Elisabeth Elliot: It's one thing to say that you believe God means what He says. If you really know what He says and you believe it, then it is imperative that you arrange your entire life according to what He says.

Lisa Barry: We all know people who only want so much of God, not enough to change them or make them feel uncomfortable, but just enough to get them into heaven and be respected in the community. Is that what Jesus had in mind when He called the people from their occupations back in the first century? Today Elisabeth Elliot talks about what the new life is and what it means to say "yes" to it. That's coming up next on Gateway To Joy.

Elisabeth Elliot: "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, talking with you again today about the subject of suffering and about learning to say yes to the new life.

I received an anonymous postcard from North Platte, Nebraska. And this person-I don't know if it's a man or a woman-says, "Greetings to you and your staff. We trust that all is well there. Wonder what book you read from. Our radio speakers are so different. What is faith?"

What is faith? Well, there's a good question. And some of you have had your faith shaken because of sufferings. If our faith is shaken, it means it is not founded on the bedrock of the character of God Himself. That rock never moves.

A simple definition that I would give you as to what faith is is believing that God means exactly what He says and rearranging my entire life accordingly. I'll repeat that. Faith is believing that God means exactly what He says and rearranging my entire life accordingly. It's one thing to say that you believe God means what He says. If you really know what He says and you believe it, then it is imperative that you arrange your entire life according to what He says.

This postcard goes on, "Many speak of faith, but they don't tell what it is. They call the Bible a story-a story of creation, story of Jesus, a story of the Bible. Daniel, Joseph. Am I like a child who has been taught Santa Claus and then finds out he's a fake? I have asked people who are active in the church, 'Do you really believe this?' And they whisper, 'No. It's a story.'

"In our hospital a man used to go to church and the pastor said, 'It's all a story.' Then I say, 'Why have churches? Why have radio speakers? Was the ark really ten stories high?' Is your opening saying in the Bible?" Yes, it is. "You are loved with an everlasting love."

"Lots of people have lots of questions," this person says.

True belief in God is revolutionary. It means a new life. The only valid proof of the reality and the validity of our faith is obedience. Do what God says. If you really believe that He means what He says, you've got to prove that belief by doing it. Is that radical? Yes.

Jesus said, "You cannot serve two masters." We've got to live the new life and let the old life die. We cannot be masters of ourselves and be surrendered to the lordship of Jesus Christ. A Christian is somebody whose life is lived on an utterly different plane, an invisible plane. May I ask you today if you've said yes to that new life?

In plant life, we look at a beautiful rose, for example. So short-lived. It turns brown. Why? Well, we learned that just the other day. They have acquiesced completely in the death sentence, which is necessary for a new birth. In other words, as soon as a flower, a blossom, is fertilized, then it begins to die in order that the fruit may be produced, in order that the seed may fall into the ground and die. And so life comes out of the death of the flower, the death of the fruit, the death of the seed. We must live our new lives at the expense of the old life.

May I read to you from Romans 8:13-18? "If you live according to the sinful nature, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, 'Abba, Father.'

"The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings, in order that we may also share in His glory."

Do you want to be a child of God? An heir of God? A co-heir with Christ? Then suffering will be entailed. There is no escape. But that's not the end of the story. Those sufferings can be our gateway to joy. And this verse testifies to that truth. "If we share in His sufferings, we may also share in His glory."

And in the Book of Revelation 1:9, John, the one to whom the revelation was given, says, "I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus." John was on that island as an exile, you know, because of his testimony of Jesus. But he looks upon it as a privilege. "Your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus."

Have you thought about your patient endurance as being one small way in which you can be a companion of Jesus? One way in which you can begin in a very dim and inadequate way of course, but in some measure to share in the sufferings of Jesus? When we're patient, just that in itself is one way of sharing in the sufferings of Jesus.

In the mail that came to my jungle station after my husband Jim died were many letters quoting Scripture. I was very grateful for those letters, but I think the verse that stood out more than all the others, and the one that I have remembered the most clearly from that time, was II Corinthians 4:17, 18. Somebody sent me those words.

"These little troubles, which are really so transitory are winning for us a permanent glorious and solid reward out of all proportion to our pain, for we are looking all the time not at the visible things, but at the invisible. The visible things are transitory. It is the invisible things that are really permanent."

And those words clarified for me the alternatives. Little troubles versus big ones. Was widowhood a big trouble? Well, it was indeed if this world is the only plane on which it can be judged. I think that I read that it's number one on the list of causes of stress. But this verse reminds me of the contrast between the visible versus the invisible.

I realized that if I concentrated on my losses and all the very present evidences of Jim's absence, that permanent, glorious and solid reward would be completely out of focus. I must start concentrating on the invisible for a change. That was where my treasure was now, for my heart was there, in a way that it had never been before.

And what about the transitory versus the intransitory? All that grieves is but for a moment. It seemed to me a very long moment. But I knew that someday it would be seen as of no account. There was eternity to consider. Here was my chance, a new chance, to choose happiness and peace.

Happiness and peace were not things that would merely happen to me because I was lucky or because my temperament was sanguine. It's not. It's melancholic. They were given in proportion as I chose to view my sorrow in the light of the intransitory and the invisible. Now can we choose to view our sorrows in a different light? I believe we can.

I've just recently been reading Victor Frankl's amazing book called THE MEANING OF LIFE, written about his experience in concentration camp. And he says that the people who survived the longest, the people who remained healthy enough to work, generally speaking were people who had chosen to accept their situation.

He said, "Every freedom was taken from us, except the last freedom, which is the freedom to choose one's attitude to choose one's own way." We are to live our new lives on a different plane with Jesus Christ.

"Oh, but," you say, "we have to live in the real world. We need something practical." Nothing is more real and practical than the Word of God. This world is not more real than the invisible world. It's not going to last nearly as long. Think about that one. The objection implies that God, who made both worlds, forgets that we're stuck in the here and now. But I want to say to all of you listening, He never forgets. He knows our down-sitting and our uprising. He understands our thoughts before we think them. If we want His peace and obey Him even in the least measure, He gives it.

Lisa Barry: It seems like suffering provides a direct line to God, doesn't it? Remember in geometry when you tried to find the shortest distance between a number of points on a graph? In getting in touch with God, suffering appears to be the shortest distance to travel. Why? There are few emotions that reach the core of our being in quite the same way. And it seems to be the only means by which some people will acknowledge their dependence needs to be on God and not themselves. And yet when we find ourselves in the midst of suffering, we often sit paralyzed not knowing what to do.

All this week we've been talking about the book A PATH THROUGH SUFFERING. It's written by Elisabeth Elliot and it journeys through the many questions she asked God in the midst of her own suffering. Ask for more information on A PATH THROUGH SUFFERING.

Here's our phone number: 1-800-759-4JOY. That's 1-800-759-4569. Or you can write to us at Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501. Gateway To Joy has been a production of Back to the Bible.

Tomorrow Elisabeth talks about when love must suffer wrong. Be with us then for another Gateway To Joy.