Daily Devotion

“In 1897 the Christian and Missionary Alliance sent the Canadian Robert A. Jaffray to Wuzhou, Guangxi, where he served for 35 years, leading the Alliance work in South China, helping to found the Wuzhou Bible School, and editing the Chinese Bible Magazine, which was read in Chinese communities all over the world. To reach the overseas Chinese of Southeast Asia he founded the Chinese Foreign Missionary Union, which sent missionaries to Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, yet he refused to be its president, believing Chinese leaders should take up that role. After Japan invaded the Indonesian island where he was stationed in 1942, he was interned and died in captivity in 1945 of illness and malnutrition.”

Wikipedia · Wikipedia, "Robert A. Jaffray"

Scripture

John 7:38 “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, ‘rivers of living water will flow from within them.’”

Reflection

We often treat faith as a "reservoir" to satisfy our own desires, seeking only peace and grace, yet allowing our lives to stagnate and become dull in inward comfort. Robert Jaffray's life of sending Chinese missionaries out to Southeast Asia reminds us: the "rivers of living water" promised by the Lord Jesus were never meant for us to wait in place for heaven, but to flow outwards. The Chinese church and we today cannot be mere consumers of grace, but must be transmitters of the gospel. Examining my present moment, is my life a stagnant pool, or a clear spring flowing towards those thirsty, unseen people around me?