By Jennifer R.The Missions Conference begins this Friday night, so our new Quotable Quotes bulletin board is sporting a set of quotes on missions. If you haven't had a chance to read them on the board, the quotes are listed below. If you don't have time to read them all right now, print them out and just read a few and discuss them at the dinner table each night this week in preparation for the conference.
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."
The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed. ~ Hudson Taylor
So, you have three possibilities in world missions. You can be a goer, a sender, or disobedient. The Bible does not assume that everyone goes. But it does assume that the ones who do not go care about goers and support goers and pray for goers and hold the rope of the goers. ~ John Piper
"I will go down, if you will hold the ropes." [his missions philosophy] ~ William Carey
"Does it not stir up our hearts, to go forth and help them, does it not make us long to leave our luxury, our exceeding abundant light, and go to them that sit in darkness?" ~ Amy Carmichael
Missions is not about “What can I spare?” The question is “What’s it going to take?” Risk. Abandon. Sacrifice. Radical dependence on Christ. Everything. Are you passionately committed to God’s glory among all peoples? ~ AsiaLink Worker
"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
"If you take missions out of the Bible, you won't have anything left but the covers" ~ Nina Gunter
"A God-centered theology has to be a missionary theology" ~ John Piper
"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 worshipers 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
"Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't." ~ John Piper
"We talk of the Second Coming; half the world has never heard of the first." ~ Oswald J. Smith
"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
"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
"If God would grant us the vision, the word sacrifice would disappear from our lips and thoughts; we would hate the things that seem now so dear to us; our lives would suddenly be too short, we would despise time-robbing distractions and charge the enemy with all our energies in the name of Christ." ~ Nate Saint, two weeks before he was martyred by the Aucas
"As we have a high old time this Christmas may we who know Christ hear the cry of the damned as they hurtle headlong into the Christless night without ever a chance. May we be moved with compassion as our Lord was. May we shed tears of repentance for these we have failed to bring out of darkness. Beyond the smiling scenes of Bethlehem may we see the crushing agony of Golgotha" ~ Nate Saint, two weeks before he was martyred by the Aucas
"It's not that God has a mission for his Church in the world, but that God has a Church for his mission in the world" ~ Chris Wright
O Christian! do not falter,
The harvest field is white,
And many souls are sinking
Into eternal night.
~ William E. Penn
”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. Perhaps he died. Perhaps he wasn’t willing. And God looked down… and saw Gladys Aylward. And God said, ‘Well, she’s willing.’” ~ Gladys Aylward
"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
