From each Family!

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"For this child I prayed ... He will belong to the Lord his whole life" (1 Sam 1:27,28)

God had only one Son and He sent Him as a missionary-martyr to this world. If you have two children, you have one too many to give away to serve the Lord! Jesus was most precious to the Father (Prov 8:27-30). The Father was ready to sacrifice His daily delight for the sake of the "sons of men" because He "so loved the world" (Jn 3:16). There was nothing more precious to God than His Son. But He spared Him not! (Rom 8:32). Can we do less to save our fellowmen?

Isaac (meaning "laughter") was the daily delight of the old couple Abraham and Sarah. When God demanded that they sacrifice their sole joy, Abraham hesitated not a moment because he loved God more than he loved his son. Abraham was rewarded. Abraham got back his "laughter," now sanctified. Anyone who leaves anything for the sake of the Gospel shall receive a hundredfold (Mt 19:29).

God told Moses, "Set apart for me all the firstborn; it is Mine" (Ex 13:2). If only Christian parents the world over had given away their firstborn to serve God, the world would have been evangelised long long ago. We are two boys to our parents and I am the eldest. My parents were largely responsible for my becoming a missionary. I stepped out to serve God fulltime in 1975 on the 3rd of this month.

You ask, "How can I send my son or daughter to the ministry without a call?" Did you get a call through a vision or a voice to make him or her a doctor or an engineer? Why this partiality when it comes to God and His Kingdom? There was never a time in the history of the Church when there were too many missionaries or preachers (Mt 9:37). Send that brilliant child, or the one who earns well, to God's work.

Zacharias and Elizabeth were childless till their old age. When God blessed them with a baby boy they let him "go" to make a people ready for Christ's first coming (Lk 1:7,13,14,17,80). Shall we let our children "go" all over the world to prepare people for His Second Coming? Let there be a missionary going forth from each family!

Give of thy sons to bear the message glorious;
Give of thy wealth to spend them on their way;
Pour out thy soul for them in prayer victorious;
And all thou spendest Jesus will repay!
- (Mary Ann Thomson, 1834-1923, composed while watching her child suffering from typhoid)  

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