Tag: Jim Elliot

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Luke Devotionals

What God desires

Luke

Years ago, I read a book called “Shadow of the Almighty” which recorded many of the thoughts of a missionary named Jim Elliot.

It was probably one of the most influential books I have ever read in my life and has shaped my thinking in so many ways over the years.

As I read today’s passage about Mary and Martha, I thought once again of something that Elliot said that impacted me then and impacts me to this day.

How well I see now that He is wanting to do something in me!

So many missionaries, intent on doing something, forget that His main work is to make something of them, not just to do a work by their stiff and bungling fingers.

In short, God is not so interested in what I can do. He is interested in me.

So often we forget that. We think we have to impress him by what we do.

But while certainly God desires to work through us, let us never forget that he is more interested in us than what he can do through us.

And so I pray with Elliot,

Teach me, Lord Jesus, to live simply and love purely, like a child, and to know that You are unchanged in Your attitudes and actions toward me.

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Judges Devotionals

Losing that which we cannot possibly keep

Judges

A missionary named Jim Elliot once wrote, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

Sadly, Samson was a man who gave up what God had intended for him to gain what he couldn’t possibly keep.

Samson was a Nazirite, a person dedicated to God, and in Samson’s case, for life. With that came God’s blessing and leading. (Judges 13:23-24)

But in this passage, he sought a woman forbidden by the law of Moses.

God used Samson’s action to accomplish His own purposes and begin saving His people from the Philistines. But at the end of the day, Samson gained nothing, losing the woman he had sought.

How often, I wonder, does God accomplish his goals through me, and yet I gain nothing because my heart is wrong before him.

Instead of seeking Him and His kingdom, I seek what I cannot keep, whether it’s the things of this world, the praise of people, the pride of life, or whatever it may be?

Lord, let me be as Jim Elliot, not Samson. Let me give up what I cannot keep, to gain what I cannot lose.

Categories
Psalms

True worship

sheep and shepherd worship

Psalm 100, above all, is a song of worship.

It starts out with a call to worship, as the psalmist sings,

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs. (Psalm 100:1–2)

It then gives us the basis for our worship, reflecting on who God is, who we are, and what our relationship with him is.

Who is God? He is the LORD. Or more literally “Yahweh.” Or perhaps even more literally, “I AM.”

That is, the one who is, who was, and who is to come. The everlasting one.

And this God is our creator.

Who are we? What’s our relationship with him?

We are his. We belong to him.

Why? As the NASB puts it, it is God who made us, and not we ourselves. Because God is our creator, we rightfully belong to him. So we are his people. And we are his sheep.

As his sheep, what should we do?

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name. (4)

Jim Elliot, in the book Shadow of the Almighty, said something about this passage that really struck me. He said,

What are sheep doing going into the gate? What is their purpose inside those courts? To bleat melodies and enjoy the company of the flock?

No. Those sheep were destined for the altar. Their pasture feeding had been for one purpose, to test them and fatten them for bloody sacrifice.

Give Him thanks, then, that you have been counted worthy of His altars. Enter into the work with praise…

Father, take my life, yea, my blood if Thou wilt, and consume it with Thine enveloping fire. I would not save it, for it is not mine to save.

Have it, Lord, have it all. Pour out my life as an oblation for the world. Blood is only of value as it flows before Thine altar.

I think Elliot grasped what the apostle Paul was saying, when Paul wrote,

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. (Romans 12:1)

Indeed, he did offer his very blood for the sake of Christ and his gospel, spilling it that the Auca Indians might be saved.

You see worship is much more than just singing songs to God. It’s being a living sacrifice for him. It’s being set apart for his purposes, and not your own. It’s making your purpose in life to please him. That is true worship.

It can be costly. But there is a joy that comes from offering your all to him. For as the psalmist wrote,

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations. (Psalm 100:5)

If we do not believe these things, then it becomes difficult to lay down our lives for him.

But if we do believe that he truly is good, that he’s looking out for our best, that he loves us, and that he is faithful, then it becomes only natural to lay down our lives for him.

How about you? Do you believe these things? If so, are you living a life of true worship?

Categories
Psalms

Shadow of the Almighty

Psalms

One of my favorite books is Shadow of the Almighty.

It’s a book that has a lot of the letters and journal entries of a man named Jim Elliot, a missionary to the Aucas in South America. If you’ve never read it, it’s well worth reading and I highly recommend it.

The ironic thing about it is that though the title of the book comes from this psalm, one can’t say that Elliot lived out this psalm at the end of his life… at least when we look at the surface.

Throughout Psalm 91, the psalmist talks about the blessings of those who live under the shadow of the Almighty.

The psalmist says that those who do will be protected from the terror by night, from the arrows that fly around them, and from the plagues that strike those around them.

He goes on to say that though thousands may fall around you because of these things, you will be preserved.

He caps this in verses 9–16, saying,

If you make the Most High your dwelling—
even the LORD, who is my refuge—
then no harm will befall you,
no disaster will come near your tent.

For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

You will tread upon the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

“Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

He will call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.

With long life will I satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”

So how did Elliot end his life? By dying at the hands of the very people he was trying to reach with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This is not just an aberration either. Many have fallen before their time in their pursuit of God. Isaiah, Peter, Paul, and James, among many others.

What am I saying? That God’s word does not hold true? Not at all.

But to say that we will never suffer in this broken world would be taking this psalm too far.

And whoever the psalmist was, whether it was Moses or someone else, I find it hard to believe that they never saw suffering in this world come to those who put themselves under God’s shadow.

But I think what this psalmist is ultimately saying is that when we put ourselves under the shadow of the Almighty, he will never abandon us no matter what we go through.

Not only will he set his angels to guard over us, he himself will be with us. And though we may go through the valley of the shadow of death, he will bring us out the other side.

As we look back, we will see that all along his hand was on us. We’ll see the times he answered our cries in our times of despair. We’ll see all the evil that he spared us while we were here. And ultimately, we will see his salvation.

That’s what I believe Jim Elliot saw when he came out the other side. His Savior smiling, saying, “Well done! Now look and see what fruit your death has brought.”

Namely, the salvation of many Aucas, including some of the very ones that had killed him.

So whatever you may be going through in life, may you place yourself in the shadow of the Almighty too.