So, what does being on missions really mean? God wants people who are available to commit than having people who have great talents without commitment. This phrase is really tough for me.
Quiet bored being alone at home surfing today, I came across an article about becoming a missionary. I was quiet hesitant to read but anyway I spent seconds to read until I find it interesting. This talks about Elisabeth Elliot,Ii knew nothing about her so I searched for it.
Elisabeth Elliot was once a missionary in the jungles of South America. Some of us cannot discern a life like that. Each of us has our own perspective and may have skeptical ideas of what the mission field is all about, many of which are erroneous or idealistic.
Here's the article I read about her interview through her radio ministry GATEWAY TO JOY.
Elisabeth Elliot: "You are loved with an everlasting love." That's what the Bible says, "and underneath are the everlasting arms." This is your friend, Elisabeth Elliot, continuing my talk today to any who might be possibly considering missionary work.
I want to commend to you the possibility of doing missionary work, lifetime missionary work. That's a great goal. Of course there are many opportunities for short-term missions, but you're not likely to have to be totally immersed in the culture of the people if it's short-term. Very likely you will have translators. And all of that's wonderful, I'm not knocking short-term missions, but I do believe that there are a number of you out there who are seriously considering the possibility of becoming full-time missionaries.
Yesterday I gave you few hints, and today I want to begin by speaking about a woman by the name of Lillias Trotter. She was an Englishwoman who came from a very wealthy family in London. She was born in 1853 and died in 1928. She was a beautiful painter. John Ruskin was her tutor. He was convinced that if Lillias Trotter would give up this crazy idea of wanting to be a missionary that she would be a world famous artist.
Lillias Trotter chose rather to be a missionary. She went to Algiers in North Africa. There are three biographies of her. One of them is by a man named Stewart. The title is The Love That Was Stronger. I think that one is out of print. Then there's one by Patricia Saint John entitled Until the Day Breaks. That's published by OM Publishing. The last I heard it was still in print. There is a newer one called A Passion for the Impossible. That is a wonderful new book that has come out.
Lillias Trotter gave meticulous attention to details, which she said was demanded by the majesty of the indwelling Christ. There is something for all of us to ponder and think about. How meticulously do we give attention to details in our private life? In our homes? In the way we keep the kitchen, the dining room, the bedroom, the bathroom?
Someone may say, "Do things like that really matter to God?" Well yes, I have Scripture that tells me everything is meant to be done decently and in order. I love Lillias Trotter's recognition of the fact that she had to give meticulous attention to detail because it was demanded by the majesty of an indwelling Christ.
Concerning this, she quotes in her journal from an article by Sir Robert Ball who says, "There are animals so wonderfully minute that if a thousand of them were ranked abreast they could easily swing through the eye of the finest needle without being thrown out of order. Yet each of these minute creatures is a highly organized number of particles capable of moving about, of finding and devouring food and of behaving in all respects as becomes an animal as distinguished from a fragment of unorganized matter."
Lillias' comment about that is, "Is that not equal in marvel to the other end of the scale of creation where we lift up our eyes on high and behold who hath created these things. He meeteth out the heavens with the span and comprehendeth the dust of the earth in a measure. The great and the small again alike to Him. How childish it must seem to them up in heaven when we measure the importance of a thing by its size."
She says, "Meeting His wishes," speaking of Jesus Christ, "Meeting His wishes is all that matters. He can find His glory in the day of small things out here as well as in the great spiritual movements of other lands."
At a conference held in her home in Algiers in 1891 she had drawn up some questions for consideration. "Number one, are the converts growing towards the standard that we should wish, the standard of Christ's definition of discipleship? Is the aim of our ministry to them measured by the pattern given in Saint Paul's epistles in caring, in sacrifice, in intercession? Number three, are we fulfilling in our own souls the conditions for blessing that God has laid down? See Malachi 3:10. If so, the promise of the next verse will be set free."
Amy Carmichael was the founder of the Dohnavur Fellowship in India. When people wrote to her suggesting that they might like to come out to work with her in India she would send these questions to perspective recruits, and these are tough ones, believe me. Number one, "Do you truly desire to live a crucified life? This may mean doing very humble things joyfully for His name's sake." Ponder that. Do you truly desire to live a crucified life?
Next question, "Does the thought of hardness draw you or repel you?"
Next question, "Do you love unity and loyalty? What does the word loyalty mean to you?"
"Do you realize that we are a family, not an institution?" She had established a wonderful home for little children who otherwise would have been committed to the temples for temple prostitution, beginning in their babyhood. So she writes, "Do you realize that we are family, not an institution? In our work for our children and others we all cooperate as need arises. Are you willing to do whatever helps most?"
And I want to aid there, a caution. Don't make up your mind that you are going to go to Africa or to China or to India to do a specific kind of work. Because it's my experience that virtually every missionary is going to be asked to do a whole lot of things that were not on your job description. "Are you willing to do whatever helps most?"
"Can you mention any experience that you have passed through in your Christian life, which brought you into a new discovery of your union with the crucified, risen and enthroned Lord?" That's a very insightful question. "Can you mention any experience that you have passed through in your Christian life, which brought you into a new discovery of your union with the crucified, risen and enthroned Lord?"
By all means (and this is Elisabeth talking again now, not Amy Carmichael) learn some of the great hymns of the faith. I find them wonderfully faith strengthening. And many a time in my darkest days as a missionary these have been what brought me out of the miry clay. For example:
"If thou but suffer God to guide thee and hope in Him through all thy ways, He'll give thee strength what ere' betide thee and bear thee through the evil days. Who trusts in God's unchanging love, builds on a rock that not can move. Obey thou restless heart. Be still and wait in cheerful hope, content to take what ere' His gracious will, His all-discerning love has sent.
"Nor doubt our inmost wants are known to Him who chose us for His own." And the last stanza of this hymn says, "Sing, pray and swerve not from His ways, but do thine own part faithfully. Trust His rich promises of grace, so shall they be fulfilled in thee. God never yet forsook in need the soul that trusted Him indeed."
God strengthen and help you, dear friend. Keep your eyes always on the invisible things. The visible ones are merely transitory. Nothing is worth living for unless it's worth dying for. I'd better repeat that. Nothing is worth living for unless it's worth dying for.
One day we'll see Him face to face. Will we hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." By His grace we will. For in Isaiah 50:7 we have this promise, "The Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face like a flint and I know that I shall not be ashamed."
When Jim Elliot was considering going to the mission field he didn't know where to go or what to do, but he had two good ideas. He decided to start corresponding with a missionary in India and one in Ecuador, seeking to determine which field he should go to. In view of the information he received he made a choice--Ecuador. But he, like you, had done a lot of thinking and praying. It wasn't a shot in the dark. It was an act of faith in a God who promises to guide.
Jim used to say, "You can't steer a parked car." It makes sense to move in the direction that you believe God is leading--trusting Him as a faithful Shepherd to lead you in paths of righteousness. Is He going to make it too hard for His obedient sheep? Of course not! If you are steering your car in the wrong direction you can count on Isaiah 30:21. Isaiah 30:21.
Blessing in many ways to all,
Joy
