They Couldn’t Have Known II
As I wrote in my preceding blog, I love to think about how simple obedience to the call of God on our lives can bring about gigantic kingdom results that we never could have foreseen when we stepped out on faith. Jesus loved to tell us about these through parables. He talks about the tiny mustard seed that grows into a tree that the birds of the air can lodge in. He speaks of the tiny yeast that a woman puts into a lump of dough and it eventually permeates the entire lump and so on.
Of course there are hundreds and probably thousands of such kingdom stories that have played out in the ensuing two thousand years of church history since Jesus’s illustrations but one of the most stunning examples from history that I often think about and am encouraged by is the life of J. Hudson Taylor, legendary missionary to China. I recently read the old book, Hudson Taylor, the man who believed God by Marshal Broomhall, a descendent of Taylor. I thrilled at the story of the very humble beginnings of the ministry of Hudson Taylor, The China Inland Mission and the incredible kingdom advance that resulted.
Taylor was the son of a third generation methodist preacher who dreamed of going to China but never made it. He passed on his passion and vision to his son, Hudson but neither of them could have known what God was going to do. In 1853 Hudson sailed for China. He was 21 years old. He had to return to England in 1861 due to poor health. He sought the Lord mightily and made plans to return to China in 1866 with his family and 16 other missionaries they had recruited. But he was wracked with doubt and in 1865 he wrote in his diary, “For two or three months, intense conflict … Thought I should lose my mind.” A little while later while walking on the beach at Brighton his gloom lifted and he wrote, “There the Lord conquered my unbelief, and I surrendered myself to God for this service. I told him that all responsibility as to the issues and consequences must rest with him; that as his servant it was mine to obey and to follow him.”
That day marked the founding of the China Inland Mission and when his little party landed in China there were only about 400 known Christians in the entire country. After much hardship, struggle, loss, and an amazing amount of prayer, faith, and work, J. Hudson Taylor died in 1905 and it was estimated that at the time of his death there were approximately 18,000 Christians in China.
The number of other missionaries who were inspired by him only heaven knows but some notable names are Amy Carmichael, Henry Martyn, Gladys Alyward, William Borden, and many others. And like Hudson Taylor, they couldn’t have known what God would do with their mustard seed of faith. Their stories are the stuff of legend as well. But even at his death, there is no way that Hudson Taylor could have known what God would continue to do through his obedience. 45 years after his death when the communists expelled his China Inland Mission from China it is estimated that there were 1 million Christians in China. But even that couldn’t stop the mustard seed from growing.
Today, missiologists estimate that there are 100 million Christians in China and that 10,000 per day are coming to Christ! There is no way that James and Amelia Taylor could have known when they prayed over their infant son Hudson for God to send him to China what God would do with that prayer. There is no way that Hudson and Maria Taylor could have known when they set sail in 1866 for China what God would do. And friends there is no way that you and I can know what God, even now, is planning and doing with our little mustard seed of faith that we have planted and that we are watering and praying and working on to advance His kingdom. There is no way. So keep looking up and moving forward.