우리는 흔히 하나님의 영광을 위하여 살게 해 달라고 기도하고, 또 종종 그렇게 산다고 말하기도 합니다.

여기 수단 내지 선교회 (Sudan Interior Mission) 소속 선교사로 사역하셨으며 후에는 제 3세계 개발을 위해 사역하시면서 복음을 전하려고 힘썼던 Paris Reidhead 선교사님의 글이 있습니다.

수단에 파송되어 선교를 하시던 가운데 하나님께서 "하나님의 영광을 위하여(Soli Deo Gloria) !"의 의미가 무엇인지를 분명히 보여주신 글이 있어서 소개합니다. 기도하는 마음으로 이 말씀을 같이 받게 되기를 바랍니다.

(Paris Reidhead)
Until we find something like this;
"Accept Jesus so you can go to Heaven, you don\'t want to go to that old, filthy, nasty, burning hell when there\'s a
beautiful Heaven up there. Now come to Jesus so that you can go to Heaven."
And the appeal could be as much to selfishness as a couple of men sitting in a coffee shop deciding they are
going to rob a bank to get something for nothing.
It becomes so subtle ... it goes everywhere. What is it?
In essence it is this: that this philosophical postulate that the end of all being is the happiness of man has been
sort of, covered over with evangelical terms and Biblical doctrine until God reigns in Heaven for the happiness of
man, Jesus Christ was incarnate for the happiness of man, all the Angels exist in the... Everything is for the
happiness of man!
And I submit to you that this is un-Christian!

Christianity says... "The end of all being is the glory of God."
Humanism says, "The end of all being is the happiness of man."
This is the betrayal of the ages!!
And it\'s the betrayal in which we live and I don\'t see how God can revive it!
Until we come back to Christianity.
Isn\'t man happy?
And God intends to make you happy. But as a by-product and not a prime product.

Now I ask you, what is the philosophy of mission? What is the philosophy of evangelism? What is the philosophy
of a Christian? If you’ll ask me why I went to Africa, I’ll tell you I went primarily, to improve on the justice of God. I
didn’t think it was right for anybody to go to hell without a chance to be saved. And so I went to give poor sinners
a chance to go to Heaven.
Now, I hadn’t put it in so many words. But if you’ll analyze what I just told you, do you know what it is? It’s
humanism. But I was simply using the provisions of Jesus Christ as a means to improve upon human conditions
of suffering and misery.

And when I got to Africa, I discovered that they weren’t poor, ignorant, little heathen running around in the woods,
waiting for, looking for someone to tell them how to go to Heaven. That they were monsters of iniquity. They were
living in utter and total defiance, of far more knowledge of God than I ever dreamed they had. They deserved hell
because they utterly refused to walk in the light of their conscience and the light of the law written upon their heart
and the testimony of nature and the truth they knew.
And when I found that out, I assure you, I was so angry with God that one occasion in prayer, I told him that it was
a mighty, little thing He’d done, sending me out there to reach these people that were waiting to be told how to go
to Heaven and when I got there I found out they knew about Heaven, didn’t wanna go there. And they (were)
loved their sin and wanted to stay in it.

I went out there motivated by humanism. I’d seen pictures of lepers. I’d seen pictures of ulcers. I’d see ``pictures
of native funerals. And I didn’t want my fellow human beings to suffer in hell eternally, after such a miserable
existence on earth. But it was there in Africa that God began to tear through the overlay of this humanism.
And it was that day in my bedroom, with the door locked, that I wrestled with God. For here was... I was coming to
grips with the fact that the people I thought were ignorant and wanted to know how to go to Heaven, and were
saying “someone come and teach us” actually didn’t wanna take time to talk with me or anybody else. They had
no interest in the bible and no interest in Christ. And they loved their sin and wanted to continue in it. And I was to
the place at that time where I felt the whole thing was a sham and a mockery and I’d been sold a bill of goods.
And I wanted to come home.

And there alone in my bedroom as I faced God honestly with what my heart felt, it seemed to me I heard Him say,
“Yes, will not the Judge of all the earth do right? The heathen are lost and they’re going to go to hell not because
they haven’t heard the gospel. They’re going to go to hell because they are sinners who loved... their ..sin.. and
because they deserved hell. But, I didn’t send you out there for them, I didn\'t send you out there for their sakes."
And I heard as clearly as I’ve ever heard though it wasn’t with physical voice but it was the echo of truth of the
ages finding its way into an open heart. I heard God say to my heart that day something like this:

“I didn’t send you to Africa for the sake of the heathen. I sent you to Africa for My sake.

They deserved hell but I love them and I endured the agonies of hell for them. 

I didn’t send you out there for them. I sent you out there for Me.

Do I not deserve the reward of My suffering? Don\'t I deserve those for whom I died?”

And it reversed it all. It changed it all and righted it all. And I wasn\'t any longer working for my cup and ten shekels
and a shirt but I was serving the living God.

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Two young Moravians heard of an island in the West Indies, where an atheist British owner had 2,000 to 3,000
slaves. And the owner had said, “No preacher, no clergyman will ever stay on this island. If he’s shipwrecked,
we’ll keep him in a separate house until he has to leave but he’s never gonna talk to any of us about God. I’m
through with all that nonsense.”

Three thousand slaves from the jungles of Africa brought to an island in the Atlantic and there to live and die
without hearing of Christ. Two young Moravians heard about it. They sold themselves to the British planter then
used the money they received from the sale, for he paid no more than he would for any slave, to pay their
passage out to his island for he wouldn’t even transport them.

And as the ship left the …river at Hamburg ...left its pier at the river at Hamburg and was going out to the North
Sea, carried with the tide. The Moravians had come from Herrnhut to see these two lads off, in their early
twenties, never to return again. For this wasn’t a four-year term, they’d sold themselves into lifetime of slavery.
Simply that as slaves they could be as Christians for these others were.

The families were there weeping for they knew they’d never see them again. And they wondered why they’re
going and questioned the wisdom of it. And as the gap widened and the houses had been cast off and were being
curled up there on the pier. And the young boys saw the widening gap, one lad, with his arm linked through the
arm of his fellow, raised his hand and shouted across the gap the last words that were heard from them. They were these:

“May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering”

And this became the call of Moravian missions.

And this is the only reason for being, that the Lamb that was slain may receive the reward of His suffering.