Continuing our series on “God Appoints Suffering for His Servants,” Piper’s third premise is that others can be made bold.“God uses suffering of his missionaries to awaken others out of their slumbers of indifference and make them bold. When Paul was imprisoned in Rome he wrote of this to the church at Philippi, “Most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.” (Phil. 1:14). If He must, God will use the suffering of his devoted emissaries to make a sleeping church wake up and take risks for God.”
Piper tells of the five lives taken by the Auca Indians. Their wives demonstrated such a source of strength that many were moved to a deepening dedication to God. Scores of books have been written, movies made and speeches given that have produced much missionary zeal in the hearts that have been touched.
The execution of Wycliffe missionary Chet Bitterman by the Columbian guerrilla group M-19 in 1982, unleashed an amazing zeal for the cause of Christ. In the following year of Chet’s death “applications for overseas service with Wycliffe Bible Translators doubled and the trend has continued.”
John 12:24 Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
No comments:
Post a Comment