Lisa Barry: There are many people who say they want to know God, but they don't want anything to do with the cross of Christ. They would prefer a convenient kind of relationship with God. One they can turn on and off at a moment's notice. But as we'll find out today and all this week on Gateway To Joy, the only way to know God is through the cross. Let's go now to St. Paul, Minnesota, where Elisabeth recently spoke to a group of women on the Power of God's Love. Here she is.

Elisabeth Elliot: I'm so grateful for the privilege of being here, and I think that you know that the title of this whole seminar is "The Omnipotence of Love." "The Omnipotence of Love." Unless and until we come to a personal encounter with the cross, there will not be any understanding of the fathomless love of God.

So that's what I want to start with. The older I get the more convinced I am that God wants to teach us the meaning of the cross. The cross, of course, was an instrument of torture. Thousands of people were nailed to crosses--Jesus was certainly not the only one. We all know about Jesus and the two thieves. But it was the normal instrument of torture. As the electric chair or various other methods are used, to get rid of people who need to be got rid of.

The omnipotence of love was demonstrated for us and for all time when Jesus went to the cross. He said to His Father, "Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God." And whatever that will entailed; He was prepared to submit to.

Probably most of you know John 3:16 by heart. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." But I wonder how many of you have on the tip of your tongues the corollary to that, which is in 1 John 3:16. Not John 3:16, but 1 John 3:16, which says, "This is how we know what love is, that Christ laid down his life for us: and we in our turn must lay down our lives for each other." This is how we know what love is. Christ laid down His life for us.

Hollywood's notion of love is millions of miles from the slightest comprehension of what the love of God is about, or what the love of Christians is about. But I hope that today some of you will have perhaps something that you've never had before--a personal encounter with the cross.

When I was growing up in a very godly home, for which I thank God, we had breakfast at 7:00 o'clock in the morning. As soon as breakfast was over, we were herded into the living room. I come from a family of six. We all sang a hymn. One or the other of my two parents would sit down to the piano and play the next hymn in the book. We would sing one hymn per day--all the stanzas. Because of that, all six of us learned at least 100 hymns by heart. I would say probably a great deal more than that. But when we get together for family reunions--which we hope to do within a few weeks--among the other things that we do during those couple of days is sing hymns together.

I think it's a tremendous loss that there are many churches now days that don't use hymns, they just use praise choruses. Now I'm not knocking the praise choruses. But I do deplore the loss of hymns. One of my very favorites, perhaps it was my very favorite when I was very small, was "Beneath the cross of Jesus I fain would take my stand. The shadow of a mighty Rock within a weary land; a home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way from the burning of the noon-tide heat and the burden of the day." And one of the stanzas which is left out of some of the hymnbooks says, "O safe and happy shelter, O refuge tried and sweet." Have you ever in your life stopped to think about the cross of Jesus as being a safe and happy shelter? "O trysting place where heaven's love and heaven's justice meet. As to the holy patriarch--a wondrous dream was given. So seems my Savior's cross to me, a ladder up to heaven."

"Upon that cross of Jesus, mine eye at times can see the very dying form of One who suffered there for me. From my smitten heart, with tears, two wonders I confess--the wonders of His glorious love and my own worthlessness." In some of the newer hymnbooks softened that last word there to "my unworthiness." Well, I think we all know that we're unworthy, but we're not necessarily prepared to admit that we are worthless. But we are. Jesus did not die for us because we were valuable. He died because He loved us.

So this matter of being a follower of the crucified means sooner or later a personal encounter with the cross. The cross always entails loss. The great symbol of Christianity means sacrifice. No one who calls himself a Christian can evade this stark fact. It's not, by any means, easy to recognize within a given instance of personal loss the opportunity it affords for participation in Christ's own loss.

It says in Romans 8:17, "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." Now what--we're likely to ask ourselves--what can my sharing with Christ and His sufferings possibly have to do with this cross? How can I, as a sinner and an ordinary man or woman, possibly participate?

Well, it is a mystery, isn't it? But it's very clearly taught in the Scriptures. We are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs. We're not by nature inclined to think spiritually. We have to learn to think spiritually.

Things happen to us, don't they? Several of you, already this morning, have told me some of the sorrows and the unexpected disasters in your lives. The Bible says that we are to take up our cross daily. Have you every stopped to think about what form that cross is being presented to you? How in the world does the cross of Jesus Christ present itself to us daily?

I came across a very wonderful definition of the meaning of the cross by John H. Neumann. He said, "The taking up of the cross is no great action done once for all. It is the continual, daily practice of small duties which are distasteful to us." Think about that. "The taking up of the cross is no great action done once for all. But the taking up of small duties, the daily practice of taking up the small duties which are distasteful to us." Can you think of any small duty, which is distasteful to you?

I would strongly suppose that there are a good many of you who realize that the small duty of submission to your husband is distasteful to you. Why do I have to submit to a fallible man who probably doesn't know any more than I do about the Christian life? Well, just one tiny glimpse into what the taking up of the cross might be.

If the cross itself is gladly embraced, and I would hope that some of you who've never even thought of such a thing before, might think about it before you go home today. Are you willing to accept suffering?

My definition of suffering, I think, is very broad and covers absolutely everything. It means having what you don't want or wanting what you don't have. So all of us can say that we do know what suffering is. Of course there are very great sufferings, and there are tiny little sufferings. But nevertheless, the great question is--how do we respond?

We need to get over making great chasms between the spiritual life and the secular life, because for a Christian it should all be exactly the same. What was Jesus doing when He was here on earth? He said, "I do always those things that please the Father,"--never anything else. He never did anything that didn't please the Father. So whether He was tired and sitting down by a well, or walking along the dusty road by Himself or perhaps with the disciples, or being mobbed by a whole bunch of people who were yelling and screaming at Him and wanting Him to do something for them--it was all spiritual work. It was all an offering to His Father.

I want to read to you from Hebrews 10, verses 9, 10 and 14. Verse 9, "Jesus said, 'Here I am, I have come to do your will.'" Would you be able to say the same thing to God? "Here I am. I have come to do your will." Then in verse 10 it says, "By that will we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." "The sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." And because, by one sacrifice, (this is verse 14) "he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy." "By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy."

I would trust that not one of us would go out of here today without specifically praying that God would make us holier than we are.

Lisa Barry: And I have a suggestion to make sure that prayer gets answered. Elisabeth has written a book that many people have found helpful in their quest to find God's will. It's called God?s Guidance. Now this isn't a cookie-cutter philosophy where everyone walks around doing and saying the same thing. It's a book that will help shift your entire focus off of yourself and onto God. It will show you from the Bible how God has led in the past and will continue to lead. The cost of the book is $13.50, and to purchase it you can send that amount along with a note to:

Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska 68501. That's Gateway to Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska 68501. You can also purchase a copy of today's program when you call toll-free 1-800-759-4JOY. That's 1-800-759-4569. You can also find us on the Internet at gatewaytojoy.org.

Gateway To Joy is a listener-supported production of Back to the Bible. Tomorrow Elisabeth challenges us to accept what God is doing in our lives. Find out how, the next time we meet for Gateway To Joy.