The following is used by permission from Derek Ashton, host of the excellent THEOparadox blog site. To view his full post, “The First and Last Entries” click here. He writes:
Below is an excerpt from the first entry in Jim Elliot's Journal.
January 17, 1948 ~ What is written in these pages I suppose will someday be read by others than myself. For this reason I cannot hope to be absolutely honest in what is herein recorded, for the hypocrisy of this shamming heart will ever be putting on a front and dares not to have written what is actually found in its abysmal depths. Yet, I pray, Lord, that You will make these notations to be as nearly true to fact as is possible so that I may know my own heart and be able to definitely pray regarding my gross, though often unviewed, inconsistencies…
Help me, Lord, not to "mourn and weep" only for those things, once precious, which You teach me are but dead (whether desires, pleasures, or whatever may be precious to my soul now), but give me a willingness to put them away out of my sight (Genesis 23:4). Burying places are costly, but I would own a Machpelah where corpses (dead things in my life) can be put away.
…Out of such humility came fierce preaching and a willingness to die for the cause of Christ.
Certainly a passionate, Scripture-saturated preacher! Some thought-provoking things here. And some real challenges, too.
[Within Mr. Ashton’s blog are three parts of a sermon preached by Elliot in 1951. The Jim Elliot sermon which you can listen to on Derek Ashton’s site is entitled “The Resurrection.”]
BLOGGER BOB’S COMMENT: I had the privilege of knowing Jim Elliot very well when I was a young boy. Years later it was my privilege to transcribe and edit some of the messages he spoke prior to leaving for the mission field. They were transcribed from an old wire recorder (a forerunner to magnetic tape). These messages really show Jim’s love and zeal for God as well as his insight and wisdom. For more information on the transcriptions entitled “JIM ELLIOT: A Christian Martyr Speaks To You” (ISBN 9781615797646) click on the JE tab at the top of this blog.
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