Reggie Weems

Sunday morning I mentioned the new biography of William Carey (1761-1843), “I can plod.”  Carey is the father of modern missions.  His unswerving ability to remain stedfast in India (1793-until his death) at a single project is what made him singularly successful amongst early missionaries. 

He worte to his nephew, “Eustace, if after my removal anyone should think it worth his while to write my life, I will give you a criterion by which you may judge its correctness.  If he gives me credit for being a plodder, he will describe me justly.”  Anything beyond this will be too much.  I can pld.  I can persever in any pursuit.  To this I own everything.” 

Yet Carey was also fully aware of his own limitations.  He wrote to fellow Baptist Missionary Society friend, and the man who, “held the ropes” for him, Andrew Fuller, that, “I have hitherto had much experience of the daily supports of a gracious God, but am conscious that if those supports were intermitted but for a little time, my sinful dispositions would predominate.  At present, I am kept, but am not one of those who are strong and do exploits.” 

In this, Carey’s humility far underestimated his work.  His famed message “EXPECT GREAT THINGS FROM GOD. ATTEMPT GREAT THINGS FOR GOD”  (May 30, 1792) and the ensuing Enquiry Into the Obligations of the Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathen, launched the Baptist Missionary Society (October 2, 1972) and the modern world-wide missions movement.  Before he died, he translated the Bible into Bengali, Sanskrit and forty other languages.  At least four colleges are named after him, one of them, William and Carey in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where my cousin teaches nursing.    

Yet before he died, he wrote to another Baptist friend, Dr. John Ryland, “Should you outlive me and have any influence to prevent it, I must earnestly request that no epithets of praise may ever accompany my name, such as ‘the faithful servant of God’ etc.  All such expressions would convey a falsehood.  May I but be accepted at last, I am sure all teh glory must be given to divine grace from first to last.  To me belongeth shame and confusion of face.”  

Faithful to that sentiment, on his deathbed he said to a missionary friend, “Dr. Duff! You have been speaking about Dr. Carey; when I am gone, say nothing about Dr. Carey — speak about Dr. Carey’s God.”      

William Carey did more than plod but was happy to be a plodder for Jesus!  Let us plod along!           

This Sunday I’ll finish a 2-part series on “A Christian Vision Statement.”  In a world where mankind sees no further than its own self-interest, a Christian world-view should begin with Christ Who is all in all.  What can we say about Christ?  He is He is the door to God.  Any light we possess concerning God and a relationship to Him comes through the light shed on/in/through Jesus’ face as He turned His face from God and toward mankind (John 1:1 & 14) in the incarnation. 

No one can know God apart from Jesus Christ.  Eternal life is in Jesus Christ (John 17:3).  The unknowable is made visible in Jesus.  John wrote, “No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known” (1:18) and then repeats, “No one has ever seen God” (4:12).  So, any study of God must begin with Jesus Christ. 

Further, apart from Him, we are in darkness, not simply about salvation but everything.  If life is not interpreted through the lens of Christ, then all of life is misinterpreted for, “all things were made by, through and for Him” (Col 1:16).  The study of Christ (Christology) is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, not simply of Christian thought, but of all thought. Nothing makes sense apart from Christ.  God shone light into our hearts for the express purose of giving “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” (2 Cor 4:6).  This is why we were created.  This is why we are saved.  Jesus Christ is certainly the subject of theology but He is also the foundation of all knowledge.  Any knowledge that denies His existence or deviates from His supremacy will ultimately lead people first to foolishnes and then to destruction.  But…the knowledge of Him is abundant and eternal life.   

Human beings make religion all about themselves.  They begin with their own need (salvation) and from that point forward, religion is turned toward satisfying thier lives, their needs, their desires, etc.  Christianity however, is all about Christ.  This is because Christ is our truest need.  For this reason, God the Father has made all creation through and for Christ.  He has centered salvation in Christ.  All human history pivots on the person of Christ.  ”Christ”ianity is truly nothing less, more or else than, “Christ.” 

As Christians contemplate creating a vision statement for an individual life, a couple, a family, a business, a church; it must, to appropriately reflect godliness, center upon Christ.  All of this leads Heritage to Revelation 1:12-16 this Sunday and the vision of Christ that God presents to the church.