Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 8

Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

If God Has Not Breathed New Life Into Your Lungs . . .

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Ezekiel 37

The Valley of Dry Bones

1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."
4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath [a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.' "
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.' " 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
11 Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.' 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.' "

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Adorniam Judson

Advice to Missionary Candidates
By:
Adoniram Judson
To the Foreign Missionary Association of the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution, N. Y.




DEAR BRETHREN: Yours of November last, from the pen of your Corresponding Secretary, Mr. William Dean, is before me. It is one of the few letters that I feel called upon to answer, for you ask my advice on several important points. There is, also, in the sentiments you express, something so congenial to my own, that I feel my heart knit to the members of your association, and instead of commonplace reply, am desirous of setting down a few items which may be profitable to you in your future course. Brief items they must be, for want of time forbids my expatiating.
In commencing my remarks, I take you as you are. You are contemplating a missionary life.
First, then, let it be a missionary life; that is, come out for life, and not for a limited term. Do not fancy that you have a true missionary spirit, while you are intending all along to leave the heathen soon after acquiring their language. Leave them! for what? To spend the rest of your days in enjoying the ease and plenty of your native land?
Secondly. In choosing a companion for life, have particular regard to a good constitution, and not wantonly, or without good cause, bring a burden on yourselves and the mission.
Thirdly. Be not ravenous to do good on board ship. Missionaries have frequently done more hurt than good, by injudicious zeal, during their passage out.
Fourthly. Take care that the attention you receive at home, the unfavorable circumstances in which you will be placed on board ship, and the unmissionary examples you may possibly meet with at some missionary stations, do not transform you from living missionaries to mere skeletons before you reach the place of your destination. It may be profitable to bear in mind, that a large proportion of those who come out on a mission to the East die within five years after leaving their native land. Walk softly, therefore; death is narrowly watching your steps.
Fifthly. Beware of the reaction which will take place soon after reaching your field of labor. There you will perhaps find native Christians, of whose merits or demerits you can not judge correctly without some familiar acquaintance with their language. Some appearances will combine to disappoint and disgust you. You will meet with disappointments and discouragements, of which it is impossible to form a correct idea from written accounts, and which will lead you, at first, almost to regret that you have embarked in the cause. You will see men and women whom you have been accustomed to view through a telescope some thousands of miles long. Such an instrument is apt to magnify. Beware, therefore, of the reaction you will experience from a combination of all these causes, lest you become disheartened at commencing your work, or take up a prejudice against some persons and places, which will embitter all your future lives.
Sixthly. Beware of the greater reaction which will take place after you have acquired the language, and become fatigued and worn out with preaching the gospel to a disobedient and gainsaying people. You will sometimes long for a quiet retreat, where you can find a respite from the tug of toiling at native work -- the incessant, intolerable friction of the missionary grindstone. And Satan will sympathize with you in this matter; and he will present some chapel of ease, in which to officiate in your native tongue, some government situation, some professorship or editorship, some literary or scientific pursuit, some supernumerary translation, or, at least, some system of schools; anything, in a word, that will help you, without much surrender of character, to slip out of real missionary work. Such a temptation will form the crisis of your disease. If your spiritual constitution can sustain it, you recover; if not, you die.
Seventhly. Beware of pride; not the pride of proud men, but the pride of humble men -- that secret pride which is apt to grow out of the consciousness that we are esteemed by the great and good. This pride sometimes eats out the vitals of religion before its existence is suspected. In order to check its operations, it may be well to remember how we appear in the sight of God, and how we should appear in the sight of our fellow-men, if all were known. Endeavor to let all be known. Confess your faults freely, and as publicly as circumstances will require or admit. When you have done something of which you are ashamed, and by which, perhaps, some person has been injured (and what man is exempt?), be glad not only to make reparation, but improve the opportunity for subduing your pride.
Eighthly. Never lay up money for yourselves or your families. Trust in God from day to day, and verily you shall be fed.
Ninthly. Beware of that indolence which leads to a neglect of bodily exercise. The poor health and premature death of most Europeans in the East must be eminently ascribed to the most wanton neglect of bodily exercise.
Tenthly. Beware of genteel living. Maintain as little intercourse as possible with fashionable European society. The mode of living adopted by many missionaries in the East is quite inconsistent with that familiar intercourse with the natives which is essential to a missionary.
There are many points of self-denial that I should like to touch upon; but a consciousness of my own deficiency constrains me to be silent. I have also left untouched several topics of vital importance, it having been my aim to select such only as appear to me to have been not much noticed or enforced. I hope you will excuse the monitorial style that I have accidentally adopted. I assure you, I mean no harm.
In regard to your inquiries concerning studies, qualifications, etc., nothing occurs that I think would be particularly useful, except the simple remark, that I fear too much stress begins to be laid on what is termed a thorough classical education.
Praying that you may be guided in all your deliberations, and that I may yet have the pleasure of welcoming some of you to these heathen shores, I remain

Your affectionate brother,
A. JUDSON
Maulmain, June 25, 1832

MK Quarterback

HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL INSIDER
Quarterback brings a world view to Boswell
By TRAE THOMPSON
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

As a boy, Saginaw Boswell quarterback Daniel Harrist wasn't planted in front of a TV playing video games.
He raised a cockatoo in an Indonesian jungle.
Harrist, a 17-year-old senior, spent most of his childhood overseas in Indonesia, Laos and Thailand. His parents were Christian missionaries, and his father was a pilot for Mission Aviation Fellowship.
"The people over there have a different lifestyle," said Harrist, who completed 13 of 19 passes for 308 yards in Friday's 42-23 win over Alvarado. "It makes you count your blessings. Over there, a lot of families don't have their next meal guaranteed. People over here get mad about their cable going out."
Harrist had just turned 5 when his family moved to Indonesia. The Harrists lived there until Daniel was 8. After sixth grade in America, they moved to Laos, but Daniel attended a boarding school in Thailand.
Their religion didn't put them in danger, but made safety a factor. Daniel said Christians couldn't be vocal in some areas, but were accepted in others. Julie Harrist, Daniel's mother, never worried about it.

She remembered how her son could run around barefoot in Indonesia. She laughed when recalling a visit to see Daniel in Thailand, where he would hang off the back of trucks used as mass transit. He didn't know the language, but had no problems exploring.
"He was very independent, and I was proud of him," Julie said. "He was in a boarding school with 16 others, all of them with different nationalities. He has a well-rounded view of the world."
Football wasn't available. Daniel threw a ball with his father, and received videotapes of Denver Broncos games from an uncle who lived in the Mile High city. While at boarding school, he played pickup games with other students.
"The only time I got to watch football was when the Patriots and Eagles played in the Super Bowl" Daniel said. "I remember I had to wake up at 6 a.m., because of the time difference."

Daniel and his family returned to America before his sophmore year, just before two-a-days began at Boswell.
Teammates thought he was a freshman. He was introduced to the team. Soon after, teammates nicknamed him "Thailand."
"When we have meetings, what he's got to say is very meaningful," Boswell coach John Abendschan said. "But he's not a loud guy."
Harrist had to play catch-up in learning the game, and started on the Pioneers' sophomore team. Abendschan remembers seeing him play for the first time, and how on the first series, he scrambled and ran to the corner of the end zone. With his body diving out of bounds, Harrist knew to still keep his arm in over the pylon.
"I have so much fun," Daniel said. "Everyone gets upset about going out to practice, but I was psyched I got to play football."
Trae Thompson, 817-685-3866 mtthompson@star-telegram.com