The 18 year old Scottish girl by the name of Margaret Wilson had taken a lonely road for most of her formative years. Living in wilderness caves, she was simply trying to survive during her teen age years. And all that time, she never lost sight of to whom she belonged. Even in the final moments of her life, when it seemed that all the world was against her, she spent the last breaths of her body boldly affirming that she belonged to only One.

Eric Liddell was an Olympic sprinter that gave his all in every race. But this characteristic not only followed him on to the fields of competition, but on the fields of commission. Although the fleeting spark of fame would show the world an Olympic champion, what very few realize is that his ultimate surrender was as a missionary, telling others of the God he loved so much.

Success is defined as a person or thing that achieves desired aims. One way or another we all want to be successful. But what if we have it all wrong when it comes to the measure of success? What if success or failure as a child of God is not left in our hands or cannot be measured or equated from our finite vantage point? To all outward indication, the death of a 27 year old missionary before he even ever spoke to the people he was set to reach, is a failure. But in the hands of God, the sacrificial death of just such a young man can be turned into an astounding success.

History has given us many examples of what it means to be a servant of God. Great men have led well, spoken to large crowds, written great books, and took memorable stands. But there are a select few that have paid for the privilege of leading their flock with their life’s blood. A few shepherds have literally laid down their lives for their sheep. Dr. Rowland Taylor exhorted and encouraged his fold to be true to the word of God no matter what. He then sealed that testimony with his own blood.

His prayer ministry was so isolated and so discreet, that he is all but forgotten in Christian history. Accordinging to the evangelist that he worked with, he was the indispensable element of an effective crusade to reach lost souls. As his small grave stone reads, in understated words: Daniel Nash, Mighty in Prayer.

There are those times when we as believers long for God to come and show His power for all to see. We want the equivalent of a high noon, center of town, in the middle of the street showdown. There are moments when we want the great God of heaven to enter the scene of our world, and like a flash stretch forth His mighty power to put to naught the evil that threatens us. And all this right in front of the eyes of a gawking world. We want moments like the account from the life of Chinese evangelist Watchman Nee in the early 1920’s. God worked in such a mighty fashion that an entire pagan society was shaken to its core.

An event took place at this log cabin out in the middle of nowhere, on the far edge of fledgling nation, in a region of the country filled with criminals and fugitives that defies the imagination. The event that not only had a profound effect on the local area of Logan County Kentucky, or the frontier state as a whole, but left its mark on succeeding generations in the states of Tennessee, Georgia, Ohio, Virginia, and the Carolinas. And to some extent, it altered the heart and conscience of America while it was still in the cradle of its infancy.

There is Someone behind the scenes working circumstance to His infinite wisdom. God is doing this in your life, right now. Every detail, every instance, every crossed path, and every dead end. But that is not so easy to see. One must look from the distance of history in order to see the finger-print of divine design. Here are just two. Two that shine brightly and vividly to reveal a God who works in us to reveal His good pleasure.

When the curtain of time lifted on 19 year old William Hunter’s path in the spring of 1555, his parents were watching. They watched as their son was walked to the center of Brentwood England, they watched as he was chained to a wooden post, and they watched as he was set ablaze. They watched helplessly as their teenage burned at the stake for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Sometimes we don’t attempt things for God. We don’t boldly stand for God because we are just not sure that His hand will be there to protect us. Sure, God did that in the Bible, but would he protect me? Would he protect me in a car driving down the high way? Would he protect me on the streets of a foreign land? Or would he protect me, as in the case of Gladys Aylward, hiking through the jungles of China with nearly 100 orphan children, surrounded by Japanese soldiers with orders to shoot on sight? I’m glad to say, “Yes! He can.”