Sacrificing Passion

Recently I've been rereading Elisabeth Elliot's Passion and Purity. I first read it in high school and then again during my freshman year at IU. That book has done a lot toward shaping me, I believe. However, I feel that I have let some of the deep truths in that book slip away from me in the last couple years. For those of you who haven't read the book: Betty Elliot tells her love story, taking from it the lessons she learned, and infusing the whole thing with a deep, very patient wisdom. The tag line is, "Learning to bring your love life under Christ's control." But it's so much more than your love life and romantic relationships. She brings up the challenges and the ways that it takes to make God sovereign in our hearts and minds. It's a solid book. You should read it. Or reread it, as the case might be.

Here's a little of what I read this morning, including passages she quotes from elsewhere:

"...verses in the Daily Light...'Every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire...The Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul...Thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.' "

[from Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest] "What has been like water from the well of Bethlehem to you recently? Love, friendship, spiritual blessing? Then at the peril of your soul you take it to satisfy yourself. If you do, you cannot pour it out before the Lord. How am I to pour out spiritual gifts, or natural friendship, or love? How can I give them to the Lord? In one way only -- in the determination of your mind, and that takes about two seconds. If I hold spiritual blessings or friendship for myself they will corrupt me, no matter how beautiful they are. I have to pour them out before the Lord, give them to Him in my mind, though it looks as if I am wasting them, even as David poured out the water on the sand, to be instantly sucked up."

'God gives us material for sacrifice. Sometimes the sacrifice makes little sense to others, but when offered to Him is always accepted...Jesus accepted the precious ointment from the worshiping woman although those present thought it a foolish waster."

"...longings themselves can be offered to Him who understands perfectly. The transformation into something He can use for good of others takes place only when the offering is put into His hands."

honor above passion

Is there any idea of honor today? "...any control of passion?"

"There are those who recognize something far greater than their own passions...The majority will sacrifice anything -- security, honor, self-respect, the welfare of people they love, obedience to God -- to passion. They will even tell themselves that they are obeying God (or at least that He doesn't mind) and congratulate themselves for being so free, so released, so courageous, so honest, and 'up front.' "

...and there's much, much more. But you'll have to read it for yourself.