The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed.
Interpretation
The Great Commission is an imperative directive that requires adherence and action rather than mere contemplation.
Hudson Taylor's quote emphasizes the significance of the Great Commission as a non-negotiable directive for followers to actively engage in spreading their faith. Rather than viewing it as a choice, it is articulated as a command that calls for immediate and obedient action, highlighting the importance of fulfilling one's responsibilities in leadership and spiritual missions.
In practice
A pastor using this quote during a sermon to inspire the congregation to partake in missionary work.
We are not only to renounce evil, but to manifest the truth. We tell people the world is vain; let our lives manifest that it is so. We tell them that our home is above and that all these things are transitory. Does our dwelling look like it? O to live consistent lives!
If in the sight of God you cannot say you are sure that you have a special call to stay at home, why are you disobeying the Saviour's plain command to go?
Brother, if you would enter that Province, you must go forward on your knees.
Too often we attempt to work for God to the limit of our incompetency, rather than to the limit of God's omnipotency.
When I get to China, I will have no claim on any one for anything. My claim will be alone in God and I must learn before I leave England to move men through God by prayer alone.
The prayer power has never been tried to its full capacity...if we want to see mighty wonders of divine power and grace wrought in the place of weakness, failure and disappointment, let us answer God's standing challenge, "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not."
Obama does seem to have what both FDR and Lincoln had, which is the recognition that you have to hold back at times and then wait to come forward.
If you are building a corporate culture of greatness, you have to define culture on your own terms and with the people you work with.
He walked down the corridor, lined with his soldiers, who looked at him with love, with awe, with trust. Except Bean, who looked at him with anguish. Ender Wiggin was not larger than life, Bean knew. He was exactly life-sized, and so his larger-than-life burden was too much for him. And yet he was bearing it. So far.
When you care about people's happiness and productivity, you give them what brings out the best in them and their creativity. And if you give them a choice, they'll say, 'I want an iPhone,' or 'I want a Mac.' We think we can win a lot of corporate decisions at that level.
Successful leaders don't start out asking, 'What do I want to do?' They ask, 'What needs to be done?' Then they ask, 'Of those things that would make a difference, which are right for me?'
To get people to do needed things is the perennial hard task of government, not to mention of religion and philosophy.
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