Elisabeth Elliot: But there are a good many trials and temptations and difficulties and adversities in life, which we cannot easily fix. What do we do in the meantime? Stew and fret? Or trust and obey?

Lisa Barry: How many of you are tempted to stew and fret? It seems like a good idea at the time, doesn't it? In fact, it can seem an unavoidable thing. But when I'm doing the worrying, I never call it that, because worry is sin. No. I call it "concern." I call it "contemplation." But it's still the same thing, isn't it? It doesn't help that whenever the TV comes on, it seems that someone else is always getting a great reward or wearing the latest fashion or winning the lottery. It makes it seem as though everyone is getting the perks, except me. Doesn't it?

Well, today on Gateway To Joy, Elisabeth Elliot is going to read a few letters from people who have taken the hard knocks, like you and I have, and found God faithful to the end. Let's hear from a few of them now. Here's Elisabeth.

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, continuing my talk on faithful endurance. Faithful endurance.

It seems to me that the emotional climate of Americans is generally one of self-pampering, self-interest, self-esteem, self-actualization. You know, we're encouraged to do all of those things, aren't we? We're frightened when somebody tells us that if we don't do all of that, then we are really turning it in on ourselves. Of course, the truth is that it takes a whole lot of self-interest to pamper oneself and esteem oneself and actualize oneself. I'm never quite sure what it means to actualize myself, but I'm not going to worry too much about that.

Not to mention what God names as one of the terrible things which happen in the last days. Do you know that 2 Timothy 3 says, "Mark this. There will be terrible times in the last days," and by way of illustration, the second verse says people will be lovers of themselves. That's one of the terrible things of the terrible times which are going to take place in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves.

We've been considering that word "endurance," faithful endurance. Heard any sermons on that lately? It might not be seeker-friendly, perhaps, to talk too much about suffering and endurance. It wouldn't make too many folks feel good about themselves, do you think? Well, what has happened?

We live in the richest country that has the fattest people, the best medical help and everything geared to comfort and personal satisfaction, a no-risk life. We've been hearing recently that air bags, which were supposed to create a no-risk car, that they actually have killed a few people. So there is no such thing as a no-risk life, is there?

There's frequent mention of the recall of toys and cars and building materials and hamburgers and clothing. What we'd like to have is safety, certainty and enjoyment. Where are those things going to be found? Only in Jesus Christ. He is the only One who can be totally counted upon. God is our refuge.

Back toward the end of the 19^th century, a certain newspaper in London asked a question, with the hope that readers would answer the question. "What's wrong with this world?" G. K. Chesterton, that marvelously humorous and amazingly brilliant man, wrote this in reply to what's wrong with the world: "Dear Sir, I am." He put his finger right on the problem, didn't he? It's you and I that are wrong with the world.

We are sinners. The birds aren't sinners. The ocean isn't a sinner. The little bunnies are not sinners. But we are sinners. Yet we have a refuge. God is our refuge. But He is not about to exempt us from suffering. We need it. We can't always avoid it. Somehow we've got to learn what endurance means. We've got to take it on the chin. Grab yourself by the scruff of the neck and endure.

Don't run off to your psychiatrist, who is going to start telling you how tough you've had it. He is just going to feed your self-pity, if the issue is endurance. But don't always look for a way out or for somebody to prop you up. We like to be surrounded with teddy bears and pity and applauding our conviction that we didn't really deserve all this hardship. Somebody will tell us, "Get a life. Get a life!"

I want to read you a letter of encouragement for 12-year-olds. This is from a boy named Daniel Markovich. He says, "Dear Elisabeth Elliot, I am a 12-year-old boy who really enjoys listening to your radio program. Now that it's summer, I can hear you on weekdays and it is a pleasure. You give good advice and I especially liked your series on 'Is Dating Necessary?' I go to a public school and your material helps me in witnessing for Christ. I really got to use the information on dating. In grade six, most of my classmates dated and I was glad to stand out on this issue for Jesus' sake. I told my best friend, who dated, that dating would not work out. He experienced in a painful way that this is true. He now takes my advice seriously. Thank you for your program.

Last year was an especially tough one for me because of classmates making fun of me for what I believe. I don't mind the verbal harassment, but for a while the guys were picking fights with me because a classmate told everyone that he had heard at my Bible study that I wouldn't hit if I were hit. I got hit a lot. But by God's grace, I did not fight. I could have hit one kid really good, but I didn't. Later he told me that his parents had just become Christians, and that when I wouldn't fight back, God used it to witness to him. He moved away.

My principal is not born again and sometimes he blames me when classmates pick on me, but I can really say that Jesus is victor and has blessed the whole thing." Thank you so much, Daniel. I sure do appreciate your letter.

Then I had a letter from somebody at the other end of the spectrum. His name is David Landon. I think he has probably told me his age at some point, but he lives in Sun City, Arizona, so it's a pretty good guess that he's at least as old as I am, anyway. He calls me "Liz."

He says, "Dear Liz." I never have met the man, but that's what he calls me. "Thanks so much for Valerie's series on dealing with cantankerous unspiritual husbands. It's much needed. Now I would like to suggest that you act on my suggestion in one of my previous letters and take in on Paul's advice to Christian husbands. Start with Ephesians 5:23 and go on from there with Peter's advice from 1 Peter 3. I think it's the ninth verse, but I'm too lazy and in too much of a hurry to stop and look it up."

I'm still quoting David Landon here. This is not Elisabeth Elliot that said that. "Too lazy and in too much of a hurry to stop and look it up, and anything else you can pick up. Bear in mind that Paul did not say, 'Love your sweet, nice, complacent wife,' but 'love your wife.' Period. Even if she's the second cousin of Jezebel and a linear descendent of the witch of Endor on her mother's side. Sock it to them, lady."

Thank you, David. I do appreciate your letters, always amusing. I get a bang out of them. There is some real wisdom there. He says the women's liberation movement has arisen because Christian men have shirked their responsibilities as spiritual husbands. "Hey, Gomer! Hey, Hosea!" David goes on to say, "I'm still bumbling along, trying to sell something I've written, but the outlook is pretty grim. I have a lot of competition out there. As the ancient Egyptian wrote in about 3,000 B.C., 'Children no longer obey their parents and everyone is writing a book and trying to get it published.'"

The Apostle Paul said, "Endure hardness as a good soldier." James said essentially the same thing. He said, "When all kinds of trials come into your lives, my brothers, don't resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends. Realize that they come to test your faith and to produce in you"-now pay attention here-"the quality of endurance." All kinds of trials and temptations have come into our lives, haven't they? Why? There's the answer. To produce in us the quality of endurance.

James goes on to say, "Let the process go on and you will find that you have become men of mature character with the right sort of independence." In today's social and emotional climate, we want to fix everything, don't we? We don't want to endure anything.

Well, I've heard it said that the difference between an American and a Britisher is that the Britisher is not going to fix anything as long as he can endure it. It's the opposite with an American. He is not going to endure anything unless he can fix it. Of course, it's a good idea to fix something if it can be fixed. But there are a good many trials and temptations and difficulties and adversities in life which we cannot easily fix.

What do we do in the meantime? Stew and fret? Or trust and obey? May you be one of whom it can be said, "He or she faithfully endured." God bless you.

Lisa Barry: As we close for today, I want to be sure you're aware of the resources we have available that will help you to faithful endurance. The first is a cassette copy of this one-week series. It's called FAITHFUL ENDURANCE. If a lack of discipline is what's hindering you, then I'd suggest Elisabeth's book, DISCIPLINE: THE GLAD SURRENDER. It will give you all the incentive you need to live a life in sold-out obedience to God. If personal suffering is what's threatening to weaken your faith, then a great book for you would be A PATH THROUGH SUFFERING. It will help you to believe that God can use any and every situation in your life for good. If you're in a bitter struggle right now, that's a message you need right now.

For information on any of those resources or to find out how you can support the ongoing needs of this program, give us a call at this number: 1-800-759-4JOY. That's 1-800-759-4569. Or 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 concludes this series on faithful endurance, so be sure and join us then for the next Gateway To Joy.