Grace and Peace

I came into our bedroom and found Terrance (Josh's Chinese Crested) asleep in my pillows.  Not a bad life:  eat, go outside for a walk, and then sleep.  I think lots of folk might sign up for that for a day or two.

"God is God. Because He is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will, a will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to." - Elisabeth Elliot

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. - (Psalm 23 English Standard Version)

Elisabeth Howard was born in Brussels, Belgium, where her parents served as missionaries.  When she was a few months old, her parents brought her home to the U.S.  As a young adult, she responded to God's call and prepared for service as a missionary.  After Elisabeth graduated from Wheaton College she went to Ecuador as a missionary.

In 1953 she and former classmate (and missionary), Jim Elliot, were married in the city of Quito. Together they worked on translating the New Testament into the language of the Quichua Indians.  While in Ecuador, their daughter, Valerie, was born on February 27, 1955.  Life was purposeful and good.

Jim Elliot hoped for the opportunity to contact an unreached tribe. The Huaorani (an indigenous Ecuadorian tribe sometimes referred to as the Aucas) were in that category--a fierce group whom no one had succeeded in meeting without being killed. After discovering their whereabouts, Jim and four other missionaries ventured into Huaorani territory. After a friendly contact with three of the tribe, they attempted to initiate further face-to-face contact with a larger group.  While attempting to take the Gospel to the Huaorani on January 8, 1956, Jim and four other missionaries were killed by being pierced with spears and hacked by machetes.

Elisabeth and the other wives were stunned by the death of their husbands.  Yet, Elisabeth did not abandon the faith nor was she sidetracked from her calling and commitment to their mission.  She continued her work with the Quichua for two more years.

By the gracious hand of God, two Huaorani women lived among the Quichua at that time.  One of the ladies named Dayuma taught the Hauo language to Elisabeth and her fellow missionary Rachel Saint.  When Dayuma returned to the Huaorani, she created an opening for contact by the missionaries. In October 1958, Mrs. Elliot, her three year old daughter Valerie, and Rachel Saint went to live with the Huaorani.

The Elliots and their friends became known worldwide; in part due to Life Magazine which published a ten-page article on their mission and the deaths of the men.  Their testimony sparked a renewed interest in missionary service and still serves as a reminder of the power of God through a transformed life.

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

John Newton lived to be eighty-two years old.  He continued to preach and have an active ministry until he was hampered by fading health in the last two or three years of his life.  Even then, Newton never ceased to be amazed by God's grace and told his friends, "My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things: That I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior."

I found this description of John Newton's salvation experience at Glimpses of Christian History on GospelCom.Net.  As you read it, I pray you will experience anew the thrill that comes from witnessing an act of God's grace.

The Greyhound had been thrashing about in the north Atlantic storm for over a week. Its canvas sails were ripped, and the wood on one side of the ship had been torn away and splintered. The sailors had little hope of survival, but they mechanically worked the pumps, trying to keep the vessel afloat. On the eleventh day of the storm, sailor John Newton was too exhausted to pump, so he was tied to the helm and tried to hold the ship to its course. From one o'clock until midnight he was at the helm.

With the storm raging fiercely, Newton had time to think. His life seemed as ruined and wrecked as the battered ship he was trying to steer through the storm. Since the age of eleven he had lived a life at sea. Sailors were not noted for the refinement of their manners, but Newton had a reputation for profanity, coarseness, and debauchery which even shocked many a sailor.

He was known as "The Great Blasphemer." He sank so low at one point that he was even a servant to slaves in Africa for a brief period. His mother had prayed he would become a minister and had early taught him the Scriptures and Isaac Watts' Divine Songs for Children. Some of those early childhood teachings came to mind now. He remembered Proverbs 1:24-31, and in the midst of that storm, those verses seemed to confirm Newton in his despair:

Because I have called, and ye refused . . . ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also laughed at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh: when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish come upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer.

Newton had rejected his mother's teachings and had led other sailors into unbelief. Certainly he was beyond hope and beyond saving, even if the Scriptures were true. Yet, Newton's thoughts began to turn to Christ. He found a New Testament and began to read. Luke 11:13 seemed to assure him that God might still hear him: "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him."

That day at the helm, March 21, 1748, was a day Newton remembered ever after, for "On that day the Lord sent from on high and delivered me out of deep waters." Many years later, as an old man, Newton wrote in his diary of March 21, 1805: "Not well able to write; but I endeavor to observe the return of this day with humiliation, prayer, and praise." Only God's amazing grace could and would take a rude, profane, slave-trading sailor and transform him into a child of God. Newton never ceased to stand in awe of God's work in his life.