While on vacation I reread ‘Through Gates of Splendor’ one week before the author, Elizabeth Elliot, passed away (6/15/15). It is an inspiring story of the martyrdom of 5 young missionary men in the jungles of South America. Elizabeth was the wife of one of those men, Jim Elliot. What impressed me most was the passion of the men and their wives for the lost of the tribes of the Amazon. They were wiling to risk their lives for their salvation. Below are a few of the quotes from her book.
From Chapter #1 ‘I Dare Not Stay Home’
In his diary of the summer he [Jim Elliot] wrote: ” ‘He makes His ministers a flame of fire,’ Am I ignitible? God deliver me from the dread asbestos of ‘other things.’ Saturate me with the oil of the Spirit that I may be a flame. But flame is transient, often short-lived. Canst thou bear this, my soul—short life? In me there dwells the Spirit of the Great Short-Lived, whose zeal for God’s house consumed Him. ‘Make me Thy Fuel, Flame of God.’”
“I dare not stay home while Quichuas perish. What if the well -filled church in the homeland needs stirring? They have the Scriptufes, Moses, and the prophets, and a whole lot more. Their condemnation is written on their bank books and in the dust on their Bible covers.”
Jim practiced what he preached when he wrote in his diary: “Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.”
From Chapter #9 ‘September, 1955′
September, 1955, was the month in which Operation Auca really started, the month in which the Lord began to weave five separate threads into a single glowing fabric for His own Glory. Five men with widely differing personalities had come to Ecuador from the eastern United States, the West Coast, and the Midwestern States. Representing three different “faith-missions,” these men and their wives were one in their common belief in the Bible as the literal and supernatural and perfect word from God to man. Christ said “Go ye”; their answer was “Lord, send me.”
From Chapter #15 ‘Why Did the Men Go?’
The other wives and I talked together one night about the possibility of becoming widows. What would we do? God gave us peace of heart, and confidence that whatever might happen, His Word would hold. We knew that “when He putteth forth His sheep, He goeth before them.” God’s leading was unmistakable up to this point. Each of us knew when we married our husbands that there would never be any question about who came first—God and His work held first place in each life. It was the condition of true discipleship; it became devastatingly meaningful now.
It was a time for soul-searching, a time for counting the possible cost. Was it the thrill of adventure that drew our husbands on? No. Their letters and journals make it abundantly clear that these men did not go out as some men go out to shoot a lion or climb a mountain. Their compulsion was from a different source. Each had made a personal transaction with God, recognizing that he belonged to God, first of all by creation, and secondly by redemption through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ. This double claim on his life settled once and for all the question of allegiance. It was not a matter of striving to follow the example of a great Teacher. To conform to the perfect life of Jesus was impossible for a human being. To these men, Jesus Christ was God, and had actually taken upon Himself human form, in order that He might die, and, by His death, provide not only escape from the punishment which their sin merited, but also a new kind of life, eternal both in length and in quality. This meant simply that Christ was to be obeyed, and more than that, that He would provide the power to obey. The point of decision had been reached. God’s command “Go ye, and preach the gospel to every creature” was the categorical imperative. The question of personal safety was wholly irrelevant.
On Sunday afternoon, December 18, Nate Saint sat at his typewriter to tell the world why they were going—just in case. In speaking these words he spoke for all: “As we weigh the future and seek the will of God, does it seem right that we should hazard our lives for just a few savages? As we ask ourselves this question, we realize that it is not the call of the needy thousands, rather it is the simple intimation of the prophetic Word that there shall be some from every tribe in His presence in the last day and in our hearts we feel that it is pleasing to Him that we should interest ourselves in making an opening into the Auca prison for Christ.
“As we have a high old time this Christmas, may we who know Christ hears the cry of the damned as they hurtle headlong into the Christless night without ever a chance. May we be moved With compassion as our Lord was. May we shed tears of repentance for these we have failed to bring out of darkness. Beyond the smiling scenes of Bethlehem may we see the crushing agony of Golgotha. May God give us a new vision of His will concerning the lost and our responsibility.
‘Would that we could comprehend the lot of these stone-age people who live in mortal fear of ambush on the jungle trail… those to whom the bark of a gun means sudden, mysterious death … those who think all men in all the world are killers like themselves. If God would grant us the vision, the word sacrifice would disappear from our lips and thoughts; we would hate the things that seem now so dear to us; our lives would suddenly be too short, we would despise time-robbing distractions and charge the enemy with all our energies in the name of Christ. May God help us to judge ourselves by the eternities that separate the Aucas from a comprehension of Christmas and Him, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor so that we might, through His poverty, be made rich.
“Lord, God, speak to my own heart and give me to know Thy Holy will and the joy of walking in it. Amen.”
From Chapter #19 ‘Yet Have We Not Forgotten Thee’
In the kitchen we sat quietly as the reports were finished, fingering the watches and wedding rings that had been brought back, trying for the hundredth time to picture the scene. Which of the men watched the others fall? Which of them had time to think of his wife and children? Had one been covering the others in the tree house, and come down in an attempt to save them? Had they suffered long? The answers to these questions remained a mystery. This much we knew: “Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the Gospel’s, the same shall save it.” There was no question as to the present state of our loved ones. They were “with Christ.”
And, once more, ancient words from the Book of Books came to mind: “All this has come upon us, yet have we not forgotten thee. . . . Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from Thy way, though Thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.”
The quiet trust of the mothers helped the children to know that this was not a tragedy. This was what God had planned. “I know my daddy is with Jesus, but I miss him, and I wish he would just come down and play with me once in a while,” said three-yearold Stevie McCully. Several weeks later, back in the States, Stevie’s little brother, Matthew, was born. One day the baby was crying and Stevie was heard to say, “Never you mind; when we get to Heaven I’ll show you which one is our daddy.” Was the price too great?