Creation Research
Jun
9
I am truly humbled and ashamed when I watch these two videos. My life has been one primarily of concern for myself, my own wishes, ambitions and comfort. I have the greatest respect for Darlene and am truly humbled by her stories.
These videos are long. And difficult to listen to, but well worth the time to do so.
PART 1
PART 2
Dear Beloved Friends of Jerry and Darlene:.
On Tuesday, February 24, 2004, Darlene Rose laid her head back, smiled that special little smile and closed her eyes.Jerry, seeing this, moved swiftly to her side to help. He realized in a moment that her body was beyond human intervention.God had called, and His calling is irrevocable.And five months later, God called Jerry home, both now at rest but their work still to impact the world.
When Darlene had returned home after WWII, she still wanted desperately to return to the islands. She had met Jerry and they had married in 1948 and in 1949 she and Jerry returned together. Jerry was already under appointment to this primitive mission field of Papua New Guinea Side by side they worked together raising their two young sons, Bruce and Brian, teaching, preaching, building landing strips, delivering babies, standing against headhunters and leading them to Christ.Then in 1978, they met another challenge when they moved to the Outback of Australia.
In 2003 and in their 80´s, Darlene & Jerry, having returned to the States some years earlier, settled into a retirement center in TennesseeThey slowed down but never retired;always ready in season and out of season to inspire and encourage those they came in contact with to know the Lord. Long time friends, Dr. Bill Henry, Pastor of Faith Bible Church and his wife, Jan, helped to care for them during this time, volunteering to take up the role of correspondence. Months before her death, Darlene asked them to faithfully promise to keep her story alive to share it with the world.This they have done, believing this was God´s call.
At the beginning of the War, the Lord had given Darlene this verse; Deuteronomy 33:12, “The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him; and the Lord shall cover (overshadow) him all the day long and he shall dwell between His shoulders”.
This promise of God was not only the cornerstone of her faith during her internment, but demonstrated that God is able to do abundantly exceedingly above all that she could ask or think as this promise remained the firm foundation of her faith all her days on this earth.
Oct
29
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NOTE: This book is in the public domain and is free to use without alteration.
If you asked twenty good men to-day what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness.
But if you asked almost any of the great Christians of old he would have replied, Love.
You see what has happened?
A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance.
The negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point.
I do not think this is the Christian virtue of Love.
The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire. If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith.
Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
We must not be troubled by unbelievers when they say that this promise of reward makes the Christian life a mercenary affair.
There are different kinds of reward.
There is the reward which has no natural connection with the things you do to earn it, and is quite foreign to the desires that ought to accompany those things.
Money is not the natural reward of love; that is why we call a man mercenary if he marries a woman for the sake of her money. But marriage is the proper reward for a real lover, and he is not mercenary for desiring it.
A general who fights well in order to get a peerage is mercenary; a general who fights for victory is not, victory being the proper reward of battle as marriage is the proper reward of love.
The proper rewards are not simply tacked on to the activity for which they are given, but are the activity itself in consummation. There is also a third case, which is more complicated.
An enjoyment of Greek poetry is certainly a proper, and not a mercenary, reward for learning Greek; but only those who have reached the stage of enjoying Greek poetry can tell from their own experience that this is so. The schoolboy beginning Greek grammar cannot look forward to his adult enjoyment of Sophocles as a lover looks forward to marriage or a general to victory. He has to begin by working for marks, or to escape punishment, or to please his parents, or, at best, in the hope of a future good which he cannot at present imagine or desire. His position, therefore, bears a certain resemblance to that of the mercenary; the reward he is going to get will, in actual fact, be a natural or proper reward, but he will not know that till he has got it. Of course, he gets it gradually; enjoyment creeps in upon the mere drudgery, and nobody could point to a day or an hour when the one ceased and the other began. But it is just in so far as he approaches the reward that he becomes able to desire it for its own sake; indeed, the power of so desiring it is itself a preliminary reward.
The Christian, in relation to heaven, is in much the same position as this schoolboy.
Those who have attained everlasting life in the vision of God doubtless know very well that it is no mere bribe, but the very consummation of their earthly discipleship; but we who have not yet attained it cannot know this in the same way, and cannot even begin to know it at all except by continuing to obey and finding the first reward of our obedience in our increasing power to desire the ultimate reward.
Just in proportion as the desire grows, our fear lest it should be a mercenary desire will die away and finally be recognized as an absurdity.
But probably this will not, for most of us, happen in a day; poetry replaces grammar, gospel replaces law, longing transforms obedience, as gradually as the tide lifts a grounded ship.
But there is one other important similarity between the schoolboy and ourselves.
If he is an imaginative boy he will, quite probably, be revelling in the English poets and romancers suitable to his age some time before he begins to suspect that Greek grammar is going to lead him to more and more enjoyments of this same sort. He may even be neglecting his Greek to read Shelley and Swinburne in secret. In other words, the desire which Greek is really going to gratify already exists in him and is attached to objects which seem to him quite unconnected with Xenophon and the verbs in μι.
Now, if we are made for heaven, the desire for our proper place will be already in us, but not yet attached to the true object, and will even appear as the rival of that object.
And this, I think, is just what we find.
No doubt there is one point in which my analogy of the schoolboy breaks down. The English poetry which he reads when he ought to be doing Greek exercises may be just as good as the Greek poetry to which the exercises are leading him, so that in fixing on Milton instead of journeying on to Aeschylus his desire is not embracing a false object. But our case is very different. If a trans-temporal, transfinite good is our real destiny, then any other good on which our desire fixes must be in some degree fallacious, must bear at best only a symbolical relation to what will truly satisfy.
In speaking of this desire for our own far-off country, which we find in ourselves even now, I feel a certain shyness.
I am almost committing an indecency. I am trying to rip open the inconsolable secret in each one of you—the secret which hurts so much that you take your revenge on it by calling it names like Nostalgia and Romanticism and Adolescence; the secret also which pierces with such sweetness that when, in very intimate conversation, the mention of it becomes imminent, we grow awkward and affect to laugh at ourselves; the secret we cannot hide and cannot tell, though we desire to do both. We cannot tell it because it is a desire for something that has never actually appeared in our experience. We cannot hide it because our experience is constantly suggesting it, and we betray ourselves like lovers at the mention of a name. Our commonest expedient is to call it beauty and behave as if that had settled the matter.
Wordsworth’s expedient was to identify it with certain moments in his own past.
But all this is a cheat.
If Wordsworth had gone back to those moments in the past, he would not have found the thing itself, but only the reminder of it; what he remembered would turn out to be itself a remembering.
The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing.
These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.
Do you think I am trying to weave a spell?
Perhaps I am; but remember your fairy tales.
Spells are used for breaking enchantments as well as for inducing them.
And you and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness which has been laid upon us for nearly a hundred years.
Almost our whole education has been directed to silencing this shy, persistent, inner voice; almost all our modem philosophies have been devised to convince us that the good of man is to be found on this earth.
And yet it is a remarkable thing that such philosophies of Progress or Creative Evolution themselves bear reluctant witness to the truth that our real goal is elsewhere.
When they want to convince you that earth is your home, notice how they set about it.
They begin by trying to persuade you that earth can be made into heaven, thus giving a sop to your sense of exile in earth as it is.
Next, they tell you that this fortunate event is still a good way off in the future, thus giving a sop to your knowledge that the fatherland is not here and now.
Finally, lest your longing for the trans-temporal should awake and spoil the whole affair, they use any rhetoric that comes to hand to keep out of your mind the recollection that even if all the happiness they promised could come to man on earth, yet still each generation would lose it by death, including the last generation of all, and the whole story would be nothing, not even a story, forever and ever.
Hence all the nonsense that Mr. Shaw puts into the final speech of Lilith, and Bergson’s remark that the élan vital is capable of surmounting all obstacles, perhaps even death — as if we could believe that any social or biological development on this planet will delay the senility of the sun or reverse the second law of thermodynamics.
Note: The title of this discourse is taken from a verse in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians: (2 Cor. 4: 16, 17, 16 KJV)
16. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
This discourse was originally published as a sermon in the church of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford University on June 8, 1942. It was published in THEOLOGY, November 1941 by the S.P.C.K. in 1942.
NOTE: This message is now in the Public Domain and may be copied and used without alteration.
Sep
30
‘
Except from Westide Bible Chapel Mission Stories: THE STORY OF JONATHAN GOFORTH
Jonathan Goforth was born on 10th February 1859 in London, Ontario.
His mother was a devout Christian who taught him how to pray, read and memorize scripture from an early age. Theirs was a humble family — his father sometimes had to walk a long distance to get food for the family.
“In all things seek to know God’s Will and when known obey at any cost.” ~ Jonathan Goforth
Despite the difficult circumstances, Jonathan managed to keep up with his education while at the same time working on the farm each year between the months of April and October. At the age of 15, he was given the responsibility of being in charge of the family land, which happened to be 20 miles away from the farm where they lived.
Conversion
His father was well pleased with the good work that he did taking care of the farm.
He completed high school at the age of 18 and came under Reg Lachlan Cameron, who was a minister of the gospel. One day he attended Rev. Cameron’s Church, and the Word of God ministered to him at the point of his need. He was brought to conviction and gave his life to Christ.
“Seek each day to do or say something to further Christianity among the heathen.” ~ Jonathan Goforth
He became an active growing Christian and started giving out tracts to people inviting them to come to church.
Later he began a Sunday evening service in an old schoolhouse not very far from his home and started the practice of family worship. He prayed earnestly for his father’s salvation, and not long after that, his father publicly gave his life to the Lord.
Challenges in His Early Christian Life
His early Christian life was not an easy one as he was mocked and jeered by both his fellow students and some of the teachers. This pushed him to spend a lot of time in the word of God, and as a result, his faith was firmly established.
With time, Jonathan’s classmates and teacher were brought back to the ways of God. The Memoirs of Robert Murray M’Cheyne also had a powerful impact on Jonathan’s life.
“Seek to give much — expect nothing.” ~ Jonathan Goforth
One day he attended a meeting where George L. Mackay of Formosa spoke about the need to reach the heathen world with the gospel. He said how he had been going around seeking missionary reinforcement but had found none. As Jonathan heard this, he was so moved and captivated and right away decided to become a foreign missionary.
Mission Work
Not long after, he left his home to go to Knox Christian College in Toronto. His reception there was not as good, and he was humiliated because of the clothes he was wearing. But this did not kill the desire in him to take the gospel to the needy around him.
He ministered continuously in the jails and homes in the slums. Later the students of Knox College sent him as a missionary to China.
“Who am I that I should urge these missionaries to confess their sins in public, when, for all I know, they may be living nearer to God than I am? The Spirit of God does not need me to act as His detective.” ~ Jonathan Goforth
This demonstrates the power of his Christian character. At one point, as college was opening, the principal asked him how many homes he had visited during the summer vacations, and he said 960.
He was able to lead very many souls to Christ. Many are the times that he would walk long distances in order to bring one soul to Christ. He would go to any length to share the word with sinners, including entering salons, brothels, etc. Most of those who knew him closely said, “He walked in the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Marriage Life and Ministry in China
During his missionary work in Toronto, he met Rosalind Bell-Smith, who was Episcopalian. She was born again and also longed to live a life of service to God.
Not long from their first meeting, they got married in 1887.
Goforth also visited many churches to talk with them ab out and get support towards missionary work in China. His desire and fire for missions melted thousands. In 1888, Jonathan and Rosalind sailed to China under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church of Canada.
“If revival is being withheld from us it is because some idol remains still enthroned; because we still insist in placing our reliance in human schemes; because we still refuse to face the unchangeable truth that …‘
It is not by might, but by My Spirit’.” ~ Jonathan Goforth
They first settled at Chefoo, and his appointed co-worker, James Frazer Smith, was able to join him a few months later. Within two weeks of Smith’s arrival, Goforth and Smith began to tour the North Honan region of China, where they intended to work, and took time to assess the entire region.
Together they traveled over 1,200 miles during their 2½ month tour and observed the Chinese in their home environment. By December of that year, more missionaries arrived, and within no time, they had four workers busy translating and preaching.
Legacy
Goforth was very successful in planting Churches and was greatly associated with revival among Korean Christians in the early 1900 and with the revival in Manchuria in 1909. Presbyterians, however, dismissed him; and Goforth, Rosalind, and their five children became missionary gypsies, preaching across China with no fixed abode.
Never let a day pass without at least a quarter of an hour spent in the study of the Bible ~ Jonathan Goforth
The Goforth’s will be remembered as extraordinary people who did extraordinary work for God in China.
CREDIT: