BY JACK WARD
One of the most influential Christian women of the 20th century, Elisabeth Elliot, has died. Elliot, the Christian author and speaker whose husband, Jim, was killed during their short-lived but legendary missionary work among unreached tribes in eastern Ecuador in the 1950s, passed away Monday, June 15, at age 88.
She wrote two books about her husband’s martyrdom and the years she and her newborn daughter spent living among the Aucas, the tribe that killed him. Her book “Through Gates of Splendor” became a bestseller, as did Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testimony of Jim Elliot.
The daughter of missionaries to Belgium and a graduate of Wheaton College, Elliot went on to write more than a dozen additional books and launched a radio show, Gateway to Joy, which ran through 2001. Elliot’s former radio producer, Jan Wismer, described the missionary as a “pioneer and prayer warrior”.
Wismer wrote, “Elisabeth believed in asking this foundational question: ‘Is this God’s will for me, right now, in this place?’”
Unapologetically, Elisabeth espoused such truths as give to get, lose to find, and die to live. Setting her sights “on things above” (Colossians 3:1), Elisabeth ministered among three Indigenous groups in Ecuador before helping listeners and readers find joy in the ordinary affairs of life—like cooking meals and cleaning toilets—on her globally syndicated radio program. She called it living sacramentally, and her rock-solid principles shaped my life.
Some of her most quotable lines:
“Leave it all in the hands that were wounded for you.”
“This gift for this day; God still owns tomorrow.”
“If you believe in a God who controls the big things, you have to believe in a God who controls the little things.”
Elliot also wrote: “We have proved beyond any doubt that He means what He says. His grace is sufficient; nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. We pray that if any, anywhere, are fearing that the cost of discipleship is too great, that they may be given to glimpse that treasure in heaven promised to all who forsake.”
Her husband, Jim Elliot, died on a South American beach in 1956 along with four others trying to take the gospel to the Auca Indian tribe. Jim Elliot is famous for saying, “He is no fool to give that which he cannot keep, to gain that which he cannot lose.” Those Aucas were later won to Christ by the love shown them by the widows of those five men led by Elizabeth Elliot.
May we all pass through the Gates of Splendor one day, and may we all leave a legacy of faith as this great servant of Christ has.
Listen to Pastor Jack’s sermons every Sunday morning at 10:30 on 98.9 WSIP FM. Check out the Tomahawk Missionary Baptist Church Facebook page and our website at tomahawkmbc.com.