A Newsletter Note

Today while reading the newsletter of the "Unto the Least of His"  ministry, I saw a short picture and note about a man named David Law and his contributions to the mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  It brought back a memory of another man named Law who was David's Father.  Burleigh Law was a Methodist missionary who lost his life in 1964 as he tried to rescue five missionary families being held captive by rebels in that country's civil war.  He was shot and killed as he landed his plane in a rescue attempt.  All this happened in 1964.  I was in high school and remember the story from those days. 

 

Few people today would know the name Burleigh Law.  Perhaps, this is why I felt such a compulsion to call it again in this blog posting.  At first it might seem that this missionary was simply a courageous man to do what he did.  No doubt this true, but what surely compelled him to go, knowing that he could lose his life, was his faithfulness to the call he heard from Christ when he was a much younger man.  He was not the first to become a martyr for his faith in Christ and, certainly, he is not the last.  Somehow it simply is important today to remember him, his sacrifice, and his faithfulness to Jesus.

 

Anyone who says "Yes" to Jesus is saying "Yes" to whatever.  None of us know where the road leads as we start out following Him.  Most of us are not led down a road that literally leads to our physical death, but if we are obedient, we will do some dying along the way.  We will find ourselves being called to live as if dead to some things so that we can be made alive in a way that speaks of what Christ wants to do in us.  As Burleigh Law surely understood, it is not an easy way, but it is the only way we can go if we are truly serious about following Jesus.