WEBVTT

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Could we turn to Matthew's Gospel,

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the last chapter - chapter 28?

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And we'll read verses 18-20.

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Matthew 28:18-20.

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"And Jesus came up and spoke to them,

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saying, 'All authority 
has been given to Me

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in heaven and on earth.

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Go therefore, and make disciples

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of all the nations;

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baptizing them in the name of the Father

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and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit;

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teaching them to observe all 
that I have commanded you.

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And lo, I am with you always,

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even to the end of the age.'"

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We rest on Thee,

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and in Thy name we go.

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That last hymn in 1956,

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five men sang it together

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and went out together to die.

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I want to speak tonight

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on the life and legacy of Jim Elliot,

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the 20th century martyr and missionary

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in Ecuador.

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All that can really be learned about him

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are in these three books,

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and I want you to note them.

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"Shadow of the Almighty,"

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which is the biography -

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the life of Jim Elliot 
by his wife Elisabeth,

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published the first time 
2 years after his death in 1958.

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"The Journals of Jim Elliot,"

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written by him over a period

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of about seven years

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from age 21 to 28.

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And "Through Gates of Splendor,"

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the account written a 
year after their death.

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The account of the mission 
to the Auca Indians

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and the death of those courageous men.

NOTE Paragraph

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Elisabeth Elliot once said of her husband,

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"At the age of 21,

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Jim began an adventure that would require

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the ultimate sacrifice.

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That adventure was to follow Christ

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to the mission field of Ecuador.

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And ultimately, face death at the hands

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of an unreached jungle tribe.

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It was a year and a half ago approximately

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that one of our pastors, Philip Neeley,

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shared a summary of Jim Elliot's life

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with the men in our church.

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Philip had gone away for two days

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of reading alone,

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and he always takes a choice book with him

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and it was the life of Jim Elliot.

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And Philip described Jim to our men

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as a man of purity,

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a man of purpose,

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a man of priorities,

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a man of the past -

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meaning he loved history,

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he learned from the past,

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and a man of power.

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And I thought, in thinking of Jim Elliot,

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I thought of Bunyan's character,

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one of his characters in 
"Pilgrim's Progress."

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Mr. Great-Heart.

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That was Jim Elliot.

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But then, here comes 
Mr. Valiant-For-Truth.

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Well, that was Jim Elliot also.

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And I feel sure among his friends

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and his college classmates 
at Wheaton College

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in the suburbs of Chicago,

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and other Plymouth 
Brethren church leaders,

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that he seemed at times larger than life.

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But he was a real guy

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who smiled and laughed and joked

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and cried a lot;

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who loved to cut up and tease others

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too much at times,

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and he would be rebuked for it

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by his pious friends.

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But he was preeminently a young man

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that, from his youth,

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was in a serious pursuit to know Christ.

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So, I want us tonight to look

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at Jim Elliot's life under five headings.

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The making of the man.

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The marriage. The mission.

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The martyrdom.

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And the meaning for us today -

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his legacy.

NOTE Paragraph

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So first, the making of the man.

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What did God do;

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what did God use to shape Jim Elliot

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into who he became?

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Now, there's many ingredients often

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in a good recipe.

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And God's recipe for Jim Elliot's life

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included a lot.

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His birth: Philip James Elliot

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was born October 8th, 1927

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in Portland, Oregon.

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He died January 8th, 1956

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in the Curaray River in eastern jungles

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of Ecuador along with his four friends,

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at the age of 28 years 
and 3 months to the day.

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He was born into a godly 
Plymouth Brethren family,

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to Fred and Clara Elliot.

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Four children. Two older 
brothers, Bob and Burt.

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And then Jim, the third,

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and then a younger sister Jane.

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And their home,

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when you read the accounts,

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their home exemplified godliness

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and consistent Christianity

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that was really lived out.

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Daily, without exception, Jim's father

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led the family in Bible 
reading and prayer.

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Always after breakfast.

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Elisabeth Elliot said later that quote,

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"Jim's father was always 
showing his children

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that the Bible was to be obeyed

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and lived out,

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and that the Christian life

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was a happy and rewarding one."

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So, Jim came to Christ in such a context

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around the age of six years old,

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and his future years proved

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it to be a genuine conversion.

NOTE Paragraph

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Now, toward the end of his college years,

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he wrote Elisabeth Howard, his friend,

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who was known to him always as "Betty."

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He wrote Betty about his father.

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He says, "I blush to think 
of the things I've said,

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as if I really know something at all."

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By the way, a sentiment I've had often.

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"I blush to think of things I've said

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in the past as if I really know

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something of all the Bible teaches,

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when I think I know nothing.

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But my father... my father's faith

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is a kind I've seen nowhere else.

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It is so real and practical

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that it shatters everything I've seen.

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He knows God.

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We've had some happy times together,

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and I cannot estimate what enrichment

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a few months with dad might do for me

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both practically and spiritually."

NOTE Paragraph

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Mr. Elliot said, "I pray regularly

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for my children,

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and I pray regularly with them."

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Every Lord's Day, the family were all

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in church Bible classes 
and corporate worship

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at their Plymouth Brethren assembly

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in Portland.

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And every child was in all the services

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by the time they were six weeks old.

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Mrs. Elliot believed,

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"It doesn't hurt children at all

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to sit quietly through 
the church meetings.

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It's good for their nerves."

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Well, their childhood was 
happy and wholesome

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at their country place 
on the eastern slope

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of Mount Tabor in Portland.

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Their home was one of those homes

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that people loved to be in.

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Have you ever been to one of those

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Christian family's homes

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and you say when you leave,

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man, what a blessing to have been there.

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That's the way it was at the Elliot home.

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What a family!

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How they love and enjoy one another.

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I want to go back there again.

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They were always having visitors -

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missionaries, preachers,

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friends from college.

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And the children - 
the four Elliot children

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love having people in their home.

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Family times were special.

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Sledding yearly near Mt. Hood,

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day long picnics on the Oregon coast,

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or trips to their grandparents' homestead

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where they would work the produce

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or tend the sheep.

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Their local Brethren assembly

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had church life that was real

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and fellowship that 
was vital and wonderful.

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In summary, Jim's life

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was consistently on the path

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to a remarkable Christian life

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even as a young man.

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By the age of 13 or 14,

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he was choosing to discipline 
his life spiritually daily.

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And he began telling his friends

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about Christ and about salvation.

NOTE Paragraph

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In 1941, he entered Benson 
Polytechnic High School in Portland,

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and he excelled as a student.

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He would write editorials for

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the student newspaper.

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He starred in several school plays.

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He excelled in public speaking.

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And he was so good at drawing,

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he wanted to be an architect.

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He was planning on being an architect.

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He was so good at drawing,

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that the teacher kept his drawings

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as examples for future classes.

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A classmate said of him,

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"Jim carried a small Bible

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that would sit on top of his textbooks

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on his desk in class.

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It would only take an 
audience of one or two

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for him to open the Bible

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and begin talking and sharing.

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He always prayed before eating his lunch,

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and he never missed a chance

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to talk to me about Jesus Christ."

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In his sophomore year of high school,

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he began to write short letters,

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at times to his brothers and sisters.

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One note to his younger sister Jane.

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Now, he's a 17 year old brother,

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writing to a younger sister some advice.

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"Jane, begin each day with private reading

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of the Word and prayer.

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John Bunyan said, 'sin will 
keep you from this book,

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or this book will keep you from sin.'

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Give out gospel tracts too

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to those you meet on the way to school.

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And make a bold start at the 
beginning of high school.

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It's easier that way than later.

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And memorize Scripture on your rides

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to and from school.

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Redeem the time, Jane.

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Time is costly because it is so fleeting.

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Do your best to present yourself to God

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as one approved."

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Now that's a 17 year old boy

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pastoring his little sister.

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By his senior year, his desire

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for his future in architecture shifted

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to the mission field.

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He would set an alarm every night

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so he would have plenty of time

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for reading and prayer before school,

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which became the priority 
of the rest of his life.

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In the fall of 1945, he 
entered Wheaton College

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in the western suburbs of Chicago,

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which was a long way 
from Portland, Oregon.

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Now with one goal he went there -

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to prepare himself to take the gospel

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to a foreign mission field.

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He didn't know where yet,

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but he was determined to prepare himself.

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Like Paul, this one thing I do...

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that was Jim Elliot.

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He had no money for college,

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and he didn't know where it 
was going to come from.

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But God honored his faith,

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and he always had it

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through gifts of family friends,

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through prayer,

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through part-time work.

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And as he got into his college years,

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his activities increased.

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He majored in Greek

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for future Bible translation work.

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He became president 
of the foreign missions

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fellowship on campus.

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He was a class representative

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on the student council.

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He was a writer of poetry.

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And he was respected and admired

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by faculty and fellow students

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as a genuine, serious-minded,

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joyful Christian.

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All the while, in the busyness of college,

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being very consistent with morning

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Bible readings and private prayer.

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And it became his practice in college

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on Saturday's, he liked to do two things.

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He liked to go the college 
football game in the afternoon.

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But on Saturday night, he wouldn't go out.

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He would stay in.

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Because he wanted to prepare his heart

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for Sunday worship

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and the Plymouth Brethren practice

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of the breaking of bread -

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their weekly Lord's Supper meeting.

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It was the highlight of his week.

NOTE Paragraph

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At Wheaton, he began a personal habit

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in his junior year

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that continued until 8 
days before he died.

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A young British preacher,

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Steven Olford,

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spoke in the college chapel one day,

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and that day suggested to Jim

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that he begin a daily journal,

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that would improve his private time

00:13:02.835 --> 00:13:05.055
in his time with the Lord.

00:13:05.055 --> 00:13:10.806
And, he began to do that.

00:13:10.806 --> 00:13:15.024
That decision to keep a personal journal -

00:13:15.024 --> 00:13:16.474
his thoughts, his prayers,

00:13:16.474 --> 00:13:17.729
the events of the day,

00:13:17.729 --> 00:13:21.041
what the Lord was teaching him -

00:13:21.041 --> 00:13:23.000
would be a great spiritual discipline,

00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:24.765
Olford told him.

00:13:24.765 --> 00:13:28.037
Well, that decision, 30 years later

00:13:28.037 --> 00:13:30.524
provided one of the most stirring books

00:13:30.524 --> 00:13:33.680
in modern church history 
and modern missions.

00:13:33.680 --> 00:13:36.329
He never probably thought

00:13:36.329 --> 00:13:39.064
that it would be published,

00:13:39.064 --> 00:13:42.454
proving that small, personal choices

00:13:42.454 --> 00:13:44.628
yield huge dividends later

00:13:44.628 --> 00:13:48.519
in our own lives and the lives of others.

NOTE Paragraph

00:13:48.519 --> 00:13:50.716
At the end of his freshman year of college

00:13:50.716 --> 00:13:51.811
he wrote his parents:

00:13:51.811 --> 00:13:53.752
"It's been a profitable year

00:13:53.752 --> 00:13:55.996
drawing close to the Savior,

00:13:55.996 --> 00:13:58.255
and discovering gems in His Word.

00:13:58.255 --> 00:13:59.571
How wonderful to know

00:13:59.571 --> 00:14:01.064
that Christanity is more than

00:14:01.064 --> 00:14:02.829
a padded church pew

00:14:02.829 --> 00:14:04.720
or a church cathedral,

00:14:04.720 --> 00:14:08.308
but that it is a real, 
living and daily experience

00:14:08.308 --> 00:14:11.636
that goes from grace to grace."

00:14:11.636 --> 00:14:13.974
Those formative maturing years

00:14:13.974 --> 00:14:17.494
were essential for his future usefulness.

00:14:17.494 --> 00:14:19.335
The tender heart.

00:14:19.335 --> 00:14:21.472
A clear conscience.

00:14:21.472 --> 00:14:24.708
A lifestyle of daily repentance.

00:14:24.708 --> 00:14:26.431
Godly zeal. Real prayerfulness.

00:14:26.431 --> 00:14:27.782
High standards.

00:14:27.782 --> 00:14:29.981
Focused spiritual goals

00:14:29.981 --> 00:14:32.116
that he let no one or nothing

00:14:32.116 --> 00:14:34.673
deter him from.

00:14:34.673 --> 00:14:36.390
An active consistent serving

00:14:36.390 --> 00:14:38.743
of the Lord and others.

00:14:38.743 --> 00:14:41.152
Jim Elliot became in the U.S.

00:14:41.152 --> 00:14:43.993
what he was later in Ecuador.

00:14:43.993 --> 00:14:47.215
Shaped into a solid, grounded man

00:14:47.215 --> 00:14:49.668
of the Holy Spirit by his mid-twenties.

00:14:49.668 --> 00:14:53.809
And that's mostly seen in his journals.

00:14:53.809 --> 00:14:56.394
What stands out? He was always reading.

00:14:56.394 --> 00:15:00.299
Always reading the Bible deeply,

00:15:00.299 --> 00:15:02.103
meditating in it.

00:15:02.103 --> 00:15:03.531
Taking notes.

00:15:03.531 --> 00:15:05.472
Reading John Bunyan, the Puritans,

00:15:05.472 --> 00:15:07.109
Plymouth Brethren writers,

00:15:07.109 --> 00:15:10.096
Scottish pastors Andrew 
and Horatius Bonar,

00:15:10.096 --> 00:15:12.438
and Spurgeon - always reading.

00:15:12.438 --> 00:15:14.753
And he learned to draw 
from the deep wells.

00:15:14.753 --> 00:15:17.398
He learned to draw deeply

00:15:17.398 --> 00:15:20.650
because he wouldn't hurry himself.

00:15:20.650 --> 00:15:22.337
This deepened his mind

00:15:22.337 --> 00:15:23.714
and his heart devotionally.

00:15:23.714 --> 00:15:27.269
David Brainerd who died 
at the same age as Jim,

00:15:27.269 --> 00:15:30.045
his journal had great impact on Jim.

00:15:30.045 --> 00:15:31.061
And Jim wrote,

00:15:31.061 --> 00:15:32.275
"Lord, if I were honest,

00:15:32.275 --> 00:15:34.469
my soul would be more in anguish

00:15:34.469 --> 00:15:36.571
like Brainerd's.

00:15:36.571 --> 00:15:38.636
How cold and careless I've become.

00:15:38.636 --> 00:15:40.985
Let not my soul be cast away

00:15:40.985 --> 00:15:43.500
from Your nearness."

00:15:43.500 --> 00:15:45.462
He soon wrote, "I have enjoyed

00:15:45.462 --> 00:15:49.016
much sweetness in 
reading Brainerd's life.

00:15:49.016 --> 00:15:50.607
I spent the last two days

00:15:50.607 --> 00:15:52.654
with tremendous profit to my soul,

00:15:52.654 --> 00:15:57.101
entirely in reading 
6 to 8 hours each day."

00:15:57.101 --> 00:15:58.901
Another day, "I just finished

00:15:58.901 --> 00:16:01.239
Amy Carmichael's 'Gold Cord.'

00:16:01.239 --> 00:16:04.234
How can I express the 
effect it has had on me?

00:16:04.234 --> 00:16:08.355
Oh, what a shame and sham I am!

00:16:08.355 --> 00:16:10.282
No scars, have you?

00:16:10.282 --> 00:16:11.553
No scars.

00:16:11.553 --> 00:16:14.086
No tears? No tears.

00:16:14.086 --> 00:16:16.055
Oh God of the thorny path,

00:16:16.055 --> 00:16:17.362
please in Your mercy,

00:16:17.362 --> 00:16:21.581
privilege me to walk in Your path."

NOTE Paragraph

00:16:21.581 --> 00:16:23.279
In those college years,

00:16:23.279 --> 00:16:24.470
in those summers,

00:16:24.470 --> 00:16:26.051
he feasted on the lives

00:16:26.051 --> 00:16:27.623
of Jonathan Goforth,

00:16:27.623 --> 00:16:29.031
Hudson Taylor,

00:16:29.031 --> 00:16:30.968
J.G. Paton,

00:16:30.968 --> 00:16:33.202
the missionary to the South Seas island

00:16:33.202 --> 00:16:35.107
among the cannibals.

00:16:35.107 --> 00:16:36.602
And his reading led him

00:16:36.602 --> 00:16:38.301
into such meditation

00:16:38.301 --> 00:16:41.182
that he began to journal more and more.

00:16:41.182 --> 00:16:43.089
An example one morning:

00:16:43.089 --> 00:16:44.460
Romans 15.

00:16:44.460 --> 00:16:45.599
He's reading.

00:16:45.599 --> 00:16:47.857
He comes to verse 13, which says,

00:16:47.857 --> 00:16:49.437
"Now may the God of hope

00:16:49.437 --> 00:16:52.926
fill you with all joy and 
peace in believing,

00:16:52.926 --> 00:16:54.903
that you may abound in hope

00:16:54.903 --> 00:16:57.255
by the power of the Holy Spirit."

00:16:57.255 --> 00:16:58.699
Jim stopped there and he began

00:16:58.699 --> 00:17:01.338
to write and pray.

00:17:01.338 --> 00:17:03.564
"Every hour I need Thee.

00:17:03.564 --> 00:17:06.051
I claim this verse for these days.

00:17:06.051 --> 00:17:07.623
My love is faint.

00:17:07.623 --> 00:17:09.855
My warmth practically gone.

00:17:09.855 --> 00:17:12.625
Oh, that I were not so empty-handed.

00:17:12.625 --> 00:17:14.027
Joy and peace can only come

00:17:14.027 --> 00:17:15.852
through believing God.

00:17:15.852 --> 00:17:18.747
And that is all can I say to Him tonight.

00:17:18.747 --> 00:17:19.769
Lord, I believe You.

00:17:19.769 --> 00:17:20.898
I don't feel love.

00:17:20.898 --> 00:17:22.046
I don't feel anything,

00:17:22.046 --> 00:17:23.447
and I don't understand.

00:17:23.447 --> 00:17:25.633
I now can only believe.

00:17:25.633 --> 00:17:28.504
So bring my faith to fruition.

00:17:28.504 --> 00:17:32.941
Produce in me, I pray."

00:17:32.941 --> 00:17:35.079
And suddenly he writes,

00:17:35.079 --> 00:17:36.978
"What is this, Lord Jesus,

00:17:36.978 --> 00:17:38.507
that Thou should make an end

00:17:38.507 --> 00:17:39.958
of all that I possess

00:17:39.958 --> 00:17:42.085
and give Yourself to me?

00:17:42.085 --> 00:17:43.615
So that there is nothing now

00:17:43.615 --> 00:17:45.720
to call my own, save Thee?

00:17:45.720 --> 00:17:48.200
Thyself alone, my Treasure.

00:17:48.200 --> 00:17:51.011
Strange I say that suffering loss,

00:17:51.011 --> 00:17:53.129
I have gained everything 
in getting a Friend

00:17:53.129 --> 00:17:55.546
who bore a cross."

00:17:55.546 --> 00:17:58.066
He wrote. He meditated.

NOTE Paragraph

00:17:58.066 --> 00:18:01.253
On 2 Samuel, he meditated one morning

00:18:01.253 --> 00:18:02.583
and then he wrote this:

00:18:02.583 --> 00:18:04.878
"Uriah, Bathsheba's husband,

00:18:04.878 --> 00:18:06.863
declined legitimate ease

00:18:06.863 --> 00:18:08.779
because his fellow soldiers

00:18:08.779 --> 00:18:11.272
were in tents in the open fields.

00:18:11.272 --> 00:18:13.055
David's error.

00:18:13.055 --> 00:18:14.970
When kings go out to battle,

00:18:14.970 --> 00:18:16.566
he tarried in Jerusalem.

00:18:16.566 --> 00:18:19.037
How often..." Jim said,

00:18:19.037 --> 00:18:21.323
"is this the history of Christian failure.

00:18:21.323 --> 00:18:22.441
It's time to march,

00:18:22.441 --> 00:18:24.280
and some Christians are laying on beds

00:18:24.280 --> 00:18:25.900
of self-interest.

00:18:25.900 --> 00:18:28.829
At such times, Satan sees to it

00:18:28.829 --> 00:18:31.909
that a Bathsheba is not far away.

00:18:31.909 --> 00:18:34.410
David staying at ease in Jerusalem

00:18:34.410 --> 00:18:36.398
meant Uriah's death in battle.

00:18:36.398 --> 00:18:39.183
Lord, don't let me be so found

00:18:39.183 --> 00:18:43.591
reluctant because of selfishness."

NOTE Paragraph

00:18:43.591 --> 00:18:45.526
His famous words journaled

00:18:45.526 --> 00:18:48.261
in October of 1949:

00:18:48.261 --> 00:18:49.777
"He is no fool

00:18:49.777 --> 00:18:51.730
who gives what he cannot keep

00:18:51.730 --> 00:18:53.711
to gain what he cannot lose,"

00:18:53.711 --> 00:18:56.615
actually were not his words originally.

00:18:56.615 --> 00:18:58.511
He journaled them after reading them

00:18:58.511 --> 00:19:01.147
in the writings of Philip 
and Matthew Henry,

00:19:01.147 --> 00:19:02.732
who one of them said it

00:19:02.732 --> 00:19:04.960
in the 17th or 18th century.

00:19:04.960 --> 00:19:06.061
But he liked it.

00:19:06.061 --> 00:19:08.305
He was gleaning, gleaning, gleaning.

00:19:08.305 --> 00:19:10.529
Soaking it in. Taking it.

00:19:10.529 --> 00:19:11.948
Passing it on to others.

NOTE Paragraph

00:19:11.948 --> 00:19:13.086
Some other gleanings,

00:19:13.086 --> 00:19:14.286
February 1948:

00:19:14.286 --> 00:19:16.128
"Lord, show me the difference between

00:19:16.128 --> 00:19:17.924
worship and service,

00:19:17.924 --> 00:19:19.570
and how to press into Thy hand

00:19:19.570 --> 00:19:22.293
the fresh juice of living worship.

00:19:22.293 --> 00:19:25.685
Not the dead meat which 
is only in my head."

00:19:25.685 --> 00:19:29.724
"Last night I was entirely too talkative,

00:19:29.724 --> 00:19:31.613
dogmatic, and even argumentative

00:19:31.613 --> 00:19:36.084
with Dave (his future 
brother-in-law at Wheaton).

00:19:36.084 --> 00:19:39.572
Argumentative about 
Christians in politics.

00:19:39.572 --> 00:19:41.800
I'm seeking peace on this subject, Lord.

00:19:41.800 --> 00:19:43.671
I know I've grieved Your Spirit

00:19:43.671 --> 00:19:45.429
and my thoughts were not established.

00:19:45.429 --> 00:19:49.666
Possess my spirit, Lord, today."

00:19:49.666 --> 00:19:51.617
While reading through Genesis one month

00:19:51.617 --> 00:19:54.989
he wrote this, "Lord, whatever barriers

00:19:54.989 --> 00:19:56.333
there are in my life

00:19:56.333 --> 00:19:58.037
that keeps the water of life

00:19:58.037 --> 00:20:00.077
from freely flowing,

00:20:00.077 --> 00:20:01.520
I ask You to point it out

00:20:01.520 --> 00:20:04.757
and give me power to cut it off.

00:20:04.757 --> 00:20:06.581
I would not be like Rachel -

00:20:06.581 --> 00:20:08.374
beautiful but barren.

00:20:08.374 --> 00:20:10.541
Give me Leah's eyes, tender eyes,

00:20:10.541 --> 00:20:11.950
that I might be sensitive

00:20:11.950 --> 00:20:14.006
to Your light and Your truth."

00:20:14.006 --> 00:20:16.190
And his father had written him

00:20:16.190 --> 00:20:19.118
not long before along that line.

00:20:19.118 --> 00:20:21.161
His father wrote, "Jim, I am jealous

00:20:21.161 --> 00:20:22.902
of anything or any person

00:20:22.902 --> 00:20:26.194
who would hinder your progress

00:20:26.194 --> 00:20:27.523
to everlasting riches

00:20:27.523 --> 00:20:29.840
and a life completely devoted

00:20:29.840 --> 00:20:32.729
to that supreme and glorious Man

00:20:32.729 --> 00:20:35.431
at God's right hand."

NOTE Paragraph

00:20:35.431 --> 00:20:37.865
Jim became so consistent in gleaning

00:20:37.865 --> 00:20:41.157
rich gems of truth from the Bible,

00:20:41.157 --> 00:20:44.622
over and over,

00:20:44.622 --> 00:20:46.794
some major thoughts, major truths

00:20:46.794 --> 00:20:48.478
about the gospel - he wrote this:

00:20:48.478 --> 00:20:49.914
"Psalm 51.

00:20:49.914 --> 00:20:52.389
'I was shapen in iniquity.

00:20:52.389 --> 00:20:54.983
In sin did my mother conceive me.'

00:20:54.983 --> 00:20:57.348
From the beginning of my life,

00:20:57.348 --> 00:21:00.205
my contact has been with the unclean.

00:21:00.205 --> 00:21:02.467
How then can a man become pure?

00:21:02.467 --> 00:21:04.160
The atonement blood

00:21:04.160 --> 00:21:06.073
that cleansed my own mother

00:21:06.073 --> 00:21:07.811
must avail for me.

00:21:07.811 --> 00:21:09.240
Oh, Lamb of God,

00:21:09.240 --> 00:21:11.462
what a sacrifice Thou art.

00:21:11.462 --> 00:21:13.396
Whose blood can avail?

00:21:13.396 --> 00:21:15.312
Goat's blood cannot cleanse.

00:21:15.312 --> 00:21:17.636
My own blood cannot avail,
for I am unclean.

00:21:17.636 --> 00:21:20.719
Only Thy blood, O Lord,

00:21:20.719 --> 00:21:23.437
could be effectual."

00:21:23.437 --> 00:21:27.441
In his daily reading in Genesis,

00:21:27.441 --> 00:21:28.437
he said this:

00:21:28.437 --> 00:21:30.515
"I cannot fail to see Christ

00:21:30.515 --> 00:21:33.310
in Joseph's life today.

00:21:33.310 --> 00:21:36.094
He's a young man, 30 years old.

00:21:36.094 --> 00:21:39.330
A Hebrew servant.

00:21:39.330 --> 00:21:41.711
'Without Me you can do nothing,'

00:21:41.711 --> 00:21:43.606
says our Savior.

00:21:43.606 --> 00:21:44.931
And Pharaoh said to Joseph,

00:21:44.931 --> 00:21:46.303
'without you shall no man

00:21:46.303 --> 00:21:48.925
lift a hand or foot in Egypt.'

00:21:48.925 --> 00:21:51.286
Only our heavenly Joseph can open

00:21:51.286 --> 00:21:54.139
all the storehouse of God's wealth.

00:21:54.139 --> 00:21:57.410
All must go to Him for blessing."

00:21:57.410 --> 00:22:00.384
I've never gotten anything like that

00:22:00.384 --> 00:22:02.423
from Joseph's life,

00:22:02.423 --> 00:22:04.310
but he dug.

00:22:04.310 --> 00:22:06.232
He meditated. He prayed.

00:22:06.232 --> 00:22:09.847
And he wrote out of his mind and heart

00:22:09.847 --> 00:22:11.660
what he saw.

NOTE Paragraph

00:22:11.660 --> 00:22:15.232
John 13 he was reading.

00:22:15.232 --> 00:22:18.105
You know, at the beginning it says,

00:22:18.105 --> 00:22:21.260
Jesus realizing that the Father had given

00:22:21.260 --> 00:22:23.732
all things into His hands -

00:22:23.732 --> 00:22:27.247
Jim Elliot wrote this:

00:22:27.247 --> 00:22:29.265
"Jesus, seeing that the Father

00:22:29.265 --> 00:22:32.952
had given all things into His hands,

00:22:32.952 --> 00:22:35.886
He then took those dirty 
feet of His loved men

00:22:35.886 --> 00:22:40.690
into those hands and washed them."

NOTE Paragraph

00:22:40.690 --> 00:22:43.990
Always praying intensly, real,

00:22:43.990 --> 00:22:46.345
honest, passionate requests.

00:22:46.345 --> 00:22:47.516
He prayed this,

00:22:47.516 --> 00:22:51.811
"selfishness, Lord, in our love

00:22:51.811 --> 00:22:54.525
for service to You is inexcusable.

00:22:54.525 --> 00:22:55.840
I have known this, Lord.

00:22:55.840 --> 00:22:57.980
I've been guilty, often, I confess.

00:22:57.980 --> 00:23:01.370
I have at times had jealousy

00:23:01.370 --> 00:23:04.480
like a jagged tooth that 
spoils my thoughts

00:23:04.480 --> 00:23:06.162
when I've seen other young men

00:23:06.162 --> 00:23:07.627
get more of Christ

00:23:07.627 --> 00:23:09.838
and more of His power than I possess.

00:23:09.838 --> 00:23:11.579
Teach me, Lord, to rejoice

00:23:11.579 --> 00:23:14.018
in other men's growth."

00:23:14.018 --> 00:23:15.736
Praying for true zeal, he said,

00:23:15.736 --> 00:23:18.542
"It's a good day for stirring 
and heart-searching.

00:23:18.542 --> 00:23:20.885
Oh, may God revive His 
work in our country.

00:23:20.885 --> 00:23:23.504
I want to become pleasing to You, Lord.

00:23:23.504 --> 00:23:25.490
I pray You would make me a minister

00:23:25.490 --> 00:23:28.302
who's a flame of fire.

00:23:28.302 --> 00:23:29.922
Oh, that Christ would be to me

00:23:29.922 --> 00:23:31.757
as He was to Zinzendorf -

00:23:31.757 --> 00:23:33.897
the master passion of life.

00:23:33.897 --> 00:23:36.090
My heart pants after Thee,

00:23:36.090 --> 00:23:37.823
not for results or power.

00:23:37.823 --> 00:23:39.849
From henceforth, I would not seek

00:23:39.849 --> 00:23:42.981
an experience or a sign.

00:23:42.981 --> 00:23:45.015
For I have Christ as my object.

00:23:45.015 --> 00:23:46.742
Occupied not with tongues of fire,

00:23:46.742 --> 00:23:48.979
but with the great 
purpose of the Holy Spirit,

00:23:48.979 --> 00:23:50.824
to exalt Christ.

00:23:50.824 --> 00:23:53.007
Father, make me a crisis man.

00:23:53.007 --> 00:23:56.542
Bring those I come into contact with

00:23:56.542 --> 00:23:58.519
to a clear decision.

00:23:58.519 --> 00:24:00.618
Make me not a signpost on the road,

00:24:00.618 --> 00:24:02.668
but rather a fork in the road.

00:24:02.668 --> 00:24:06.455
So that men turning one way or the other

00:24:06.455 --> 00:24:10.471
when facing Christ in my life.

NOTE Paragraph

00:24:10.471 --> 00:24:13.064
Motives. He said,

00:24:13.064 --> 00:24:16.170
"I sense tonight that 
my desire to be great

00:24:16.170 --> 00:24:20.014
will frustrate God's intent for good

00:24:20.014 --> 00:24:21.421
to be done through me.

00:24:21.421 --> 00:24:24.386
Lord, let me pray

00:24:24.386 --> 00:24:25.876
with an honest, earnest heart.

00:24:25.876 --> 00:24:28.611
I choose not to be great,

00:24:28.611 --> 00:24:30.239
but only that You grant me

00:24:30.239 --> 00:24:33.288
Your goodness."

NOTE Paragraph

00:24:33.288 --> 00:24:35.662
Now, how would you respond

00:24:35.662 --> 00:24:38.635
if someone said this to you?

00:24:38.635 --> 00:24:40.684
A friend of Jim's - a close brother -

00:24:40.684 --> 00:24:47.345
came to him in college and said,

00:24:47.345 --> 00:24:50.684
"One of our sisters said to me,

00:24:50.684 --> 00:24:51.855
'we know Jim's humble,

00:24:51.855 --> 00:24:55.751
but we wish he would act like it more.'"

00:24:55.751 --> 00:24:57.273
So the friend came and told him.

00:24:57.273 --> 00:25:00.081
He didn't tell him who it was.

00:25:00.081 --> 00:25:03.156
And how would you respond?

00:25:03.156 --> 00:25:04.607
Jim's response -

00:25:04.607 --> 00:25:06.767
her name was Ruth Stams

00:25:06.767 --> 00:25:12.465
who later became a missionary to Pakistan.

00:25:12.465 --> 00:25:14.526
Jim said, "Well, the first phrase -

00:25:14.526 --> 00:25:16.148
'we know he is humble,'

00:25:16.148 --> 00:25:19.508
How can they be so certain of that?

00:25:19.508 --> 00:25:21.777
I know my proud heart is aware

00:25:21.777 --> 00:25:23.072
of its self-exaltation,

00:25:23.072 --> 00:25:25.630
but the last clause -

00:25:25.630 --> 00:25:29.831
'we wish he would act like it more.'

00:25:29.831 --> 00:25:31.573
That speaks to me in powerful tones.

00:25:31.573 --> 00:25:34.186
Often this self-exertion comes out

00:25:34.186 --> 00:25:35.982
and is most offensive.

00:25:35.982 --> 00:25:38.255
This flesh of mine is constantly producing

00:25:38.255 --> 00:25:40.517
something of itself.

00:25:40.517 --> 00:25:43.069
All uncleanness.

00:25:43.069 --> 00:25:46.526
Lord, put an end to my fleshly production.

00:25:46.526 --> 00:25:47.918
Stop it, Lord.

00:25:47.918 --> 00:25:49.584
Instead, flow though me,

00:25:49.584 --> 00:25:51.809
that I'll be clean."

NOTE Paragraph

00:25:51.809 --> 00:25:55.034
So, these are just examples

00:25:55.034 --> 00:25:57.975
that his spiritual reality

00:25:57.975 --> 00:26:00.527
and the pursuit for it was always engaged.

00:26:00.527 --> 00:26:02.476
It was always exemplary.

00:26:02.476 --> 00:26:04.994
He always seemed to be 
out front of others.

00:26:04.994 --> 00:26:07.019
He seemed to be in second or third gear

00:26:07.019 --> 00:26:09.543
when others were still in first.

00:26:09.543 --> 00:26:12.088
He was not only running more consistently,

00:26:12.088 --> 00:26:14.833
but he seemed to be 
running at a faster pace.

00:26:14.833 --> 00:26:17.197
It was very hard to keep up with him.

00:26:17.197 --> 00:26:19.092
He was out front - always a visionary.

00:26:19.092 --> 00:26:21.754
Always an initiator.

00:26:21.754 --> 00:26:23.195
He said to his brother Burt,

00:26:23.195 --> 00:26:25.504
who went to Peru for 30 years

00:26:25.504 --> 00:26:27.164
as a missionary,

00:26:27.164 --> 00:26:30.103
and Jim had thought of going there first,

00:26:30.103 --> 00:26:33.938
he wrote to his brother 
Burt a little note:

00:26:33.938 --> 00:26:36.996
"I must get into God's book 
for a little defrosting.

00:26:36.996 --> 00:26:42.468
May God make us love like the Tishbite.

00:26:42.468 --> 00:26:44.549
John the Baptist bold."

NOTE Paragraph

00:26:44.549 --> 00:26:49.947
So, whether in high school or college,

00:26:49.947 --> 00:26:51.730
he was always out front.

00:26:51.730 --> 00:26:53.341
He was a leader.

00:26:53.341 --> 00:26:54.862
An example of this was when

00:26:54.862 --> 00:26:58.103
President Franklin Roosevelt died in 1945.

00:26:58.103 --> 00:27:00.245
Jim was a junior in high school.

00:27:00.245 --> 00:27:01.917
And the principal on short notice

00:27:01.917 --> 00:27:03.450
thought it would be good to have

00:27:03.450 --> 00:27:05.484
a school assembly to address the students

00:27:05.484 --> 00:27:07.635
about our president's death.

00:27:07.635 --> 00:27:09.901
And so, on short notice,

00:27:09.901 --> 00:27:11.755
who could give a suitable speech

00:27:11.755 --> 00:27:13.777
to the entire school?

00:27:13.777 --> 00:27:16.308
Jim was asked.

00:27:16.308 --> 00:27:18.445
His coach said later,

00:27:18.445 --> 00:27:20.303
"I've never heard a better speech

00:27:20.303 --> 00:27:21.869
all these years."

NOTE Paragraph

00:27:21.869 --> 00:27:24.364
At Wheaton, he went out 
for the wrestling team

00:27:24.364 --> 00:27:26.049
because he thought it would

00:27:26.049 --> 00:27:28.011
keep him in shape for the future.

00:27:28.011 --> 00:27:30.472
The result was, he not only made the team,

00:27:30.472 --> 00:27:34.684
but he became a champion college wrestler.

00:27:34.684 --> 00:27:35.956
Always excelling;

00:27:35.956 --> 00:27:39.735
pressing on to improve.

NOTE Paragraph

00:27:39.735 --> 00:27:43.669
Some of the views on important things.

00:27:43.669 --> 00:27:45.924
"The pattern of my personal conduct

00:27:45.924 --> 00:27:48.756
and behavior..." listen 
to this, young people.

00:27:48.756 --> 00:27:51.419
"The pattern of my personal conduct

00:27:51.419 --> 00:27:53.744
and behavior is not based on

00:27:53.744 --> 00:27:56.837
the activities of those around me.

00:27:56.837 --> 00:27:58.686
Don't follow the examples of those

00:27:58.686 --> 00:28:00.317
still in the world,

00:28:00.317 --> 00:28:02.492
and not necessarily even those

00:28:02.492 --> 00:28:03.832
in the church.

00:28:03.832 --> 00:28:05.603
Rather, the Word of God

00:28:05.603 --> 00:28:07.658
shall be my standard.

00:28:07.658 --> 00:28:10.486
And as I see it, there are few examples

00:28:10.486 --> 00:28:13.615
of that kind of living anywhere."

00:28:13.615 --> 00:28:15.336
That was 1948.

00:28:15.336 --> 00:28:17.683
(incomplete thought)

NOTE Paragraph

00:28:17.683 --> 00:28:20.557
On sanctification

00:28:20.557 --> 00:28:22.797
and the work of the Holy Spirit.

00:28:22.797 --> 00:28:24.209
He said, "We should remember

00:28:24.209 --> 00:28:26.315
that while knowledge may make one

00:28:26.315 --> 00:28:29.185
look big, it's only love that makes him

00:28:29.185 --> 00:28:30.866
grow into his full stature.

00:28:30.866 --> 00:28:32.496
Whatever a man may know,

00:28:32.496 --> 00:28:34.174
he still has a lot to learn,

00:28:34.174 --> 00:28:36.784
but if he loves God, he is opening

00:28:36.784 --> 00:28:41.056
his whole life to the Spirit of God."

00:28:41.056 --> 00:28:42.480
He said, "We do not surrender

00:28:42.480 --> 00:28:44.417
our entire life in one instant.

00:28:44.417 --> 00:28:46.451
That which is lifelong

00:28:46.451 --> 00:28:49.626
can only be surrendered in a lifetime.

00:28:49.626 --> 00:28:51.349
Neither does surrender to God's will

00:28:51.349 --> 00:28:54.949
always equal fullness of power.

00:28:54.949 --> 00:28:57.606
Maturity is the accomplishment of years.

00:28:57.606 --> 00:28:59.317
And I can only surrender

00:28:59.317 --> 00:29:02.541
to the will of God as I know what that is.

00:29:02.541 --> 00:29:03.968
So the fullness of the Spirit

00:29:03.968 --> 00:29:06.860
is not just instantaneous,

00:29:06.860 --> 00:29:08.843
but ultimately is progressive.

00:29:08.843 --> 00:29:11.763
If men were truly filled 
with the Holy Spirit,

00:29:11.763 --> 00:29:13.953
they would not write books about it,

00:29:13.953 --> 00:29:16.808
but they would major on the Person

00:29:16.808 --> 00:29:18.724
the Spirit has come to reveal.

00:29:18.724 --> 00:29:23.149
Occupation with Christ 
is God's objective."

00:29:23.149 --> 00:29:24.858
Later, he said this,

00:29:24.858 --> 00:29:26.907
"I was moved last night to think

00:29:26.907 --> 00:29:29.224
how very little we know

00:29:29.224 --> 00:29:30.889
of trust in the Holy Spirit

00:29:30.889 --> 00:29:33.259
and Spirit-directed ministry.

00:29:33.259 --> 00:29:35.426
Oh Lord, restore Your people.

00:29:35.426 --> 00:29:37.361
Rouse the elect in Portland.

00:29:37.361 --> 00:29:40.873
It is time for Thee to work.

00:29:40.873 --> 00:29:43.212
The Holy Spirit is the 
only source of power

00:29:43.212 --> 00:29:44.569
for the believer's witness.

00:29:44.569 --> 00:29:46.704
Even if we know apologetics,

00:29:46.704 --> 00:29:48.460
if we lack the power of the Spirit,

00:29:48.460 --> 00:29:49.812
we will be ineffective

00:29:49.812 --> 00:29:53.834
and even detrimental as witness."

NOTE Paragraph

00:29:53.834 --> 00:29:56.220
Jim was a pacifist.

00:29:56.220 --> 00:29:57.975
(Those who do not believe

00:29:57.975 --> 00:30:00.060
that Christians should support

00:30:00.060 --> 00:30:01.544
or fight in a war

00:30:01.544 --> 00:30:04.101
or actively take part in politics.)

00:30:04.101 --> 00:30:06.818
And even in high school,

00:30:06.818 --> 00:30:10.571
he was very clear in his belief about it.

00:30:10.571 --> 00:30:12.479
In high school, he was a member

00:30:12.479 --> 00:30:14.144
of the public speaking club.

00:30:14.144 --> 00:30:17.955
In fact, he was the most 
influential one in it.

00:30:17.955 --> 00:30:20.115
And one of the assignments

00:30:20.115 --> 00:30:22.637
by the leader of the club

00:30:22.637 --> 00:30:26.729
was everyone - it was the 
presidential election year -

00:30:26.729 --> 00:30:28.354
and the assignment was to give

00:30:28.354 --> 00:30:32.760
a political speech about 
the upcoming election

00:30:32.760 --> 00:30:36.066
and which candidate you favored

00:30:36.066 --> 00:30:37.742
and what your views were.

00:30:37.742 --> 00:30:39.170
So the club president assigned

00:30:39.170 --> 00:30:40.853
each member a speech

00:30:40.853 --> 00:30:43.758
and Jim was called on in class,

00:30:43.758 --> 00:30:47.005
and Jim said, "I have no speech."

00:30:47.005 --> 00:30:49.405
Well, the president of the 
class began to worry

00:30:49.405 --> 00:30:52.148
because Jim was the leader 
of the whole class.

00:30:52.148 --> 00:30:53.459
"Jim, you know the rules.

00:30:53.459 --> 00:30:56.996
I'll have to expel you if you 
don't give your speech.

00:30:56.996 --> 00:30:58.554
(Expel you from the club).

00:30:58.554 --> 00:30:59.894
Now, come on up here.

00:30:59.894 --> 00:31:01.460
You don't need any preparation.

00:31:01.460 --> 00:31:03.930
Just give a brief extemporaneous speech

00:31:03.930 --> 00:31:05.957
on your favorite candidate."

00:31:05.957 --> 00:31:07.951
Jim, looked right back at him and said,

00:31:07.951 --> 00:31:09.926
"I have no favorite candidate

00:31:09.926 --> 00:31:12.987
and I have no speech."

00:31:12.987 --> 00:31:15.658
Well, in rising from his seat, he said,

00:31:15.658 --> 00:31:17.714
"But I'll be happy to take three minutes

00:31:17.714 --> 00:31:19.607
to tell you why."

00:31:19.607 --> 00:31:20.863
Well, the club president,

00:31:20.863 --> 00:31:23.490
suddenly remembering Jim's convictions,

00:31:23.490 --> 00:31:26.602
quickly said, "That 
won't be necessary, Jim.

00:31:26.602 --> 00:31:28.452
We understand your reasons.

00:31:28.452 --> 00:31:30.366
I waive the rule and you're excused

00:31:30.366 --> 00:31:31.956
from your speech."

00:31:31.956 --> 00:31:36.995
So, he was acting on 
principle courageously

00:31:36.995 --> 00:31:40.204
which equipped him year by year

00:31:40.204 --> 00:31:41.669
to act on the same principles

00:31:41.669 --> 00:31:42.942
about the gospel

00:31:42.942 --> 00:31:44.511
and about the mission field

00:31:44.511 --> 00:31:46.171
and about missionary principles

00:31:46.171 --> 00:31:49.630
and what he could or could not do.

NOTE Paragraph

00:31:49.630 --> 00:31:53.318
His views of the local church were solid.

00:31:53.318 --> 00:31:55.512
The Plymouth Brethren always called

00:31:55.512 --> 00:31:58.657
the church meeting "the assembly."

00:31:58.657 --> 00:32:00.446
We're going to the assembly today.

00:32:00.446 --> 00:32:02.464
And it was a vital part of his upbringing.

00:32:02.464 --> 00:32:04.076
And at Wheaton, he quickly found

00:32:04.076 --> 00:32:06.854
a Brethren assembly in Lombard, Illinois

00:32:06.854 --> 00:32:08.174
near Wheaton.

00:32:08.174 --> 00:32:09.561
And in December of that year,

00:32:09.561 --> 00:32:11.636
he journaled this: "What a ragged

00:32:11.636 --> 00:32:15.118
and shoddy thing organized Christianity

00:32:15.118 --> 00:32:17.647
has become in honoring man,

00:32:17.647 --> 00:32:19.431
places, and crowds.

00:32:19.431 --> 00:32:22.226
How I long to see the simplicity

00:32:22.226 --> 00:32:25.414
and powerful beauty of a 
New Testament fellowship

00:32:25.414 --> 00:32:28.261
reproduced."

00:32:28.261 --> 00:32:30.529
He loved real fellowship

00:32:30.529 --> 00:32:31.849
with the brethren.

00:32:31.849 --> 00:32:33.819
He said, "the love of Jonathan and David

00:32:33.819 --> 00:32:36.244
I felt again today for Bill Cathers,

00:32:36.244 --> 00:32:38.592
my friend, upon reading a letter from him

00:32:38.592 --> 00:32:40.701
who is en route to China.

00:32:40.701 --> 00:32:44.699
It makes me throb to 
read his soul's swagger

00:32:44.699 --> 00:32:46.613
and what the Spirit is making Bill

00:32:46.613 --> 00:32:47.633
the way He is.

00:32:47.633 --> 00:32:49.668
How I long for another like him!

00:32:49.668 --> 00:32:53.109
But kindred spirits are so few.

00:32:53.109 --> 00:32:55.335
Lord, give me a David that I can know

00:32:55.335 --> 00:32:56.946
as David knew Jonathan -

00:32:56.946 --> 00:33:00.825
sweeter, swifter, stronger."

NOTE Paragraph

00:33:00.825 --> 00:33:06.072
Well, he did have some wrong views;

00:33:06.072 --> 00:33:07.798
some immature views.

00:33:07.798 --> 00:33:09.944
One was marriage and the ministry

00:33:09.944 --> 00:33:11.642
and how they would mesh;

00:33:11.642 --> 00:33:13.216
how it went together.

00:33:13.216 --> 00:33:15.218
When Jim and Elisabeth Elliot both knew

00:33:15.218 --> 00:33:17.530
they loved each other

00:33:17.530 --> 00:33:19.480
and wanted to be married,

00:33:19.480 --> 00:33:21.804
Jim expressed his thoughts.

00:33:21.804 --> 00:33:24.399
"I cannot express the 
yearning in my heart.

00:33:24.399 --> 00:33:25.764
Oh, what a jumble,

00:33:25.764 --> 00:33:28.697
cross-current passion I am in.


00:33:28.697 --> 00:33:32.506
May Christ only satisfy my thirst.

00:33:32.506 --> 00:33:36.266
But the possibility of seeing Betty,

00:33:36.266 --> 00:33:38.731
again, brings wishful thoughts.

00:33:38.731 --> 00:33:44.737
How I hate myself for such weakness!

00:33:44.737 --> 00:33:47.579
Is not Christ enough, Jim 
(he said to himself)?

00:33:47.579 --> 00:33:50.187
What need you more? A woman in His place?

00:33:50.187 --> 00:33:51.562
No, God forbid!

00:33:51.562 --> 00:33:53.788
I shall have Thee, Lord Jesus."

00:33:53.788 --> 00:33:57.752
And all along his Bible 
had been saying to him,

00:33:57.752 --> 00:34:01.287
it's not good for man to be alone.

00:34:01.287 --> 00:34:04.047
I'll prepare a helpmeet for him.

00:34:04.047 --> 00:34:05.737
Someone could have said to Jim,

00:34:05.737 --> 00:34:07.379
"you knucklehead."

00:34:07.379 --> 00:34:10.401
It's not Christ or her.

00:34:10.401 --> 00:34:13.459
It's Christ and her.

00:34:13.459 --> 00:34:15.286
Because God had been revealing

00:34:15.286 --> 00:34:19.319
to both of them that she was prepared

00:34:19.319 --> 00:34:22.844
by the Lord for Jim and him for her,

00:34:22.844 --> 00:34:26.991
to complement and complete one another.

00:34:26.991 --> 00:34:29.620
Elisabeth was always ready to marry him.

00:34:29.620 --> 00:34:31.182
He was always holding back

00:34:31.182 --> 00:34:33.237
because of the mission field.

00:34:33.237 --> 00:34:37.350
Singleness - that's the 
best missionary's life.

00:34:37.350 --> 00:34:39.579
He said finally, after they were

00:34:39.579 --> 00:34:42.608
both in Ecuador and the team

00:34:42.608 --> 00:34:44.834
heard of a certain tribe of Indians

00:34:44.834 --> 00:34:48.209
that were opening to them,

00:34:48.209 --> 00:34:49.872
that a single man couldn't go in

00:34:49.872 --> 00:34:51.166
because of the setting.

00:34:51.166 --> 00:34:52.171
They need a couple.

00:34:52.171 --> 00:34:54.710
There was no couple available to go.

00:34:54.710 --> 00:34:56.811
Jim suddenly said to Elisabeth,

00:34:56.811 --> 00:35:02.399
"So how soon will you marry me?"

00:35:02.399 --> 00:35:05.974
Some wrong views get 
corrected in all of us.

00:35:05.974 --> 00:35:07.223
Well, she finally got him

00:35:07.223 --> 00:35:08.837
and he may have gotten the better

00:35:08.837 --> 00:35:09.939
part of the deal

00:35:09.939 --> 00:35:12.421
when you see the life of Elisabeth Elliot.

00:35:12.421 --> 00:35:14.034
He was growing and changing.

00:35:14.034 --> 00:35:17.380
But more about their marriage in a moment.

NOTE Paragraph

00:35:17.380 --> 00:35:20.354
So, what I've said are the ingredients

00:35:20.354 --> 00:35:23.752
that shaped and made him the man he was.

00:35:23.752 --> 00:35:27.328
A life of separation and pursuit of God;

00:35:27.328 --> 00:35:30.015
of holiness; a true churchman;

00:35:30.015 --> 00:35:32.820
who viewed the centrality 
of the local church properly;

00:35:32.820 --> 00:35:36.153
and being a vital member and 
being sent out of the church;

00:35:36.153 --> 00:35:38.195
consistent, deep Bible reading;

00:35:38.195 --> 00:35:41.159
always reading great 
books - the best authors;

00:35:41.159 --> 00:35:43.800
a self-denying real prayer life;

00:35:43.800 --> 00:35:46.148
cultivating a lifestyle of repentance

00:35:46.148 --> 00:35:47.411
and humility,

00:35:47.411 --> 00:35:49.918
and real fellowship with godly brethren

00:35:49.918 --> 00:35:53.060
who exhorted and encouraged 
one another daily.

00:35:53.060 --> 00:35:56.497
And keeping a journal that matured him

00:35:56.497 --> 00:35:57.736
in his faith.

00:35:57.736 --> 00:35:59.249
That was the making of the man.

NOTE Paragraph

00:35:59.249 --> 00:36:01.002
Secondly, the marriage.

00:36:01.002 --> 00:36:03.327
Jim and Betty Elliot (or Elisabeth).

00:36:03.327 --> 00:36:04.952
She was always called Betty

00:36:04.952 --> 00:36:07.708
by family and close friends.

00:36:07.708 --> 00:36:11.767
The marriage - he first met Elisabeth

00:36:11.767 --> 00:36:12.887
at Wheaton.

00:36:12.887 --> 00:36:13.975
Both were students.

00:36:13.975 --> 00:36:16.184
She was a year ahead of him.

00:36:16.184 --> 00:36:18.539
And then David Howard, her brother,

00:36:18.539 --> 00:36:20.225
invited him home at Christmas

00:36:20.225 --> 00:36:21.621
to their home,

00:36:21.621 --> 00:36:24.519
and he was there for 
more time around Betty.

00:36:24.519 --> 00:36:26.053
They studied Greek together

00:36:26.053 --> 00:36:28.235
being in the same course at Wheaton.

00:36:28.235 --> 00:36:31.172
And he wrote his parents about her.

00:36:31.172 --> 00:36:32.466
And a real love developed

00:36:32.466 --> 00:36:35.524
and a mutual devotion between them

00:36:35.524 --> 00:36:37.821
independently of each other

00:36:37.821 --> 00:36:40.409
to God's purpose as friends.

00:36:40.409 --> 00:36:42.141
She was his equal spiritually,

00:36:42.141 --> 00:36:43.411
intellectually.

00:36:43.411 --> 00:36:45.753
And he really saw her

00:36:45.753 --> 00:36:48.221
as being further along than him

00:36:48.221 --> 00:36:49.429
in a lot of ways.

00:36:49.429 --> 00:36:51.328
Her godliness, her maturity,

00:36:51.328 --> 00:36:53.459
her refinement, her separation

00:36:53.459 --> 00:36:57.092
stirred him, intimidated him,

00:36:57.092 --> 00:36:59.037
drew him with cords of love.

00:36:59.037 --> 00:37:00.683
They were meant for each other.

00:37:00.683 --> 00:37:03.341
She saw it early and he did not.

00:37:03.341 --> 00:37:06.946
And it's a wonder that she was so patient.

00:37:06.946 --> 00:37:08.707
But she was.

00:37:08.707 --> 00:37:10.392
Well, they realized it.

00:37:10.392 --> 00:37:12.466
Finally, they took a walk one evening

00:37:12.466 --> 00:37:15.956
discussing God's path for them.

00:37:15.956 --> 00:37:19.113
They had one date, 
if you want to call it that.

00:37:19.113 --> 00:37:22.149
It was to a missionary meeting in Chicago.

00:37:22.149 --> 00:37:24.271
They had studied a lot.

00:37:24.271 --> 00:37:26.173
They had a lot of conversation.

00:37:26.173 --> 00:37:29.593
But neither outwardly 
acknowledged anything

00:37:29.593 --> 00:37:31.556
about their feelings for the other

00:37:31.556 --> 00:37:32.700
beyond friendship.

00:37:32.700 --> 00:37:35.106
But that evening, they took a walk

00:37:35.106 --> 00:37:37.452
and when they looked at each other,

00:37:37.452 --> 00:37:39.335
they both knew it and acknowledged it

00:37:39.335 --> 00:37:42.488
and said it - that they loved each other.

00:37:42.488 --> 00:37:45.069
That night, Jim marked in his hymn book

00:37:45.069 --> 00:37:48.495
the date and beside it these words:

00:37:48.495 --> 00:37:50.602
"If Thou should call me to resign

00:37:50.602 --> 00:37:52.398
what most I prize,

00:37:52.398 --> 00:37:54.599
it ne'er was mine.

00:37:54.599 --> 00:37:57.372
I only yield Thee what was Thine.

00:37:57.372 --> 00:37:59.699
Thy will be done."

00:37:59.699 --> 00:38:02.312
But she didn't impress Jim's family,

00:38:02.312 --> 00:38:04.095
for some reason.

00:38:04.095 --> 00:38:05.975
Too quiet, they said. Too distant.

00:38:05.975 --> 00:38:07.745
She's kind of awkward.

00:38:07.745 --> 00:38:11.429
She didn't seem to fit in 
the lively Elliot home.

00:38:11.429 --> 00:38:15.058
But Jim knew, and he stood alone,

00:38:15.058 --> 00:38:16.395
but he was also afraid.

00:38:16.395 --> 00:38:18.463
What about my calling? The mission field?

00:38:18.463 --> 00:38:20.100
How can both be right?

00:38:20.100 --> 00:38:29.029
It was a big struggle for him.

00:38:29.029 --> 00:38:34.266
He said, besides, I hate 
American weddings.

00:38:34.266 --> 00:38:36.298
Now with radical John the Baptist tones

00:38:36.298 --> 00:38:38.868
he thunders in his journal about weddings.

00:38:38.868 --> 00:38:40.959
Now see if you think he was just

00:38:40.959 --> 00:38:42.875
running from his own wedding.

00:38:42.875 --> 00:38:43.966
What he said,

00:38:43.966 --> 00:38:46.162
"Twentieth century weddings

00:38:46.162 --> 00:38:48.807
are the vainest, most meaningless things.

00:38:48.807 --> 00:38:52.090
There is no evidence of reality in them.

00:38:52.090 --> 00:38:54.003
The wedding party dresses for a show

00:38:54.003 --> 00:38:56.061
and the flesh is given first place.

00:38:56.061 --> 00:38:59.201
The songs are absurd if 
anyone pays attention

00:38:59.201 --> 00:39:00.923
to the words, but no one does.

00:39:00.923 --> 00:39:03.079
They simply listen to how it's sung.

00:39:03.079 --> 00:39:05.909
Candles are useless, expensive trifles.

00:39:05.909 --> 00:39:10.719
Ushers help no one, but 
they appear very official.

00:39:10.719 --> 00:39:12.792
And the ceremony is the most meaningless

00:39:12.792 --> 00:39:15.324
hodgepodge of obsolete grammar

00:39:15.324 --> 00:39:17.163
and phraseology I've ever seen.

00:39:17.163 --> 00:39:18.985
And the stupid question of asking

00:39:18.985 --> 00:39:20.798
who gives the bride to be married?

00:39:20.798 --> 00:39:23.771
Everyone already knows it's her father

00:39:23.771 --> 00:39:28.334
uncle, or some sweating 
pawn at the altar."

00:39:28.334 --> 00:39:30.528
He said, "I'm sure the minor prophets

00:39:30.528 --> 00:39:32.018
would have have found subject

00:39:32.018 --> 00:39:35.337
for correction in this affair."

00:39:35.337 --> 00:39:37.169
And then he closes the paragraph,

00:39:37.169 --> 00:39:40.375
"I must read this to myself 
on my wedding day

00:39:40.375 --> 00:39:42.749
if I have one."

00:39:42.749 --> 00:39:44.795
Betty said later,

00:39:44.795 --> 00:39:49.654
"I do not think he remembered to read it.

00:39:49.654 --> 00:39:51.488
If he had, he would have smiled

00:39:51.488 --> 00:39:53.571
at his imbalanced zeal,

00:39:53.571 --> 00:39:55.593
for he had matured over the years."

00:39:55.593 --> 00:39:58.862
But maturity had not given either of them

00:39:58.862 --> 00:40:01.630
a heart for an outward show.

00:40:01.630 --> 00:40:03.557
Neither of them wanted a conventional

00:40:03.557 --> 00:40:05.347
big wedding.

00:40:05.347 --> 00:40:08.056
She showed up in Ecuador

00:40:08.056 --> 00:40:13.895
shortly after him as a single woman.

00:40:13.895 --> 00:40:15.785
When they decided to get married

00:40:15.785 --> 00:40:17.677
they didn't return back to the states.

00:40:17.677 --> 00:40:20.850
It was a civil ceremony of 10 minutes

00:40:20.850 --> 00:40:22.777
at the justice of the peace

00:40:22.777 --> 00:40:24.311
in the capital city of Quito.

00:40:24.311 --> 00:40:27.050
I'm sure it wasn't called 
the justice of the peace,

00:40:27.050 --> 00:40:28.445
but same office.

00:40:28.445 --> 00:40:30.846
They were married in a ten minute ceremony

00:40:30.846 --> 00:40:33.643
with two couples with them.

00:40:33.643 --> 00:40:35.953
After a two week honeymoon in Panama

00:40:35.953 --> 00:40:37.084
and Costa Rica,

00:40:37.084 --> 00:40:38.757
back to the jungles

00:40:38.757 --> 00:40:45.425
to live for five months in a 16 foot tent.

00:40:45.425 --> 00:40:50.967
Ladies, you ready for the mission field?

00:40:50.967 --> 00:40:54.180
The point is singles who are waiting

00:40:54.180 --> 00:40:56.823
on God's person in marriage

00:40:56.823 --> 00:40:59.806
should not try to figure out and control

00:40:59.806 --> 00:41:01.433
how God will give you a partner.

00:41:01.433 --> 00:41:02.967
He is leading you.

00:41:02.967 --> 00:41:05.182
He was leading Jim and Betty.

00:41:05.182 --> 00:41:08.541
And He caused the time to be right

00:41:08.541 --> 00:41:09.904
in the experience.

00:41:09.904 --> 00:41:11.569
So the making of the man

00:41:11.569 --> 00:41:12.626
and the marriage.

NOTE Paragraph

00:41:12.626 --> 00:41:15.066
Thirdly, the mission.

00:41:15.066 --> 00:41:17.321
Current mission statistics staggered

00:41:17.321 --> 00:41:19.311
and haunted Jim.

00:41:19.319 --> 00:41:23.222
1,700 languages have 
not one word of the Bible.

00:41:23.222 --> 00:41:25.138
90% of mission volunteers

00:41:25.138 --> 00:41:28.003
never make it to any foreign country.

00:41:28.003 --> 00:41:30.968
64% of the world's population

00:41:30.968 --> 00:41:32.644
have never heard of Christ.

00:41:32.644 --> 00:41:35.310
5,000 people die every hour.

00:41:35.310 --> 00:41:38.039
The total of India equals North America,

00:41:38.039 --> 00:41:41.858
South America, and Africa combined.

00:41:41.858 --> 00:41:43.455
In India, there's one missionary

00:41:43.455 --> 00:41:45.983
for every 71,000 people.

00:41:45.983 --> 00:41:51.673
One Christian worker for every 
500 people in the U.S.

00:41:51.673 --> 00:41:55.968
Missions were Jim's 
target since high school

00:41:55.968 --> 00:41:57.613
He began to think of India,

00:41:57.613 --> 00:41:59.761
Muslim countries, and Peru

00:41:59.761 --> 00:42:02.613
where Burt was going.

00:42:02.613 --> 00:42:05.499
But by his senior year,

00:42:05.499 --> 00:42:08.944
he was burdened for South America.

00:42:08.944 --> 00:42:11.482
So, after he graduated from college,

00:42:11.482 --> 00:42:14.861
he went off to the University of Oklahoma

00:42:14.861 --> 00:42:19.065
and did their linguistics 
program for 3 months

00:42:19.065 --> 00:42:23.928
to study linguistics for 
language translation.

00:42:23.928 --> 00:42:25.677
And it was while he was there

00:42:25.677 --> 00:42:29.194
that he became clear that he was sure

00:42:29.194 --> 00:42:34.007
he was to go to Ecuador.

00:42:34.007 --> 00:42:37.732
He had been to the 1948 Urbana 
missions conference in Illinois

00:42:37.732 --> 00:42:39.708
before that and he prayed specifically.

00:42:39.708 --> 00:42:41.519
"This came to me as I prayed

00:42:41.519 --> 00:42:42.829
regarding this conference.

00:42:42.829 --> 00:42:44.259
What the Lord has purposed

00:42:44.259 --> 00:42:46.287
for this conference will be accomplished

00:42:46.287 --> 00:42:47.594
but what is His purpose?

00:42:47.594 --> 00:42:51.406
Lord, show me Your intent for me."

00:42:51.406 --> 00:42:53.533
Well, after Oklahoma,

00:42:53.533 --> 00:42:56.256
and that summer, he was clear

00:42:56.256 --> 00:42:58.273
that he was to go to Ecuador.

00:42:58.273 --> 00:43:00.601
He took a first practical step.

00:43:00.601 --> 00:43:05.096
He hitchhiked to Mexico with a buddy.

00:43:05.096 --> 00:43:07.768
Children, don't try that today.

00:43:07.768 --> 00:43:13.999
But in 1950, it was more popular.

00:43:13.999 --> 00:43:16.664
He and Ron Harris hitchhiked there

00:43:16.664 --> 00:43:18.125
to be with the Harris family

00:43:18.125 --> 00:43:19.917
who were missionaries there.

00:43:19.917 --> 00:43:24.303
And Jim journaled, "Mexico 
has stolen my heart.

00:43:24.303 --> 00:43:25.557
We've been here two weeks,

00:43:25.557 --> 00:43:28.003
and I've been invited to 
stay as long as I desire.

00:43:28.003 --> 00:43:31.207
Right now, I wish it were for life."

00:43:31.207 --> 00:43:32.957
Writing from Mexico, he said,

00:43:32.957 --> 00:43:34.356
"The Lord has been good to me

00:43:34.356 --> 00:43:35.448
in bringing me here

00:43:35.448 --> 00:43:37.779
to see the field and hear the language.

00:43:37.779 --> 00:43:40.415
Missionaries are simply 
a bunch of nobodies

00:43:40.415 --> 00:43:44.209
trying to exalt Somebody."

00:43:44.209 --> 00:43:45.805
He was there for six weeks.

00:43:45.805 --> 00:43:47.714
As he hitchhiked back to the states,

00:43:47.714 --> 00:43:50.215
he had no doubt where he was to go.

00:43:50.215 --> 00:43:52.335
As Betty Elliot later wrote,

00:43:52.335 --> 00:43:54.771
"His face was set toward those

00:43:54.771 --> 00:43:57.441
who had never heard."

00:43:57.441 --> 00:43:59.968
His brother Burt was already in Peru,

00:43:59.968 --> 00:44:03.261
and would be there for 30 years.

00:44:03.261 --> 00:44:05.731
Ecuador became the focus.

00:44:05.731 --> 00:44:08.451
And after his home church assembly

00:44:08.451 --> 00:44:11.556
along with other sister Brethren churches

00:44:11.556 --> 00:44:15.130
commissioned him to go;

00:44:15.130 --> 00:44:17.155
after a time at home,

00:44:17.155 --> 00:44:18.937
he and his close friend Pete Fleming

00:44:18.937 --> 00:44:21.444
departed by ship for Ecuador

00:44:21.444 --> 00:44:25.270
in February of 1952.

00:44:25.270 --> 00:44:28.621
Betty Elliot arrived two months later

00:44:28.621 --> 00:44:33.189
than Jim and Pete - still single.

00:44:33.189 --> 00:44:38.081
The work began.

00:44:38.081 --> 00:44:41.247
A team of five couples developed together.

00:44:41.247 --> 00:44:43.479
And the men were there

00:44:43.479 --> 00:44:46.125
only three to four years.

00:44:46.125 --> 00:44:48.751
Jim Elliot was in Ecuador three years

00:44:48.751 --> 00:44:51.065
and 11 months.

00:44:51.065 --> 00:44:52.781
So the work in those years

00:44:52.781 --> 00:44:54.261
consisted of the following:

00:44:54.261 --> 00:44:58.223
teaching the Quechua Indians

00:44:58.223 --> 00:45:00.209
with language charts

00:45:00.209 --> 00:45:01.657
to read their own language.

00:45:01.657 --> 00:45:04.772
Translating the Bible in Quechua.

00:45:04.772 --> 00:45:06.724
Building a mission station

00:45:06.724 --> 00:45:08.026
and their own houses

00:45:08.026 --> 00:45:11.370
at Shell Mara - the operations base

00:45:11.370 --> 00:45:13.818
for Mission Aviation Fellowship.

00:45:13.818 --> 00:45:16.913
Jim and Betty lived there

00:45:16.913 --> 00:45:19.538
after they lived in their honeymoon tent

00:45:19.538 --> 00:45:21.494
for five months.

00:45:21.494 --> 00:45:25.424
Holding services finally

00:45:25.424 --> 00:45:27.410
and preaching the Quechua language,

00:45:27.410 --> 00:45:29.420
building a small airstrip,

00:45:29.420 --> 00:45:33.217
and surveying villages by air

00:45:33.217 --> 00:45:37.617
to see where tribes were;

00:45:37.617 --> 00:45:41.135
Jim and the brothers

00:45:41.135 --> 00:45:44.482
were only there a few short years.

00:45:44.482 --> 00:45:46.200
On sailing away that day

00:45:46.200 --> 00:45:47.723
in February of 1952,

00:45:47.723 --> 00:45:50.742
Jim said, "We left the outer harbor dock

00:45:50.742 --> 00:45:53.827
from San Pedro, California at 2:06 today.

00:45:53.827 --> 00:45:55.331
Mom and dad stood together

00:45:55.331 --> 00:45:56.747
watching on the pier.

00:45:56.747 --> 00:45:59.647
As we slipped away, Psalm 60:12

00:45:59.647 --> 00:46:02.400
came to mind and I called it back to them.

00:46:02.400 --> 00:46:05.795
"Through God, we shall do valiantly."

00:46:05.795 --> 00:46:07.337
They wept some.

00:46:07.337 --> 00:46:09.535
I do not understand how God has made me.

00:46:09.535 --> 00:46:10.979
I didn't feel like crying.

00:46:10.979 --> 00:46:14.835
Only sheer joy and thanksgiving fills me.

00:46:14.835 --> 00:46:17.421
The sheer joy of being in the will of God

00:46:17.421 --> 00:46:19.098
is my general experience now.

00:46:19.098 --> 00:46:20.652
The Lord is in our going now,

00:46:20.652 --> 00:46:22.470
and if life were to end at this point,

00:46:22.470 --> 00:46:24.101
I could say with Simeon,

00:46:24.101 --> 00:46:29.284
'Lord, let Your servant depart in peace.'"

NOTE Paragraph

00:46:29.284 --> 00:46:35.301
The first five months 
were language studies

00:46:35.301 --> 00:46:37.393
in Quito, the capital city,

00:46:37.393 --> 00:46:41.263
with a Dr. Tidmarsh, a veteran missionary

00:46:41.263 --> 00:46:43.339
who was leaving the country

00:46:43.339 --> 00:46:45.752
because of his wife's health.

00:46:45.752 --> 00:46:47.995
So along with Jim and Betty Elliot,

00:46:47.995 --> 00:46:50.097
Nate and Marjorie Saint,

00:46:50.097 --> 00:46:52.380
Roger and Barbara Youderian,

00:46:52.380 --> 00:46:53.758
Pete and Olive Fleming,

00:46:53.758 --> 00:46:55.289
and Ed and MaryLou McCully -

00:46:55.289 --> 00:46:57.021
a team of ten.

00:46:57.021 --> 00:46:58.365
Five families.

00:46:58.365 --> 00:47:01.274
Not one individual like David Brainerd.

00:47:01.274 --> 00:47:03.230
That says something about the importance

00:47:03.230 --> 00:47:06.255
of biblical missions.

00:47:06.255 --> 00:47:08.841
Jim Elliot had a proper 
view of the local church

00:47:08.841 --> 00:47:10.060
and being under authority

00:47:10.060 --> 00:47:11.272
to be sent out.

00:47:11.272 --> 00:47:12.437
They were a team.

00:47:12.437 --> 00:47:16.072
They had to live as one another's church;

00:47:16.072 --> 00:47:17.575
one another's body.

00:47:17.575 --> 00:47:19.750
And so did the wives.

00:47:19.750 --> 00:47:22.027
All of these are in their twenties -

00:47:22.027 --> 00:47:24.525
young twenties, middle-aged twenties,

00:47:24.525 --> 00:47:25.912
older twenties.

00:47:25.912 --> 00:47:26.966
Twenty-year olds.

NOTE Paragraph

00:47:26.966 --> 00:47:29.341
The mission target once 
they were all in Ecuador

00:47:29.341 --> 00:47:31.696
became the most savage tribe

00:47:31.696 --> 00:47:33.110
in the country.

00:47:33.110 --> 00:47:35.885
The Auca Indians.

00:47:35.885 --> 00:47:39.678
Operation Auca began February 1952.

00:47:39.678 --> 00:47:41.994
The Auca's were the most 
savage group of killers

00:47:41.994 --> 00:47:44.937
in all the eastern jungles of Ecuador.

00:47:44.937 --> 00:47:47.319
The word "Auca" was given to this group

00:47:47.319 --> 00:47:50.756
of Indians by the Quechua Indians,

00:47:50.756 --> 00:47:53.192
and it means "savage."

00:47:53.192 --> 00:47:54.734
Auca. Savage.

00:47:54.734 --> 00:47:56.475
The savage Auca's.

00:47:56.475 --> 00:47:58.975
Unreached by white men.

00:47:58.975 --> 00:48:00.788
Except when business explorers

00:48:00.788 --> 00:48:02.969
in previous decades

00:48:02.969 --> 00:48:06.081
hunting rubber or minerals

00:48:06.081 --> 00:48:07.851
came exploring their territory,

00:48:07.851 --> 00:48:10.640
abusing the Auca's, killing them

00:48:10.640 --> 00:48:13.083
to advance their own business ventures.

00:48:13.083 --> 00:48:15.697
This caused any openness or curiosity

00:48:15.697 --> 00:48:17.898
about the outside world to be destroyed.

00:48:17.898 --> 00:48:20.225
They were totally closed off

00:48:20.225 --> 00:48:23.367
from anyone but themselves.

00:48:23.367 --> 00:48:25.830
Now, time doesn't allow the story here.

00:48:25.830 --> 00:48:28.018
It's in the journals; it's in the books.

00:48:28.018 --> 00:48:30.681
Especially "Through Gates of Splendor."

00:48:30.681 --> 00:48:32.175
But those ten missionaries -

00:48:32.175 --> 00:48:33.269
those five couples -

00:48:33.269 --> 00:48:35.916
courageous, focused, sacrificial,

00:48:35.916 --> 00:48:38.017
loving and big-hearted,

00:48:38.017 --> 00:48:41.535
said, "In Thy name, we go."

00:48:41.535 --> 00:48:43.115
It was the Auca's they targeted

00:48:43.115 --> 00:48:44.315
and began their prayers

00:48:44.315 --> 00:48:45.483
and the planned approach

00:48:45.483 --> 00:48:47.890
to be the first ever white men

00:48:47.890 --> 00:48:52.589
to become friends with the Auca's.

00:48:52.589 --> 00:48:55.169
They made a first friendly contact.

00:48:55.169 --> 00:48:56.865
Five white men

00:48:56.865 --> 00:49:02.277
with three naked Auca Indians.

00:49:02.277 --> 00:49:05.237
So the mission was clear

00:49:05.237 --> 00:49:08.017
and was in gear.

NOTE Paragraph

00:49:08.017 --> 00:49:10.818
Then, the martyrdom.

00:49:10.818 --> 00:49:13.207
It was five men. Not just Jim Elliot.

00:49:13.207 --> 00:49:15.075
As a young man through his twenties,

00:49:15.075 --> 00:49:17.123
Jim was always for some reason

00:49:17.123 --> 00:49:21.208
speaking, writing, and 
praying about death.

00:49:21.208 --> 00:49:22.834
It's coming.

00:49:22.834 --> 00:49:24.674
I want to be ready.

00:49:24.674 --> 00:49:26.804
He was facing and thinking about it.

00:49:26.804 --> 00:49:29.119
Prior to arriving in Ecuador,

00:49:29.119 --> 00:49:31.192
we see his mind and his perspective

00:49:31.192 --> 00:49:32.156
in his own words.

00:49:32.156 --> 00:49:34.254
Age 20; 9 years before his death.

00:49:34.254 --> 00:49:36.188
"If I would spare my life blood

00:49:36.188 --> 00:49:39.031
and resist pouring it out as a sacrifice,

00:49:39.031 --> 00:49:40.352
Father, take my life -

00:49:40.352 --> 00:49:41.954
even my blood if You will

00:49:41.954 --> 00:49:43.438
and consume it.

00:49:43.438 --> 00:49:44.971
I would not save it,

00:49:44.971 --> 00:49:46.743
for it is not mine to save.

00:49:46.743 --> 00:49:48.179
Have it, Lord. Have it all.

00:49:48.179 --> 00:49:50.251
Pour out my life as an offering

00:49:50.251 --> 00:49:51.837
for the world."

00:49:51.837 --> 00:49:54.070
A year later - age 21.

00:49:54.070 --> 00:49:57.955
"Lord, light the idle sticks of my life.

00:49:57.955 --> 00:50:00.237
Let me burn up for Thee.

00:50:00.237 --> 00:50:02.489
Consume my life, O God, for it is Yours.

00:50:02.489 --> 00:50:06.414
I seek not a long life, 
but a full one, like Yours,

00:50:06.414 --> 00:50:08.268
Lord Jesus."

00:50:08.268 --> 00:50:10.949
Age 21, "Father, if You will let me go

00:50:10.949 --> 00:50:12.933
to South America to labor for You

00:50:12.933 --> 00:50:14.404
and to die,

00:50:14.404 --> 00:50:17.165
I pray You will let me go soon.

00:50:17.165 --> 00:50:20.057
Nevertheless, not my will."

00:50:20.057 --> 00:50:21.303
Next year, age 22.

00:50:21.303 --> 00:50:23.522
"I must not think it strange

00:50:23.522 --> 00:50:25.171
if God takes in youth,

00:50:25.171 --> 00:50:27.669
those I would have kept on earth

00:50:27.669 --> 00:50:29.852
till they were older."

00:50:29.852 --> 00:50:32.721
"God is peopling eternity,

00:50:32.721 --> 00:50:34.454
and I must not restrict Him

00:50:34.454 --> 00:50:37.454
to older men and women."

00:50:37.454 --> 00:50:40.110
He said, "I saw in reading 
David Brainerd's life,

00:50:40.110 --> 00:50:41.942
was much encouraged to think of a life

00:50:41.942 --> 00:50:46.007
of godliness in the 
light of an early death."

00:50:46.007 --> 00:50:48.784
"Had thoughts of eternity today.

00:50:48.784 --> 00:50:50.649
It will be a great eye-opener

00:50:50.649 --> 00:50:53.361
and a great mouth-shutter,

00:50:53.361 --> 00:50:56.188
and it will confirm the martyr's blood.

00:50:56.188 --> 00:50:59.426
How few, how short the 
hours my heart beats.

00:50:59.426 --> 00:51:01.365
Then on into the real world

00:51:01.365 --> 00:51:03.098
where the unseen is important."

00:51:03.098 --> 00:51:04.937
He described a coffin

00:51:04.937 --> 00:51:07.311
as a swallowing up of life.

00:51:07.311 --> 00:51:10.552
He said, "for this I am most anxious."

NOTE Paragraph

00:51:10.552 --> 00:51:12.894
Now, he had closely read

00:51:12.894 --> 00:51:15.033
the autobiography of John G. Paton,

00:51:15.033 --> 00:51:17.337
missionary to the cannibals

00:51:17.337 --> 00:51:19.515
in the South Seas in the 19th century.

00:51:19.515 --> 00:51:23.843
He, like Paton, was opposed and criticized

00:51:23.843 --> 00:51:25.855
by others about going to the remote

00:51:25.855 --> 00:51:28.288
unreached tribes and the dangers.

00:51:28.288 --> 00:51:30.765
Friends and church leaders

00:51:30.765 --> 00:51:32.838
told Paton and Jim

00:51:32.838 --> 00:51:35.124
they should stay at home.

00:51:35.124 --> 00:51:37.403
They could do much good at home.

00:51:37.403 --> 00:51:40.883
Influence your church here.

00:51:40.883 --> 00:51:44.233
When John Paton was decided and firm,

00:51:44.233 --> 00:51:47.722
one of his own church members said,

00:51:47.722 --> 00:51:51.180
"The cannibals! You'll be 
eaten by cannibals!"

00:51:51.180 --> 00:51:53.639
The memory of John Williams

00:51:53.639 --> 00:51:55.117
who had gone from Scotland

00:51:55.117 --> 00:51:57.388
only 19 years earlier

00:51:57.388 --> 00:52:00.735
had been eaten by cannibals.

00:52:00.735 --> 00:52:02.709
But to this Paton responded,

00:52:02.709 --> 00:52:06.769
"Mr. Dixon, you are advanced in years now,

00:52:06.769 --> 00:52:09.155
and you will be soon in the grave,

00:52:09.155 --> 00:52:11.483
there to be eaten by worms.

00:52:11.483 --> 00:52:14.006
So it will make no difference to me

00:52:14.006 --> 00:52:16.422
whether I'm eaten by cannibals or worms.

00:52:16.422 --> 00:52:18.611
In the great day, my resurrection body

00:52:18.611 --> 00:52:20.837
will rise as fair as yours

00:52:20.837 --> 00:52:23.354
in the likeness of Jesus."

00:52:23.354 --> 00:52:26.086
This was Jim Elliot's perspective

00:52:26.086 --> 00:52:29.397
on death and eternity.

NOTE Paragraph

00:52:29.397 --> 00:52:34.395
So, they focus on the Auca's.

00:52:34.395 --> 00:52:38.210
They had friendly fly-by's,

00:52:38.210 --> 00:52:39.313
dropping gifts.

00:52:39.313 --> 00:52:41.171
They landed on the beach.

00:52:41.171 --> 00:52:46.649
They built little houses 
35 feet up in the trees.

00:52:46.649 --> 00:52:49.037
And they waited. They would 
go and they would come

00:52:49.037 --> 00:52:50.694
and they would wait and come back.

00:52:50.694 --> 00:52:53.046
And they finally had friendly contact.

00:52:53.046 --> 00:52:54.522
First, a young woman

00:52:54.522 --> 00:52:57.874
and then a few others.

00:52:57.874 --> 00:53:01.280
And they then began to plan

00:53:01.280 --> 00:53:05.245
a fresh fuller contact

00:53:05.245 --> 00:53:11.308
and they left their wives 
for the last time

00:53:11.308 --> 00:53:14.133
and were gone five days.

00:53:14.133 --> 00:53:17.174
On the fifth day, the men were surprised

00:53:17.174 --> 00:53:19.457
on the beach by killers

00:53:19.457 --> 00:53:23.188
that they had hoped would be friendly.

00:53:23.188 --> 00:53:27.383
They left for the beach 
five days before dying.

00:53:27.383 --> 00:53:38.741
And Elisabeth Elliot tells it best.

NOTE Paragraph

00:53:38.741 --> 00:53:43.795
Finally, the meaning for us here.

00:53:43.795 --> 00:53:45.126
What does this mean to us?

00:53:45.126 --> 00:53:47.619
His legacy to us?

00:53:47.619 --> 00:53:50.223
What shall we say of this man's life

00:53:50.223 --> 00:53:51.421
and his example to us?

00:53:51.421 --> 00:53:54.279
We can't go back 68 years

00:53:54.279 --> 00:53:56.533
to hear him preach or pray

00:53:56.533 --> 00:53:57.731
or to talk to him.

00:53:57.731 --> 00:53:59.168
We have the record.

00:53:59.168 --> 00:54:00.522
We have the legacy.

00:54:00.522 --> 00:54:01.792
What's our takeaway?

00:54:01.792 --> 00:54:06.284
What's applicable to you and I this week?

00:54:06.284 --> 00:54:09.396
This spring in 2018?

00:54:09.396 --> 00:54:12.018
What are the lessons 
and the message for us?

00:54:12.018 --> 00:54:12.970
A few things.

00:54:12.970 --> 00:54:14.640
First of all,

00:54:14.640 --> 00:54:17.576
we must have realistic and 
not romantic views

00:54:17.576 --> 00:54:19.502
of our spiritual heroes.

00:54:19.502 --> 00:54:22.092
Those who have inspired us,

00:54:22.092 --> 00:54:24.547
have fed us and taught us,

00:54:24.547 --> 00:54:26.815
have ministered the most to us

00:54:26.815 --> 00:54:28.772
for the greatest help and blessing,

00:54:28.772 --> 00:54:32.231
are never perfect Christians.

00:54:32.231 --> 00:54:34.325
They're flawed; they have blind spots.

00:54:34.325 --> 00:54:35.883
They have prejudices.

00:54:35.883 --> 00:54:37.863
They have needs. They have struggles.

00:54:37.863 --> 00:54:38.871
They have sins.

00:54:38.871 --> 00:54:41.617
They're wrong in some areas.

00:54:41.617 --> 00:54:43.859
They can fail you.

00:54:43.859 --> 00:54:45.757
They will, at times, disappoint you.

00:54:45.757 --> 00:54:48.051
And they don't have all the answers.

00:54:48.051 --> 00:54:51.613
So, like Jim Elliot in his day,

00:54:51.613 --> 00:54:54.097
he viewed his spiritual leaders

00:54:54.097 --> 00:54:55.392
with realism.

00:54:55.392 --> 00:54:56.675
He didn't idolize them.

00:54:56.675 --> 00:54:57.906
We shouldn't idolize them

00:54:57.906 --> 00:54:59.316
or romanticize them

00:54:59.316 --> 00:55:01.376
or praise them wrongly.

00:55:01.376 --> 00:55:08.170
Scripture says whose faith follow.

00:55:08.170 --> 00:55:14.702
And so, we should have a realistic view

00:55:14.702 --> 00:55:16.766
of those in history

00:55:16.766 --> 00:55:19.644
and of those we follow today.

NOTE Paragraph

00:55:19.644 --> 00:55:24.406
Secondly, a lesson we should 
learn from this is this:

00:55:24.406 --> 00:55:26.522
A consistent and faithful life.

00:55:26.522 --> 00:55:29.830
A consistent and faithful life

00:55:29.830 --> 00:55:32.775
without martyrdom is as herioc

00:55:32.775 --> 00:55:35.516
as a martyr's death.

00:55:35.516 --> 00:55:36.793
Think about it.

00:55:36.793 --> 00:55:39.040
Five men on that beach

00:55:39.040 --> 00:55:41.452
surprised suddenly.

00:55:41.452 --> 00:55:44.724
A spear attacks and it takes 2 minutes,

00:55:44.724 --> 00:55:45.877
maybe, to die.

00:55:45.877 --> 00:55:47.126
And it's over.

00:55:47.126 --> 00:55:50.980
Does that somehow take superhuman power

00:55:50.980 --> 00:55:54.156
more than living daily for Christ

00:55:54.156 --> 00:55:57.530
for 70 years and running well to the end?

00:55:57.530 --> 00:56:01.494
Both are heroic.

00:56:01.494 --> 00:56:03.729
We know about David Brainerd only because

00:56:03.729 --> 00:56:07.794
Jonathan Edwards 
published his private diary.

00:56:07.794 --> 00:56:10.739
But do you know anything 
about John Brainerd?

00:56:10.739 --> 00:56:13.188
David's younger brother.

00:56:13.188 --> 00:56:15.732
No journal. No hero.

00:56:15.732 --> 00:56:17.326
But he went and replaced David

00:56:17.326 --> 00:56:18.422
among the Indians

00:56:18.422 --> 00:56:20.576
and stayed 30 years.

00:56:20.576 --> 00:56:22.295
Same caliber of man.

00:56:22.295 --> 00:56:23.495
Same godliness.

00:56:23.495 --> 00:56:27.766
He just never wrote about it.

00:56:27.766 --> 00:56:31.001
Do you know anything about Burt Elliot,

00:56:31.001 --> 00:56:34.190
Jim's brother?

00:56:34.190 --> 00:56:37.129
Jim's there less than four years.

00:56:37.129 --> 00:56:40.635
Burt's in Peru 30 years.

00:56:40.635 --> 00:56:43.630
Of the four, Jim Elliot, Burt Elliot,

00:56:43.630 --> 00:56:50.048
John Brainerd, who's more the hero?

00:56:50.048 --> 00:56:51.649
We would know nothing about

00:56:51.649 --> 00:56:54.314
the famous Brainerd or the famous Elliot

00:56:54.314 --> 00:56:56.914
if four books had not been written.

00:56:56.914 --> 00:57:00.045
No books - no heroism.

00:57:00.045 --> 00:57:05.526
But it's heroic to faithfully live 
for Christ where you are,

00:57:05.526 --> 00:57:07.411
keep serving,

00:57:07.411 --> 00:57:09.402
obeying God's will for you,

00:57:09.402 --> 00:57:11.706
year in and year out,

00:57:11.706 --> 00:57:18.597
doing what God's called you to do.

00:57:18.597 --> 00:57:20.831
Dying for Christ suddenly

00:57:20.831 --> 00:57:22.526
is not more glorious

00:57:22.526 --> 00:57:25.846
than living for Him for 50 years.

00:57:25.846 --> 00:57:28.407
Living long term in faithful service

00:57:28.407 --> 00:57:30.551
is what we're called to do.

00:57:30.551 --> 00:57:32.499
God determines the names

00:57:32.499 --> 00:57:35.549
and the numbers of the martyrs.

00:57:35.549 --> 00:57:39.555
And He determines who is not one.

00:57:39.555 --> 00:57:42.283
So, the McCheyne's, the William Borden's,

00:57:42.283 --> 00:57:44.523
the Keith Green's, the Jim Elliot's

00:57:44.523 --> 00:57:46.816
are few in number who die early.

00:57:46.816 --> 00:57:48.580
They are so few.

00:57:48.580 --> 00:57:51.318
The majority of Christians 
get the privilege

00:57:51.318 --> 00:57:55.467
and heroism of living 30, 40, 50,

00:57:55.467 --> 00:57:58.303
70 years walking with God.

00:57:58.303 --> 00:58:01.185
The George Muller's... he was 90.

00:58:01.185 --> 00:58:03.786
Leonard Ravenhill - he was 87.

00:58:03.786 --> 00:58:06.237
Keith McCloud - late 70's.

00:58:06.237 --> 00:58:07.394
Bill McCloud - 80.

00:58:07.394 --> 00:58:09.324
Bob Jennings - in his sixties.

00:58:09.324 --> 00:58:11.175
Conrad Murrell - 89.

00:58:11.175 --> 00:58:13.200
It's the little things done

00:58:13.200 --> 00:58:15.136
in persevering faithfulness

00:58:15.136 --> 00:58:18.431
that are worthy of praise and notice.

NOTE Paragraph

00:58:18.431 --> 00:58:20.675
A Belfast detective

00:58:20.675 --> 00:58:22.283
in Belfast, Northern Ireland,

00:58:22.283 --> 00:58:25.955
during the days of the bombings of the IRA

00:58:25.955 --> 00:58:28.018
and the protestant conflict,

00:58:28.018 --> 00:58:30.983
a Belfast detective read

00:58:30.983 --> 00:58:33.261
Jim Elliot's life.

00:58:33.261 --> 00:58:35.829
And he said I was afraid every day

00:58:35.829 --> 00:58:38.276
to go into that battle zone.

00:58:38.276 --> 00:58:39.976
I had fear every day.

00:58:39.976 --> 00:58:41.605
Fear for my family.

00:58:41.605 --> 00:58:45.141
But I read Jim Elliot's life,

00:58:45.141 --> 00:58:46.855
and it transformed me.

00:58:46.855 --> 00:58:50.256
He said if Jim Elliot can go in there

00:58:50.256 --> 00:58:55.933
with courage for Christ, so can I.

00:58:55.933 --> 00:58:57.465
That's a takeaway.

00:58:57.465 --> 00:58:59.336
Faithfulness to Christ

00:58:59.336 --> 00:59:02.319
in the small things is as great

00:59:02.319 --> 00:59:05.341
of heroism as dying a martyr's death.

NOTE Paragraph

00:59:05.341 --> 00:59:11.773
Thirdly, what does this mean for us?

00:59:11.773 --> 00:59:14.413
More than ever, arise and go.

00:59:14.413 --> 00:59:16.697
Go into all the world 
and preach the gospel

00:59:16.697 --> 00:59:17.845
to every creature.

00:59:17.845 --> 00:59:21.609
What are you pursuing?

00:59:21.609 --> 00:59:25.937
You young men, are you as focused

00:59:25.937 --> 00:59:28.164
in any degree as Jim Elliot was?

00:59:28.164 --> 00:59:29.567
Are you wandering?

00:59:29.567 --> 00:59:32.206
Are you just aimless?

00:59:32.206 --> 00:59:34.806
Or what are you focusing on?

00:59:34.806 --> 00:59:37.224
What is God's purpose for your life

00:59:37.224 --> 00:59:40.882
in light of kingdom purposes?

00:59:40.882 --> 00:59:42.178
Are you settling in?

00:59:42.178 --> 00:59:43.687
You young couples,

00:59:43.687 --> 00:59:44.971
middle-aged couples,

00:59:44.971 --> 00:59:46.418
are we settling in?

00:59:46.418 --> 00:59:49.826
Are you settling in for a 
good old U.S.A. lifestyle

00:59:49.826 --> 00:59:53.994
of ease, fun, and comfort?

00:59:53.994 --> 00:59:57.558
Have you ever been willing to go?

00:59:57.558 --> 00:59:59.343
And have you truly surrendered

00:59:59.343 --> 01:00:02.577
only wanting God's will?

01:00:02.577 --> 01:00:06.090
If not, you need to start all over again

01:00:06.090 --> 01:00:10.108
on your kingdom-first seeking

01:00:10.108 --> 01:00:13.236
and deal with this.

01:00:13.236 --> 01:00:15.843
You think about places right now.

01:00:15.843 --> 01:00:17.538
Lebanon.

01:00:17.538 --> 01:00:19.488
We have brethren there right now,

01:00:19.488 --> 01:00:21.630
for the most part -

01:00:21.630 --> 01:00:24.111
as far as long term - laboring alone.

01:00:24.111 --> 01:00:25.655
Couples are needed.

01:00:25.655 --> 01:00:28.088
Mature, godly, self-denying

01:00:28.088 --> 01:00:31.924
single men are needed there right now.

01:00:31.924 --> 01:00:33.839
Mexico.

01:00:33.839 --> 01:00:38.122
Tim and Diego are going soon to Ecuador.

01:00:38.122 --> 01:00:40.494
Many places God is opening doors

01:00:40.494 --> 01:00:42.393
and working.

01:00:42.393 --> 01:00:46.071
So where do you fit in the scheme

01:00:46.071 --> 01:00:51.065
of God's purpose of serving Him?

01:00:51.065 --> 01:00:55.394
If not you, who?

01:00:55.394 --> 01:00:57.814
If not now, when?

01:00:57.814 --> 01:01:01.447
If not you, why?

01:01:01.447 --> 01:01:04.293
What are you holding on to?

01:01:04.293 --> 01:01:06.936
What can or what will you

01:01:06.936 --> 01:01:08.877
give your life to

01:01:08.877 --> 01:01:11.490
that's more glorious or eternal

01:01:11.490 --> 01:01:18.863
than what Jim Elliot lived for?

01:01:18.863 --> 01:01:21.588
For the five young 
wives in their twenties,

01:01:21.588 --> 01:01:23.426
MarLou McCully,

01:01:23.426 --> 01:01:24.778
Olive Fleming,

01:01:24.778 --> 01:01:27.741
Barbara Youderian,

01:01:27.741 --> 01:01:29.384
Rachel Saint, and Betty Elliot -

01:01:29.384 --> 01:01:33.850
the longing of their numb and mute hearts

01:01:33.850 --> 01:01:35.708
after their husbands died

01:01:35.708 --> 01:01:37.265
was echoed by words found

01:01:37.265 --> 01:01:40.738
in Jim's diary written before he died

01:01:40.738 --> 01:01:42.451
in Ecuador.

01:01:42.451 --> 01:01:46.562
He wrote, "I walked out 
to the hill just now.

01:01:46.562 --> 01:01:49.578
It is exalting and delicious

01:01:49.578 --> 01:01:53.410
to stand embraced by the shadows

01:01:53.410 --> 01:01:55.251
of a friendly tree with the wind

01:01:55.251 --> 01:01:57.097
tugging at my coat.

01:01:57.097 --> 01:01:59.934
And the heavens calling for my heart

01:01:59.934 --> 01:02:02.421
to gaze in glory and give oneself

01:02:02.421 --> 01:02:03.910
to God again.

01:02:03.910 --> 01:02:06.342
What more could a man ask?

01:02:06.342 --> 01:02:08.427
Oh, the fullness! The pleasure!

01:02:08.427 --> 01:02:12.100
The sheer excitement of 
knowing God on earth!

01:02:12.100 --> 01:02:15.514
I care not if I never raise 
my voice again for Him,

01:02:15.514 --> 01:02:18.316
if only I may love and please Him.

01:02:18.316 --> 01:02:21.174
Perhaps, in mercy, He may give me

01:02:21.174 --> 01:02:24.067
a host of children that I may lead them

01:02:24.067 --> 01:02:26.114
to explore His delicacies.

01:02:26.114 --> 01:02:28.799
But if not,

01:02:28.799 --> 01:02:31.241
if I may but see Him

01:02:31.241 --> 01:02:33.007
and smile into His eyes,

01:02:33.007 --> 01:02:37.138
oh, then... then, nothing will matter.

01:02:37.138 --> 01:02:42.443
Only Him."

01:02:42.443 --> 01:02:45.288
O church, arise.

01:02:45.288 --> 01:02:47.437
Let's sing it together.

01:02:47.437 --> 01:02:49.817
O church, arise.