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Only One Life - Elisabeth Elliot

Posted by Amy Roedding , 17 June 2015 · 2665 views

Only One Life - Elisabeth Elliot This week I heard that Elisabeth Elliot had died. The first thought that came to my mind was not about death but about heaven! I thought of how a lady who had lived her life full out for Jesus was getting welcomed by so many including her Savior in heaven!

It is amazing to me to think of how one life had such an impact on so many. Even for me - I was not born yet when her husband was killed in the jungles of Ecuador but as I grew up - I had heard the story and met many for whom that true story had an impact on their life. I was on the peripheral of her influence but none-the-less her story touched me too. My husband and I ended up serving in Ecuador and to hear of the Auca/Huarani people who came to Christ through the influence of this woman and others was amazing to see. I think sometimes we get discouraged especially in tough times - and the enemy uses this to shut us down. But really God is at work and as Elisabeth Elliot and her baby daughter went back to Ecuador to serve this was a huge offensive in the face of the enemy!!

Elisabeth Ellitot touched my life as I was able to hear her speak in a chapel in Quito and then I listened to her radio program Gate Way to Joy where she started each broadcast with - You are loved with an everlasting love. That's what the Bible says. And underneath are the everlasting arms. This is your friend, Elisabeth Elliot. This program really had an influence on me as a young mom and wife. Nancy Leigh DeMoss noted in her blog this week honoring Elisabeth Elliot that Elisabeth kept coming back to this message: God doesn't exist to meet our needs. Ultimately, He is God; He is worthy of our obedience, our worship, and our surrender to Him as Lord http://www.truewoman.com/?id=3205. My youngest daughter, Kassi read Through Gates of Splendor while she was a high school student in Quito and it had an influence on her young life. I remember her finishing it and coming out of her room with tears streaming down her face.

As I think of our C&MA family and those who feel God's call on their life to serve him overseas where it is difficult - I want them to be encouraged by Elisabeth's life to persevere and to be amazed at how God can use them to have such an influence for His kingdom. And sometimes there will be those on the peripheral of our lives who we will never know the influence we had on them until heaven.

Last year another saint went home to be with Jesus - Dayuma - the first Auca to come to Christ after the missionaries were killed. Can you imagine the joy in heaven when Elisabeth and Dayuma met each other? Even if Elisabeth had only lived to help bring this tribe to Christ - this was enough but it doesn't work that way - her one life had peripheral influence that will keep on moving out into a larger and larger ripple effect for the kingdom. What if she had given up?

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I have been reading Psalm 139 a lot lately and verse 16 states Your eyes saw me when i was inside the womb. All the days ordained for me were recorded in your scroll before one of them came into existence. This has encouraged me to not give up and to live the life God has uniquely allowed me to live for His kingdom. Elisabeth Elliot was an example of this for my own life. Only one life but she lived it well.

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Merilyn Lauffer
Jul 30 2015 08:03 AM

Thank you for these thoughts, Amy.  I too was influenced by Elisabeth Elliot as a young girl.  I read many of her books and went to hear her speak. I was challenged to go even to a place of constant unrest. What a women of grace faith and fortitude! She had such a kingdom prospective on life.  We need more heroes of the faith.

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Elizabeth Elliot was like a spiritual mother to me. She had a great impact on my life as a young wife and mother of four. She was an encourager, helper, teacher and I felt, a friend, who came to visit me once a day over the radio. I know she is enjoying her reward for a life well-lived for Him.

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