I've always found myself irresistibly attracted to people who are so single-mindedly consumed with/by passion for God [John the Baptist, Elijah, Elisha, Tozer] and greatly admire the RICHNESS and depth that flows out of their lives, which cannot be TAUGHT or studied or bought but comes as a direct result of being so saturated by God - His word and His presence and His love - that one literally LIVES and BREATHES God. And so, even though I do not agree with all of his views, I am so glad to have come across a cheap-ish copy of Elisabeth Elliot's Shadow of the Almighty, which contains excerpts from Jim Elliot's journals and letters. It has really blown me away and flamed new fires within my heart - ones that I hope will be as Tozer says, if not large, at least real enough that others may light their candle at its flame.
And I know that God has purposefully constructed my heart so that it responds to such non-compromising words for a reason - I, too, was made to live for the sole approval, the sole enjoyment, the sole pleasure, the sole purposes of one King. I pray that I will not let myself be distracted from my call to also live a life of holiness and to restore and call the Church to a life of holiness but grow from strength to strength, knowing that it is God who will perfect my faith as I fix my eyes on Him.
Anyway, here are some quotes from Jim Elliot that has shamed me of my frivolity but also provoked me into believing that my heart may some day be molded to live out such a life of focus, of discipline, of passion:
"I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn up for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus.
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Mark my ear, Lord, that it might respond only to Thy voice.
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2 Timothy 2:9 says, 'The Word of God is not bound.' Systematic theology - be careful how you tie down the Word to fit your set and final creeds, systems, dogmas, and organized theistic philosophies. The Word of God is not bound! It's free to say what it will to the individual and no one can outline it into dispensations which cannot be broken. Don't get it down 'cold', but let it live - fresh, warm, and vibrant - so that the world is not binding ponderous books about it, but rather is shackling you for having allowed it to have free course in your life.
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Genesis 23 - Abraham calls himself a stranger and sojourner in a land he believed God was going to give to him. This is the first time he shows any real inclination to make a home on earth, and how slight it is - only a field, some trees, and a cave in which he can bury his dead. Lord, show me that I must be a stranger, unconcerned and unconnected with affairs below, as Abraham 'looked for a city.' It was when he owned his strangerhood that the sons of Heth called him a 'prince of God' among them. Abraham made no attempt to be a prince of men, as had Lot, and they all recognized his character and inheritance as being not of men but of God. Oh to be known as Israel, a prince with God; no longer as Jacob of the carnal mind!
Help me, Lord, not to mourn and weep for those things, once precious, which you teach me are but dead (whether desires, pleasures, or whatever may be precious to my soul now), but give me a willingness to put them away out of my sight (verse 14). Burying places are costly, but I would own a Machpelah where corpses (dead things in my life) can be put away.
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I lack the fervency, vitality, life in prayer which I long for. I know that many consider it fanaticism when they hear anything which does not conform to the conventional, sleep-inducing eulogies so often rising from Laodicean lips; but I know too that these same people can acquiescently tolerate sin in their lives and in the church without so much as tilting one hair of their eyebrows. Cold prayers, like cold suitors, are seldom effective in their aims."
I can't believe that people were capable of writing such beautiful letters and journal entries in the past...it makes mine seem so shoddy and it makes me shudder to think that anything I produce can be called a piece of writing or that anyone should ever think to call me a writer. I dare not write any word that will not electrify someone else into truly LIVING or conjure and convey God's beauty.
One of the things that God has been TRUMPETING into my head in the past few months is this: MAKE YOUR ELECTION SURE.
And I really really really don't want to get to heaven and not be able to account for how I've used the brain and gifts that God had entrusted into my care. May these words give me the courage to live my life well...knowing that many have gone before me and lived RIGHTLY and fully.
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