Whatever It Takes
07/15/2005 12:25 Filed in: Faith & Reason
Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14, NASB)
First the bad news. Others have said it better than this, but the truth is that if you desire to do something great for God, the forces of darkness will do everything possible to derail your efforts. I don't think it matters whether you are a missionary thousands of miles from home or simply a believer trying to be a humble and obedient servant wherever you are. If you feel like you are being attacked from every direction, then you are probably doing something right. And well...that's the good news. Trials and tribulations that you face may just be a sign that the enemy has sat up and taken notice of your efforts. YOU are a threat. And, really, even the bad news is actually good news. Rom 8:17 tells us that to suffer for Christ's sake is a mark of his lordship on your life. It's an honor. It shows that you belong to him.
Unfortunately, if you're like me, too often we let these things distract us and we give into it. We take our eyes off the prize. We forget the big picture, and for a time, we can even forget our calling. As I look back over the last few years of my life, as I examine the lives of others I know, I have seen this happen more than I would like to admit. We're traveling down the path--going the right way--doing what we're supposed to be doing, when something just derails us--whether it's temptation, tragedy, illness, or even events beyond our control. The truth is that we let circumstances control us, distract us. We lose sight of the big picture and we are, for a time, seemingly defeated. It can take years to get back on track in some cases.
Recently, I came across The Journals of Jim Elliot in my library. I hadn't looked at this book in a number of years and I wondered what Elliot's last entry was before he was martyred by the Aucas. To me Jim Elliot's journals are very humbling. This man was spiritually more mature in his early twenties than I've ever been in my entire life. He's a giant. He's one of my heroes. So I turned to the last page of the book to see what he recorded last, right before he was killed while trying to bring the gospel to a people who had never heard of Christ. Here's what Jim Elliot wrote:
December 31 [1955] A month of temptation. Satan and the flesh have been on me hard. How God holds my soul in His life and permits one with such wretchedness to continue in His service I cannot tell. Oh, it has been hard. . . .I have been very low inside me struggling and casting myself hourly on Christ for help. Marriage is divorce from the privacy a man loves, but there is some privacy nothing can share. It is the knowledge of a sinful heart.
These are the days of the New Year's believers' conference on the Sermon on the Mount. Yesterday I preached and was helped on "whoever looks on a woman..."!
"Let spirit conquer though the flesh conspire."
I had completely forgotten about Jim Elliot's last entry. Here it shows someone who has been greatly struggling with temptation right before the greatest moment of his life--the end of his life. In a very human way, it parallels Jesus' temptation in the wilderness before the beginning of his ministry, or perhaps more fittingly, the hours of intense emotional struggle before his crucifixion. Elliot describes the sources of his temptation as both Satan and the flesh, or his own sinful desires. There is a hint that he was struggling with lustful thoughts.
What if Jim Elliot had taken his eyes off the prize? What if he had given into temptation? What if he fell into sin with another woman, perhaps the wife of one of the other missionaries days before the final pivotal event that God had planned for his life? What if he decided the temptations that pulled at his sinful self or even the pursuit of materialism was more valuable than following God?
Some might answer those questions cynically by saying, "Yes, but then he might still be alive." For those who belong to God, death is not the worst thing that can happen. For those like Jim Elliot, it can be the greatest thing possible. Elizabeth Elliot would chronicle the death of her husband and the other four missionaries who were killed with him in the book, Through Gates of Splendor. You would think that a book that describes the death of missionaries to be a deterrent to the profession and calling. However, it had just the opposite effect. In 100 Christian Books that Changed the Century, William and Randy Petersen write that the story of Jim Elliot "touched the hearts of readers, many of whom responded to the missionary call to give their lives in sacrificial service." Further,
the book's greatest impact came in the hearts and lives of readers who dedicated themselves to follow in the footsteps of these five martyrs. The missionary life had lost some luster since the colonial days of David Livingstone. But in dramatic fashion, Through the Gates of Splendor painted a portrait of five ordinary Joes totally committed to sharing Christ with the most unlikely recipients. There would be no more Livingstones, but this book inspired an army of Jim Elliots and Nate Saints.
In reality, if Jim Elliot had given into temptation, scores of people might not have entered the mission field. Thousands, perhaps millions would not have heard the gospel, let alone come to Christ. You and I would probably have never heard of Jim Elliot or have been inspired by the ministry of Elizabeth Elliot.
So what can we do? How do we keep from letting attacks from within or from without keep us from going off course or even knocking us out of ministry altogether? I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Here are some initial thoughts, and I invite your thoughts and comments.
Be aware. I remember reading a book about Daniel Boone when I was kid in which the scouts of a particular Indian tribe were described as always sleeping with one eye open. That's what we have to do, spiritually speaking. We must never let our guard down. We must always stay alert. Jim Elliot described in his journal as being tempted by both Satan and his own flesh. This is true for all of us. The apostle Peter tells us to "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:19, NIV). This means that not only is Satan out to get us, but that he will also use our own weaknesses to trip us up.
Not only do we have to be alert to the tricks of the evil one, perhaps more importantly, we have to know ourselves and know our own weaknesses. Do you know what your weaknesses are? I am speaking of moral weakness, that which tempts you most. Know where you are tempted and don't put yourself in positions where you might fall. No one would recommend that an alcoholic hang out at a bar and drink Coca-Cola. The temptation would be too great. We have to do the same by not putting ourselves in such situations.
That's going to mean different things to different people, but for a lot of people, it will mean not going to certain movies, not being alone with someone of the opposite sex who is not a spouse, not putting oneself in a position where compromise may occur. All too often, things done in secret have a way of becoming public. The Bible encourages us to fight, to resist every kind of sin except sexual immorality. In 1 Corinthians 6:18, we are told to flee (with the idea of running for safety) from sexual immorality (Greek: porneia).
We live in a culture that targets and exploits our weaknesses. Vice and virtue are often turned upside down. So be aware. Sexual immorality isn't the only trap. Pride, power, gluttony, dishonesty, greed and extreme self-interest have also derailed more than one believer. Know your weaknesses and act accordingly.
Get angry. A couple of years ago I talked with a former student who had totally embraced his weakness and was now wearing his sin as a badge of honor. Yet at the same time, he was miserable. He gave into it because that had seemed to be the easiest road. By claiming that "God had just made him that way" he didn't have to deal with a whole lot of junk that had taken place in his life years earlier. I started asking him questions about his past and his family relationships, and he was a textbook case. He laughed because he had studied enough psychology in college to know where I was headed in the conversation. But I told him, "You know, at some point, you ought to get angry. You ought to get stinking mad at the conspiracy of events that have taken place in your life to set you up to where you are now." I believed and still do that only then would he be able to do something about his situation.
Contrary to popular opinion, not all anger is bad. Paul addresses a variety of sins in Ephesians 4: stealing, unwholesome speech, bitterness (have you ever thought of bitterness as sin?), wrath and anger, clamor (meaning angry yelling) and slander (telling lies about other people). Yet a few verses earlier, Paul tells us in Eph 4:26 to be angry, yet without sin. And in the next verse (27), he says not to give the devil a foothold (a foot in the door, an entry point into our lives).
It's okay to get angry about your own circumstances, even if you caused them through your own sin. There is a "healthy anger" at oneself. It's okay to get angry about your weaknesses. But you can't stop there. The other half of Eph 4:26 says "do not let the sun go down on your anger" (NASB). When we hold onto our anger and keep it around like a pet, then it leads to that sin of bitterness mentioned above. That means you need to do something about the object of your anger.
Fight back. The worst thing a person can possibly do is to give in to sin. Sin is parasitic. It will eventually consume you if left unchecked. We can't give into that which tempts us. We are told to resist evil regardless of its form and to stand firm (Eph 6:13).
How do we do this? We've all been in situations where we felt the temptation was simply overpowering. It was too great. But I believe we often fail because we haven't been honest with ourselves and we haven't turned those weaknesses over to God. James tells us about an interesting cause and effect in the spiritual world. He says "Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (4:7, NASB).
One of the first verses a new Christian should memorize (or an older Christian if you never learned it!) is 1 Corinthians 10:13: "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to humanity. God is faithful and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape, so that you are able to bear it" (HCSB).
Too many times in my life I have been in situations where I simply failed to access the power of the truth found in that verse. No doubt you have, too. As believers, we have the ability to resist sin because Christ lives in us (Gal 2:20). We've got to be willing to fight back, and not lose sight of the prize, not lose sight of our calling, not lose sight of the big picture. We can't let immediate circumstances dictate the outcome of our lives or even circumstances that have long-term effects on ourselves or others.
I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who used to be in ministry. He was a pastor at one time, but currently, he is not. He said that he loved serving as a pastor, but he hated all the junk that came with it. He gave a list of examples that mostly involved nastiness on the part of certain church members. I understand his frustrations. I know what it's like to try to serve in a church and feel like so much of your efforts are being countermanded or your privacy is being invaded by the very people you are trying to help.
In light of my own experience, I made sure he knew that I wasn't throwing stones or being critical, but I tried to gently remind him of his calling. The kind of situations he described are distractions. They are the fiery arrows hurled by the devil. Sometimes they are serious enough to leave scars. But we can't focus on them and lose sight of what it is that God has called us to do.
Whatever it takes. We cannot lose our focus. Many times I've done it to myself. I've let myself become so distracted by other things, distracted sometimes by good and worthy opportunities that I've lost sight of what it is that I'm supposed to be doing.
Jesus used rather grotesque hyperbole in Matthew 18:8-9 when he said that if our eye is causing us to stumble (i.e. sin) to pluck it out. If our hand or foot is causing us to trip up, to cut it off. He said it was better to be blind or maimed than to enter hell whole. What does this mean? Jesus is saying that whatever is coming between you and God, get rid of it. It might be painful, it might be sacrificial, and lots of folks may misunderstand, but do whatever it takes. Anything that is causing you to sin, anything that is getting in the way of your calling should be discarded (provided it can be done without sin itself--in other words, you don't put your children up for adoption so that you can be freed for the mission field).
For some "whatever it takes" will mean accountability found from a counsellor or a small group of trusted friends.
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you have a calling and you have a ministry. It doesn't matter whether you serve as a pastor or whether you serve in a downtown office, whether you are on the mission field or whether you teach in a high school classroom. The world is your mission field. Where you are right now is your place of ministry. Don't let the distractions and temptations in life get you off course from doing what God has called you to do. And regardless of how far you or I have gotten off track, God can still use us. God still has a plan.
In the end, let us join with Jim Elliot's closing prayer: "Let spirit conquer though the flesh conspire."
Be aware. Get mad. Fight back. Whatever it takes.
First the bad news. Others have said it better than this, but the truth is that if you desire to do something great for God, the forces of darkness will do everything possible to derail your efforts. I don't think it matters whether you are a missionary thousands of miles from home or simply a believer trying to be a humble and obedient servant wherever you are. If you feel like you are being attacked from every direction, then you are probably doing something right. And well...that's the good news. Trials and tribulations that you face may just be a sign that the enemy has sat up and taken notice of your efforts. YOU are a threat. And, really, even the bad news is actually good news. Rom 8:17 tells us that to suffer for Christ's sake is a mark of his lordship on your life. It's an honor. It shows that you belong to him.
Unfortunately, if you're like me, too often we let these things distract us and we give into it. We take our eyes off the prize. We forget the big picture, and for a time, we can even forget our calling. As I look back over the last few years of my life, as I examine the lives of others I know, I have seen this happen more than I would like to admit. We're traveling down the path--going the right way--doing what we're supposed to be doing, when something just derails us--whether it's temptation, tragedy, illness, or even events beyond our control. The truth is that we let circumstances control us, distract us. We lose sight of the big picture and we are, for a time, seemingly defeated. It can take years to get back on track in some cases.
Recently, I came across The Journals of Jim Elliot in my library. I hadn't looked at this book in a number of years and I wondered what Elliot's last entry was before he was martyred by the Aucas. To me Jim Elliot's journals are very humbling. This man was spiritually more mature in his early twenties than I've ever been in my entire life. He's a giant. He's one of my heroes. So I turned to the last page of the book to see what he recorded last, right before he was killed while trying to bring the gospel to a people who had never heard of Christ. Here's what Jim Elliot wrote:
December 31 [1955] A month of temptation. Satan and the flesh have been on me hard. How God holds my soul in His life and permits one with such wretchedness to continue in His service I cannot tell. Oh, it has been hard. . . .I have been very low inside me struggling and casting myself hourly on Christ for help. Marriage is divorce from the privacy a man loves, but there is some privacy nothing can share. It is the knowledge of a sinful heart.
These are the days of the New Year's believers' conference on the Sermon on the Mount. Yesterday I preached and was helped on "whoever looks on a woman..."!
"Let spirit conquer though the flesh conspire."
I had completely forgotten about Jim Elliot's last entry. Here it shows someone who has been greatly struggling with temptation right before the greatest moment of his life--the end of his life. In a very human way, it parallels Jesus' temptation in the wilderness before the beginning of his ministry, or perhaps more fittingly, the hours of intense emotional struggle before his crucifixion. Elliot describes the sources of his temptation as both Satan and the flesh, or his own sinful desires. There is a hint that he was struggling with lustful thoughts.
What if Jim Elliot had taken his eyes off the prize? What if he had given into temptation? What if he fell into sin with another woman, perhaps the wife of one of the other missionaries days before the final pivotal event that God had planned for his life? What if he decided the temptations that pulled at his sinful self or even the pursuit of materialism was more valuable than following God?
Some might answer those questions cynically by saying, "Yes, but then he might still be alive." For those who belong to God, death is not the worst thing that can happen. For those like Jim Elliot, it can be the greatest thing possible. Elizabeth Elliot would chronicle the death of her husband and the other four missionaries who were killed with him in the book, Through Gates of Splendor. You would think that a book that describes the death of missionaries to be a deterrent to the profession and calling. However, it had just the opposite effect. In 100 Christian Books that Changed the Century, William and Randy Petersen write that the story of Jim Elliot "touched the hearts of readers, many of whom responded to the missionary call to give their lives in sacrificial service." Further,
the book's greatest impact came in the hearts and lives of readers who dedicated themselves to follow in the footsteps of these five martyrs. The missionary life had lost some luster since the colonial days of David Livingstone. But in dramatic fashion, Through the Gates of Splendor painted a portrait of five ordinary Joes totally committed to sharing Christ with the most unlikely recipients. There would be no more Livingstones, but this book inspired an army of Jim Elliots and Nate Saints.
In reality, if Jim Elliot had given into temptation, scores of people might not have entered the mission field. Thousands, perhaps millions would not have heard the gospel, let alone come to Christ. You and I would probably have never heard of Jim Elliot or have been inspired by the ministry of Elizabeth Elliot.
So what can we do? How do we keep from letting attacks from within or from without keep us from going off course or even knocking us out of ministry altogether? I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Here are some initial thoughts, and I invite your thoughts and comments.
Be aware. I remember reading a book about Daniel Boone when I was kid in which the scouts of a particular Indian tribe were described as always sleeping with one eye open. That's what we have to do, spiritually speaking. We must never let our guard down. We must always stay alert. Jim Elliot described in his journal as being tempted by both Satan and his own flesh. This is true for all of us. The apostle Peter tells us to "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:19, NIV). This means that not only is Satan out to get us, but that he will also use our own weaknesses to trip us up.
Not only do we have to be alert to the tricks of the evil one, perhaps more importantly, we have to know ourselves and know our own weaknesses. Do you know what your weaknesses are? I am speaking of moral weakness, that which tempts you most. Know where you are tempted and don't put yourself in positions where you might fall. No one would recommend that an alcoholic hang out at a bar and drink Coca-Cola. The temptation would be too great. We have to do the same by not putting ourselves in such situations.
That's going to mean different things to different people, but for a lot of people, it will mean not going to certain movies, not being alone with someone of the opposite sex who is not a spouse, not putting oneself in a position where compromise may occur. All too often, things done in secret have a way of becoming public. The Bible encourages us to fight, to resist every kind of sin except sexual immorality. In 1 Corinthians 6:18, we are told to flee (with the idea of running for safety) from sexual immorality (Greek: porneia).
We live in a culture that targets and exploits our weaknesses. Vice and virtue are often turned upside down. So be aware. Sexual immorality isn't the only trap. Pride, power, gluttony, dishonesty, greed and extreme self-interest have also derailed more than one believer. Know your weaknesses and act accordingly.
Get angry. A couple of years ago I talked with a former student who had totally embraced his weakness and was now wearing his sin as a badge of honor. Yet at the same time, he was miserable. He gave into it because that had seemed to be the easiest road. By claiming that "God had just made him that way" he didn't have to deal with a whole lot of junk that had taken place in his life years earlier. I started asking him questions about his past and his family relationships, and he was a textbook case. He laughed because he had studied enough psychology in college to know where I was headed in the conversation. But I told him, "You know, at some point, you ought to get angry. You ought to get stinking mad at the conspiracy of events that have taken place in your life to set you up to where you are now." I believed and still do that only then would he be able to do something about his situation.
Contrary to popular opinion, not all anger is bad. Paul addresses a variety of sins in Ephesians 4: stealing, unwholesome speech, bitterness (have you ever thought of bitterness as sin?), wrath and anger, clamor (meaning angry yelling) and slander (telling lies about other people). Yet a few verses earlier, Paul tells us in Eph 4:26 to be angry, yet without sin. And in the next verse (27), he says not to give the devil a foothold (a foot in the door, an entry point into our lives).
It's okay to get angry about your own circumstances, even if you caused them through your own sin. There is a "healthy anger" at oneself. It's okay to get angry about your weaknesses. But you can't stop there. The other half of Eph 4:26 says "do not let the sun go down on your anger" (NASB). When we hold onto our anger and keep it around like a pet, then it leads to that sin of bitterness mentioned above. That means you need to do something about the object of your anger.
Fight back. The worst thing a person can possibly do is to give in to sin. Sin is parasitic. It will eventually consume you if left unchecked. We can't give into that which tempts us. We are told to resist evil regardless of its form and to stand firm (Eph 6:13).
How do we do this? We've all been in situations where we felt the temptation was simply overpowering. It was too great. But I believe we often fail because we haven't been honest with ourselves and we haven't turned those weaknesses over to God. James tells us about an interesting cause and effect in the spiritual world. He says "Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (4:7, NASB).
One of the first verses a new Christian should memorize (or an older Christian if you never learned it!) is 1 Corinthians 10:13: "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to humanity. God is faithful and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape, so that you are able to bear it" (HCSB).
Too many times in my life I have been in situations where I simply failed to access the power of the truth found in that verse. No doubt you have, too. As believers, we have the ability to resist sin because Christ lives in us (Gal 2:20). We've got to be willing to fight back, and not lose sight of the prize, not lose sight of our calling, not lose sight of the big picture. We can't let immediate circumstances dictate the outcome of our lives or even circumstances that have long-term effects on ourselves or others.
I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who used to be in ministry. He was a pastor at one time, but currently, he is not. He said that he loved serving as a pastor, but he hated all the junk that came with it. He gave a list of examples that mostly involved nastiness on the part of certain church members. I understand his frustrations. I know what it's like to try to serve in a church and feel like so much of your efforts are being countermanded or your privacy is being invaded by the very people you are trying to help.
In light of my own experience, I made sure he knew that I wasn't throwing stones or being critical, but I tried to gently remind him of his calling. The kind of situations he described are distractions. They are the fiery arrows hurled by the devil. Sometimes they are serious enough to leave scars. But we can't focus on them and lose sight of what it is that God has called us to do.
Whatever it takes. We cannot lose our focus. Many times I've done it to myself. I've let myself become so distracted by other things, distracted sometimes by good and worthy opportunities that I've lost sight of what it is that I'm supposed to be doing.
Jesus used rather grotesque hyperbole in Matthew 18:8-9 when he said that if our eye is causing us to stumble (i.e. sin) to pluck it out. If our hand or foot is causing us to trip up, to cut it off. He said it was better to be blind or maimed than to enter hell whole. What does this mean? Jesus is saying that whatever is coming between you and God, get rid of it. It might be painful, it might be sacrificial, and lots of folks may misunderstand, but do whatever it takes. Anything that is causing you to sin, anything that is getting in the way of your calling should be discarded (provided it can be done without sin itself--in other words, you don't put your children up for adoption so that you can be freed for the mission field).
For some "whatever it takes" will mean accountability found from a counsellor or a small group of trusted friends.
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you have a calling and you have a ministry. It doesn't matter whether you serve as a pastor or whether you serve in a downtown office, whether you are on the mission field or whether you teach in a high school classroom. The world is your mission field. Where you are right now is your place of ministry. Don't let the distractions and temptations in life get you off course from doing what God has called you to do. And regardless of how far you or I have gotten off track, God can still use us. God still has a plan.
In the end, let us join with Jim Elliot's closing prayer: "Let spirit conquer though the flesh conspire."
Be aware. Get mad. Fight back. Whatever it takes.