Called To Die

by Johnston, Brian, D. | Category: Mission | Mar 2009

The policeman leaned forward, placing his elbows on the desk between us. He looked me in the eye, and said in a slow, deliberate manner: 'You know what Philippians 1:21 says, don't you?'

I had inquired whether it was safe to travel into the interior; to the uplands of the Philippine island where the pot-holed concrete roads give place to rutted tracks which ascend, precariously at times, into the hills. Those hills conceal rebels fighting against the national government, ever on the look-out for opportunistic hostage-taking.

Without so much as pausing to see if I would reply, the duty officer proceeded to answer his own question: 'For [you] to live is Christ; to die is gain.' Then he added, 'So what's your problem?'

Precautions later suggested by the officer and his colleagues were followed and we did go, and I'm so glad we did. The Church of God in Liguyon is now planted on those green and fertile uplands. What's more, the church company there has more than doubled in number in its first six months. Memories of ancestral spirit worship can still be recalled, but theirs is now the joy of worshipping 'in spirit and truth'; some, at least, have really absorbed the biblical revelation (in Heb.10:19) that God's gathered people enter the Holy Place in heaven as they worship around the Lord's table each 'Domingo' (or Lord's Day(1)) This is a young church that delights in salvation 'by grace ... through faith',(2) and one that's characterized by sweet singing and thunderous 'Amens'! To sit in their simple bamboo lattice building perched on the mountainside, amid their worship and later to enjoy their child-like response to the Word of God is nothing short of thrilling. The older ones show their commitment by walking for four hours in the sun to remember their Lord; while the youth engage in monthly all-night prayer meetings.

One young servant of Christ who's been so helpful to this fruitful ministry has selflessly expended himself for their progress in the Faith. And he talks about some of their own number who 'work tirelessly' and especially of sisters who give of their time and skills 'voluntarily' for the good of the community. It reminds me of the secret for a fruitful ministry which the Lord Jesus stated in John 12:24-26: 'unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me.''

This is hating one's life in terms of not pursuing the world's applause or approval or even to advance oneself in its estimation. How much better it is to share the Lord's things with child-like hearts than to earn the plaudits of the wise and intelligent or even to be obsessed with 'street cred' in the midst of a 'cool' generation!

There's a high cost in discipleship, as the Lord fairly warned His followers: ''If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.'( 3)

Surely Dietrich Bonhoeffer was right when he said, 'When Christ calls a man he bids him come and die'. Not necessarily meaning to die physically for the cause of Christ - though it meant that for him, of course, as it has for many others - but to die to our own will, desires and preferences, spurning selfish ambition and all that this world system has to offer in terms of its vain glory. It is to understand that the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is the means of our being crucified to the world and also it to us.(4) It is to go 'outside the camp' with a world-rejected Saviour.(5)

Thomas was one of the first disciples whom the Lord called, and he understood something of this. We remember him for his doubts, but let's also remember him for his dedication: 'Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, so that we may die with Him'.(6)

That sets the standard for all disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ from the humid archipelago of the Philippines to the bustling centres of the patronizingly self-styled First World.

References: (1) 1 Cor.16:1,2; Acts 20:6,7; cf. Rev.1:10 (2) Eph.2:8,9 (3) Luke 9:23 (4) Gal.6:14 (5) Heb.13:13 (6) John 11:16

Bible quotations from NASB

Johnston, Brian, D. | Mar 2009
Mission