Whenever I get blue and discouraged in ministry
and down in the dumps by feeling I'm
preaching to the walls and feeling my ministry
isn't having the impact it should and souls
aren't being reached like they could, I go
take a walk with John Sung.
I get out his 600-page diary and
I reread it once again and take a
stroll through its pages to see a man
who poured out his life for Christ like
a drink offering dying at the tender age
of 42.
I walk along with Sung as I carry
his sandals and see his sacrificial life of
prayer where praying five hours at a time
was not unusual for him.
As I walk beside him, I observe how
he read 11 chapters of the Bible every
day to the day he died and I
stand amazed at his consecrated preaching that had
such power from on high and see how
God used that surrendered man to shake China
in revival and to save 200,000 souls.
I cross the cold rivers and trek the
mountain ravines with him in his itinerant ministry
and as I spend time with him, I
am shamed by my lack but encouraged to
be more on fire for God and his
glory as I take a walk with John
Sung and witness his tireless life of ministry
spent for the Lord and pretty soon the
blood begins to run in my veins again
coursing with a freshness and renewed vigor and
I'm ready to go all out for God
no matter the cost and be poured out
for the Lord Jesus like a drink offering.
I cannot walk in the shadow of Sung
without catching a spark of his holy flame
for God.
John Sung lived to save souls at the
sacrifice of all else.
He was away from his family 11 months
of the year and was away preaching every
time his wife gave birth.
He bled from a wound from piles that
troubled him all his life having to wash
his own underwear every day as he was
in constant pain but his personal suffering paled
in comparison to how God used him.
As I walk with John Sung, my heart
is stirred within me and I want to
be more like Jesus whom Sung served and
after walking a time with Sung, I have
the courage and strength and determination to go
preach again a gospel few want to hear
about a bloody cross and a blood-stained
savior from sin who demands repentance and a
life of discipleship from all followers of him.
I'll keep preaching the gospel of the cross
until my lips go silent in death, my
body goes down to the grave, and my
soul ascends up to glory to be with
my one true and faithful friend, Jesus of
Nazareth.