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Out Of Love For Christ
Andrew Murray
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Author and Leader of missions. Whoever stands right
with Him, and abides in Him, will be ready to know and do His will. It is simply a matter of being
near enough to Him to hear His voice, and so devoted to Him and His love as to be ready to do all His
will. Christ's whole relation to each of us is an intensely personal one.
“He loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal 2:20). My relation to Him is an entirely personal one. He
gave Himself a ransom for me, and I am His, to live for Him and His glory. He has breathed His love into my
heart, and I love Him. He tells me that, as a member of His body, He needs me for His service, and in love I
gladly yield myself to Him. He wants nothing more than that I should tell this out to others, and prove to them
how He loves, and how He enables us to love, and how blessed a life in His love is.
The personal element of the missionary problem must be put in the foreground. The missionary sermon
or meeting must give the love of Christ the first place. If Christians are in a low, cold, worldly state, the first
object must be waiting on God in prayer and faith for His Holy Spirit to lead them to a true devotion to Jesus
Christ. The apparent loss of time in not coming at once with the ordinary missionary information and argument
will soon be made up. Feeble believers, who are glad to hear and give, must be lifted to the consciousness of the
wonderful spiritual privilege of offering themselves to Christ to live for His kingdom. They must be
encouraged to believe that the Lord who loves them, greatly prizes their love, and will enable them to bring it to
Him. They must learn that Christ's dying love asks, and that rightly, a whole-hearted devotion, and that the
more they sacrifice, the more will that love possess them. As definitely as we labor to secure the interest and the
gifts of each individual, and even more so must we labor to bring each one into contact with Christ Himself.
At first it may appear as if we are aiming too high. In many a congregation the response may be very feeble. Let
the pastor give himself to study the missionary problem in this light. Let him put it to his people, clearly and
perseveringly: You have been redeemed to be the witnesses and messengers of Christ's love. To fit you for it,
His love has been given you, and shed abroad in your heart. As He loves you, He loves the world. He wants
those who know it to tell those who know it not. His love to you and to them, your love to Him and to them, call
you to do it. It is your highest privilege; it will be your highest happiness and perfection. As Christ gave
Himself, give yourself wholly to this work of love.
December 2018 | www.bymonline.org | page 7