Sometimes God speaks to us …. despite everything.

Matthew sat alone in his cell staring at the letter.  Imprisoned in a country not friendly to Christianity, Matthew (not his real name) was kept in relative isolation and the only contact he had with the outside world was in the form of occasional heavily censored letters he was allowed to receive from his family. The letters had any words of encouragement – especially scripture quotations – completely covered over by the heavy black markers of the government prison censors.

In the long months Matthew had been imprisoned he had come to deeply resent those patches of blackness that cut him off from the love of his family.  Until today.  Now, Matthew looked at the patches of black obscuring much of the latest letter he had received and smiled.  Matthew was a happier man.

The truth of the situation had dawned on Matthew like a personal revelation. He had come to see that the black marks and patches on his letters did not obscure his family’s love for him – they highlighted it.  He saw that every obscuring black mark was not a denial of the love felt for him, but proof of it.  Sometimes he could guess that there was a scripture behind the blackness from quote marks not obscured at the beginning or end of the marking. If the censors blacked out words individually he could guess from a short word blacked out after the quote marks that it was probably the reference to a quoted verse in Psalms, which his family knew was his favorite book of the Bible. Very occasionally, if he held the letter up to what light he had, he could make out faint traces of what was written and have some idea of what was being said  to him.

As time progressed, Matthew came to resent the black marks less and less. Sometimes he would take out a letter and just look at the marks, because he knew that behind them was the love of his family, and understanding what lay behind the black marks – even though he could not see through them – sustained Matthew until he was eventually released.

Sometimes, when we go through the trials of life, it’s hard to see God’s love for us.  We may even come to resent the black marks and clouds of life: the illnesses, job losses, persecutions, or whatever seems to obscure God’s love and concern for us.  But if we learn to see them as we should, we can come to see behind the black patches in our lives.   On occasion we may be able to make out the writing of loving correction in things that go wrong (Hebrews 12:6), but this is not always the case and often, like Job, we may see that we are being given an opportunity to learn or grow. But, again like Job, we don’t always see God for the storm – until we realize we are being taught something and we hear the voice of God speaking through the dark clouds (Job 38:1), or through the dark patches that seem to come between us and him.  

In fact, if we come to see the black patches of life as we should, we realize that once we have committed ourselves to God, we can know that his love is always behind them even if we do not see it clearly (1 Corinthians 13:12).  We can remember that every dark patch of life, although it might seem to obscure God's love,  in reality is being used to teach, guide and form us, or to help others in some way. We come to realize that the black patches of life do not deny Gods’ love for us; they actually affirm that it is there.  

Most people have heard the old story of the Emperor’s new clothes.  The vain and gullible Emperor in the story is tricked into wearing a set of “invisible” clothes which were not clothes at all and is too foolishly “blind” to admit his own nakedness till it is pointed out to him.

The story reminds us of a striking statement in the New Testament.  In the Book of Revelation, Jesus admonishes certain Christians who thought that they were spiritually “well dressed”:  “I counsel you to buy from me … white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see” (Revelation 3:18). These Christians, despite their status as believers, thought they were clothed, but like the emperor in the old story, they had deceived themselves and were blind to reality.

Fortunately, the New Testament contains a specific “shopping guide” to enable Christians to know the spiritual clothing they really need.  We find this guide in the words written by the apostle Paul.  Almost all Christians are familiar with Paul’s discussion in Ephesians 6 of the spiritual armor we should wear, but we are not always under attack and in a defensive posture, of course.  In his letter to the Colossians Paul gives a much less well-known description of the everyday clothing Christians should wear:

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity” (Colossians 3:12-14).

Notice some things about this wardrobe of spiritual clothes.  First, the words Paul uses here have striking meaning. The word enduo has the meaning of putting on an article of clothing; used in the middle voice, as it is here, it means to dress oneself.    God may provide the clothes through his Spirit, but we must put them on, and the imperative form of the verb suggests immediately needed action.   If we are not dressed with these things we need to be wearing,  we must not “put off” putting them on!

The items of clothing Paul mentions are largely self-explanatory, but each one deserves our close thought and meditation, as the concept of clothing is used to signify things we should have on every day, at all times.  It can be helpful to look at these verses in different translations and versions. For example, the paraphrased Message Bible actually catches the meaning of the verses quite well:

“So … dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it” (Colossians 3:12-14 MSG).

As is sometimes said, love is Christianity with its work clothes on, and the clothes Paul mentions are indeed aspects of our characters that are needed to do the work we are called to do.   If we are “wearing” these qualities in our daily lives, they will not only be the fulfillment of the way of life to which we are personally called, they will also be a vital part of our witness to others. Indeed, the difference between the Christian’s new clothes and those of the Emperor in the old story is that everyone can see the clothes God gives us.

“Unless there is an element of risk in our exploits for God, there is no need for faith.” - Hudson Taylor

James Hudson Taylor was born in 1832. His father was a Methodist lay preacher, but the young Hudson turned from the Christian faith until the age of 17, when he was converted after reading a religious tract.  In 1849 he determined to go to China as a missionary and began to read widely and to study the Mandarin Chinese language in preparation.

Three years later, after receiving initial medical training and serving as a medical assistant, Taylor moved to London where he volunteered as the first missionary for the recently formed Chinese Evangelisation Society.  After a hazardous five month journey Taylor arrived in Shanghai, China, on March 1, 1854.  The country was engulfed in civil war, and his first year in China was fraught with difficulties. Nevertheless, Taylor persisted, and beginning in 1855 he made some eighteen preaching tours in the Shanghai region.   

At first Taylor was not accepted by many Chinese who viewed him with suspicion as a foreigner. The missionary found he could overcome this difficulty by adopting Chinese clothes and hairstyle, however. He was then able to distribute many thousands of Christian tracts and portions of Scripture in Chinese in the Shanghai area.

The difficulties faced by Taylor were still considerable. When he travelled across China in 1856 his medical supplies, stored in Shanghai, were destroyed by fire, and he was robbed of nearly everything he had.  The Missions Society that had sent Taylor had incessant problems and in 1857 Taylor relocated in the city of Ningbo where he began to work independently, although he was joined by the English missionary John Jones and four Chinese Christian men. It was also in Ningbo that Taylor met and married Maria Jane Dyer, who worked at a school for girls founded by one of the first female missionaries to China. 

Difficulties continued.  The Taylors lost their first child at an early age and in 1860, due to his own health problems, Taylor return to England with his wife and surviving daughter for needed rest and recovery.  But Taylor was far from finished with his work.  While in England he translating the New Testament into Ningbo dialect, he completed his medical training and in 1862, and with his wife’s help, wrote a book called China's Spiritual Need and Claims.  The book was to prove influential in developing further missionary work in China, and Taylor himself founded the China Inland Mission (CIM -now OMF International).

In 1866, Taylor and his family returned to China (surviving two typhoons on the sea journey there), and worked tirelessly and with unswerving faith despite continuing difficulties.  In the course of eleven trips, Taylor spent a total of 51 years in China and accomplished great works. The society he founded brought over 800 missionaries to the country and founded 125 schools as well as a great many help facilities.  Because of his active campaign against the opium trade, Taylor has been called one of the most significant Europeans to visit China in the 19th Century.  His missionary work was certainly of the greatest significance.  It has been said that no other Christian since the apostle Paul carried out a more systematic missionary campaign over such a broad geographical area than Hudson Taylor before he died, in China, in 1905.

Throughout his life of service Hudson Taylor personified the faith that accomplishes the work of God. He encountered innumerable difficulties and setbacks in the work he did, but through faith he overcame them all.  His attitude to the works produced by faith is summarized in his own words:  “I have found that there are three stages in every great work of God: first, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.”