Post by JEM on Nov 5, 2012 4:05:44 GMT
A BOY CALLED FELIX
////////////////////////
Nov 11th is Remembrance Sunday to most people in Britain
When we remember lots of people who fought for the defence of our Country and to liberate the World and set it free from to
the plans of very bad men.
But to Baptists who support Baptist World Mission November 11th is important to us for another reason.
For the man who founded the Baptist Missionary Society in 1792 William Carey arrived in Calcutta to begin his work
on November 11th 1793
When this story begins FELIX was between 8 and 9 and his brother William was 5.
Their Dad WILLIAM CAREY, a shoemaker and preacher, had agreed to go out to India with a Doctor John Thomas who was a ship's surgeon.
WILLIAM's wife was just about to have another baby who would be called JABEZ so could not go with William but she insisted that he take FELIX with him and the plan was to go to India, and set up the work, and return for her and the rest of there family in 3 years time.
To go to India then meant many weeks at sea, and Felix had never got as near as a seaside beach leave alone go on a ship. So it was a great adventure into the unknown.
So it was scary but exciting as well.
The first two people to go were Dr John Thomas a ships surgeon and Pastor William Carey a shoemaker, who had suggested the idea in the first place. William's wife insisted that William take his eldest son with him for company So began Felix's big adventure.
Born in a village in Northamptonshire until they moved to Leicester when he was 2 he was now 8, had never seen the sea and he was about to travel on it, in a sailing ship. Now he was to leave his Mum and his brothers who would follow 3 years later when his Dad came back to collect them.
There was a lot of packing of bags and saying weepy good byes, and on Tuesday March the 26th 1793 they were loaded onto a stage coach drawn by horses on the way to London. There they were delayed by a debate in Parliament effecting travel to India.
They could not get passports but a friendly Captain took them without and they sailed on April 4th and moored in the Solent between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight anchored awaiting a convoy of armed Navy ships to escort them.
At first the delay did not worry Felix there was so much to see and hear on the ship and all around him. It was exciting. But the days dragged on and they had to get off the ship and go into lodgings at Ryde on the Isle of Wight where today a plaque on the wall tells us so.
Felix quite enjoyed Ryde and met again a friend who had moved there from Leicester, Teddy Clark.
They went back on board after 5 weeks delay as the Navy was arriving Then a message from London told the captain he could not take them as Dr Thomas had unpaid bills.
So with they were thrown off the ship at Portsmouth where they left the luggage and by stage coach returned to London to sort out the problems
There they learned of a Danish ship going their way would pause off Dover in 5 days time to pick up passengers from boats, and there would be room for all the family, So with his Dad , Felix was rushed off at 8 o'clock at night with guards armed with a pair of pistols and a blunderbuss for his grandparents home in Piddington arriving just in time for breakfast
Twenty four hours later Felix with his Mum, Dad, Aunt, sister, brother and new baby were bouncing along the rutted roads in another coach to London where they went by boat to Dover while a friend went over to Portsmouth to bring the luggage by boat through pirate infested waters to Dover.But they had to stay there 2 more weeks because winds in the North Sea delayed the ship.
At last on Thursday June 13th Felix was woken up before 3 in the morning and told to dress as it was time to leave
The voyage took 5 months. They were sick for days in the Bay of Biscay. They never saw a port until they reached India, They were becalmed without wind off Spain for a week and then off Cape Verde.
Off South Africa's Cape of Good Hope the ship almost capsized and sank It took 11 days to repair the damage
Winds and currents drove them off course almost to Brazil
For 3 months they saw no other ship.
Felix found lots to learn on board about how to said a ship and lots to read and study from books.
On Sundays they had services with people from 5 nations and formed a choir.
God took good care of them all and they arrived at Calcutta in India on November 11th
Over the next 7 years they had several homes the first they built on land by the river in Tiger country where they built wooden huts and had a garden Thousands who had run away because of the tigers, at their example went back and built villages.
Felix began to learn the main Indian language and to read and write it's strange letters.
Eventually the Governor of the Danish colony of Serampore allowed then to use a large house that was empty, Felix and his brothers William and Jabez raced about with noisy abandon, up and down stairs, through long dark corridors and rooms and refused to be quiet or obedient.
At the age of 15 Felix accepted Jesus Christ as his Saviour and changed into a quiet kind and respectful teenager and became a preacher in the open air under a big tree where hundreds gathered to listen to him. He became a printer in the Mission Printing works, helping to print his Dad's translation of the Bible in Bengali
On Dec 28th 1800 Felix was baptised in the River Hoogly by his Dad with the first Indian convert Krishna Pal whom Felix had helped to teach. That night Felix led family worship for the first of many times.
At 21 he volunteered to go to China to learn their language but his younger brother was sent instead.
Felix stayed at Serampore to proof read his fathers translations and to study medical training at college and aged 22 he was sent to Rangoon in Burma to serve as a doctor and translate the Bible into Burmese. At 24 he married and had 3 children but the last with his wife died. He remain at his post. He prevented the Governor from having a man crucified pleading with him for hours and then nursed the man back to health.
About the age of 28 he remarried and returned to India to get a printing press to use in Rangoon. On the way back the boat sank and all their gear was lost but worst of all his wife and one son were drowned.
He was appointed Burmese Ambassador to Britain but through no fault of his, he lost that job. Felix was in deep despair and he turned to heavy drinking and got into serious debt which his Dad had to pay off. Felix took off to Northern India as an explorer in Assam and Tibet.
He was missing for 7 years until an old friend discovered him and took him home to his Dad. There was great rejoicing, he was forgiven and accepted back to the Printers where he translated and printed several useful books including John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress into Bengali.
FELIX died of a severe fever aged 37
Of him it can be well said that his life was a living sacrifice which all Christians are called to be, that is our reasonable service.
Long ago Jesus said to his disciples just before he left them to return to Heaven
“ALL Authority is given to me, therefore go into all the world and tell them about me, make disciples, baptise them and teach them everything I have taught you, and I will be with you to the end of the ages.”
That task remains the task of every Christian and to the first ones Jesus said “You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem., in Judea, in Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the Earth”
To the Christians of Saffron Walden that means “You will be witnesses to me in Saffron Walden. in England, in Scotland or Wales, and and to the uttermost parts of the Earth”
It means you will be witnesses, whether you like it or not, whether you want to or not , and whether your good or bad at it, because you are known to be Christians the way you live and behave will be what people recognise Jesus is like.
So it is a great responsibility to us to live committed to Jesus and consistent with his teaching and example. Trusting in Him and obeying Him. Exercising love and forgiveness to all people and warning people to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved from the wrath of God on sin.
That is why we in Lighthouse Prayer Ministry serve the Lord in various ways in Saffron Walden or the villages nearby in which we live. Also we distribute VIA Good News magazine to homes throughout Uttlesford, support missions in Britain and send Bibles to Malawi, Nigeria, and Zambia and why since 1954 we have reached out to people in various languages in over 170 countries.
Because of what Jesus did in willingly accepting death on a cross as the worst of criminals after having his skin and flesh shredded in a brutal flogging so shedding his blood, we are forgiven of our sins and made righteous with God; His Father and ours. [ see Philippians 1 verse 6 and Hebrews 10 v 11 -14 ]
The Lord God Almighty – made known to us equally as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, accepts us as pure, clean and perfect in His sight and presence as the friends of Jesus, and thereby as Friends of God despite all our human weakness and failure. He makes up our deficiency and call us to follow Him and serve Him and do what He wants us to do,
He calls us to live holy lives, set apart to serve Him and to observe his teaching and help encourage other people to trust and obey Him too.
We have been made perfect and called to live a life of holiness, wholesomeness, and obedience, until we are called home to Heaven when our body dies, or until Jesus Christ returns to rule over all the Earth as Sovereign king, which ever is the sooner. [ see 1 Peter 1 verses 13 – 16 ]
We are accepted by God as perfect in His sight. He no longer sees our flaws because God sees us as belonging to Jesus. God is outside time.
We are to be holy because He is holy. To do that we have to rely upon the help and teaching of the Holy Spirit nudging us to do what God wants us to do. The key is obedience to Gods laws and will. It is our duty to obey.
There may well be a battle between our will and His will but he must win.
Expect no thanks for serving him or other people for his sake., To be thanked is a bonus or a reward, not wages. Do not expect to be appreciated [ Luke 17 verses 7-10 ]. We are at best unworthy servants and deserve no credit. It is our duty to obey, as William Carey did and as Felix learned to do.
Do we obey because of what we think other people may say or that he will receive the glory and the credit?.
Courage brother ! do not stumble,
Though your path be dark as night
There's a star to guide the humble
“Trust in God and do what's right. “
If the road is rough and dreary
and its end far out of sight
Foot it bravely, strong or weary
“Trust in God and do what's right. “
Perish policy and cunning
Perish all that fears the light
Whether losing, Whether winning
“Trust in God and do what's right. “
Trust no lovely forms of passion
Fiends may look like angels bright
Trust no custom, school or fashion
“Trust in God and do what's right. “
Some will hate you, some will love you
Some will flatter, some will slight
Cease from man and look above you
“Trust in God and do what's right. “
Simple rule and safest guiding
Inward Peace and inward might
Star upon our path abiding
“Trust in God and do what's right. “
Courage brother, Courage sister,
Though your path be dark as night
There's a star to guide the humble
“Trust in God and do what's right. “
Just as in 1 Corinthians 10 v 13 we are reminded that with every trial or temptation, all of which are common to humans,
that God is faithful and will not us let be tempted, or tested beyond what we can bear and there is given us a way out of escape and the means to bear it.
Jesus is praying for us. We are never alone. [ see John's Gospel chapter 17 verses 13 – 21 ]
He protects us. He seeks to transform us.
He expects us to welcome, and encourage one another
He expects us to rely upon his Word and share it.
He expects us to worship by praying and supporting one another,
He expects us to work with Him engaged in His mission
carrying out our ministry.
Taking Jesus with us into our daily work, for our work is our mission
We are in the world but not of it; we represent the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. We are ambassadors of the Kingdom.
Trust and Obey for there is no other way
to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.
////////////////////////
Nov 11th is Remembrance Sunday to most people in Britain
When we remember lots of people who fought for the defence of our Country and to liberate the World and set it free from to
the plans of very bad men.
But to Baptists who support Baptist World Mission November 11th is important to us for another reason.
For the man who founded the Baptist Missionary Society in 1792 William Carey arrived in Calcutta to begin his work
on November 11th 1793
When this story begins FELIX was between 8 and 9 and his brother William was 5.
Their Dad WILLIAM CAREY, a shoemaker and preacher, had agreed to go out to India with a Doctor John Thomas who was a ship's surgeon.
WILLIAM's wife was just about to have another baby who would be called JABEZ so could not go with William but she insisted that he take FELIX with him and the plan was to go to India, and set up the work, and return for her and the rest of there family in 3 years time.
To go to India then meant many weeks at sea, and Felix had never got as near as a seaside beach leave alone go on a ship. So it was a great adventure into the unknown.
So it was scary but exciting as well.
The first two people to go were Dr John Thomas a ships surgeon and Pastor William Carey a shoemaker, who had suggested the idea in the first place. William's wife insisted that William take his eldest son with him for company So began Felix's big adventure.
Born in a village in Northamptonshire until they moved to Leicester when he was 2 he was now 8, had never seen the sea and he was about to travel on it, in a sailing ship. Now he was to leave his Mum and his brothers who would follow 3 years later when his Dad came back to collect them.
There was a lot of packing of bags and saying weepy good byes, and on Tuesday March the 26th 1793 they were loaded onto a stage coach drawn by horses on the way to London. There they were delayed by a debate in Parliament effecting travel to India.
They could not get passports but a friendly Captain took them without and they sailed on April 4th and moored in the Solent between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight anchored awaiting a convoy of armed Navy ships to escort them.
At first the delay did not worry Felix there was so much to see and hear on the ship and all around him. It was exciting. But the days dragged on and they had to get off the ship and go into lodgings at Ryde on the Isle of Wight where today a plaque on the wall tells us so.
Felix quite enjoyed Ryde and met again a friend who had moved there from Leicester, Teddy Clark.
They went back on board after 5 weeks delay as the Navy was arriving Then a message from London told the captain he could not take them as Dr Thomas had unpaid bills.
So with they were thrown off the ship at Portsmouth where they left the luggage and by stage coach returned to London to sort out the problems
There they learned of a Danish ship going their way would pause off Dover in 5 days time to pick up passengers from boats, and there would be room for all the family, So with his Dad , Felix was rushed off at 8 o'clock at night with guards armed with a pair of pistols and a blunderbuss for his grandparents home in Piddington arriving just in time for breakfast
Twenty four hours later Felix with his Mum, Dad, Aunt, sister, brother and new baby were bouncing along the rutted roads in another coach to London where they went by boat to Dover while a friend went over to Portsmouth to bring the luggage by boat through pirate infested waters to Dover.But they had to stay there 2 more weeks because winds in the North Sea delayed the ship.
At last on Thursday June 13th Felix was woken up before 3 in the morning and told to dress as it was time to leave
The voyage took 5 months. They were sick for days in the Bay of Biscay. They never saw a port until they reached India, They were becalmed without wind off Spain for a week and then off Cape Verde.
Off South Africa's Cape of Good Hope the ship almost capsized and sank It took 11 days to repair the damage
Winds and currents drove them off course almost to Brazil
For 3 months they saw no other ship.
Felix found lots to learn on board about how to said a ship and lots to read and study from books.
On Sundays they had services with people from 5 nations and formed a choir.
God took good care of them all and they arrived at Calcutta in India on November 11th
Over the next 7 years they had several homes the first they built on land by the river in Tiger country where they built wooden huts and had a garden Thousands who had run away because of the tigers, at their example went back and built villages.
Felix began to learn the main Indian language and to read and write it's strange letters.
Eventually the Governor of the Danish colony of Serampore allowed then to use a large house that was empty, Felix and his brothers William and Jabez raced about with noisy abandon, up and down stairs, through long dark corridors and rooms and refused to be quiet or obedient.
At the age of 15 Felix accepted Jesus Christ as his Saviour and changed into a quiet kind and respectful teenager and became a preacher in the open air under a big tree where hundreds gathered to listen to him. He became a printer in the Mission Printing works, helping to print his Dad's translation of the Bible in Bengali
On Dec 28th 1800 Felix was baptised in the River Hoogly by his Dad with the first Indian convert Krishna Pal whom Felix had helped to teach. That night Felix led family worship for the first of many times.
At 21 he volunteered to go to China to learn their language but his younger brother was sent instead.
Felix stayed at Serampore to proof read his fathers translations and to study medical training at college and aged 22 he was sent to Rangoon in Burma to serve as a doctor and translate the Bible into Burmese. At 24 he married and had 3 children but the last with his wife died. He remain at his post. He prevented the Governor from having a man crucified pleading with him for hours and then nursed the man back to health.
About the age of 28 he remarried and returned to India to get a printing press to use in Rangoon. On the way back the boat sank and all their gear was lost but worst of all his wife and one son were drowned.
He was appointed Burmese Ambassador to Britain but through no fault of his, he lost that job. Felix was in deep despair and he turned to heavy drinking and got into serious debt which his Dad had to pay off. Felix took off to Northern India as an explorer in Assam and Tibet.
He was missing for 7 years until an old friend discovered him and took him home to his Dad. There was great rejoicing, he was forgiven and accepted back to the Printers where he translated and printed several useful books including John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress into Bengali.
FELIX died of a severe fever aged 37
Of him it can be well said that his life was a living sacrifice which all Christians are called to be, that is our reasonable service.
Long ago Jesus said to his disciples just before he left them to return to Heaven
“ALL Authority is given to me, therefore go into all the world and tell them about me, make disciples, baptise them and teach them everything I have taught you, and I will be with you to the end of the ages.”
That task remains the task of every Christian and to the first ones Jesus said “You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem., in Judea, in Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the Earth”
To the Christians of Saffron Walden that means “You will be witnesses to me in Saffron Walden. in England, in Scotland or Wales, and and to the uttermost parts of the Earth”
It means you will be witnesses, whether you like it or not, whether you want to or not , and whether your good or bad at it, because you are known to be Christians the way you live and behave will be what people recognise Jesus is like.
So it is a great responsibility to us to live committed to Jesus and consistent with his teaching and example. Trusting in Him and obeying Him. Exercising love and forgiveness to all people and warning people to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved from the wrath of God on sin.
That is why we in Lighthouse Prayer Ministry serve the Lord in various ways in Saffron Walden or the villages nearby in which we live. Also we distribute VIA Good News magazine to homes throughout Uttlesford, support missions in Britain and send Bibles to Malawi, Nigeria, and Zambia and why since 1954 we have reached out to people in various languages in over 170 countries.
Because of what Jesus did in willingly accepting death on a cross as the worst of criminals after having his skin and flesh shredded in a brutal flogging so shedding his blood, we are forgiven of our sins and made righteous with God; His Father and ours. [ see Philippians 1 verse 6 and Hebrews 10 v 11 -14 ]
The Lord God Almighty – made known to us equally as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, accepts us as pure, clean and perfect in His sight and presence as the friends of Jesus, and thereby as Friends of God despite all our human weakness and failure. He makes up our deficiency and call us to follow Him and serve Him and do what He wants us to do,
He calls us to live holy lives, set apart to serve Him and to observe his teaching and help encourage other people to trust and obey Him too.
We have been made perfect and called to live a life of holiness, wholesomeness, and obedience, until we are called home to Heaven when our body dies, or until Jesus Christ returns to rule over all the Earth as Sovereign king, which ever is the sooner. [ see 1 Peter 1 verses 13 – 16 ]
We are accepted by God as perfect in His sight. He no longer sees our flaws because God sees us as belonging to Jesus. God is outside time.
We are to be holy because He is holy. To do that we have to rely upon the help and teaching of the Holy Spirit nudging us to do what God wants us to do. The key is obedience to Gods laws and will. It is our duty to obey.
There may well be a battle between our will and His will but he must win.
Expect no thanks for serving him or other people for his sake., To be thanked is a bonus or a reward, not wages. Do not expect to be appreciated [ Luke 17 verses 7-10 ]. We are at best unworthy servants and deserve no credit. It is our duty to obey, as William Carey did and as Felix learned to do.
Do we obey because of what we think other people may say or that he will receive the glory and the credit?.
Courage brother ! do not stumble,
Though your path be dark as night
There's a star to guide the humble
“Trust in God and do what's right. “
If the road is rough and dreary
and its end far out of sight
Foot it bravely, strong or weary
“Trust in God and do what's right. “
Perish policy and cunning
Perish all that fears the light
Whether losing, Whether winning
“Trust in God and do what's right. “
Trust no lovely forms of passion
Fiends may look like angels bright
Trust no custom, school or fashion
“Trust in God and do what's right. “
Some will hate you, some will love you
Some will flatter, some will slight
Cease from man and look above you
“Trust in God and do what's right. “
Simple rule and safest guiding
Inward Peace and inward might
Star upon our path abiding
“Trust in God and do what's right. “
Courage brother, Courage sister,
Though your path be dark as night
There's a star to guide the humble
“Trust in God and do what's right. “
Just as in 1 Corinthians 10 v 13 we are reminded that with every trial or temptation, all of which are common to humans,
that God is faithful and will not us let be tempted, or tested beyond what we can bear and there is given us a way out of escape and the means to bear it.
Jesus is praying for us. We are never alone. [ see John's Gospel chapter 17 verses 13 – 21 ]
He protects us. He seeks to transform us.
He expects us to welcome, and encourage one another
He expects us to rely upon his Word and share it.
He expects us to worship by praying and supporting one another,
He expects us to work with Him engaged in His mission
carrying out our ministry.
Taking Jesus with us into our daily work, for our work is our mission
We are in the world but not of it; we represent the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. We are ambassadors of the Kingdom.
Trust and Obey for there is no other way
to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.