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All Things Possible

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Years ago, I met Cameron Townsend in Mexico City. I had always admired this missionary because of his faith and vision to start Wycliffe Bible Translators.

So when I saw Mr. Townsend in a coffee shop, I wanted to hear what he was working on. He was about 65 years old, but I knew he wasn’t slowing down in his evangelism efforts.

Cameron Townsend told me he was studying Russian. “Why?” I asked. He said, “Because I’m going to go to Russia and I’m going to place missionaries there.” Now this was in the days when atheistic Marxism-Leninist was still in power in Russia and it sounded like a crazy idea.

“How are you going to get permission?” I asked. He said, “The Lord told me to go. I will get permission.” And then he said, “Luis, never take no for a negative. When somebody closes a door, it means the Lord probably wants you to come in through the back window.”

A few months later I saw Dr. Townsend again. He said, “Luis, we’ve already got three couples in Russia!” They were translating the Bible into some of the esoteric languages of the old Soviet Union!

In Matthew 19:26 Jesus tells his disciples, “With God all things are possible.” When you share the Good News, God can open doors you never imagined would open. Choose to believe Him, and then go for it, just as Cameron Townsend did. And look at the results.

God Can Use Anyone

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There was a humble British maid who lived in the early 1900s. Her name was Gladys Aylward. She was uneducated but she believed that God had called her to China. Yet because she wasn’t educated, no mission society would send her.

But Gladys was tenacious and she finally found a way to get to China without the support of a missionary agency. Finally, with a few coins in her pocket and a one-way train ticket across Europe and Russia, she said good-bye to her family, and she set out to go to China.

Once in China, Gladys shared the Good News wherever, and however, she could. First, she began working at an inn and told Bible stories to the travelers who stayed there.

She later started adopting orphans, and saved scores of boys and girls when World War II broke out in China. At one point, she walked for 12 days with 100 orphans to escape the bombing of her city. She led them to safety, and then collapsed with Typhoid fever.

Gladys later wrote, “My heart is full of praise that one so insignificant, uneducated, and ordinary in every way could be used to His glory…” First Samuel 16:7 says “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

God can use you (look, he can use me!) so, whatever your shortcomings, lacks, failures, or fears may be, He will use you. He has chosen you to spread the Good News to your world. So make the most of it.

Willing to Go

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Did you notice that Hebrews 11:9 says, “By faith Abraham made his home in the promised land.” Now remember, he was a stranger in a strange land, a foreign country. He lived in tents as did Isaac and Jacob who were heirs with him of the same promise.

Abraham’s home for the rest of his life was a tent. He could have built himself a permanent residence in Canaan, but the Lord didn’t authorize that. Abraham realized this world was not his home.

First John 2:17 says, “The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” Let’s face it – the world and its beauty don’t last. But doing God’s will has eternal rewards.

Abraham lived in tents to remind us that he held his possessions lightly, that he was willing to move anywhere, anytime. What about you? Are you so settled in your comfortable home, that you’re not open to what the Lord may want to do afresh with your life?

If the Lord said, “I want you to move to Minsk, Russia, to share the Good News” would you say, “Sorry, Lord, I can’t sell my house. I like it. I’m comfortable here. I couldn’t move out of here”?

Abraham was willing to go wherever, whenever, and we should be willing to do the same. Look at the rewards.