Operation Auca
This Article was posted on Bob Bixby's blog, Pensees, today, and I wanted to share it with you.
Five Martyrs Died Fifty Years Ago Today
Guest Entry by Ryan Boomershine
Sunday, January 8, 2006, marks the 50th anniversary of the deaths of Ed McCully, Roger Yoderian, Nate Saint, Pete Fleming and Jim Elliot on the bank of the Curaray River in the jungles of Ecuador, South America.
Some called it a waste-of zeal and potential and youth. We call it a prime example of men used fully by God. They were martyred for the sake of Christ-in our era. They are heroes, and we should thank God for them and their example. We should strive to be like them.
That is not to say that we should wish ourselves dead, but Luke 9:24 reads, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” We should long for our lives to be used fully in whatever pursuit God gives us-including the opportunity (or the “chance” as Amy Carmichael put it) to die. Jim’s phrase is still quoted often, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” Paul said it similarly, “And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you.”
If you’ve never read Through Gates of Splendor or Shadow of the Almighty or The Journals of Jim Eliot, you should-very soon. Let me order them for you; you can have them in days. God has been good to give us Elizabeth Elliot; He gifted her with the desire and ability to tell the story. Read these books. Teach them unto your sons in a way that their sons’ sons will still be reading them.
Truly it could be said of this band of five as it was said of those in Hebrews 11 that they were men “of whom the world was not worthy.”
Days before their death, they sang together with their wives one of the songs they claimed as their favorite…We Rest on Thee. I’ve included the text below and a link to it on the Cyberhymnal. Consider these words and pray and thank God for these men and their example (and others like them) and pray that he will make us to have such a willing faith as this.
We Rest on Thee
We rest on Thee, our Shield and our Defender!
We go not forth alone against the foe;
Strong in Thy strength, safe in Thy keeping tender,
We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.
Strong in Thy strength, safe in Thy keeping tender,
We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.
Yes, in Thy Name, O Captain of salvation!
In Thy dear Name, all other names above;
Jesus our Righteousness, our sure Foundation,
Our Prince of glory and our King of love.
Jesus our Righteousness, our sure Foundation,
Our Prince of glory and our King of love.
We go in faith, our own great weakness feeling,
And needing more each day Thy grace to know:
Yet from our hearts a song of triumph pealing,
“We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.”
Yet from our hearts a song of triumph pealing,
“We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.”
We rest on Thee, our Shield and our Defender!
Thine is the battle, Thine shall be the praise;
When passing through the gates of pearly splendor,
Victors, we rest with Thee, through endless days.
When passing through the gates of pearly splendor,
Victors, we rest with Thee, through endless days.
Five Martyrs Died Fifty Years Ago Today
Guest Entry by Ryan Boomershine
Sunday, January 8, 2006, marks the 50th anniversary of the deaths of Ed McCully, Roger Yoderian, Nate Saint, Pete Fleming and Jim Elliot on the bank of the Curaray River in the jungles of Ecuador, South America.
Some called it a waste-of zeal and potential and youth. We call it a prime example of men used fully by God. They were martyred for the sake of Christ-in our era. They are heroes, and we should thank God for them and their example. We should strive to be like them.
That is not to say that we should wish ourselves dead, but Luke 9:24 reads, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” We should long for our lives to be used fully in whatever pursuit God gives us-including the opportunity (or the “chance” as Amy Carmichael put it) to die. Jim’s phrase is still quoted often, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” Paul said it similarly, “And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you.”
If you’ve never read Through Gates of Splendor or Shadow of the Almighty or The Journals of Jim Eliot, you should-very soon. Let me order them for you; you can have them in days. God has been good to give us Elizabeth Elliot; He gifted her with the desire and ability to tell the story. Read these books. Teach them unto your sons in a way that their sons’ sons will still be reading them.
Truly it could be said of this band of five as it was said of those in Hebrews 11 that they were men “of whom the world was not worthy.”
Days before their death, they sang together with their wives one of the songs they claimed as their favorite…We Rest on Thee. I’ve included the text below and a link to it on the Cyberhymnal. Consider these words and pray and thank God for these men and their example (and others like them) and pray that he will make us to have such a willing faith as this.
We Rest on Thee
We rest on Thee, our Shield and our Defender!
We go not forth alone against the foe;
Strong in Thy strength, safe in Thy keeping tender,
We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.
Strong in Thy strength, safe in Thy keeping tender,
We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.
Yes, in Thy Name, O Captain of salvation!
In Thy dear Name, all other names above;
Jesus our Righteousness, our sure Foundation,
Our Prince of glory and our King of love.
Jesus our Righteousness, our sure Foundation,
Our Prince of glory and our King of love.
We go in faith, our own great weakness feeling,
And needing more each day Thy grace to know:
Yet from our hearts a song of triumph pealing,
“We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.”
Yet from our hearts a song of triumph pealing,
“We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.”
We rest on Thee, our Shield and our Defender!
Thine is the battle, Thine shall be the praise;
When passing through the gates of pearly splendor,
Victors, we rest with Thee, through endless days.
When passing through the gates of pearly splendor,
Victors, we rest with Thee, through endless days.