Daily Topic for October 03, 2009
Perhaps one of the reasons why the children of Israel were allowed to suffer for so long in Egypt was that they would know what it was like to be oppressed, and not subject others to ill treatment. It was clear that their God wanted them to show justice to aliens when they became a nation, to show the world what could happen when people follow the One True God.
Pray that God’s children in Bangladesh will demonstrate His heart of mercy by being merciful to the minority peoples that we will pray for this month.
(Continued from yesterday) “Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God,” became William Carey’s motto. This demanded much, but anything less would be too small. In 1801, only eight years after arriving in India, Carey published the first completed Bengali New Testament. He also became a teacher of Oriental languages in a school in Kolkata, which thus provided financial support.
After 25 years of hard labor against many odds, Carey grieved that he could point to only 600 converts and a few thousand seekers, a good harvest among Muslims and Hindus by our standards today. Yet it is difficult to truly measure the impact of his life upon India. Besides his extensive translation and literary accomplishments, he founded one of India’s earliest and most prestigious universities. Furthermore, his efforts resulted in making the Hindu practice of widow burning illegal. The humble William Carey, early apprenticed to a shoemaker, was totally given into the Lord’s hands. But because of his little book (“An Enquiry. . .”) and the testimony of his life, Protestants in Europe and America caught the vision of the unreached. Within a few years these Protestants had organized themselves into a number of mission agencies and began reaching out to every continent of the world. From William Carey, by Mary Drewery, Zondervan, 1979.
Learn more at joshuaproject.netPray for God to raise up 21st century Willam Careys to take the gospel to the remaining unreached people groups of the Bengali-speaking regions.-AL
Next day: Hindu Kaibartta People in Bangladesh
Previous day: Missionary Biography-Carey, continued