A Heart on Fire: Kindling from Jim Elliot

My friend Susan and I were sharing a room at a retreat.  I was reading Shadow of the Almighty:  The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot by Elizabeth Elliot.Astounded at the depth and insight and commitment Jim Elliot expressed throughout his journals, I turned to Susan and said, “Why don’t my journals sound like this?”  I was especially startled at how often he mentions "having only a short life in which to serve God."I was touched and challenged repeatedly by his words.  They were Kindling to my spirit.   So I would like to share a few of them with you.  May they be fireseeds in your life. He is no fool..."He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."“God preserve me from living a life that conforms to the general pattern.  To whom shall I go for counsel for a way of life?  To whom for example?  To thee Lord?  Yea , I come to thee."“Oh, Lord, you see the secret places in me.  If you see anything in me that is holding back the clear revelation of your will, uncover it to me, I pray.”Have it all, Lord...“Father take my life, even my blood, if thou wilt, and consume it with thine enveloping fire.  I would not save it, for it is not mine to save.   Have it Lord, have it all.  Pour my life as an oblation for the world.  Blood is only of value as it flows before thine altars.”“I pray that the Lord might crown this year with His goodness and in the coming one give you a hallowed, dare-devil spirit in lifting the biting sword of Truth, consuming you with a passion that is called by the cultured citizen of Christendom 'fanaticism', but known to God as that saintly madness that led His Son through bloody sweat and hot tears to agony on a rude Cross---and Glory!" "Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me.""Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God."...that I may burn for Thee."God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life, that I may burn for Thee.  Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine.  I seek not a long life, but a full one, like You, Lord Jesus."“Rest in this - it is His business to lead, command, impel, send, call or whatever you want to call it.  It is your business to obey, follow, move, respond, or what have you.”“Oh, the fullness, pleasure, sheer excitement of knowing God on Earth!  I care not if I never raise my voice again for Him, if only I may love Him, please Him.  Mayhap in mercy He shall give me a host of children that I may lead them through the vast star fields to explore His delicacies whose finger ends set them to burning.  But if not, if only I may see Him, touch His garments, smile into His eyes -- ah then, not stars nor children shall matter, only Himself.”“Most laws condemn the soul and pronounce sentence.  The result of the law of my God is perfect.  It condemns but forgives.  It restores - more than abundantly - what it takes awayLeave the choice to Him...“God always gives His best to those who leave the choice with him.”"There is within a hunger after God, given of God, filled by God.  I can be happy when I am conscious that he is doing what He wills to do within."“As your life is in His hands, so are the days of your life. But don’t let the sands of time get into the eye of your vision to reach those who sit in darkness. They simply must hear.”I must not think it strange if God takes in youth those whom I would have kept on earth till they were older. God is peopling Eternity, and I must not restrict Him to old men and women.”“The will of God is always a bigger thing than we bargain for.”“Saturate me with the oil of the Spirit that I may be aflame. But flame is often short-lived. Canst thou bear this, my soul? Short life? In me there dwells the spirit of the Great Short-Lived, whose zeal for God’s house consumed Him. ‘Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.’”Oh, Lord, set my heart on fire.  Ignite my spirit with Your holiness and Your passion.  May my life be kindling to start fires in the hearts and minds of all I encounter.--Philip James Elliot (October 8, 1927 – January 8, 1956) was a missionary to Ecuador, where he and his missionary friend--.Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, Peter Fleming Nate Saint--were martyred.