Elisabeth Elliot: Are you the kind of a person that can be called upon to do any job that needs to be done, without any fuss, muss or complaint?

Lisa Barry: We sure like to think so, don?t we? But when it comes right down to accepting a menial task, I wonder how many of us do so without any fuss, muss or complaint? Not too long ago I heard one of the Minnesota Viking football players being interviewed on the news. The reporter asked this question, "If Jesus were a member of the Vikings, what job would He have?" The player answered wisely, "Jesus would be the water boy."

That?s a great thought to start off our third and final week of the series entitled CROWNED BECAUSE HE SUFFERED. We?re going to begin today with a quick recap of the last two weeks, so if you haven?t been able to join us till now, we?ll get you up to speed. Let?s go back once again to "The Cove" conference center, where Elisabeth Elliot is about to begin.

Elisabeth Elliot: My topic this evening is "Offering." I want to review a couple of things that I have been talking about. In 2 Corinthians the Apostle Paul said, "There was given to me a thorn." You remember what that thorn was. We pondered the mystery of its being both God?s gift and Satan?s messenger?a seeming paradox or contradiction.

But think also of Genesis 45:8, where Joseph tells his brothers, "It was not you that sent me here, but God." Of course, Joseph?s brothers had hated him and been jealous of him and were murderous and planning to murder him when they discovered that they could make some money on him. They dropped him into a pit. Then they sold him to some travelers, who took him to the land of Pharaoh. He went into service in the house of the Pharaoh and was lied about by an adulterous woman, and as a result went into prison.

For years and years and years, it appears as though God wasn?t doing anything at all. When in the end Joseph had become the prime minister of Egypt with a great deal of power, he was then able of course to prevent his father and his brothers from starving to death. When they recognized him, of course they were terrified, realizing that he did have the power to put them to death. But he said, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." There?s that paradox again of the free will of man and the infinite sovereignty of God. Joseph named his son Ephraim?"fruitful"?because he said, "God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction."

We talked about suffering as being a gift?not an easy concept for our minds to grasp and continue to hold onto. But the next thing is to discover that God gives you and me the privilege of making an offering back to Him. He gives us good gifts, but then He actually makes it possible for you and me to give Him our gifts.

When I was a student at Wheaton College, I was greatly blessed in being in the dormitory of which a dear lady was the housemother. In those days, we had housemothers. She was Miss Cumming. She had come from a very, very wealthy Southern family and had been completely kicked out of the house, as it were. She was disinherited by this very wealthy family because she had become a Christian, and they didn?t want any part of that kind of thing. So she was essentially dismissed.

I have no idea what that poor lady did before she became a housemother at Wheaton. I just remember her telling us that she had no skills whatsoever, except card playing. She didn?t expect to be able to make a whole lot of money on that. But eventually she of course had become a Christian and went to Wheaton College. I was one of 200 girls that were greatly blessed by Miss Cumming?s presence in our dormitory.

Because I used to walk to Sunday school with her every Sunday, as well as often go into her room there in the dormitory and sometimes pour out my troubles and tribulations to her, we seemed to become somehow good friends in a slightly different way from the rest of them, I guess. She must have been, well, at least 30 years older than I was, probably in her fifties or so. Very, very ancient in my mind.

But she was a short little lady who had a very charming way of clasping her bosom when she talked to me, and especially when she had something sad to pour out. I would go in and pour out my troubles about Greek and boys and whatnot. But occasionally she would tell me some of her tribulations. They were in the process of building onto that particular dormitory, so there was always noise and workmen going in and out and all sorts of things happening.

One day I went in. In her charming way, she said, "Oh, Betty." She called me Betty. You Southerners, you do know how to drag it out. I just can?t get over how you can drag it out, and I did have a Southern roommate when I was in high school. She always said that I made one syllable out of the word that she made three syllables out of. The word was "tub." She called it a "tuuuub." I laughed about it. She said, "Well, what do you want me to say? Tub?"

Well, anyway, dear Miss Cumming, she said, "Oh, Betty. I came to Wheaton to be a spiritual counselor. But here I am, carrying mops and toilet paper across the campus." I?m sure that in those days they didn?t have job descriptions. Her job was certainly to be the housemother in that particular dormitory. But when they ran out of mops and toilet paper and the maintenance man didn?t come, Miss Cumming trekked across the campus and came back carrying mops and toilet paper. Well, she had come from a home where there were white columns in the front and servants in the back. I?m sure that never in her life had she ever had to carry mops and toilet paper before.

But that made a very deep impression on me, because I recognized that here was this lady from such a totally different background, willing to do a menial job. Because she did have a very great spiritual influence on us girls, that was greatly enhanced by the recognition that here was a woman with a servant heart, willing to do what needed to be done. No fuss, muss or anything. Just needed to be done, and so she did. She made an offering to God over something very menial.

"The trivial round, the common task, will furnish all we ought to ask; room to deny ourselves, a road to bring us daily nearer God. If on our daily course our mind be set to hallow all we find, new treasures still of countless price God will provide for sacrifice."

Years later, my husband Ad and I went to visit her when she was in a retirement place in Florida. I reminded her that day of what she had said on that particular day about the mops and toilet paper. Well, of course she couldn?t remember anything about it. But when I told her this, again she clasped her less than, shall we say, ample bosom, and she said, "Oh, Betty. Did I really say that?" I said, "Yes." And I told her how much it had meant to me to realize that she was willing to do a job like that. And she said, "Oh, Betty. Just think that the Lord allowed me to carry mops and toilet paper for His glory."

Are you the kind of a person that can be called upon to do any job that needs to be done without any fuss, muss or complaint? An offering to Jesus Christ?the housework, the cleaning of the toilet, the washing of the windows. You husbands, who have to lay down your lives for your wives when you come home, what you really want to do is sink into an easy chair, pick up the newspaper or turn on the TV. But you go out and help your wife with whatever she needs. It?s an offering, isn?t it? No big deal that we should be proud of.

But for you note takers, number one is the crushed dandelion. You know what it?s like, you mothers, when a little child, a two-year-old perhaps, comes in with a smashed dandelion in his sweaty little fist. "A present for Mommy." It?s the most precious present in the world. You could never get anything that you would value more. But it?s useless. It?s just a totally crushed dandelion.

What the child is doing is giving you what God has given him, and he gives it to you because he loves you and he of course wants a kiss and wants to be told that he is a good little boy and all that. Now what is God?s intention when He gives you and me something? He is making it possible for us to give something back to Him.

You know those ancient words, "All things come of Thee, O God, and of Thine own have we given Thee." We have nothing to give Him but ourselves. That is a gift He has given to us. In other words, He is making it possible for us to give Him something.

I remember when I was a little girl. I wanted to buy presents for Daddy and Mother. One time I was given a dime. I was able to buy?you young people aren?t going to be able to believe this?but I was able to buy a whole box of chocolates with ten cents. But the ten cents, of course, had come from my mother. I bought the chocolates and I gave it to my mother for her birthday present. A pitiful offering when you think about it, but one that?s greatly treasured by a mother who loves the child. It?s love that makes it precious, and it?s the same thing with our Heavenly Father.

You know that hymn, "Nothing in my hand I bring; simply to Thy cross I cling."

Lisa Barry: Isn?t it good to remember that God loves as a father should?being happy with our valiant attempts at obedience and patiently trying to realign us when we veer off course. Aren?t you amazed that an all-powerful God would come to earth to show us how to be a servant? How much more should we do likewise?

This has been such a powerful series. I really encourage anyone listening today to purchase this two-cassette offering. You?ll find yourself playing it again and again just to glean a little more substance from it. There are really three weeks to this series, and we?ve managed to condense it down to two tapes, so you get a three-week series for the price of two.

The title to ask for is CROWNED BECAUSE HE SUFFERED. The cost is $11.50, and you can send that, along with your request, to Gateway to Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501. Or call 1-800-759-4JOY. Or you can also find us on the Internet at gatewaytojoy.org. Gateway to Joy is a listener-supported production of Back to the Bible.

There?s more to come from the Cove tomorrow, so be sure and join us then for another Gateway to Joy.