Students Who Changed the World - C. T. Studd

C. T. Studd (1860-1931)

In the late 1800s, C. T. Studd was well-known as the son of a wealthy businessman and as “England’s greatest cricketer” while studying at Cambridge University. After attending a meeting held by the evangelist Dwight L. Moody, Studd caused a sensation in his homeland by dedicating his life to God and cross-cultural missionary service abroad.

Studd and six other notable Cambridge students, dubbed the “Cambridge Seven,” rejected status and wealth to depart for the interior of China as frontier missionaries with the China Inland Mission. While there, Studd met his wife, Priscilla, who gave birth to four daughters over the next ten years. The Studds focused on sharing the good news of life in Jesus Christ in a focused way, Priscilla with women and Studd himself with opium addicts.

After returning to England with his family due to health issues, Studd struggled with God’s will for his life. Hearing of African tribes yet to hear the message of Jesus, Studd left for the Belgian Congo with a small group of recruits to begin a new work there. This fledgling new mission became the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade, which today reaches around the globe in the name of Jesus.

For more on the life of C. T. Studd, take a peek at C. T. Studd: Cricketer and Pioneer by Norman Grubb.

Students Who Changed the World - Samuel J. Mills

Samuel J. Mills, Jr. (1783-1818)

Raised in Connecticut, Mills came to faith in Jesus Christ through the Great Awakening that impacted his church. His concern for sharing the good news of Jesus with others was evident from this life-changing conversion.

Mills attended Williams College in Massachusetts. Although described as “awkward” with a “croaking sort of voice,” Mills became a leader within the students concerned with spiritual matters at the college.

When returning from a prayer meeting by the banks of a river in August, 1806, Mills and four other students were caught in a thunderstorm. They sought out cover under a haystack, and began praying about an awakening in foreign missionary service amongst students. After praying, Mills and the others dedicated themselves to foreign missionary service.

Mills was pivotal in starting a group at Williams College called The Society of the Brethren that influenced many students toward foreign missionary service. Similar groups were started on other campuses as students transferred or word spread.

While studying at Andover Theological Seminary, Mills and a few other students petitioned that a foreign missionary sending board be established by the General Association of Congregational Churches in 1810. Within two years, significant numbers of foreign missionaries were sent out from the Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

Concerned about the social situation of American slaves, Mills explored possibilities of repatriating former slaves to African countries. In 1817, Mills surveyed land in present-day Liberia for this project. When returning home on the sea, he contracted a sickness and died at the age of 35 in 1818.

Students Who Changed the World

Not too long ago, I was working on a series of messages related to college-age folks who changed the world. Unfortunately, the series never saw the light of day. I recently bumped into it while cleaning up my files and thought I'd drop a few of the brief biographies online for the encouragement of anyone who might happen to read them.

The background on this is the reality that so many renewal movements in the church have started with college-age people. There is no shortage of references to students' involvement in God's great new works: Peter Heyling, Count Nicolaus von Zinzendorf, John and Charles Wesley, the historic Haystack Revival of 1806, John R. Mott and the Student Volunteer Movement for World Missions, Youth with a Mission (YWAM), the 24-7 Prayer movement, the new monasticism, and more. To read more about these folks, you can look at the links above or explore the following books:

• Student Power in World Missions by David M. Howards
• From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya by Ruth A. Tucker
  

What is true is this: God has often begun new works of the church through young people who are open to being the spark that starts the fire. May the stories over the coming days be an encouragement to all of us that we too can be sparks to start God's new fires around the world.

O God, let us be a generation that seeks
That seeks Your face, O God of Jacob.

Location - a poem

people speak while light reflects
voices mesh, merge, and rebound
in, around, and into my ears
cars surge back and forth going
somewhere fast to
nowhere in particular
place in relation to place
finds its significance only
in relationship of place to place
location dismembered from
relative locality loses identity
it is all relationally locative

13 April 2007 - Birmingham, AL

Real, Practical Christianity

I cannot withhold a growing suspicion that the great 'mass-meetings' of the present day, for the ostensible object of promoting spiritual life, do not tend to promote private home religion, private Bible-reading, private prayer, private usefulness, and private walking with God. If they are of any real value, they ought to make people better husbands and wives, and fathers and mothers, and sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters, and masters and mistresses and servants. But I should like to have clear proofs that they do. I only know it is far easier to be a Christian among singing, praying, sympathizing Christians in a public room than to be a consistent Christian in a quiet, retired, out-of-the-way, uncongenial home. The first position is one in which there is a deal of nature to help us; the second is one which cannot be well filled without grace.

So says, J. C. Ryle in the preface to his book Holiness. I could not help thinking, as I read this statement, how like a critique could be levelled against our present approach to Christianity in America.

Knowing Our Purpose and Living Accordingly

Concluding my expansion of thoughts from "I Want to Live from the Center of Things," I am today writing about living in line with our purpose and personhood.

I want to live from the center of things.

I want to know what I am and what I am not about, and live accordingly.

How often does something come into our days that completely derails us from a task at hand?

Not too long ago, I was hard at work on a sermon while sitting at a desk at the public library. I got up from the desk to use the restroom and was walking through the long-aisled shelves of books.

If you know me, you know this is the beginning of temptation for me. I love books and I love learning things, regardless of whether they are pertinent to me or anything at all.

On my way back from the restroom, my eye was caught by a book on a favorite author. I picked it up and started paging through it. Twenty minutes later I couldn't remember why I was at the library at all. I had been derailed by a distraction.

Too often, that's how we live life. We work toward defining some sense of who we are and what we are about in life. With great energy and a sense of burden, we figure out how we want to live, what we want to do, and how we will get there.

But within days, weeks, or a few years, we are completely off target from that sense of purpose. Daily living or other distractions have come in and swept us off course toward another destination or, worse yet, no destination at all. We are treading water en route to nowhere.

I do not want to live like that. I want to live in accordance with my sense of purpose.

There is the grand sense of purpose in connection with God's grand purposes for the cosmos and history. That purpose of joining in with His kingdom work in the world, of seeking to know Him more, and being about His goodness and greatness in all things.

But then there is the more individual or community-oriented sense of purpose that we all develop within our own time and space and lives. We take time to push, pull, question, commit, realign, reflect, celebrate, and grieve all as movements toward clarity in our life purpose.

Too few take the time to do find that purpose at all. Even fewer live well in line with the sense of purpose they define.

But what would our lives look like if we did define a sense of personal or communal purpose within the grand purposes of God in this world?

What would our relationships and communities look like if we lived in alignment with that sense of purpose?

What satisfaction, joy, and peace might we develop in life if we were to set aside the distractions that lead us to tread water in order that we might live for that purpose?

I want to live from the center of things.

I want to know what I am and what I am not about, and live accordingly.

From Self-consciousness to God-consciousness

Here is another series of thoughts from "I Want to Live from the Center of Things."

I want to live from the center of things.

I want to be un-self-conscious and, even more, conscious of God in the deepest places of the soul that overflow into the lives of others and the wonders of God's creation.

So much of our lives is spent in a debilitating sort of self-consciousness. It's that feeling you get when you walk into a room of strangers and sense that all eyes are on you. It's that feeling you had in childhood dreams where you walk into school and suddenly realize you have no clothes on. It's that hesitation you feel when someone asks for a volunteer for something you know you are gifted at. Self-consciousness.

There is a helpful sort of self-consciousness that I would rather term self-awareness. Self-awareness is a healthy knowledge of one's self: strengths, weaknesses, positives, negatives, personality, abilities, experiences. Self-awareness is extremely important in living well. I am not really addressing self-awareness here, but rather an overactive self-consciousness.

Self-consciousness becomes debilitating when you are hindered from being who God has made you to be or offering the good you have to offer in situations because of fear of others' opinions. The fears of success or failure, of approval or disapproval, in the eyes of others seizes you like hardening cement. You are paralyzed by an overactive self-consciousness. It becomes debilitating.

I want to be un-self-conscious in this way. I want to be free of paralyzing fear and overactive self-consciousness.

I would like to replace it with a pervasive God-consciousness. I want to experience the never-ending presence of God in my days, my relationships, my endeavors.

I want to live from such a deep place that all my life becomes an opportunity to encounter God, whether in silence or noise, whether in solitude or with others, whether in stillness or activity.

What would it mean to shed paralyzing self-consciousness for freeing God-consciousness?

What would it look like to be so un-self-conscious that others' opinions did not matter more than the opinion of our Creator?

What would days, years, and a lifetime be like when each moment is less of an entangling morass of self and more of a joyous excursion into the mysterious life of God?

I want to live from the center of things.

I want to be un-self-conscious and, even more, conscious of God in the deepest places of the soul that overflow into the lives of others and the wonders of God's creation.

Infusing Our Days with Life

I continue with thoughts from "I Want to Live from the Center of Things," today looking at how we can infuse our days with life.

I want to live from the center of things.

I want to find the ways and things of living that are life-giving and infuse my days with them.

So many of us choose to live our lives out of a place bent toward what hurts us. If not us, we certainly have contact with people who choose to live in this sort of way. A friend who nurses an addiction that is actually breaking them apart. A family member who chooses to live out of lies about themself, others, life, and God that actually leads to their present and eternal torment. That person at work who sticks with a job they hate because it's all they know, turning their back on the God-given strengths that could lead them elsewhere.

What would it mean to fill our lives with things that give us life?

First off, we would have to know what those things are.

There are some things that give us all life: God, beauty, truth, kindness, self-control, etc.

There are other things that are specific to the person who God has made us to be. A thing like poetry can breathe life into some souls, while feeling like archaic nails on chalkboards to others.

What are the things that are specific to you that give you life? Think of the past week and what has been refreshing for you: the activities, the moments, the people, the situations.

After identifying those things - those general and those specific to you - it is worth pondering what your life would be like if you were to find a rhythm for putting those things into your life in abundance.

What keeps you from doing so?

What would a day be like if filled with the people, activities, moments, and situations that give you life?

What would a year filled with these things and people be like?

What about a lifetime?

I want to live from the center of things.

I want to find the ways and things of living that are life-giving and infuse my days with them.

Decluttering to Live

Continuing with my thoughts about living from the center of things, I want to unpack the following statements:

I want to live from the center of things.

I want to let go of the clutter in life in order to experience simple and straight-forward living.

We live in an age of extreme excess, whether in things, relationships, or endeavors.

We have so many things available to us that we no longer have clarity and discernment about what is really needful in life. We can apparently buy our happiness by filling our storage bins with more and more items. 'If only I had that new bike, iPhone, or purse,' we wrongfully reason, 'my life would be more fulfilled.' We are overcome by the deceit of satisfaction through owning or consuming.

We have so many relationships available to us that we no longer have clarity and discernment about what true friendship and intimacy is all about. The power of vehicular transportation has put us in touch with so many more people than previous times. The apparent wonders of the internet, particularly social networking websites like Facebook or MySpace, have put us in contact with people we otherwise would have no connections with. Our relationships lack depth and could be compared more to the maddening exercise of spinning plates.

We have so many endeavors available to us that we no longer have clarity and discernment about purpose, activity, and rest in our lives. 'What should I do?' is an all-pervading question in our lives, whether it relates to the coming weekend or the undefined future years. The possibilities of careers are mind-boggling. The possibilities for our vacations are only limited by finances (or willingness to go into debt) and our will to do them.

The sheer mass of options in life is stripping us of true living and papering us over with clutter.

Our lives are crushed into a sort of death through the mass of excess.

But what if we chose to simplify our days by limiting ourselves?

What if we chose to live in an uncluttered way that cut against the grain of society and our age?

What if we said 'no' to more things, to more relationships, and to more endeavors?

What if we chose a more narrow and simplified path that would give life to our otherwise frenzied, cluttered, and empty lives?

I want to live from the center of things.

I want to let go of the clutter in life in order to experience simple and straight-forward living.

Receiving God's Gifts and Tests

I continue with unpacking thoughts from "I Want to Live from the Center of Things," today looking at how we receive gifts and tests in life from God.

I want to live from the center of things.

I want to enjoy the gifts of everyday as generous graces of God.

I want to face into the problems and struggles of life as grace-filled tests from God.

How often in life do we go through a day and a week without paying attention to the gifts that come to us from God. Day by day He offers us grace in the simple pleasures and gifts of life, but we walk by without noticing. And yet, as the Apostle James says, "every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights" (James 1:17).

We have so often lost the ability to stop, to gaze in wonder, and to appreciate the gifts of life. We are weary with business and economics, but fail to see with the eyes of a child the gifts of sunlight, bird's songs, a kind word from a total stranger, a gentle hand on the shoulder in a difficult time. We notice, yet fail to receive it at the same time.

These gifts are God's graces to us in life. Let us not miss them.

So, too, are the difficulties of life graces of God. "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trial of many kinds" (James 1:2). Why? Because this testing produces perseverance and what a gift the virtue of perseverance is in our wearying world.

If only we could say with Job, "when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold" (Job 23:10). Yet we, as is so often the way of humanity, strain hard to avoid the most basic tests of our bodies, our minds, or our character. We strive to avoid the difficulties. But why? So that we can maintain the status quo in our lives. That we might not have to change ... for the better.

The writer to the Hebrews offers us this advice:

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? ... Our parents disciplined us for
a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:7, 10-11)

The problems and struggles of our lives are truly grace-filled tests given by God. He grows us and changes us for good through them, if we will but receive them as such.

I want to live from the center of things.

I want to enjoy the gifts of everyday as generous graces of God.

I want to face into the problems and struggles of life as grace-filled tests from God.