Consider the call of the Throne above, “Go ye,” and from round about, “Come over and help us,” and even the call from the damned souls below, “Send Lazarus to my brothers, that they come not to this place.”
Impelled, then, by these voices, I dare not stay home while Quichuas perish. So what if the well-fed church in the homeland needs stirring? They have the Scriptures, 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.
American believers have sold their lives to the service of Mammon, and God has His rightful way of dealing with those who succumb to the spirit of Laodicea.
- Jim Elliot
1927 – 1956
Great quote. Consider this quote, also from Jim Elliot:
ReplyDelete"That delight—in God—is the thing that brings desire in the heart to do good, and desire is beneath everything. If there is no desire to do God’s will, then the doing of God’s will is just outward conformity, and God doesn’t appreciate it at all.
"Now desire is more than just willingness. I once worked for the Foreign Missions Fellowship, which is a group of collegiate kids who are considering going to the mission field. You know, every time I would talk to some Christians in college, their big cry about the mission field was, 'Well you know, I’m willing to go. I’m quite willing to go to the mission field. Very willing to go. Willing. But I need a call from God (or some such thing) because I don’t feel as if I’m sent to the mission field.' Well, I’m telling you that passive willingness is not desire. I was willing to go to the mission field a long time before I willed to go to the mission field. And it is the desire of the will that God wants.
“Desire is the putting of my will into God’s concern. It’s not a passive, sitting back in your easy chair, folding your arms sort of thing, which says, 'Well, I’m willing, if God would only give me a good swift kick and send me.' That’s willingness all right. But God doesn’t want willingness, He wants will! He wants your will put behind those desires." (Jim Elliot: A Christian Martyr Speaks To You, pages 28-29)