Jesus, I am Resting, Resting

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me. John 15: 4

Jesus, I am Resting, Resting...this hymn, written by an Irish woman named Jean Sophia Pigott, became the favorite hymn of J. Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China. Often, taking a break from his crushing load of work, Hudson would sit at his little reed organ and sing this hymn. It perfectly expressed his greatest life lesson.
Hudson had envisioned a missionary task greater than any since the days of Paul - the evangelization of China. He had established the China Inland Mission in 1865, but it almost proved his undoing. Overwhelmed by worry, work and responsibility, he was near a breakdown when he received a letter from a fellow missionary, John McCarthy. In it, McCarthy spoke from John 15 about abiding in Christ. "Abiding, not striving or struggling," wrote McCarthy, "looking off unto Him; trusting Him for present power...this is not new, and yet 'tis new to me...Christ literally all seems to me now the power, the only power for service; the only ground for unchanging joy."
As Hudson read this letter at his mission station in Chin-kiang on Saturday, September 4, 1869, his eyes were opened. "As I read," he recalled, "I saw it all, I looked to Jesus, and when I saw, oh how the joy flowed!"
Writing to his sister in England, he said: "As to work, mine was never so plentiful, so responsible, or so difficult; but the weight and strain are all gone. The last or more has been perhaps the happiest of my life, and I long to tell you a little of what the Lord has done for my soul. When the agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove the scales from my eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed the truth of our oneness with Jesus as I had never known it before."
McCarthy, who had been much exercised by the same sense of failure, but saw the light before I did, wrote: "But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith but by resting on the Faithful One."
"As I read, I saw it all!...As I thought of the Vine and the branches, what light the blessed Spirit poured into my soul!"

The main method of witness in China today is the personal lifestyle and behavior of Christians, accompanied by their proclamations of the Gospel, often at great personal risk.

Prayer requests for the China Team

Your prayers are so important and necessary to us and for us and we thank you (Xie Xie... shea shea, thank you in Chinese) for taking the time and effort to buoy us up before the Lord.

The earnest prayer of a righteous man has great power and wonderful results. James 5: 16b

• To humble ourselves and rebuke prideful thoughts and attitudes.
• Protection for ourselves and our families, - place a hedge of protection over all.
• To always pray and ask for the Holy Spirit's guidance and direction in developing plans and speaking materials. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3: 5, 6
• Bind spiritual warfare from all our activities, thoughts, productiveness, busyness interference, etc.
• To develop a deep and abiding love in our hearts for our Chinese sisters and brothers in Christ.
• To prepare the hearts of the Chinese Christians to receive all that God has chosen for them.
• To raise up missionaries in China. 
• For China, guidance for their leaders and country. For the Chinese government to remain open to Christian teaching.