Missionaries and their stories are familiar to me. My mother often would give my siblings and me missionary stories in book form as gifts during our childhood. I had my favorites, of course, I liked the ones with action and some of the missionaries were more adventurous than others. Most lived sacrificial lives. The story of Hudson Taylor was a familiar one to me. He was a well-known missionary to the Chinese people and was the founder of the China Inland Mission. He spoke the Chinese language, Mandarin, and several of the dialects. His life’s work was to share Christ with the people who lived in China. His dedication and resourcefulness to this cause was novel even for those days. Hudson Taylor has remained one of the great missionaries of all time in the Protestant tradition.
A few years back, I came across an old copy of the book I am featuring, The Man Who Believed God: The Story of Hudson Taylor. It was like reading the story anew now that much life has passed since I first read his story. This compelling story is about a Christian man who devotes his life to loving, helping, and evangelizing the people in his adopted country. He truly is captive to his devotion to God and to the people he seeks to enlighten with gospel of Christ. But it is not easy by any means. The journey of faith that he embarks on will eventually cost him dearly in the loss of family members through illness and death and in other areas of hardship. But he is faithful to the end. I was particularly fascinated by the account of his remarkable conversion when he was a teenager. He had no intention to follow his parents in Christian faith. He was happy about his unbelief. His mother devotes herself to prayer on his behalf. Then one day the written word in a Christian pamphlet causes him to reconsider the issue. He converts. This young man doesn’t just recite the prayer, he is all in. His conversion completely changes the trajectory of his life.
This book is an excellent read about a life well-lived and a spiritual journey of great depth. I recommend it, not so much for the writing style, but because it gives insight into that day and time and the how far it will take you when one is willing to embrace whatever happens for the sake of Christ and His love.
This verse sums up this book, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you,” James 4:8 (NKJV). Amos Smith has written a tome to drive home a much-needed and oft-desired message directed to the passionate believer in Christ. It is his purpose to help the reader discover and then ignite a living, breathing relationship with Jesus. This book could be titled, The Jesus Paradox, since the theme throughout this book centers on Jesus Christ, the Divine (uppercase) God and the human (lowercase) man wrapped up in one God-being.
This writing demonstrates much passion by the author for his subject. Smith’s journey of faith took years to solidify, but it eventually led him to find something that deeply resonated with him, it was an honest search, which was found in the real, living aspects of Christianity. Smith’s search led him to read the Alexandrian mystics who lived during the middle ages and then on to an understanding and appreciation of Oriental Orthodox mysticism. What he found in their writings is a belief that is rich and real and, according to the author, fully centered on the God-plus-human, Jesus, a fully Divine person. The richness he found is shared in this work with an emphasis on centering prayer, which is the part I love the most. He goes on to share how centering prayer and silent presence with God is part of the daily spiritual pursuit and beckons the Christ-follower to discover a deeper level of spiritual understanding–what it is to have a close relationship with God.
To be honest here, I had some trouble with the author’s take on fundamentalism and traditional approaches to creation and biblical tenants. I thought it a bit harsh and over-stated, maybe even somewhat blaming. My reaction had a basis. Quite frankly, I have some fundamentalist background and I first-hand know the label doesn’t fit many of the good and kind people caught within its limiting framework. The more I read his book, though, the more I could understand what it is that he dislikes about religion that over-emphasizes the system rather than the heart of belief. I could say the problem is when religious form overtakes spiritual process, where rigid beliefs hinder rather than grow an intimate spiritual life, which often is Pharisaical. True seeking of God is where one is able to find a living relationship with Him. This will take a letting go of barriers to belief that inhibit rather than grow faith. Fundamentalism can be a part of any rigid religious stance that fails to embrace Jesus and His living Presence, and thus, consequently, fails to change the heart. The point is well-taken. Spiritual life is about Jesus.
