The Alliance

A.W. Tozer
Daily Devotional


Saturday, November 07, 2009

Book: The Warfare of the Spirit
Chapter: 11 - A Word to the Wise

The Legacy of Pioneer Missionaries

The job of carrying the gospel to remote tribes hidden in strange and dangerous places often requires a courage and daring equal to that displayed by the explorer in search of a new river or the soldier in the performance of his duties.

There are missionaries who are born adventurers; while wholly consecrated to Christ and utterly devoted to the glory of God, they are for all that very much in love with the physical excitement that accompanies missionary activities in some parts of the world. These have done excellent work and must be classed with the true servants of Christ and messengers of the cross. Their love for lost men is deep and real. Their fondness for travel and danger is natural to them and indeed contributes much to their fitness for the work they are called to do, a work which their more cautious brethren could never accomplish.

The Christian public, always ready to take the hero to its heart, has shown its amiable weakness by following these men about, to hang breathless on their colorful words and to shower them with money and gifts of every kind. By thus focusing attention upon their task these brethren have done a real favor to the cause of world missions. They have won the prayers and the support of many who would not have been aroused by the ordinary missionary program. Of the purity of their motives and the sincerity of their appeals there can be no doubt. We could use more of such men.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for those who, despite great personal sacrifice, have taken the Good News to those primitive people in remote areas of the world.

Verse: I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth. Isaiah 49:6b

Thought: Today's missionaries are concentrated less in the far distant, less "civilized" parts of the world due to the unreached masses of people groups in the world's large cities. But pioneer missionaries have left a legacy of strong commitment to reach the unreached under extreme difficulties.

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