Thesis Statement Of Jesus' Encounter With The Rich Young Ruler

Christ Jesus Helps All Parents Thrive!

What God Has Joined Together

These five words are a tremendous comfort:

"What God has joined together . . . ." Jesus (Matthew 19:6)

1. These five words are a tremendous comfort for single people (including widowers and widows) who are longing for marriage (some have been waiting and longing for multiple decades). But "what God has joined together." If God hasn't joined you with anyone, then His intention is that you not be joined with anyone yet, no matter how long you've been waiting. God is totally and absolutely sovereign over who is joined together and who is not joined together and who is joined with whom. God reigns over this. You can trust Him. He is good. He knows best. He loves you with an everlasting love, and underneath are His everlasting arms. If you have lost your spouse and are a widower or widow, God reigns over this trial and loss as well. He loves you. He cares for you. He will provide for you and help you. Hear the words of Catharina von Schlegel: "Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay from His own fullness all He takes away." Singles, consider Charles Spurgeon's words: "Remember this: Had any other condition been better for you than the one in which you are, divine love would have put you there." Or the words of Elisabeth Elliot: "God never withholds from His child, that which His love and wisdom call good. God's refusals are always merciful. They are 'severe mercies' at times - but mercies all the same. God never denies us our hearts desire - except to give us something better."

2. These five words are a tremendous comfort for single people in dating/courtship relationships. These relationships can be joyous and life-giving, and they can also cause great turmoil and anxiety. Heartache, nervousness, indecision, and fear may haunt you. You may have made foolish choices, walked away from relationships you should not have broken, and even acted sinfully. You may regret those breakups and struggle with jealousy when others get married to the one you, at one time, hoped to marry. But "what God has joined together." God reigns over all of this. God is totally and absolutely in control of whether or not your relationships end in marriage. You can trust Him about that. If God wants to join you together, He will do it, no matter how badly you mess up in the dating relationship (And I've heard some pretty terrible dating stories where the couple still ends up married!) He will ultimately direct both hearts involved, like a river course, wherever He pleases, toward marriage or away from marriage (Proverbs 21:1), and He will direct what's best for you both and for His glory. Meditate on these five words, and rest in His sovereignty, goodness, love, power, and guidance. 

(Note: Nothing in this article is meant to minimize human responsibility in seeking the LORD, obeying Him, and getting wise, godly counsel in relationships. But the focus of this article is on God's absolute sovereignty).

3. These five words are a tremendous comfort for married couples. As a married couple, do you ever wonder if you married the right person? Do you wonder if your spouse is God's best for you? Is this God's chosen partner for you? The answer is a resounding yes! Because "what God has joined together." God did this! It was all God's will and God's idea, and He is the One Who has done the joining. As John Piper said, if you ever wonder if you've married the right person, read the name on the marriage certificate - that person is the right person. And they are the right person because God has done it.

4. These five words are a tremendous comfort for married couples in very hard, difficult marriages. If you are in a hard marriage where there are lots of heartaches, tears, pains, sad times, and arguments. If you are in a marriage where little to no affection is ever shown, where insults abound, and life seems unbearable. If you are in a marriage in which your spouse has walked away from Jesus or never was a believer. If you are in a marriage where you face threats of divorce. If you are in a marriage that did not turn out like you had hoped but the exact opposite. These words are still true: "what God has joined together." God has still done this. He has done it because He loves you, and He's done it for your good and for His glory, even if you never understand why on this side of eternity. Through the suffering and through the pain, God has done this joining to conform you into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. As one has said, when you can't understand what God's almighty hand is doing, you can still trust His good and loving heart. A heart that is, and always will be, 100% for you and for your good as you display His infinite worth in a hard marriage. God has done this joining, and what others mean for evil, God means for good (Genesis 50:20). And He promises that even this hard marriage will work out for your everlasting good: "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).

5. These five words are a tremendous comfort for married couples in wonderful and most satisfying marriages. If your marriage is all you have ever dreamed of and more. If you are the happiest you've ever been and can't imagine being happier. If your spouse is all you've ever wanted plus more than you ever knew you wanted. God has done this: "what God has joined together." Every good and perfect gift comes from God (James 1:17). "He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD" (Proverbs 18:22). God has done this. May you thank and praise His holy name for giving you such a wonderful gift! May you never love your marriage more than God, the One Who gave you this marriage. And may you never take God or your spouse for granted, and always remember with joy and thanksgiving that God has given you this very precious gift to display the covenant keeping love between Christ and His Bride, the Church.

6. These five words are a tremendous comfort for married couples in wonderful, satisfying marriages that experience hard times. If you are in a wonderful marriage where the love and satisfaction abound - where you are very happy and thankful - where life is good, but life is also hard - where you deeply love each other, but times are hard right now, and you are arguing more than usual, and there are greater tensions and challenges in your lives than ever before. Remember, "what God has joined together." God has done this joining, and God will be with you and help you through these hard times. He will guide you and direct you. He will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). You can trust Him with all the hard times in your wonderful marriage so that you can keep your vows, "for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part" by the power of the Holy Spirit, all for the glory of King Jesus and to display His covenant keeping love and loyalty to His Bride, the Church. God has joined you. He will help you. He will sustain you. And He will hold you together to the end.

Meditate long and deep on these five words. They are a treasure chest of hope, joy, steadfastness, stability, love, and peace:

"What God has joined together . . . ." Jesus (Matthew 19:6)

Christ Is The Riches Of All Of Creation!

Christ Is The Hope Of Every Child!

Favorite Lines From Becoming Elisabeth Elliot

These are some of my favorite quotations from Ellen Vaughn's biography of Elisabeth Elliot:

"I loved her matter-of-fact way of living by daily dying for Christ. It was a no-nonsense way of looking at things. Just pull-yourself-up by the grace of God, hoist your cross on your shoulder, and follow your Savior down the bloodstained path to Calvary. And don't complain about it." Joni Eareckson Tada's Forward (xiii)

"Her [Elisabeth Elliot's] story conveys all the discipline and patient suffering for which she was well-known in the often-repeated stories about the violent death of her first husband. But her most noble accomplishment was not weathering that excoriating loss. It was practicing - through both the high dramas and the low, dull days that constitute any human life - the daily self-death required for one's soul to flourish. It is this theme of death that gives the narrative arc of her life. This is not particularly cheerful, but if there is one empowering, paradoxical element within Elisabeth Elliot that defined her core, it was a healthy willingness to die. Again and again, if God so willed, always believing in His promise that real, robust, exhilarating life comes out of every death." Ellen Vaughn (Page 13)

"At age twenty, Elisabeth Howard had led a disciplined, hard-working, spiritually rigorous life. She loved nature, music, poetry, books, and word play. She'd developed standards on dating and physical affection that were unique in her Christian college. She had lived exclusively among other believers. She kept meticulous schedules with timeslots for everything from devotions to study to work to exercise, 7 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., except for days she got up earlier . . . She budgeted money carefully, writing about a train trip to visit friends: 'I could afford to go . . . but the question is if it would be right to spend so much on mere pleasure. As yet, I'm not sure what the Lord would have me do.'" Ellen Vaughn (Pages 58-59)

"Our young men are going into [other] fields because they don't 'feel called' to the mission field. We don't need a call; we need a kick in the pants." Jim Elliot (Page 60)

"'I have been musing lately on the extremely dangerous cumulative effects of earthly things. One may have good reason, for example, to want a wife, and he may have one legitimately. But with a wife comes Peter’s (the pumpkin eater’s) proverbial dilemma—he must find a place to keep her, and most wives will not stay on such terms as Peter proposed. So a wife demands a house; a house, in turn, requires curtains, rugs, washing machines, and so on; a house with these things must soon become a home, and children are the intended outcome. The needs multiply as they are met: a car demands a garage; a garage, land; land, a garden; a garden, tools; tools need sharpening! Woe, woe, woe to the man who would live a disentangled life in my century, if one insists on a wife. I learn from this that the wisest life is the simplest one, lived in the fulfillment of only the basic requirements of life: shelter, food, covering, and a bed. And even these can become productive of other needs if one does not heed. Be on guard, my soul, of complicating your environment so that you have neither time nor room for growth!' [Jim Elliot] . . . Suffice it to say, two very different, yet strikingly similar, souls had come together. Two intense, articulate, unconventional people who saw themselves as perpetually single, serving God on the mission field, found themselves simmering and sleepless, surging with a love they had thought they'd never know. Their individual  torrents of prose and poetry brim with the same biblical imagery - altars, crosses, sacrifices for the glory of God. They were strong, stubborn people who shared a radical, intentional submission to Christ. Stunned by love, they were both determined, if God so willed, to sacrifice it for Him." Ellen Vaughn, Jim Elliot (Pages 61-62, 64)

"During his senior year, Jim served as president of the Student Foreign Missions Fellowship. He made a prayer chart divided into fifteen-minute segments; students could sign up to pray for the Wheaton College campus, asking God to stir men and women there to commit themselves to foreign missions. One tangible result of that prayer effort, Dave Howard reported, was that 'in the 150-year history of Wheaton College, more students from the classes of the late 1940's and early 1950's went to the mission field than at any other period.' Jim also recruited in more direct ways. His friend Ed McCully was a football player and track star, tall, handsome, senior class president, and winner of the national collegiate oratory championship his senior year. He planned to go on to law school. One day when Jim and Dave were in the locker room after a workout, they saw Ed. Jim grabbed him by the neck, and said, 'Hey, McCully! You won the national championship, didn't you? Great stuff, McCully. You have a lot of talent, don't you? You know who gave you that talent, don't you? So what are you going to do with it - spend your life making money for yourself? You have no business doing that. You should be a missionary, and I'm praying that God will make you one!' The determined Ed did go off to law school for one year . . . but then he believed that God was indeed calling him to become a full-time missionary. He quit law school to study missions, and eventually went to Ecuador . . . where he would serve - and die - with his buddy Jim Elliot." Ellen Vaughn (Page 69)

"It is not what we set ourselves to do that really tells in blessing, so much as what He is doing through us when we least expect it, if only we are in abiding fellowship with Him." Hudson Taylor (Page 71)

"Jim's most famous quote of this sort, one that has inspired and galvanized thousands of young people toward Christ's service, comes from his journal of October 28, 1949. At the time the twenty-five-year-old had likely been reading selections from Matthew Henry, the well-known Bible commentator and preacher. In 1699, Reverend Henry wrote fondly about his father, Philip, who often said, 'He is no fool who parts with that which he cannot keep, when he is sure to be recompensed with that which he cannot lose.'" Ellen Vaughn (Page 73)

". . . It is said that it takes a bold man to venture to take a wife . . . What you need above all else then, is to be encouraged, admonished, urged, incited, and made bold. Why should you delay, my dear and reverend sir, and continue to weigh the matter in your mind? . . . Stop thinking about it and go to it right merrily. Your body demands it, God wills it, and drives you to it . . . It is best to comply with all our senses as soon as possible and give ourselves to God's Word and work in whatever He wishes us to do." Martin Luther (Pages 74-75)

"The soul who loves God only for Himself, apart from His gifts, knows indescribable peace." Elisabeth Howard (Page 80)

"Alone. Jim has gone . . . I feel absolutely empty, hollow, aching with loneliness. I want Jim. I love him strongly, deeply, powerfully. He is my life . . . Our passions and natural affections are awakened, vivified, channeled by the love of God." Elisabeth Howard (Page 82)

"I want her more today than any day since leaving her. I need her to purify my desires, to lift me above lust. I need her counsel, her attitude, her strength, her fingers, her forehead, and her breasts. My God in heaven, how am I made! Oh, that I had never tasted woman at all, that thirst for her should not be so intense now, remembering. It is not good that man should be alone - not this man, anyhow." Jim Elliot (Page 83)

"The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances." Elisabeth Elliot (Page 84)

"Sometimes I feel that I cannot stand it any longer, that I literally cannot live without him. . . . I cry at the drop of a hat. . . . When I am in bed, I want him desperately. It is as though every inch of my body just aches for his." Jim Elliot (Pages 95-96)

"People who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives . . . and when the bubble has burst, they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted." Nate Saint (Page 134)

"Nate took some time behind closed doors, as his sister Rachel - oblivious to the Waodani plans - was staying with them. He wrote a long letter to be sent out after the men's expedition into Waodani territory. It described his discomfort at the disparity between his own celebration of Christmas, and the situation of those who had never heard the gospel. He was thinking of 'two hundred silent generations who have gone to their pagan graves without a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ . . . these who . . . survive by killing and die by counter killing . . . these have no Christmas! . . . 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?' Nate answered his own question, that the men's foray to the dangerous few was in realization of the Bible's '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 Waodani 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 Christless night without ever a chance. May we be moved with compassion as our Lord was.'" Ellen Vaughn (Pages 148-149)

"There's no question that these were five dedicated young men . . . But lest we think that the missionaries lived on a plane none of us can attain, it is perhaps helpful to consider Jim Elliot's final journal entry, written dejectedly on the last day of the year, 1955. His heart and intentions firmly set on Christ, he was nonetheless battling a temptation common to all of us, the lure of the flesh. 'A month of temptation. Satan and the flesh have been on me hard on the dreadful old level of breasts and bodies. How God holds my soul in His life and permits one with such wretchedness to continue in His service, I cannot tell. Oh, it has been hard. Betty thinks I have been angry with her, when I have simply had to steel myself to sex life so as not to explode . . . my unworthiness of her love beats me down. I have been really low inside me struggling and casting myself hourly on Christ for help.' Though they have sometimes been presented as such, Jim Elliot and his fellow missionaries were not spiritual superheroes . . . Jim Elliot's last days were not those of some sterile plastic saint, but a flesh-and-blood man experiencing a cloud of distractions. But the last words in his journal, from that last day of 1955, shed light on his confidence in the ultimate outcome ahead. '. . . though the flesh conspire,' he wrote, '. . . Let spirit conquer.' The Spirit would." Ellen Vaughn (Pages 149-150)

"Several decades later, some who participated in the attack spoke of a strange, additional presence beyond the human beings who were killing and dying on the beach that day. Kimo and Dyuwi, among others, described strange lights above the trees . . . 'foreigners' dressed in white cloth . . . and the sound of chanting, which is how the Waodani described singing. Were they angels? God only knows. In the agony of their dying moments, in the pain of those last shallow breaths, what flashed through the five Americans' minds? God only knows that as well. All that the brave widows and families, and the rest of us down through the decades, can know for sure is that when they passed through that thin veil separating this life from eternal life, those five missionaries' next enormous, exultant breath was in the actual presence of God. They had gained what they could not lose." Ellen Vaughn (Page 158)

"Better those two perfect years of belonging to such a man than fifty with a run-of-the-mill man!" Elisabeth Elliot (Page 165)

"I long now to go to the Waodani. The two things - the only things - to which I can look forward now are the coming of Christ and my going to the Waodani. O, if Christ would only come - but how can He until the Waodani are told of Him. . . . Or if only I could die - what a blessed release. But I do not ask to be released. I ask to be made Christ-like, in the inmost part of my being. . . . Before, I feared to place all before Thee - now, the most precious has been stripped from me. Does this mean I have not so much to put at stake now? I guess it does. But O Lord, Thou knowest. Accept me, in Thy name. And, oh, if it be possible, send me soon to the Waodani!" Elisabeth Elliot (Pages 165-166)

"Every time she read the words 'Mr. and Mrs.' or heard reference to 'husband and wife,' . . . another stab. 'They are allowed to be together . . . and I? Then the Lord shows me that my lot is not to be compared with others . . . I have no one now to take care of the lawn and garden . . . Other women have a man to do these things . . . and they will have heaven too! Lord - forgive me. I write it because I thought it. I cannot hide it from Thee." Elisabeth Elliot (Page 166)

"My heart almost cries out for those dear Waodani - how I long to go! Prayed that God either send me there, or take me Home." Elisabeth Elliot (Page 169)

"Evening. I am left with a vast loneliness for [Jim], for his love - the only answer it seems, for me is that He take me soon. How can I live without Jim, Lord? Thou didst make us one - how go on alone? O Lord, if it be possible, take me to be with Thee. Nevertheless, not my will . . ." Elisabeth Elliot (Page 170)

"She continued to dream of Jim constantly. 'Sex hunger is overwhelming very often. O Lord - Thou knowest all. How long? Evening (and a full-moon-lit one at that) I sit at my desk . . . I realize I am shivering and my flesh is all goosed. If I had Jim here, he would get into bed, warm it, and then take me beside him, warming me with his great strong arms, huge chest and thick thighs . . . Oh, it was so easy then, so simple, so lovely. And now.' 'How can this go on? This desperate wanting, aching desire, only to be with him, to share one single thought, to touch his forehead, to know his love as I once knew it. Dreaming night and day . . . .'" Elisabeth Elliot, Ellen Vaughn (Page 186)

"The Waodani are a constant weight to me. Who is to go, and when? . . . But I am praying, 'Here am I, Lord. SEND ME . . . if I were successful, nothing could make me happier on earth. If they killed me, better still." Elisabeth Elliot, letter to parents, 1957 (Page 190)

"On a humbler note, a U. S. farmer wrote, 'We've named our five cows after you five dear girls, and pray for you as we milk them each day.'" Ellen Vaughn (Page 199)

"In another vivid dream, she 'lay on Jim's chest in bed, thought "Oh, thanks Lord! If you'll just let me do this once in a while, I'll be able carry on. This is what I need." And Jim was so tender - I long for the shelter, haven of his love. O God - it still is my Desired Haven. I cannot stop loving and longing with all of my heart. Oh, what a punishment Thou has meted to me for my failures.' Did Betty really believe God had taken Jim because of all failures? It's doubtful. Her theology was stronger than that. But the comment shows how deeply she mourned her own failings." Ellen Vaughn, Elisabeth Elliot (Page 200)

"If a duty is clear, the dangers surrounding it are irrelevant." Elisabeth Elliot (Page 210)

"CHILD AMONG HER FATHER'S KILLERS: MISSIONARIES LIVE WITH WAODANI"
Life Magazine headline, November 24, 1958 (Page 210)

"It turned out that one of the women who'd come out of the forest was in fact Maruja, the young girl who'd been abducted by the Waodani a year earlier after they killed her husband, Honorario. 'In my opinion,' she told Betty cheerfully, 'you'll soon be eaten by vultures.' Maruja went on to share that she expected the Waodani to kill the Americans unless she returned with them - so Betty and Rachel should give her money to do so. They declined the deal. Maruja accompanied the group anyway." Ellen Vaughn (Pages 210-211)

"Early in August, the dam broke, if not in Betty's waking life, in her subconscious. She dreamed, as she did so often, of Jim. He was warm, alive, real. She was desperate to do whatever she could to stay with him. She knew, even in her dream, that it was God's will that Jim was in fact actually dead. But still, the dreaming Betty cried out for Jim. 'To hell, I said, with role as a "widow," as a "pioneer missionary," as a "testimony to the world." Give me womanhood again, give me back my husband. I don't care about anything else.' Betty shook herself awake. Words from on of her favorite writers ran through her mind: 'It is this terrible loneliness which opens the gates of my soul and lets the wild beasts stream howling through.' 'God alone knows whether the dream reflects the true state of my soul,' she wrote later in her journal. 'He knows that I do honestly try to accept what He has chosen for me - and He knows, too, the wild . . . aching loneliness for Jim. Well - may this hunger prove what is in my heart, and produce fruits of righteousness in the ultimate. I see little hopes of them now. Faith, faith.'" Ellen Vaughn, Elisabeth Elliot (Page 225)

"Betty and Val went for an extended visit to see Jim's parents in Oregon. Even though she was freed from the torture of writing, Betty's introspection and depression continued. As she 'relaxed' with family and friends, she felt utterly alone. 'I just don't manage to tune in, somehow. Great longing for vital reality, truth, understanding. I don't want to do anything these days, but just sit and observe. No desire to participate . . . prefer to sleep!'" Ellen Vaughn, Elisabeth Elliot (Page 230)

"Obviously, God has chosen to leave certain questions unanswered and certain problems without any solution in this life, in order that in our very struggle to answer and solve we may be shoved back, and back, and eternally back to the contemplation of Himself, and to complete trust in Who He is. I'm glad He's my Father. 'If heaven's not my home, Then Lord, what will I do?'" Elisabeth Elliot (Pate 233)

"Betty tumbled right into her familiar, circular pit of despair regarding Rachel. 'So depressed,' she wrote. '[T]otally lacking in any desire to do a single thing, longing only for death or escape of any kind.'" Ellen Vaughn, Elisabeth Elliot (Page 236)

"Now Betty didn't think of her life as a series of 'summits' to be climbed, all the way to heaven, a steady, 'triumphal' path toward victory, as it was sometimes presented in Christian circles. She thought more about Jesus than the particular outcomes or accomplishments He might have for her. It was all about walking with Jesus . . . and in a mystical way, He was both the journey and the destination." Ellen Vaughn (Page 253)

"For decades after her husband was killed, Elisabeth Elliot was constantly asked if the men's mission on Palm Beach was a 'success.' The word was like worthless currency. To her, the only measure of any human action came down to one thing: obedience. She'd look at an interviewer as if the 'success' question was dull. Yes, yes, of course. After all, they knew God wanted them to go to the tribe, and they were obedient to His leading. Next question?" Ellen Vaughn (Page 259)

"'As Jim pointed out to me years ago,' Betty journaled, 'God led Israel to Marah. He could have led them directly to Elim, but He has chosen to lead His people into difficulties in order that they may know Him, and He may know them.'" Elisabeth Elliot, Ellen Vaughn (Page 264)

"Do it immediately, do it with prayer,
do it reliantly, casting all care.
Do it with reverence, tracing His hand
who placed it before thee with earnest command.
Stayed on omnipotence, safe 'neath His wing,
leave all resultings, do the next thing." Saxon poem Betty loved (Page 268)

"So it is no surprise that, as Betty put it, 'To be a follower of the Crucified means, sooner or later, a personal encounter with the cross. And the cross always entails loss. The great symbol of Christianity means sacrifice and no one who calls himself a Christian can evade this stark fact.'" Elisabeth Elliot, Ellen Vaughn (Pages 272-273)

"Whether you agree or disagree with their choices, whether you resonate or not with their particular personalities, the takeaway from their lives is reckless abandon for God. A willingness to cast off any illusions of self-protection, in order to burn for Christ. An absolutely liberating, astonishing radical freedom that comes only when you have, in fact, spiritually died to your own wants, ambitions, will, desires, reputation, and everything else." Ellen Vaughn (Page 274)

"Perhaps the end of Elisabeth Elliot's time in Ecuador was, as she felt in Shandia in 1963, the beginning of spring. Over her years there, she had thawed from a refrigerated rose to a passionate wife and mother. But still, the losses of her lover and soul mate, and the loss of any sense of accomplishment in her linguistic or missionary work, had almost killed her hope. She wouldn't have minded dying at the hands of the Waodani." Ellen Vaughn (Pages 274-275)

"I suppose the general opinion of missionary work says that it is intended to bring [people] to Christ. Only God knows if anything in my 'missionary career' has ever contributed anything at all to this end. But much in that 'career' has brought me to Christ." Elisabeth Elliot (Page 275) 

"It's a mercy that none of us knows what is coming." Ellen Vaughn (Page 278)