June 30

Tormented By The Guilt Of Murder

He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

Blessed is the man who always fears the Lord, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble.

Like a roaring lion or a charging bear is a wicked man ruling over a helpless people.

A tyrannical ruler lacks judgment, but he who hates ill-gotten gain will enjoy a long life.

A man tormented by the guilt of murder will be a fugitive till death; let no one support him.

Proverbs 28:13-17      

Described as a modern Joan of Arc, Eunice Morago led warring braves from her Pima Indian tribe on an attack against the Apaches. When she was sixteen years old, her father had been killed by the Apaches, and she vowed that she would avenge that murder one day. “She called the Pima braves together and organized them for battle. She asked them to follow her into the Apache country, where they would kill the first Apache they could lay hands on. Astride a buckskin pony, she led her tribesmen, armed with Indian war clubs, bows and arrows.

“Many miles from home, they caught an Apache on the open desert. Two Pima braves held him; Eunice put spurs to her horse, rode full tilt, smashed him with her war club and killed him. At home again, she went through the traditional purification rites. But they brought her no peace. Sleep abandoned her. Her mind was in turmoil.”

It was during this period of turmoil that Eunice visited the little adobe church started by Charles Cook. He was a missionary who supported himself by teaching and operating a store, with partial support from the Presbyterian Mission Board. The response to his ministry had been slow. Indeed, after his arrival in 1870, he spent fifteen years in evangelistic work before he had one convert. His faithfulness paid off, however, and by the end of his forty year ministry, he had baptized more than one thousand Indians.

One of those converts was Eunice. The sermon she heard on the day she stood in the doorway of that little church was on forgiveness. It was a message of hope, and she sought out the elderly missionary-pastor to find out if what he said could apply to her. She explained that she had killed a man, and that she was convinced that God could not truly forgive her. Charles Cook explained otherwise.

“It was a wonderful moment, peace came back to her. Eunice was baptized and taken into the church, becoming a faithful member of the Missionary Society. Last time I talked to her,” writes George Walker, another missionary to the Pima, “she was well past 80, and did not have long to live. She repeated to me that the greatest thing that had ever happened to her in her long life was the forgiveness of God.” Her torment over the guilt was removed, and she no longer was doomed to be “a fugitive till death.” ³⁰

June 29

A Woman’s Love

Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,” says the Lord.

Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.

Isaiah 54:1-3

This passage in Isaiah has been a source of comfort to women, married and single, who have not experienced the joy of having children. Though written for the nation of Israel and not expressly for a woman, the verses nevertheless offer consolation to barren women who can joyfully lengthen their tent cords and strengthen their stakes and serve the Lord faithfully.

Kathryn Kuhlman was a well-known healing evangelist who captured the hearts of millions of followers from the 1940s to the 1970s. She was a woman of deep emotion. Her healing ministry was not one that focused on herself but on others as she compassionately bent over them, seeking to alleviate their pain. It was this ministry that allowed her “to spread out to the right and to the left” and to have “descendants” in all nations.

Her biographer, Jamie Buckingham, poignantly describes the love that was evident in her ministry: “I saw her, on dozens of occasions, take a child that was lame, maybe paralyzed from birth, and hug that child to her breast with the love of a mother. I am convinced she would have, at any moment required of her, given her life in exchange for that child’s healing. She would hug bleary-eyed alcoholics and mix her tears with theirs. And the prostitutes who came to her meetings, with tears smearing their mascara, knew that if they could but touch her they would have touched the love of God. And those little old women, hobbling along on canes and crutches, some of whom couldn’t even speak the English language but were drawn by the universal language of love.”

The love she demonstrated was God’s love, but it was also a woman’s love. “No man could have ever loved like that,” writes Buckingham. “It took a woman, bereft of the love of a man, her womb barren, to love as she loved. Out of her emptiness—she gave. To be replenished by the only lover she was allowed to have—the Holy Spirit.” ²⁹

June 28

He Who Has Been Stealing Must Steal No Longer

Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.

Ephesians 4:25-28      

In some societies and under certain circumstances, the negative command not to steal and the positive exhortation to work with one’s hands are mutually exclusive—that is, if the hands have already been cut off as punishment for stealing. Stealing is a grave offense in African societies, and thieves are sometimes punished almost as severely   murderers. Mika Banzako of Zaire, was one of those who experienced the harsh penalty of being branded a thief.

Mika was a compulsive thief who had been apprehended and imprisoned for his crimes, but in prison he stole from other prisoners and the guards. Local authorities did not know how to stop him. The only solution, the local magistrate insisted, was to cut off his arm, a punishment more severe than the old, now outlawed, practice of cutting off the hand. Chloroform was used to deaden the pain, and male nurses were ordered to perform the mutilation of amputating Mika’s left arm at the shoulder.

The loss of an arm did not deter Mika. His old ways continued until he was caught breaking into the home of a government official. Again he was imprisoned, and this time warned that if he was caught stealing, his right arm would also be cut off. Fear gripped Mika, and for a time he controlled his urge to steal, but soon he was back to his old ways. The threatened punishment became reality, and Mika was forced to endure the agony of having his remaining arm amputated.

Amazingly, Mika adapted. He learned to eat and dress himself, using wires held in his mouth. He also learned to steal with his mouth. One night he was in a chicken house stealing eggs when the householder discovered him. He outran his pursuers, but a sense of failure overwhelmed him. What was the use of living? He contemplated suicide.

As he approached a nearby town, he heard singing and saw great crowds of people surrounding a platform. Curiosity brought him closer until he could hear the voice of John Makanza, the country’s most well-known evangelist. At the close of his message, John made an appeal to those who wanted to turn their lives around—to make a completely fresh start—and commit their lives to Christ. It was the message Mika needed. He was ready for a drastic change, but how could he make that known? The evangelist was asking people to raise their hands. But suddenly he looked Mika in the eye, and asked him directly, if he wanted to receive Christ as his Savior. Mika nodded, and he went on to live a changed life. ²⁸

June 27

Multiplying The Bread Of Life

Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties.

Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all.

They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.

Mark 6:39-44

Ken Taylor, who has become famous for his best-selling paraphrased version of Scripture, The Living Bible, confronted one rejection after another when he initially sought to have his paraphrase of Paul’s epistles published. Finally he and his wife decided that they would finance the project themselves and hire a friend to do the printing. He had been prompted to simplify the Bible at the urging of his ten children as they were growing up and struggling with the meaning of the King James Version. Thus the project had deep personal meaning.

Taylor was in Jerusalem when he received the galley proofs for final checking, and he walked to the Mount of Olives where he read them through. “When I came to the end, I lingered for a time of prayer and reflection,” he writes. “I sat less than 100 miles from where Jesus had fed more than 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. I held in my hands what would become 2,000 copies of Living Letters, and I thought of these copies as 2,000 loaves for feeding God’s people.”

How many people could his “loaves” feed? “I pondered a simple mathematical equation: If five loaves fed 5,000 people, how many would 2,000 feed? I pulled out a pencil and found the answer: 2 million. An incredible number. Nevertheless, I bowed my head and prayed that someday 2 million copies of Living Letters would be in print.”

The sales were initially very slow. For one four-month period there were no new orders. Soon, however, word spread, and before long the sales were in the hundreds of thousands, and appeals were being made to Taylor to complete the Bible. In 1972 and 1973 The Living Bible was the nation’s best-seller, and by 1988 it had sold more than 33 million copies. The entire volume has been translated into ten languages and The Living New Testament has been translated into fifty.

This had been a dream fulfilled for Taylor who read Borden of Yale while studying at Wheaton. It is the story of a wealthy young man who gave up his inheritance to follow God’s call to Egypt, where he served only a short time before his untimely death. Taylor, at that time, prayed that God would use him in a similar way—never realizing how greatly God would multiply his humble offering of 2,000 loaves. ²⁷

June 26

Worthy Of Greater Honor

Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house.

Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.

Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future. But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.

Hebrews 3:1-6     

The problem of who should be in authority and who should receive honor is an age-old struggle. As this passage indicates, the one who comes after—Jesus, in this case—receives more honor than the one who was faithful in the foundational work—as was Moses. But “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future.” In many ways missionaries represent the task that belonged to Moses, that of a servant, testifying to what will come in the future. Missionaries who do foundational evangelistic work must expect that the future will not belong to them, but rather to the leaders of the local churches they establish.

This was true in Nigeria where W. Harold Fuller served as a missionary with the Sudan Interior Mission. He illustrates this from his own observation of the partnership between missionaries and Africans. “A while ago I was riding in the back seat of the ECWA (Evangelical Churches of West Africa) General Secretary Simon Ibrahim’s car. He was at the wheel. Sudan Interior Mission missionary Gordon Beacham sat beside him.

“I thought about the fathers of those two men. Gordon’s father had been a pioneer SIM missionary among the Tangale people of Nigeria. Simon’s father had been one of the first Tangale preachers. They often traveled together in the missionary’s car. Gordon’s father sat at the wheel; Simon’s father sat beside him.

“That’s the way it was in the work, too. Of necessity at that time, Gordon’s father was the driver. Today, their sons have changed places. The church is in the driver’s seat, and the mission sits alongside.

“That’s what has happened in the transfer of responsibility. The team members are still the same; they’re still traveling together to the same destination, but ECWA is now behind the wheel . . . Taking over responsibility means taking over leadership. It doesn’t mean suddenly being able to finish the task all by oneself. It’s a change of leadership, of authority, of responsibility, but it’s not the completion of the work.” ²⁶

June 25

Desires That Plunge Men Into Ruin

Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced  themselves with many griefs.

1 Timothy 6:6-10 

Although Hipolito Alvarez had made a profession of faith and wanted to be identified with the Christian community in Pelechuco, Bolivia, he also wanted to continue his life as a prosperous merchant who traveled from town to town selling various products. He was a capitalistic workaholic, and it was his money that brought him satisfaction.

“I saved every peso I could and my savings grew,” he later recalled. “That made me feel good. I lived right by the church, but Sunday was the best day for my work. So instead of going to meetings, I would sneak around the back and carry on my business.” In order to earn even more money, Hipolito rented six mules. He calculated that he could pay the rental fee from his earnings from one mule, and the earnings from the other five would be his to keep. He was convinced that he would soon become a wealthy man. “I was happy,” he recalls, “expecting to make lots of money.”

The market town where Hipolito could sell his produce for the highest profit was on the other side of a deep canyon with a river below. The only means of crossing the raging river was a narrow swinging bridge. It was treacherous, but he was convinced that he could cross safely if he led one mule at a time, leaving the remaining mules back with his young helper.

“Just past the middle of the bridge the sound of galloping hoofs tore my heart with fear. The bridge began to sway and I looked back. One mule had pushed past my helper and was galloping to catch up with us. I hurried to get across before the bridge gave way. No such luck. Another mule broke loose and came running across. The bridge couldn’t handle the load, just before we reached the end, the cables broke and we plummeted to the river below.”

Miraculously, Hipolito, who could not swim, survived the ordeal. The mules and all his produce were lost, but he recovered from his near-fatal injuries. Some of his friends thought he would be safer if he turned his back on God, but he disagreed: “‘No,’ I answered. ‘Money deceived me. Because of my greed for money I almost lost my life.’ And I told God, ‘I’m not interested in money anymore. I no longer want to get rich. I just want enough to live on each day, and that’s all.’ ” ²⁵

June 24

You Cannot Serve Both God And Money

No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

Matthew 6:24-25 

One day in 1861, Sarah Dunn, a young school teacher who lived in Waterloo, Iowa, was sitting in her home finishing an elaborate piece of handwork for her home, when she sensed a voice speaking to her, asking, “What are you doing to decorate your heavenly home?”

This question haunted her in the weeks and months that followed. She had professed faith in Christ several years earlier, but she had not been faithful in reaching out to others with the gospel. Now the salvation of lost souls became her life’s goal.

When she moved to Chicago some years later, she saw all around masses of needy people, and she dedicated herself to meeting their physical and spiritual needs. She recruited friends to help in her outreach efforts, and in 1869 organized a mission Sunday school. She was convinced that she had found God’s will in his service.

But, four years later, at the age of thirty eight, her life changed dramatically. She married Colonel George H. Clarke, a wealthy Chicago realtor. She struggled through “four merry years in the fashionable circle to which Colonel Clarke clung despite his Christianity.” Her “conscience was troubling her” because of what she perceived to be “a misuse of God’s time in social functions”

Sarah was convinced that God wanted them to reach out to the poor and establish a mission, but her husband was bent on pursuing his business career and amassing wealth. In his quest for this dream, he traveled to the Rocky Mountains on a lucrative business venture that Sarah feared would ruin any possibility of their mission work together.

While he was gone, she “agonized many hours in prayer.” It was no surprise then that while the colonel laid his plans for riches, the Spirit of God spoke to him with sharp conviction. Alone with God a thousand miles from home, he fell to his knees and consecrated himself to divine service for mission work. He telegraphed his wife of his change of life purposes and added that, “he was returning to Chicago at once to join her in founding a mission.”

In 1877 they founded a mission on South Clark street in Chicago—“the first rescue mission in the Northwest”—the forerunner of the Pacific Garden Mission. Although Colonel Clarke was known as “the poorest preacher that ever tried to expound God’s Word,” he was sustained by his devoted wile. She had a remarkable personal manner with needy people, and together they became instruments in the transformation of countless lives. ²⁴

June 23

Greet One Another With A Holy Kiss

Finally, brothers, good-by. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.

Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints send their greetings.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

2 Corinthians 13:11-14

Greetings and expressions of love vary from culture to culture, and to someone unfamiliar with the customs these greetings and formalities often seem strange. Four of the New Testament epistles end with the exhortation to give others a holy kiss or a kiss of love. Precisely what this meant is uncertain, but it is not a custom widely practiced among Western Christians today. It is unfortunate that such greetings and expressions of love have been lost, and modern-day Christians, especially from the West, would do well to learn from biblical and non-Western customs.

Todd and Karla Poulter, missionaries to Ghana, learned from their African friends new ways to express love and warmth.

“While returning one afternoon to our home in rural Ghana, we came upon a disabled van. It looked familiar and as we slowed down, we recognized Atiteng, one of the local chief’s sons, standing by the roadside. He’d run out of gas, an easy thing to do since fuel was scarce at the time.”

Todd siphoned enough gas out of his own tank to get Atiteng to a gas station, and as they parted, he indicated that he would not be paying for the gasoline—at this time. “If I pay you today, I can’t greet you tomorrow,” was his rationale. Todd and Karla went on their way, not thinking about the strange comment.

“The following afternoon,” writes Todd, “we returned from visiting one of our village neighbors to find Atiteng and two young men waiting at the house for us. We all sat down on the porch and went through the traditional Bulsa greetings, which may last up to a full minute. Only after such formalities could he come to the point of his visit.”

Atiteng had brought the Poulters a rooster—worth far more than the gasoline—as an expression of thanks. It was a moving experience for Todd and Karla, as they later recalled. “Our inclination would have been to settle everything right there on the road that afternoon. But to Atiteng his relationship with us meant far more than the gasoline or the money. He saw it as an opportunity not only to express gratefulness, but also to cement our friendship.” ²³

June 22

The Importance Of Genealogies

Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melki, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph . . . the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Kenan, the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

Luke 3:23-24 & 37-38

We often skip over the genealogy lists in the Bible. They are difficult to read, and they offer little for sermon material or devotional inspiration. For a missionary who is struggling to translate the Bible into a new language, the genealogy lists can be drudgery—a necessary chore in order to complete the job. Surely a genealogy list would be of no value for evangelism. Or would it?

When Jo Shetler began working as a Wycliffe Bible Translator among the remote Balangao people of the Philippines in 1962, she found them entirely puzzled as to why she would want to translate God’s Word into their language. In fact, later when she was injured in a helicopter crash, one young woman feared Jo would die because her translation work had angered God. Many of the villagers believed that it was wrong to put God’s Word into new words—especially into their own, such a lowly language.

These were discouraging times for Jo as she worked in the Balangao valley. During her first six years of missionary service, only two Balangaos became Christians. Most people simply were not interested in her concept of God.

One such individual was Canao, who had become a father of sorts to her. “When Juami arrived, I was shocked,” he later recalled. “Didn’t she know it wasn’t safe for girls in our area? Didn’t she realize we were headhunters? So I had to become her ‘father’ and take care of her. I had to be sure people saw her eating at our house so they would know I was protecting her with my life, as is our custom here in Balangao.”

But, Canao was not interested in her God. “Juami always talked about God, but I didn’t like to always talk about Him,” he confessed. “Juami kept telling me about God and how to believe. I already believed there was a god, so I just tried to be polite.”

Then one day Jo showed him some of the translation work she had done and asked him to help her with it. Canao was amazed to find that God’s Word could actually be written in a book and be read in a language he could understand. Most astonishing of all was that it was true. How did he know that? “It actually had a genealogy—absolute proof to a Balangao that it’s true. This one went back to the beginning of time. Through the impact all the genealogy, I really began to understand and believe the truth about Jesus Christ.” ²²

June 21

The Lord Is About To Destroy The City

So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.”

When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them.

Genesis 19:14-16

Charles C. Finney was the most noted revivalist of the early nineteenth century, partly because he was very controversial. He parted company theologically from the staid Calvinistic Puritans of Colonial New England, and preached sermons that stirred up his listeners to the point of frenzy as they agonized their way to God. Finney’s style was unconventional, to say the least, and he had a reputation for being “a half-crazed fanatic.” Yet, many souls were saved through his preaching.

Early in his ministry he was invited by an old man to speak at a little town in Western New York. “Finney arrived and gave out a hymn, but the singing was so awful—they bawled very loudly and so out of tune—that Finney with his trained musical ear literally put his hands over his ears and got down on his knees and prayed until they had finished.”

As he prayed, “the Lord gave him a text—he had deliberately not chosen his subject, feeling he should wait until he had assessed the congregation. He was not even sure just where the text was to be found which he felt impressed upon his heart, but he stood up and delivered it: ‘Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city.’ He knew that it came from the story of Abraham and Lot and the city of Sodom and so he expounded the story in his own way. The more he spoke the more he could see the people looking angry; he then applied the Word to them in a particular and pointed way.”

Gradually a change came over the people. “As he pressed home the truth of God upon this rough crowd of backwoods people they suddenly began to fall from their seats all over the building, crying out for God to have mercy on them . . . He began to deal with some of them individually and as he pointed them to Christ, one after another found peace with God.”

Finney later discovered why the people had initially been upset with his text. “The place was known as Sodom and the only good man in the place was the old man who had invited him and whom they nicknamed Lot! They had thought Finney had deliberately chosen his text because of this, but he was completely ignorant of it all and preached without inhibitions because he knew God had given him the text as he prayed.” ²¹

June 20

After Me Will Come One More Powerful Than I

And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.

And this was his message: “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Mark 1:4-8   

John the Baptist paved the way for Jesus. He did not offer the complete message. He was only preparing hearts to be receptive to the message that would follow. William Wade Harris played a similar role in West Africa.

Propelled by a heavenly vision in 1910, this African Christian from Liberia began a preaching ministry that took him into the neighboring country of the Ivory Coast. Wearing a white robe and carrying a cross in one hand and a Bible in the other, he walked barefoot from village to village. He believed he was a prophet sent by God to warn the people of the holy commands. His message was simple: “Repent, burn your fetishes, believe in the One God, and be baptized.”

In 1913, Harris reached the Dida region of the Ivory Coast. Thousands of people thronged around him to hear his message, and about one hundred thousand people were baptized and hundreds of churches were built. When people accepted his simple message in one village, he moved on to another, always exhorting them to wait for the white missionaries—“for people to open this book and you must obey its message.”

When missionaries did come into this region, they were amazed at the churches and congregations of Christians who were waiting for them. When J. W. Platt, a Methodist missionary, visited the area in 1924, “he was received in village after village with overflowing joy. Everywhere there were flags, torchlight processions, crowded churches, and excited people who hailed the new messenger of the gospel, whose coming Harris had foretold. ‘We have waited ten years for you,’ they said.”

While the missionary was reaping the harvest, Harris was back in his homeland. He had been deported from the Ivory Coast and imprisoned for a time. Like John the Baptist, he was “a man sent from God,” who paved the way for the gospel message but did not have the joy of seeing it come to fruition. His death went virtually unnoticed a few years later, “but thousands of earnest Christians in the Ivory Coast remembered him as their spiritual father with deep gratitude and respect.” ²⁰

June 19

They Were Wearing White Robes

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and   language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

Revelation 7:9-10

The setting was a women’s neighborhood Bible study—not around the dining room table of a suburban ranch house, but on the dirt floor of a thatched house in Bolivia. Joyce Prettol, a Bible translator, was the leader and the passage under study was Revelation 7, the portion of Scripture she had been translating for the Ese Ejja people.

The women listened with interest, but the phrase that caught their attention more than any other was the reference to white robes. People from every tribe and nation would be wearing these white robes, and that meant them. They were excited at the thought. White was an uncommon color of clothing in their remote tribal region.

But would everyone be dressed in white? “As we continued to discuss the lesson,” writes Joyce, “we mentioned that it was only those who had received Jesus as Savior who would go to heaven and receive a white robe.” Would that include Asha? she asked the women. Asha had been crippled from polio as a young woman, and as a second wife with no children had always been outside the village women’s clique. She was ridiculed and often the butt of jokes.

Now, however, the reality of heaven had suddenly been impressed upon these women. They previously had no interest in sharing the gospel with her, and Joyce herself had been unsuccessful in communicating with her. So it was, spurred on by the anticipation of being attired in white robes before the throne of God, the women decided that Asha should not be left out.

 

“We filed over to Asha’s house, stooped and entered the low, dark room,” writes Joyce. “Our eyes slowly became accustomed to the darkness and we could see Asha lying curled up on a thin woven mat. A tattered, stained blanket covered her thin body and her faded dress hadn’t been washed in a long time. If anyone needs a new white robe, Asha does, I thought. Oh God, let this be the day of salvation for Asha . . .

“As I watched the Ese Ejja women sitting there, holding hands, touching, caring and reaching out to God in prayer with Asha, my heart began to swell. I knew it was time to let go of them. God would show them how to share His Word in an infinitely better way than I ever could . . .

“Asha died only a few weeks later. But her transformation was apparent.” So, too, had the Christian women who reached out to her been transformed. Asha had exchanged her rags for a white robe, and they could identify with that. ¹⁹

June 18

Preaching From A Boat

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables. . .

Matthew 13:1-3   

A boat is not typically thought of as a likely base of evangelism. It was for Jesus because he had to escape from the crowds. For others, though, it has been a base for evangelism in order to reach the crowds. This was true of Ethel Groce and several other “boat ladies,” who evangelized among China’s boat people during the decades before China was closed to missionaries in the early 1950s.

Ethel grew up in Missouri and studied at Moody Bible Institute. She took nurses’ training before going abroad to work with the Oriental Boat Mission, a small mission agency started by an Englishwoman, Miss Alexander, who had been burdened for the boat people in the Hong Kong harbor. Missionaries had previously tried to minister to the boat people by living on land and going out to preach to them, but the boat people did not identify with them. Miss Alexander and her “boat ladies” vowed to live on the boats and become one with the people.

For a time there were nine boats from which these women ministered to boat people in the Hong Kong harbor and other harbors. Sometimes the people were hostile, but often they were interested, as Ethel discovered when she initiated cooking classes and schooling for the children.

“Little by little, the boat ladies began attracting more followers, and over the years they worked out a regular routine of ports of call. It was a lonely life, for months would often go by in which they did not see another person who spoke English. They seldom heard from their relatives in the States, for they were able to get back to the points where they could receive mail only at rare intervals. Yet they had so much work to do that they did not mind. At one point, one of the boat ladies established a leper colony aboard her craft. It survived there for two years and later moved ashore.”

By 1949, Ethel realized that she could no longer continue her work along the China coast. “The Communists were taking over everywhere; all the Christians were fleeing.” She moved her boat to Hong Kong, where she continued her evangelistic outreach.

She established another clinic and set up a school for approximately eighty children. She worked with Chinese volunteers in a visitation program and conducted church services on Sunday with the assistance of a Chinese pastor all of this work on board a boat, which became her boating home. ¹⁸

June 17

Using Political Connections

As they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, the commander ordered Paul to be taken into the barracks. He directed that he be flogged and questioned in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this. As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?”

When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and reported it . . . Those who were about to question him withdrew immediately. The commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains.

Acts 22:23-26 and 29

The apostle Paul knew full well the answer to his own question about the legality of beating a Roman citizen. Indeed, the question might be viewed as more of a threat than an inquiry. Paul was simply letting his persecutors know his rights. When facing aggression, sometimes the appropriate response is to turn the other cheek; sometimes it is to challenge the accuser.

Lillian Dickson, who served with her husband as a missionary to Formosa in the decades after 1927, made use of threats in her effort to protect Christians in the remote mountain regions where she worked.

Standing at a height of five feet, she might not have appeared to be imposing, but, like Paul, she had political connections that worked to her advantage. She had initiated various humanitarian projects for the people in that country, and as a result had become acquainted with some of the national leaders who were eager to repay her kindness. These political connections gave her boldness in times of opposition.

Lillian had a reputation for toughness. “Once, while making a survey trip to seventy mountain churches to find out what kind of shape they were in, she heard of a chief who had been persecuting members of his tribe who had become Christians.

“A native policeman told her that this chief had been in the habit of going with a group in the middle of the night to a new Christian convert, sometimes a widow or an old person, and beating the victim or demanding protection money. Lil was in a village five miles away from the chiefs when she heard this report. It was near midnight. ‘Let’s go and see the man,’ she said.”

The policeman protested, knowing the chief probably would be asleep and drunk, but Lillian insisted. They found him in his hut in precisely that condition. Lillian “shook him violently” and demanded to know why he had been beating Christians. “I can make big trouble for you,” she threatened. “I don’t want to do it, but I can. If I hear of just one more instance, I’ll get after you.” With that, she left as abruptly as she came, and the chief never persecuted Christians again. ¹⁷

June 16

A Grain Of Mustard Seed

He told them another parable: The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches . . . I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.

Matthew 13:31-32;17:20

Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf was born into a wealthy German family in 1700 and was raised with every opportunity to carry on his family tradition and live the life of a nobleman. Through the influence of his grandmother and aunt, however, as a child he became deeply interested in spiritual things. This interest was further developed through the godly example of one of his teachers at a Lutheran school at Halle, where he was sent to study at the age of ten.

While at Halle, Zinzendorf organized a small prayer band with some of his fellow students, and upon their graduation they vowed that they would remain committed to their pledge of praying and trusting God for his care and protection. In a solemn trust, they joined together in what they called the Order of the Grain of Mustard Seed.

“Zinzendorf and friends took the name of their order from Jesus’ parable of the Kingdom of God growing from small beginnings. They hoped their youthful enthusiasm, nourished by God, would become leaven in the world. No public organization was formed.

“Members individually pledged to work for the conversion and salvation of all people, including the ‘heathens’ across the seas, to improve human morals, to promote the unity of all Christians, and to protect persons persecuted for faith. In short, ‘knights’ of the mustard seed were to ‘love the whole human family.’”

For his part, Zinzendorf’s outreach was a model for what Jesus described as a tiny seed that would grow into a tree that spread its branches far. He founded a movement that became known as the Moravians. They were committed to overseas evangelism in an age when missions was not considered a vital aspect of the church.

Zinzendorf used his wealth to provide a community for religious refugees and then challenged them to take their faith abroad to those who had never heard the gospel. By 1760, more than two hundred of his followers had taken up that challenge, and in the years that followed their mission effort spread out across the globe. As a grain of mustard seed, he became one of the world’s greatest missionary statesmen of all time and “sparked the Protestant missionary movement.” ¹⁶

June 15

Not In Sexual Immorality And Debauchery

And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

Romans 13:11-14

It was Romans 13:13 that brought a young philosophy student to his knees and sparked his conversion to Christianity. He had turned away from the pious teachings of his mother and, as a teenager, spent much of his time with his friends enjoying the night life of the city. By the age of eighteen, he had a mistress and an illegitimate son, but he was not happy. For a time he joined a cult—the Manicheans—but still he found no satisfaction. He continued to be plagued by internal struggles and physical lust.

Confused and uncertain about his life and his future, he moved to Rome where he joined a group of skeptics. Still he had no peace. They freed him from the clutches of Manicheanism, but offered nothing to fill the vacuum. It was then that he heard about the preacher Bishop Ambrose, who had a reputation as a great orator. But more important than his style was his message.

It was through listening to Ambrose that this young man was reintroduced to the Bible. Still, he struggled with lust. He took another mistress, convinced that he was doomed to live a life of debauchery. But then one summer day while outside in a garden, as he later recalled, his life was changed.

“I heard from a neighboring house a voice, as of boy or girl, I know not, chanting and oft repeating, ‘Take up and read; Take up and read.’ . . . I arose; interpreting it to be no other than a command from God, to open the book, and read the first chapter I should find . . .Eagerly then I returned to the place where . . . I laid the volume of the Apostle . . . I seized, opened and in silence read that section on which my eyes first fell: not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying: but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh.”

There in the garden in the year 386, this man was converted. His life was gloriously transformed, and he would go on to become a bishop and one of the greatest writers and, theologians the church has ever known. He is known today as Augustine of Hippo, or simply St. Augustine. ¹⁵

June 14

There Is Neither Male Nor Female

You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Galatians 3:26-29

The equality of women and men in the eyes of God is a liberating concept for women all over the world. This was true for Kana, a woman from Irian Jaya who was the featured speaker at a large retreat in 1980—the first one ever—for the women of the Pyramid-Tagi districts. As she stood before the vast audience seated on the grass for this historic occasion, she reflected on the effect of Christianity on women in her culture.

“When the gospel came to us Dani people, we were told that the gospel was for the men,” she reminded them. “The men said we women did not have souls, so we did not need the gospel message. The men crowded around the speakers of the good news. We women were told to sit out on the edges of the crowd and to keep the children quiet so the men could get all of the profit from the message.”

So convinced was she that she wasn’t a full human and did not have a soul that she questioned her own reality. “Once I was in a group when a photo was taken by the missionary,” she related. “I was so excited I could not wait until the picture had been developed and came back. When word came that the picture had arrived, I elbowed my way through the crowd to see if my face would show up or if, as the men insisted, I would not appear because I was only a spirit.” She was ecstatic. “There I was! . . . I had shown up the same as the men had! I, too, was a real person.”

The gospel had made Kana free. She was living proof of that, but it was not until the end of the retreat that she began to realize what this freedom entailed. A missionary gave the final address—one that challenged the women regarding their obligation to share the gospel with others. “The Great Commission is to every believer—men and women,” the missionary said. “We all have a responsibility to spread the good news of the gospel message.”

For Kana, the message was sobering. As the women departed from the retreat, Kana later recalled, “I lingered behind not wanting to join in their jubilant singing and chatter. I was battling with the Lord over this new thought that I was also responsible to carry the gospel to my unsaved neighbors.”

As a leader among the women she recognized her obligation and she did not want to face it. But she had no choice when a woman sought her out and announced the decision she and her friends had made. “We have decided that we will gather your firewood and dig and plant your gardens if you will just teach us how to witness to others.” In the years since, Kana and her friends have been reaching out to new areas with the gospel. ¹⁴

June 13

How Fleeting Is My Life

Show me, O Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.

You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath.

Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro: He bustles about, but only in vain, he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it.

But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you.

Psalm 39:4-7

Elizabeth Freeman embarked on her missionary adventure to India in 1851, after a short engagement and only five weeks of marriage to John Freeman, a twelve-year veteran missionary with the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. She knew full well the risks that were ahead of her. Her husband’s first wife, Mary Ann, had died on the mission field, leaving two little children behind.

Elizabeth found it difficult to acclimate herself to the rigors of life in India, but she was convinced of her call. To her niece who was yearning for missionary adventure, she wrote, “Let me tell you, my dear girl, unless you should come with your heart filled with love to God and these poor perishing heathens, you would be sadly disappointed.” But she did not end her advice with that warning: “I hope you will be a missionary wherever your lot is cast, and as long as God spares your life; for it makes but little difference after all where we spend these few fleeting years, if they are only spent for the glory of God. Be assured there is nothing else worth living for!”

When she wrote those words she was fully aware of the fleeting nature of missionary life, but she could not know that her own days and the days of her loved ones would pass as quickly as they did. The missionaries were aware of Indian opposition to their presence, but were not prepared for the violence that erupted in 1858. Word reached them that four companies of a nearby military regiment mutinied and murdered many English citizens in the area.

The Freemans and their colleagues quickly realized they were stranded: “On Saturday,” Elizabeth wrote, “we drove to the station, found all the ladies in tears, and their husbands pale and trembling. We all consulted together . . . but what could we do? Every place seemed as unsafe as this.”

A week later, on June 2, 1858, Elizabeth wrote that she had gone to bed the previous night with “a violent sick headache,” after hearing “two regiments from Lucknow had mutinied, and were on their way here.” It was her last letter, and her final words were poignant: “Can only say good-bye, pray for us, will write next mail if we live; if not you will hear from some other source. Your affectionate sister, E. Freeman.”

There would be another week of terror before the ordeal ended: “On the 13th of June, at seven o’clock in the morning, they were released, marched to the parade-ground, and ruthlessly shot,” according to one author, “Their death was agonizing, but not long delayed.” Elizabeth had spent less than seven fleeting years in India, but they were “spent for the glory of God.” ¹³