Hi! Well, I got just a few extra hits (essentially quintupling my readership!) after my post about Michael Gugliemucci. If you’re a new reader, welcome. We’re returning to our regularly scheduled programming today. If you like it, please feel free to stick around.

So, I did some filing for the hubby yesterday (in between getting my “fix” of blog stats). I tend to get a lot out of my work for Charlie, whether it’s editing or research or filing. I love the subject matter, and I tend to absorb a lot of what I read. Yesterday was no different. I started filing quotes from a book that he had just finished reading: Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret, by Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor (revised 1990 edition).

As a leader at 12Stone Church, Charlie had read it over the summer,and he’d marked about a dozen passages that he wanted to capture for future use. So I got to practice my typing speed and accuracy. And as I read the very first passage he’d marked, I KNEW that I MUST read this book.

The basics on Hudson Taylor: He was an English missionary to China. But not just any missionary. He essentially launched Christian missions in that country in the mid-1800s. At a time when accepting that calling meant accepting the likelihood of illness, persecution, and probably an early death, he served for over 50 years, until his death in 1905.

Faith was a common theme in the passages Charlie marked. Here are some of the quotes I typed up:

If we are obeying the Lord, the responsibility rests with Him, not with us! Thou, Lord. Thou shalt have all the burden! At thy bidding, as thy servant I go forward, leaving results to thee.

The Mission funds, or the donors, are a poor substitute for the living God.

And my favorite so far:

How few of the Lord’s people have practically recognized the truth that Christ is either Lord of all or He is not Lord at all (emphasis mine)! If we can judge God’s Word, instead of being judged by it, if we can give God as much or little as we like, then we are lords and He the indebted one, to be grateful for our dole and obliged by our compliance with His wishes. If on the other hand He is Lord, let us treat Him as such.

I’m so struck by the level of faith Taylor possessed. He constantly lived on the edge of poverty and failure, relying on prayer and funding from thousands of miles away to survive.

Time and again money would arrive ON THE DAY that he needed it. And here’s the thing: correspondence back then took WEEKS if not MONTHS. So often the money was already on its way to him BEFORE HE EVEN KNEW ABOUT THE NEED, much less prayed about it. In this day of cell phones and email and twitter and instant messaging I don’t think we can even grasp that.

It’s sad in a way. In the 1800s, Taylor had NO doubt that God had come through for him when a prayer was answered within days or hours. But it’s so easy for us to give credit to the phone system or a quick instant message or the ability to instantly wire money almost anywhere on the planet .

God is no less powerful and loving. But we might miss it.

I’m praying for the eyes to see God’s providence when it comes. May I not lose sight of HIS power and mercy.

Our funds, friends and efforts are “no substitute for the living God.”