Evangelism and Missions in Proverbs

Posted on 8 November 2024 by Seth Meyers

Proverbs is full of earthly, practical wisdom. Unbelievers could gain a great deal by simply following the insight into words, money, child-raising, and politics. In one sense, Proverbs is a “how-to” manual for a good life. This one collection of sayings and speeches could create a prosperous culture among the poor of the world.

But the proverbs also fit perfectly and sometime seem to prophesy the doctrines and practices of the New Covenant, these last days, the times of the Church which is His body.

If we remember our Lord’s Command to go into all the world and preach the gospel, we can then look back and see amazing parallels in Proverbs. Let us use these dozen or more passages to make us evangelists and missionaries.

3:27-28 Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee.

A wise man will pay what is owed without delay. Paul said that he evangelized because of the debt he owed to sinners (Rom. 1:14). If Christ died to reconcile the world to God (2 Cor. 5:19), then it is due to those people who make up the world that they know this. If it is in my power to give them what is their due, then I must not tell them to wait.

10:21 The lips of the righteous feed many: but fools die for want of wisdom.

One way it will be seen that I am a righteous man is when my lips feed others with words that will satisfy them for eternity. Fools are objects of our pity since they die in their ignorance.

Notice also, that a good man feeds not just one or two, but he is very generous with the soul-satisfying, life-changing, eternity-touching words. He makes it his goal to feed everyone possible.

11:30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.

From this verse comes the phrase soulwinner which is the title of one of Spurgeon’s books. Godly men are soulwinning men. They prioritize souls above bodies. They think much of eternity. They are preachers before culture shifters. They aim for the next life more than this life.

15:2 The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.

If we have knowledge of God and His Son, and if we are wise, then our tongues will use that knowledge. We will speak about this knowledge which is a species of evangelism.

15:4 A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.

A tree of life bears fruit that brings life. My tongue can bring life-giving fruit only when it tends to lead others to salvation.

15:23 A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season, how good is it!

When all is done in eternity’s light, we will see that the best words were those which brought us to that place. No other words were so well-spoken, none so fitting, none so necessary. Nothing was so helpful as those words which had become the vehicle to deliver us to Heaven’s housing.

24:11-12 If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; 12 If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?

What reason could we offer for not delivering men from eternal death? All attempts at explaining why we were unable to speak to sinners will be seen at the judgment to be excuses. May we not then see the frost that was our half-hearted zeal? Though we fancy to think we have worked hard, may we not then think that we had only been playing? He will know and see right into the real stat of things. And He will pay back all who devoted themselves to saving men from the second death.

25:15 By long forbearing is a prince persuaded, and a soft tongue breaketh the bone.

Gentle, but persistent words will do what force and violence could not do in persuading men. Love is the winning argument that turns a hard heart.

25:25 As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.

Recently in a church prayer meeting a Tsonga woman thanked God that He had sent the missionaries to teach her the gospel. When God draws a sinner, that man finally feels a great thirst and also a great refreshment in the message that now reaches his soul.

29:7 The righteous considereth the cause of the poor: but the wicked regardeth not to know it.

“Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.” Paul the Apostle

Godly men remember the crowds of men, nations, and languages who have no access or little access or blocked access or intermittent access to those truths that can alone buttress them against an utter collapse into the flame. The world is full of the spiritually poor who lack access to the gospel and do not even see their deadly poverty.

29:8 Scornful men bring a city into a snare: but wise men turn away wrath.

God’s wrath is on the world. But a good man will stand in the gap and make up the hedge (Ezek. 22:30). He will see that the great task is to turn away the just anger of the Judge of the Earth by preaching Christ to produce repentance and humility.

29:10 The bloodthirsty hate the upright: but the just seek his soul.

Righteous men are soulhunters. They try to bring the highest, most enduring good to the souls of men. This is why they are righteous. Their heroism is to seek for the highest good to the most valuable part of mankind. The best of men are the most fervent in seeking for eternal happiness to never-dying souls. Evil men kill others bodies and care nothing for their souls. Good men not only refrain from killing bodies, but they are intensely hunting for the souls that are willing to be saved.

29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

Vision means a revelation from God. Perish means to have a miserable earthly life and fall into eternal ruin. Without the Bible translated, distributed, read, and understood, men can never be happy in this life, and the next life will be only far worse.

31:8-9 Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. 9 Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.

The greatest poverty is lack of access to saving truth. The greatest pity ought to fall on those who have no Bible, or next those who having a Bible have no Christian churches in their culture, or next those who having a Bible and Christian churches have never been introduced to these saving means.

1:20-33

This powerful speech in the first chapter is full of evangelism and will prepare a believer to be a missionary.

20 Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: 21 She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, 22 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? 23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. 24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; 25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: 26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. 28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: 29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: 30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. 31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. 32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. 33 But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

Posted in Missions | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Consumed With God

Posted on 5 November 2024 by Seth Meyers
  • 18 June 1944—in the midst of WWII.
  • Martyn Lloyd-Jones is 44 years old and the pastor of the Westminster Chapel in London.
  • Germany has been bombing London when suddenly all the members of the congregation hear the familiar whistle of another bomb falling towards the city.
  • ML-J is at this moment leading the church in prayer.
  • He continues to pray until the whistle is too loud for anyone to hear his words.
  • Suddenly, the bomb hits the church and damages the building at 11:20 am.
  • Plaster falls and hits ML-J’s head.
  • As soon as the noise is gone, he picked up with his prayer right where he had left off.
  • He only paused for a few seconds.
  • This is the life of a man so drawn to God, that nothing else mattered on earth.
  • Many godly men like this are kept hidden in relative obscurity, but here is a man that God specially brought to popularity–a man full of God.
  • When J. I. Packer heard him preach he said, “I have never heard another preacher with so much of God about him. … The thrust of Lloyd-Jones’ sermons is always to show man small and God great.” 317

Thesis

  • Revival most commonly comes among those who are God-centered like Martyn Lloyd Jones.

The life of Martyn Lloyd-Jones

    1. 1899 – December 20, Born to Henry and Magdalen Lloyd-Jones in Wales.
    2. 1910 – January 20 – The Lloyd-Jones home burns to the ground with the family barely escaping. Martyn is saved by being thrown from an upstairs window into a blanket below.
    3. 1911 – – Martyn attends a boarding school in Tregaron Wales for the next three years. He disliked his time at the school and would forever be a vocal antagonist to this British custom. He would later say of his boarding school experience, “I believe that I shall never totally recover from this until I reach that country where we shall never part anymore.” (219)
    4. 1913 – Martyn decides to become a doctor.
    5. 1914— The family business fails and Henry claims bankruptcy.
    6. 1914— Martyn considers dropping out of school to become a bank clerk, but his family sends him to school which sets him up for his medical career.
    7. 1916 – At 16, Martyn is accepted at the very prestigious St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London.
    8. 1921– Martyn begins working for Sir Thomas Horder, a doctor to the royal family.
    9. 1922 – His father Henry dies. His brother had died a few years earlier.
    10. 1923 – He receives his MD degree for his research in subacute bacterial endocarditis. His research is later published.
    11. 1924 – Martyn Lloyd-Jones is converted.
    12. 1925– Martyn begins to yield to God’s call to preach.
    13. 1926 – October 10, – Martyn preaches his first sermon
    14. 1926— November 28, – Martyn candidates and is accepted at Aberavon, Wales.
    15. 1927 – January 8, – Martyn marries Bethan Phillips. Wedding gifts: Books by John Owen and Richard Baxter.
    16. 1927— October 26 – His daughter Elizabeth is born.
    17. 1929 – Martyn discovers the writings of Jonathan Edwards in a second hand book store as he waits for a train in Cardiff Wales. He would later say “They helped me more than anything else.” (125) Lloyd-Jones would come to evaluate Edwards as the greatest theological mind of all times. (MLJ, The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors, p. 355)
    18. 1929— Reads Luke Tyerman’s The Life and Times of George Whitefield. “When I read of Whitefield I feel that I have never really preached in my life.”
    19. 1931 – Harry Wood, a recent convert, expressed his desire to go straight home to Heaven after praying. He later dies at church after opening the church’s prayer meeting. Revival begins with 128 converts that year.
    20. 1932 – He discovers the writings of B.B. Warfield. This influences him more towards doctrinal and Pauline preaching. He would later confess (1949) that he became too academic because of Warfield’s influence.
    21. 1935 – He preaches on the radio and later to 7,000 people in Wales.
    22. 1935— December, – G. Campbell Morgan hears Lloyd-Jones preach for the first time.
    23. 1936 – April, – Lloyd-Jones preaches at Spurgeon’s Tabernacle and is contacted about becoming their Pastor.
    24. 1938—After 10 years of pastoring at Aberavon, he seeks another church feeling that his work was done there.
    25. 1938–September, –Martyn Lloyd-Jones accepts G. Campbell Morgan’s proposal to preach for six months at Westminster Chapel
    26. 1939 – April 23, – Martyn Lloyd-Jones accepts the call of Westminster Chapel to share pastoral duties with G. Campbell Morgan
    27. 1939— Sept 3, WWII begins the day before he becomes the Co-pastor at Westminster.
    28. 1939— His first book of sermons is published, Why does God allow War? Eventually, 95 different books will be published, all his sermons.
    29. 1940 – Attendance drops significantly due to widespread evacuations. His salary becomes very small.
    30. 1941— Begins a ministers’ Fraternal at Westminster Chapel.
    31. 1941— Establishes a church prayer meeting at Westminster Chapel
    32. 1943 – Lloyd-Jones officially becomes the pastor of Westminster.
    33. 1943— October3, – Lloyd-Jones establishes the pattern of preaching a sermon of edification for believers in the morning and an evangelistic sermon in the evening.
    34. 1943–On this Sunday he began his very first expositional series on the book of 1 Peter.
    35. 1944 – June 18, 1944 – Lloyd-Jones Prays though a V1 attack that damages Westminster chapel. Plaster falls from the ceiling on his head but he continues his pastoral prayer.
    36. 1945 – January 15, – Lloyd-Jones opens the Evangelical library.
    37. 1945— October, – Becomes a council member of the China Inland Mission.
    38. 1946— September – December, – Revival with many conversions.
    39. 1949 – Summer, – Lloyd-Jones suffers from a serious bout of depression.
    40. 1949— December, – Lloyd- Jones begins the Puritan Conference with the aid of J.I. Packer.
    41. 1953 – March – Attacked in the British Weekly for his ICF address “Maintaining the evangelical faith today”.
    42. 1954– Begins his series of sermons on Spiritual Depression. This would become “the doctor’s” most popular topical messages.
    43. 1954— March, – Lloyd-Jones is the only well-known minister who does not support the Billy Graham crusade in London.
    44. 1957 – The Banner of Truth Trust is founded.
    45. 1958–August – Preaches extensively in South Africa
    46. 1959 – January 11, – Begins a series of 26 messages on revival to commemorate the revival of 1859.
    47. 1965– Gets his first home.
    48. 1966 –October 18, 1966 – Gives his “Evangelical Unity” appeal at the Evangelical Alliance. He calls for separation from compromised denominations. John Stott follows with a rebuttal.
    49. 1968 – February 25, – Preaches his last Sunday sermon as Pastor.
    50. 1968–April 14, – Begins his historic addresses on “Preaching and Preachers” at Westminster Seminary.
    51. 1970 – May- ends the Puritan Conference due to the position of Packer and others on issues of doctrine and separation.
    52. 1970— R.T. Kendall becomes the Pastor at Westminster Chapel
    53. 1981 – February – Lloyd-Jones scribbles a note to his family, “Don’t pray for healing. Don’t try to hold me back from the glory.”
    54. 1981— March 1, – Dr. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones dies on Sunday.

    Lessons from his life

      1. We must constantly preach the bad news before we can do any spiritual good.
        1. From early on in his ministry he preached to edify believers on Sunday morning and to evangelize on Sunday evenings.
        2. When asked when he was going to have a crusade, he said, “I have one every week.”
        3. “The great difference between the Christian and the non-Christian is that the former speaks with humility and meekness.” 96
        4. “The first work of the Holy Spirit is to convict of sin and to humble men in the presence of God.” 129
        5. “It is made perfectly clear in the pages of the NT that no man can be saved until, at some time or other, he has felt desperate about himself.” 130
        6. “The staple of Paul’s preaching was God and judgment.” 316
        7. His sermons commonly emphasized sin and humility.
        8. Men felt small when they heard him preach, but they weren’t bothered because they also felt that God was very big.

      2. Absolutely everything in the Bible is true.
        1. Because the Bible is inerrant, we must study it thoroughly.
        2. He loved true doctrine and held firmly to Reformed theology.
        3. Sometimes in his preaching he would make distinctions based on the whether a word was singular or plural.
        4. He wanted to separate from those in the churches who tried to diminish parts of the Scripture.
        5. Because he believed in inerrancy, his sermons were logical, rational, and tightly reasoned.
        6. When I heard one of his last sermons, his medical training came through several times, as he looked for “the cause before the cure.”
        7. For example: “Evolution is the biggest hoax in the world in the past 100 years.” 338

      3. God is most honored and His people are most helped by expositional preaching.
        1. He preached constantly. Often in the week, he would be speaking on Tuesday through Friday at different churches. In his first year of being a pastor—and for almost all of the next 50—he preached in 54 different churches. 116
        2. Later in life, he would preach verse by verse through books of the Bible.
        3. 2 ½ years on Sermon on the Mount
        4. 8 years on Ephesians
        5. 13 years on Romans
        6. He placed very little emphasis on programs in the church, preferring all the children above 3 years old to sit in the service.
        7. When he found a stage at his first church for practicing acting during the week, he said, “You can heat the church with it.” 88
        8. Once he was asked to preach on television, and he was told to stop when the light came on. But he refused to obey since he didn’t want to quench the Spirit.
        9. At 80 years old he was still preaching to large crowds.
        10. He said preaching is “logic on fire.”
        11. He believed that preaching must address the mind first.
        12. But the preacher must not be satisfied until the hearer has truly experienced awe and reverence before God.

      4. Prayer is as vital to the Christian as blood is to the body.
        1. The Sunday morning prayers were about 10 minutes long.
        2. He took time to prepare himself for the prayer and said that there was “nothing more important than to learn how to get oneself into that frame and condition in which one can pray.” Preaching and Preachers, 170.
        3. “When a man is speaking to God, he is at his very acme. It is the highest activity of the human soul, and therefore it is at the same time the ultimate test of a man’s true spiritual condition. There is nothing that tells the truth about us as Christian people so much as our prayer life. Everything we do in the Christian life is easier than prayer.” Sermon on the Mount, vol. 2, 46.
        4. He warned that it is far easier to preach than to pray well.
        5. On one Sunday morning when he was in London a man wanted to kill himself by jumping into the Thames. He suddenly went to the Chapel where he was converted hearing ML-J’s pulpit prayer. 305
        6. In both pastorates, he sought to devote the congregation to prayer during the week for at least an hour.
        7. Once in May 1931, they began praying at 7:15 as usual and prayed until ML-J closed the meeting at 10 pm.
        8. At his first church when the congregation was about 80, they had 40 people coming to pray.
        9. Harry Wood prayed to death in 1931. 134

      5. We need to set our hopes on God for revival.
        1. He longed for revival and saw amazing movements of God’s Spirit several times in his ministry.
        2. In 1930, he and some other pastors gathered “to consider means for promoting a Revival of Religion.” 124
        3. Toward this end they pledged:
          • To abstain from any sin which would hinder revival.
          • To pray daily for 30 minutes that God would send revival.
          • To call constantly for true conversion in their churches.
        4. “Pray for revival? Yes, go on, but do not try to create it, do not attempt to produce it, it is only given by Christ himself. The last church to be visited by a revival is the church trying to make it.” 128
        5. However, he did not disparage the average means of grace whereby men and women would come to Christ slowly.
        6. But he wanted nothing to do with fake “revivals.” One newspaper wrote about him: “He had no use for the type of man who was always trying to produce a revival; there were men in the churches today who seemed to regard a revival as a hobby…” 84
        7. After about 6 months as pastor, his wife was one of the first converts in his ministry. “She had always feared God; her life was upright, and yet she knew that she had no personal consciousness of the forgiveness of sins, no sense of inward joyful communion with Christ.” 110
        8. Shortly after that other church officers became converted. One “rushed to speak” to ML-J before he left the pulpit. 109
        9. On one evening 40 people were baptized in his first church.

      6. Seriousness is a Christian virtue because of the great realities with which they alone deal.
        1. His biography has 13 photos of ML-J between 15 and 70 where he is not smiling in one of them.
        2. There are no jokes in his sermons.
        3. The people would arrive and wait in silence until the worship began.
        4. There was no band or even choir.
        5. “If there were celebrities in the congregation he neither knew nor cared.” 302
        6. “It is not our service; the people do not come there to see us or please us… They, and we, are there to worship God, and to meet with God.” Preaching and Preachers, 263
        7. He prayed a lengthy Sunday morning pastoral prayer.
        8. In preaching “the first thing you had to do was to demonstrate to the people that what you were going to do was very relevant and urgently important.”

      7. The greatest Christian blessing is to know Christ.
        1. “My request is this: That we all be honest with one another in our conversation and discussions and never profess to believe more than is actually true to our experience.” 89
        2. For many years, he placed great emphasis on experiential Christianity. He wanted no part of a dead but orthodox church.
        3. To this end, he started a Wednesday night fellowship meeting where believers would testify about their salvation. (He did not preach at these meetings.)
        4. Often workers would come straight from work, still in their dirty clothes, in order to pray and hear the testimonies. 140
        5. “If you honestly believe (and remember it is your responsibility) that you derive greater benefit by spending your day in the country than you do by attending a place of worship, well then, go to the country. Don’t come here if you honestly feel that you do better elsewhere. … All I ask of you is, be consistent. When someone dies in your family, do not come to ask the church in which you do not believe to come to bury him. Go to the seaside for consolation.” 91
        6. He knew that the churches were helping to produce false converts so he rejected the altar call and things like it.

      8. Truth is more valuable than friendship, recognition, or opportunity.
        1. As liberalism grew, the Christians in the major churches decided to talk with the unbelievers who were calling themselves Christians.
        2. However, this dialogue proceeded on the assumption that these men were true believers.
        3. By so doing, the true Christians were accepted, but so were the false.
        4. ML-J would have none of this ecumenism.
        5. He lost friends and influence because he would not endorse Billy Graham or others like him.
        6. Yet 50 years late, his fears have come true: the Christians who tried to gain more influence have actually lost their witness.
        7. ML-J loved the gospel more than influence, fame, or reputation.

      Sources

      Murray, Iain. The Life of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, single volume.
      Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Preaching and Preachers.
      Catherwood, Christopher. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
      Sargent, Tony. The Sacred Anointing.

      Posted in Biography, Book reviews | Tagged , | Leave a comment

      30 Questions for the Christian who Wants to be Sure

      Posted on 5 November 2024 by Seth Meyers

      At the end of his 11th sermon on Love from 1 Corinthians 13, Jonathan Edwards closed with these 30 questions which I read yesterday. I want to ask and answer these in my own life. Don’t you?

      1. Has grace in your life rendered your failures to be holy as loathsome, grievous, and humbling to you?
      2. Has your failure to be holy influenced your mind so as to render your past sinful practices hateful in your eyes, and has it led you to mourn before God for them?
      3. Does the grace in which you trust for your salvation render those things in your conduct that, since your supposed conversion, have been contrary to Christian practice, odious in your eyes?
      4. Is it the great burden of your life, that your holiness is no better?
      5. Is it really grievous to you, that you have fallen, or do fall into sin?
      6. Are you ready, after the example of holy Job, to abhor yourself for it, and repent in dust and ashes?
      7. Are you ready like Paul, to lament your wretchedness, and pray to be delivered from sin, as you would from a body of death?
      1. Do you carry about with you, habitually, a dread of sin?
      2. Do you not only mourn, and humble yourself for sins that are past, but have you a dread of sin for the future?
      3. Do you dread it because in itself it is evil, and so hurtful to your own soul, and offensive to God?
      4. Do you dread it as a terrible enemy that you have often suffered by, and feel that it has been a grievous thing to you heretofore?
      5. Do you dread it as something that has hurt, and wounded, and stung you, so that you would see it no more?
      6. Do you stand on your watch against it, as a man would keep watch against something that he dreads, with such a dread as led Joseph to say, “How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Gen. 39:9)
      1. Are you sensible of the beauty and pleasantness of the ways of a holy life?
      2. Do you see the beauty of holiness, and the loveliness of the ways of God and Christ?
      1. Do you find that you do particularly delight in those practices that may be called Christian practices, in distinction from mere worldly morality—by Christian practices I mean such as a meek, humble, prayerful, self-denying, self-renouncing, heavenly walk and behavior?
      2. Do you hold these self-denying virtues in special esteem, for your Savior’s sake, and because they are filled with His Spirit?
      1. Do you hunger and thirst after a holy practice?
      2. Do you long to live a holy life, to be conformed to God, to have your conduct, day by day, better regulated, and more spiritual, more to God’s glory, and more such as becomes a Christian?
      3. Is this what you love, and pray for, and long for, and live for?
      4. Does the trait of hungering and thirsting after righteousness belong to you?
      1. Do you make a business of endeavoring to live holily, and as God would have you, in all respects?
      2. Not only can you be said to endeavor after holiness, but do you make a business of endeavoring after it?
      3. Is it a matter that lies with weight upon your mind?
      4. Is this so with you that as the business of the soldier is to fight, and as the race is the great work of the racers, so your great work is to be holy as He is holy?
      5. Is it your great aim and love to keep all God’s commandments, and so far as known to neglect none?
      1. Is this your serious, constant, and prayerful aim, that you may be faithful in every known duty as the Psalmist says “Then I shall not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments”?
      1. Do you greatly desire that you may know all that is your duty?
      2. Do you desire to know it that you may do it?
      3. Can you and do you, with Elihu, pray to the Almighty, “That which I see not, teach thou me,” adding, as he added, “If I have done iniquity, I will do no more”?

      I edited them slightly, but you may read the entire book for free or listen to all 16 sermons.

      Posted in Orthopathy | Tagged , | Leave a comment

      Unknown, Yet Greatly Used: George and Sarah Boardman

      Posted on 29 October 2024 by Seth Meyers

      Scripture is filled with godly men and women who lived and served faithfully, yet they remain virtually unknown. Ahijah, Iddo, Azariah, Oded, Micaiah, Huldah, and several others whose names aren’t even listed were godly prophets.

      George and Sarah Boardman are practically unknown today, but they were giants in the faith. “…They did not love their life even when faced with death.” Revelation 12:11

      1. A gifted young lady
      1. 1803 Sarah, the oldest of 13 children, was born into a poor home where her parents’ poverty forced her to work hard.
      2. In her journal as a young girl she wrote, “My parents are not in a situation to send me to school this summer, so I must make every exertion in my power to improve at home.” Stuart 123
      3. She taught herself Latin, geometry, logic, and rhetoric.
      4. Several who knew her as a girl said that one main quality marked her life: a quiet self-restraint.
      5. “Her mind had been early trained and disciplined in that noblest of all schools, the school of adverse fortune.” Stuart, 123
      6. 1816 By 13 years old, she was already writing graceful and warm poetry.
      7. Excerpt from her poem, “Come Over and Help Us”

      Ye, on whom the glorious gospel,
      Shines with beams serenely bright,
      Pity the deluded nations,
      Wrapped in shades of dismal night;
      Ye, whose bosoms glow with rapture,
      At the precious hopes they bear;
      Ye, who know a Saviour’s mercy,
      Listen to our earnest prayer!

      See that race deluded, blinded,
      Bending at yon horrid shrine;
      Madness pictured in their faces,
      Emblems of the frantic mind;
      They have never heard of Jesus,
      Never to th’ Eternal prayed;
      Paths of death and woe they’re treading,
      Christian! Christian! Come and aid!

      By the Afric’s hope so wretched,
      Which at death’s approach shall fly;
      By the scalding tears that trickle
      From the slave’s wild sunken eye;
      By the terrors of that judgment,
      Which shall fix our final doom;
      Listen to our cry so earnest;
      Friends of Jesus, come, oh, come!

      • She has a verse on Islam and Hinduism as well.
      1. In a letter to a friend, “How can I be so inactive, when I know that… millions in other lands are at this very moment kneeling before senseless idols!”
      2. Even before her conversion, she was interested in missions, but afterwards, she guided her life by missions.
      3. 1820 She was converted and baptized at 16 years old.
      1. A gifted young man
      1. 1823 James Colman, Baptist missionary in Burma, died and calls rose from Baptist churches to send another man to replace him.
      2. At 19 years old, Sarah wrote a poem about Colman’s life and death.
      3. A 21 year old son of a pastor, George Boardman read the poem, and purposed to meet the author.
      4. George was a tall young man who loved to learn so much that he would go to school even when sick.
      5. 1817 He became a school teacher at 16 years old.
      6. 1819 He entered college at 18, but is not yet converted. The entire student body commits to pray that God will save him.
      7. 1820 God opened George’s eyes at 19 years old and he is then baptized.
      8. Immediately he turned his thoughts towards missions.
      9. The president of the college where he was a student was so impressed by this young man that he predicted George would lead the school one day.
      1. To Burma
      1. 1825 George and Sarah are married at 24 and 21 years old.
      2. The day after their wedding, they left for Burma.
      3. In his journal he wrote, “Welcome separations and farewells; welcome tears, welcome last sad embraces; welcome pangs and griefs; only let me go where my Savior calls and goes Himself; welcome toils disappointments, fatigues and sorrows; welcome and early grave!”
      4. A newspaper published that George would probably die very soon because his body was weak.
      5. While on the boat to Burma, Sarah writes that “trials, and even persecution often develop the power of Christian principle and the strength of religious faith; while ease and outward prosperity seem to lull the souls of believers into an unworthy sloth and a sinful conformity with the world around them.”
      6. Before she arrived at Burma, she writes a lengthy letter to her brother: “My brother, have you a heart to pray to God? Have you repented and turned to Him? Or are you careless and indifferent respecting your precious soul? … You must stand before a righteous God at the judgment day. What will be the state of your soul if Jesus is not your friend? Think of this.”
      7. 1827 When they arrive in Burma at 27 and 24, they have a little girl, the first of three children.
      1. Their first house in Maulmain
      1. 1828 In January, they moved about 50 k’s from the other missionaries to Maulmain.
      2. Their new home was made of bamboo and could easily be cut open with a machete.
      3. They were robbed by a band of armed thugs late at night in this dangerous location and house.
      4. Upon seeing that her husband and child were safe she wrote, “I quite forgot the stolen goods, and thought only of the treasure that was spared. … If ever the world appeared to me worthless as vanity, and if ever I wished to dedicate myself, my husband, my babe, my all, to our great Redeemer, it was at that time.”
      5. This was only one of numerous dangers including a massive forest fire, snakes, and tigers.
      1. Ministry with the Karens
      1. They move again about 250 k’s to Tavoy, and a 50-year old new convert, Ko Tha Byu, moved with them.
      2. Ko Tha Byu had previously been guilty of at least 30 murders, but since Judson led him to Christ, he has helped the missionaries.
      3. In Tavoy, they engage to evangelize the unreached Karen people.
      4. The Karens worshipped a single God whom they call “Yuwah.”
      5. They believe the one true God had spoken to them and made them poor and miserable because of their sin. He had given a message to them, but they had lost it, and now they must wait until the message returns to them.
      6. One of their songs:

      When the Karen king arrives
      Everything will be happy;
      When Karens have a king
      Wild beasts will be tame. Stuart 153

      1. George wrote, “Their whole [religious] system has a tendency to cramp their intellectual powers.
      2. They were accustomed to believing without evidence, denying regardless of sense experience, and attributing causes without good reason. Stuart 196
      3. The Burmese call these people wild, ignorant, and savage. The Karen people had long been slaves of the Burmese.
      1. Sickness returns
      1. 1829 Both George and Sarah are violently ill.
      2. Upon recovery, George prepares a 3 week trip into the jungle to evangelize the Karen people; Sarah is left in the hut with 2 infants.
      3. In another letter at this time she wrote, “Some of these poor Burmans, who are daily carried to the grave, may at last reproach me and say, ‘You came, it is true, to the city where we dwelt, to tell of heaven and hell, but wasted much, much of your precious time in indolence while learning our language. And when you were able to speak, why were you not incessantly telling us of this day of doom, when we visited you?’”
      4. George wrote in his journal, “We considered ourselves worthy to be trodden under foot of men, and were astonished to think of our pride and selfishness. … We were filled with the most distressing views of our utter sinfulness in the sight of God.”
      5. Then their baby girl dies at 2 years and 8 months.
      6. Then the Burmese revolt against the British and suddenly bullets are flying through their hut.
      7. During all these weeks and months, George is evangelizing with Ko Tha Byu among the Karen people.
      8. 1830 George’s sickness returns and Sarah sees that he will be dead in a few more months.
      9. As George is recovering, Sarah and her second child are then attacked by disease and only the mother recovers.
      10. “Both of these devoted missionaries knew, however, that the best defence against such trials as they endured, is found in a steady performance of duty. … How different from those who make a sot of merit of ‘indulging the luxury of grief;’ and show their regard for the memory of the dead by neglecting their duties to the living!” Stuart 172
      11. To his family in America from his deathbed he wrote, “A perfectly right action, with perfectly right motives, I never performed, and never shall perform, till freed from this body of sin. An unprofitable servant, is the most appropriate epitaph for my tombstone.” Stuart 174
      1. Revival among the Karen
      1. George and Sarah took a three-day hike with George being carried on a bed into the jungle.
      2. There they saw scores of Karen believers testifying and being baptized.
      3. The change was nothing short of a miracle considering that three years earlier the entire people group had been degraded in ignorance and false religion.
      4. The trip satisfied George deeply and he had no regrets though he anticipated that the extra strain hastened his death.
      5. Both he and Sarah assumed that missionary service meant a shorter life.
      6. After the baptism service, he addressed the believers in a weak voice pleading with them to persevere so that they would see each other in glory.
      7. During the hike back to their home, a heavy rain drenched him, and they were forced to beg for housing with the Burmese.
      8. However, the Burmese would not permit them to enter the house since they were teachers of the new religion.
      9. On his death, Adoniram Judson wrote, “One of the brightest luminaries of Burma is extinguished, dear brother Boardman is gone to his eternal rest. He fell gloriously at the head of his troops, in the arms of victory, thirty-seven wild Karens having been brought into the camp of our king since the beginning of the year, besides the thirty-two that were brought in during the two preceding years.”
      10. Judson had waited 6 full years for his first convert, and Boardman had seen 10 times that numbers in 4 years.
      11. By his death in 1831, Boardman saw 70 Christians, mostly Karens.
      12. By the 1850’s, the church counted more than 10,000 members.
      13. By 1980, 150 years after the beginning of his preaching, there were 100,000 Christians among the Karens.
      1. Sarah without George
      1. Judson wrote to Sarah, “I can assure you, that months and months of heart rending anguish are before you, whether you will or not. I can only advise you to take the cup with both hands… You will soon learn a secret, that there is sweetness at the bottom.”
      2. A few weeks after her husband passed away, she was teaching 80 Karens who came to her house with 20 new candidates for baptism.
      3. Rather than take her only remaining child and return home to America, she filled her schedule with evangelism and translating.
      4. Sarah administered and taught in Karen schools as well as traveling through the jungle evangelizing with her 7 year old boy.
      1. Sarah with Adoniram
      1. For three years, Sarah served the Karen people until Judson came to visit her.
      2. 1834 Four days later, the 30-year old Sarah was joined to the 46-year old Judson.
      3. “She was altogether different from Nancy—calmer, less dominant, with less fire, but perhaps more glow.” Anderson, 413
      4. 11 children were born to Sarah, 3 to George and 8 to Adoniram, but only 7 lived to adulthood.
      5. Sarah learned Burmese when she arrived, and then Karen to reach that tribe. Eventually she added Taling in order to translate the catechism.
      6. While mothering 8 children to Adoniram over 10 years, she wrote Burmese hymns, a children’s curriculum, and translated part of The Pilgrim’s Progress.
      7. She sent away her first son to be educated in America, but God answered the dying prayers of George Sr. by making George Jr. a godly pastor long after his parents were dead.
      8. 1845 Before her 42nd birthday with seven of her 11 children still alive, Sarah passed away in the loving arms of her second husband.
      9. Eventually, 3 of her sons would become pastors, one a doctor, one a soldier (in the US Civil War), and her daughter a teacher.
      1. Lessons from the Boardmans
      1. Biblical view of death
      2. Urgency in evangelism
      3. The necessity of genuine spirituality to Christian ministry
      4. Sweet and happy marriage

      Sources

      • Stuart, The Three Mrs. Judsons, pages 115-216.
      • Anderson, To the Golden Shore, pages 380-440.
      • Tucker, From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya, pages 130-132.
      • Neil, A History of Christian Missions, pages 294-295.
      • George and Sarah Boardman modeled

      Posted in Biography, Missions | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

      Abortion is Not the Only Issue to Control Voting

      Posted on 14 October 2024 by Seth Meyers

      It is a habit that needs to end to say that my vote is controlled by whether a candidate supports the murder of babies. This morning while working on visa papers again, I listened to a discussion from 4 pastors about voting. As I listened, I immediately thought of pastors that I know who have spoken about politics. Several come to mind who had advanced degrees and yet were reticent to openly support Trump. On the other hand, three, faithful, honorable pastors that I can think of who had little formal training, were all happy to support Trump openly.

      In the discussion linked to above, the main issue that was discussed was abortion. And I can understand that. Many times as a kind of shorthand, I have communicated to Africans that I could not support Barack Obama because he encouraged the murder of children. I have said that I could never support baby murder.

      There may, however, be other issues that we should consider even though abortion is certainly an important matter. In our world, there are always—and only—tradeoffs. When I spend a morning opposing abortion, I cannot spend the same time writing my Sunday sermon. If I send $50 to Prager U for their excellent videos, I cannot send that same money to Ted Cruz for his campaign.

      1. Living child mutillation

      Trans gender surgeries are child mutilation whereby their bodies are permanently damaged. Some politicians support this grotesque and demonic practice and force the citizens to pay for it. And the entire society is catechized that they should begin to accustom themselves to this. Ought we not to consider child mutilation when we vote? This was not a concern because no one had pressed depravity to this level 50 years ago, but it is something which we must consider now when we vote.

      2. Safety from murder

      Politicians can protect their citizens by maintaining the police and punishing crime. However, some politicians promote pro-criminal, anti-victim, and anti-citizen policies. Illegal aliens kill many citizens every year. Should those lives be considered when voting? It is a terrible sin to kill a baby, but what about killing an adult? Laken Riley was a young adult American citizen murdered by an illegal alien who was allowed to enter the country because of evil policies. Shouldn’t we vote to protect her as well as the unborn baby? My pro-life voting does not end with the unborn, but with college students as well, and I have reason to believe that a Trump presidency will save many more lives .

      Illegal aliens allowed to enter the US by evil policies have hurt American citizens very badly. Compare the crime of illegals during the last 8 years in this government chart remembering that the first 4 columns were under Trump and the last four under Harris.

      Conviction Type20172018201920202021202220232024
      Assault, Battery, Domestic Violence6925242992081,1781,1421,254991
      Burglary, Robbery, Larceny, Theft, Fraud595347184143825896864626
      Homicide, Manslaughter332360622927
      Illegal Drug Possession, Trafficking1,2498714493862,1382,2392,0551,414
      Sexual Offenses1378058156488365284202

      American citizens were murdered 20 times more by non-citizens during Harris’ term. Why don’t we hear strong, dogmatic concern for those lives? And that is only murders—think of the horrific numbers of child rape, beating, and drug use! Do these lives have no value to be neglected when godly pastors speak of the Christian’s duty?

      3. Safety from war

      If there is an active war at the time of an election or the credible threat of a looming war, voters ought to consider the lives that have been lost or might be lost. Judging from the likely factors, it seems that the terrorist attack on Israel would not have happened on 7 October 2023 had Donald Trump been the president. Should we not love our neighbors by considering the 13 Americans murdered by the democrat withdrawal from Afghanistan? Those lives would not have been lost had we voted in a better candidate. There is good reason to think that the lives lost in the Ukraine war would have been saved had Trump been president. Why not consider those lives, godly pastor, when you counsel your people regarding voting?

      When considering the US elections next month, it seems likely that other lives will be lost in conflicts with China, Korea, Iran, Russia, and Turkey if Trump is not the US president. Why is protection for these lives not a clear factor in a pastor’s counsel to his people? War kills not only soldiers, but civilians, and not only lives but budgets. Historically, it makes missionary service difficult and commonly stunts the growth of Christianity. Is it not good to vote so that peace will be maintained?

      4. Protection of America

      What other country was founded on an idea? What other country has done so much for liberty? What other country saved so many other countries by itself in World War I and again in World War II and again in the fight against communism?

      What other country has given the world so many inventions like cars, laptops, and cell phones? What other country invests so many billions of dollars to build companies around the world and lift its people out of the dirt? What other country is changing the world year by year with technology?

      What other country is followed by every other country with courts who balance the president? What other country teaches the world about free speech? What other country brings justice to all its citizens as equal before the law?

      What other country sends out so many evangelists? What other country sends so many dollars to poor pastors around the world? What other country has helped with hospitals and schools through its citizens’ lives and gifts?

      America is unique. She deserves gratitude and respect from every Christian. Muslims recognize this when they hate America, but yet are still drawn there by all her benefits. When pastors talk about voting, they ought to remember that it is a Christian duty to preserve such a signal providence as God showed on the world in 1776.

      Every poor pastor getting some of the $12 million per year from HeartCry missionary society ought to be thanking God and publicly supportive of America. Every convert from an American missionary ought to pray for the protection of that country. Every US missionary making his salary from American believers ought to thank God for his passport and pray for America to flourish. Every US pastor who leads a middle class life because his members can pay him should stand up for the national anthem.

      Specifically, Harris has pulled men from all around the world into America illegally diluting the laws, language, and culture and is aiming to make them a new electorate. Either she is incompetent to realize that she is on course to destroy America, or she demonically hopes to do so.

      In elections in the USA, men should consider whether a candidate will make America great or diminish her divinely given torch. Will a candidate protect religious freedom so that we can teach all that Jesus commanded, guard free speech so that we can speak against perversion, and preserve an economy that shoulders nearly all the world’s mission works? Are these small things to be neglected?

      5. Protection of private property

      It is a sin to steal, yet many candidates run on a platform of promoting theft by increasing taxes and giving out other people’s money. This is a sin even though murder is a greater sin. Since Christians use their money to pay pastors, build church buildings, finance seminaries, publish books, translate Bibles, print literature, open schools, and send missionaries, we must not neglect to vote on the economy.

      Yes, abortion deserves more attention than the economy, but even that must be measured. Murdering a baby who was born alive is even worse than murdering a baby at week 30 which is itself worse than taking an abortion pill when the child is 4 weeks old. How can we compare saving one baby’s life with losing 5,000 troops in war? As long as we are on the earth, we must make trade off’s between doing one good thing and avoiding another good thing.

      Though we ought to vote to save the lives of unborn babies, it is not safe to say that abortion is the only issue on which to vote. Further, men who forget the evil of Roe v. Wade and the strength of character Trump showed to get his Supreme Court nominees seated, are ungrateful. I remember praying for years that God would overturn that abominable 1973 decision. America and the pro life cause are better because a president appointed judges who made the right call in 2022.

      We should not struggle with this: It is a sin to support Harris with a vote or money. And it is particularly bad judgment not to see all the other lives and precious things that must be protected along with the lives of unborn babies.

      Posted in Politics | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

      8 Proofs and 12 Descriptions of Christian Hatred

      Posted on 11 October 2024 by Seth Meyers

      Hatred is a Christian duty. Our Lord was chosen because He hated iniquity (Heb. 1:9). Believers hate even the spots of sin on their robes of righteousness. Twice Jesus said His disciple must “hate his life in this world” (John 12:25 and Luke 14:26). Repentance is hatred. The Baptist Confession of 1689 says that as God hates (2.1), so must the Christian (15.3).

      What should we hate?

      1. We ought to hate what brings the most hateful end.

      Sin brings us to eternal wrath and torment (Rev. 21:8, 27). There is no language in Scripture more extreme than the descriptions of the end of the wicked. Such terms are fierce and heavy, and yet it is only sin that justifies such heavy terms. Evil men will immediately hate the sentence of eternal condemnation when it is finally realized by them. But it is sin only and always that will bring, has brought, and must bring this result. Therefore, sin should be hated by all the wise right now.

      1. We ought to hate what opposes the most beautiful end.

      Proposition #1: Sin defiles the glory of God.
      Proposition 2: The glory of God is most beautiful.
      Conclusion: Therefore, sin defiles that which is most beautiful.

      Proposition #1: Sin defiles that which is most beautiful.
      Proposition #2: Whatever defiles the most beautiful should be hated.
      Conclusion: Therefore, sin should be hated.

      Proposition #1: Sin should be hated because it defiles God’s beauty.
      Proposition #2: God’s beauty is only defiled by sin.
      Conclusion: Therefore, sin only should be hated.

      1. We ought to hate that which has brought the most pain and destruction in history.

      Only sin is responsible for the pain of history. In the last book of John Milton’ Paradise Lost, an angel shows Adam prophetically what will happen in the future because of his sin. It is a long and terrifying catalogue of the murders, heartbreak, wars, and demonic activity. This long story of the earth is a continuous saga of sin and its effects.

      Sin made Satan from a glorious, holy angel. Sin introduced the mind-numbing, false religions that have trapped the world’s populations in ignorance and poverty. There would be no conflict in any story without sin. And the reason we want a happy ending is that the sin of the story will finally be set right. If you like good stories, then you know instinctively that sin should be hated.

      1. We ought to hate what the evil love before all else.

      The men in Sodom were struck blind, but then, in their blindness, in the face of a miracle, they tired themselves searching for the door to the house which they were kept from finding if in any way even in their defeated condition, they might pursue and fulfill their passion for sin.

      Evil men are addicted to sin. All their conclusions are bound up in it. Freud thought sexual desire controlled men, and Marx thought greed, yet they are both partly right, and totally wrong. Their theories seem plausible to academics today because it is so palpably obvious that men have an unstoppable urge for fulfilling their desires in sinful ways.

      Sinners drink iniquity (Job 15:16), and they devour it like a lion takes raw meat (Pro. 19:28). They think it is a dessert to enjoy (Job 20:12), and they make it the goal of their lives (Hos. 4:8).

      Old tastes for sin pass away, and all his tastes become new when a man is born again.

      1. We ought to hate what the best have rightly hated.

      The Son of God hated sin, and this was one of the reasons the Father chose Him for the mission of Redemption (Heb. 1:9 cf. Ps. 45:7).

      David hated every sinful thing (Ps. 101:3; 119:104, 163).

      The prophets reference their hatred for sin repeateddly. (Ezek. 35:6; Hos. 9:15; Zech. 8:17; et. al.)

      Ralph Venning wrote 300 pages trying to stir men to hate sin. John Bunyan does the same in his The Holy War where individual sins have names and the heroes must kill them one by one.

      The best Christians, those who saw revival, those whom God used, those who converted many, those who wrote the songs that strengthen us today, all hated sin.

      1. We ought to hate what has harmed the highest good of those we love.

      Do we love our children if we let some great danger live near to them and grow among them? And when they are ravaged by it and cry out under its effects, do we have any love if we do not despise the cause of their suffering? If we do not look for the dangers that will come to them and hate that thing, are we in any way good parents? True love must have some hate in it.

      When vile beasts were attempting the greatest outrages on my dear family in 2014, I thank God that He helped me to burn against them in righteous anger. How much more then will we not hate the sin that would eternally murder our little children and happy wives?

      1. We ought to hate what we have been expressly commanded by God to hate.

      The Bible tells us to hate this one thing and only this thing.

      Hate evil, you who love the LORD. Psalm 97:10

      The fear of the LORD is to hate evil. Proverbs 8:13

      Hate evil, love good. Amos 5:15

      Abhor what is evil. Romans 12:9

      What more do we need than a word from the Lord?

      1. We ought to hate what our best and most natural impulses tend to hate.

      Man’s nature is dead in sin, blind to sin, and bent to desire evil. And yet deep in the soul of every man lies still the image of God such that some evils when conceived appear immediately loathsome and vile unless by long practice, he has become accustomed even to these grotesque actions.

      How does this fit with the fourth point above? Simply that men are inconsistent because of sin itself. The common grace of God’s image makes us all naturally hate some sins while at the same time secretly opposing our own best interests and judgments. Sin alone brings inconsistency, but from the beginning it was not so. The remnants of that original beauty speak through our consciences and tell us so that we all truly know sin is the sole object worthy of hatred.

      How can we describe the hatred of sin that we ought to feel?

      1. We ought to hate sin urgently by running from both sin and temptation to it.
      2. We ought to hate sin constantly day by day in a repeating schedule.
      3. We ought to hate sin consistently with every other duty and grace.
      4. We ought to hate sin carefully by examining our motives, impulses, and responses.
      5. We ought to hate sin simply without regarding circumstance, personality, or culture.
      6. We ought to hate sin publicly by condemning it with words.
      7. We ought to hate sin verbally by confession of it.
      8. We ought to hate sin comparatively by the holiness of God and His Son.
      9. We ought to hate sin fearfully by reviewing divine judgments and our own history of failure.
      10. We ought to hate sin ultimately by seeing it as the cause of the cross.
      11. We ought to hate sin logically by searching through each category of our lives.
      12. We ought to hate sin wisely by anticipating where it might lurk or trap us.

      Only one thing should hated because God’s hatred is very simple. But hating sin is hard and exhausting and will bring many others—even Christians—to conflict with you. Be strong in the Lord to hate sin and only sin.

      Posted in Definitions, Orthopathy | Tagged , | Leave a comment

      The Purpose of Missionary Suffering

      Posted on 9 October 2024 by Seth Meyers

      The church at Corinth is about 5 years old, when Paul writes his first letter to them. A few months later, news reaches him that the believers have listened and obeyed. So he pulls out his pen again to encourage and comfort them. The first chapter of his second letter to the Corinthians uses the word “comfort” more than anywhere else in Scripture.

      But this morning, I saw something surprising.

      Paul is about 55 years old. He has planting churches for about 8 years and has seen 12 or more churches planted. But he has also suffered, and he tells us about it 4 times in 2 Corinthians 1:8-11; 4:8-11; 6:3-10; and 11:23-28. While he was in Corinth, sinners cursed him, took him to court, and beat one of his converts (Acts 18:1-17). And of course, he was greatly discouraged so much that he wanted to leave the city and perhaps mission work entirely.

      When he writes 2 Corinthians, at the very beginning, he shows that all of his suffering as a missionary is intended by God to produce true faith in the hearts of those on his mission field.

      And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: 2 Corinthians 1:6

      The purpose that should motivate a missionary to go through his pain and hardship is the spiritual comfort and ultimately the salvation of the natives to whom he is bringing the gospel. And when the missionary sees the new converts taking strength from his example, that produces even more ability to endure on and on.

      What does a missionary suffer?

      1. Learning an undeveloped language—Many missionaries experience some or all of these: no language school, no Bible, no dictionary, no internet videos, no songs, no vast vocabulary.
      2. Increased crime—Paul the apostle experienced crime because he was a churchplanter, and many missionaries put themselves in higher risk areas because of their calling.
      3. Being lied to over and over resulting in wasted time, temptations to bitterness and anger, and sometimes theft or injury.
      4. Working with governments for visas and land ownership—Unfeeling bureaucrats make life very stressful for missionaries often by their simple incompetence and apathy.
      5. Very small ministries—A church might meet for years with less than 10 people, for example: 2 grandmas, 4 youth, 2 women, and 1 man with no husband and wife units.
      6. Rejection and apathy in evangelism—The despair that comes from being constantly rejected, mocked, or ignored feels like staying awake for a week without sleep.
      7. Unusual diseases and inferior medical care—This can be a very heavy weight especially for the mother.
      8. Living far from family—help with child birth, phone calls in the same time zone, more frequent visits, sympathy of shared cultural experiences.
      9. Unique conflicts with other Christians—From supporters, to converts, to friends, interpersonal tension can be very stressful.

      The list does not include beating, poverty, and famine like Paul because those are not so common in the modern world though some certainly experience this as well.

      The great insight that struck me today was that all these hardships endured with manly grace and kindness show to the new converts the nature of Christianity in such warm and lively colors that they too find faith kindled in their hearts. We suffer for their salvation, not to remove the Father’s wrath, but our suffering persuades them to the truth of the doctrines we have preached.

      Sixteen days ago, I received a voice note from a first generation Tsonga believer saying that after watching the life of a missionary he had learned what true Christianity is. I think that is what Paul is saying, and I had never seen it before.

      In other words, Missionaries endure every hardship for the sake of the elect so that they might be saved.

      Posted in Missions | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

      Ernest Creux: Missionary to the Tsongas

      Posted on 3 October 2024 by Seth Meyers

      The Swiss Mission to the Tsongas

      1. In Switzerland in 1861, a 16 year old man named Ernest Creux devoted himself to be a missionary.
      2. Matt. 24:14 convicted him: This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.
      3. His dear friend Paul Berthoud agreed to go with him.
      4. The church decided to send them to Africa, and the easiest way to enter at that time was through the Cape.
      5. At 26 years old, Creux arrived in Lesotho. Nine months later, Paul joined him.
      6. 1873, Creux and Berthoud depart from Lesotho and travel to Limpopo.
      7. At this time, cannibalism was still practiced among both the Tsonga and Venda peoples after victory in a war.
      8. There were no schools, no Bibles, no shops, no churches, and no clothing (or very little).
      9. Further, the black slave trade was still active with black chiefs trying to buy guns from the white men with black slaves stolen from other tribes.
      10. They purchase a farm to use as a mission station, and name it Valdezia after their home town, Vaud.
      11. Hundreds of years earlier, the Waldensians lived in area where France, Italy, and Switzerland joined.
      12. In French they were called the Vaudois—and their descendants brought the gospel to the Tsongas.
      13. 1876, The first Tsonga believer: Lydia Sehlumula.
      14. The two missionaries were both imprisoned for 6 weeks by the British government because it was afraid their preaching would stir up political trouble.
      15. 1875, Ernest’s little girl dies.
      16. 1879, Paul’s wife and little girl dies.
      17. Within four weeks of April alone (presumably 1879), each family lost two more children.
      18. Example: In 1835 alone, 30 of 78 missionaries sent to West Africa died within one year.
      19. 1879, Paul Berthoud returns to Switzerland broken in health and family.
      20. The record in Tsonga records that “the love these men had for the black people was greater than the love which they had for themselves.”
      21. One Tsonga believer stood at the grave of the children as they were being buried: “You have passed my parents in love for me. These graves will judge anyone who rejects the the doctrine of God [that you have brought.]”
      22. Circa 1880, Creux purchases the farm named Elim in hopes that the sicknesses will be less severe.
      23. 1882, Chief Njhakanjhaka at Elim declared that the people could learn from the missionaries if they wanted to.
      24. Before the end of 1882, the church in Elim was sending out Tsonga men to preach in other villages.
      25. After 10 years of work among the Tsongas: 5 churchplants; 180 baptized members; 350 in attendance each Sunday; 1-2 missionaries.
      26. Compare this with the German missionaries working 50 kilometers away among the Vendas: 184 church members after 10 years; 326 after 20 years; 4-5 missionary couples.
      27. 1884-1889, Creux, his wife, and four other children return to Switzerland.
      28. Creux commonly wrote songs in Tsonga for the churches, at least 72.
      29. 1898, 3,000 people gather for the 25th anniversary of the missionaries.
      30. At this celebration, Chief Njhakanjhaka broke down and testified publicly that God had humbled him and made him to believe.
      31. 1902, Creux left Elim to be stationed in Pretoria at 57 years old.
      32. There in Pretoria he opened churches for the lepers and other terminally ill Africans until he was 79.
      33. His tomb stone reads: “For 53 years a missionary and a father in God to the Native Peoples.”
      34. His wife passed away after him in 1932.
      35. The Tsonga Bible was first translated in 1907, and it was revised in 1929, the year of Creux’s death. It is this translation that we still use today.
      36. The Swiss missionaries continued to come and join the team. They published the Bible, wrote a song book, developed Tsonga grammars, started schools, and opened a hospital.
      37. But Satan was active at the same time. The final chapter of the Swiss mission is a fulfillment of the warning in 1 Timothy 4:1.
      38. They joined the liberal World Council of Churches. Some of their missionaries taught evolution and the social gospel (see Junod’s two volume anthropology).
      39. The change was so complete that a Tsonga man and member of the Swiss Church in 2013 attacked the missionaries as rude, aggressive, thieving, brutal, selfish, fierce, hypocritical, treacherous, money-loving tricksters. (And that is only the first 3 pages of his 16 page attack on the missionaries and Christianity.) Halala, “Matimu ya EPCSA”
      40. Though they gave us the Bible, I have found very few Christians–born again, Bible readers–among the Tsongas.

      Lessons

      1. Jesus calls us to sacrifice our lives and even our families for the evangelization of the lost.
      2. Men do not easily leave their religion. They will pretend to be Christians in order to get some benefit. But it is rare that they are prepared to leave their culture, way of life, beliefs, and sinful habits.
      3. Many good beginnings slip into apostasy after time.
      Posted in Biography, Missions | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

      5 Reasons Every Christian Should Vote for Trump

      Posted on 1 October 2024 by Seth Meyers
      1. The unique strengths of America ought to be protected.

      America sends out the most missionaries by far of any country in the world. Practically speaking, its wealth and freedom are two major reasons why the churches are able to devote so much energy to missions. Of course, He who sits in the Heavens can raise up missionaries from an impoverished realm of men dwelling in huts. But it has not been so in history, and we ought not to count on miracles to save us from poor husbandry of such a great gift to the modern church as America’s believers.

      Every missionary-loving Christian should rejoice at the prosperity of America, but that is not all. Its emphasis on freedom of speech and equality under the law has influenced many governments around the world in a more Biblical, humane direction. The best books and the best publishing houses are largely coming from the USA. The strongest opposition to Islamic terrorism comes from the USA.

      Yes, good things can come from hard times, and perhaps that is God’s sovereign will for the future of the country that has sent more missionaries and planted more churches than any in 2,000 years. But Paul told Timothy to pray that citizens might live a quiet, peaceful, godly, and honest life. Trump is by far the better path to such a life, and so it is a Christian duty not only to pray for such a life, but to vote as well.

      1. The other side is uniquely evil.

      As if it were only a small beginning to rejoice in sodomy, the democrats now press on to overcome every distinction of male and female. Democrats try to force women to accept men in their bathrooms, schools, sports, prisons, and meetings. They despise Biblical manhood and spit on the gentle beauty of femininity. Not being content to teach society, they would codify this evil in numerous, binding laws.

      In their eyes it is a sin to place any restriction on the murder of babies. Their leaders take smiling photos in the deadly offices of Planned Parenthood. They give money to such abortion mills. They are not shocked at murdering even those little ones who have been born alive. Though they hate freedom in the best sense, they promote freedom from the consequences of their own wicked lifestyles.

      The democrats despise America, and every Christian should ask themselves, Why? They have no regard for her Constitution, but instead choose judges that would rewrite, overlook, and contradict it. They give police powers to non-citizens, open the doors for illegal aliens to vote, and force through unjust taxation the honest citizens to pay for food, medicine, and education for criminals. They have opened the borders and dangled carrots in front of the rest of the world to rush in so that the culture can be diluted as quickly as possible. When criminal invaders murder, rape, and steal from the citizens, the democrats are quick to overlook or even pay for their legal deliverance. And of course, these illegals are being allowed to vote which will change all future elections. Many times elections are decided by 100,000 or fewer votes, and already 15-20 million illegal invaders have been let in. Even Elon Musk can see this now.

      The democrat nominees for judges are almost all extremely leftist. They let rapists go free, charge fathers with non-crimes, attack masculinity and femininity, and overthrow the rule of law. The Biden nominees are almost every one anti-law, anti-Christian, and anti-victim. The destruction of the judiciary is an attack on the rule of law.

      Paul Kengor in his excellent books on communism has showed again and again how communism regroups after each defeat to come back in a stronger, more virulent form. This most violent of all ideologies is surging into the ears of students by the promotion of the democrats. It has now reformed like a nightmare demon into Cultural Marxism whereby the politicians, educators, masters of technology, and media personalities are dominated by it. Generally, conservatives start businesses because their focus is on their families and churches. But if your life is not structured around family and church, then you will devote yourself to entertainment or “great causes” such as restructuring society. The democrats are mastered by communism in this form (if you doubt this at all, check the linked historical paper), and it is such a sin for a Christian to support this idea that it calls their Christianity into question.

      But this is not all. Though no wars were started from 2016-2020, there is now a war in Ukraine and Israel. John Milton imagined in the last book of Paradise Lost how evil is the action of war. Who can fathom it? War is such a terror that we must search every possible way out of it unless there is no other way. The democrats and a majority of the republicans, however, start wars in nearly every term. Let us not forget how terrible it is for a young man’s life to be ended in a bomb blast. Very few wars in the world ought to have been fought; nearly all are unjust and evil. America could have an influential effect on peace around the world, but a vote for the democrats in 2024 is a vote for the deaths of many young men, not only from our citizens but from the militaries of other countries.

      Though the list of evils promoted by the big-government, globalist, leftist regime could go on, I come lastly to theft. Inflation, unjust taxation, most government spending, grants to poor people, inefficient laws, federal control of medicine, wasteful lawsuits, international aid to foreign countries, foolish wars, university subsidies, unbalanced budgets, and the majority of the salaries of government workers are all kinds of stealing. The democrats promote these, and their combined effects reduce the wealth that believers have available to train their children, send missionaries, build churches, and support Bible translations. Satan comes to steal, and his children are known by this family birthmark.

      I am not saying, “This is the most important election of our lives!” No, I am saying that in this election of November 2024, these evils are uniquely seen on one side more than on the other, and much more than in times past.

      1. There is a unique alignment of hatred toward him.

      Between evil men and good men lies a mutual abhorrence as king Solomon observed in Proverbs 29:27. Who hates Trump? The democrats call him Hitler and tried already to assassinate him more than once. They impeached him twice groundlessly even after he left office. The hoaxes about Russia and Ukraine were both proven false years after they were raised at great expense to the taxpayers and the candidate, yet there has been not only no apology, but a constant assembly line of more. He has been sued in four different courts without basis. His home was illegally raided by armed government officials. The Department of Justice, the FBI, the CIA, and now even the Secret Service have all been shown to have employees with influence who tried to attack him. The director of the FBI publicly doubted that he was shot in the face though the entire world saw it. Joining all these government assets, the worst republicans have refused to support him as well. The government that the Founding Fathers warned us about hates Trump.

      The main stream media such as the most popular television channels have given more than 90% negative coverage to the 100% positive coverage of Harris. The New York Times, The Washington Post, and most other newspapers who delight in taxation, abortion, sodomy, and cultural Marxism seethe with hatred at Trump. The press hates Trump.

      He was banned from Twitter, FaceBook, and YouTube meaning the masters of technology are against him. Google searches raised false and evil stories about him, burying positive statements. Amazon’s Alexa will not say anything positive about him, and books that praise him have had their covers changed or their distribution limited.

      In general, the more unchristian a group’s stance is, the more likely that group will hate Trump. When all the devils of Hell direct their attacks on a single enemy, you are generally safe in supporting him.

      1. His policies and previous administration are generally consistent with Christianity.

      What Christian could disagree with his 20 policy positions?

      Close the border—In other words, he will oppose multiculturalism. There is a meaning to American culture and American citizenship is the gateway to full membership in that culture. Currently, citizenship is being offered to large numbers of people who do not share the language, the work ethic, or the commitment to law. And many of them are drug dealers, child traffickers, and violent criminals.

      Lower taxes—Since any unbiblical tax is theft, lower taxes almost always glorify God. Trump respects private property.

      Relative international peace—One of the greatest achievements of his first term is simply refraining from wars. Tucker Carlson mentioned that the international policy of America controls the politicians because there is so much money involved in war. Trump was a good president because he allowed no money to be stolen for unjust wars, and no lives to be lost on the same—the first president in many years.

      Stop the government attacks on US citizens—Since the democrat party is now controlled by men who want to reshape American culture away from its Christian roots, then they want to frighten those who hold to traditional values by arresting law abiding citizens. Trump will stop this at least for his term.

      Election integrity—There is no good reason to use computers for voting or to have voting extend multiple days. Trump has promised to introduce legislation or an executive order for something so important and obvious as same-day, citizen-only, paper-ballot elections.

      Stop transgender insanity—Trump will issue an executive order to stop men from invading women’s bathrooms or sports.

      Pro Israel—In the most careful, precise exercise of military power against a foe that intentionally hides among civilians, Israel is fighting for its life with groups that have promised to absolutely destroy the nation. Trump will be supportive of the nation of Israel to exist and defend itself.

      Cut regulations—The best government makes very few rules, but Biden’s government is pouring out rules. Trump cut rules and will do so again.

      Conservative judges—In his first term, 234 judges were appointed almost all of whom are constitutionalists. Biden on the other hand has done 213 so far and a shocking number are activists who want to write law rather than interpret it. This single category alone is enough to make Trump the best choice since many judges sit for a life-time appointment.

      1. There are no substantive reasons why a Christian should not support him for president.

      I have no evidence that Trump is a Christian, but neither have I heard anything other than superficial critiques of him.

      Today I read several leftist websites listing the reasons Trump was a bad president. The reasons overlapped as if they were all reading from the same script. The list from the New York Times included that he is a racist, he hates immigrants, he did not release his tax returns, he wants paper ballots, he tried to stop Obama-care, he is an isolationist in foreign policy, he boasts, he refused to help stop climate change, he cut taxes (yes, that was a weakness), he failed in COVID, and he removed regulations. Other authors listed that he appointed conservative judges, overturned Roe v. Wade, and lost jobs for Americans. Do you think these are valid reasons to let Kamala Harris in office?

      But what did the conservative critiques of Trump say? He is not pro-life. He supports homosexuality. He is proud, angry, rude, immature, and petty. These were the most substantial critiques I could find from conservatives. On both pro-life and homosexuality, I could wish he were stronger. But is it good judgment to reject his good policy positions when so many fires are burning? The same thing goes for his personality. While I could desire the character of Joseph and the statesman’s speech of Ezra, it is a matter to be overlooked after making a remark about it.

      By several measures, Trump’s net worth went down after his presidency, and he worked for free returning $1.6 million in his salary to the government. For the privilege of carrying the heaviest job in secular society, he is in court, maligned, and losing the chance to retire in luxury. My job is more important as a church planter and evangelist, but I can at least unequivocally support my country by endorsing Donald Trump for president.

      Posted in Pastoral | Tagged , | 1 Comment

      A Prayer to be Kept from Falling

      Posted on 30 September 2024 by Seth Meyers

      Yesterday, two members at one of our church plants appeared to be falling away. Last week, we heard of another man who has fallen terribly. In that light, let us pray to be delivered.

      To the One who is able to keep me from falling, I do address my prayer. My mind is troubled by my own sin. My heart is disturbed by so many temptations, but mostly from the fact that they come from within. It is my own self that would destroy me. My worst enemy is inside my gates.

      And today I am troubled because I have seen how many strong ones this inner foe has cast down. It is a match too great for me. In my own library I have a Greek New Testament that was given to me by the woman whose husband made a pretense to teach himself the original languages only to leave her and his big efforts for the pleasures of sin—a modern Samson, except he did not repent in the end. On another shelf is The Knowledge of the Holy by Tozer which I received at 20 from a dedicated pastor who had started several churches, yet he too, fell away in his 70’s! Lord, who is safe? Another large book about salvation from another shelf was written by a man whose double life was revealed just recently. In total, I have counted 4 books on my shelves that were written or given by good men who fell. Lord God, save me!

      Art thou not the Almighty God? Art thou not the One who freely distributes strength to the weak, eagles wings to those who cannot walk, and warrior hearts to those in the battle? Who is weak if not me? Who is a paralyzed beggar if not me? Who is a worm, a man sold under sin, an unprofitable servant, a door turning on its hinges, a member of the faithless generation, if not me? Grace has, like Ahab, been poured on me over and over, and yet for all the kindness, how often do I return dog-like to the vomit?

      Yes, I praise you that I have stood firm in the faith for this is also true, and it is owing to your past kindnesses. Do Thou mercifully give future grace until I reach the end! Please, Father, I ask for today’s Bread of Life that I might be sustained and for my wife and children. Lead us not into temptation today. Deliver us from the Evil One for this one brief period, and ingraft the Word into our hearts such that we breathe out these requests again and again.

      Your Spirit has so brightly made Heaven to shine in my eyes and sin to stink in my nostrils, but what of tomorrow? Enhance my senses, make my eyes keen in the growing darkness that I might see into eternity and not be distracted by the false candles of earthly comfort.

      Life is too long for me. The 70 or 80 years is too much for my reservoir. And yet it is a mist, a vapor, the pass of a weaver’s shuttle, water flowing quickly in a stream, a moment, a drop in the bucket. Are not a thousand years like a day? I therefore plead for persevering power for what is to me a great race though it be in Thy sight the smallest of challenges.

      Even from the falling and failing of other men, I find help for my faith. Has their failure not inspired me to pray? Has it taken away my inner confidence and self-boasting? Has it not destroyed the foundations of my own conceit? What amazing wisdom and providence to allow the failure of some that others—and I trust a great many—may stand. Judas fell that Peter might learn to repent. Demas fell that Timothy might not. Please make the terrible sins of these men work to save me and my sons and their sons as well.

      And what of these few souls Thou has placed in my charge? Of the 18 in Valdezia, are several not at this moment on the verge of going back to the world? What word can I say except, Save them, Master of Mercy, before they crucify the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame. May I know no happiness save that of hearing you say to my wife and children and these dear Tsonga and Venda and Shona souls, “Well done, my good and faithful servants. Enter into the joy of your Lord.”

      The lion is prowling, so grant us watchfulness and boldness that we might do valiantly to dash even the little ones of our sins against the stones. The flesh is exhausting and even tempts us in our sleep, so give us strength, might, and power to run through the troop and leap over the wall.

      I ask this for today for myself, for my dear wife, for my children, and for the little groups in 8 different villages in Jesus’ name.

      Posted in Orthopathy | Tagged | Leave a comment