What Do You Live For? E.Elliot

Nancy DeMoss is doing a series right now on 'Enduring Life's Most Difficult Moments' Over the course of the week, she is re-playing a Campus Crusade Conference from 1983 in which Elisabeth Elliot was the speaker. It is called "What Do You Live For?"Yesterday was the first day. I would like to post them as they are played daily on Revive Our Heart's radio program (and the transcript is posted on their site). http://www.reviveourhearts.com/radio/roh/today.php-------------------------Leslie Basham: It’s Monday, January 2nd, and you’re listening to Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss. It’s been nearly fifty years since Jim and four other missionaries were killed by Auca Indians in Ecuador. Over the years God has used their lives as an inspiration and encouragement to so many, including, Nancy, to a group of young people at a rally in Kansas City. Nancy Leigh DeMoss: That’s right, Leslie. Jim Elliot’s widow, Elisabeth, is well known to a lot of our listeners because of the radio program she hosted for many years on many of these stations called Gateway to Joy.God has used Elisabeth Elliot in so many people’s lives, including my own, to challenge their thinking about life and about relationships and about the Lord. And what we’re about to hear today is no exception. We’re going to head back in time to a conference held by Campus Crusade for Christ in Kansas City more than twenty years ago in 1983. They called the conference KC83, and Elisabeth Elliot was one of the keynote speakers. All this week, to commemorate the martyrdom of those five missionaries, including her husband, we’re going to listen to this classic talk by Elisabeth Elliott. I think you’ll be encouraged in your faith when you find yourself put to the test. Let’s listen to Elisabeth Elliot speaking on the topic of endurance to a stadium full of college students in 1983. Elisabeth Elliot: A few generations ago, a young Scottish athlete was put to the test. The one I’m talking about was put to the test, not by his coach, but by his God. With every chance of winning a gold medal, this man went to France to run in the Olympics. The test came the minute he got off the boat. Somebody told him that his race was to be run on Sunday. You know who I’m talking about: Eric Liddell, the man in the film Chariots of Fire. Liddell was a Scottish Presbyterian. Running a race on Sunday was, to him, unthinkable. Do you remember what happens next in the film? Does he get in touch with his feelings? Do you find him sharing his hang-ups with 38 of his closest friends? You don’t see any of that; the decision is already made. The decision had been made years before, as a matter of fact, when he made up his mind to follow Jesus Christ in obedience. Jesus was Lord of Eric Liddell’s life. That settled a whole lot of things before they even came up. Liddell was a man who knew what really mattered. The price of that gold medal was not too high for him to pay. Does anything matter that much to you? The God who put the Olympic runner to the test has been doing the same thing for a long time. Some of you might have read a book called Genesis. In chapter 22, it says this: “The time came when God put Abraham to the test. ‘Abraham,’ he called, and Abraham replied, ‘Here I am.’ God said, ‘Take your son, Isaac, your only son whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and there you shall offer him as a sacrifice on one of the hills which I will show you’” (vs. 1-2). Can you imagine a command like that? What would you do? I bet I can guess—you’d struggle. Everywhere I go, young people talk to me of how they’re struggling with this and that. “I mean, like, you know, I’m just really struggling, you know, just really, really struggling.” Sometimes struggling is a nice word for postponed obedience. The book doesn’t say a word about Abraham’s feelings. If he worked through his feelings, he did a mighty quick job of it. You know what the book says? “Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his ass and went out” (v. 3). Immediate obedience. Abraham knew his God. That was what mattered. Hundreds of years later, God was still sifting the hearts of men. A man came to Jesus. “Master,” he said, “what good must I do to obtain eternal life?” Jesus said, “If you wish to go the whole way, go and sell your possessions. Give to the poor and then you will have riches in heaven. And come, follow me.” That man knew what mattered most to him—money. The book says, “He turned away sadly for he had great wealth” (from Mark 10:17-22). He was too rich to follow. That’s what it comes down to. Do you know what really matters to you? Have you made up your mind about that? The tests are coming. I can’t tell you what the specific tests will be that God will use to shift your heart, but I’m going to tell you what they’ve been for some twentieth century Christians. Endurance. Ever heard that word? Three points—can you remember three? Number one: What do you live for? Number two: How do you get it? And number three: Is it worth it? What do you live for? How do you get it? Is it worth it? Number one, what do you live for? Honestly now, what is it? It’s one question about which you simply must make up your mind. If there’s one thing that seems to be a problem for students these days, it’s making up their minds. They don’t have any difficulty whatever knowing what kind of music they like, what they want on their Big Macs, and what kind of a car they’d buy if they had about $40,000 to throw around. They know the answers to those questions. But I’m talking about things that matter a little bit more than those things . . . things like, “Well, I mean, like, you know, I’m just not really sure if I can hack it with this roommate for the rest of the year. And, I mean, like, I don’t really know whether I should major in political science or home economics. And, I mean, like, you know, it’s just really hard. And then there’s this girl in my life . . .” Am I ringing any bells out there? What have you made up your mind about in the last, let’s say, two years? Do you know what you really want in life? The Quechua Indians in the jungles of Ecuador had a very handy word that worked for an answer to anything. The word was yunga, and it means, “for nothing, for no particular purpose.” I remember one time a young Indian came to my husband, Jim Elliot, and told him that he wanted to be baptized. Jim said, “Why do you want to be baptized?” And he said, “Yunga.” Well, Jim said, “You’re going to have to come up with a better answer than that.” What do you live for? Yunga? I want to tell you a little bit about that missionary Jim Elliot. I knew him when he was a college student. As far as we women could see, he was unattainable—handsome, popular, champion wrestler, president of the Foreign Missions Fellowship, honor student, campus clown—but alas, a woman hater. That’s what we thought. But we were way off. Jim Elliot was no woman hater. He had found out when he was in high school that he could spend an awful lot of time and money on girls. They were very attractive and very interesting and very expensive. So he decided when he got to college that he would just delete them from his schedule. He had made up his mind that he wanted two degrees: a Bachelor of Arts and an A.U.G. The one he wanted most was A.U.G., Approved unto God. He got that out of the Apostle Paul’s letter to Timothy, and he had made up his mind what he wanted to live for. I found out how resolute Jim was in his decision when the college year books came out. We girls would hope forlornly that the man we had our eye on might put something besides his name in the book—something sweet. It was with great trepidation that I presented my book to Jim Elliot, asking for his autograph; and very fast with his flowing, rapid hand, he wrote, “Jim Elliot, 2 Timothy 2:4.” How long do you think it took me to get back to the dormitory and get my Bible to look up that verse? I was desperately hoping for a cryptic message. It said, “A soldier on active service will not let himself be involved in civilian affairs.” It’s not the end of the verse. “He must be wholly at his commanding officer’s disposal.” Now, think back to Eric Liddell. How had he gotten to be a champion runner? By putting himself at the disposal of a coach, by learning the rules, by being obedient. Obedience to a track coach is bound to involve a tremendous amount of something called endurance. Nancy: Well, we’ve been listening to the first part of a classic talk by Elisabeth Elliot that she gave at KC83, a rally for college students held in Kansas City nearly a quarter century ago. Those words are still relevant and fresh today because principles from God’s Word are timeless. I appreciated the way Elisabeth used Jim Elliot and Eric Liddell and even Abraham as illustrations of men who had made up their minds ahead of time, before they were put to the test. So, your life may seem to be smooth sailing right now, and if it is, praise the Lord and remember that now is the time to make up your mind what you are living for. Leslie Basham: We’ll be hearing more of Elisabeth Elliot tomorrow. You know, Jim Elliot and his four partners were killed in early January 1956 . . . fifty years ago. If you’ve never read the book by Elisabeth Elliot that chronicles their riveting story, you need to. It’s called Through Gates of Splendor, and we have it available here at Revive Our Hearts. To be continued......

An Unconditional 'Yes' To GodLeslie Basham: Saying yes can be easy. “How about we eat out tonight?” “Yes!” “Would you like ice cream with your pie?” “Yes!” “Do you mind if I do the dishes instead?” “Yes!” “Do you like my hair this way?” “Yes.” “Are you breathing?” “Yes.” “Ah yes, you want fries with that?” On the other hand, it could depend on the question, like when God asks us, “Will you unconditionally give Me your whole life?” This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss. It’s Tuesday, January 3rd. Today we’ll hear more about five men who answered God with an unconditional “Yes!” when He asked them to give Him their lives, literally. Here with more is our host Nancy Leigh DeMoss. Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Thanks, Leslie. You know, I’m afraid that all too often we say we’ll go anywhere or do anything God wants us to do, but our lives don’t always match our words. We say, “I’ll serve You, Lord, but I’ll agree to what You’re asking me as long as I can insert some fine print before I sign on the dotted line.” But Jesus doesn’t want lukewarm, halfhearted followers. He said in Luke 9:23-24, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it” (NKJV). Yesterday we listened to Elisabeth Elliot as she spoke of counting the cost of following Jesus. “Make up your mind,” she said “before you’re put to the test.” Today we’re going to hear the second part of this classic message. This is Elisabeth Elliot speaking to a crowd of about 20,000 college students back in 1983 on the subject of endurance. Elisabeth Elliot: What do you live for? Number two, how do you get it? Whatever it is you want, it’s going to cost you something. Eric Liddell put his gold medal on the line; Abraham, his beloved son; Jim Elliot, his life, ultimately. If it’s God’s will that you want more than anything else in the world, it’s going to mean endurance. Where did I get that idea? Isn’t the Christian life supposed to be “happiness all the time, wonderful peace of mind,” and feeling comfortable about things? Lots of good feeling, lots of good vibes? Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be? Listen to what the writer to the Hebrews says: “You need endurance if you are to do God’s will and attain what He has promised.” You need endurance. Do you feel comfortable with that word? I don’t. We like to feel comfortable about everything. Do you think those thousands of hours pounding the cinders were soothing to Eric Liddell? How relaxed do you think Abraham felt as he toiled up that mountain with his donkey and his servant and the wood to roast his son? Listen to what an old preacher of the 17th century named Samuel Rutherford wrote: “It costs Christ and all His followers sharp showers and hot sweats, ere they win to the top of the mountain; but still our soft nature would have heaven coming to our bedside when we are sleeping and lying down with us that we might go to heaven in warm clothes; but all that came there found wet feet by the way and sharp storms that did take the hide off their faces and found to’s and fro’s and ups and downs and many enemies by the way.” How shall we who hardly know what the word suffering means ever grasp this idea, so central to the gospel, that following Jesus Christ means a cross? The cross was an instrument of torture. Would you wear an electric chair on a little gold chain around your neck? It was the Roman method of execution. “If you wish to go the whole way,” Jesus said to the rich young man, “sell everything.” The whole way. Jesus put His finger instantly on the crucial point: the man’s money, his possessions. “Get rid of it,” He said. “Then, follow Me.” Who wants to hear that? Who takes that kind of discipleship seriously? Some people do. I want to encourage you to see that it’s still possible to believe that God means what He says. He expects us to trust Him, and He offers us staggering rewards if only we’ll endure. Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, before you were born, there were in Ecuador a tribe—so-called savages. They were naked, they used stone tools, and they killed strangers. Nobody had ever gone into their territory and come out alive. Missionaries had been praying that God would enable them someday to take the gospel to these Aucas, but it had never happened. It wasn’t until 1956 that the first Operation Auca was attempted. Five young American men banded together to do this. I want to tell you a little about who they were and how they got there. First there was Nate Saint from Philadelphia. He inaugurated the program of jungle flying in the eastern jungle of Ecuador. Pilots who have watched film footage of some of Nate’s landings on those canyons of green trees in the jungle have said that it’s impossible. Nate was a genius. He was a rather slightly built blond guy with a terrific sense of humor, a creative imagination, and an almost fanatical discipline and caution as a flyer. Then there was Roger Youderian, a cowboy from Montana. He went into World War II as a paratrooper, was wounded, and somehow ended up in the eastern jungle of Ecuador working with the Jivaros. The next man was Pete Fleming from Seattle, Washington, an earnest, scholarly type who had a Master’s Degree in literature and planned on an academic career. God had another plan for Pete, and Pete ended up in the jungles of Ecuador. Ed McCully was a guy that I knew in college, and when I think back, there’s hardly anybody who seemed less likely to me to become a missionary. Doesn’t it seem like kind of a waste? I mean, here was this guy, six feet three, football player, track star, president of his class. He was smooth. We thought he’d make a great politician—that’s what he was going to be. He had charisma, and he went to law school. But God changed his mind after he got into law school, and somehow he too ended up in some God-forsaken corner of the eastern jungle of Ecuador, again, a missionary to the Jivaros. Why would a guy like that bury himself in the jungle? Couldn’t he find more fruitful ways to use his gifts? All those talents that God had given him, wasn’t that an awful waste? Well, yes it was, if what matters to you is self-image, fame, money, success—terrible waste. The backwoods isn’t really an auspicious place to pursue those kinds of things. Then there was the fifth man, one I got to know pretty well. His name was Jim Elliot. I’ve already told you what he was after when he went to college, the A.U.G. degree. You don’t just decide one Tuesday morning that you’re going to be a hero of the faith. There has to be a period, a long period, maybe years, of learning to walk humbly in obedience with God, beginning now, when you’re students. During Jim’s junior year he went through what he used to call an exercise, a wrestling with God over some issue. In this case the issue was marriage. Paul, the Apostle Paul, wrote quite a bit about the advantages of being single. He wished that everyone were as he was—single. And Jim had a sneaking suspicion that was exactly what God might be calling him to do, to remain single for the rest of his life. It had nothing to do with “being Jim’s thing.” It had nothing to do with his temperaments or preferences; he really did like women, but his response was, “Okay, if that’s what God wants, that’s what I’m going to do.” Does it sound easy? Does it sound simple? It wasn’t. You can read about it in this book, Shadow of the Almighty, diary entries from Jim Elliott telling about the struggles of his soul. He went through some agonies. But when a man says an unconditional yes to God, God is going to test the validity of his commitment. How would you expect the test to come? What kind of endurance was God going to require in this disciple’s training? Remember when He said to Abraham, “Take your son, Isaac; offer him as a sacrifice”? There’s a profound spiritual principle here. It’s one you need to understand if you are going to understand commitment and endurance as a follower of Jesus Christ. Your heart must be sifted and scoured. That means that some very good things must be offered to God—not just bad things—forsaken. Nancy: We’ve been listening to a challenging, straight-forward talk from Elisabeth Elliott at a rally for college students nearly a quarter of a century ago. Yesterday she asked, “What do you live for?” and today, “How do you get it?” I want to remind you of the significance of this week. It was 50 years ago this Sunday that Elisabeth Elliot’s husband, Jim, along with four other missionaries, gave their lives for Christ in the jungles of Ecuador. In fact, not too long ago I had a chance to speak with Steve Saint on the phone. Steve is the son of martyred missionary pilot Nate Saint, who Elisabeth was describing today. When his dad was killed 50 years ago, Steve was just five years old. I asked him how much he remembered about the circumstances surrounding that event. Steve Saint: I remember him going out every morning, pulling out the airplane and loading it up; and I’d help, or thought I helped. Then I’d run up on the little bank and watch him taxi across and take off into the jungles. And then, of course, I’d wait in the afternoon for him to come back, which he did, except on rare exceptions. So I remember there were special days, and I remember my mom calling me into her room and telling me that my dad wasn’t coming back. I mean, I was just dumbfounded. I couldn’t imagine . . . I mean, this is total nonsense! Of course my dad is coming back! Nancy: Again, that’s Steve Saint, the son of Nate Saint, who was killed by Waodani warriors on January 8th, fifty years ago this Sunday. We’ll be hearing more from Steve later in the week. to be continued....

Relational EnduranceElisabeth: In Lilias Trotter’s beautiful book Parables of the Cross, she describes the death/life cycle of plants, which illustrates the spiritual processes that must go on in us if we are to die to self and live to God. This is what she says: "The fair, new petals must fall, and for no visible reason. No one seems enriched by the stripping. And the first step into the realm of giving is a like surrender, not man-ward, but God-ward, an utter yielding of our best. So long as our idea of surrender is limited to the renouncing of unlawful things, we have never grasped its true meaning. That is not worthy of the name, for no polluted thing can be offered." Did you ever see it like that? The loveliness of a flower has to go. The test for Jim Elliot was falling in love. Anything wrong with that? He was swept off his feet by love for a girl. She had been attracted to him for a long time and had been wrestling with God over the same question of singleness and, like Jim, had finally said, “Yes, Lord, if that’s what You’re asking, I’ll do it. I’ll be a single missionary.” I remember that commitment very well. I was that girl. I remember Memorial Day 1948, just before I was to graduate. Jim asked me to go for a walk with him. Jim Elliot asking me to go for a walk . . . I nearly died. I could hardly breathe for excitement. I tell you this because I want you to know that I’ve been where you are. I know your feelings. “Well, Bet,” Jim said, “guess we better get squared away about how we feel about each other.” I nearly went through the sidewalk. Feel about each other? What gave him the idea that I had any feelings for him? I thought I’d been doing a terrific job concealing my feelings. I wasn’t just playing hard to get. I was determined to be just like Jim—impossible to get. I have to make a long story short here. You can read the details if you want to in Shadow of the Almighty and in Passion and Purity. Incidentally, someone asked me this afternoon if Passion and Purity is for men as well as for women, and I would say no, unless you happen to be a man who has some passions or has had any struggles with purity; in that case, it’s for you. Anyway, Jim and I went to a park and we sat on the grass and talked for seven hours. What were we to make of this tornado of passion we suddenly felt for each other? Did it mean that God wanted us to forget all the agonies we’d gone through over our singleness struggles and just fall into each other’s arms? We had a few weeks before graduation. We took some more walks. We did some more pondering and praying alone and some more talking together. One night we wandered into a cemetery and found ourselves sitting on a convenient marble slab trying to sort through what God was trying to tell us. I said it didn’t really make a whole lot of sense to me to tell God that we wanted Him to handle this whole thing if we intended to keep our hands on. It was going to have to be hands off, turning it entirely over to the Lord. See, after graduation there wasn’t much chance that we were going to see each other because Jim had another year in college. He lived in Oregon. I lived in New Jersey. He was headed for South America. I thought I was headed for Africa or perhaps the South Seas. “Does it make sense to you?” I asked him. “Should we write?” He didn’t say anything for awhile, and then we sat there in silence. Finally he said, “You’re right. It doesn’t make sense. And I know you’re right because this morning the passage that I was reading in my Bible was about Abraham and Isaac. Abraham made the sacrifice. He tied the son down on the altar and he raised the knife. “And I knew right then that God was asking me to give up the most precious thing in my life—you. Would I give it to Him? Or would I refuse? I said I’d give it. So, that’s where you’re going to stay, Bet,” he said, “on the altar, unless God shows me that I don’t need to make that final sacrifice.”There was another long silence, and then suddenly we realized that the moon had risen behind us and was casting the shadow of a stone cross between us on that slab. In the book I just mentioned, Passion and Purity, I’ve quoted the poem that I wrote in my journal on that occasion: Hold thou Thy cross between us, Blessed Lord. Let us love Thee, to us Thy power for to remain prostate at Thy pierced feet. There is no other place where we may meet. Set Thou our faces as a flint of stone to do Thy will. Our goal be this alone. Oh God, our hearts are fixed. Let us not turn. Consume all our affections. Let Thy love burn. You need endurance. You’ll have to pay a price. You’ll find out about sharp storms and hot sweats. They don’t always come in the form you envision when you think about the great heroes of the faith. I am giving you just one example of the form it took for a couple of college students 36 years ago. We wanted, above everything else, the will of God; and here is the crux of the matter. By the way, did you know that the word crux means cross? Did you know that the word crucial comes from the same root? Until the will and the affections are brought under the authority of Christ, we have not begun to understand, let alone to accept, His lordship. The cross, as it enters the love life, will reveal the heart’s truth. I’m convinced that this is the point at which many young people refuse the cross, refuse to endure hardship. The eleventh chapter of Hebrews lists what we call heroes of the faith. You know the stories . . . Abel’s sacrifice, Noah’s ark, Abraham’s long journey, Sarah’s late pregnancy, Moses in the bulrushes. But did you ever think about some of the mundane aspects of their heroism? Ever think about the jealousy of Cain and what it did to his brother, Abel? Ever think about the scoffing of Noah’s neighbors while he was building that ark on dry land? Ever think about what Noah and his family endured when they got into the boat? Think about the mooing and barking and roaring and clucking and grunting and whistling and chattering and peeping and hissing and quacking and trumpeting and growling and squeaking and snarling and mooing and braying and naying and whinnying and howling and growling . . . I mean, talk about a racket! Forty days, forty nights—Noah endured. Jim and I waited five and a half years before God gave us a green light to get married. We didn’t go through anything like those people I just listed, but it was a form of endurance. It was tough enough for us at the time. It was a test. Were we going to trust God during all those years of silence and separation and uncertainty? Mind you, we had no commitment to each other. I haven’t time to tell you the rest of the story. I want to say this much—that on our wedding day the Lord gave us this verse from Isaiah: “This is our God. We have waited for Him.” He was worth it. Nancy: "We have waited for Him, and it was worth it." We’ve been listening to Elisabeth Elliot from KC83, a rally for college students held in Kansas City in 1983. As we reflect on what we’ve heard from Elisabeth today, let me just highlight a few points. First, before Jim Elliot could know that Elisabeth Howard was the girl he was to marry, he had to settle the issue, did God want him to be married at all? And he was willing to put Elisabeth on the altar and keep her there until God confirmed in his heart that it was His will for Jim to be married. Then, as we’ve heard, Jim and Elisabeth definitely had strong feelings for each other, but you notice they didn’t let their emotions rule their lives. If they had simply followed their feelings, they would have gotten married right away, but instead they did their best to step back, pray and search the Scriptures. Finally, we see the value of waiting for God’s timing. And I love how Elisabeth ended. She just said simply, “It was worth it.” Let me encourage you to learn the art of waiting on the Lord. Psalm 27 says waiting on the Lord takes courage, but Isaiah 40 reminds us that when we wait on the Lord, eventually we will mount up with wings as eagles, we will run and not grow weary, we will walk and not faint. Waiting on the Lord. That’s the way to build endurance. ...Now, here’s Nancy to close our time in prayer. Nancy: Father, forgive us for so often trying to worm our way out of committing ourselves wholeheartedly to You. We want to be intentional about our lives. Would You grant us the grace to give an unconditional yes to You? Thank You for the examples You give us, both in the Scripture and over these past 50 years, of what that kind of life looks like. Holy Spirit, I pray that You would expose those areas of our lives that we still may be holding on to. In Jesus’ name I pray it, amen. to be continued......

Elisabeth Elliot: Is it worth it? One day in October of 1955, Nate Saint flew into our station to tell us that he had discovered some Auca houses. Within a very short time, Ed McCully, that politician from Wisconsin, Jim Elliot from Oregon, and Nate Saint instituted a program of dropping gifts to those Indians, with the hope that they would be able to break down their hostility and prepare the way for an attempt to reach them. You can imagine our excitement, our trembling, the prayers that went up. And in the evening of January 6, 1956, just before these men left to go into the edge of Auca territory—by this time they had been joined by Roger Youderian and Pete Fleming—they sang together that hymn, “We Rest on Thee, Our Shield and Our Defender.” A week later they were all speared to death. Why? He was their shield, their defender, and He let them get speared to death. What had happened? Can your faith cope with a set of facts like this? There is a mystery here, but it is not unprecedented. Go back to Hebrews 11, and following all those wonderful, triumphant accounts, we read, “. . . and others were tortured. They faced jeers and flogging, fetters and prison bars. They were stoned; they were” (listen to this) “sawn in two.” Talk about endurance! Is it worth it? How many things can you think of that are worth suffering for? We lived across the street from a high school, and I couldn’t believe the forms of torture those high-school kids would go through in order to play football, just throwing themselves at those padded steel teeth, jumping in and out of rubber tires, going face down into the mud. For what? For football. How many things can you think of that are worth living for? I want you to listen, young men, young women: There is nothing worth living for unless it’s worth dying for. Have you made up your mind? The world was stunned when the news of the death of the five men hit the headlines. People did not know that there were still “Stone Age” savages around. I suppose that’s one of the reasons they were impressed. And very few people realized that there could still be ordinary young men for whom obedience to Jesus Christ was quite literally a matter of life or death. There was plenty of editorializing about it. The secular press called them “blankety-blank fools.” The Christian press did a lot of very glib explaining of why God would allow a thing like this to happen. The verse that brought assurance to me was 1 John 2:17, “The world and all its passionate desires will one day disappear, but the man who is following the will of God is part of the permanent and cannot die.” Ask Noah if the jeers of his neighbors bothered him very much after they got into the ark. Ask Ed McCully if he still wishes he had pursued that career in politics. Ask Abraham whether it was worth the agonies he went through when he went up the mountain. Ask Jesus. Ask Him what it was like to leave the ivory palaces and come into this world of woe. Ask Him about Gethsemane and the cross of Calvary. What does the book say about Him? “Jesus, for the joy that was set before Him, endured a cross, making light of its disgrace, and has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). “He made Himself nothing” (Philippians 2:7). Jim Elliot wrote in his diary when he was 22, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Were those men really out of their tree to do what they did? In Hebrews 12 it says, “What of ourselves? With all these witnesses surrounding us like a cloud, we must throw off every encumbrance, every sin to which we cling, and run with resolution the race for which we are entered, our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom faith depends from start to finish.” I don’t know what particular endurance God is asking of you right this minute. Perhaps it’s in your love life, the willingness to submit your longings and to wait patiently for God’s best for you, to stay out of bed. God is saying, “I have something infinitely better for you than you can imagine. Will you trust Me? Will you wait? Will you obey Me?” I promised you that I’d tell you what I was going to say, then I would try to say it, then I’d tell you what I’ve said. First, I asked, what do you live for? Is it for yourself? The world? The devil? Or is it for God? Secondly, how do you get it? By obedience. By endurance. By blood, sweat, tears. Third, is it worth it? Jesus, for the joy, endured a cross. My husband and I live on the coast of Massachusetts. Do you know what motto is posted in every rescue station along the coast? “You have to go out; you don’t have to come back.” That, I believe, should be the motto of every Christian. “You have to go out; you don’t have to come back.” Maybe I’ve come across to you tonight as tough, insensitive, dogmatic, ignorant of where you’re at. I hope not. But in case I have, let me assure you that the Lord knows exactly where you’re at. He loves you more than you can possibly imagine. He’s got things up His sleeve that are so much better than your best dreams that it would blow your mind. But He asks you to trust Him. Jim Elliot often used to quote a poem written by Amy Carmichael of India. He quoted this frequently when he spoke to student groups, and it is with these words that I close. Hast thou no scar?No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?I hear thee sung as mighty in the land;I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant star.Hast thou no scar?Hast thou no wound?Yet I was wounded by the archers; spent,Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rentBy ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned.Hast thou no wound?No wound? No scar?Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,And piercèd are the feet that follow Me.But thine are whole; can he have followed farWho hast no wound or scar? Nancy: We’ve been listening to Elisabeth Elliot quoting that classic poem by Amy Carmichael and reminding us that there is a cost to following Christ. Recently Nate Saint’s son, Steve, reminded me that this call is not just for those extraordinary heroes of the faith, but it’s a call for all of us. Steve Saint: It might seem like Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, and Roger and Pete and Ed were super-Christians; but, you know, they weren’t. They were just common, ordinary men, and their five wives were common, ordinary women who distinguished themselves by their willingness to be used by God. That’s the message in this story, that if you’ll just let God, He’ll make you a hero of the faith, too. You don’t have to go and “stand out.” Dad and his friends died out in the middle of nowhere. They must have thought that they had failed, but God had a plan; and as we’ve seen that plan revealed over this fraction of a second of this fifty years, in God’s time it has become apparent that God did have a plan and has had an incredible impact on people around the world. I think that’s a legacy. Just be a common, ordinary man or woman, just whatever God has made you, but allow Him to decide what kind of a vessel He wants and what He wants to use your vessel to do. Nancy: That’s Steve Saint. We’ll be hearing more from him tomorrow as he talks about the legacy of his dad and the other four martyred missionaries. Let me ask you, if you were to die tomorrow, what kind of legacy would you leave? You may want to ask yourself the questions Elisabeth’s been asking us this week: What am I living for? How do I get it? And is it worth it?to be continued...

Haven't finished all this yet, but would hate to see this get lost in the shuffle here. This is some rich thought. Thanks Chanin.

Am I ringing any bells out there? What have you made up your mind about in the last, let’s say, two years? Do you know what you really want in life? The Quechua Indians in the jungles of Ecuador had a very handy word that worked for an answer to anything. The word was yunga, and it means, “for nothing, for no particular purpose.” I remember one time a young Indian came to my husband, Jim Elliot, and told him that he wanted to be baptized. Jim said, “Why do you want to be baptized?” And he said, “Yunga.” Well, Jim said, “You’re going to have to come up with a better answer than that.” So he decided when he got to college that he would just delete them from his schedule. He had made up his mind that he wanted two degrees: a Bachelor of Arts and an A.U.G. The one he wanted most was A.U.G., Approved unto God. He got that out of the Apostle Paul’s letter to Timothy, and he had made up his mind what he wanted to live for.

Thanks Mike.I have already read alot of Elisabeth Elliot's writings but not until recently have I read much about the life of her husband Jim. I have been reading through his journals and their story in "Passion and Purity".I am very excited about the new movie coming out at the end of this month: End of The SpearI can only hope and pray that many young people will go and see it and be challenged- considering 'what do I live for?'Following this post is the conclusion of this series. It is a shorter interview with Steve Saint, son of the Nate Saint, who died along with Jim Elliot.In Him, Chanin

Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully and Roger Youderian were speared to death by the people they were trying to reach with the gospel. But, as we’ll hear today from Nate Saint’s son, Steve, that was far from the end of the story. Nancy Leigh DeMoss: That’s right. After the deaths of the five missionaries, Nate Saint’s sister, Rachel, along with Elisabeth Elliot, went back to the Waodani people to teach them the ways of the Creator. It’s truly an amazing story. I spoke with Steve Saint a little while back, and he described the women God used to draw to Himself the Waodani people. I was inspired as I talked with Steve, and I think you will be as well. So without further ado, let’s listen in on a conversation I had with Steve Saint, son of martyred missionary pilot Nate Saint.Steve, as we get started here, tell us first of all, from your perspective, what in the world motivated these five couples to go to this remote jungle in the first place.Steve: I think really the bottom line was that, like all of us, they were searching for significance in their lives, and they really believed that the way to find significance was to do what God wanted them to do. They took their cues from the Bible. I know one of the motivating verses for my dad was Revelation 5:9, I think it is.It just states that at the end of time there will be people representing every tribe and nation and tongue on earth who will be in God’s presence, and He will make a priesthood of them. I think my dad and his friends realized, if that’s going to happen, and because God works through common ordinary people, that it was going to take a lot of common ordinary people to take His message of love and forgiveness to all those people. I really think, bottom line, that was the motivation.Nancy: So for those, again, who are not familiar with the story, can you give us just a little bit of a chronology and overview of what led up to the events of January 8th?Steve: The Shell Oil Company had moved into Ecuador, I think in the early 40s. They had pushed into Waodani territory. The Waodani had killed, I think, 20-some employees. My mom and dad went down to Ecuador I think in 1948, and Dad bought a little piece of land from them and built a house and a hangar. That’s where I lived when I was born.So he started talking to some of his friends, especially Ed McCully, Jim Elliot, and Pete Fleming, who were with the Brethren Mission and were down there working with the Quechuas, near Waodani territory. Then Dad felt that they needed somebody else who had even more jungle experience than they had, so he asked Roger Youderian, with Gospel Missionary Union. So the five of them formed a team to try to make friendly contact with the Waodani, or the Aucas.It took them months flying over Waodani territory to even find any of their houses. When they did, they dropped gifts to the Waodani, and the Waodani showed that they understood what this was, that this was an overture of friendship, so they started returning gifts. Dad finally found a sandbar two rivers over from where this little clearing was that they had found, and he landed his airplane on that little sandbar. They waited for about three days, and then on Friday, January 6, 1956, three Indians just stepped out of the jungle on the other side of the river and came over and spent the day with them, like it happened all the time. The young girl of the three, my dad and his friends called her Delilah [her actual name was Gimade], wanted to marry the young man that came with her. And he wanted to marry her, but she had been promised to somebody else. Then, when they were on their way back to the village the next day, a delegation of other Waodani were coming to see what had happened to them. In that group was Gimade’s mother and brother, who both had said that she could not marry Nenkiwi. Well, now they saw her alone with him, so Gimade’s brother got very angry, and he started mumbling that he was going to spear him. So Gikita said, “No, if we’re going to kill anybody, let’s kill the foreigners.” So they came back on Sunday, January 8, and speared my dad and his four friends. The fact that the men didn’t shoot any of them to hurt them created major consternation for them, so then they realized, “These guys weren’t meaning us any harm.” Nancy: As a little boy, do you remember that process, that time? Do you have some memories of that period?Steve: Well, yes, I remember my mom calling me into her room and telling me that my dad wasn’t coming back, and I was just dumbfounded. I couldn’t imagine. I mean, this was total nonsense! Of course my dad is coming back! I love my dad and my dad loves me. Dad always comes back. And then my mom, when I asked her why she was saying that he wasn’t coming back, she said that he had gone to live with Jesus, and that of course made a big difference to me. That was exciting, but then I thought, “Well, why didn’t he come and get us and take us with him?” But I took my cues from Mom and Aunt Betty and Aunt Barb and Aunt Marilou and Aunt Olive. I watched them, and you know, they were sad, but I never ever heard any of them even suggest quietly that God may have made a mistake, or that even they had made a mistake. They just really were heroes of the faith who, were through these 50 years, I really think that we have way underestimated the key role that the five widows played. Nancy: And what’s remarkable, one of those widows, Elisabeth Elliot, and then your dad’s sister, Rachel Saint, went back into that very tribe and established a relationship there a couple of years later. Can you give us a little overview of how that happened?Steve: Gikita, the old man who led the killing attack and said, “Let’s kill the foreigners not each other,” his son dies about a year and a half after Dad and his friends were killed. His wife, Mancamel, said, “If we hadn’t killed those foreigners, my son wouldn’t have died.” She got up and told two or three other women, “Come with me; we’re leaving,” and they just walked out of their part of the jungle into Quechua territory, where they should have been killed. It just happened that Aunt Betty was walking from one jungle mission station to another one, right near where the women came out of the jungle; so one of Quechuas went and said to her, “There are three Auca women down here. Do you want to see them?” And she said, “Of course I do.”So she took the two Quechua women back to the mission station, where she and Jim had lived together, and she got to know them there. Now, my aunt and Dayumae, from the tribe, were in the states then. Dayumae was a girl who had fled from killings in the tribe, within the tribe, when she was about 15, and I would guess by this time she was probably almost 30.Several months later, when Aunt Rachel came back, she and Dayumae went immediately to meet these two women, and they were Dayumae’s aunts. When they realized she was still alive after being out of the jungles for 15 years, they said, “This is incredible. How is it that the foreigners have continued to let you live?” And Dayumae said, “You know, not all foreigners live angry and hating; they’re not all violent.” And the women said, “We have to go back and tell our people that it’s possible to live in peace.”So Dayumae and those two women went back into the jungles to Waodani territory and met with the people. When they realized that Dayumae still was alive, they started asking her how it was. And she started telling them about Waengongi, about the Creator, and how the Creator didn’t want people to kill each other, and how He had created the world, stories that Aunt Rachel had told her.They wanted more information, so Dayumae went out with a delegation of younger Waodani, mostly women, and they got Aunt Rachel and Aunt Betty, and Aunt Betty took Valerie, and they all went back into the jungles. That was the beginning of the first sustained friendly contact with the tribe and the outside world.Nancy: How long was it, Steve, until the first Waodani believed the gospel? Was this a matter of years?Steve: No, no. The first one, in fact, my tribal grandmother, Dawa, she didn’t even wait for Dayumae to get back with Aunt Rachel. The night before Dayumae left she said, “I’m not taking the chance. You tell me everything that you just told me one more time, and then if you don’t come back, I myself, following this new trail, will teach the other people how to live well.” So by the time Aunt Rachel got there, Dawa had already believed.Nancy: So, is it accurate that . . . tell us a little bit about your baptism. Is it accurate that some of the very men who had done the killing participated in your baptism?Steve: Yes. My sister, Kathy, decided that she wanted to be baptized, and my mom suggested that she pick some man who had had a very marked spiritual influence in her life be the one to baptize her, since we didn’t have a father in our home. And Kathy immediately said “I want Kimo to baptize me.”I was already out in the tribe, so when mom and my younger brother, Phil, and Kathy came out so that Kathy could be baptized, I decided, “You know, I think it’s time for me to be baptized, too.” Then Mom had asked to go see where my dad had been killed, which was over on another river, so they decided, “Let’s just do it all at the same time.” So we went over there. After we saw where Dad had landed his plane and where he and Jim and Roger and Ed and Pete had been killed, then Kimo and Dyuwi, two of the six men who had gone to kill my dad and the others, baptized us there.It didn’t seem that odd to us. I know it seems strange now, but if somebody thought up this story, they wouldn’t have dared to publish it because it would have been too farfetched; but since it’s true, I guess, people accept it.Leslie Basham: We’ve been listening to a portion of a conversation between Nancy Leigh DeMoss and Steve Saint, the son of martyred pilot Nate Saint. If you’d like to listen to our entire interview with Steve Saint, just go to our website, www.ReviveOurHearts.com, and you can listen to it there.

I pray this gets widely read, even more so, absorbed.

Oh wow! I'm so excited that you posted this Chanin! I just went to a missions conference Tuesday to Thursday, and our special guest speakers were Frank and Marie Drown. They were missionaries to Ecuador about 10 years before the Elliots even came. Frank was such a sweet saint! You could tell that he so dearly loved those Indians he ministered to with his wife for about 30 to 50 years. He would get choked up when he'd tell the stories of those Indians and especially the story about him being called to be a part of the rescue team that had to go look for those 5 young missionary men, including Jim Elliot and Steve Saint. It was such a blessing an honor to get to see this darling couple live, and it's an experience that I will always remember.At the conference I bought Frank Drown's book, "Mission to the Headhunters" and also ended up purchasing the DVD documentary titled "Beyond the Gates of Splendor".I'm going to try to make it up to Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa tomorrow morning for their Missions Awareness Day. Steve Saint, son of missionary martyr Nate Saint, and Mincaye, one of the Indians involved the killings are going to be the special guests. There will be missionaries from around the world, including Frank and Marie Drown. [smile] Maybe I can get them to sign my book, which I didn't have enough guts to do yesterday. I was waiting to post about the missions conference when I get the mp3's and upload them to our church website. When the mp3's of Frank and Marie Drown are up, I'll let everyone on SI know. [smile] I'm anticipating sometime next week.EditI have to add, reading the question "What do I live for?", that I was left with a deep conviction after hearing Frank Drown share his last session yesterday. His last message was titled "The Cost of Following Christ". When he stepped off that stage filled with emotion, everyone standing and applauding, my eyes watered as I realized, "I count my life as dear to me." The last several years have been spent in fear, trying to protect myself from pain and suffering, getting bitter at God when He allowed my heart to be broken. But how could I question my God? How could I question what He was doing and allowing in my life? I've been striving for a comfortable, easy life, but that's not the life I've been called to as a Christian. I very much look forward to seeing that movie, "End of the Spear" when it comes out. I'm sure the documentary, "Beyond the Gates of Splendor" will be very moving and life changing as well.

Hi Yodi,This sounds wonderful and do hope you are able to share more as well as the recordings. Though I have heard the story, all this that both Chanin and yourself now are sharing is filling in so much and is just incredible.There is some serious soul searching that comes from all that has been said.

Well Mike, I got the mp3's up! [big smile] You can find them under the topic to every TRIBE, TONGUE & NATION.

Hi Yodi!My, it took me awhile to get back to this, had seen it the other day ... I can't wait to listen to these, all this is just fascinating and thought provoking. Much thanks sister!

I found this prayer of Jim's for the New Year and posted it on my xanga. I thought I'd post it here as well :-) "I pray that the Lord might crown this year with His goodness and in the coming one give you a hallowed dare-devil spirit in lifting the biting sword of Truth, consuming you with a passionthat is called by the cultured citizen of Christendom 'fanaticism', but known to God as that saintly madness that led His Son through bloody sweat and hot tears to agony on a rude Cross--- and Glory!" -Jim Elliot

Wow! That's awesome Chanin! Oh man... think I'll be chewing on that all day. Yeah, I'm past the point of caring now if people think I'm a fanatic. I'm tired of caring what people think. All that matters is what my Lord thinks and what truly pleases Him!Oh, by the way, I watched the documentary "Beyond the Gates of Splendor" last night, and it was really moving! Oh man, it just brought to life the things I've been reading in Frank Drown's book "Mission to the Headhunters". I saw with my eyes the Andes Mountains him and his family had to walk over, the muddy trails he hiked with the Indians and his missionary friends, heard the voices of the Indians he spent so many years with and had a heart for, the poor little monkeys they cooked up and ate, the airstrips that were cleared for planes to land on with supplies or to take sick people to a hospital, and the faces and families of Frank's 5 missionary friends that were speared to death. It was a very moving movie! I'm curious to see what "End of the Spear" will be like. After seeing and hearing Mancaye (I think is the Indian's name), share on the documentary, a part of me was bummed that I didn't see him share live at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa last Saturday. But I'm blessed enough that I got to hear Frank Drown share in person at the conference.I'm considering buying "Through Gates of Splendor" after I finish "Mission to the Headhunters". I'm glad you and Arielle are being blessed and inspired as you read through Elliot's book. [smile]

Chanin was so kind to post the text to this radio program from Nancy Leigh DeMoss' "Revive Our Hearts" ministry including recorded clips from Elisabeth Elliot, but did you know you could download the program to listen to it? That's what I did, and it's now on my computer, in my iTunes and will soon be on my iPod!Just visit each of the following links, click on the "Listen" option, and right click on "MP3". Select "Save Target As" and choose where on your computer you would like to save these programs to listen to later. =)!!!What Do You Live For?Series: Enduring Life's Most Difficult MomentsFeaturing: Elisabeth ElliotAn Unconditional "Yes" to GodSeries: Enduring Life's Most Difficult MomentsFeaturing: Elisabeth Elliot and Steve SaintRelational EnduranceSeries: Enduring Life's Most Difficult MomentsFeaturing: Elisabeth ElliotIs It Worth It?Series: Enduring Life's Most Difficult MomentsFeaturing: Elisabeth Elliot & Steve SaintA Son's PerspectiveSeries: Enduring Life's Most Difficult MomentsFeaturing: Steve Saint

Thanks Yolanda! :-)