“There is no success without sacrifice.”
He was three years old when he read an entire chapter of the Bible to his father. He was ten years old when he took navigation lessons. He was sixteen years old when he went to college. He was twenty years old when he trusted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.
On August 9, 1788, Adoniram Judson was born in a worn-down wooden house in Malden, Massachusetts. From the time he was a little boy, he was more interested in reading than in playing with his friends. He intended to grow up and become a lawyer or a government official, and he was certainly smart enough to do both! Following college, he started his own school and wrote his own textbooks. Then God took hold of Judson’s life.
Judson dedicated his life to Christ and to the mission field of India on December 2, 1808. He and his wife Ann became the first Protestant missionaries ever to be sent from North America (they became Baptists while studying during their boat trip to India).
After working in India, they moved their ministry to Burma. Using the incredible intelligence God gave him, Judson translated the Bible into Burmese, wrote hymns, inspired missionaries to join him on the field, and shared God’s message of salvation wherever he went. He took only one furlough (a break or vacation), and he died during his last voyage home.
Back when he was in seminary, Judson sent a letter to his future wife. It said, “I have some hope that I shall be enabled to keep this in mind, in whatever I do – IS IT PLEASING TO GOD?”
How often do we ask ourselves that important question? Whom do we seek to please? How about when no one is looking – are you constantly seeking to live your life before God? God is pleased and honored when we seek to glorify and enjoy Him.
Galatians 1:10 – For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.