If God would grant us the vision....

"If God would grant us the vision, the word sacrifice would disappear from our lips and thoughts; we would hate the things that seem now so dear to us; our lives would suddenly be too short, we would despise time-robbing distractions and charge the enemy with all our energies in the name of Christ." 

We just finished reading the old book “Through Gates of Splendor” by Elizabeth Elliot.  It is primarily composed from the diaries of the 5 men slain by the Auca Indians in Ecuador in January of 1956….much better than the movie, by the way.  

It was kind of eerie reading the men’s thoughts as they made their secret plans to engage the Auca’s of Ecuador and hearing the first hand accounts of the events that led up to their martyrdom.  The words from Nate Saint on page 176 especially struck me and I wanted to share them here, as a challenge to us all to consider those who are still unreached and unenaged. 

On Sunday afternoon, December 18, Nate Saint sat at his typewriter to tell the world why they were going—just in case. In speaking these words he spoke for all:  

As we weigh the future and seek the will of God, does it seem right that we should hazard our lives for just a few savages?  As we ask ourselves this question, we realize that it is not the call of the needy thousands, rather it is the simple intimation of the prophetic Word that there shall be some from every tribe in His presence in the last day and in our hearts we feel that it is pleasing to Him that we should interest ourselves in making an opening into the Auca prison for Christ.  

As we have a high old time this Christmas, may we who know Christ hear the cry of the damned as they hurtle headlong into the Christ-less night without ever a chance.  May we be moved with compassion as our Lord was.  May we shed tears of repentance for these we have failed to bring out of darkness.  Beyond the smiling scenes of Bethlehem may we see the crushing agony of Golgotha.  May God give us a new vision of His will concerning the lost and our responsibility.

Would that we could comprehend the lot of these stone-age people who live in mortal fear of ambush on the jungle trail…those to whom the bark of a gun means sudden, mysterious death…those who think all men in all the world are killers like themselves.  If God would grant us the vision, the word sacrifice would disappear from our lips and thoughts; we would hate the things that seem now so dear to us; our lives would suddenly be too short, we would despise time-robbing distractions and charge the enemy with all our energies in the name of Christ.  May God help us to judge ourselves by the eternities that separate the Aucas from a comprehension of Christmas and Him, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor so that we might, through His poverty, be made rich. 

Lord, God, speak to my own heart and give me to know Thy Holy will and the joy of walking in it.  Amen.