| The China Inland Mission

23 Nov The China Inland Mission

Posted at 14:37h in Christian Life by VCC Admin 0 Comments

0 Likes

Last summer I picked up a copy of the biography of Hudson Taylor and over the course of the last two months I have read it and found it incredibly challenging. In 1865 on a beach in Brighton, Hudson Taylor made the decision to set up a new mission society that would reach the inland provinces of China – The China Inland Mission.

In reading about Hudson Taylor a number of things stood out.

He was a man of love. You walk with someone who is passionately in love with Jesus
He was a man of great passion. He gave his life to see China’s millions come to Christ. He gave himself to reaching the lost at all cost.
He was a man of faith. He took God at his word and just believed the promises. He looked to God to simply do what He promised to do in the Bible.
He was a man of prayer. He took everything to God in prayer and always trusted in God’s word.
He was a man of sacrifice. When his wife died in the field he gave thanks to God for the joy of his 12 years with her and then recommitted his life to fulfilling the call God had placed upon him.
He was courageous enough to do what God lead him to do.

Whilst reading the book one can feel inadequate whilst sharing time with one of God’s giants. The truth is however, in all that Hudson Taylor did he felt inadequate. He had simply learnt to lean upon the one who was able to give him the strength to take the next step.

Hudson Taylor was not alone but was the leader of a company of people who were prepared to give themselves to the great commission. In 1899 whilst writing about the practices of the CIM missionaries Richard Lovett observed the following;

1. They have an excellent spirit, – self-denying, with singleness of aim; devotional, with a spirit of faith, of love, of humility.

2. Their operations are carried out with great efficiency and economy.
3. They are able and willing to bring themselves into close contact with the people, by living in their houses, using their dress, and living for the most part on their food; in short, “becoming all things unto all men, that they may save some.”
4. They are widely scattered, but one or two families in a city.
5. They are having good success; many are doing a great amount of preaching and praying, and souls are “added to the Church,” and are, I trust, truly converted.
6. They are not generally educated men, but men from humble labouring classes, converted and brought out by the revivals in England, Ireland and Scotland, and showing zeal and aptness to preach and labour for the salvation of souls.

7. They are willing to “rough it.”

We are called to the same commission that was on those that went before us to China. We may never go to China but we are surrounded by Wales’s millions. Let us be challenged with the passion and sacrifice of those who went before us. Their God is our God and the promises they stood on are the promises we can stand on.

Alex

The China Inland Mission

23 Nov The China Inland Mission

No Comments

Post A Comment