Saturday, January 29, 2011

The Man Who Got It

Up till this point I've posted mostly intensely personal posts. That's all fine and well, but I thought I'd take a minute to post something of a bit of a different nature. I've been working on a project at work that has been opening my eyes to a bit of the history of the C&MA and how God has taken ordinary people to use for extraordinary purposes. R.A. Jaffray was no exception. Born to a weathly family in Canada, his father had every hope of him taking over his newspaper business in Toronto. But when Jaffray became a believer in Christ at age 17, God placed different plans on his heart.  After hearing A.B. Simpson speak about the need for the gospel to reach all corners of the earth, Jaffray was convinced that he too would become a speaker to those who were slaves to sin. When his father found out he disinherited Jaffray, promising not to pay a cent in support, other than if he decided to come home. Here's a man who got it. He understood that being near God meant that you were near His desires too. Isn't it God's desire for mankind to know who He is? For what other purpose did Jesus come to earth, than so that the world may know?

I often hear people contemplating what God's purpose is for their lives, and also often do so myself. But for all the years of aimless questioning, the most direction I have received have happened over the past couple of months, while I have relinquished the quest and controlling desire to know every step of God's plan for my life. It seemed that acknowledging that God's desire for us is to know Him, was a far more reaching realization than that which I first realized. It opened the door for God to put to pieces together in his timing, so much more perfect than my own.

R.A. Jaffray understood this concept. He understood that we are all slaves to sin, and that God's greatest desire for us is to no longer be slaves but to be reconciled to Him. After serving in China for over 30 years, he soon felt what he described as the cry of Sumatra. At that point no one in Indonesia had ever heard the name of Jesus. He quickly made the move to Indonesia, with the support of the Chinese church, and began a Bible School. Because of his legacy in Indonesia, there are now over 3,000 Alliance churches scattered across Indonesia's 1,800 islands.

I'd like to make one more point... Jaffray also seemed to understand that there was never a retirement from doing the work that God had given to him. When the Japanese came into Indonesia at the beginning of WW2, they imprisoned many of the missionaries who were living in Indonesia at the time. Jaffray was no exception. Even from the Japanese internment camp he still poured Jesus into the people around him, and finally on July 29, 1945, he passed away, less than one month before the Japanese surrender.

R.A. Jaffray truly was a man who understood purpose. He was a man who got it.

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