Comfort or the Cross? An Invitation to the Cross-Bearing Life

Hudson Taylor is one of the most important non-biblical heroes in my life. Thus, it was with joy and trembling that I read his call to cross-bearing, a call made credible by his cross-bearing life. I invite you to ponder his words with me, and more importantly, our way of life before the Lord.

“Hudson Taylor stopped at no sacrifice in following Christ. ‘Cross-loving men are needed,’ he wrote in the midst of his labors in China, and if he could speak to us today would it not be to call us to that highest of all ambitions: ‘that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings’ (Phil. 3:10). Can we not hear again the tones of his quiet voice as he says: ‘There is a needs-be for us to give ourselves for the life of the world. An easy, non-self-denying life will never be one of power. Fruit-bearing involves cross-bearing. There are not two Christs—an easy-going one for easy-going Christians, and a suffering, toiling one for exceptional believers. There is only one Christ. Are you willing to abide in him, and thus to bear much fruit?’”

From Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret (OMF Books 2010, page 177)

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