Uncompromising Faith - Preface
This is the Preface to Uncompromising Faith by Greg Gordon
I remember the day as a young believer that I set out on my bike with a backpack and $100 in my pocket. Biking across the city of Toronto, full of enthusiasm and zeal to find some godly old volumes, I went to an old rare book room. Perusing the aisles, the smell of older vintage volumes permeated the air. My eyes ran across two sets that I thought were a fair value. The names were recognizable, yet my knowledge of each writer was minimal to say the least. The two sets of books were: The Complete Works of George Fox (eight large volumes) and The Journals of John Wesley (another two large volumes). Biking back to my home with a very heavy load, it was as if I had found gold itself. Over the next several months, I devoured these writings. That was the beginning of a journey that has continued to the present: to unravel and discover wonderful past commitments to Jesus Christ from preachers of old.
As I read these volumes, the gap between these shining examples of what I considered “book of Acts of Christianity” and modern-day believers widened significantly. My heart set immediately to follow these older men who seemed to really know the Lord and have uncompromising faith!
Trying to emulate a godly preacher from the past is not something new to this generation. Many have been, and continue to be, enamored and encouraged by many godly witnesses from the past. This is not wrong! What makes it so exciting to read of these men of the past is their extreme commitment to the Lord in their personal devotion, their ministry, and their zeal for the Lord. But to try and walk in this same radical discipleship can leave a modern-day believer in the throes of legalism, self-effort, and pride! Where, then, can the balance be found?
One area that I now consider safe to follow after any past hero of the faith is in their personal devotion and relationship to Jesus Christ. Each of these men knew God. They spent much time with God. The reason I put our thoughts in this direction is that from personal devotion and walking with God comes our callings and gifts. That is the place where God calls us into his purpose and will for our lives.
It is sad to hear stories of young believers who are ministry-minded and full of great zeal for their Lord who read biographies of past saints and then start to emulate their doctrines, style and passion in an exacting way. The sad part is not that they benefit from the example in the Lord they are emulating, but that some of them burn out and even walk away from the faith. Many fall into the trap of championing the exact theology of a saint from the past, which can have errors and imbalances, and then they perpetuate these problems into the modern Christian world. Such believers are sadly being guided more by their zeal and reading of past saints than by their personal walk with the Lord and the guidance of the Spirit of God in their lives.
Some read biographies of famous Christians to try to short-cut themselves into a deeper walk with the Lord and successful ministry. They think: “If I just copy some of their techniques, beliefs, and quotes, I will have their success.” Such thinking, though, creates men who trust in the past work of other believers, living out of their zeal instead of tapping into the actual power of God which these men had. True men of God are only signposts to point the way. Their sign should point to heaven, to the Lord himself. The need is for each believer himself to trust in the abiding work of the Holy Spirit. Each of the men covered in this book, who were so mightily used of God, had their faces alight with the glory of God. They saw him. May we not make the mistake of looking to the glory of God on the faces of these men, but rather also set our gaze upward to the actual Lord who will also do the same for us.
It is my prayer for you, as you read through these stirring testimonies and quotes and learn lessons from these godly men of the past, that you also will be become a burning and shining witness in this generation. The abundance is always from him. He is the source of power for the Christian testimony. Our faith must be in God alone. God is calling out today for those who will look to him to be their strength and follow his will. Will you hear the voice of God today and answer the call?
Follow us along on the journey through the lives of these four men who did.
