Passion and Purity (Elisabeth Elliot)

from an email March 11, 2004

Its my tradition after I finish a really good book to summarize its contents and pass it on to some of my Christian friends who i feel would benefit from reading some phrases from the book...

The other weekend I was at home and went to the Christian book store. I was looking for Every Young Man's Battle but it wasn't there so i picked up Passion and Purity... it's a book by Elisabeth Elliot (wife of the late Jim Elliot .. missionary to the Aucan Indians in the 1950's)

I thought it was excellent... 42 short 3-5 page chapters (which I liked because I could pick it up during the day or before bed and just read 1 or 2 at a time quickly)

Now most of you are probably like... Dave you don't have a girlfriend so why are you reading a book about "Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ's Control"... well .. I figure there's always time to learn right!

The book was cool too because it was really honest.. like they struggled with stuff and had to commit it to God's hands but I love the last quote that i put at the bottom of this email... they waited and were given the prize.

~~~~~~~

Pg 21-22
If you were single, you had not been in bed with any man. If you were to be permanently single, you were never going to be in bed with any man.

Even a hundred years ago anybody who quite seriously believed that and acted on it would be seen as an oddity by many people. Perhaps we were in the minority. I can't be sure about that. Certainly the majority professed to believe that sexual activity was best limited to husband and wife whether or not their private lives demonstrated this conviction. Now, however, at the beginning of the 21st century, time have changed, they tell us. For thousands of years society depended on some semblance of order in the matter of sex. A man took a wife in some regularly prescribed manner and lived with her according to recognized rules. He "messed around" with other men's wives only to his peril. A woman knew that she possessed a priceless treasure, her virginity. She guarded it jealously for the man who would pay a price for it - commitment to marriage with her and with her alone.

Somehow we've gotten the idea that we can forget all the regulations and get away with it. Times have changed, we say. We're ''liberated'' at last from our inhibitions. We have "freedom". We can in fact "have it all and not get hooked" Women can be predators if they want to as well as men. Men aren't men unless they've proved it by seducing as many women as possible - or as many men, for we now choose according to "sexual preference". We can go to bed with those of the opposite sex or those of our own. It doesn't matter. A mere question of taste, and we all have a "right" to our tastes. Everybody's equal. Everybody's free. Nobody is hung up anymore or needs to deny himself anything. In fact, nobody ought to deny himself anything he wants badly - it's dangerous. It's unhealthy. It's sick. If it feels good and you don't do it, you're paranoid. If it doesn't feel good and you do do it, you're a masochist.

Pg 45
The speaker was one of the daughter of the famous missionary to Africa C. T. Studd. She told of her father's last hours. He lay on his cot, gazing around the little hut and at his few possessions. "I wish I had something to leave to each of you," he said to the handful of people present, "but I gave it all to Jesus long ago."

Pg 54
The only way to build a house on the rock is to hear the Word (I couldn't have heard it if all I listened to was my feelings)

Pg 160
In one of Jim's letters he wrote .... I am willing that "my house on earth be emptier", but not unless "His house be fuller"

Pg 174
(After becoming engaged and preparing for a small wedding in the fall Jim writes...)

March 22 - "How shall I tell you, darling, after all I've said carelessly about your features, that now I think them all wonderfully framed? I know when it comes time for me to see them all I will remark with Solomon, "Behold, thou art fair, my love." To me it is satisfying already to know that they are promised me, and only wait God's time for unveiling. Do you know how anxious I am?

Pg 178
We were married in Quito on October 8, 1953. The McCullys and Tidmarshes were our witnesses. Others came to see us off at the airport and to throw rice at us. At the El Panama hotel, overlooking the Pacific coast of Panama, I picked up the phone shortly after we arrive. "Mrs. Elliot?" said a polite voice. I was stunned. Mrs. Elliot! It was only the front desk, inquiring if all was satisfactory in our room. We went down to dinner and as we dawdled over coffee and dessert, savoring the luxurious atmosphere and enjoying the music of a dance band, Jim looked across the candles at me. "I can hardly believe we've got a bed waiting for us!" he said.
The verse given to us for that day was Isaiah 25:9, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him." It was unspeakably worth the wait.