Elisabeth Elliot: What's the pattern of your life? Have you learned to see Christ as your husband? Or if you are married, have you learned to see Christ in your husband?

Lisa Barry: Have you ever wondered how different your life might be if you saw Christ in every area of your life? What if you really believed with all your might that God had every detail under control and it was only your job to react to those details in a godly way? How would you be different?

All this week Elisabeth Elliot has been leading us closer to that goal through obedience--obedience to God's Word when he tells us to forgive, to love unconditionally, and to wait patiently. Are those things you want to cultivate in your life? Then this is the place to be. Stay with us as Elisabeth talks more about achieving peace through obedience. Let's get started.

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 today about acceptance.

Amy Carmichael said, "in acceptance lieth peace." I'm sure that I was talking to some people today, who are not peaceful. Something difficult has happened in your life. Perhaps someone has betrayed you. Perhaps a business partner has gone off with the money. I don't know what the situation may be. Are you prepared to forgive that person? That's what we talked about in our last Gateway To Joy, but here is an opportunity for acceptance.

Psalms 16:5 is one of my life verses, "LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; and have made my lot secure." Psalms 119:124-125 says, "Deal with Your servant according to Your love and teach me Your decrees. I am your servant; give me discernment that I may understand Your statutes."

Now under this heading of acceptance I have number 1, 2 & 3.

Number one: Wants vs. Needs

You know "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want," which means I shall not lack anything that I need. Since He is my shepherd I can rest assured that He knows exactly what is best for me. I don't need to worry about myself at all.

And that takes me back to a number of years ago when I visited a sheepherder high in the mountains of North Wales. A place called Llanymawddwy owned by John Jones whose wife's name was Mari and whose dog was Mack. I'm told that almost all the North Wales sheepherders were named John Jones, their wives were Mari, and their dogs are named Mack.

One summer morning I stood in the window with Mari watching the sheep moving across a dewy meadow toward the pens. A few cows were quietly chewing their cud in a nearby corner while perhaps a hundred sheep were moving across that dewy meadow toward the pens where they were to be dipped that day.

Mack, a champion Scottish Collie, was in his glory. He came from a long line of working dogs and he had sheep in his blood. This was what he was made for; this was what he had been trained to do. And it was a marvelous thing to see him circling to the right, circling to the left, barking, crouching, racing along, herding a stray sheep here, nipping at a stubborn one there, his eyes always glued to the sheep, his ears listening for the tiny metal whistle from his master, which I couldn't hear.

Mari took me to the pens to watch what John had to do there. When all the animals had been shut inside the gates, Mack tore around the outside of the pens and took up his position at the dipping trough frantic with excitement and expectation, waiting for the chance to leap into action again.

One by one John seized the rams by their curled horns and flung them into the antiseptic, a stinking black liquid. They would struggle to climb out the side and Mack would snarl and snap at their faces to force them back in. Just as they were about to climb up the ramp at the far end, John caught them by the horns with a wooden implement, spun them around, forced them under again, and held them--ears, eyes and nose submerged for a few seconds.

I've had some experiences in my life which have made me feel very sympathetic to those poor rams--I couldn't figure out any reason for the treatment that I was getting from the Shepherd that I trusted. The Shepherd is my Lord Jesus, of course. He didn't give me a hint of explanation.

As I watched the struggling sheep, I thought, If only there was some way to explain to these poor animals what was being done to them. Such knowledge is too wonderful for them. It is high. They cannot attain unto it. So far as they could see, there was no point whatsoever.

When the rams had been dipped, John rode out again on his horse to herd the ewes which were in a different pasture. Again I watched with Mari as John and Mack went to work, the one in charge and the other obedient. Sometimes tearing at top speed around the flock Mack would jam on his four-wheel brakes, his eyes blazing but still on the sheep; his body tense and quivering, but obedient to the command to stop. What the shepherd saw the dog couldn't see--the weak ewe that lagged behind, the one caught in a bush, or the danger that lay ahead for the flock.

Do the sheep have any idea what's happening I asked Mari? "Not a clue," she said. "How about Mack," I asked? I can't forget Mari's answer. "The dog doesn't understand the pattern, only obedience."

There are those who would call it nothing more than a conditioned reflex, or at best blind obedience. In that Welsh pasture in the cool of that summer morning, I saw two creatures who were in the fullest sense in their glory--a man who had given his life to sheep, who loved them and loved his dog; and a dog whose trust in that man was absolute, whose obedience was instant and unconditional, and whose very meat and drink was to do the will of his master. "I delight to do Thy will," was what Mack said, "yea, Thy law is within my heart" (Ps. 40:8).

What's the pattern of your life? Of course I know nothing about your background, your education, your personality, your marriage, your singleness, your geography, your present situation, your needs, your bewilderments, singleness, affliction, or losses. Have you learned to see Christ as your husband? Or if you are married, have you learned to see Christ in your husband?

Before Jim Elliot and I were married back in 1953, he wrote exhorting to me to lay aside all anxieties and to remember that I had bargained with Him who bore a cross. It was a word I needed then. It's a word I need now, nearly 50 years later. Every day there are distractions that easily make me forget that bargain.

If things upset or irritate or even momentarily bother me, let me think of what Christ endured for me. And the contrast will put my troubles in perspective. If I wonder why God deals with me as He does--repeating many times the lessons of love, self-abandonment, acceptance of loss or certainty, for example--the only answer I need is that I accepted His invitation to take up my cross and follow.

And what comes following that? Restoration. Restoration comes through acceptance of the Shepherd's will for you or me.

I've told the story of how my brother Tommy had left all the paper bags in the kitchen on the floor. He was allowed to do that, but he was always told he had to put them away before he left the kitchen. This time my mother came and found he was not in the kitchen, but he was standing beside the piano where my father was playing some hymns.

My mother said, "Tommy, I want you to come put away the paper bags." Tommy looked up at mother with those beautiful eyelashes of his, he was about 3 years old I guess, and he said, "But I want to sing 'Jesus Loves Me,'" whereupon my father took it upon himself then to press home a very important lesson. "It's no good being disobedient to your mother while you are singing the praises of God."

Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? The Bible says in 1 Samuel 15:22, "To obey is better than sacrifice." So of course little Tommy had to leave the piano and go to the kitchen and put those paper bags back where they belonged in the drawer--a very good lesson for all of us.

Acceptance. Wants vs. needs. A pattern for our lives and restoration, which comes through acceptance of the Shepherd's will for you or for me. Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? "To obey is better than sacrifice."

Lisa Barry: Have you noticed how much God can teach a parent through their own kids? I've certainly learned that. I might ask one of my girls to scrub the kitchen floor, but if she doesn't feel like doing that I might hear an offer to go out and get the mail instead. As I carefully explain to her that I desire obedience rather than some other sacrifice, the words echo inside my mind. Then I know how God must feel when I do the same thing to Him. "To obey is better than sacrifice," but where do you learn that kind of obedience?

Let me suggest a wonderful book by Elisabeth Elliot called On Asking God Why. It's one of those books you walk away from saying, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," and that's the truth. We'd love for you to have a copy of that book for yourself or to give to a friend. We are making it available today for a suggested donation of $8.00 when you request it. You can write to us at:

Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, NE 68501. Don't forget to check out our updated Web site at gatewaytojoy.org. I'd also like to send you a free copy of a booklet Elisabeth has written called The Glory of God's Will. We only have a limited number available, so call now to be sure you'll get a copy. That number is 1-800-759-4JOY, 1-800-759-4569. Gateway To Joy is a listener-supported production of Back to the Bible.

This is Lisa Barry, inviting you to be with his again tomorrow when Elisabeth talks about a few important life lessons. That's next time on Gateway To Joy.