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About the Book
"God Told Me To Marry You" by Kingsley O. is a Christian relationship guide that provides practical advice and guidance on how to navigate the complexities of marriage using biblical principles. The book emphasizes the importance of seeking God's will in choosing a life partner and offers tips on building a strong and lasting marital relationship. Through personal anecdotes and scripture-based teachings, the author highlights the significance of obedience to God's guidance in the journey of marriage.
William Carey
"Expect great things; attempt great things."
At a meeting of Baptist leaders in the late 1700s, a newly ordained minister stood to argue for the value of overseas missions. He was abruptly interrupted by an older minister who said, "Young man, sit down! You are an enthusiast. When God pleases to convert the heathen, he'll do it without consulting you or me."
That such an attitude is inconceivable today is largely due to the subsequent efforts of that young man, William Carey.
Plodder Carey was raised in the obscure, rural village of Paulerpury, in the middle of England. He apprenticed in a local cobbler's shop, where the nominal Anglican was converted. He enthusiastically took up the faith, and though little educated, the young convert borrowed a Greek grammar and proceeded to teach himself New Testament Greek.
When his master died, he took up shoemaking in nearby Hackleton, where he met and married Dorothy Plackett, who soon gave birth to a daughter. But the apprentice cobbler's life was hardâthe child died at age 2âand his pay was insufficient. Carey's family sunk into poverty and stayed there even after he took over the business.
"I can plod," he wrote later, "I can persevere to any definite pursuit." All the while, he continued his language studies, adding Hebrew and Latin, and became a preacher with the Particular Baptists. He also continued pursuing his lifelong interest in international affairs, especially the religious life of other cultures.
Carey was impressed with early Moravian missionaries and was increasingly dismayed at his fellow Protestants' lack of missions interest. In response, he penned An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. He argued that Jesus' Great Commission applied to all Christians of all times, and he castigated fellow believers of his day for ignoring it: "Multitudes sit at ease and give themselves no concern about the far greater part of their fellow sinners, who to this day, are lost in ignorance and idolatry."
Carey didn't stop there: in 1792 he organized a missionary society, and at its inaugural meeting preached a sermon with the call, "Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God!" Within a year, Carey, John Thomas (a former surgeon), and Carey's family (which now included three boys, and another child on the way) were on a ship headed for India.
Stranger in a strange land
Thomas and Carey had grossly underestimated what it would cost to live in India, and Carey's early years there were miserable. When Thomas deserted the enterprise, Carey was forced to move his family repeatedly as he sought employment that could sustain them. Illness racked the family, and loneliness and regret set it: "I am in a strange land," he wrote, "no Christian friend, a large family, and nothing to supply their wants." But he also retained hope: "Well, I have God, and his word is sure."
He learned Bengali with the help of a pundit, and in a few weeks began translating the Bible into Bengali and preaching to small gatherings.
When Carey himself contracted malaria, and then his 5-year-old Peter died of dysentery, it became too much for his wife, Dorothy, whose mental health deteriorated rapidly. She suffered delusions, accusing Carey of adultery and threatening him with a knife. She eventually had to be confined to a room and physically restrained.
"This is indeed the valley of the shadow of death to me," Carey wrote, though characteristically added, "But I rejoice that I am here notwithstanding; and God is here."
Gift of tongues
In October 1799, things finally turned. He was invited to locate in a Danish settlement in Serampore, near Calcutta. He was now under the protection of the Danes, who permitted him to preach legally (in the British-controlled areas of India, all of Carey's missionary work had been illegal).
Carey was joined by William Ward, a printer, and Joshua and Hanna Marshman, teachers. Mission finances increased considerably as Ward began securing government printing contracts, the Marshmans opened schools for children, and Carey began teaching at Fort William College in Calcutta.
In December 1800, after seven years of missionary labor, Carey baptized his first convert, Krishna Pal, and two months later, he published his first Bengali New Testament. With this and subsequent editions, Carey and his colleagues laid the foundation for the study of modern Bengali, which up to this time had been an "unsettled dialect."
Carey continued to expect great things; over the next 28 years, he and his pundits translated the entire Bible into India's major languages: Bengali, Oriya, Marathi, Hindi, Assamese, and Sanskrit and parts of 209 other languages and dialects.
He also sought social reform in India, including the abolition of infanticide, widow burning (sati), and assisted suicide. He and the Marshmans founded Serampore College in 1818, a divinity school for Indians, which today offers theological and liberal arts education for some 2,500 students.
By the time Carey died, he had spent 41 years in India without a furlough. His mission could count only some 700 converts in a nation of millions, but he had laid an impressive foundation of Bible translations, education, and social reform.
His greatest legacy was in the worldwide missionary movement of the nineteenth century that he inspired. Missionaries like Adoniram Judson, Hudson Taylor, and David Livingstone, among thousands of others, were impressed not only by Carey's example, but by his words "Expect great things; attempt great things." The history of nineteenth-century Protestant missions is in many ways an extended commentary on the phrase.
Do You Exercise for the Wrong Reasons
âWhen I run, I feel Godâs pleasure.â Such were the memorable words of Olympic sprinter and Christian missionary Eric Liddell (1902â1945), at least through the lens of Chariots of Fire , the 1981 Oscar-winning film that told his story. Perhaps youâve heard his inspiring line in terms of life calling. In what vocation  do you feel Godâs pleasure? What role or occupation does it seem he made you to fulfill? However, with the last generation of research in view, it might be interesting to introduce Liddell to the fairly recent discovery of endorphins, and ask how much they played a part in his feeling Godâs pleasure as a runner. My experience as a very amateur runner is that you donât have to be a pro to âfeel Godâs pleasureâ in, and because of, intense bodily exertion. God made endorphins to help us feel his joy. Godâs Grace in Exercise God made us to move, and to do so vigorously. And he wired our brains to reward and reinforce it. Regular human movement has been assumed throughout history, but the innovations and seeming progress of modern life have made a sedentary lifestyle more typical than ever before. Weâve never needed to state the obvious about exercise as much as we do today â not just for earthly health, but for the sake of spiritual soundness and strength. âEndorphins are a gift from God, put there by him to lead us to himself.â The word endorphins  is simply a shortened form of the phrase âendogenous morphine.â In other words, these are morphine-like chemicals that originate within our bodies. They âinhibit the transmission of pain signals; they may also produce a feeling of euphoria.â And they are a gift from God, put there by him to lead us to himself. It wasnât until as recently as 1974 that two independent groups first discovered and documented this long-undiscovered divine kindness tucked quietly inside the human brain. Endorphins, and their effect of bodily pleasure, subconsciously incline humans toward certain activities, like raucous laughter or spicy foods. But in particular, the most notable and discussed is âvigorous aerobic exercise.â As John Piper cites in When I Donât Desire God , Either brief periods of intense training or prolonged aerobic workouts raise levels of chemicals in the brain, such as endorphins, adrenaline, serotonin, and dopamine, that produce feelings of pleasure. (203) And the holy pursuit of pleasure is an unblushing Christian concern throughout the pages of Scripture, and most pointedly so in the words of Christ himself. For Joy in God Have you seriously considered how physical  exertion can be a means, among others, of your spiritual  health and joy? God made our bodies with an enigmatic connection to our souls. How God stirs our souls in worship and Bible meditation often has tangible and unpredictable effects in our bodies. And what we eat and drink, and how we sleep, in our physical bodies affects our level of contentment in the soul. According to professor David Murray, âExercise and proper rest patterns generate about a 20 percent energy increase in an average day, while exercising three to five times a week is about as effective as anti-depressants for mild to moderate depressionâ ( Reset , 79). âGlorifying God with our bodies is not mainly about what we donât do.â God not only means for us to enjoy the long-term benefits of regular bodily exertion, but also the immediate effects that bolster and energize our emotions that day. And having our souls happy in God (with whatever little supplement we can get from exercise) is the premier way to fight and defeat the alluring lies of sin. Author and pastor Gary Thomas testifies, âUnderstanding my body as an instrument of service to God is giving me renewed motivation to take better care of it in the face of my cravings and lazinessâ ( Every Body Matters , 20). For Love of Others But regular bodily exertion not only can assist our personal pursuit of joy in God, and fight against joy-destroying sin, but also ready us to move beyond self-focus and have our hearts primed to meet the needs of others. The beneficiary of exercise that is truly Christian is not just me, but my family, my neighbors, my church, my coworkers, and anyone else God puts in my life to bless in word and deed. As Piper explains elsewhere, Today, my main motive for exercise is purity and productivity. By purity, I mean being a more loving person (as Jesus said, âlove your neighbor,â Matthew 22:39). By productivity, I mean getting a lot done (as Paul said, âabounding in the work of the Lord,â 1 Corinthians 15:58). . . . In short, I have one life to live for Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:15). I donât want to waste it. My approach is not mainly to lengthen it, but to maximize purity and productivity now. Precisely because âwe are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in themâ (Ephesians 2:10), we want to cultivate our bodies so that they are a help, rather than a hindrance, in the cause of love. We want our bodies to be an aid, not a net neutral, in readying us to sacrifice our own comforts to do good for others, at home and around the world. For Godâs Own Joy Yet exercise not only can contribute to the matrix of our joy, and in doing so help ready us to meet the needs of others, but what goes unsaid far too often is that glorifying God with our bodies is not mainly about what we donât do . Itâs easy to focus on the many unrighteous acts from which we should abstain, but glorifying him in our bodies is first and foremost a positive pursuit and opportunity. And, as in the parable of the talents, our bodies are gifts from him to grow and develop, not bury and let languish. âThe biblical take on exercise is not âLife is short; let your body go,â but, âHarness the body God gave you.ââ God is not opposed to our bodily existence; neither is he uninterested. He is for the body.  âThe body is . . . for the Lord, and the Lord for the bodyâ (1 Corinthians 6:13). And not only is he for the body  in this age, but also in the age to come. The very next verse reads, âGod raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his powerâ (1 Corinthians 6:14). The creative brilliance and glory of Godâs design in the human body will not be discarded at Christâs second coming. Our future is embodied. Faithful Christian theology does not diminish the importance of our bodies, but heightens it â from Godâs creative design, to his ongoing affirmation, to his promise to raise them, to his calling to use them. Feel His Pleasure The biblical take on exercise is not âLife is short; let your body go.â Rather, with Godâs revealed truth ringing in our ears, we say, âLife is too short to not harness the body God gave me.â Our assignment in this age is a vapor. We are âa mist that appears for a little time and then vanishesâ (James 4:14). Too much is at stake, and our days are too few, to limp our way through by not leveraging our bodies (as weâre able) as the gifts from God they are. Join me in learning what itâs like to feel the pleasure of God.
