Lisa Barry: In I Corinthians, Paul makes a wonderful analogy about the way in which Christians should live their lives. He admonishes us to run in such a way as to get the prize. So with that in mind, I wonder where you and I line up in the race. Are we dragging our feet wishing that the race were shorter or less challenging? Or maybe we're not even in the race at all but standing on the sideline. And what effect do the front runners have on us?

Well, today on Gateway To Joy we'll travel to Denver, Colorado, where Elisabeth speaks to a group of women about the faith race. She'll be highlighting some of the outstanding runners who have gone before her, and challenge you and me to follow their example. Let's get started.

Elisabeth Elliot: I was told that last year the women of Crossroads Church, Denver, attended a women's retreat, and they were encouraged there to view their faith as a great marathon race. Well, they said, we're interested in carrying over this vital message to my seminar. So they wanted me to talk about the faith race. Now, personally, they wanted to know four things. What has your faith race been like and what has kept you in the race. Number two, how have you managed to avoid disqualification from the race. What kind of training did the Lord require of you and any advice for us? And then, four, what outstanding runners have you known and how have they helped you?

So, this was a unique assignment. I had never had anything quite like this; but as I pondered it I thought, "it makes very good sense, because it gives me an opportunity to talk about my wonderful parents." My parents were missionaries, and I was born there in Belgium; but they taught us from earliest childhood to love God and to do what He says. And so, I think of them as icons in my life. Both of them were godly, dedicated Christians, and both of them had given their lives completely to the Lord. My mother did not come from a strong Christian family; but when she was about eighteen-years-old she was led to the Lord by another teenager. And my father was just one of many wonderful people on his side of the family, godly people for generations back.

Now, as for what has kept my faith race, what has it been like, and what has kept me in the race; I would certainly have to say that it was my parents and their unequivocal determination to raise godly children. And I am thankful to say that five out of the six of us became missionaries. Number six has always been in Christian work, as well.

But the Lord wants to teach us to trust him and to continue the faith race. The shaping of a Christian family is a microcosm of heaven. That means just a small vision of what heaven is going to be like. Christ is the head, and we had a little brass plaque over the doorbell, the front doorbell of our home in Philadelphia; and it said, "Christ is the head of this house, the unseen guest at every meal, the silent listener to every conversation." And I remember when I learned to read that that was an awesome statement, and I used to look at that little brass plaque and realize that everybody that came up on that porch had an opportunity to guess what kind of people lived there. And so, our parents taught every one of us to love God.

Every morning my father got up between 5, well, 5 o'clock at the latest; and he would go into his study and we knew that our father was always on his knees with his Bible open, praying for his children. And so, when we came to breakfast we knew that our father had been on his knees for us. When breakfast was over my father herded us all into the living room and the first thing that we did was to sing a hymn. And I was so glad to hear that you sang a couple of hymns here. I go to many different churches and very seldom do we hear the old hymns of the faith. And so my parents taught us and every morning we would sing one hymn, all the stanza's, never omitting the third stanza, as some people are wont to do. And then my father would open the Bible, and he would read a portion of the Bible and then all of us got down on our knees and he prayed for us, each one by name. And, of course, that made a very deep impression on all of us. We were to join in with the Lord's Prayer when our father had finished praying for each of us, and then off to school we went, and off to the office my father went.

These four question that were given to me from this person here in Crossroads: How have you managed to avoid disqualification from the race, and I had to scratch my head and think of what would be a simple short answer to that. I think the answer would be...one day at a time! I certainly could have managed to disqualify myself from the race if I was trying to do it all at once! But, as you can very well see, you are looking at an old woman who has been trying to trust the Lord and do what He says for as many years as I can remember. So, as for my avoiding being disqualified from the race, I would say it was only because it was one step at a time. "Step by step, I'll follow Jesus" was a little song that we used to sing.

Then, question number three: What kind of training did the Lord require of you, and have you any advice for us? Well...yes. My father, certainly, both my parents required of us that we learn to trust and obey. And we were not to delay. Everything went like clockwork in our home, and I've had more than one person come up to me afterwards and say, "Boy, I don't know how in the world you ever survived in a place like that! All those regimentation's and those things that you had to do and all that kind of stuff...I could never have survived in that." Well, thank God, God gave us the privilege of having people like our parents. So, what the Lord required of us was trust and obey, and that certainly was one of our favorite hymns. "Trust and obey, for there's...what?"

Audience: "...no other way..."

Elisabeth Elliot: ...no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey."

And a fourth question that was asked of me, "What outstanding runners have you known and how have they helped you?" Well, I really did have to scratch my head on that one. I thought of runners; how many runners have I ever known in my life? And then it occurred to me that I have a wonderful collection of women who have deeply influenced my own life, and I've put these into my little brown notebook that I carry with me everywhere.

Of course, the first person on the list was my mother, Catherine Howard. And then the second one was a woman by the name of Betty Scott. And she was going to China to marry her fianc?, John Stam. And I think I am right when I say she sat at our dinner table...anyway, I was probably only four or five years old at the time. But when I was about eight years old my father told us about how John and Betty Stam, when Betty had gone to China, she and her husband were captured by Chinese Communists and beheaded. Now can you imagine the impact that that had on my childish mind? But I thought to myself, I want to be a missionary; and I want to be that kind of a missionary. If the Lord wants to take my head off, that would be fine. Of course, I was eight years old!

Then I think about Dr. Virginia Blakesly, a woman doctor from Africa. And I never forgot her repeating a verse from the scriptures with tremendous power as tears poured down her cheeks, "The Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face like a flint and I know that I shall not be ashamed"(Isa. 50:7). I never forgot that.

Well, I have to skip over a whole lot of them but there was Catherine Howard, I've already mentioned.

Catherine Cumming, dear little sweet lady, who was the dorm mother when I went to Wheaton College. Catherine Cunningham...here are four Catherines so far. Catherine Cunningham was a godly woman that I met when I was at Prairie Bible Institute in Alberta Canada, and she became like a second mother to me. And then Catherine Morgan, a woman who practically was responsible for booting me to Ecuador when I was determining whether the Lord wanted me in Ecuador or in Africa or in the South Seas or whatever. Catherine Morgan had been there before I got there; and she worked away there in Colombia after her husband died, and she just died a year ago at the age of 91.

So these were certainly some of the people who reminded me that God is going to help us. This list of women has greatly helped me. I go back to the list again and again and realize how blessed I have been in meeting so many.

Lisa Barry: And with that we bring today's program to a close. We at Gateway To Joy are confident that as we look back over these years that we will have operated in ways that God ordained. And as we help to usher in the new program, Revive Our Hearts, this fall, we know that you will have the same confidence in the ministry of Nancy Leigh DeMoss. I hope that that gives you a sense of peace and assurance when you give financially to this ministry. It's our goal simply to encourage women to examine their lives in light of God's word, not to build an empire unto ourselves. And I'm praying that such a claim is evident to you as you listen each day.

If God has been prompting you to give to Gateway To Joy , then I hope you'll follow through today. God loves a cheerful giver, and I think Gateway To Joy listeners are some of the most cheerful around. Thanks in advance for your prayers and gifts.

Here's our phone number; 1-800-759-4JOY. That's a toll free call. 1-800-759-4569. Our mailing address is Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, NE 68501. That's Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, NE 68501. You can also find us on the Internet at gatewaytojoy.org.

Gateway To Joy is a listener-supported production of Back to the Bible.

Be with us again tomorrow when we'll go back to Colorado for a Glimpse of Heaven. That's next time on Gateway To Joy.