Sadhu Sundar Singh Takes Christ on Foot

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This is the day that … Sadhu Sundar Singh, “The Apostle of the Bleeding Feet”, was born to a well-to-do family in Rampur, Northern India, in 1889.

Sundar was born into a devout Sikh family, a strict religious brotherhood within Hinduism, and as a youngster he memorised the Bagawadgita, mastered the Vedas and read the Koran. His parents sent him to a Christian school because it was closer than the government school three miles away, and the education received was excellent.

He was also influenced by Sadhus who taught Yoga. His mother told him not to be selfish and materialistic like his brothers but to be a Sadhu, one who devotes his life to religion and lives on charity.

Thus Sundar grew to teenage years with a strange aversion to Christianity … he “hated the Christian teachers, their school, their Scriptures and their Jesus” (The Yellow Robe, by Cyril Davey, page 25). He threw stones at the Christian preachers and encouraged his friends to do the same, and he also tore a New Testament to pieces before his school friends and burned it in the school courtyard, when he was but 14 years of age. Then came his vision of the Risen Christ a few days later, and the “Damascus Road” experience. It was 17-18 December, 1904.

Sundar woke at 3am and was in despair. His Hindu religious devotion had left him empty and he contemplated suicide. He asked God to show him the right way. Then a bright light appeared and he saw Jesus, who said to him, “Why have you not followed me?” He did so immediately and felt great joy.
He cut off his long hair, a mark of Sikhdom. When he told his father he had become a Christian “his father’s wrath was dreadful to see”. He was cast out of the family and poisoned! Found by an Indian Christian, Rev. P. Uppal, Sundar was nursed back to health. He was baptised on 3 September, 1905 – his 16th birthday.

He then dedicated himself as a Christian Sadhu, wearing a yellow robe and wandering without any means of support. This way he knew he could reach his people who accepted such holy men.

In 1910 he studied for ministry in the Anglican Church until he found out that upon ordination he would be expected to stay in one diocese. He left and began an itinerant preaching ministry that took him around India and even into Tibet.

The years that followed were filled with incredible suffering and hardship. He travelled all over North India, despite heat and cold, plague, malaria, cholera, facing death more than a dozen times.

Curious tales abound: patting a leopard as if it were a dog; being miraculously delivered from a well, the top of which had been locked; the meeting with the 300 year-old hermit who “told Sundar Christ’s coming was imminent” (Sadhu Sundar Singh, by J. Lynch Watson, page 66).

Sundar’s books don’t always reveal the evangelical image given in the Moody Press biography by Cyril Davey. He was a student of Swedenborg’s writings … and he speaks of “those in hell who will ultimately be brought to Heaven …” due to the intercession of the departed saints. On the other hand he speaks of the sacrifice of Christ “by which we are saved from sin and its consequences”.

He tells the pilgrim bathing in the ‘sacred’ Ganges that “I have already bathed by faith in the blood of Christ and by His grace have been saved …” (With and Without Christ, by S.S. Singh, page 32).

Sundar preached in Madras and Ceylon, travelling all over India and Ceylon, then internationally from 1918 – 1922. He visited Malaya, Japan, China, Western Europe, Australia and Israel.

In 1920 the Sadhu visited Australia – unheralded. And three weeks “of hurriedly arranged meetings gave to thousands the memory of a Presence” (Story of Sadhu Sundar Singh, by Harold Short, page 7).

In 1922 he was happy to be back in his beloved India. The tour of Western lands had distressed him.

Each year he made a trip into Tibet, and it was in 1929 that he set out once again to preach in the forbidden land.

And there the story finishes … he was last seen leaving the little town of Kalka … and never seen again.

One biographer pays the following tribute to this remarkable servant of Christ – “Coming from the presence of Sundar Singh, men forget themselves, they forget him – but they think of Christ!” (The Sadhu, by Streeter and Appasamy, page xv).
What better tribute could be offered?

This post is based on the work of my late friend Donald Prout whose love for books and Christian history led him to collate a daily Christian calendar. I continue to work with Don’s wife, Barbara, to share his life work with the world. I have updated some of these historical posts and will hopefully draw from Don’s huge files of clippings to continue this series beyond Don’s original work. More of Don’s work can be found at www.donaldprout.com.

John Howard Reforms Europe’s Prisons

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This is the day that … John Howard was born in 1726.

“He was a very earnest Christian, a teetotaller and a vegetarian, whose life was devoted to prison reform” (Dictionary of the Christian Church, page 486).

To appreciate the incredible changes he made in the prison system one should read of the terrible abuses that took place in his day.

Born in the vicinity of London into a wealthy family, he was, however, a sickly child. After school days were completed he was apprenticed to a grocer. Orphaned at the age of 17 he found himself the possessor of “not inconsiderable” riches, so he paid out his indenture (terminating his apprenticeship) and travelled the Continent.

He did much study but became ill on his travels. A widow “nearly twice his age” nursed him back to health and he offered her marriage as a reward for her kind services. He was 25 at the time, November 10, 1755. She died four years later.

John Howard again devoted himself to travel, and married again at the age of 32. A son was born four days before the second Mrs Howard died, on 27 March, 1765.

In 1772 – after more journeying across Europe – he “became engaged in church affairs.” For a while he attended Bunyan’s Chapel in Bedford (Bunyan, of course, no longer being the minister. Bunyan died in 1688).

Then he built a meeting-house “to which he contributed generously” (Twelve Marvellous Men, by E. Enock, page 55).

In the role of High Sheriff of Bedford (a civil appointment usually only available to members of the Church of England) John Howard visited some prisons and saw for himself the inhumane conditions. Thus began his crusade of prison reform. “It is said that he spent 30,000 pounds Sterling of his own money in his reforming activities” (Who’s Who in Christian History, page 330).

He first campaigned that those who ran the gaol should be paid by the county, not the prisoners. This enabled innocent people who had been kept in prison to be immediately released, instead of being held until they could pay the gaoler his fees. He then pressed for sanitation, annual white-washing and scrubbing of the cell walls, industry for the prisoners and more.

His influence stretched to prisons in Europe also … and it was en route from a visit to St Petersburg and Moscow, visiting military hospitals, that he caught Camp Fever from a female patient he attended, and died on 20 January, 1790.

He was buried near the village of Dauphigny on the road to St Nicholas. There is a statue by Bacon to his memory in St Paul’s, London, and one at Bedford by A Gilbert. In personal appearance Howard is described as having been short, thin and sallow — unprepossessing apart from the attraction of a penetrating eye and a benevolent smile. (Jrank Encylcopedia)

“Along with Elizabeth Fry (a devout Quaker) Howard must be awarded pride of place in the cause of prison reform” (Concise Universal Biography, page 783).

This post is based on the work of my late friend Donald Prout whose love for books and Christian history led him to collate a daily Christian calendar. I continue to work with Don’s wife, Barbara, to share his life work with the world. I have updated some of these historical posts and will hopefully draw from Don’s huge files of clippings to continue this series beyond Don’s original work. More of Don’s work can be found at www.donaldprout.com.

Of Lords and Monarchs

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Who is ruling you impacts who you can become. So take a moment or two to audit your own allegiances and discover your limitations.

Christians are familiar with the confession, “Jesus Christ is Lord”. That is a key element of personal salvation. Those who wish to be saved by the life and ministry of Jesus Christ must confess Him as Lord of their life. That brings them salvation.

“If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9

Making that statement as a true confession can only be done with the assistance of the Holy Spirit.

“….. no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit.” 1Corinthians 12:3b

The problem for people is that they are entangled with many different lords and monarchs, without realising it. The process of coming under Christ’s Lordship, then, is not as straight forward as one simple confession. It must be real and it usually involves a progressive revoking of other sovereignties along the way.

Many Lords

God’s people are frequently entangled with mixed allegiances and other lords who exercise some level of rule in or over their lives. The prophet Isaiah identified this in his prophecies.

“O LORD our God, other lords beside you have had dominion over us: but by you only will we make mention of your name.” Isaiah 26:13

Note Isaiah’s candid admission that God’s people have had other lords ruling over them. He also recognises that only God will be able to deliver them into a pure allegiance only to Him.

This is the predicament of most Christians. They are in practice polytheistic. My son, Stephen, goes so far as to speak of a Pantheon of idols which each culture gives allegiance to. Christians in western culture still hold most the west’s deities dear in their hearts. These other deities are lords which rule over the Christian, despite the confession of Christ as Lord.

Western Idolatry

The west idolises success, money, education, sex, materialism, fame, self-will and independence as just some of its cultural values. These are idols that are worshiped. Some people give their whole life to the pursuit of these things.

When people become Christians they will likely still continue to worship these cultural values. They will worship them as idols. And that brings them under dominion and lordship of those things.

How We Get Lords

When we worship something or give in to something outside of God’s moral order we become enslaved by it. It may be sin or an idol that we worship.

“Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say to you, Whosoever commits sin is the servant of sin.” John 8:34

“Don’t you know that whoever you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?” Romans 6:16

God is Our Only King

Christians only have one king, The Lord God. Jesus and Almighty God are one God and so I could also rightly say that Jesus Christ is our only King.

Christians in the early church refused to bow to the Roman Caesar, saying that they had only one King and that was God. This put them at odds with the ruling power, since it proclaimed Caesar to be a god.

In the early days of the nation of Israel God ruled over the people through His agents the prophets and judges. God was their king. When the people demanded a human king God specifically noted that the people were rejecting Him from the place of their king.

“And the LORD said to Samuel, Hearken to the voice of the people in all that they say to you: for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.” 1Samuel 8:7

Replacing God as King

When we seek anything or anyone else to rule over us other than God, Himself, we are rejecting Him from the rightful place as King of our life. If we worship money or success, or chase relationships, fame or popularity, we are rejecting God. We are replacing Him as King, with another.

By that means we end up with many lords who have sovereignty over us. But we have not only offended and rejected God we have denied ourselves our own personal sovereignty.

Voiding Our Sovereignty

We have incredible personal sovereignty as subjects of the Living God. If the God who created all things is your King, and you have a direct line of succession from Him, then you are about as sovereign an entity as anything could be. You have pretty impressive personal privilege when you answer directly to God and Christ. That is exactly what we do as Christians.

We are not under the lordship of priests, pastors or church leaders. We are not under the lordship of temporal kings and government masters. Kings and governments serve our social existence, but we do not answer to them. Since the Roman days and back 1,500 years before then, to the days when Moses withstood the King of Egypt, we answer, as God’s servants, directly to God, Himself.

So when we choose to worship any intermediary sovereign, or come under the lordship of any other person or thing we are voiding our sovereignty. When you worship money you decimate your personal rights before God. You subordinate yourself to something lower than yourself. The same is true when you worship success, fame, political ambitions, career, relationships or people who you revere.

Worship anything but God at your peril!

Building Faith or Sharing Doubts

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Do your friends build your faith or pull you down with doubts? Since you desperately need ‘faith’ in your life, in order to please God, you are wise to protect yourself from those who will pull it down.

Let me remind you that faith is the thing the Bible says will “please” God. If you want to please God you must be a person of faith. Faith is not something reserved for the religious. It is vital for everyone who ever hopes to have God’s help or any kind of relationship with Him.

“Without faith it is impossible to please him (God): for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Hebrews 11:6

Sharing Doubts

Many years ago I heard a preacher tell of a conversation he had with a minister who was heading to a conference. The conference brought together theological people from many places, so they could “share their doubts” about the Bible with one another.

Such a gathering is preposterous. It celebrates the very antithesis of faith. And since Christianity is ‘faith’ based, there is no prize for promoting and propagating doubts. If the people around you pull down your faith then you need to shield yourself against that, not dive into it with gusto. It is no wonder that many men of the cloth (priests, ministers and theologians) have empty hearts and a vain religion. They do not value and protect their faith in God.

Building Faith

Faith is found in people in different measures. It is possible to have “great faith” (Matthew 8:10). We can be “weak in faith” (Romans 4:19). We can build up our faith (Jude 1:20). We can have “little faith” (Luke 12:28).

Faith can be built up as noted above in Jude 1:20. We are even told how to build up our faith. The two main instruments we have for encouraging our faith are the Word of God and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Jude tells us to build up our faith by the gift of the Holy Spirit which we know as praying in tongues. Jude calls this “praying in the Holy Spirit”.

“But you, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit” Jude 1:20

The other way to build up our faith is through hearing the preaching of the Word of God. The Apostle Paul points us to this means in his letter to the Romans, explaining that faith is produced by hearing the preaching of God’s Word.

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17

Build Up Your Faith

To encourage your faith make sure you listen to someone preaching a faith building message each week. You can do this much more easily than in previous generations, thanks to audio-recording. Listen to people who believe what the Bible teaches and who press in to see God’s power in their lives. Those people are seeking to live in faith, so they are likely to boost your faith in God.

Also make sure you associate with people who are moving in the power of God’s Holy Spirit and operating the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Your faith will be encouraged and your life impacted by the fresh experience of God in your life and among your friends.

Oh, and if someone invites you to a conference where everyone is going to share their doubts, don’t go!

The Martyrs of Islam and Christianity

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A religion can be evaluated by various measures. Here I suggest that the martyrs of Islam and Christianity provide a significant insight into both religions.

Martyrs are not new, but neither are they a thing of the past. When John Foxe (1516-1587) wrote his famous book, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, in the sixteenth century, he thought that martyrdom was a thing of the past. However, there have been more Christian martyrs in modern times than all those of antiquity. Gospelweb claims that, on average, 465 Christian martyrs are killed around the globe every day.

At the same time Islam has its martyrs. In modern times we know them best as suicide bombers. These are people who have been taught that the killing of infidels (non Muslims) will gain them personal benefits in Paradise.

So, let’s take a moment to review some of the superficial differences between these two groups of martyrs, the Muslim and the Christian. And in so doing, let’s see what those who are willing to die for their faith reveal about the very faith for which they die.

Islam’s martyrs die in holy war (jihad). They are commonly seen today as suicide bombers. Their actions are essentially selfish – in order to gain personal benefit, such as promotion to paradise, with a bevy of beautiful virgins at their behest. In death these martyrs aim to kill as many others as they can. They kill and main innocent people, in the name of their religious zeal.

Islam’s martyrs die for personal gain and maximum carnage on others.

Christianity’s martyrs die as victims, not as warriors. They most commonly die because they have attempted to take their faith to others, or because they refuse to deny their faith in the face of threat. They do not inflict pain or damage to others in their death. They are passive in their martyrdom.

That’s quite a startling contrast.

Muslim martyrs die with self-interest in mind. Christian martyrs die to win others or to remain true to their faith.

Muslim martyrs necessarily engage in the slaughter of others. Christian martyrs bring no harm to others in their death.

Muslim martyrs engender fear in the community. Christian martyrs are no threat to anyone.

The word ‘martyr’ comes from the New Testament Greek word ‘martoos’, which means ‘witness’. So let’s see what these martyrs give testimony to about their religion.

In reflecting the example of Islamic martyrs we are presented with a religion of self-interest, at the expense of others. We are also presented with a religion of violence, carnage and destruction. We are presented with a religion at war. There is no evidence of something that elevates the human soul. The indulgent image of sexual gratification as the reward for martyrdom is itself a base idea, even if it is only pedalled by the fanatic fringe.

Christian martyrs testify to a religion of self-sacrificing devotion. We see a level of self-less commitment to preaching the gospel to others, even at the risk of death. We see love in action.

Martyrs are not the only reflection of a religion. But surely those people who are sufficiently committed to their faith to die for it must have some credibility in illustrating the character of what they are dying for.

On balance, then, the martyrs of Islam and Christianity bear witness to completely different and contrasting religions. There is no evidence in the testimony of the martyrs that the Moslem God and the Christian God have anything in common.