"Every time I go to another corner of the world and see the church growing and the gospel changing lives, my view of God gets bigger. The men and wome"Every time I go to another corner of the world and see the church growing and the gospel changing lives, my view of God gets bigger. The men and women in this book are my heroes for the ways they magnify the grace and power of our risen Christ. Like stars in the heavens, they shine with glory that has been given to them by their Savior."
The quote I shared above is the perfect summary and the perfect sales pitch for A Company of Heroes. Tim Keesee, someone you already know if you've seen any Dispatches from the Front videos, paints several brief but powerful portraits of men and women around the globe who proclaim the gospel by their words and their lives. Most are present-day believers who would be known only to their friends, family, and communities if not for this book. A few are well-known names from the past.
Through Keesee's approach, readers will walk away encouraged by two powerful realities:
1) The gospel is spreading all over the globe even as we speak. Keesee introduces us to believers in North Africa, Bahrain, China, Ethiopia, Central Asia, Utah, Afghanistan, Armenia, England, and many other places. Though they face different triumphs, challenges, experiences, and cultures, they all love the same God. They all share the same gospel. They all find motivation for each day through God's glory and Jesus Christ's resurrection.
2) The gospel has been spreading all over the globe across the ages. The God you love is the God William Carey loved. The gospel you seek to share with your friends and family is the gospel Amy Carmichael sought to share in India. Across time and history, no amount of opposition has been able to snuff out the gospel or the Church. God is always on the move, using faithful men and women as His ambassadors to the lost.
This book is a beautiful celebration of the universal church. But more importantly, it is a beautiful celebration of our glorious God, who is calling people from every tribe, tongue, and nation to Himself. The men and women within these pages are true heroes, not because of who they are but because of who is at the center of their lives. Keesee says it far better than I can:
The exceptional quality about these heroes—whether past or present—that has strengthened and steadied me is how all of them have oriented their lives around the truth that Jesus really is alive. They are living, walking, witnessing reminders of the resurrection because they daily demonstrate that Jesus is personally and powerfully with them—working in them and through them and for them. By their willingness to go and risk and act in the reality of the resurrection, they live out the truth that "the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power" (1 Cor. 4:20). The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation of their endurance, risk-taking, and death-defying joy. Their optimism doesn't come from wishful thinking but from the power of an endless life—both Christ's and ours in him.
"With Thee, O my God, is no disappointment. I shall never have to regret that I have loved Thee too well."
Henry Martyn's views of both his God and his"With Thee, O my God, is no disappointment. I shall never have to regret that I have loved Thee too well."
Henry Martyn's views of both his God and his own sinfulness are reminiscent of David Brainerd—especially fitting when you read Martyn's own writings and realize Brainerd's life and diary had great spiritual impact on him. In that regard, I felt particular kinship with Martyn while reading his biography, and I am motivated afresh to run the race with endurance, laying aside the sin which clings so closely and looking to my glorious Savior. Christians who haven't encountered biographies such as these are missing out on so much nourishment for their soul. Take up and read!...more
The bottom line of this book is: If your church does not think about missions well, your church will not do missions well. I agree 100%.
Is every ChriThe bottom line of this book is: If your church does not think about missions well, your church will not do missions well. I agree 100%.
Is every Christian a missionary?
Is everything—social justice to humanitarian work to church planting in the Bible Belt—missions?
(I do agree with the authors' conclusions for both questions: The answer is no. Please read the book to learn more. It presents a helpful perspective on missions that, overall, strives to be faithful to what the NT teaches.)
Does it matter that we know how to answer these questions? Yes!
Whether you agree with everything about missions presented in this book, you should at least be able to agree with that bottom line. Think well!...more
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
"Jim left for me, in memory, and for us all, in these letters and diaries, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
"Jim left for me, in memory, and for us all, in these letters and diaries, the testimony of a man who sought nothing but the will of God, who prayed that his life would be 'an exhibit to the value of knowing God.'"
This is an inspiring biography, and I don't use that description lightly. This book hit me with particular force because Jim Elliot was just a year older than I am right now when he was killed in missionary service. The passion and commitment to God he manifested up to that point was equally compelling, causing me to stop and evaluate myself. What am I doing with my life, however much of it God chooses to give me? Does it reach even 1% of the passion for God and for the lost that Jim Elliot had? Am I willing to give what I cannot keep to gain what I cannot lose? So, as one young person reading about how another young person devoted his life to pursuing the will of God and the glory of God among those who have never known Him—that is truly inspirational reading for me. By the world’s standards, Jim Elliot’s twenty-eight years were far too short. But he did much for the sake of the name in that time, and though he is dead, he still speaks. Thankful for biographies like these....more
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