I've been reading through the biography of James Hudson Taylor, and a story therein really jumped out at me tonight:
'How long have you had the Glad Tidings in England?' he asked all unsuspectingly.
The young missionary was ashamed to tell him, and vaguely replied that it was several hundreds of years.
'What,' exclaimed Nyi in astonishment, 'several hundreds of years! Is it possible that you have known about Jesus so long, and only now you have come to tell us?
'My father south the truth for more than twnty years,' he continued sadly, and died without finding it. Oh, why did you not come sooner?'
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As soon as I read that, my heart felt like it broke. How true this is, even today. We still have, according to the brilliant people over at The Joshua Project about 41% (2 750 000 000) of people in the world in unreached people groups (unreached having less than 2% evangelical Christians, in approximation).
Thinking of this immediately brought two more quotes to my mind:
How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate someone to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?" – Penn Jillette, an atheist comedian, magician, and filmmaker
If sinners will 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
I hope you understand what captured my heart from the words of each of these men… the long-dead Nyi speaking to Hudson Taylor in Ningpo, the atheist Penn Jillette responding to one authentic Christian man handing him a Bible, and the honored C.H. Spurgeon pouring out his heart for evangelism.
It is my deep desire to be able to say with Keith Green, “I’d rather have people hate me with the knowledge that I tried to save them.”
With that in mind, my friends… please pray for the Church as a whole to be fired with a new, passionate love for the gospel that "God [would] save us from living in comfort while sinners are sinking into hell!” (C.H. Spurgeon). Pray for me, too, for this is something that has begun to really stir my heart, and the mystery of the gospel is something I long to share with those that I meet.
