Which of the following are similar to the ways you've served Christ in your family? [check all that apply]
• Taught your kids to see God's glory in nature
• Washed the dishes without being asked
• Played a board game with your kids
• Encouraged your wife to finish her master's degree
• Attended a child's open house at school
• Worked fewer hours to be with your family
• Set an example of a godly prayer life for your children
• Held a crying child
• Swung on the tire swing with your daughter
• Told your wife why you're still in love with her
• Told your son he's got what it takes
• Coached soccer
• Let you child correct you now and then
• Fixed the vacuum cleaner
• Taught your sons to ride a bike
• Listened patiently to a complaint of your wife
• Taped your child's artwork to your office wall
• Admitted to your kids that you were wrong
• Told your children how Christ entered your life
• Cleaned up vomit
• Taught your children to love books
• Been romantic without expecting sex
• Told your daughter she's smart/beautiful
• Set standards for your kids and stuck to them
• Dealt graciously with a busybody neighbor
• Peeled carrots
• Watched movies together
Mystery Martyrs Theme of the Week: Selling Out Wednesday, May 29, 2002
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May/June 200253Mystery MartyrsTheme of the Week: Selling Out Mystery Martyrs Theme of the Week: Selling Out Wednesday, May 29
Key Bible Verse: So we live in the face of death, but it has resulted in eternal life for you (2 Corinthians 4:12). Bonus Reading:2 Corinthians 4:5-18
The daughter of missionaries to the the Congo Republic told me this story: As a little girl, she participated in a day-long rally to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the coming of missionaries to that part of Africa. At the close of a long day of speeches and music, an old, old man stood before the crowd and insisted on speaking. He soon would die, he said, and if he didn't speak, information that he alone possessed would go with him to his grave.
When the missionaries arrived, he continued, his people thought the missionaries strange and their message dubious. The tribal leaders decided to test the missionaries by slowly poisoning them to death. Over a period of months and years, missionary children died one by one. Then, the old man said, "It was as we watched how they died that we decided we wanted to live as Christians."
Amazingly, this story wasn't told for a hundred years. Those who died painful, strange deaths never knew why they were dying or what the impact of their lives and deaths would be. But through it all, they didn't leave. They stayed because they trusted Jesus Christ.
—Leith Anderson in Preaching Today
My Response: Am I willing to obey sacrificially whether or not I savor any results?
Thought to Apply: True heroism is remarkably … undramatic. It is … the urge to serve others at whatever cost. —Arthur Ashe (tennis player)
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