You Can't Come!

“You can't come!” the missionary wife said to the inquiring women. She explained with a twinkle in her eye, “You know my husband gives a Bible quiz each Friday morning, pitting the men against the women, and you don't know the answers. You will make the women lose!” The ladies protested, “We need to come so we will know the answers.” Our TMM missionary then responded with a chuckle, “Of course we welcome you to learn more of the Word of God!”

This group of women, all new believers, came with this request because somehow the subject of New Year's Resolutions had reached even their remote desert village. With a sense of conviction they had determined to start a new discipline for their lives. They told the missionary, “We have decided, since we have given our lives to Christ, that we should come to morning devotions at the church where we can be taught the Word of God.”

Several things make this story noteworthy. Their village is a two-mile walk from the church. The morning is probably one of the busiest parts of their day with jobs that must be done each day. And yet, they still wanted to come! I wonder, how many of us would rearrange the demands on our lives knowing that the tasks misplaced would still need to be completed later. How many of us that would make that cut, would then walk four miles round trip each morning in temperatures approaching 100 degrees, for a chance to hear and put into practice more of the Word of God?

Jesus told a group of people one day, “You cannot be my disciples.” The issue then and now is self-denial for His sake. I am grateful for the example of self-denial that missionaries and those who support them make, so that ladies like these and others have the opportunity to be grounded in the Word of the Lord! God grant them and us the grace to want to come!