I’m currently reading The Man Who Presumed, the biography of Henry Stanley, who uttered the famous words, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume.”

On p. 63 we are given an insight into Stanley’s state of mind during his expedition:

My mission to find Livingstone was very simple, and was a clear and definite aim. All I had to do was to free my mind from all else, and relieve it of every earthly desire but the finding of the man whom I was sent to seek. To think of self, friends, banking-account, life-insurance, or any worldly interest but the one sole purpose of reaching the spot where Livingstone might happen to rest, could only weaken my resolution. Intense application to my task assisted me to forget all I had left behind, and all that might lie ahead in the future.

Kingdom-minded people will have exactly the same kind of single-eyed focus! Jesus gave us the same basic message that a New York newspaper gave Stanley: FIND THE LOST! Jesus will have no one among His followers who puts family ties, comfort, security, or possessions above His kingdom. He says to each one of us: “I’m offering you what I have — hardship, danger, hunger, sweat, blood, tears, and death. Give up everything to follow Me, or don’t come at all.”

Following Jesus doesn’t come cheap. The Bible requires us to voluntarily go out of the way to accept assignments that involve hardship and danger. Every Christian has something to do in this great task of world evangelization!

(Crossposted from Dave Black Online.  Used by permission.  Dave Black is author of The Jesus Paradigm from Energion Publications.)