When twenty-seven-year-old Jim Elliott and his friends set out to reach a remote people group of the Amazon Basin, none of the missionaries envisioned the cost that lay before them.
It was a few months after my tenth birthday when Life Magazine broke the news story. The five young men had died at the hands of Waorani tribesmen as they tried making contact with them deep in the rain forest. The men’s hope had been to, over time, share the love of God and message of Christ among the Waorani. I still recall learning the heart-rending news of their deaths.
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.
The spread of the statement that Jim Elliott had penned in his personal journal served to awaken missionary passions across a fresh generation of young men and women. A new wave of ‘Great Commission Jesus-followers’ to serve in cross-cultural mission work was born.
Jim Elliott’s “he is no fool” phrase came to challenge prevailing worldviews of many across the landscape of conventional Christianity. His statement leaving a question to ponder at a deeper level. . . What sort of things in life do matter most?
Indeed, what did Jim and his four friends (Nate, Pete, Ed, Roger) actually ‘gain’ in the yielding up of their hearts, talents, treasures, and very lives?
And, when the fellows in Jesus’ provocative parables opts without hesitation to let go of all they have in order to obtain the “gain”, just what is that gain?
The New Testament pharisee-turned-apostle sings, The treasure is Jesus! With an ever-growing nearness and loving obedience to him.
“For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”*
©2025 Jerry Lout *Philippians 1:21 (Paul)
Jim Elliot and the others were martyred on the very day I was born: Jan 8th, 1956.
Remarkable
TOUCHING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CHALLENGING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you, brother.