“This is the message that we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”- 1 John 1:5
Mark Batterson begins Chapter 1 (“Pack Your Coffins”) of his most recent book, All In, with an account of some brave missionaries known as one-way missionaries. Living a century ago, they purchased single tickets to the mission field- without buying the return half. Rather than packing their belongings in suitcases, they used coffins. When they left everything and everyone they knew, they realized they’d never return home.
A. W. Milne was one of those missionaries. He served among the headhunters living in the new Hebrides (South Pacific). Since A. W. Milne already had died to himself, he didn’t fear for his life- even though those headhunters had martyred every missionary who’d come before him. Upon Milne’s death thirty-five years later, tribal members buried him in the center of their village, with this epitaph:
“When he came there was no light,
When he left there was no darkness.”
Pastor Batterson asserts that Jesus didn’t die so we could be safe. Jesus died to make us dangerous. Pastor Batterson adds: “It’s time to quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. It’s time to go all in and all out for the All in All.”
Today’s question: What is your response to Pastor Batterson’s assertion that Jesus died to make us dangerous? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “The inverted gospel”
