LIVE FOR WHAT MATTERS MOST

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7

“The most important thing is that I complete my mission, the work that the Lord Jesus gave me.” Ac 20:24 NCV

On January 30, 1956, Time magazine devoted its cover to five American missionaries killed with spears on the banks of the Curaray River in Ecuador by members of the Huaorani people. As tragic as their martyrdom was, it was not in vain. Their deaths inspired a new generation of missionaries to devote their lives to the cause of Christ. One journal entry, belonging to Jim Elliot, one of the martyred missionaries, contained what became one of the most cited sentences of his generation: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” When we stand before Christ to be evaluated and rewarded for our service to Him, our singular regret will be whatever we didn’t give back to God. That’s it. Whatever we keep, we lose. Whatever we lose for His sake, we keep for eternity. C. T. Studd was one of the greatest cricket players in England. Fame and fortune were at his fingertips, but he chose to devote his life to missions instead. As one of the “Cambridge Seven,” Studd spent a decade with the China Inland Mission, founded by Hudson Taylor. In 1913, he started the Heart of Africa Mission, now known as Worldwide Evangelisation for Christ International. A century later, eighteen hundred WEC missionaries in fifty countries seek to make Christ known, loved, and worshiped among people who have yet to hear the gospel. A life well lived adds weight to C. T. Studd’s famous words: “Only one life ’twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.”