singers, who did the work, had fled each to his field. 2 Thessalonians 3:8 -8-nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. 2 Thessalonians 3:9 -9-It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. Matthew 10:5-15 Jesus Sends Out the Twelve Apostles -5-These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, "Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, -6-but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. -7-And proclaim as you go, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' -8-Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. -9-Acquire no gold nor silver nor copper for your belts, -10-no bag for your journey, nor two tunics nor sandals nor a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. -11-And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. -12-As you enter the house, greet it. -13-And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. -14-And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. -15-Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the Day of Judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town. Luke 8:1-3 Women Accompanying Jesus -8:1-Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, -2-and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, -3-and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means. Galatians 6:6 -6-One who is taught the word must share all good things with the one who teaches. Exodus 16:13-17 -13-In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. -14-And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. -15-When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, "It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat. -16-This is what the LORD has commanded: 'Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer, according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.'" -17-And the people of Israel did so. They gathered, some more, some less. Joshua 5:12 -12-And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright (c)2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. http://www.crosswaybibles.org

Quote: kingdom of Heaven

"You go to certain Death, All death is certain"

Quote: Greed - Baroness Eberfeld in the Sound of Music

"I need someone who needs me desperately or at least needs my money desperately"

Baroness Eberfeld in the Sound of Music

Verses on missions: Christian missions in the Bible SNU

Old Testament and missions

- Genesis 12:1-3 (repeated in Gen. 18:18, 22:17-18, 26:24 and 28:12-14)

- Exodus 9:14-16 -- purpose of the plagues

- Exodus 19:6 -- Israel was to be a "kingdom of priests"

- Numbers 14:21 -- glory of Lord fills the whole earth

- Deuteronomy 4:6-8 -- show your understanding to the nations

- Deuteronomy 10:19 -- "You are to love those who are aliens"

- Deuteronomy 28:10 -- "all the peoples on the earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord"

- Deuteronomy 32:1 - "Hear, O earth, the words of my mouth."

- Joshua 4:24 -- "so that all the peoples of the earth might know"

- 1 Samuel 2:10 -- "The LORD will judge the ends of the earth."

- 1 Samuel 17:46 -- "the whole world will know there is a God in Israel"

- 1 Kings 8:41-43, 59-60 (also in 2 Chronicles 6:32-33) -- "so that all peoples of the earth may know your name" (Solomon's prayer at dedication of temple)

- 2 Kings 19:15 -- "Hezekiah prayed . . . : O LORD, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth.'"

- 1 Chronicles 16:31 "Let the earth be glad; let them say among the nations, The Lord reigns!'"

- 1 Chronicles 16:24 -- "Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples"

- 2 Chronicles 6:33 -- "so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you"

- Psalm 2:7-10 -- "You are my Son . . . I will make the nations your inheritance"

- Psalm 7:7-8 -- "Let the Lord judge the peoples"

- Psalm 8:9 -- "How majestic is your name in all the earth!"

- Psalm 18:49 -- "I will praise you among the nations"

- Psalm 22:26-28 -- "all the families of the nations will bow down"

- Psalm 19:1-4 -- "their words to the ends of the world"

- Psalm 22:27 -- "All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord"

- Psalm 24 -- "The earth is the Lord's"

- Psalm 33 -- "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord"

- Psalm 45:17 -- "The nations will praise you for ever and ever"

- Psalm 46:10 -- "I will be exalted among the nations"

- Psalm 47 -- "God reigns over the nations"

- Psalm 48:10 -- "Like your name, O God, your praise reaches to the ends of the earth"

- Psalm 49:1 -- "Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all who live in this world"

- Psalm 50 -- "From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets"

- Psalm 57 -- "I will sing of you among the peoples"

- Psalm 59:13 -- "It will be known to the ends of the earth that God rules over Jacob."

- Psalm 65:5-8 -- "the hope of all the ends of the earth . . . where morning dawns and evening fades you call forth songs of joy"

- Psalm 66 -- "All the earth bows down to you . . . Praise our God, O peoples"

- Psalm 67 -- "your salvation among all peoples"

- Psalm 68:32 -- "Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth"

- Psalm 72 -- "all nations will serve him"

- Psalm 72:9 -- "the desert tribes will bow before him"

- Psalm 72:17, 19 -- "All nations will be blessed through him . . . May the whole earth be filled with his glory"

- Psalm 77:14 -- "you display your power among the peoples"

- Psalm 82 -- "all the nations are your inheritance"

- Psalm 83:18 -- "You alone are the Most High over all the earth."

- Psalm 86:8-13 -- all nations will come and worship

- Psalm 87 -- the register of the peoples

- Psalm 96 -- "sing to the Lord, all the earth . . . Declare his glory among the nations"

- Psalm 97 -- "The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice"

- Psalm 98:3 -- "All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God."

- Psalm 98:9 -- "He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity."

- Psalm 99:1-3 -- "He is exalted over all the nations. Let them praise your great and awesome name"

- Psalm 102:15 -- "The nations will fear the name of the LORD, all the kings of the earth will revere your glory."

- Psalm 102:22 -- "when the peoples and the kingdoms assemble to worship the Lord"

- Psalm 105:1 -- "make known among the nations what He has done"

- Psalm 106:8 -- reason for dividing the Red Sea

- Psalm 108:3 -- "I will sing of you among the peoples"

- Psalm 108:5 -- "Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let your glory be over all the earth."

- Psalm 110:6 -- "He will judge the nations,"

- Psalm 113:3 -- "From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised"

- Psalm 117 -- "Praise the Lord, all you nations"

- Psalm 126 -- "it was said among the nations"

- Psalm 135 -- "our Lord is greater than all gods"

- Psalm 138:4 -- "may all the kings of the earth praise you, O Lord"

- Isaiah 2:3 -- "Many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.

- Isaiah 6:3 -- "They were calling to one another: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.'"

- Isaiah 11:9 -- "fill the earth with the knowledge of the Lord"

- Isaiah 11:10 -- "in that day a Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples, the nations . . ."

- Isaiah 12:4 -- "Make known among the nations what He has done"

- Isaiah 24:16 -- "From the ends of the earth we hear singing: Glory to the Righteous One.'"

- Isaiah 25:6 -- "the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples"

- Isaiah 42:4 -- "in His law the islands will put their hope"

- Isaiah 42:6 -- "I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles."

- Isaiah 34:1 -- "Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you peoples!"

- Isaiah 37:16 -- "O Lord Almighty . . . , you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth."

- Isaiah 42:4 -- "He will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope."

- Isaiah 43:6 -- "I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.'"

- Isaiah 45:6 -- "from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none besides me."

- Isaiah 45:22 -- "Turn to me . . . all you ends of the earth"

- Isaiah 49:1-6 -- "I will make you a light for the Gentiles"

- Isaiah 49:22 -- "The Sovereign Lord says: "See, I will beckon to the Gentiles, I will lift up my banner to the peoples."

- Isaiah 52:10 -- "The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God."

- Isaiah 56:7 -- "my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations"

- Isaiah 59:19 -- "From the west, men will fear the name of the Lord, and from the rising of the sun, they will revere His glory."

- Isaiah 60:3 -- "Nations will come to your light"

- Isaiah 62:11 -- "The Lord has made proclamation to the ends of the earth"

- Isaiah 66:19 -- "They will proclaim my glory among the nations"

- Jeremiah 3:17 -- "All nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the Lord"

- Jeremiah 16:19 To you the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, "Our fathers possessed nothing but false gods, worthless idols that did them no good."

- Ezekiel 36:22-23 -- "The nations will know I am the Lord"

- Daniel 2:47; 4:1-2; 6:25 -- "Surely your God is the God of gods"

- Daniel 7:13, 14 -- "all peoples, nations and languages should serve Him"

- Jonah's story -- the missionary book of the Old Testament [ e-book on Jonah ]

- Micah 1:2 -- "Hear, O peoples, all of you, listen, O earth and all who are in it."

- Micah 4:2 -- "Many nations will come"

- Micah 5:4 -- "His greatness will reach to the ends of the earth."

- Habbakuk 2:14 -- "The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the water cover the sea"

- Zephaniah 2:11 -- "Nations on every shore will worship him"

- Zephaniah 3:9 -- "Then will I purify the lips of the peoples, that all of them may call on the name of the Lord."

- Haggai 2:7 -- "Desire of all nations"   Zechariah 2:11 -- "Many nations will be joined with the Lord in that day and will become my people"

- Zechariah 8:20-23 -- "Many peoples and inhabitants of many cities will come"

- Zechariah 9:10 -- "He will proclaim peace to the nations"

- Zechariah 14:9 -- "The Lord will be king over the whole earth."

- Malachi 1:10-11 -- "My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun" New Testament and missions

- Matthew 4:8-11 -- Temptation of Jesus

- Matthew 6:9-10 -- The Lord's prayer

- Matthew 10:18 -- "On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles."

- Matthew 13 (Ezekiel 17:23) -- parables of sower, weeds, mustard seed, fishing net

- Matthew 24:14 -- the gospel will be preached in the whole world

- Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:15 - The Great Commission (which many say is a re-statement of God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 12) [ Rev. Susan Fitkin's reflection on the passage ]

- Mark 11:17 (Isaiah 56:7) -- a house of prayer for all nations

- Mark 13:10 -- "the gospel must first be preached to all nations"

- Mark 16:15 (see Matthew 28:19-20)

- Luke 2:32 -- "a light for revelation to the Gentiles"

- Luke 10:2 -- "harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few"

- Luke 10:27 -- "love your neighbor as yourself"

- John 3:16 [ text of verse ]

- John 12:32 -- "I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself."

- John 21:4-14 -- some Biblical commentators have said the 153 fish equals the number of all the tribes and nations which the ancients thought existed on earth

- Acts 1:8; 2:5-12 13:47 (Isaiah 49:6) -- witnesses in all the earth

- Acts 3:25 -- "He said to Abraham, Through your offspring, all peoples on earth will be blessed.'"

- Acts 9:15 "Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings."

- Acts 11:18 -- "They praised God, saying, So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.'"

- Acts 13:47 -- "I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth." (Isaiah 49:6)

- Acts 14:27 -- "They reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles."

- Acts 28:28 -- "Therefore I want you to know that God's salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!"

- Romans 1:5 -- "We received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to obedience."

- Romans 3:29 -- "Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too."

- Romans 10:12-15 -- "How can they hear?"

- Romans 15:10 "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people." (Deuteronomy 32:43]

- Romans 15:11 "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and sing praises to him, all you peoples." (Psalm 117:1)

- Romans 16:26 -- So that all nations might believe

- 2 Corinthians 4:15 -- "grace that is reaching more and more people"

- Galatians 3:8 -- "The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: All nations will be blessed through you.'" (Genesis 12:3; 18:18; 22:18)

- Galatians 3:14 -- "He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles."

- Ephesians 1:10 -- "To bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ."

- Ephesians 2:11-19 -- "you are no longer foreigners and aliens"

- Philippians 2:10 -- Every knee shall bow

- 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16 -- "to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved"

- Hebrews 6:13-14 -- God's promise to Abraham

- 2 Peter 3:9, 12 -- "not wanting anyone to perish"

- 1 John 2:2 -- "He is the atoning sacrifice . . . for the sins of the whole world"

- Revelation 5:9 -- "you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation"

- Revelation 7:9 -- Every tribe, tongue, people and nation

- Revelation 14:6 -- "The angel had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth -- to every nation, tribe, language and people."

- Revelation 15:4 -- "all nations will come and worship before you"

- Revelation 21:23-24 -- "The Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light" Into whatever groups we divide humanity -- races, nations, languages, cultures -- it is clear that God loves all of them and wants people from all those groupings to be reconciled to Him.

"The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest" -- Luke 10:2 (New King James Version)

A simplified history of Missions SNU

Fulfilling Christ's Great Commission

1. 0-400 AD Winning the Romans: Evangelizing the empire of the Caesars 2. 400-800 AD Evangelization of the Barbarians [ read more ] 3. 800-1200 AD Evangelization of the Vikings [ read more ] 4. 1200-1600 AD Evangelization of the Saracens / Muslims 5. 1600-2000 AD Evangelization of the Ends of the Earth [ read more ]

Researcher David Barrett has also divided that same period into five eras. Approaching it from a statistical point of view, his epochs of mission history are a little different:

1. 500 AD The Apostolic Era (Luke and Paul) 2. 500-1750 AD The Ecclesiastical Era (Cosmas Indicopleustes and Francis Xavier) [ read more ] 3. 1750-1900 AD The Church Growth era - William Carey, the "father of modern missions" [ more info ] - Henry Venn -- "self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating churches" 4. 1900-1990 AD The Global Mission era (John R. Mott and Kenneth Grubb) 5. 1990- present The Global Discipling era

from "Five Statistical Eras of Global Mission" by David Barrett, published in Missiology, January 1984

Praying hands from SNU

Praying hands for missions "Pray for us." -- Hebrews 13:18 Making your "concerts of prayer" effective: Praying for world evangelism's front-line workers Want to know how to pray for those working to fulfill Jesus' Great Commission among those yet unreached? You can use your fingers as memory aids when you pray for missions. Here's how:

1.Thumb Since your thumb is nearest to you, begin by praying for those missionaries closest to you. They are the easiest ones to remember. C.S. Lewis said that praying for those we love is a "sweet duty." 2. Index or pointing finder Let your "pointing finger" remind you to pray for missionaries who teach, instruct, and heal. This includes teachers, doctors, and evangelists. They need support and wisdom for pointing others in the right direction. 3. Middle finger Our tallest finger reminds us of our church leaders. We can never pray too much for them. Pray for those who supervise and direct missionary outreach. 4. Ring finger Surprisingly, the ring finger is our weakest finger (as any piano teacher will testify). This weak finger reminds us to pray for those missionaries who are discouraged, in trouble, or in pain. 5. Little finger Our little finger is the smallest finger of all, which is where we should place our individual wants and desires in relation to world evangelism needs. The Bible says, "The least shall be the greatest among you." Your pinkie should remind you to pray for the people of the world who have the greatest need to find Jesus. Pray that they will open their eyes and see Him.

--Author unknown contributed by Bev Borbe, former General Nazarene Missions International President

Missions Quotes from SNU

Missions slogans and quotes from missionaries


"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

"God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply" -- Hudson Taylor [ video ]

"God isn't looking for people of great faith, but for individuals ready to follow Him" -- Hudson Taylor

"The Great Commission1 is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed" -- Hudson Taylor

"If I had 1,000 lives, I'd give them all for China" -- Hudson Taylor

"God uses men who are weak and feeble enough to lean on him." – Hudson Taylor, missionary to China [ video ]

"Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God" -- William Carey, who is called the father of modern missions [ more info ]

"The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we become." -- Henry Martyn, missionary to India and Persia

"He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose" -- Jim Elliot, missionary martyr who lost his life in the late 1950's trying to reach the Auca Indians of Ecuador [ info on video ] [ brief biography ]

"We are debtors to every man to give him the gospel in the same measure in which we have received it" -- P.F. Bresee, founder of the Church of the Nazarene

"In the vast plain to the north I have sometimes seen, in the morning sun, the smoke of a thousand villages where no missionary has ever been" -- Robert Moffat, who inspired David Livingstone

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

"Sympathy is no substitute for action." -- David Livingstone, missionary to Africa

"Can't you do just a little bit more?" -- J.G. Morrison pleading with Nazarenes in the 1930's Great Depression to support their missionaries

"Lost people matter to God, and so they must matter to us." -- Keith Wright

"The Bible is not the basis of missions; missions is the basis of the Bible" -- Ralph Winter, U.S. Center for World Mission

"Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell; I wish to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell." -- C.T. Studd

"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

"No one has the right to hear the gospel twice, while there remains someone who has not heard it once." -- Oswald J. Smith [ more on Oswald Smith ]

"Any church that is not seriously involved in helping fulfill the Great Commission has forfeited its biblical right to exist." -- Oswald J. Smith

"The mission of the church is missions" -- Oswald J. Smith
"We talk of the Second Coming; half the world has never heard of the first." -- Oswald J. Smith

"This generation of Christians is responsible for this generation of souls on the earth!" -- Keith Green
"There is nothing in the world or the Church -- except the church's disobedience -- to render the evangelization of the world in this generation an impossibility." -- Robert Speer, leader in Student Volunteer Movement
"If God calls you to be a missionary, don't stoop to be a king" -- Jordan Groom (variations of this also credited to G. K. Chesterson, Thomas Carlyle and Charles Haddon Spurgeon)
"If you found a cure for cancer, wouldn't it be inconceivable to hide it from the rest of mankind? How much more inconceivable to keep silent the cure from the eternal wages of death." -- Dave Davidson

"World missions was on God's mind from the beginning." -- Dave Davidson

"In our lifetime, wouldn't it be sad if we spent more time washing dishes or swatting flies or mowing the yard or watching television than praying for world missions?" -- Dave Davidson

"Let my heart be broken with the things that break God's heart" -- Bob Pierce, World Vision founder

"No reserves. No retreats. No regrets" -- William Borden

"If ten men are carrying a log -- nine of them on the little end and one at the heavy end -- and you want to help, which end will you lift on?" -- William Borden, as he reflected on the numbers of Christian workers in the U.S. as compared to those among unreached peoples in China

"The reason some folks don't believe in missions is that the brand of religion they have isn't worth propagating." -- unknown
When James Calvert went out as a missionary to the cannibals of the Fiji Islands, the ship captain tried to turn him back, saying, "You will lose your life and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages." To that, Calvert replied, "We died before we came here."

"Someone asked Will the heathen who have never heard the Gospel be saved? It is more a question with me whether we -- who have the Gospel and fail to give it to those who have not -- can be saved." -- Charles Spurgeon

The gospel is only good news if it gets there in time" -- Carl F. H. Henry

"Our God of Grace often gives us a second chance, but there is no second chance to harvest a ripe crop." -- Kurt von Schleicher [ Apple pickers' parable ]

"Missions is the overflow of our delight in God because missions is the overflow of God's delight in being God." --John Piper

"God is pursuing with omnipotent passion a worldwide purpose of gathering joyful worshippers for Himself from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. He has an inexhaustible enthusiasm for the supremacy of His name among the nations. Therefore, let us bring our affections into line with His, and, for the sake of His name, let us renounce the quest for worldly comforts and join His global purpose." -- John Piper
"You can give without loving. But you cannot love without giving." -- Amy Carmichael, missionary to India

"Only as the church fulfills her missionary obligation does she justify her existence." -- Unknown
"As long as there are millions destitute of the Word of God and knowledge of Jesus Christ, it will be impossible for me to devote time and energy to those who have both." -- J. L. Ewen

"The command has been to 'go,' but we have stayed -- in body, gifts, prayer and influence. He has asked us to be witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth ... but 99% of Christians have kept puttering around in the homeland." -- Robert Savage, Latin American Mission

"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, missionary martyr [ devotional thoughts ]

"We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God." -- John Stott

"Believers who have the gospel keep mumbling it over and over to themselves. Meanwhile, millions who have never heard it once fall into the flames of eternal hell without ever hearing the salvation story." -- K.P. Yohannan, founder of Gospel for Asia Bible Society

"Tell the students to give up their small ambitions and come eastward to preach the gospel of Christ." -- Francis Xavier, missionary to India, the Philippines, and Japan

"The mark of a great church is not its seating capacity, but its sending capacity." -- Mike Stachura

"The true greatness of any church in not how many it seats but how many it sends!" -- Unknown

"'Not called!' did you say?
'Not heard the call,' I think you should say.
Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not to come there. Then look Christ in the face -- whose mercy you have professed to obey -- and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the world. -- William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army

"It is not in our choice to spread the gospel or not. It is our death if we do not." -- Peter Taylor Forsyth

"If God's love is for anybody anywhere, it's for everybody everywhere." – Edward Lawlor, Nazarene General Superintendent

"Never pity missionaries; envy them. They are where the real action is -- where life and death, sin and grace, Heaven and Hell converge." -- Robert C. Shannon

"People who don't believe in missions have not read the New Testament. Right from the beginning Jesus said the field is the world. The early church took Him at His word and went East, West, North and South." -- J. Howard Edington

"It is possible for the most obscure person in a church, with a heart right toward God, to exercise as much power for the evangelization of the world, as it is for those who stand in the most prominent positions." -- John R. Mott
"In no other way can the believer become as fully involved with God's work, especially the work of world evangelism, as in intercessory prayer." -- Dick Eastman, president of Every Home for Christ (formerly World Literature Crusade)

"What's your dream and to what corner of the missions world will it take you?" -- Eleanor Roat, missions mobilizer

"We can reach our world, if we will. The greatest lack today is not people or funds. The greatest need is prayer." -- Wesley Duewel, head of OMS International

"Love is the root of missions; sacrifice is the fruit of missions" -- Roderick Davis

"Missionary zeal does not grow out of intellectual beliefs, nor out of theological arguments, but out of love" -- Roland Allen

"I have but one passion: It is He, it is He alone. The world is the field and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ." -- Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf

"If you take missions out of the Bible, you won't have anything left but the covers" -- Nina Gunter

"If the Church is 'in Christ,' she is involved in mission. Her whole existence then has a missionary character. Her conduct as well as her words will convince the unbelievers and put their ignorance and stupidity to silence." -- David Bosch

"Missions is not the 'ministry of choice' for a few hyperactive Christians in the church. Missions is the purpose of the church." -- Unknown

"The concern for world evangelization is not something tacked on to a man's personal Christianity, which he may take or leave as he chooses. It is rooted in the character of the God who has come to us in Christ Jesus. Thus, it can never be the province of a few enthusiasts, a sideline or a specialty of those who happen to have a bent that way. It is the distinctive mark of being a Christian." -- James S. Stewart

"The average pastor views his church as a local church with a missions program; while he ought to realize that if he is in fact pastoring a church, it is to be a global church with a missions purpose." -- Unknown

"The Christian is not obedient unless he is doing all in his power to send the Gospel to the heathen world." -- A. B. Simpson [ missionary hymns by Simpson ]

"The will of God -- nothing less, nothing more, nothing else." -- F. E. Marsh (also attributed to Bobby Richardson)
"If the Great Commission is true, our plans are not too big; they are too small." -- Pat Morley

"If missions languish, it is because the whole life of godliness is feeble. The command to go everywhere and preach to everybody is not obeyed until the will is lost by self-surrender in the will of God. Living, praying, giving and going will always be found together." -- Arthur T. Pierson

"The history of missions is the history of answered prayer. From Pentecost to the Haystack meeting in New England and from the days when Robert Morrison landed in China to the martyrdom of John and Betty Stam, prayer has been the source of power and the secret of spiritual triumph." -- Samuel Zwemer

"'Go ye' is as much a part of Christ's Gospel as 'Come unto Me.' You are not even a Christian until you have honestly faced your responsibility in regard to the carrying of the Gospel to the ends of the earth." -- J. Stuart Holden

From SNU "Merry Christmas" in many languages

"Merry Christmas" in many languages "Good news of great joy that will be for all the people" -- Luke 2:10 Here's how to wish people "Merry Christmas" in more than 80 languages. The original version of this list appeared in Brigada. Afrikaans - 'n Geseende Kersfees en 'n voorspoedige Nuwejaar Afrikaans - Een Plesierige Kerfees Albanian -- Gezuar Krishtlindje Arabic - I'd Miilad Said Oua Sana Saida Armenian - Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev Pari Gaghand Azeri - Tezze Iliniz Yahsi Olsun Basque - Zorionstsu Eguberri. Zoriontsu Urte Berri On Bengali - Bodo Din Shubh Lamona Bohemian - Vesele Vanoce Breton - Nedeleg laouen na bloavezh mat Bulgarian - Tchestita Koleda; Tchestito Rojdestvo Hristovo Celtic - Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda Chinese - (Mandarin) Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan (Cantonese) Gun Tso Sun Tan'Gung Haw Sun (Hong Kong) Kung Ho Hsin Hsi. Ching Chi Shen Tan Cornish - Nadelik looan na looan blethen noweth Cree - Mitho Makosi Kesikansi Croatian - Sretan Bozic Czech - Prejeme Vam Vesele Vanoce a stastny Novy Rok Danish - Gladelig Jul Dutch - Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar English - Merry Christmas Esperanto - Gajan Kristnaskon Estonian - Roomsaid Joulu Puhi Farsi - Cristmas-e-shoma mobarak bashad Finnish - Hyvaa joulua French - Joyeux Noel Frisian - Noflike Krystdagen en in protte Lok en Seine yn it Nije Jier German - Froehliche Weihnachten Greek - Kala Christouyenna Hawaiian - Mele Kalikimaka Hebrew - Mo'adim Lesimkha. Chena tova Hindi - Bada Din Mubarak Ho Hungarian - Kellemes Karacsonyi unnepeket Icelandic - Gledileg Jol Indonesian - Selamat Hari Natal Iraqi - Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah Irish - Nollaig Shona Dhuit Italian - Buon Natale or Buone Feste Natalizie Japanese - Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto Kala - Khristougena kai Eftikhes to Neon Etos Korean - Sung Tan Chuk Ha Latvian - Priecigus Ziemas Svetkus un Laimigu Jauno Gadu Lettish - Priecigus Ziemassvetkus Lithuanian - Linksmu Kaledu Manx - Nollick ghennal as blein vie noa Maori - Meri Kirihimete Marathi - Shub Naya Varsh Navajo - Merry Keshmish Northern Sotho - Matlhatse le matlhogonolo mo ngwageng o moswa. Norwegian - God Jul Og Godt Nytt Aar Pennsylvania German - En frehlicher Grischtdaag un en hallich Nei Yaahr Papiamento - Bon Pasku i Felis Anja Nobo Pig Latin - Errymay ristmaskay Polish - Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia Portuguese - Feliz Natal Rapa-Nui - Mata-Ki-Te-Rangi. Te-Pito-O-Te-Henua Romanian - Craciun Fericit Russian - Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva i s Novim Godom Samoan - La Maunia Le Kilisimasi Ma Le Tausaga Fou Serbian - Hristos se rodi Scottish - Nollaig Chridheil agus Bliadhna Mhath Ur Serbian - Hristos se rodi Singhalese - Subha nath thalak Vewa. Subha Aluth Awrudhak Vewa Slavonic - Christos Razdajetsja! Slavite Jeho! Slovak - Sretan Bozic or Vesele vianoce. A stastlivy Novy Rok Slovene - Vesele Bozicne. Screcno Novo Leto Spanish - Feliz Navidad Swahili - Krismasi Njema Swedish - God Jul and (Och) Ett Gott Nytt Ar Tagalog - Maligayamg Pasko. Masaganang Bagong Taon Tamil - Nathar Puthu Varuda Valthukkal Thai - Sawat Dee Wan Kritsamas Turkish - Noeliniz Ve Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun Ukrainian - Srozhdestvom Kristovym Urdu - Bara Din Mubarak Ho Vietnamese - Chung Mung Giang Sinh Waray - Maupay nga Pasko ngan Mainuswagon nga Bag-o nga Tu-ig Welsh - Nadolig Llawen Zulu - Nginifisela inhlanhla ne mpumelelo e nyakeni.

15 Key Bible Passages from SNU

15 key Bible chapters
These are not necessarily the "15 Best Loved" chapters of the Bible. They may not even be the "15 Most Well Known" chapters. One hesitates to even call them the "15 Most Significant" chapters.
These are 15 chapters with key scriptural events and themes. At Southern Nazarene University, we think a beginning student of the Bible should be familiar with them.
Old Testament chapters
Genesis 1-3: Creation, Fall, first promise of a Redeemer
"In the beginning"
Genesis 12: Abraham's call, a giant step toward fulfilling the promise
"Through you all peoples will be blessed" [ Was having Abraham move to the Promised Land a "strategic move" by God? ]
Exodus 20: Giving of the Ten Commandments
"I am the Lord your God"
Joshua 24: The "line in the sand"
"Choose you this day"
Isaiah 53: The "suffering servant" passage that looks to the coming Messiah
"The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all"
Psalm 23: The Shepherd's Psalm
"The Lord is my shepherd" [ Devotional thoughts on Psalm 23 ]
Psalm 51: David's prayer for forgiveness and cleansing
"Create in me a clean heart, O God"
Proverbs 31: Ode to a virtuous, godly woman
"Far more precious than jewels"
New Testament chapters
Matthew 5-7: Sermon on the Mount [ Devotional thoughts ]
"Blessed are you . . ."
John 17: Jesus' High Priestly Prayer
"Sanctify them" [ more info ]
Acts 2: Holy Spirit's coming on Day of Pentecost
"All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit"
Acts 15: Jerusalem Council: Must one become a Jew to be a Christian?
"He has made no distinction between them and us"
1 Corinthians 13: Love chapter
"The greatest of these is love"
Hebrews 11: Hall of fame: heroes of the faith
"By faith . . ."
Revelation 7: The Grand Finale
"A great multitude that no man could count"

Mission Quotes - Traveling Team

100 World Christian Quotes

"Must you go to China? How much nicer it would be to stay here and serve the Lord at home!" She made it plain at last that she would not go to China."            - J. Hudson Taylor's new ex-girlfriend

"You can do something other than working with God in His purpose, but it will always be something lesser, and you couldn't come up with something better."            - Steve Hawthorne

"I have seen, at different times, the smoke of a thousand villages - villages whose people are without Christ, without God, and without hope in the world."            - Robert Moffat

"The command has been to "go," but we have stayed - in body, gifts, prayer and influence. He has asked us to be witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth... but 99% of Christians have kept puttering around in the homeland."            - Robert Savage

"While vast continents are shrouded in darkness... the burden of proof lies upon you to show that the circumstances in which God has placed you were meant by God to keep you out of the foreign mission field."            - Ion Keith-Falconer

"I wasn't God's first choice for what I've done for China... I don't know who it was... It must have been a man... a well-educated man. I don't know what happened. Perhaps he died. Perhaps he wasn't willing... and God looked down... and saw Gladys Aylward... And God said - "Well, she's willing."            - Gladys Aylward

"Brother, if you would enter that Province, you must go forward on your knees."            - J. Hudson Taylor

"The man... looking at him with a smile that only half concealed his contempt, inquired, "Now Mr. Morrison do you really expect that you will make an impression on the idolatry of the Chinese Empire?" "No sir," said Morrison, "but I expect that God will."            - Robert Morrison

"Here am I. Send me."            - Isaiah

"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

"Jehovah Witnesses don't believe in hell and neither do most Christians"            - Leonard Ravenhill

"Had I cared for the comments of people, I should never have been a missionary."            - C.T. Studd

"Young man, sit down: when God pleases to convert the heathen, He will do it without your aid or mine."            - said to a young William Carey

"Oh, that I had a thousand lives, and a thousand bodies! All of them should be devoted to no other employment but to preach Christ to these degraded, despised, yet beloved mortals."            - Robert Moffat

"We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God."            - John Stott

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."            - Jim Elliot

"A tiny group of believers who have the gospel keep mumbling it over and over to themselves. Meanwhile, millions who have never heard it once fall into the flames of eternal hell without ever hearing the salvation story."            - K.P. Yohannan

"I have but one passion - it is He, it is He alone. The world is the field and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ."            - Count Zinzindorf

"God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supplies."            - J. Hudson Taylor

"He must increase, but I must decrease."            - John the Baptist

"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

"The greatest missionary is the Bible in the mother tongue. It needs no furlough and is never considered a foreigner."            - William Cameron Townsend

"Prepare for the worst, expect the best, and take what comes."            - Robert E. Speer

"The saddest thing one meets is a nominal Christian. I had not seen it in Japan where missions is younger. The church here is a "field full of wheat and tares."            - Amy Carmichael

"I used to think that prayer should have the first place and teaching the second. I now feel it would be truer to give prayer the first, second and third places and teaching the fourth."            - James O. Fraser

"It is just as proper, maybe even more so, to say Christ's global cause has a Church as to say Christ's Church has a global cause."            - David Bryant

"If you are sick, fast and pray; if the language is hard to learn, fast and pray; if the people will not hear you, fast and pray, if you have nothing to eat, fast and pray."            - Frederick Franson

"What are we here for, to have a good time with Christians or to save sinners?"            - Malla Moe

"I tell you, brethren, if mercies and if judgments do not convert you, God has no other arrows in His quiver."            - Robert Murray Mc'Cheyne

"It's amazing what can be accomplished if you don't worry about who gets the credit."            - Clarence W. Jones

"Two distinguishing marks of the early church were: 1) Poverty 2) Power."            - T.J. Bach

"Do not think me mad. It is not to make money that I believe a Christian should live. The noblest thing a man can do is, just humbly to receive, and then go amongst others and give."            - David Livingstone

"From my many years' experience I can unhesitatingly say that the cross bears those who bear the cross."            - Sadhu Sundar Singh

"I pray that no missionary will ever be as lonely as I have been."            - Lottie Moon

"All my friends are but one, but He is all sufficient."            - William Carey

"How little chance the Holy Ghost has nowadays. The churches and missionary societies have so bound him in red tape that they practically ask Him to sit in a corner while they do the work themselves."            - C.T. Studd

"I have always believed that the Good Samaritan went across the road to the wounded man just because he wanted to."            - Wilfred Thomason Grenfell

"The more obstacles you have, the more opportunities there are for God to do something."            - Clarence W. Jones

"Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God."            - William Carey

"God's part is to put forth power; our part is to put forth faith."            - Andrew A. Bonar

"All the resources of the Godhead are at our disposal!"            - Jonathan Goforth

"I feel now, that Arabia could easily be evangelized within the next thirty years if it were not for the wicked selfishness of Christians."            -Samuel Zwemer

"The Indian is making an amazing discovery, namely that Christianity and Jesus are not the same - that they may have Jesus without the system that has been built up around Him in the West."            - E. Stanley Jones

"This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come."            - Jesus

"All roads lead to the judgment seat of Christ."            - Keith Green

"Obedience to the call of Christ nearly always costs everything to two people- the one who is called, and the one who loves that one."            - Oswald Chambers

"Christians don't tell lies they just go to church and sing them"            - A.W. Tozer
"I have said that there is nothing in the world or the Church, except it's disobedience, to render the evangelization of the world in this generation an impossibility."            - Robert Speer

"I will lay my bones by the Ganges that India might know there is one who cares."            - Alexander Duff

"Today Christians spend more money on dog food then missions"            - Leonard Ravenhill

"It will not do to say that you have no special call to go to China. With these facts before you and with the command of the Lord Jesus to go and preach the gospel to every creature, you need rather to ascertain whether you have a special call to stay at home."            - J. Hudson Taylor

"We talk of the second coming, half the world has never heard of the first."            - Oswald J. Smith

"God cannot lead you on the basis of facts that you do not know."            - David Bryant

"And thus I aspire to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named so that I would not build on another man's foundation."            - Paul

"Why do we insist on building the largest and most impressive structures in our city when people on the other side of town are hungry, jobless and worshipping in storefronts?"            - K.P. Yohannan

"If every Christian is already considered a missionary, then all can stay put where they are, and nobody needs to get up and go anywhere to preach the gospel. But if our only concern is to witness where we are, how will people in unevangelized areas ever hear the gospel? The present uneven distribution of Christians and opportunities to hear the gospel of Christ will continue on unchanged."            - C. Gordon Olson

"I spent twenty years of my life trying to recruit people out of local churches and into missions structures so that they could be involved in fulfilling God's global mission. Now I have another idea. Let's take God's global mission and put it right in the middle of the local church!"            - George Miley

"God provides the men and women needed for each generation."            -Mildred Cable

"Oh dear, I couldn't say that my church is alive and I wouldn't want to call it dead. I guess it's just walking in its sleep!"            - Church member

"When he landed in 1848 there were no Christians here; when he left in 1872 there were no heathen."            - said of John Geddie

"I am ready to burn out for God. I am ready to endure any hardship, if by any means I might save some. The longing of my heart is to make known my glorious Redeemer to those who have never heard."            -William Burns

"At the moment I put the bread and wine into those dark hands, once stained with the blood of cannibalism, now stretched out to receive and partake the emblems and seals of the Redeemer's love, I had a foretaste of the joy of glory that well nigh broke my heart to pieces. I shall never taste a deeper bliss, till I gaze on the glorified face of Jesus himself."            - John G. Paton

"Save others, snatching them out of the fire."            - Jude

"The evangelization of the world in this generation."            - Student Volunteer Movement Motto

"Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring."            - Jesus

"Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't."            - John Piper

"His authority on earth allows us to dare to go to all the nations. His authority in heaven gives us our only hope of success. And His presence with us leaves us no other choice."            - John Stott

"Today five out of six non-Christians in our world have no hope unless missionaries come to them and plant the church among them."            - David Bryant

"Tell the students to give up their small ambitions and come eastward to preach the gospel of Christ."            - Francis Xavier

"Christ for the students of the world, and the students of the world for Christ."            - Luther Wishard

"We who have Christ's eternal life need to throw away our own lives."            - George Verwer

"Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell, I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of Hell."            - C.T. Studd

"When I get to China, I will have no claim on any one for anything. My claim will be alone in God and I must learn before I leave England to move men through God by prayer alone."            - J. Hudson Taylor

"God has huge plans for the world today! He is not content to merely establish a handful of struggling churches among each tongue, tribe and nation. Even now He is preparing and empowering His Church to carry the seeds of revival to the uttermost ends of the earth."            - David Smithers

"The mark of a great church is not its seating capacity, but its sending capacity."            - Mike Stachura

"Answering a student's question, 'Will the heathen who have not heard the Gospel be saved?' thus, 'It is more a question with me whether we, who have the Gospel and fail to give it to those who have not, can be saved.'"            - C.H. Spurgeon.

    Twenty year-old John R. Mott walked in late to the meeting at Cornell while J.K. Studd was quoting,
     "Young man, are you seeking great things for yourself? Seek them not! Seek first the Kingdom of God!" He couldn't sleep all night. He finally got up and had the courage to meet with Studd. He later said that the meeting with Studd was the "decisive hour of his life". He went on to become the greatest missions mobilizer in world history.
     "There is something wonderfully misleading, full of hallucination and delusion in this business of missionary calls. With many of us it is not a missionary call at all that we are looking for; it is a shove. There are a great many of us who would never hear a call if it came."            - Robert Speer

"I have found that there are three stages in every great work of God; first, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done."            - J. Hudson Taylor

"I love to live on the brink of eternity."            - David Brainerd

"The greatest tragedy to befall a person is to have sight but lack vision."            - Helen Keller

"'Not called!' did you say? 'Not heard the call,' I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers and sisters, and servants and masters not to come there. And then look Christ in the face, whose mercy you have professed to obey, and tell him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish his mercy to the world."            - William Booth

"Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you are alive, it isn't."            - Richard Bach

"If God has fit you to be a missionary, I would not have you shrivel down to be a king."            - Charles H. Spurgeon

"The world is my parish."            - John Wesley

"Why doesn't your God speak my language?"            - Guatemalan Indian to Cam Townsend, founder Wycliffe Bible Translators

"I am willing to go anywhere, at anytime, to do anything for Jesus."            - Luther Wishard

"The 3.5 billion unreached people on earth would form a single file line that would stretch around the equator 25 times! Can you picture 25 lines of Christless people, trampling endlessly toward hell? Let that vision stay with you day and night."            - Larry Stockstill

"God does not have to come and tell me what I must do for Him, He brings me into a relationship with Himself where I hear His call and understand what He wants me to do, and I do it out of sheer love to Him... When people say they have had a call to foreign service, or to any particular sphere of work, they mean that their relationship to God has enabled them to realize what they can do for God."            - Oswald Chambers

"A little prayer, little power; no prayer, no power."            - A Chinese Christian motto

"When God's finger points, God's hand will open the door."            -Clarence Jones

"I will open Africa to the gospel or die trying."            - Rowland Bingham

"None but women can reach Muslim Women... So we have a solemn duty in this matter that we cannot shift. The blood of souls is on our skirts, and God will demand them at our hands."            - Missionary wife from the Middle East

"The church that does not evangelize will fossilize."            -Oswald J. Smith

"As long as there are millions destitute of the word of God and the knowledge of Jesus Christ, it will be impossible for me to devote my time and energy to those who have both."            - J.L. Ewen

"If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for."            - Charles Spurgeon

"We have a God who delights in impossibilities."            - Andrew Murray

"Why do you need a voice when you have a verse."            -Jim Elliot

"The history of missions is the history of answered prayer. From Pentecost to the Haystack meeting in New England and from the days when Robert Morrison landed in China to the martyrdom of John and Betty Stam, prayer has been the source of power and the secret of spiritual triumph."            -Samuel Zwemer


Traveling Team Quotes

AN ENQUIRY WHETHER THE COMMISSION GIVEN BY OUR LORD TO HIS DISCIPLES BE NOT STILL BINDING ON US.

Carey's "Enquiry..." Section 1 AN ENQUIRY WHETHER THE COMMISSION GIVEN BY OUR LORD TO HIS DISCIPLES BE NOT STILL BINDING ON US. In which the religious state of the different nations of the world, the success of former undertakings, and the practicability of further undertakings, are considered.

For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? - Paul 1792 Our Lord Jesus Christ, a little before his departure, commissioned his apostles to Go, and teach all nations; or, as another evangelist expresses it, Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. This commission was as extensive as possible, and laid them under obligation to disperse themselves into every country of the habitable globe, and preach to all the inhabitants, without exception or limitation. They accordingly went forth in obedience to the command, and the power of God evidently wrought with them. Many attempts of the same kind have been made since their day, and which have been attended with various success; but the work has not been taken up, or prosecuted of late years (except by a few individuals) with that zeal and perseverance with which the primitive Christians went about it. It seems as if many thought the commission was sufficiently put in execution by what the apostles and others have done; that we have enough to do to attend to the salvation of our own countrymen; and that, if God intends the salvation of the heathen, he will some way or other bring them to the gospel, or the gospel to them. It is thus that multitudes sit at ease, and give themselves no concern about the far greater part of their fellow-sinners, who to this day, are lost in ignorance and idolatry. There seems also to be an opinion existing in the minds of some, that because the apostles were extraordinary officers and have no proper successors, and because many things which were right for them to do would be utterly unwarrantable for us, therefore it may not be immediately binding on us to execute the commission, though it was so upon them. To the consideration of such persons I would offer the following observations.

• FIRST, If the command of Christ to teach all nations be restricted to the apostles, or those under the immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost, then that of baptizing should be so too; and every denomination of Christians, except the Quakers, do wrong in baptizing with water at all.

• SECONDLY, If the command of Christ to teach all nations be confined to the apostles, then all such ordinary ministers who have endeavoured to carry the gospel to the heathens, have acted without a warrant, and run before they were sent. Yea, and though God has promised the most glorious things to the heathen world by sending his gospel to them, yet whoever goes first, or indeed at all, with that message, unless he have a new and special commission from heaven, must go without any authority for so doing.

• THIRDLY, If the command of Christ to teach all nations extend only to the apostles, then, doubtless, the promise of the divine presence in this work must be so limited; but this is worded in such a manner as expressly precludes such an idea. Lo, I am with you always, to the end of the world.

That there are cases in which even a divine command may cease to be binding is admitted - As for instance, if it be repealed, as the ceremonial commandments of the Jewish law; or if there be no subjects in the world for the commanded act to be exercised upon, as in the law of septennial release, which might be dispensed with when there should be no poor in the land to have their debts forgiven, Deut.15:4. Or if, in any particular instance, we can produce a counter-revelation, of equal authority with the original command, as when Paul and Silas were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Bythinia, Acts 16:6,7. Or if, in any case, there be a natural impossibility of putting it into execution. It was not the duty of Paul to preach Christ to the inhabitants of Otaheite, because no such place was then discovered, nor had he any means of coming at them. But none of these things can be alleged by us in behalf of neglect of the commission given by Christ. We cannot say that it is repealed, like the commands of the ceremonial law; nor can we plead that there are no objects for the command to be exercised upon. Alas! the far greater part of the world, as we shall see presently, are still covered with heathen darkness! Nor can we produce a counter-revelation, concerning any particular nation, like that of Paul and Silas, concerning Bythinia; and, if we could, it would not warrant our sitting still and neglecting all the other parts of the world; for Paul and Silas, when forbidden to preach to those heathens, went elsewhere, and preached to others. Neither can we allege a natural impossibility in the case. It has been said that we ought not to force our way, but to wait for the openings, and leadings of Providence; but it might with equal propriety be answered in this case, neither ought we to neglect embracing those openings in providence which daily present themselves to us. What openings of providence do we wait for? We can neither expect to be transported into the heathen world without ordinary means, nor to be endowed with the gift of tongues, &c. when we arrive there. These would not be providential interpositions, but miraculous ones. Where a command exists nothing can be necessary to render it binding but a removal of those obstacles which render obedience impossible, and these are removed already. Natural impossibility can never be pleaded so long as facts exist to prove the contrary. Have not the popish missionaries surmounted all those difficulties which we have generally thought to be insuperable? Have not the missionaries of the Unitas Fratrum, or Moravian Brethren, encountered the scorching heat of Abyssinia, and the frozen climes of Greenland, and Labrador, their difficult languages, and savage manners? Or have not English traders, for the sake of gain, surmounted all those things which have generally been counted insurmountable obstacles in the way of preaching the gospel? Witness the trade to Persia, the East-Indies, China, and Greenland, yea even the accursed Slave-Trade on the coasts of Africa. Men can insinuate themselves into the favour of the most barbarous clans, and uncultivated tribes, for the sake of gain; and how different soever the circumstances of trading and preaching are, yet this will prove the possibility of ministers being introduced there; and if this is but thought a sufficient reason to make the experiment, my point is gained. It has been said that some learned divines have proved from scripture that the time is not yet come that the heathen should be converted; and that first the witnesses must be slain, and many other prophecies fulfilled. But admitting this to be the case(which I much doubt [footnote: See Edwards on Prayer, on this subject, lately re-printed by Mr Sutcliffe.]) yet if any objection is made from this against preaching to them immediately, it must be founded on one of these things; either that the secret purpose of God is the rule of our duty, and then it must be as bad to pray for them, as to preach to them; or else that none shall be converted in the heathen world till the universal down-pouring of the Spirit in the last days. But this objection comes too late; for the success of the gospel has been very considerable in many places already. It has been objected that there are multitudes in our own nation, and within our immediate spheres of action, who are as ignorant as the South-Sea savages, and that therefore we have work enough at home, without going into other countries. That there are thousands in our own land as far from God as possible, I readily grant, and that this ought to excite us to ten-fold diligence in our work, And in attempts to spread divine knowledge amongst them is a certain fact; but that it ought to supersede all attempts to spread the gospel in foreign parts seems to want proof. Our own countrymen have the means of grace, and may attend on the word preached if they choose it. They have the means of knowing the truth, and faithful ministers are placed in almost every part of the land, whose spheres of action might be much extended if their congregations were but more hearty and active in the cause: but with them the case is widely different, who have no Bible, no written language, (which many of them have not,) no ministers, no good civil government, nor any of those advantages which we have. Pity therefore, humanity, and much more Christianity, call loudly for every possible exertion to introduce the gospel amongst them.

Free will

Free will I have often heard of, but I have never seen it. I have met with will... But has either been led captive by sin or held in blessed bonds of grace." C.H. Spurgeon TABLETALK January 2000 No doctrine in the whole word of God has excited the hatred of mankind more than that truth of the absolute sovereignty of God. ? C.H. Spurgeon TABLETALK January 2000 Where a god who is totally purposive and totally foreseeingacts upon a nature which is totally interlocked, there can be no accidents or loose ends, nothing whatever of which we can safely use the word "merely." Nothing is "merely a byof anything else. C.S. Lewis; TableTalk January 2000 CH Spurgeon; Election, Evangelical Press "The Bible must be first and God=s minister must lie underneah it. We must not stand on the Bible to preach, but we must preach with the Bible above our heads. After all we have preached, we are well aware that the mountain of truth is higher than our eyes can discern; clouds and darkness are round about it summit, and we can not discern its topmost pinnacle; yet we will try to preach it as well as we can. But since we are mortal and liable to err, exercise your jugement, Atry the spirites whether they are of God;" and if on mature reflection on your bended knees, you are led to disregard election a thing which I consider to be utterly impossible B then forsake it, do not hear it preached, but believe and confess whatever you see to be God's word. I can say no more than that by way of exodium." "AAh, but say some, 'I thought it meant that God elected some to heaven and some to hell.' that is a very different matter from the gospel doctrine. he has elected men to holiness and to righteousness, and through that to heaven. You must not say that he has elected them simply to heaven, and others only to hell. He has elected you to be saved. If any of you desire to have salvation, you are elected to have it, if you desire it sincerely and earnestly. But, if yu don=t desire it, why on earth should you be so preposterously foolish as to grumble because God gives that which you do not like to other people?"