Posts by Jim Elliff (Page 21)
People Need the Lord: Ministry Reports from Indonesia
Below are four reports Jim sent while on a two-week trip to Indonesia. Please pray now for CCW workers Steve Burchett and Selamab Assefa who have arrived in Ethiopia for ministry in several locations over the next couple of weeks. Report 1 It’s 4:30 a.m. and we just heard the Muslim call to prayer from the minarets across this part of Bandung, where the people live in darkness. We thought of the demons hovering over the city as we listened…
What Does God Have To Do with It?
If people are converted to Christ it’s because God stooped to use inadequate people like you and me to confront them with the gospel. Like preaching to a corpse, however, we cannot cause life to invade dead souls, even if we have eloquent, logical, and emotive words. I heard of a preaching professor who took his students to a graveyard to make this very point. He stood them around the burial spot of a man and commanded them to preach…
Until We Die
Poem written for Jeannie Elliff just before her death on 7/20/15 UNTIL WE DIE Jim Elliff We don’t know how to live until we die– die to trust in living as that which keeps a life, die to fear of dying as that which ends a life. And if we die to living, And live by dying, We live the truest life by Him whose life we’re given, Who came as life And lived to die And rose to life…
Christians and No Work Sundays
Believers haven’t always had Sundays free from work. Though our culture is changing in this regard, it still is largely expected that most of our members will be exempt from Sunday work to give attention to our worship. The earliest Christians did not have such a privilege. Though surely some believed that it should be so prior to this, it appears that “work free Sundays” were imposed upon the Roman society through an A.D. 321 decree of the Roman Emperor…
“So Much Better Now” Are you Sure?
The pain has been excruciating, the hours and weeks arduous. The cost to the spouse and family who love her has been gladly expended, but jobs and daily responsibilities will necessarily decrease the hours for the daily vigil now. Added to it all of this is the treatment cost itself, sending up in smoke years of saving. “Mother is so ill,” they say to concerned friends. “We know it will be such a relief for her when she dies.” What?…
Monthly Letter | September 2014
Dear CCW Family, Years ago in what was then called a “Colored Township” in Capetown, South Africa, I wondered at the hatred that caused that circular black burn mark on the street close to the front door of the gentle believers who had opened their hearts and home to me. What causes a person to “necklace” another with a flaming tire? In those days of Apartheid, nerves were strained. Many mornings in that enchanting country we awoke to read of…
Monthly Letter | August 2014
Dear CCW Family, When I was ten, I wore the proud uniform of the Bethany Tigers, representing Bethany Baptist Church on Kansas City’s church league . . . black top, white shorts, white legs, skinny hairless arms. We contested in pseudo-basketball at the Bales Avenue Baptist Church gym. I saw the photo the other day. Deacon Jay Jones was the coach, a sign-painter not known as an athlete anytime during his life. I wasn’t the best of the players either,…
Monthly Letter | July 2014
Dear CCW Family, I was in seminary during the days of the flower children. We wore tattered bell-bottom jeans and blue work shirts with embroidered flowers and sewn-in messages about peace. On mine, those messages were also about Christ. My boots were full leather with lots of lacing. My medallion was a fish, or a cross on a leather string, way larger than you might think. We held up two fingers to symbolize peace. Our hair was long. We were…
Reject
“The stone which the builders rejected, this became the very corner stone,” and, “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense” (1 Peter 2:7-8). This is the One everyone else rejected, even when they saw Him in person and were sometimes two feet from His face. They looked the stone over and marked it unusable, not valuable, replaceable and inadequate. How could they stumble over the magnificent stone that means everything to us? How could someone like Christ be…
Monthly Letter | June 2014
Dear CCW Family, The commanding statue of Lenin in front of the Communist Headquarters building towered over us as we walked by. We entered this imposing building in what was then called Kosice, Czechoslovakia. In a short time, the building was packed with a thousand intrigued listeners, including the mayor of the city, and the television crew for the evening News. “You’ve taken the curse off this place,” the mayor said, indicating that many people had been sentenced to die…
How and When Will All Israel Be Saved?
And so all Israel will be saved. Romans 11:26 This phrase has often stymied students of the New Testament, and has been a verse with many interpretations. I offer mine. To adamantly conclude that I have the right one, or even one that has not been proposed by others is presumptuous. What I’m offering is merely from my Bible reading and not from diligently studying other authors on the subject, so I could likely be repeating what another has said.…
Reminding Me
I haven’t always liked “reminders.” Inherently, a reminder occurs because we forgot the first time—or the last 10 times—what we were told. Nobody likes to think he is so incapable of remembering. More than once as a boy who loved to daydream, my parents would send me upstairs to the bathroom to wash my hands for supper, yet I would brush my teeth instead. At other times they would find me several minutes later staring at the mirror making faces…
Frustration, Dadgumit
“Dadgumit,” my dad used to say. I have no idea what it meant, except that it was an indicator of frustration over something not working right. “Dingbusted” might also be heard. My father didn’t curse, but these might well be white-washed substitutes. We all know what frustration feels like. Something is just not working right, or is at least not going according to our plan. Some turn of events makes life more complicated than bargained for, or takes away something more…
Appreciation for the First Church I Pastored
This was the first church I pastored, though I had served as an assistant in a LR church prior to this. The gracious people of this church allowed me to pastor them while I was in Ouachita University in the late 60s. It was called Washington Baptist Church of Washington, AR (just past Hope!). Washington had 400 residents at the time, and was the Civil War capital in Arkansas. Now it is a state park and well worth your time…
The Year Beginning Now — Making Plans?
You may have reason to fear the year now upon us. What is on the other side of the door? Every person has their allotment of trouble, even among believers. Will there be loss, illness, death, aggravation, perplexity? Will those you love come to distrust you? Will you sin badly, ruining your reputation? Will there be economic trials and anxiety over money? Will you lose your job, or worse, your mind? Will you be hurt deeply? Will you be in…
Our Relatives and Friends Without Christ
I once heard a professor say, “Tragedy is anything that happens to an unbeliever.” Believers have it better. In fact, all that happens to believers works out for good (Rom 8:28). The unbeliever’s supposed good times, the mercies that he receives which ought to lead him to repentance, will bring him pain. Mercies that are sinned against, augment future punishment. They are temporary mercies, but eternal loss. Among those who have mercy now are some in our own families without Christ.…