The Privilege Of Paying A Debt

I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.
Acts 21:13

In spite of rumors to the contrary, missionaries are only human. They aren’t ten feet tall physically—or spiritually.

Like other Christians, they struggle with illness, attitudes and rebellious children. And their “job description” is basically the same as that of every other Christian: to proclaim the gospel.

David Livingstone describes the attitude that is essential for successful service for the Lord—whether at home or abroad.

WALK WITH DAVID LIVINGSTONE
“People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa.

“Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply acknowledging a great debt we owe to our God, which we can never repay?

“Is that a sacrifice which brings its own reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny? It is emphatically no sacrifice. Rather it is a privilege.

“Anxiety, sickness, suffering, danger, foregoing the common conveniences of life—these may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment.

“All these are nothing compared with the glory which shall later be revealed in and through us.

“I never made a sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk, when we remember the great sacrifice which he made who left his Father’s throne on high to give himself for us.”

WALK CLOSER TO GOD
Christ gave his life gladly, not considering it too great a sacrifice to die for sinners.

Why then should it be too great a sacrifice to invest your life in spreading his love today?

You don’t have to cross an ocean to do that. Your mission field may be as near as your neighbor—a neighbor who needs to hear the news that God has only one Son, the Son he sent as a missionary to all the world.