Supreme Sacrifice

George Atley was killed while serving with the Central African Mission. There were no witnesses, but the evidence indicates that Atley was confronted by a band of hostile tribesmen. He was carrying a fully loaded, 10-chamber Winchester rifle and had to choose either to shoot his attackers and run the risk of negating the work of the mission in that area, or not to defend himself and be killed.

When his body was later found in a stream, it was evident that he had chosen the latter. Nearby lay his rifle-all 10 chambers still loaded. He had made the supreme sacrifice, motivated by his burden for lost souls and his unswerving devotion to his Savior. With the apostle Paul, he wanted Christ to be magnified in his body, "whether by life or by death.'

Writing on Philippians 1:20 in The Bible Knowledge Commentary, Robert P. Lightner said, "Paul's concern was not what would happen to him but what testimony would be left for his Lord. Release would allow him to continue preaching Christ. But martyrdom would also advance the cause of Christ.?

Our Daily Bread, April 8

A letter from 'Screwtape' to the Church today...

?If you have any encouragement from being united with the world, if any gratification from its lust, if any intimacy with its character, if any loathing and indifference, then make my joy complete by being closed-minded, having disparate loves of self, being divided in spirit and purpose. Do all things out of selfish ambition and in vain conceit, and in arrogance consider others lesser than yourself. Each of you should look only to your own interests, and dismiss the interests of others.?