Lisa Barry: Elisabeth Elliot is someone who is on the road a lot speaking to women's conferences all over the country. Today we're going to go back on the road with her to St. Paul, Minnesota, where she was speaking to a group of women about the Power of God's Love. Maybe you're wishing that you could know God better than you do. Possibly you think God's disappointed in you for one reason or another. No matter what brought you here today, I think you were meant to hear what Elisabeth is about to say. Let's head back to the auditorium.

Elisabeth Elliot: Some time ago--years ago--and I've forgotten who it was, but I heard a black African preacher tell this little story. I wish I knew what his name is and where he got the story. It's not in the Bible; I need to make that perfectly clear. It's a legend about Jesus. More than once when I've told this little story, somebody's sure to come up to me a say, "Now, where did you say that story is? I don't ever remember reading that in the Bible." It's not in the Bible; it's just a little story. I think it has a very good message, and it was a very powerful message for me at that time.

The story is told that Jesus was walking along with His disciples one day, and He asked each one of them to pick up a stone to carry for Him. So Peter picked up a fairly small one. John picked up a large one. And Jesus led them up to the top of a mountain, by which time they were hungry. So Jesus turned these stones into bread and gave them permission to eat what they had in their hands. Well, of course, Peter didn't get enough, so John shared some of his with Peter.

Then on another occasion Jesus again took them for a walk and asked them to pick up a stone. This time He didn't go up to the top of the mountain. But He took them to the river Jordan and told them to cast the stones into the river--which they did. This time, of course, Peter having picked up a much heavier stone. Then they looked to their Master for an explanation.

Nothing happened. He didn't do any miracles. He just looked at them with great compassion and said, "For whom did you carry this stone?"

That was a tremendous release for me to realize that I had done what God had called me to do. I had not made a mistake about going to Ecuador. I had gone to the right tribe. I had done the job that I could do in so far as I could do it. But it came to nothing.

Have you had an experience like that of your own? If you think about it, I think most of you will be able to think of something, which you tried to do and you meant to do it for God. And it didn't work. Maybe it's your marriage. You thought you were marrying the right person, but it doesn't look that way now. Yet, the Lord is still in charge. He's got the whole world, where? In His hands. He's got you and me, sister, in His hands.

Well, my husband and I were visiting in a pastor's home in New Jersey. That evening, the wife of the pastor told us the story of a very crucial difficult time in her life. She was talking about the birth of one of her children, and the complications that she had, and the questions that she was asking God. She said, "When I was in the hospital somebody gave me your book in which you told this story." My book is called These Strange Ashes, which tells the story of several other things besides what I've told you this morning.

She said, "I can't tell you what that book did for me." I thought to myself, if somebody had asked me, do you have a book which would comfort someone who's in the hospital, the last thing in the world that I would have given them is that book called These Strange Ashes. Because, that would be so far away from the physical suffering that this woman was going through.

Anyway, I told her I was amazed that that book could possibly have had a message in it for her, and she assured me that it had. The next morning she was at the meeting where I was speaking in her husband's church. At the end of my talk she came up to me and she said, "Elisabeth, has God ever given you any clue about why he allowed those things to happen?" I said, "Well, yes." She said, "Tell me about it." I said, "It was last night."

She looked at me in bewilderment. She said, "What are you talking about?" I said, "Your testimony. If I had not gone through those testings, I would not have written that book, that book would not have gotten into the hands of that other lady, that other lady would not have given it to you, and you would not have been comforted without that book." Just one tiny glimpse. Now God is up to many more things, isn't He, than you and I can possibly imagine. But I leave that with Him.

The cross means death to ourselves. St. Francis de Sales said, "The everlasting God has, in His wisdom, foreseen from eternity the cross that He now presents to you as a gift from His inmost heart. This cross He now sends you He has considered with His all-knowing eyes, understood with His divine mind, tested with His wise justice, warmed with loving arms, and weighed with His own hands, to see that it be not one inch too large and not one ounce too heavy for you. He has blessed it with His holy name, anointed it with His grace, perfumed it with His consolation, taken one glance at you and your courage, and then sent it to you from heaven--a special greeting from God to you. An alms (A L M S) of the all-merciful love of God."

Just think of it. It is the cross that reveals to us the love of God. It is suffering that opens our eyes to the necessity as Christian men and women to accept what God dishes out. How many times have you heard people say, and you yourself have said, "I don't understand what God is doing?" I can tell you exactly what God is doing. I got it right out of this Book. You know Romans 8:28 says, "Everything that happens fits into a pattern for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose."

Did you skip the next verse? What is His purpose? Is it to make you happy all the time? To make you succeed every time? Verse 29 says His purpose is that we--you and I--should be conformed to the image of His Son. What does it take to make an image?

Michelangelo made it sound very simple when he said, "All you have to do is take a block of marble and knock off anything that doesn't look like David." But it takes a hammer and a chisel and a file. There will be hammer blows as God takes upon Himself the shaping of each one of us individuals. So there will be some hammer blows, some very big and recognizable crosses in your life, to change the metaphor. Then there is the chisel, which is painful, chiseling off those sharp corners. Finally there's the file, which is probably everyday in one way or another.

Something is going to happen today, something already has happened undoubtedly in every one of you, which wasn't exactly what you meant or hoped for. Whatever it is, that's the answer to what God is up to. Don't be surprise. Someone has written out a list, which the taking up of the cross involves. Now you won't be able to get these all down as fast as I will read them, but you can put down a few of them.

To take up the cross means to shoulder what will be the means of your death. To take up the cross means to shoulder what will be the means of your death. The apostle Paul, remember, said, "I die daily." Everything that cuts across my preferences that is my cross. My second husband, who was a philosopher and a theologian, used to say, "When the will of God cuts across the will of man, somebody has to die." So there will be these little deaths.

Number two: To take up the cross means to give energy to a seemingly hopeless task.

Number three: Submit to unsympathetic authorities. Any of you have unsympathetic authorities in your life? Of course you have.

Number four: Obey commands that you would not have chosen. Here we're going to get into submission to your husband a little bit later on today, but that could be one of the areas under number four. Submitting to unsympathetic authorities--that's number three, excuse me. Number four; obey commands that you would not have chosen.

Number five: Face public mocking and ridicule. Maybe you have neighbors who talk about, "Oh those Christians down the street. You know, they're such a weird bunch."

Number six: Be rejected by those you have loved and served.

Number seven: Have your motives and actions misjudged. Have your motives and actions misjudged.

Number eight: Experience pain and discomfort. To take up the cross means to experience pain. Of course it does! Jesus was nailed to a cross, and He hung there for hours.

Number nine: To take up the cross means to see those you care about reject God. Some of your hearts are breaking because your children, perhaps, have rejected God.

In closing I want to read just a short passage from Pilgrim's Progress, which is a very clear picture of what the cross is about.

"I saw in my dream that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders and fell from off his back and began to tumble, and so continued to do so until it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more. Then was Christian glad and lightsome and said with a merry heart, 'He hath given me rest by his sorrows and life by his death.' Then Christian gave three leaps for joy and went on singing."

The sight of the cross made him leap for joy and go on singing. And I hope that that is exactly what the cross is going to do for you today.

Lisa Barry: Isn't it amazing to catch a glimpse of just how powerful the cross is? It's the only jumping-off point to experience God's love. And if this is an area you'd like to think more about, then you'll want to purchase the book entitled God?s Guidance. It will revolutionize the way you live. The cost is $13.50, and you can send that along with your request to:

Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska 68501. That's Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska 68501. Or toll-free 1-800-759-4JOY. That's 1-800-759-4569. And if you're on the Internet, be sure and check out our Web site. You'll find our on-line products catalog, weekly program topics, transcripts and much more. That address is gatewaytojoy.org.

Gateway To Joy has been a listener-supported production of Back to the Bible. Tomorrow Elisabeth talks about living for the present moment. Find out more the next time on Gateway To Joy.