09.03.08

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8:35-39 NKJV.

An article in the newspaper caught my eye several years ago. The article asked the question, “Are American’s becoming scaredy cats?” (To be a “scaredy cat” is to be unduly or excessively fearful.) The article also asked if Americans had forgotten how to face a well-calculated risk and if the West were still to be won, could we roundup enough brave souls to win it? The article discussed a book by Harold W. Lewis entitled, “Technological Risk. What are the real dangers, if any, of toxic chemicals, the greenhouse effect, microwave radiation, nuclear power, air travel, automobile travel, carcinogens of all kinds, and other threats to our peace of mind.”

After I read the article I asked myself if that was the problem with the church today. Have Christians become scaredy cats? Do the multitude of dangers that surround Christians choke off their willingness to risk anything for Christ? Have Christians forgotten Jesus says, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me (Luke 9:23).”

If missionaries were to be called today to be the first to go to the innermost regions of Africa, or India, or Burma, or China, who would go? Could God find a Livingstone today? Could He find a William Carey, or a Judson, or J. Hudson Taylor? Are there any Christians, today, willing to risk all that they are and have for the sake of their Lord and Savior? Are there any Christians today, standing in the gap risking all?

Livingstone once wrote to England asking for more missionaries to come to Africa. Some months later the reply came that they had found some men willing to come. They wanted Livingstone to tell them the best roads to take to where he was. Livingstone wrote back that he needed men who would go where there were no roads. God is still looking for men, women, boys, and girls like that today.