To be a pioneer

The Olympic Games in Melbourne, 1956, the basketball play-offs, the USA against Bulgaria. In one moment of the game, K C JONES raised the ball for BILL RUSSELL, who caught it in the air and propelled it toward the basket. Bulgaria protested, and the goal was disqualified, for they had never seen anything like it. In the meantime, the Americans appealed to the Olympic Committee, and everything was set right. Afterwards, everyone went to the warm-ups of the national team to watch how Bill Russell did it. In a sense, he was a pioneer in the entertainment of basketball.

It's difficult to be a pioneer. You work more than anyone, but the fruits are enjoyed by those who come after you. A special type of person is needed to be a pioneer, in whatever field of life. In the Christian life, a pioneer is the one who goes out to help others; one who goes first and seeks places where no-one has dared to go before. Sometimes, over a number of years, these people may know only discouragement, tears and hopelessness. Many times they want to give up; they think they must not be in the right place or that others could have done a better job.

You know, none of us would be where we are today if it weren't for pioneers. None of us would have come to know the Gospel if someone hadn't given up everything they had to go to another place and pioneer a work there. None of us would have believed in God if there hadn't been men and women who were willing to be pioneers and proclaim the message of the love of God where it had not been proclaimed before. We owe them a lot.

The best example of a pioneer in the service of God is the Apostle, Paul. Not many people have gone to as many different places as he; a place didn't exist where he wasn't willing to go to take the message of the Gospel. His whole life was a pioneer trip for the purpose of reaching more people. Paul knew what it meant to arrive in a new place and go out to challenge with the truth everything the people knew and believed.

God uses the work of pioneers to get to places where no one has ever spoken about the Gospel. God wants us all to be pioneers to the people around us who don't know the Gospel of Christ; there are many ways of being a pioneer. Are you one?