Howard Pyle illustration of pirates burying treasure, from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates.

Jesus taught this great and sobering principle in his Sermon on the Mount (see especially Matt. 6:19-21).  His point is as simple as it is profound—that the things we value reveal the people we truly are.  The guy who values his wife and kids can rightly be described as a family-man.  The person who values his money and toys can rightly be described as a selfish man.  You see how this works.

Regarding a professing Christian’s giving record to a local church or donations to gospel-sharing missions organizations (e.g the IMB or GFA), this same principle can also be applied—whether and how much percent we give reveals the persons we truly are in relation to our Savior’s mandate to go and tell the world the gospel.

If you turn Jesus’ statement in Matt. 6:21 upside down it really adds valuable perspective.  Not only is it true that ‘where our treasure is, there are hearts will be also,’ but its also equally true that ‘where are treasure is not, there are hearts will also fail to be.’

If you’re not giving to the cause of sharing God’s good news of salvation through Jesus Christ then your heart is not where God’s heart is.  And friends, that’s not a good place to be.

Giving can take many shapes.  It’s not only shaped like a dollar sign.  It can take the shape of your time, effort, care, prayers, and many other wonderful and worthy-to-be-treasured forms.  I’m here to tell you, though, if your giving doesn’t also include the shape of a dollar sign, then something’s wrong.

(This post discusses one point out of five that I preached to my church in a sermon titled, “Living Distraction-Free for the Glory of God.”  That sermon can be listened to or downloaded here.)

To promote the new book, To Every Tribe with Jesus, the ministry of Desiring God International Outreach has been hosting giveaways on Twitter.  Their twitter handle is @NationsBeGlad.  The way it works is they send out some sort of question to all their Twitter followers and the first person to respond with the correct answer via Twitter reply wins a free copy of the book.

Well I won recently!  They linked to a picture of a young man named Cameron Townsend who eventually founded Wycliffe Bible Translators, an organization who seeks to translate the Scriptures into a readable language for every people group in the world.

So once I figured who it was in the picture I replied with the correct answer and won!

Confirming that I had the right answer.

I won more than just the book, though.  They sent me a ‘prize package’ and within a couple of days I received:

Desiring God International Outreach prize package

• A new copy of David Sitton’s, To Every Tribe with Jesus
• A brochure about their ministry, Desiring God International Outreach
• An mp3 CD called Bringing Hope, which contains 12 sermons from John Piper that relate to the subject of international outreach
• And a coupon for a free download of the audiobook version of John Piper’s book on missions, Let the Nations be Glad

Many thanks to Desiring God International Outreach for the prize package.  Make sure to check them out online, consider getting a copy of To Every Tribe with Jesus, and follow them on Twitter.

St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated each year in honor of a man that many know very little about.  Here’s a brief bio-sketch on the man behind the holiday.

Born into a Christian Home

→Patrick was born in Britain to a nominally Christian home.  He was reared going to church, though his relationship with the Lord was not something of pressing concern to him as a youth.

Sold into Slavery

→Irish slave-trader/pirates invaded Patrick’s homeland when he was around the age of sixteen.  Being a healthy young man, the raiders figured Patrick would make for a good, hardworking slave.  He was trafficked away from his friends and family and hauled off to Ireland.  Once there he would be sold as a slave to a powerful war chief.

Met the Lord in Suffering

→Patrick served his Irish master as a pig herder.  It was only then, when all of his earthly comforts had been taken away—his home, his family, his friends, his freedom, his dignity—that Patrick began to call out on the God of his youth.  In his suffering he found solace in the solitude of prayer.  It is said that Patrick’s prayer life grew and matured until he was praying nearly 100 times a day and 100 times each night.

Escaped from Slavery

→One day, six years after having been a slave, Patrick heard the voice of the Lord telling him to escape bondage and return to his homeland.  So he fled.  He walked 200 miles to the coast and convinced a trader ship to allow him safe passage back to Britain.

Called to Serve

→Once home Patrick joyfully reunited with his family.  He was now a devout Christian man.  One night he had a dream in which an Irishman came to him bearing letters from many Irish people.  They were all pleading with Patrick to return to Ireland and share the gospel with them.  Patrick sensed that this was God’s call on his life to take the gospel to the poor souls of Ireland.  At the time Ireland was an incredibly pagan country, its main religion being various manifestations of Druidism.

Trained for Ministry

→Following this call upon his life, Patrick prepared for and was eventually ordained into the ministry.  In time he would become a bishop and was sent on mission to Ireland.

Sent with the Gospel

→Patrick’s Christian message was not easily received among the pagans of Ireland.  It is said that he had many confrontations with Druid priests and was in constant fear of danger for his life.  He wrote, “Daily I expect murder, fraud, or captivity, but I fear none of these things because of the promises of heaven”  (p. 230, 131 Christians Everyone Should Know).  One thing Patrick is not well-known for but should be is his strong stand against slavery.  He is one of the first Christians in recorded history to take a clear and bold stand against this dreadful, inhumane practice.

Triumphant, Humble Servant

→Patrick died in 493 AD.  By that time it is believed that he had been used by God to start over 300 churches and baptize more than 120,000 people. His victorious, yet humble life can be seen in these numbers and in the fact that to his dying day he did not feel he deserved the title of “bishop.”  He preferred to be known simply as a sinner in the gracious hands of God.

WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK?

1. Love those who mistreat you
   →Patrick had every reason in the world to hate the Irish.  They had kidnapped him and forced him into slavery.  Yet he still loved them enough to bring them the good news of Jesus Christ.  There is no one who has wronged us enough to justify our not sharing the gospel with them by our words and our actions.
2. Listen to the voice of the Lord
   →He was not only sensitive to God’s leadership in his life, but he was also obedient to it.  He left Ireland when God told him to.  He went back went God told him to do that.  That’s a pretty good track record.  We’d do well to follow his example of sensitivity, trust, and obedience.
3. Let go of earthly comforts for the sake of the gospel
   → Even though he had been reunited with his family afters years of agonizing separation in slavery, he was still willing to lay all those things aside when God called him to go back to Ireland.  What might God be asking you to give up for the sake of his kingdom?

Information for this post was gleaned primarily from the book, 131 Christians Everyone Should Know, by Mark Galli.  Other sources consulted were:

• What Can Evangelicals Learn from Saint Patrick, by Russell Moore
• Happy St. Patrick’s Day, by Rev. Paul T. McCain
• St. Patrick, referenced by Francis Beckwith
• Saint Patrick, by Mark Batterson

If you knew that you only had one hour left on this earth, and if you were able to gather all of your closest family and friends, what would you tell them? What would you want them to know?  What parting advice or charge or word of encouragement would you want to leave them with?

This is a sobering situation to consider.  It was not merely an imagined scenario, however, for our Lord after he resurrected and was about to leave the earth and ascend to the right hand of the Father.

His last message was a passage known by most as “The Great Commission.”  It’s found in each of the gospels, but the most notable occurrence is in Matt. 28:18-20.  These are likely the final words Christ spoke to his followers before he left.  Notice these six characteristics of his parting message.  It was a:

1) Sovereign Message — (”all authority”)
2) Sending Message — (”Go”)
3) Saving Message — (”make disciples”)
4) Incorporating Message — (”baptizing”)
5) Instructing Message — (”teaching”)
6) Inspirational Message — (”I am with you always”)

Ann Hasseltine Judson (1789-1826)

Its always fascinating to me to hear different individuals articulate what it is to be a Christian—what its like, what it makes them think of, how their countenance changes when they speak of it, what pictures they envision, what convictions their heart stirs with, etc.

Here’s a description that stole my attention immediately when I read it for the first time.  I came across it a few weeks back while reading Adoniram Judson’s biography, To the Golden Shore.  Judson didn’t say it, though.  His wife did.

In describing the fellowship of salvation, she explains it as sharing in,

“Joys as exalted as heaven, durable as eternity!”  —Ann Hasseltine Judson, p. 166

What a beautiful expression.  No need to add anything to it.  I’ll just leave you with it and hope that it soaks into your soul like it did mine.

Have you come across any similarly striking expressions or descriptions regarding the Christian faith?  Your comments are welcomed.

On the same day they were married, young Adoniram and Ann (”Nancy”) Judson, future missionaries to the peoples of Burma (modern-day Myanmar), attended a commissioning service for themselves and a handful of other young men and women.

The service took place at the church where Nancy had grown up.  Her minister, Parson Allen, composed a special hymn for the occasion.  It was delivered at the end of the service.  It is said that, “People wept unashamedly as the sang.”

Here’s the first verse:

Go, ye heralds of salvation; Go, and preach in heathen lands;
Publish loud to every nation, What the Lord of life commands,
Go, ye sisters, their companions, Soothe their cares, and wipe their tears,
Angels shall in bright battalions Guard your steps and guard your fears.

—From Courtney Anderson’s, To the Golden Shore (pp. 108-109)

I was deeply moved when I read this account and pictured family and friends sending off the young missionaries to fulfill the Great Commission, most likely to never see them again.

Related Post:

—A Word of Conviction from Adoniram Judson

The great Baptist missionary Adoniram Judson was but a young student when he wrote the following words in a ‘conservatives’ religious magazine’ in the year 1810.

“How do Christians discharge the trust committed to them? … They let three fourths of the world sleep the sleep of death, ignorant of the simple truth that a Savior had died for them.  Content if they can be useful in the little circle of their acquaintances, they quietly sit and see whole nations perish for lack of knowledge.”  —(From Courtney Anderson’s, To the Golden Shore)

His feet had never touched foreign soil.  They would, but that time had not yet come.  He and his fellow mission-minded friends were ever seeking new and better ways to promote their project while they went through the long and tedious process of securing support for their gospel journey to Asia.

His words sink deep into my life.  We are all called, as believers, to share in his passion and urgency to get the truth of God’s message of redemption to the world.

Related links:

• Wikipedia’s entry on Judson
• Wholesome Words’ bio-database on Judson
• John Piper’s conference message on Judson