WeinerMinistries.org brings you the life changing daily devotional of E. Stanley Jones--one of the greatest missionaries of the 20th Century. Entitled The Mastery, its purpose is to put us in touch with the Master within, and to release His mastery into our lives. As Jones writes for the first day, "We come now to study how ordinary men got in touch with Extraordinary Power and did extraordinary things beyond their power of accomplishment."

Dr. Eli Stanley Jones (1884-1973) was a Methodist theologian and missionary. He began his mission work in India, helping countless thousands of the lowest castes and village outcasts, manging a Christian publishing house and being district superintendant over large areas. After 8 years of this work, his health was broken and he went back to the States for a year of rest. He sensed that God was calling him to go to the highest castes of India. He knew it meant "standing down amid the currents of thought and the national movements sweeping over India and interpreting Christ to the situation." Jones felt he did not have the intellectual ability nor was Christian enough for what the situation demanded. He returned to India but found he was still in poor physical health and no longer had strength for the job. While in prayer, he heard a Voice say, " Are you ready for this work to which I have called you?" He replied, "No Lord, I am done for. I have reached the end of my physical and mental resources." The Voice replied, "If you will turn that over to me and not worry about it, I will take care of it." Jones quickly responded, "Lord, I close the bargin right here."

He writes in Christ of the India Road, "A great peace settled into my heart and pervaded me. I knew it was done! Life--abundant Life--had taken possession of me. I was so lifted up that I scarcely touched the road as I quietly walked home. Every inch was holy ground For days after that I hardly knew I had a body. I went through the days, working all day and far into the night, and came down to bedtime wondering why in the world I should ever go to bed at all, for there was not the slightest trace of tiredness of any kind. I seemed possesssed by Life and Peace and Rest--by Christ himself. ...Nine years of the most strenuous years of my life have gone by since then, and the old trouble has never returned, and I have never had such health. But it was more than a physical Touch. I seemed to have tapped new Life for body, mind, and spirit. Life was on a permanently higher live. And I had done nothing but take it!...Christ to me had become my Life!" For over 50 years he preached that Jesus was the answer to all of the world's problems, be they personal, political, social, or any other.

His work and teaching attracted the attention of the "spiritually aware," the educated classes and the intelligentsia of India, and he soon held thousands of interreligious lectures all across the nation, which were round table discussions for Christians and non-Christians alike. He also founded the Christian Ashrams* in the United States--a place for religious retreat and introspection which are still in operation today.

He wrote over 28 books, many of which were best sellers, and donated all the proceeds, and the income of his many speaking engagements to missionary projects all over the world. His books have been "read around jungle fires, studied by armies and governments, quoted in parliaments, and banned and burned by Communists."1 His most well known book, Christ of the Indian Road, sold over a million copies and stressed the importance of contextualizing the gospel to the national culture. No doubt this has come to influence the mission philosophy of Weiner Ministries, which is to train Christians in their own countries to be the missionaries to their own people.

Jones became close friends with Mahatma Gandhi, and after Gandhi's assassination wrote a biography on his life. Later in time, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told Jones' daughter, Eunice Jones Mathews, that it was this biography that inspired him to "non-violence" in the Civil Rights Movement.

My Experience with E. Stanley Jones Rose Weiner's father, Dr. Henry Russell--retired Methodist Minister and District Superintendent--was deeply influenced by Dr. Jones and gives us his story:

In 1935, as I read the Bible and prayed I was touched and moved by scriptures about Jesus. Then I had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. I surrendered completely to his will and plan for my life. He gave me a new direction and a new purpose. The person I read about in the Bible became my Savior, my Lord and my Friend. My desire to grow and go for the Lord led me as a boy to read about one of the great leaders of the world--E. Stanley Jones. Dr. Jones' many books guided me through high school, college and seminary. I graduated from seminary at Christmas of 1946.

I went to a Ministers' Retreat at KenLake Resort in Kentucky in February of 1956. Dr. E. Stanley Jones was one of the speakers. At last I met the man whose teachings and writing I had read and studied throughout my youth. After he spoke I asked if I could talk to him. He invited me to his hotel room. I said to him, "Dr. Jones, you are different from the ministers gathered here. What is it that you have that none of us have?" He said to me, "What I have is not an "it". What I have is the Holy Spirit who is a real person. "Could I receive the Holy Spirit?" I asked. "Yes, kneel down by your chair." He proceeded to put his hands on my head and prayed that the Holy Spirit would come into my surrendered life. Dr. E. Stanley Jones was the channel through which the Holy Spirit entered my life. What did the Holy Spirit bring into my life?

1. He brought His Presence. I am never alone, the Presence is always there.

2. He brought His Power. What I could not do, He can do.

3. He brought his Peace. "My Peace, I give unto you."

Then Dr. Jones prayed for me St. Paul's great prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21. The key words were: "That Christ may dwell in your heart by faith." Dr. Jones and I parted, but I left with the indwelling Christ at the center of my life. I have this treasure in an earthen vessel. That vessel is scarred, cracked and frequently broken, but it has not lost its contents.

*For a Christian Ashram near you see <www.ChristianAshram.org>
1(Sources: ChristianAshram.org, Wikipedia.com)