“CHARIOTS OF FIRE”

If you saw the Academy award winning movie, “Chariots Of Fire,” which depicted the life of Eric Liddell, who won the 4 hundred meter dash in the 1924 Paris Olympic games, you may be surprised to see these words written at the end of the movie.

 

“Eric Liddell, missionary,

died in occupied China at the end of World War Two.

All of Scotland mourned.”

 

A year after winning the gold medal, Eric Liddell went to China to serve the Lord as His missionary. He first taught in a college, then decided to seek out souls in rural areas to evangelize. By bicycle and on foot he sought to make the Savior known by presenting the Gospel of Jesus Christ in China. After Japan invaded China and World War two broke out, Eric Liddell, in August1943 was arrested and sent to a prison camp, classified as “an enemy national.”

He was one of 1,850 prisoners packed into a facility measuring 150 by 200 yards. His small dormitory provided a room three feet by six feet for each man. From the jubilee of winning the Olympics to an unjust internment would be a test for any man. But he chose to look out for the well-being of others in the circumstances he found himself in. He organized athletic meets, taught Hymns and the Word of God.

A young boy also interned was David Mitchell, who fondly remembered Eric, years later would write this concerning Eric Liddell as he reflected on the man, the lover of Christ he encountered in that prison. He wrote, “None of us will ever forget this man who was totally committed to putting God first, a man whose humble life combined muscular Christianity with radiant Godliness. What was his secret? He unreservedly committed his life to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. That friendship meant everything to him. By the flickering light of a peanut-oil lamp, early each morning he and a roommate in the men’s cramped dormitory studied the Bible and talked with God for an hour. As a Christian, Eric Liddell’s desire was to KNOW GOD more deeply, and as a missionary, to make HIM KNOWN more fully.”

A look at this man’s life was he too made a CHOICE. In a filthy prisoner of war camp to CHOOSE to Pursue Christ and Proclaim Jesus Christ … and others too noticed he had been with the Lord. He had chosen and continued to nurture and cultivate a life of “Looking away to Jesus.” And as life’s circumstances’ changed drastically, it did not change his master passion and pursuit to know Jesus Christ and to make Him known in the circumstances he found himself in. This was not merely a creed but it was who he was, a man on a mission, “…that Friendship meant everything to Him…{his} desire to know God more deeply, and as a missionary, to make Him known more fully.” to know Jesus Christ and through that friendship the desire to make Him known!”

You may find yourself in difficult circumstances, but like Eric Liddell, you must CHOOSE to maintain the Main thing the Main thing, Seeking to Know God and make Him known! Choices to be made to be in  His Word, fellowship with others and use the circumstances to meet people where they are and share the good news!