“He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose” - Jim Elliot, Missionary Martyr Among the Auca Indians

“I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light” - John Falconer, Missionary Among the Arabs

“The saddest thing one meets is a nominal Christian. I had not seen it in Japan where missions is younger. The church here is a ‘field full of wheat and tares.'” - Amy Carmichael, Missionary to India

“If I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated suffering” - Adoniram Judson, Missionary to Burma

“Do not think me mad. It is not to make money that I believe a Christian should live.” - David Livingston, Missionary to Africa

“Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell; I wish to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell.” - C.T. Studd, Missionary to China, India, and Africa. (1860-1931)

“I cared not where or how I lived, or what hardships I went through, so that I could but gain souls to Christ.” - David Brainerd, Missionary to the Seneca and Delaware Indians (1744-1747) of New York, New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania

When I read the quotes above, spoken by people who gave their lives to serve Christ, I can't help but to wonder if that level of commitment is still alive in missions today. Why is it that almost 2000 years after Christ's death and resurrection there are still untold millions who have never heard the good news and have no gospel witness to them? Does God not care enough about them to send them a witness? Absolutely not! "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9) God does not want anyone to die and go to hell. We on the other hand, seem to be content to let half of the world burn in those eternal fires without ever having had a chance to repent and be saved. Are we so unwilling to give up a little bit of comfort and a few conveniences? Do the souls of these people for whom Christ died mean so little to us? Yet while we stare at our computer screens and drool over the newest gadget or the latest cell phone, some missionary half-way across the world is on his knees praying and weeping for a printing press to be able to print gospel tracts. Another is sweating drops of blood trying to figure out how he can open a radio ministry, or buy a few buses, or preach on a cable t.v. channel. While churches argue over trivial things like what color the fabric is going to be on the new, custom built padded pews, there is a world out there dyeing and going to hell because of a lack of witnesses. "Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor:" (Isaiah 59:15-16)

My friends, I speak to you the honest truth; materialism and a love of comfort is strangling mission-work. That goes for us who are on the field, as well as those back home. How uncomfortable are you willing to get to reach people for Christ? Is there anything that you would be reluctant to give up? Is there anywhere that you would be unwilling to go? Would you be willing to go to a muslim country with a Bible in your hand instead of a rifle? Would you be willing to labor with tribal people in a hot, steamy jungle, or in the frozen arctic? Would you leave behind friends, family, church, a career to give Christ what He deserves? "For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." (1 Corinthians 6:20)