DANGER!!! - Reading this, and allowing the Holy Spirit to shake you up, may be injurious to one's complacency!
When William Borden, heir to the Borden Dairy estate, graduated from high school, his gift was an around-the-world trip. Touring Asia and the Middle East, he experienced a growing concern for the lost. He wrote home, "I'm going to give my life to prepare for the mission field." In the back of his Bible he wrote two words: "NO RESERVES" Enrolling at Yale University, Borden promptly began a student movement. By the end of his first year, 150 freshmen were meeting for weekly Bible study and prayer. By his senior year, 1,000 out of Yale's 1,300 students were in these groups! Beyond campus, he founded the Yale Hope Mission to reach out to those on New Haven's streets. After graduation in the class of 1909, Borden declined numerous offers of high-paying jobs to pursue his call to mission, now focused on Muslims in China. He wrote in his Bible: "NO RETREATS"
Borden next went to Princeton Seminary, then set sail for China, stopping first in Egypt to study Arabic. While there, he contracted cerebro-spinal meningitis. In less than a month, Borden was dead at age 26. But before his death he'd written two more words in his Bible: "NO REGRETS"
James Emery White in "Serious Times"
My Response: What "no's" must I declare if I'm to be fully available to my Lord?
Dear David...For some reason by the time I finished reading this short story, my heart was hurting and my eyes were full of tears.
ReplyDelete26 years old and accomplishing all of THAT
Accomplishing all that for the Lord because he purposed in is heart!
It reminds me of Daniel, in Daniel 1:8 when the Lord said that "Daniel purposed in his heart".
Oh how easy these words are for me to write but how difficult to have that purpose in my heart anywhere near to the same extent that
William Borden had.
How many of those that he influenced and won to salvation and how many of those that he encouraged to read and study their Bible,went on to win even more people for the kingdom!
Only in Heaven shall we realize it!
How marvellous will be the words of the Lord as they fall upon the ears of William Borden, "Well done though good and faithful servant!"[and I might add successful servant!]
Such a YOUNG servant!!
I wonder if William Borden took to heart those words of Daniel!
Such a choice posting David Fisher..
Thanks so much...from Terry
encouraging post ... especially for me, at this time ... thank you, David!
ReplyDeleteThat last NO, "No regrets" had a familiar ring since I recently read an article about living your life without regrets. It is an especially encouraging post for me, too. I heard a country song recently called, "Wasted", and though it was talking about young lives wasted stuck on an old love, I immediately thought of a Chrsitian parallel. I hearing over and over, "I don't want to spend my life waiting, jaded, to wake up one moring and find, that I let all that time go, Wasted." And that is so easy to do in our Christian life. To let our time pass us by when we can be serving God wherever we are. And not wish for the ministry God has given someone else, but be content with ours. Thank you for the encouragement!
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