Category The Mission Field

Our Witness

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C. H. Spurgeon

This Evening’s Meditation

“And you shall be My witnesses.” Acts 1:8

In order to learn how to discharge your duty as a witness for Christ—look at His example. He is always witnessing—by the well of Samaria, or in the Temple of Jerusalem—by the lake of Gennesaret, or on the mountain’s brow. He is witnessing night and day; His mighty prayers are as vocal to God—as His daily services. He witnesses under all circumstances; Scribes and Pharisees cannot shut His mouth; even before Pilate He witnesses a good confession. He witnesses so clearly, and distinctly—that there is no mistake in Him.

Christian, make your life a clear testimony. Be as the clear brook wherein you may see every stone at the bottom—not as the muddy creek, of which you only see the surface—but clear and transparent, so that your heart’s love to God and man may be visible to all. You need not say, “I am true!” Be true! Boast not of integrity—but be upright. So shall your testimony be such that men cannot help seeing it.

Never, for fear of feeble man, restrain your witness. Your lips have been warmed with a coal from off the altar; let them speak as heaven-touched lips should speak. “In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening withhold not your hand.” Watch not the clouds, consult not the wind—in season and out of season—witness for the Savior, and if it shall come to pass that for Christ’s sake and the gospel’s you shall endure suffering in any shape, shrink not—but rejoice in the honor thus conferred upon you, that you are counted worthy to suffer with your Lord. Rejoice also in this—that your sufferings, your losses, and persecutions shall make a platform—from which the more vigorously and with greater power you shall witness for Christ Jesus. Study your great Exemplar, and be filled with His evangelistic spirit. Remember that you need much teaching, much upholding, much grace, and much humility—if your witnessing is to be to your Master’s glory!

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A dear woman who has loved the Lord as far back as she can remember has passed away. Edna Robfogel was born and raised in Canada, a Mennonite of Russian descent.

She and her husband, Bill, served with SIM – originally Sudan Interior Mission, and in the 1980s after joining with fellow ministries became simply Society for International Ministries – for many years overseas. Bill was an evangelist and Edna worked in the clinic.

We met Bill and Edna at Christ Cornerstone church in Fort Mill, SC, in 2002. A more gracious and Christ loving couple I have never known.

I sent Bill an email this evening and included this day’s meditation from C. H. Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening. That message follows here:

C. H. Spurgeon

May 6, 2016

This Evening’s Meditation

“All the days of my appointed time will I wait.”
Job 14:14

A little stay on earth will make heaven more heavenly. Nothing makes rest so sweet as toil; nothing renders security so pleasant as exposure to alarms. The bitter quassia cups of earth will give a relish to the new wine which sparkles in the golden bowls of glory. Our battered armour and scarred countenances will render more illustrious our victory above, when we are welcomed to the seats of those who have overcome the world.

We should not have full fellowship with Christ if we did not for awhile sojourn below, for he was baptized with a baptism of suffering among men, and we must be baptized with the same if we would share his kingdom. Fellowship with Christ is so honourable that the sorest sorrow is a light price by which to procure it. Another reason for our lingering here is for the good of others. We would not wish to enter heaven till our work is done, and it may be that we are yet ordained to minister light to souls benighted in the wilderness of sin.

Our prolonged stay here is doubtless for God’s glory. A tried saint, like a well-cut diamond, glitters much in the King’s crown. Nothing reflects so much honour on a workman as a protracted and severe trial of his work, and its triumphant endurance of the ordeal without giving way in any part.

We are God’s workmanship, in whom he will be glorified by our afflictions. It is for the honour of Jesus that we endure the trial of our faith with sacred joy. Let each man surrender his own longings to the glory of Jesus, and feel, “If my lying in the dust would elevate my Lord by so much as an inch, let me still lie among the pots of earth. If to live on earth forever would make my Lord more glorious, it should be my heaven to be shut out of heaven.”

Our time is fixed and settled by eternal decree. Let us not be anxious about it, but wait with patience till the gates of pearl shall open.

 

The Mission Field

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“Missions, after all, is simply this: Every heart with Christ is a missionary, every heart without Christ is a mission field.”

– Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700-1760)

The Lord has been at work on my heart regarding mission work for so long that I find myself defenseless and without answer when I ask myself why I have been dormant in this area. Ideas and plans have come and gone, but I haven’t taken the first step in actually doing something.

I choose to make this day the day of my entrance onto the mission field. My first step is to find a simple gospel tract which I can pass out to people whose paths I cross during my day.

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