what makes them heroes?

we look at our heroes of the faith and laud them for their willingness to sacrifice anything and everything- including their lives to the cause of Christ, but we miss something exponentially important. paul, john, james, j. hudson taylor, david livingstone, robert moffat, c.t. studd, jim elliot and others didn't even see it as a sacrifice!

moffat wrote: "he who is in the service of the King has put down something tiny to take up something great; he puts down the penny to pick up the pound!"

samuel zwemmer, a leader in the student volunteer movement that saw thousands of college students drop out of school in favor of winning nations for Christ, wrote: "it is a shame that we consider missions a duty so long as men consider it an honor to serve an earthly king."

zwemmer went on to pen this impassioned plea in his book the unoccupied territories of africa and asia: "does it really matter how many lives are lost or how much money we spend so long as we believe that missions are warfare and the King's glory is at stake?"

livingstone wrote that he "never made a sacrifice."

jim elliot, at the age of 21, wrote in his journal, "he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what cannot lose." he was martyred with six other missionaries in the 1950's in ecuador.

for them, it wasn't a sacrifice. it was a pleasure, a joy! they threw off the bonds of convenience to discover the freedom of working through hardship for God.

i was recently contemplating the old adage, "absence makes the heart grow fonder." while, at times, it may be true; what makes love grow stronger is not merely the absence of the beloved, but the mutual working through the presence of adversity. the litmus test for any relationship: platonic, romantic, or spiritual is the way the two parties respond to the presence of adversity.

for the world-wide renown of His sovereign glory...