A Martyr’s Grace By Marvin J Newell – China:
Which story struck you or inspired you and why?
John Cornelius Stam was an American missionary from New Jersey. He served for just a short time in China, where he was martyred in 1934.
John’s commitment to fully trust in God is inspiring and speaks to me on a personal level. I was struck by his story and his dependence on God’s provisioning the first time I read it. He was so dependent on God and had such faith in Him that he refused help from his parents and friend as he took His savings and entered Moody Bible Institute in 1929. Even before John went to China, he placed his life entirely in God’s hands.
This morning, as I read John’s story for the third time, I realized some similarities between his story and my own. He wrote about finding a five-dollar bill in the street when he struggled financially and struggled with his convictions in trusting God fully to provide. I found a 20 dollar bill in the rain-filled gutter only days after surrendering my life to Christ, while also struggling financially. In a letter to his parents, John also quotes regarding meeting Betty in china, Matthew 6:33, which also happens to be the very same verse that led me to surrender my life to Christ.
Even in John’s final days, he seemed to rely entirely on God. As he writes in his second letter after being captured, “They want $20,000 before they will free us, which we have told them we are sure will not be paid.” John stayed faithful right up until the end, which he seemed to know was coming, and for it, he now wears a crown (James 1:12, Revelation 2:10).