John Piper on Suffering from Charles Simeon

At seventy-one, Charles Simeon was asked by his friend Joseph Gurney how he had endured so much persecution and outlasted all the opposition of his forty-nine-year pastorate at Holy Trinity in Cambridge. He answered:

My dear brother, we must not mind a little suffering for Christ's sake. When I am getting through a hedge, if my head and shoulders are safely through, I can bear the pricking of my legs. Let us rejoice in the remembrance that our holy Head has surmounted all His suffering and triumphed over death. Let us follow Him patiently; we shall soon be partakers of His victory. (H.C.G. Moule, Charles Simeon, [London: Inter-Varsity, 1948], 155f.)

That’s the perspective of seasoned suffering: Forty-nine years of trials is called “a little suffering.” And the entrance into final victory, he says, will be “soon.” In the meantime, we must not mind these troubles. We will accept each pleasant moment with gratitude. But we will not use it to argue that the next moment should also be pleasant.

"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

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
• God isn't looking for people of great faith, but for individuals ready to follow Him" -- Hudson Taylor
• "The Great Commissionis 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
• "Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God" -- William Carey, who is called the father of modern missions
• "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
• "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
• "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
• "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
• "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
• "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

Verses on missions: Christian missions in the Bible

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 akingdom 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 16:31Let 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 9:15Go! 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 15:10Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people. (Deuteronomy 32:43]
• Romans 15:11Praise 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)

The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning Multnomah 1990,200

http://www.psychoheresy-aware.org/ragmuffin114.html The American Church today grace in theory but denies it in practice. We say we believe that the fundamental structure of reality is grace, not works - but our lifves refute our faith. By and large . the gospel of grace is neither proclaimed, understood, nor lived. Too many Christians are living in the house of fear and not in the house of love. As I listen to sermons with their pointed emphasis on personal effort - no pain, no gain, no gain - I get the impression that a "do it yourself" spirituality is the American Fashion. Though the scriptures insist on God's initiative in the work of salvation - that by grace we are saved, that the Tremendous Lover has taken to the chase - our spirituality often starts with self, not God. Personal responsibility has replaced personal response. We talk about acquiring virtue as if tit were a skill that can be attained like good handwriting or a well-grooved golf swing. In the penitential seasons we focus on overcoming our weaknesses, getting rid of our hang-ups, and reaching Christian maturity.

A simplified history of Missions

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. 30-500 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 o William Carey, the "father of modern missions" [ more info ] o 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 for missions http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/hand.htm "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. [ read more ] 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

The Triumphs of Mother Angelica

Love Bears Fruit An article In Crisis Magazine I thought this appropriate after my post on the TV in the modern era. ------- I watched Mother Angelica Probably all day sometimes, she said. ------- her life too a dramatic turn when she met up with a stigmatist named Rhoda wise who livd near the city dump. Wise led a doubting Rita in a novena to the Little Flower. At the end of the seven days of prayer, her stomach ailment disappeared. Wise became her tutor in Catholicism. The text for her lessons: Mary Agreda's The Mystical City of God. Thus, the future Mother Angelica informed her faith by reading private revelations, nourished it with novenas and chaplets, and found her inspiration in painted statues and holy cards(Icons or Idols). It's a style of Catholicism that, for all its seeming gaudiness, is resilient and imaginative(a DIY form of religion) [stigmatist - a person whose body is marked by religious stigmata (such as marks resembling the wounds of the crucified Christ)] ------- " I am convinced God is looking for dodoes," She once told Protestant Televangelist Jim Bakker. " He found one: In me! There are a lot of smart people out there who know it can't be done, so they don't do it. But a dodo doesn't know that it can't be done. God uses dodoes: people who are willing to look ridiculous so God can do the miraculous." ------- Hensel is a production assistant for EWTN, one person on a staff of 300. Forty percent of the employees are Protestant (maybe they mean non-catholic), 60 percent are Catholic. ------- Now, Mother Angelica's Monastery has moved off the Lot to a grand new Location an hour away in Hanceville, and she no longer visits the studio. But she's still present. You see her everywhere you go, gazing out from wall poster, smiling warmly from cards pinned to bulletin boards, sitting like a logo on the front of brochures and pamphlets. She's there in the names the staff have given their children. "Since December 2001 when she had her stroke, EWTN has had its largest single period of Growth, Warsaw told me. One of the secrets of EWTN's success is her constant prayers in front of the Blessed Sacrament(why does the location matter to the omnipresent God of Heaven) ------- Mother felt the Need to respond to the critics in her conversations with Arroyo. "I don't want to be conservative and I don't want to be liberal," she told him. " I want to be Catholic. Now if that off the liberals tough. If it offends the ultraconservatives, tough. I can't be influence by any of them. I want know what the Church teaches. ( here is the stark difference between a Catholic and a protestant. Protestants want to know what the Bible teaches, not the Church) ------- The listeners realized that Mother Loved them, Steltemeire said. they could see that Mother loves them. The power of the Lord's love compels us to do what God wants us to do. That's dynamite stuff. ------- You know what faith is? Faith is one foot on the ground, one foot in the air, and a queasy feeling the stomach. ------- "It's love that bears fruit." ------ I commend her humility and dedication, but neither are assurances of the her true spiritual condition. It is telling that she says that here early life was around rituals and Icons(many protestants would classify them as idols and by the way that many use them it seems a proper determination) The Novena to the Little Flower is to St. Teresa asking for her to intercede. This will be a larger topic later, but for now look at Romans 8:26. Asking anyone to intercede for us other than the God of Heaven is not to put our faith in Christ, but in something else altogether probably a demon. As God in the person of Christ could only pay for our sins only God can intercede for us with GOD anything else is idolatry. The unique aspect is that this TV ministry seems to be similar to its protestant brethren. Rather than teach, the essentials of Christian/Catholic belief they soft peddle these and focus on the mediocrity, a pleasing message, Oprah with a stronger religious overtone. They fool people into believing that they are having some religious experience, that by merely watching TV they can get close to God. This is no better than the Benny Hinn entertainment show, that said for people to put there hand on the TV receive healing (then to call and send the money). Benny Hinn might have been more blatant but no less pagan serving a different God than Jesus the Christ.

Amusing ourselves to Death: The Age Of Show Business

In watching American Television, One is reminded of George Bernard Shaw's Remarks on his first seeing the glittering neon signs of Broadway and 42nd street at night. It must be beautiful, he said, if you cannot read. American television is indeed a beautiful spectacle, a visual delight, pouring forth thousands of images on any given day. The average length of a shot on network television is only 3.5 seconds, so that the eye never rests, always has something new to see. Moreover, television offers viewers a variety of subject matter, requires minimal skills to comprehend it, and is largely aimed at emotional gratification. Even commercials, which some regard as an annoyance, are exquisitely crafted, always pleasing to the eye and accompanied by exquisitely crafted, always pleasing to the eye and accompanied by exciting music. There is no question but that the best photography in the world is presently seen on television commercials. American television, in other words, is devoted entirely to supplying its audience with entertainment PG 87 The Problem is not that Television presents with entertaining subject matter but that all subject matter is presented as entertaining, which is another issue altogether. �.. No matter what is depicted or from what point of view, the overarching presumption is that it is therefore our amusement and pleasure. That is why even on news shows which provide us daily with fragments of tragedy and barbarism, we are tragedy and barbarism, we are urged by the newscasters to "join them tomorrow." What for" One would think that several minutes of murder and mayhem would suffice as material for a month of sleepless nights. We accept the newscasters' invitation because we know that the "news" is not to be taken seriously, that it is all in fun, so to say. Everything about a news show tell us this - the good looks and amiability of the cast, their pleasant banter the exciting music that opens and closes the show, the vivid film footage, the attractive commercials - all these and more suggest that what we have just seen is no cause weeping a news show, to put it plainly, is a format for entertainment, not for education, reflection or catharsis. Pg 87-88 Now ...This.... All that has happened is that the public has adjusted to incoherence and been amused into indifference. Which is why Aldous Huxley would not in the least be surprised� Indeed he prophesied its coming. He believed that it is far more likely that the Western democracies will dance and dream themselves into oblivion than march into it, single filae and manacled. Huxley grasped, as Orwell did not, that it is not necessary to conceal anything from a public insensible to contradiction and narcoticized by technological diversions. Although Huxley did not specify that television would be our main line to the drug, he would have no difficulty accepting Robert MacNeils's observation that "television is the soma of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World." Big Brother turns out to be Howdy Doody. PG 110-111 Shuffle off to Bethlehem(religion on the TV) The first is that on television, religion, like everything else, is presented, quite simply and without apology, as an entertainment. everything that makes religion an historic, profound and sacred human activity is stripped away; there is no ritual, no dogma, no tradition, no theologye, and above all no sense of spirityal transence. On These shows, the preacher is tops. God comes out as second bababa. Pg 116-117 ... Most american, including preacheres have difficulty accepting the truth, if they think about it at all, that not all forms of discourse can be converted from one medium to another. It is naive to suppose that something that has been expressed in one form can be expressed in another without significantly changing its meaning, tecture or value. Much prose translates fairly well from one language to another, bu twe know that poetry does not; we may get a rough idea of the sense of a translated poem but usually everything else is lost , especially that whyich makes an object of beauty. The Translation makes it into something it was not. pg 117 For the most part preachers have not seriously addressed this matter they have assumet that wahat had formerly been done in a church or a tent, and face-to-face, can bedone on television without loss of meaning, without changing the quality of the religious experience. Perhaps their failure to address the translation issue has it origin in the hubris engendered by the dazzling number of people to whom televison gives them access..pg118 I think it is fair to say that attractin an audience is the main goal of these programs, just as it is for ' the A-team" and Dallas." As a consequence, what is preached on televeision not anything like the sermon on the mount. Religous programs are filled with good cheer. They celebrate affluence. their featured players become celebrities though their messages are trivial, the shhows have hight ratings, or rather because their messages are trivial, the shows have hight ratings I believe I am not mistatken in saying that Christianity is a demaninding and serous religion. when it is delviere as easy and amusing, it is another kind of religion altogether. pg121 It is well understood at the national council[ of Churches, if they have figured it out it must be real] the athe danger is not that religion has become the content of television shows but that televison shows may[have] become the content of religion. pg124 Reach Out and Elect Someone Television does not ban books, it simply displaces them. Hw delighted would be all the kings, czars and f�hrers of the past(and commissars of the present) to know that censhorshi is not a necessity when all political discourse take the form of a jest. pg 141 Teaching as an Amusing Activity We now know that "Sesame Street" encourages children to love school only if school is like "Sesame Street." Which is to say, we now know that "Sesame Street" undermines what the traditional idea of schooling represents. Whereas a classroom is a place of socail interatction, the space in front of a televeision set is a priveate preserve. pg 143 As a television show, and a ood one, "sesame Street' does not encourage children to love school or anything about school. It encourages them to love television. pg 144 The Huxley Warning We would be better off if television got worse, not better. "The A-team" and "Cheers" are no threat to our public health. "60 Minutes," "Eye-Witness News" and "Sesame Street" are. pg 160 ...in the end, he was trying to tell us that what afflicted the people in Brave New World was not that they wer laughting instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking. Amusing ourselves to Death Public Discourse in the age of Show business Neil Postman Penguin, 1985

15 key Bible chapter

15 key Bible chapters
http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/keychap.htm

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"

Traveling Team Quotes - 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. Perhapshe 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 togo 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 theemblems 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 hearhim 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

The nations be glad! : the supremacy of God in missions / John Piper.

11- Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever. 111- 112 An aging Christian once objected to John G. Paton's plan to go as a missionary to the South Sea Islands with the words, "You'll be eaten by Cannibals!" Paton responded: Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or worms; and in the Great Day my resurrection lady will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer.21 James Paton, ed., John G. Paton: Missionary to the New Hebrides, An Autobiography (London: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1965, originally 1891), p. 56. the world sees millions of "retired" Christians pouring out the last drops of their lives with joy for the sake of the unreached peoples and with a view toward heaven, then the Spacy of God frill shine. He does not shine as brightly in the posh, leisure-soaked luxury condos on the outer rings of our cities. Let There Be No Talk of Ultimate Self-Denial Christ is calling his church to biblical, wartime engagement in world missions. He is making it plain that it will not happen without pain. But let there be no Christian self-pity, no talk of ultimate self-denial. It is simply 5ing how consistent are the testimonies of missionaries who have suffered for the gospel. Virtually all of them bear witness of abundant joy and overriding compensations. Those who have suffered most speak in the most lavish terms of the supreme blessing joy of giving their lives away for others. Lottie Moon said, "Surely there is no greater joy than saving souls." Sherwood Eddy said of Amy Carmichael, "Her life was the most fragrant, the most joyfully sacrificial, that I ever know." Samuel Zwemer, after fifty years of labor (including the loss of young children], said, "The sheer joy of it all comes back. Gladly would I do it all over again." And both Hudson Taylor and David Livingston, after lives of extraordinary hardship and loss ;aid, ~'I never made a sacrifice." From this discovery I have learned that the way of love is both the way of self-denial and the way of ultimate joy. We deny ourselves the fleeting pleasures of sin and luxury and self absorption order to seek the kingdom above all things. In doing so we bring the greatest good to others, we magnify the worth of Christ as a treasure chest of joy, and we find our greatest satisfaction. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. And the supremacy of that glory shines most brightly when the Satisfaction that we have in him endures in spite of suffering and pain in the mission of love. ISBN 0-8010-7124-0 1993 by John Piper Published by Baker Books

Rethinking the church : a challenge to creative redesign in an age transition / James Emery White.

Rethinking the church : a challenge to creative redesign in an age transition / James Emery White. white, James Emery, 1961- 0-8010-9039-3 (pbk.) Rethinking Structure 93 To make matters worse, a church's structure is often wedded to some of the most deeply rooted customs within the life of a church . 94 As a result, a churches structure can either serve the church it to a standstill. It can energize a community of faith lead it toward ever deepening levels of discouragement. It can enable men and women to use their gifts and abilities for the kingdom of God or tie the hands and frustrate the most ted efforts of God's people. Why? Because the structure of any organization directly affects morale, effectiveness and unity.