one studdly man...

Somewhere along this journey towards the French Quarter, God brought the life of C. T. Studd to my attention.

So before the madness begins, before my thoughts are neatly fashioned onto a page, I need to share about this amazing man who lived with reckless abandonment for the glory of a king.

Here's what this man of God once said:

"The best training for a soldier of Christ is not merely a theological college. They always seem to turn out sausages of varying lengths, tied at each end, without the glorious freedom a Christian ought to abound and rejoice in. You see, when in hand-to-hand conflict with the world and the devil, neat little biblical confectionery is like shooting lions with a pea-shooter: one needs a man who will let himself go and deliver blows right and left as hard as he can hit, trusting in the Holy Ghost. It's experience, not preaching that hurts the devil and confounds the world. The training is not that of the schools but of the market: it's the hot, free heart and not the balanced head that knocks the devil out. Nothing but forked-lightning Christians will count. A lost reputation is the best degree for Christ's service. It is not so much the degree of arts that is needed, but that of hearts, loyal and true, that love not their lives to the death: large and loving hearts which seek to save the lost multitudes, rather than guard the ninety-nine well-fed sheep in the British pen."

It was also C.T. Studd who said:

SOME WISH TO LIVE WITHIN
SOUND OF CHURCH OR CHAPEL BELL,
I WANT TO BUILD A RESCUE MISSION
WITHIN A YARD OF HELL.

I think C.T. must have been a violent man. The Word says, "“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force" (Mt. 11:12).

I pray Jesus teaches me to advance his kingdom without fear. I pray, as the days in this wonderful place unfold, that he will teach me how to be violent about his business like C.T. was in Africa.