Elisabeth Elliot: Holiness means love, joy and peace. Holiness does not mean the absence of suffering. Do those things seem absolutely incompatible to you? Can you be suffering and still experience love, joy and peace?

Lisa Barry: Even though we know intellectually that our circumstances are not an indication of God's satisfaction or dissatisfaction with us, still we act differently. When we encounter a horrendous difficulty we wonder if we've been neglecting the Bible or if we've been unkind to someone. But the presence of suffering in life should evoke very different thoughts. Hear more from Elisabeth Elliot 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 holiness in the nineties.

Holiness is a scary word for a lot of people nowadays, but it simply means to be set apart for God. It does not mean that we're perfect. Wherever people get this idea that Christians are perfect, obviously they don't know very many Christians. Or sometimes that is thrown at us as an accusation when, of course, we know very well that we are not perfect. We are very far from being perfect. In fact, one of the reasons we become Christians is because we are so keenly aware of our own imperfections and of the need for help in being good.

So holiness doesn't mean perfection. It means being set apart for God. It means that we are making an earnest, daily effort to do what God says to do and to quit doing what God says not to do. And God is willing to help us with that.

I was talking yesterday about what the WALL STREET JOURNAL said about the effects of feminism on women today, and the fact that in spite of all the claims of what women needed to get free of, women today are apparently just as lonely, just as discontented, just as bitter as they were before feminism came up with their so-called brilliant ideas. There are more broken homes, I believe, as a result of feminism. When women become competitive with men, when they go out of the home and begin to catch the spirit of money-making, then very often they become discontented with their homes, with their marriages. They have many more opportunities to meet other men. And who of us doesn't know that many broken homes are among our own acquaintances?

Now God doesn't want any of us to be bitter or insecure. And this is one of the reasons why every day I give you those wonderful verses. The first one is from Jeremiah 31:3, "I have loved you with an everlasting love." And the second one is from Deuteronomy 33:27, "The eternal God is your refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms."

Holiness means love, joy and peace. Holiness does not mean the absence of suffering. Do those things seem absolutely incompatible to you? Can you be suffering and still experience love, joy and peace? Yes. Yes, you can. I know dozens of suffering Christians whose lives are a testimony to the reality of the love and joy and peace that God gives. Those qualities are compatible with pain.

Now understand me here. They are compatible with pain, but they are not compatible with antagonism to God. In other words, to be holy means to walk in harmony with God. And the deep, hidden source of discontent and frustration and bitterness is, I think, in the last analysis, antagonism to God.

I was rather bemused the other day, not to say amused, as I was listening to a call-in talk show on the radio, and the host of the show said to a woman who was apparently handicapped, "Do you blame God for that?" And she said, "No." And he said, "Do you believe in God?" And she said, "Oh, yeah. I believe in God." And he said, "And you don't blame Him because you were born handicapped?" And she said, "No. I don't think that has anything to do with God. I think it is a matter of genes. And genes don't have anything to do with God. Genes, that is just scientific." And I thought what a confused line of thought. Does science have nothing to do with God? Who was it that arranged the universe?

In TIME magazine there was a fascinating cover story on the way scientists are closing in, they feel, on the explanation of what it is that holds the universe together. And it talked about all those strange things that I can't fathom at all--things smaller and far more mysterious than atoms. And I wouldn't pretend to understand the atom, something called quarks and neutrinos, and protons and I don't know what all.

But it was very interesting that also in that same issue where they are talking about the scientific methods of chasing these things around with super colliders, and I don't know what all, there was also an essay which ended up saying, "So perhaps we are not nearly as close to unraveling the secrets of the universe as we think we are." There is mystery there. And the more scientists discover, the more they recognize that they don't know.

So to me the explanation has to be God. God does have something to do with genes. God does have something--He has everything to do with everything in the universe. But if we are antagonistic toward Him, if this woman had said, "Yes," she blamed God for her having been born handicapped, then where does she have to turn?

I am not saying to you today that God arranges for certain people to be handicapped, but I am saying that God is in control of everything. And my friend, Judy Squires of California, who was born without legs, she quotes from Psalm 139 about how God sees us in the womb and God forms us. And so she herself might be bitter if she did not know what God says. "God knew exactly what He was doing. He allowed this in my life because of a purpose which is hidden from me."

And she also quotes that saying that "What the caterpillar sees as the end of the world, God sees as a butterfly." And what the world sees as a handicap, Judy Squires sees as God's design for a very special purpose. She said, "My life has not been just ordinary. My life has been extraordinary." She doesn't try to unravel the mysteries. She trusts Him.

And I can't possibly unravel for you the mystery of evil and pain and suffering. Those of you who have been listening to me for any length of time know that I dwell a lot on these mysteries. But I can't explain them. I simply believe that wholeness, spiritual wholeness, is available to every one of us in Jesus Christ. He wants us to be whole, hale, hearty, holy. You know, those words all come from the same root. And grace sanctifies us.

But we have to receive it. If our hands are full, we can't receive what God has for us. If the little child has blocks in his hand, his mother has to say, "Put the blocks down so that I can give you a cookie."

Well, that is kind of the way it is with God. Holiness is incompatible with antagonism. It is incompatible with selfishness. Hanging on to good things can bar me from receiving from God's best. No wonder God said, "If your right hand offends you, cut it off." Let go of your plans. We have the right to make some choices, and one of those choices is "Lord, I want You to run my life."

I came across this wonderful little testimony from a minister by the name of the Reverend John Catwiere. He has a problem called tinnitus, a buzzing in his ears. He says, "I am used to it now, so it doesn't bother me as it once did, but at times it can be annoying. Waking up in the morning with the sound of a thousand crickets is not pleasant. Thank God, during the day I am busy and I seldom advert to it. But the din never stops.

There are those who cannot accept their tinnitus, and I understand their lives have become a nightmare. I won't offer any canned advice, but I will tell you how I crossed over from the stage of frantically visiting one doctor after another to get relief, to my present, relatively calm condition of acceptance. This technique may sound strange to some, but it worked for me. I operate on the premise that the greatest honor I can give to Almighty God is to live gladly because of the knowledge of His love--an idea I leaned from Julian of Norwich, a 15th century mystic.

Since I consider my happiness to be a sign of my gratitude to God, I try not to let anything destroy or mar it. Therefore, I make up my mind to think of my tinnitus as a friend, not an enemy. I make believe that the shrill sound in my head is an echo of the song of the universe. All the earth blesses the Lord, the birds, the rivers, the howling winds. I let the buzzing in my ears become my unceasing prayer of praise. 'Cry out with joy to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before Him singing with joy.'

So when my tinnitus gets to me, I simply smile and recall the words of Psalm 100, and offer it with love. The strain dissolves immediately." And he ends by saying this, "Problems you will always have with you, but it is not the problems that get you down. It's the way you react to them. We are all responsible for our own happiness."

And so I would repeat that one of the qualities which is incompatible with holiness, is antagonism, or selfishness. May God help us to let go of those things, empty our hands so that He can give us the cookies He wants to give.

Lisa Barry: Maybe for you listening today it's not a ceaseless noise in your ear but an endless pain in your heart. If you're looking for the wisdom of God to give you direction this difficult time, I'd recommend you get a copy of the book Elisabeth wrote called A PATH THROUGH SUFFERING. Did you notice it didn't say, "A Path Around Suffering," or "A Path Avoiding Suffering"? You're in the midst of it and you need to get through it. This book will help you do that. Get it for yourself or someone who needs help but doesn't have anyplace to get it. Be the person who bridges the gap for them. Again the title of the book is A PATH THROUGH SUFFERING.

The cost is $14. Just send that along with your request to Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501. Or you can call us toll-free at 1-800-759-4JOY. That's 1-800-759-4569. Our Internet ministry address is gatewaytojoy.org. Gateway To Joy has been a production of Back to the Bible.

Be with us again tomorrow when Elisabeth talks about what sorts of conditions are necessary for holiness. That's next time on Gateway To Joy.