What drives God’s servants to make such sacrifices? Devotion to Christ. And that level of devotion makes willing sacrifices!
In 1555, the English bishop, Reformer, and martyr Hugh Latimer knew that devotion to Christ means sacrifice. Latimer was sentenced to be burned at the stake for his pro-Reformation positions. Prior to his death, his convictions were set forth in an open letter to all genuine believers in Jesus Christ. This in part is what Latimer wrote:
“Die once we must; how and where we know not. Here is not our home; let us therefore accordingly consider things, having always before our eyes that heavenly Jerusalem, and the way thereto in persecution” (cited in Harold S. Darby, Hugh Latimer [London: Epworth Press, 1953).
Latimer was executed later in 1535 along with his dear friend and colleague Nicholas Ridley. At that time, as the flames were being lit, an amazingly composed Latimer encouraged his fellow martyr with these words:
“Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out” (Darby, 247).
What drives God’s servants to make such sacrifices? Devotion to Christ. And that level of devotion makes willing sacrifices! In the 19th century John Paton knew that devotion to Christ means sacrifice. He accepted an immense challenge. While he was a student at a Bible college in London, God called him to go to the cannibal-infested New Hebrides islands (which are in the South Pacific). That would be a hard thing for a young Bible college student to say yes to. I probably would have said, “Lord, You’ve got the wrong guy! Are You sure my gifts are fit for that? And besides, I graduated-I can make it in the ministry. No sense in me being someone’s lunch after all the effort I’ve put in. I know a Bible-college dropout who will never make it in the ministry. Send him there; they’ll eat him and who will know? The guy will go down in history as having died a hero.”
But John Paton didn’t argue with God. The Lord said, “Go,” so he and his wife went. A ship left them off and they rowed ashore in a small boat to an island inhabited by cannibals whose language they did not speak.
From the moment they set up a little hut on the beach, the Lord miraculously preserved them. Later, when the chief of the tribe in that area was converted to Christ, he asked John who the army was that surrounded his hut every night. God’s holy angels had stood on guard.
After a short time, his wife gave birth to a baby and both she and the baby died in childbirth. All alone, he was forced to sleep on the graves to keep the cannibals from digging up the bodies and eating them. In spite of the great challenge, he decided to stay. Why? Listen to his reasoning.
“The adversaries were many, but that’s where God wanted me.”
What drives God’s servants to make such sacrifices? Devotion to Christ. And that level of devotion makes willing sacrifices!