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INTRO
When it comes to the formation of Jim Elliott, we aren’t left to speculate. I’ve been reading the Journals of Jim Elliott, which span the period from his college years to the week before his death. They give a deep insight into his inner life, and the development of his spiritual desires. I’ve been reading through them, along with his biography, written by his wife Elizabeth Elliot.
Unlike the men in our previous episodes, Jim trusted the Lord early in life.
His parents and the atmosphere of his home had a huge impact on his faith and heart for souls.
His dad Fred was an itinerant preacher, and during childhood his parents often hosted missionaries in the home.
The word of God was read, his parents prayed for him and with him. Even as a young man, the influence and example of Fred Elliott on his son is clear. Though his dad never went to bible college, Jim was impressed by his father's grasp of God’s word:
January 29th 1949. Dad talks shame me to silence.
I know nothing of the Word, little of God's ways, when I think of how far he has gone into the secret riches of the Father's purposes in Christ.
Jim was not only influenced by his father and mother. Often, missionaries stayed in their home, and in his teens, he was stirred by reading the biographies of pioneer missionaries, such as David Livingstone (Livingstone the Liberator – by McNair) and Behind the Ranges (about James G Frazer in Lisuland, by Mrs Howard Taylor)
Even as a teen, he had a love for the outdoors, a pioneer spirit and a default for action.
He was “forward motion on the loose!” At high school, he would say grace before eating his lunch, carry his Bible around on top of his pile of textbooks, and talk to anyone he could about Christ.
When he entered Wheaton College at age 17 (in 1945), it was for the purpose of getting prepared for serving the Lord.
Elizabeth Elliott writes, ‘he eliminated all that he felt would distract him from this objective, dating being one example of such a distraction. He made a habit of getting up early in the morning in order to have uninterrupted time for prayer and Bible study.’
In the summer of 1947, when Jim Elliot was about 19 years old, he and his friend Ron Harris hitchhiked from the United States to Mexico, where Harris's parents were missionaries
Around this time, he also began to take responsibility in his local church, especially when his dad and older brother Bert were away on evangelistic trips.
His published journals begin in his third year of college, when he was 20 years old. We find him as a serious young man, ambitious to serve God on the mission field, bold with his faith among his peers, intentional about his use of time and talents (for example, he took up outdoor track training to prepare his body for the rigours of missionary life)
We also find him with plenty of flaws, with much still to learn.
Part 1: Turning the Word into Prayer
I would say the first major influence on him in these early years of manhood, was the Word of God. During his college years, he committed to reading and studying the Word, setting aside time in the morning, noon and evening.
His journal entries through the year 1948 are filled with his notes and reflections on the Old Testament. He read bit by bit each day, from Genesis to Isaiah.
As I read his journal, I’m struck by his yielded heart, how he lets the word affect him, convict him, change him.
January 29 - Genesis 35 Lord, I would recenter my spiritual life as Jacob does in this portion. Instead of Beth-el, he centers his experience on El Beth-el – not the house of God but the God of that house. Often I feel compassion for Thy church, because it is visible and can be physically apprehended, but I would not have that be my concern any longer. Lord, I want to be centering my interest on Thee, the God of God’s house. Be then revealed to me that my desires might be fixed on the primary thing.
Then, in the evening of that same day, ‘God, I pray, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn up for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is thine. I seek not a long life by a full one like Yours, Lord Jesus.
Often his journals turn into prayer, I can almost hear his heart’s cry, ‘O Lord…’
Later, as he read over his journal, Jim seems to have noticed this pattern too.
“wish I could find phrases to express that little ‘oh’ which I see so prevalent in these jottings”
I’ll share some of these little prayers that rose out of his Bible study that year:
Feb. 3. Gen. 40 — O God, save me from a life of barrenness...
Feb 24. Ex 5. Lord make me patient like Moses to await Thy great working. Oh, that it might be soon. Don’t let us go on longer in our complacency — Rouse us with judgments...
May 5. Num 10–12 — Make me feel more still of a concern for Thy church... (he continues) raise up others who will share in this work of carrying Thy people. O God, show us the power of Thy holiness...
May 11. Num 21 — Teach me patience in this waiting time. O God, I crave Thy power.
May 26. Deut. 5. verse 29 speaks especially as I read. “Oh that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always...” Oh, that I had such a heart!
July 29. 1 Sam. 16 — on the elders of Bethlehem trembling at the coming of the prophet: “Lord, will Thou impart holiness of this sort to me? I can make men laugh; I cannot make them tremble.”
Aug. 14. 2 Sam. 23 O, may God revive this work in this country. I want to become pleasing unto thee (none else) and I pray that you would make of me a minister who is a burning fire.
(Ps 104:4).
Tonight the word comes from 2 Sam. 23:2: “The Spirit spake by me, because the word was in me.” O, fill me with Thy Word, Saviour, that the Spirit may have free course in transmitting its message!
September 3rd — Philippians 3:8. Paul said, “I count all loss that I may win, not souls, but Christ.”
Oh, that he would be to me as he was to Zinzendorf, the master passion of life. My heart panteth after thee, not results or power.
September 20th — 2 Chronicles 20. I cannot explain the yearnings of my heart this morning. Cannot bring myself to study or to pray for any length of time. Oh, what a jumble of cross-currented passions I am. A heart so deceitful, it deceives itself. May Christ satisfy my thirst. May the river rock pour out himself to me in this desert place.
September 21st — 2 Chronicles 34. “Because thine heart was tender... when thou heardest the word... and didst humble thyself... and didst weep before me, I have heard thee.” Verse 27.
Josiah was my age when this took place. Verse 3. But he had a heart of a different sort. Of weeping I know so little, of genuine humility and tenderness I know less. Oh, Spirit of God, rouse me to feel these things, I pray.
September 22nd — Ezra 1 and 2. O Lord, let me tremble to run ahead of thee. I acknowledge thy time as best. Only give me grace to wait for it. I would not be self-stirred, but wait for thy stirring up, be raised up only by thy Spirit in me.
October 9th, evening — Romans 15. Every hour I need thee. Verse 13. I claim for these days. My love is faint, my warmth practically nil. Thoughts of his coming flicker and make me tremble. Oh, that I were not so empty-handed.
Joy and peace can only come in believing, and that is all I can say to him tonight. Lord, I believe. I don't love, I don't feel, I don't understand, I can only believe. Bring thy faith to fruition, great harvest, Lord, produce in me, I pray.
October 15th. Noon. Psalm 2. How terrible the laugh of my God (verse 14). Twice He has told me of this today (Proverbs 1, verse 26). Now He mourned over those who will not be gathered, but in that day He shall laugh. Surely in this case, sorrow is better than laughter (Ecclesiastes 7, verse 3). ... Oh, Soul-lover, make my emotions coincide with thine. Now I would weep – Joy cometh in the morning (Psalm 30, verse 5).
October 22nd — Psalm 11. Sense a deep root of bitterness within.
Father, there is very really in me a thing which I must come to hate, that incurably wicked heart which spawns thoughts and words before I even realize it is at work ...O be merciful.
November 9th — Psalm 38. “To bring to remembrance.” I don't know why David put that in the heading, but I certainly feel as though I needed something of the sort.
O Lord, how cold I grow! How soon I forget all Thy benefits! Do bring me to remember Thee more often and with more intensity.
November 8th — Psalm 39, Ecclesiastes 6. O soul of mine, what shall it be for thee in the day that thou standest before the God who breathed thee?
I know thou shalt be destitute of the charm you now seek to impress earth-dwellers with. No smiles of friendship when the soul is weighed. Only stark reality. O the mercy of God!
December 5th — Isaiah 7. Deep sense of uselessness this morning ...O Lord, deliver me from the spirit of this faithless generation.
...O Christ, let me know Thee. Let me catch glimpses of Thyself seated and expectant in glory.
December 13th — Psalm 65. Immanuel! O the glory of a God who can come to those He loves.
...O Jesus, my Emmanuel, how grateful I am that Thou art no less with me in common places than in more elevated ones.
By January 1949, Jim had reached Jeremiah in his morning devotion.
January 15th — Jeremiah 5, verse 7. “How can I pardon thee?”
I sense, Lord, that this must be Your attitude about America. O how we resemble the well-fed blasphemous Judah. There is no fear of God among us. Yea, saint and sinner alike have lost all thought of reckoning with Thee.
O Lord, enlarge the mercy for this people. Manifest Thy power so that they at least will have genuine witness to Thee. Arouse the church, awake the sinners. Abundantly pardon.
I tremble for these – and me.
January 29th. O Lord, let me learn tenderness and silence in my spirit, fruits of Thy knowledge. Burden, burn, break me, Lord.
January 31st – Jeremiah 25,26. 23 years was Jeremiah pleading with his people. Give me to know thy full counsel for my generation that I might heed this saying: diminish not word.
March 10th — Oh the awful emptiness of a full life when Christ stands yet without. he has shown me... The world is fading away
April 20th — John 9 and 10. Thought on Greek of John 9, verse 39 last night ... Christ came into the world for a decision, a crisis, a passing of sentence. Oh, that I represented Him thus, pressing His claims upon men in such a way that they were forced to an issue about His person.
May 29th., The words of my mouth, O God, let them be as Thine arrows. Blunt them not, nor let them fall short of targets viewed in Thy design. Kind Spirit, own these lips, I pray.
We could go on, but I think that gives us a rich sense of how Jim was reading his Bible, of how his spirit was being stirred and his desires transformed by the Word.
In his journal, Jim also confessed his weaknesses, whether lust or pride or foolishness or spiritual coldness.
In the summer of 1948, he struggled with lusting, while on a train journey. But was encouraged by reading The Growth of a Soul (the life of Hudson Taylor). He wrote in his journal: ‘Oh, that christ were all and enough for me. He is supposed to be, and I dare not say, ‘Why hast thou made me thus?’ Oh, to be swept away in a flood of consuming passion for Jesus that all desire might be sublimated to him”
April 14th fellowship with the gang is enticing fun. Nothing bad, just nothing good.
April 23rd dorm party with Florence Kelsy tonight. Got to cutting up again. Oh when will I ever mature?
July 10. ”Folly shot another sunday evening.” He had enjoyed blessing in the meetings that day, but had then, to use his words, “joked away the blessing”. He writes, “Sorry Father – dead flies. Restore me in mercy”
Later that week, “much in exercise about personal holiness, which I dreadfully lack. Argued loudly with Mom at supper before the whole family tonight. Wretched ingrate!”
July 26. “Confession of pride – suggested by David Brainerd’s diary yesterday – must become an hourly thing with me.” He then confesses “how vile and base my thoughts have been lately. However dare I minister to God’s saints in such a condition. Lord. rebuke my flesh and deliver my heart from evil.”
Aug 27. “Climbed Mount Hood all night (had one hour rest) then to the assembly picnic at Lewisville Park…too tired and lapsed into playing rowdy songs on the harmonica. Became critical of everything and despaired of any good. Wasted the evening.”
Sept 2. After a missionary report about God’s work in Jamaica, he writes, “Revive thy work, O Lord. Deadness, leanness, shallowness – things I have accused fundamentalists of – I now find true of myself.”
Oct 13. Terrible conflicts with my passions yesterday and last night.
His desires for God and holiness, are mingled with his sinful tendencies – of pride, lust, harsh criticism... This encourages me.
Part 2: Spiritual Friendships
The second major influence in his college years are his friends – and a particular young woman called Elizabeth ‘or Betty’ Howard (who would later become his wife)
He was part of the FMF - the Foreign Missionary Fellowship — a student missionary organisation at Wheaton College. They met to pray in the early morning, and organised talks with visiting missionaries. Jim travelled across other colleges, with his close friend Dave Howard, and a few others, to speak to students about living a life wholly for God.
Bill Cathers was also among his closest friends - they went on excursions, talked, prayed together, went to conferences and lectures …
April 27 1949 ‘blessed fellowship with Bill C. at noon.—Ephesians 4.
After College, Jim continued to write to his friends - this is an excerpt from a letter from Jim to Bill (July 1949):
Your word about serving the Lord as Paul and Barnabas did together was not a new idea to me. It has often been my secret wish, and I should not be surprised if it is one of those things that is in the mind of our Great Shepherd-God to stir us on by one another’s faith. But we can wait His time in this, too.
Ed McCully was another ‘old buddy’ of Jim’s. And there were others.
He sought the help of older Christians too in learning to live for God, and at times he would ask them to pray for him.
‘Had fellowship in prayer with brother Harper, and discussion of the things of God. A happy experience’
And throughout these years, Betty Howard was a huge influence.
I don’t want to cover their whole relationship, but as they delayed courtship, waiting for God’s timing, they continued to write to each other – and it was chiefly a spiritual relationship. They shared their Bible studies, updates on life, their thoughts on service and marriage, books they had read, and often encouraged each other, and at times challenged each other.
He let Betty read his journals.
“Betty, on reading these pages, exhorts me to confidence rather than the despairing attitude she senses is prevalent” “we have the mind of Christ … we have received the spirit from god … things prepared (1 cor 2) – Oh, how much has been God’s giving! … How free and rich! But I fail to apprehend for lack of faith. Betty charges me with this daily.
Part 3: Waiting
The final thing I want to look at is how Jim Elliot waited for God’s guidance … and how God continued to work in his life during the period of waiting.
After graduating with highest honours from Wheaton, Jim drove West to Portland, Oregon - expecting to stay there for at least the next three months.
He did not know what he was to do next. But he would wait on God to show him the way.
July 8. Home at last … God preserve me from living a life which conforms to the general pattern. Oh to live above the world, ‘in public duty and in private thinking’, as J. G. Holland puts it. … to whom shall I go for counsel for a way of life? To whom for example? To Thee, Lord? Yea, I come to Thee”
Elizabeth Elliot describes this period:
“1949, summer-fall. After his graduation from Wheaton, Jim stayed at home for a year to know the will of God concerning where he was to serve him, and using the time to help at home, to learn to preach (on street corners, in jails, at the ‘brethren’ assembly, and to do odd jobs.”
Throughout these early years, while Jim’s heart longed for missionary work, he kept busy with spiritual service that was in front of him.
In college, he had spent many Saturdays, in gospel outreach at the train station in Chicago.
Now in his year at home, he got to kept busy for God where he was in Oregon, or in the neighbouring states.
The summer started out with Jim helping his dad in a week of meetings at Billings. There seemed to have been a festering split in the church. Jim reflects: “Paul’s words to the Ephesian elders sobered me last eve, ‘I arrived in Asia as a slave of the Lord with all lowliness and tears …’ I ever lacked any two graces and needed them worse … Lowliness – I know not what it means, and tears … I haven’t shed any for months.”
The next month, Jim visited some folk in Missoula. He wrote again in his journal: “they are a warning to me. The cares of this life press hard upon them, and I fear that they have fallen as did the Ephesians from love (Rev. 2). Then … how ever shall I learn to represent thee favourably , my Lord? To whom should I go for counsel for a way of life - to Thee? Yea, I come to Thee”
Some days, he was found painting the church hall.
And most days, he spent in reading, Bible study and prayer.
At this point of his life, the life of David Brainerd influenced Jim greatly.
Aug. 1. Some spiritual stir over reading David Brainerd. … through this period uh Jim he kept reading Brainard's diaries as well as other missionaries missionary biographies
At this time, he's reflecting over the biographies he's read in the past. He remembers reading Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret and The Growth of a Soul, and reading J. G. Paton's biography. He really is valuing at this time the biography as something that benefits the Christian. He says, "Oh Lord, let me be granted grace to imitate their faith."
In November, he read Under a Thatch Roof by Rosemary Cunningham, which is a story of a five-year term on the Jingo River of Brazil. Again, he says, "I've stirred for pioneer work like the feeling I had on finishing McNair's Livingstone the Liberator a couple of years ago."
November 19th, he says, "Remember with profit the reading of Behind the Ranges, the story of the pioneer work of James G. Fraser in Luluand." He was obviously spending that time getting influenced by these stories and these examples of missionaries who'd gone before. About Brainerd's diary, however, he says, "It stirs me up much to prayer and wonder at my nonchalance while I have not far from God."
October 8th, he notes that God began a glorious work in a season David Brainerd was not expecting it. And again, he notes, "He ordained strength out of weakness." Whence I learned that it is good to follow the path of duty, though in the midst of darkness and discouragement.
Some days he was reading much of the day. October the 27th, he says, "Have spent the last two days reading six to eight hours a day. I prayed for new men, fiery, reckless men possessed of uncontrollably youthful passion, these lit by the Spirit of God." Then he writes, "Lord, fill the preachers and preaching with Thy power."
And we see this longing that's rising up from some of these biographies he's reading and of these times when the Lord has worked. He longed for that to be in his day.
It was during this period of waiting that we come upon the famous words of Jim Elliot. They are found in the middle of a journal entry on October the 28th. He had been studying in Ephesians and in his journal wrote these words. We're in 1949 here.
And he says, "One of the greatest blessings of heaven is the appreciation of heaven on earth." Ephesians truth. And then he says, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." Luke 16:9. "That when it fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations."
I think it's very interesting that just two days after the statement, Jim came upon a call to go to Ecuador.
October 29th, Ephesians 4:6 was his reading. And then he writes, "On the reading of Wilfred T. March's letter to Bert, that's his brother, written September 9th." He says, "I responded to a simple urge within me to offer myself for the work there in the jungle of Ecuador."
December, his dad told him that people were talking about him being unemployed. He responds in his journal, "God knows I'm willing. Lord, I am in Thy hand and say now in faith that Thou hast led, searched, exercised and tried me. If there lacks now that which I should be doing and am not, oh Lord, hide it not from Thy servant."
And the year 1949 ends with this entry on December 31st.
New Year's Eve, light-hearted and empty all day, moved to sober prayer again after reading Ted Marsh's moving letter of December 29th. "Oh Lord, You see the place secret in me. You know all my wanderings and reserves. If You see anything in me that is holding back the clear revelation of Your will about Ecuador, uncover it to me. If You find no man to encourage him, then send an angel, Lord. And if it is Your will that I should go there, then send me soon."
And soon enough, the Lord did send Jim Elliot there.
Elizabeth Elliot writes about the early part of 1950. Jim remained at home until he went to the University of Oklahoma in the summer to take a course in descriptive linguistics, which would prepare him for work with tribes with unwritten languages. It was there that he made the decision to go to Ecuador.
That year, another letter came from Ecuador. This time it mentioned an unreached tribe, the Aucas. Elizabeth writes, "Jim's heart was immediately set on fire. A tribe untouched by civilization. The pioneer spirit in him was kindled at the very thought."
In 1952, Jim sailed for Ecuador with the intention of reaching these tribal peoples. In 1955, they discovered a settlement from the air and began dropping gifts from their plane—axes and things like that. The Aucas began to wave and show signs of trust.
And then we come to January '56. Five men landed on a sandbar on the Curaray River and established a small camp. They made contact with a few Aucas. They gave one tribesman even a flight on the plane.
And then, on January the 8th, Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Pete Fleming, Nate Saint, and Roger Youderian were all murdered by a group of Auca warriors.
Jim was 28 years old. He never got to see his earthly ambitions fulfilled—to see the Auca people reach for Christ, to see a church planted in their settlement. But his prayers from his college years had been answered, his desires fulfilled.
Remember when he had said, "I seek not a long life, but a full one like Yours, Lord Jesus." Or when he had prayed, "I pray that You make me a minister who is a burning fire." Or the time he prayed, "Oh God, save me from a life of barrenness." Or the time he says, "Oh, that Christ would be to me the master passion of life."
Jim was a man who had learned to yield all to God in his living and in his dying. He counted Christ worthy of everything. He believed that every sacrifice was worth giving.
And so we finish this episode with the words written that October night in 1949, when Jim was back home waiting on the Lord in Portland: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
