S Pearce Carey

Carey got so much right, thorough preaching, didn't compromise the faith, took ages to make converts, told them to keep their Hindu names, insisted they would not have a high caste church, brilliant linguist, churning out loads of translations, but could not have managed without his two missionary colleagues. One of whom almost brought up his kids. Wife went mad but she was cared for, perhaps better than if she had been (poor) at home. Eventually admired by the English authorities. Resisted Suttee, and that didn't make him popular with anyone, Brits, Indians, not even the widows!… (mehr)

Amazing... (with the possible exception of the first 40 pages...)

Read this book if you want to get enthralled, not by Carey, but by Carey's God, and how he was used to begin an enormous missionary "enterprise" in India, much larger and extensive than he had ever dreamed. (cf. Eph 3:20)

One thing seems to ring true throughout, which was as true of Carey as it was when Jesus said this of Paul:

"I will show him how much he must suffer for My name's sake." (Acts 9:16)

Carey was used by God in breathtaking ways. But he was much afflicted. He suffered greatly and he suffered often. But he was a rock, because he knew God was his Rock. He stood firm, because he knew he had a "Firm Foundation." He was a man on a mission, and he stayed the course, because he knew it was God's mission, and it must succeed. Jesus' blood guaranteed it, and nothing could deter him. He was sure that India fell under the "all nations" that God intended to save, and God's sovereign grace drove him. At the end of his life, he was "as cheerful and happy as the day is long." (379)

See in Carey a man driven by doctrine. So read this book if you want to get fired up over missions, but don't just read it. Pray that God would grab hold of you and make that fire burn steadily and constantly. Pray not just to grapple with and understand the truth, but that the truth would grab hold of you as it did Carey. Missions is not a simple matter--it comes with hardship. Greatness for Christ's sake seems always to come hand-in-hand with suffering for Christ's sake. May he cause the fire within you to burn, and to "joyfully accept the seizure of your property"--and much worse--and confound the world, in order that people might know there is something beyond this life, in order that Christ may be seen to a lost world as glorious as he really is, as the only sure Anchor of our souls.

(http://matthauck.typepad.com/blog/2009/03/william-carey-a-man-on-a-mission.html)… (mehr)