reformed blogging.

The quote below is a dialogue between Adoniram Judson and Maung Shway-gnong. The latter, a Burmese man, was one of the first among the Burmese to become concerned for his own soul, yet because of persecution from his own people failed to fully surrender everything. Up to this point this man’s commitment to Christ has been circumstantial and full of compromise. Though a disappointment to Judson, after a rebuke for not believing what is in the Bible, Maung finally admits that he had “been trusting in [his] own reason, not in the word of God.” After conversing for a little longer Maung confesses further, “I see my error in trusting in my own reason; and I now believe the crucifixion of Christ, because it is contained in the scripture.”
The child-like faith of the old Burmese man, despite its evident smallness, is, to say the least, a beautiful thing. The conversation quoted below must have brought a breath of fresh air to the weary missionary:

They talked for a while at random and the conversation led to the uncertainty of life. Maung Shway-gnong had a new thought.
“I think I shall not be lost even though I should die suddenly.”
“Why?”
“Because I love Jesus Christ.”
“Do you really love Him?”
“No one that really knows Him can help loving Him,” said the old man with feeling; and so departed.
- p. 241, To the Golden Shore

Reading through Adoniram Judsons’ biography “To the Golden Shore.” I had never heard of Judson until Piper’s biographical sketch on him. The night I listened to it I ended up sleeping for two hours. The lack of sleep may have been due to caffeine, but listening to this man’s life seemed only to aggravate it. From the first five minutes until the end, I felt as though my heart would burst out of my chest from excitement of hearing of the intense suffering in this man’s life for the sake of the gospel. Missions is not for “radical” Christians, but for those who have forsaken all things to follow Him. If I would but surrender all my earthly comforts to go to Pakistan or Afghanistan or anywhere without the gospel for that matter, such intense stories of suffering would not be so foreign to me. One thing Piper constantly mentions is that Judson hated his life, he was radically other-minded. Piper seeks to show through Judson’s life that “God designs that the suffering of his ministers and missionaries is one essential means in the joyful triumphant spread of the gospel among all the peoples of the world.” Suffering is an inevitable and necessary means by which God saves sinners.
Judson’s commitment to missions is shown below in a letter to John Hasseltine, the father of Ann, the woman Judson wanted to marry. Judson’s description of his expected conditions (as well as for Ann if she would be given to him in marriage) shows no regard for the desired comforts of a father for his own child:

I have now to ask, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean; to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this, for the sake of him who left his heavenly home, and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion, and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with the crown of righteousness, brightened with the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Savior from heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair? - p. 83

None should be surprised at what seems like almost impossible demands at suffering and discomfort, to say the least. And I don’t think that this sort of suffering is resticted to foreign missionaries a thousand miles overseas. Is this not precisely what our Lord, Jesus Christ demanded?

If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. - Matthew 16:24-25

Piper ends his biographical sketch with a challenge to the pastors in attendance at the Desiring God conference:

Are you sure that God wants you to be a pastor in this comparatively church-saturated land? Or might he be calling you to fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ, to fall like a grain of wheat into some distant ground and die, to hate your life in this world and so to keep it forever and bear much fruit?

I recently finished Thomas Watson’s “A Body of Divinity,” and certain quotes, like the one below, stirred my heart. Sounds a lot like Christian Hedonism to me. The Puritans knew religion was not just a matter of knowing certain doctrines, or feelings certain emotions, their’s was a religion of the heart. Neither life nor doctrine can be neglected.

There is a fulness in God that satisfies, and yet so much sweetness, that the soul still desires. God is a delicious God. That which is the chief good must ravish the soul with pleasure; there must be in it rapturous delight and quintessence of joy. In Deo quadam dulcedine delectatur anima immo rapitur [There is a certain sweetness about God's person which delights, nay, rather, ravishes the soul]: The love of God drops such infinite suavity into the soul as is unspeakable and full of glory. If there be so much delight in God, when we see him only by faith, I Pet i 8, what will the joy of vision be, when we shall see him face to face! p.23