“Trust this, will God’s work in God’s way never run out of God’s offer?(The Spiritual Secret of Hudson Taylor, 121). When Hudson Taylor wrote that sentence, did he mean all the needs we have?Money, health, faith, peace and strength. And this is my prayer for this article: that you see and experience new possibilities for your life: more faith, more joy, more peace, more love and all the money you need to do your will (which can be null and void).
And all because of your union with Christ, so well placed in one of Taylor’s favorite texts: “And my God, according to his wealth in glory, will provide, in Jesus Christ, each of you. Needs? (Philippians 4:19). And then, because of all this, I pray that he will embark on a business, a dream of ministry, in addition to all his real or perceived inadequacies, for the glory of Christ.
- Hudson Taylor was born on May 21.
- 1832.
- In Barnsley.
- England.
- Into a fervent Methodist house.
- At the age of seventeen.
- He became radically converted through his mother’s prayers.
- Four years later.
- On September 19.
- 1853.
- Taylor departed for China.
- With the Chinese Society of Evangelización.
- No had no formal training in theology or mission.
- He arrived in Shanghai five and a half months later.
He learned the language quickly and, in his first two years in China, devoted himself to ten long journeys of evangelization within. Then, on January 20, 1858, while in China for nearly five years, Taylor married another missionary, Maria Dyer. I’ve been married for 12 years. Before she died at the age of thirty-three, Mary gave birth to eight children. Three died at birth and two died in childhood, and those who lived into adulthood became missionaries in the mission founded by their father, the “China Inland Mission. “Mission to mainland China).
Five years later, after Taylor started his own missionary agency?Domestic mission in China? And in the midst of prolonged frustration at his own temptations and failures of holiness, the experience of “making history”. It just happened. Look what I was going through while leading the big change. He wrote to his mother:
“[The need for your prayer] has never been greater than in the present. Envied by some, despised by many, hated by others, often guilty of things I have never heard of or have nothing to do with, innovative in what has become established rules of missionary practice, confronting the powerful pagan systems of error and superstition. I work unprecedented in many ways and with few experienced helpers, often sick in the body, perplexed and limited by circumstances, if the Lord had not been particularly merciful to me. , if my mind had not relied on the conviction that the work is his and that he is with me . . . would have weakened or collapsed. But the battle is of the Lord, and will he win?(Hudson Taylor? Spiritual Secret, 140?41)
The stage is ready for the crisis of September 4, 1869 in Zhenjiang. What happened that day didn’t last long. He looked back almost thirty years later, thanking him for his continued experience:
“We will never forget the blessing we received almost thirty years ago through the words of John 4:14″However, whoever drinks from the water I give him will NEVER be MORE SOIF. “When do we realize that Christ literally said what He said?”never again” will “mean aura and” thirst “means thirst?our hearts overflowed with joy when we accepted the gift. Oh, the thirst with which we sit, but O the joy with which we leap from our seat, praising the Lord that every thirsty day of the past is gone, and forever!(Separation and Service, 46)
You have to be careful not to be cynical here. Taylor wasn’t naive, he was talking about a thirty-year experience in which he had some very difficult times. Doesn’t that mean you never had desires for Jesus again?Let’s move on to what that means soon. But, for now, one simply has to be aware that, as his most complete biographer writes, his whole life has come to be revolutionized by this experience (The Shaping of Modern China, Vol. 2, 109).
And at the right time too. The following year, 1870, he was the most difficult of his life: his son Samuel died in January. Then, in July, Mary gave birth to another son, Noel, who died two weeks later, and to crown Hudson’s sadness, on July 23 Mary died of cholera, was thirty-three, and left Hudson at the age of thirty. -Eight and with four children alive.
It was as if God had given Taylor his extraordinary experience of Christ that he satisfied everything not as a kind of icing on the cake of conversion, but as a means to survive and thrive in the worst pains that came to him almost immediately.
A year later, Taylor went to England. There, on November 28, 1871, she married the woman she spent most of her life with, Jennie Faulding, and they married for thirty-three years before her death in 1904, a year before him.
In February 1905, Taylor last crossed China. After visiting some of the missionary stations, he died on June 3 in Changsha, Hunan, at the age of seventy-three. 2015 marked the 150th anniversary of taylor’s mission. there were 100,000 Christians in China, and today there are around 150 million. This growth is god’s work: one plant, one watering, but God gives growth (1 Corinthians 3. 6). But it is also the result of faithful work. And Taylor worked longer and harder than most. This work was supported by union with Christ. We’ll be back to see what this union meant to Taylor.
On September 4, 1869, at the age of thirty-seven, Taylor found a letter from John McCarthy waiting for him in Zhenjiang. God used the letter to revolutionize Taylor’s life. “When my soul was at its peak, a phrase in a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove the scales from my eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed to me the truth of our union with Jesus as I had never known it before (The Secret Hudson Taylor Spirituality, 149).
Ephesians 1:18’s prayer was answered like never before: “The eyes of your heart are enlightened to know, ” Taylor said, “Reading, I have seen it all!. . . I looked at Jesus and saw (and when I saw O how joy flowed!) That He said, “I will never leave you. “
“I saw not only that Jesus would never leave me, but that I was a member of his body, flesh, and bones. Is the vine not only the root, but the whole?Root, stem, twigs, branches, leaves, flowers, fruits, and Jesus isn’t just that?It is the earth, the sunlight, the air and the rain, and ten thousand times more than we have ever dreamed, desired or needed. Oh, the joy of seeing this truth! Hudson Taylor’s spiritual secret, 149?50)
Taylor experienced such a powerful revelation of the unexpressed reality of union with Christ, as an absolute and glorious fact of security, meekness, and power, which had its own effectiveness. How do you achieve stronger faith?(The Spiritual Secret of Hudson Taylor, 149).
Now it’s well known that Taylor was very influenced by him?Keswick? And their visions of sanctification, which, at worst, are gravely imperfect. My conclusion is that Taylor was not one of the worst representatives and that he was protected from Keswick’s worst failures because of his fidelity to the Bible, his experience of suffering and pain throughout his life, and his faith in God’s sovereignty.
First, Taylor was saturated with the Bible and the interpretation of his experience was moderated by the Bible, meaning that, in his experience, the march of faith was not as passive as he claimed.
Over the years, Taylor has tempered his language, but he has never lost the wonder of being truly attached to the vine. His life was a resounding declaration that God uses means to preserve, deepen, and intensify our experience of union with Christ. His own words, “Communion with Christ requires that we draw close to him. Meditating on your person and your work requires diligent use of the means of grace and especially the pious reading of his Word. Many fail because they usually fast instead of eat? (Hudson Taylor’s Choice Words, 2) Taylor’s new standard was to go to bed early and get up at five in the morning, to spend time in Bible study and prayer (often two hours) before beginning of the workday (Hudson Taylor’s spiritual secret), 145).
The second reason Taylor’s life-changing experience lasted was that he saw suffering as a way for God to deepen and encourage his experience of union with Christ.
The farmer does a lot of things for the branches. But the only task Jesus focused on John 15 was pruning or cutting, the goal is to preserve, intensify, and make fruitful the union of the pampaano with the vine, Taylor said:
“It is only in the judgment of God’s grace that its beauty and power can be seen. Then all our tests of temperament, circumstances, provocations, illnesses, disappointments, and deprivations will brighten the mirror and allow us to reflect more fully. and perfectly the glory and bliss of our Master (Days of blessing in Inner China, 61).
Finally, his experience of gentle union with Christ lasted because he embraced God’s absolute goodness and sovereignty in his suffering and union with Christ. When he was fifty-two years old and confined to bed and feeling forgetful, he wrote, “Then he decides that God is infinitely sovereign, and he has the right to do what he wants with yours, and he cannot explain it. A thousand things that can confuse your reason in your dealings with you?(It is not death to die, 8).
In other words, the farmer can use anything and anyone who wants to prune the branch he loves (John 15:1?2).
While Keswick’s teaching can, in many cases, overestimate the passivity of seeking holiness and exaggerate manifestations of consecration experiences as a means of entering a “higher life,” Taylor’s life bears witness to the possibility of living among the difficulties with more peace, joy. and more fruit than most of us want.
If God gives you a moment of experience of this lifelong perception, as He did with Hudson Taylor, or leads you to deepen over time, do not settle for anything less than Paul experienced in Philippians 4 and prayed in Ephesians 3:19: “That ye may be taken away from all the fulness of God. Don’t stop craving this fulness and follow it.
If Hudson Taylor were here, he’d say, “It’s up to you in Christ. Take care of that. Who knows?Can God give birth to a ministry that lasts 150 years?”