crucified with Christ

Rainbows are made of sunlight and rain. The sunlight, which turned my world into a radiance of colour, was the knowledge of Jim Elliot's love. The rain was the other fact he explained to me as we sat on the grass by the Lagoon - that God was calling him to remain single. Perhaps for life, perhaps only until he had had firsthand experience in the place where he was to work as a jungle missionary. Older missionaries had told him that single men were needed to do jobs married ones could never do. There were some areas where women could not go. Jim took their word for it and committed himself to bachelorhood for as long as the will of God required...

We had sat on the grass by the lake and talked of how each had agonised over the question of singleness, knowing that our chances of finding a mate in missionary work would be strictly limited. Jim said he had no intention of looking for one. He had found the one he wanted.

"If I marry, I know who it'll be. That is, of course, if she'll have me." He flashed his famous smile. I smiled in reply. He hastened to add, "But I'm not asking. I can't do that, Bett, and you'll have to understand that. I can't ask you to marry me, and I can't ask you to commit yourself to anything whatever. I can't even ask you to wait. I've given you and all my feelings for you to God. He'll have to work out whatever He wants."

- Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ's Control

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." - Galatians 2:20 (NIV)

"Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires." - Galatians 5:24 (NIV)

"May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." - Galatians 6:14 (NIV)

Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid?
Your heart does the Spirit control?
You can only be blest
And have peace and sweet rest
As you yield Him your body and soul

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will." - Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)

links: the LORD will provide (6 jun 09), at any cost (24 sep 09)