Persecution

Why You Should “Waste Your Life” – Nate Saint

People who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives … and when the bubble has burst, they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted.

– Nate Saint –
(missionary martyr with Jim Elliot)

Let the Cross Slay You Utterly – AW Tozer

Though the cross of Christ has been beautified by the poet and the artist, the avid seeker after God is likely to find it the same savage implement of destruction it was in the days of old. The way of the cross is still the pain-wracked path to spiritual power and fruitfulness. So do not seek to hide from it. Do not accept an easy way. Do not allow yourself to be patted to sleep in a comfortable church, void of power and barren of fruit. Do not paint the cross nor deck it with flowers. Take it for what it is, as it is, and you will find it the rugged way to death and life. Let it slay you utterly.

– AW Tozer –

Laying Down Your Life to Peach? – George Whitefield

The good old Puritans, I believe, never preached better than when in danger of being taken to prison as soon as they had finished their sermon. And however the church may be at peace now, yet I am persuaded, unless you go forth with the same temper, you will never preach with the same demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Study, therefore, my brethren, I beseech you by the mercies of God in Christ Jesus, study your hearts as well as books; ask yourselves again and again whether you would preach for Christ, if you were sure to lay down your lives for so doing?

– George Whitefield –

Don’t Preach Repentance Until You’ve Pledged Your Head – Joseph Parker

The man whose little sermon is “repent” sets himself against his age, and will for the time being be battered mercilessly by the age whose moral tone he challenges.  There is but one end for such a man – “off with his head!”  You had better not try to preach repentance until you have pledged your head to heaven.

– Joseph Parker –

Christians Are Cowards – Charles Finney

If Christians were not such cowards, and absolutely disobedient to this plain command of God… one thing would certainly come of it — either they would be murdered in the streets as martyrs, because men could not bear the intolerable presence of truth, or they would be speedily converted to God.

– Charles Finney –

Not Asked to Preach – John Wesley

From the journals of John Wesley:

  • Sunday a.m., May 5 – Preached in St. Ann’s; was asked not to come back any more.
  • Sunday p.m., May 5 – Preached at St. John’s; deacons said, ‘Get out and stay out.’
  • Sunday a.m., May 12 – Preached at St. Jude’s; can’t go back there either.
  • Sunday p.m., May 12 – Preached at St. George’s; kicked out again.
  • Sunday a.m., May 19 – Preached at St. Somebody Else’s; deacons called a special meeting and said I couldn’t return.
  • Sunday p.m., May 19 – Preached on the street; kicked off the street.
  • Sunday a.m., May 26 – Preached out in a meadow; chased out of meadow when a bull was turned loose during the service.
  • Sunday a.m., June 2 – Preached out at the edge of town; kicked off the highway.
  • Sunday p.m., June 2 – Afternoon service, preached in pasture; 10,000 people came.

– John Wesley –