A certain man was becoming too interested, so his friends thought, in the teachings of Seventh-day Adventists. In the hope of discouraging any further study, they warned him, "Don't you know that if you become a Seventh-day Adventist the church will take away ten percent of your salary?"
This was a serious charge. But the man wanted to check the matter, and decided to get his information from an authentic source. He went direct to the Seventh-day Adventist pastor, repeated to him the charge, and asked, "Is it true?"
Our minister must have been very wise, for he answered something like this: "Yes, it is true. The church does take ten percent of your income. But that is not all. You will find that the church has numerous projects and campaigns—endless calls for money. And that is not all. The church will want you to enroll your children in its own school and will charge you tuition. When the children reach academy age, it will cost you more, and in college, much more. But that is not all. The church then may ask you to send your children to Africa as missionaries, and you may never see them again. The church does not stop with ten percent. The Lord wants everything you have!"
This spirit of sacrifice appealed to our friend, and he was happy to enter into just that sort of consecration to God. He became a loyal, happy member.
We often sing:
"I gave, I gave My life for thee,
What hast thou given for Me?"
What have we given? We pride ourselves on the amounts of our tithe and mission offerings. We talk about how much we give, about being a missionary people. The world talks about it. We like to read the write-ups of the world in its publications concerning our giving. It would be better if we ourselves would never see them. They are not good for us. After all, we are only giving a little more than some other denomination, and what sort of standard is that? How much are we giving in God's sight? Are we really sacrificing?
We all know that we lose nothing by paying tithe, that the blessing of God more than makes it up. But leaving the blessing of God out of our calculation for a moment, does it really cost us to pay tithe, does it place us on the road to poverty? A visit to the parking lot at any of our conference or institutional offices would hardly give that impression.
Take your pencil. Jot down what you think the average American family spends for cigarettes, for movies, for social drinks, for many other things not in the Seventh-day Adventist budget. Isn't that more than what you give in tithe and in offerings? Figures still tell the truth.
What if we were to pick up the newspaper some morning and find in it a write-up about the advantages, financially, of being a Seventh-day Adventist worker? What if it listed all the subsidies and allowances and all the rest? Would it sound like sacrifice?
The servant of God wrote, "We are never called upon to make a real sacrifice for God."—The Ministry of Healing, p. 473.
Are we?
In these days of easy credit most of us can have anything we need and many of the things we want—with only a little pinching. A Texas newspaper has even advertised homes for sale to veterans without a down payment and with a cash bonus of fifty dollars just for moving in! In some places it is possible to purchase a car in such a way that the buyer may actually have more cash in his pocket after he signs the contract than before.
All this is not true in the mission fields. Yet some of our missionaries would tell you that the sacrifices made today are not as great as some have made and are making. We urge you to read the letter from one of our missionaries featured on page 10 of this issue.
It is true that the sacrifices made are not always financial. Leaving the homeland, leaving friends, being almost completely isolated in carrying on the work of God, is sometimes most difficult. It is true that the departing missionary and the returning missionary are often greatly honored. But how much are they remembered, how much are they in the prayers of those in the homeland, in the long, long meantime? Friends may be thoughtful in getting their letters across the water the first few months, or the first year or two. But is a missionary less lonely during the third or fourth or fifth year of his term when all the homeland seems too busy to remember?
The Spirit of True Sacrifice
One of our missionary nurses went out to an overseas division. She wanted to "hurry up and get the work finished so we can go home." For a time, whenever there was opportunity to be away from her post for a few days, she would visit with worker friends at headquarters. Then she discontinued that practice, because "it is too hard to come back."
Even then, all of us must agree that it is a very difficult thing to make a sacrifice for God that should really be called by that name, especially when compared with the sacrifice He made for us. God just doesn't let us give up anything without giving us something far better in return. The "machines" used in God's payroll department are used far more often for multiplication than even for addition. And they seem not to be equipped to subtract.
Have we given up something? "The Lord is able to give thee much more than this" (2 Chron. 25:9). And He will!
Every true worker longs to reflect the image of Jesus. We long to have every attribute of His character—His love, His tenderness, His firmness, His purity—written indelibly into our lives. How about His self-sacrifice?
"It will be seen that the glory shining in the face of Jesus is the glory of self-sacrificing love. In the light from Calvary it will be seen that the law of self-renouncing love is the law of life for earth and heaven; that the love which 'seeketh not her own' has its source in the heart of God; and that in the meek and lowly One is manifested the character of Him who dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto."—The Desire of Ages, p. 20.
May it not be that self-sacrifice is not only "the law of life" but the condition of life eternal?
If we have never learned the spirit of true sacrifice, would we feel at home in heaven? We wonder if we should have much in common with those who walk its blood-bought streets?
When we meet Abraham who gave up a country, Moses who gave up a throne, Noah who gave up popularity, the martyrs who gave up life itself, will there be a feeling of kinship because of the similarity of our experience?
Think of the special fellowship that will surely exist between Abraham and the heavenly Father. Could anyone better understand what it means to give up an only son than Abraham?
Beginning the new year in 1750 George Whitefield cried, "O for a disinterested spirit! O to be willing to be poor that others may be rich! O to be nothing that Jesus may be all!" That is the spirit of true sacrifice. Without it shall we ever fit into heaven at all?
There comes to mind a young woman who graduated from one of our academies and then went out into an isolated place, with her husband, to teach a government school. After school hours she spent all her time in giving Bible studies. In less than two years she had forty people keeping the Sabbath. All this without denominational pay. For a number of years now they have been in the employ of the church. Last winter when we were on a brief visit to their mission school, she showed us through a new building only partially finished. She showed us the rooms that were to be their apartment, and looking out where the windows would be, she exclaimed, "Isn't that a beautiful view!"
It actually looked more like monotony and duststorms. The wildest stretch of our imagination could not find any beauty in it. The landscape was dirt, just plain dirt, as far as one could see in any direction. But she had found the spirit of sacrifice. And she loved it. It influenced everything she saw. Surely in heaven she will fit in.
And yet some of us work for a few dollars a week less than we might make in the world. And we call it sacrifice!
EDITORS
