Saturday Book Club

Today, I recommend the book, Through Gates of Spendor by Elisabeth Eliot. It tells the story of the five young men who gave their lives in order to reach the Auca tribe in Ecuador in 1955. Eliott weaves her narrative around the letters and journal entries of the five men. This book has inspired and continues to inspire mission endeavors across the globe, but may have some people wondering, "Wasn't that a waste of five young, intelligent, engergetic lives?" After reading the testimonies of the men and of the wives whom they left behind, you'll know that these men lived and died in service to Christ and for the glory of God. They willingly laid down their lives for their belief and in complete reliance upon God. This book has challenged me, asking, "Do I conduct my life as if 'to live is Christ, and to die is gain?'" (Phil. 1:21) If you have listened to Stephen Curtiss Chapman's song, "There is No Greater Love," one of the Auca tribesman sings at the end of the song in his own language to God. He was one of the Auca who killed the missionaries. Their lives opened the door to these people for the gospel of Christ.

Fast Facts

Number of Pages: 274
ISBN Number: 0842371524
Publisher: Tyndale House
Where to get it: Amazon.com; Discerning Reader
Times I've read it: 1
Other books by Elisabeth Elliot: Passion and Purity; Savage My Kinsmen; Shadow of the Almighty; The Mark of a Man

Quotations from the Book:

"I have one desire now- to live a life of reckless abandon for the Lord, putting all my energy and strength into it. Maybe he'll send me to a place where the name of Jesus Christ is unknown. Jim, I'm taking the Lord at his word, and I'm trusting him to prove his word. It's kind of like putting all your eggs in one basket, but we've already put our trust in him for salvation, so why not do it as far as our life is concerned? If there's nothing to this business of eternal life we might as well lose everything in one crack and throw our present life away with our life hereafter. But if there is something to it, then everything else the Lord says must hold true likewise." - Ed McCully


"I would gladly give my life for that tribe (Aucas) if only to see an assembly of those proud, clever, smart people gathering around a table to honor the Son- gladly, gladly, gladly! What more could be given to a life?" - Pete Fleming

"During the last war we were taught to recognize that, in order to obtain our objective, we had to be expendable...This very afternoon thousands of soldiers are known by their serial numbers as men who are expendable...We know there is only one answer to our country's demand for freedom. Yet, when the Lord Jesus asks us to pay the price for world evangelization, we often answer without a word. We cannot go. We say it costs too much.

God himself laid down the law when He built the universe. He knew when He made it what the price was going to be. God didn't hold back His only Son, but gave Him up to pay the price for our failure and sin.

Missionaries constantly face expendability. Jesus said, 'There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my sake and the Gospel's but shall receive an hundred fold now in this time and in the world to come eternal life.'" - Nate Saint

"Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God." - Jim Elliot

Praise Him Still

"The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God..." Acts 16:22-25

Tonight, at an InterVarsity meeting, the mime team performed this story of Paul and Silas in prison and the background music echoed the words, "I will praise the Lord, no matter what tomorrow brings or what life has in store..." And the story struck me deeply. After being beaten and mocked and thrown in prison, these men were praising God! It also reminded me of a quotation by Margaret Clarkson:

"The sovereignty of God is the one impregnable rock to which the suffering human heart must cling. The circumstances surrounding our lives are no accident: they may be the work of evil, but that evil is held firmly within the might hand of our Sovereign Lord...All evil is subject to him, and evil cannot touch his children unless he permits it. God is the Lord of human history and of the personal history of each member of his redeemed family."

God is not the author of evil, and yet he holds dominion over all things. And he has extended his gracious love to us, not only in drawing us to him that we might in the future live in his kingdom, but he is now active in every part of our lives. "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28) Christ is are only reason, our only truth, our only strength. "Why are you downcast, O my soul, why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God for I wil yet praise him, my Saviour and my God!" (Psalm 42:11)

I will praise Him, still
By Fernando Ortega

When the morning falls on the farthest hill
I will sing His Name, I will praise Him still

When dark trials come, and my heart is filled
with the weight of doubt, I will praise Him still

For the Lord our God, He is strong to save
from the arms of death, from the deepest grave

And He gave us life in His Perfect Will
I will sing His Name, I will praise Him still.

Passion for Prayer, and Prayer for Passion

In case you didn't know, Mel Gibson will be releasing a new film in the spring called The Passion of Christ, which depicts the last twelve hours of Jesus' life. The film, starring James Caviezel of The Count of Monte Cristo as Jesus, will be entirely in Latin, Aramaic and Hebrew, possibly with subtitles. The ultimate goal is, then, to let the picture of Christ's death speak for itself.

John Piper, pastor and Christian author, has begun writing a book in conjunction with Crossway Books that will accompany the release of this movie.

Be looking for both the movie and the book. But above all, be praying that God might use these in a mighty way to further his kingdom and reach unbelievers.