Lisa Barry: All this week on Gateway to Joy, Elisabeth Elliot has been asking the question, "Whatever happened to obedience?" In a world where obedience to God is seen as narrow and unenlightened, Elisabeth feels it?s time to reacquaint us with the truth. Even in the area of child raising, the common belief is that children shouldn?t be required to obey and parents often are not willing to be consistent with their children when it comes to teaching obedience.

Today on Gateway to Joy, Elisabeth will read a few letters she?s gotten from listeners who have been struggling with this same area and have found victory for themselves and for their families. This is Lisa Barry, inviting you to find out what they?ve learned as we begin this Friday edition of Gateway to Joy. 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 again today about "Whatever Happened to Obedience?"

I?ve been reading you some things about lessons that the Lord has been teaching me, and I know that these lessons are going to go on as long as the Lord keeps me in this life. The liberty of obedience to God, the freedom, the joy, the peace that it brings when we come to Him.

Yesterday I read a poem called "The Old-Fashioned Way." I just want to read a couple of the stanzas again, because it really does echo my own sentiments. I wouldn?t call it great poetry. It?s not going to make it into any of the anthologies, but it?s the simple truth.

"They call me old-fashioned, because I believe that the Bible is God?s Holy Word; that Jesus, who lived among men long ago, is divine and the Christ of God. Well, my sins were old-fashioned, my guilt was old-fashioned, and God?s love was old-fashioned, I know. And the way I was saved was the old-fashioned way?through the blood that makes whiter than snow."

There?s a vast difference between the glad offering of one?s whole life to the Lord of hosts and a feeble preoccupation with what my dear old Bible teacher, Mr. L. E. Maxwell, used to say: "A feeble preoccupation with our sad, sweet, stinking selves." Strength of character begins with birth, training and the posterior application of superior force. By that, I mean a switch of some sort or a paddle. The Bible is very clear that a father who fails to discipline his son hates him. And the Bible makes it clear that the use of the rod is necessary.

Well, I?m very thankful that I grew up in a home where there was a little switch over the door in every room in the house. We knew that that switch was there. We knew what it was for. We knew that it would be used, if we disobeyed. So strength of character begins with birth, training, the posterior application of superior force, and discipline in the home.

We began this week with a question. "Whatever happened to obedience?" I gave you some reminders of what seems to have taken the place of old-fashioned, straightforward, self-surrendering obedience. We get so namby-pamby, don?t we? Weakly sentimental, insipid, inane, self-loving.

All, however, is not completely namby-pamby. All is not totally lost. I speak from authority now, because I get hundreds of letters from godly parents who, by the grace of God, are bringing up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. How I thank God that there are so many who are so eager and so willing to do the hard things that are required, if we?re going to bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Some of you have heard Lars? story about the cold fish soup. Well, I?ll just give it to you again briefly. He grew up in Norway, as many of you know, until he was about ten years old. He was raised by his grandparents. They were very godly people and knew that their responsibility was to raise this child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

One evening when he came to the supper table, his grandmother had made fish soup. He didn?t want fish soup, and so he just sat there looking at it. His grandmother and grandfather went ahead and ate their fish soup, and he was still staring at his bowl. Finally, his grandmother said, "You will sit here until you have eaten your soup." And grandmother and grandfather left the room.

Lars realized that the pot of soup was still on the stove. So he tiptoed over, dumped the soup into the pot and went back and sat down with his plate, looking very innocent. Finally, his grandmother came in and she said, "Did you eat your soup, Lars?" He lied to her. He said, "Yes." So she said, "Well, then you may go to bed."

The next morning, what did he find at his place but a bowl of cold fish soup? He said, "Why am I getting cold fish soup?" Grandmother said, "Lars, I was behind the door."

Then he tells of how he went off to school, still refusing to eat the fish soup. But when he came back for lunch, he said it was the most delicious cold fish soup he ever ate in his life?a lesson never to be forgotten.

Well, a lady named Cindy from Indianapolis wrote me this letter. "What a delight it has been to listen to your radio program, Gateway to Joy, this summer. With two preschool boys and an infant daughter, I had relinquished your program early in the year. The 9:00 broadcast time conflicted with the needs of my household. There is much to be done at that time and sitting down to listen was not feasible.

But after offering that sacrifice to God and acknowledging my desire, He made me aware that Gateway to Joy was also being aired at 5:00 in the morning. So all through the summer, I nursed my daughter during your program and then brought her downstairs to sit in her bouncy seat while I had my quiet time with God. Now that she is crawling and pulling herself up, the bouncy seat is no longer suitable, so she goes back to bed after the program and nursing are over. I think she enjoys that time almost as much as I do.

Thank you for your week of talks with your husband, Lars. One night at supper I shared the story of cold fish soup that he had told. My four-year-old, who is a very reluctant eater, was riveted during the telling. When I was done, he said, ?That?s the best story I ever heard.? To my surprise, we were tested in that area the following evening by my two-year-old son, who is normally an adventurous eater.

I had served his smoked sausage cut up, thinking it would be easier for him to spear, dip in catsup and eat. But when he saw his father and me eating ours on a bun, he rebelled and threw a little fit at the table. My husband"?and this sounds like a very sensible, godly husband?"My husband said, ?You may not have a fit at the table, but you may go to your bedroom and eat this tomorrow.?"

Would you have had the moral fortitude to say that? "You may not have a fit at the table." I think he probably said it in a calm, quiet voice. "But you may go to your bedroom and eat this tomorrow."

"So Brian was excused, the two-year-old, and taken to his bedroom, crying and angry. Forty-five minutes later, as I was beginning to clear the dishes, a meek two-year-old appeared and said he was ready to eat his supper. The previously repulsive, bunless sausage went right down. The story Lars had told gave me courage as I took Brian to his bedroom. I kept thinking how much Lars? grandparents had loved him, yet they were willing to let him go hungry two meals to teach him an important lesson about eating what was served. Surely I could love my Brian enough to teach him similarly. The results speak for themselves."

Well, I do applaud you, Cindy, and I thank you very much for sharing this story with our listeners, because this gives me a chance to just remind my listeners that you can decide what your children are going to eat. Some of you may not be aware of that. You go into the grocery and you see 25 other women with babies in strollers or in the cart. They?re going down that terrible aisle that has about 59 different kinds of breakfast cereal.

A good many of those young women haven?t got any better sense than to say to their children, "What would you like to have?" I would recommend that you just give them oatmeal, especially you who find it difficult to make ends meet at the end of each month. You wonder where the money went. Well, one of the most expensive things you can buy in the grocery store, ounce for ounce, is dry cereal. You can simply start over with your children and say, "Well, we?re not going to buy these anymore. Guess what we?re going to have? We?re all going to have oatmeal." You can have oatmeal three or four times a week. You might be amazed at how it will affect your grocery bill. That?s just one of the things.

When a child refuses to eat, whose fault is it? I saw a woman on television who told us that her little son, five years old, had not had anything except white bread and jelly for two whole years. When the emcee of the program asked why, she said, "He doesn?t like anything else. He won?t eat anything else." Well, if she had that little switch that my mother used or if she had the common sense that Cindy used in sending her little boy to his bedroom to ponder his sins, I think things would be much calmer in her house.

May the Lord give us grace to be obedient to Him, to His Word, and to the laws that He has laid out for us. Not because He wants to make us miserable, but because He loves us with an everlasting love.

Lisa Barry: That?s an important distinction to make as we bring this series to a close. Many people think of God as someone who only wants to make them miserable with rules. But as we?ve learned this week, there is only freedom when we obey. The series you?ve been listening to is entitled WHATEVER HAPPENED TO OBEDIENCE? For further study on the subject, I?d recommend Elisabeth?s book, THE LIBERTY OF OBEDIENCE. In fact, get two copies and send one to a friend so you can discuss it together.

The cost is $5. You can send that to Gateway to Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501. Or call toll-free: 1-800-759-4JOY. On the Web we?re located at gatewaytojoy.org. Gateway to Joy is a listener-supported production of Back to the Bible.

Monday be listening when Elisabeth talks about being a joyful wife. Are you one of those? That?s next time on Gateway to Joy.