Progress Of A Modern PilgrimExemplo

I was listening to someone share about these two parables. As I was sitting there allowing the Holy Spirit to show me any additional truths I was bowled over.

A man paid for the price of a field and gained – A TREASURE.

Another man paid the price of an oyster and gained – A PEARL.

Both men paid everything they had – but neither amounts were enough to buy a treasure or a pearl. Yet that is what they gained! That is the amazing grace of God! We give to Him our empty, worthless dirt and shell lives! And He in turn gives up Treasure beyond measure!

In my book Progress of a Modern Pilgrim I share a story of spending time with the great Christian pioneer, Jackie Pullinger:

Jackie Pullinger met me at the train station near her HQ in Hong Kong one day while we were there. We both filled each other in on what we had been doing – at the same time. Then, just as we entered the gates to her compound, she stopped the driver. ‘Get out! Get out!’ she ordered me. She took me over to this interesting wall at the entrance to the compound. The stones were all different shapes and colors, but had been set together to blend into a beautiful array of diversity. She motioned with her finger, pointing to the stones. "These stones we have gathered from all over Hong Kong. They are stones that the builders have rejected." While that was sinking into my heart and soul, she continued with a message so powerful I have repeated it hundreds of times around the world. "These are our people – rejected of men but accepted of God."

The men and women who work with Jackie most often return to their places of origin – mostly China. They have found the grace of God. Their aim in life is not to continue to live a life of ease but one of sharing the story of how once they were hungry and were now filled with the Bread of Life!