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Heart Missionaries are Needed, August 18
He died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but
for him who for their sake died and was raised.
2 Corinthians 5:15
, R.S.V.
Those who take up their appointed work will not only be a blessing to others,
but they will themselves be blessed. The consciousness of duty well done will
have a reflex influence upon their own souls. The despondent will forget their
despondency, the weak will become strong, the ignorant intelligent, and all will
find an unfailing helper in Him who has called them.
The church of Christ is organized for service. Its watchword is ministry. Its
members are soldiers, to be trained for conflict under the Captain of their salvation.
Christian ministers, physicians, teachers, have a broader work than many have
recognized. They are not only to minister to the people, but to teach them to
minister. They should not only give instruction in right principles, but educate
their hearers to impart these principles. Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted,
loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessing can be retained only as it
is shared.
The monotony of our service for God needs to be broken up. Every church
member should be engaged in some line of service for the Master. Some cannot
do so much as others, but everyone should do his utmost to roll back the tide of
disease and distress that is sweeping over our world....
Educated workers who are consecrated to God can do service in a greater
variety of ways and can accomplish more extensive work than can those who are
uneducated. Their discipline of mind places them on vantage ground. But those
who have neither great talents nor extensive education may minister acceptably to
others. God will use men who are willing to be used. It is not the most brilliant
or the most talented persons whose work produces the greatest and most lasting
results. Men and women are needed who have heard a message from heaven. The
most effective workers are those who respond to the invitation, “Take my yoke
upon you, and learn of me” (
Matthew 11:29
).
It is heart missionaries that are needed. He whose heart God touches is filled
with a great longing for those who have never known His love. Their condition
impresses him with a sense of personal woe. Taking his life in his hand, he goes
forth, a heaven-sent, heaven-inspired messenger, to do a work in which angels can
cooperate.—
The Ministry of Healing, 148-150
.
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