“If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.” – C.T. Studd, Missionary to China, India, and Africa C.T. Studd was an All-England cricket star who lived from 1862-1931. In his college days, he gave up a professional career as a cricket player to become a missionary. At the age of 25, he gave away a great family fortune to support the mission work of men of God such as George Mueller and Hudson Taylor. Studd then answered the missionary call God had placed on his own heart by following Hudson Taylor to China. Studd subsequently served as a missionary to India. With his family, he returned to England after 21 years of mission work in both China and India. He was in severely poor health at that time, and he expected to stay in England. 
But C.T. Studd soon and unexpectedly received a new and quite distinct call from God, drawing him directly into the heart of Africa. At the age of 53, Studd departed for Africa with a complete and profound reliance on God’s promises. To all who questioned the wisdom of this choice, Studd’s reply could be found printed on the postcard that graced his desk: “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.” Even though I read the biography of C.T. Studd many years ago, I’ve never failed to recall his famous, heroic declaration of faith in Christ. Studd’s example stands as both a challenge and an inspiration, compelling me to keep my eyes on the things that are most important to God. I’ll admit it to you; I have so many times failed to keep my eyes on those most important things. I feel like I have not sacrificed all that much to serve the Lord. But like you, I have a strong desire to serve God with my whole heart. I’m still in the process of discovering, in bits and pieces, what serving the Lord with my whole heart really means. But faith-rousing quotations from great men and women of God, along with countless inspirational verses from Scripture, continue to stir me from the inside-out. I feel compelled to give it all I have to answer the call and fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. Every one of us needs a continual reminder about our foremost purpose as believers and followers of Jesus Christ. Our foremost purpose is to know God and to make Him known! When we’re sidetracked from this biblical clarion call, we inevitably slip into a time of particularly low spiritual productivity, sliding away from being God-centered, quickly becoming self-centered instead. We’ll begin to look to material things and to worldly entertainments to give us the contentment we seek, rather than looking to God and then living out His purposes and plans. God’s word reads (1 Timothy 6:6-8), “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.” So let’s put God first, and keep God first in all things! As we seek to fulfill God’s call to reach the world, would you please continue to pray for all of us with Message Ministries and for those we work with in Peru, India, and throughout Asia? Our continuing desire is to help indigenous pastors, evangelists, and missionaries bring the message of the Gospel to those who are lost, to feed the poor, to care for the orphans, and to provide shelter for those without a home. Thank you for your faithful support of this ministry. Together, we are making a difference! Brian Weller More Thoughts from CT Studd:
- “How could I spend the best years of my life in living for the honours of this world, when thousands of souls are perishing every day?”
- ”Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.”
- “Let us not glide through this world and then slip quietly into heaven, without having blown the trumpet loud and long for our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Let us see to it that the devil will hold a thanksgiving service in hell, when he gets the news of our departure from the field of battle.”
