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About the Book
"Battlefield of the Mind" by Joyce Meyer explores the power of thoughts and how they impact our actions, emotions, and spiritual growth. Meyer provides practical advice on how to renew our minds, overcome negative thinking patterns, and align our thoughts with God's truth. The book offers strategies for finding peace, joy, and freedom by transforming our thought life.
Jim Elliot
EARLY LIFE
Jim Elliot began his life in Portland, Oregon in the USA. His mother, Clara, was a chiropractor and his father, Fred, was a minister. They married and settled in Seattle, WA where they welcomed their first son, Robert in 1921.
Later they relocated the family to Portland where Herbert arrived in 1924, Jim in 1927, and Jane in 1932.
Jim knew Christ from an early age and was never afraid to speak about Him to his friends. At age six Jim told his mother, âNow, mama, the Lord Jesus can come whenever He wants. He could take our whole family because Iâm saved now, and Jane is too young to know Him yet.â
THE YEARS THAT CEMENTED HIS DESIRE TO SERVE THE LORD IN MISSIONS
Jim entered Benson Polytechnic High School in 1941. He carried a small Bible with him and, an excellent speaker; he was often found speaking out for Christ. He and his friends were not afraid to step out and find adventure. One thing Jim didnât have time for in those early years were girls. He was once quoted as telling a friend, âDomesticated males arenât much use for adventure.â
In 1945 Jim traveled to Wheaton, IL to attend Wheaton College. His main goal while there was to devote himself to God. He recognized the importance of discipline in pursuing this goal. He would start each morning with prayer and Bible study. In his journal he wrote, âNone of it gets to be âold stuffâ for it is Christ in print, the Living Word. We wouldnât think of rising in the morning without a face-wash, but we often neglect the purgative cleansing of the Word of the Lord. It wakes us up to our responsibility.â
Jimâs desire to serve God by taking His gospel to unreached people of the world began to grow while at Wheaton. The summer of 1947 found him in Mexico and that time influenced his decision to minister in Central America after he finished college.
Jim met Elisabeth Howard during his third year at Wheaton. He did ask her for a date which she accepted and then later cancelled. They spent the next years as friends and after she finished at Wheaton they continued to correspond. As they came to know each other there was an attraction, but Jim felt he needed to unencumbered by worldly concerns in order to devote himself completely to God.
In addition to his hope to one day travel to a foreign country to share Christ with the unchurched of the world, he also felt the need to share with people in the United States. On Sundays while at Wheaton he would often ride the train into Chicago and talk to people in the train station about Christ. He often felt ineffective in his work as the times of knowingly leading people to Christ were few. He once wrote, âNo fruit yet. Why is that Iâm so unproductive? I cannot recall leading more than one or two into the kingdom. Surely this is not the manifestation of the power of the Resurrection. I feel as Rachel, âGive me children, or else I die.ââ
After college with no clear answer as to working for the Lord in a foreign country, Jim returned home to Portland. He continued his disciplined Bible study as well as correspondence with Elisabeth Howard whom he called Betty.
They both felt a strong attraction to each other during this time, but also felt that the Lord may have been calling them to be unmarried as they served Him.
In June of 1950 he travelled to Oklahoma to attend the Summer Institute of Linguistics. There he learned how to study unwritten languages. He was able to work with a missionary to the Quichuas of the Ecuadorian jungle. Because of these lessons he began to pray for guidance about going to Ecuador and later felt compelled to answer the call there.
Elisabeth Elliot wrote in Shadow of the Almighty:
âThe breadth of Jimâs vision is suggested in this entry from the journal:
August 9. âGod just now gave me faith to ask for another young man to go, perhaps not this fall, but soon, to join the ranks in the lowlands of eastern Ecuador. There we must learn: 1) Spanish and Quichua, 2) each other, 3) the jungle and independence, and 4) God and Godâs way of approach to the highland Quichua. From thence, by His great hand, we must move to the Ecuadorian highlands with several young Indians each, and begin work among the 800,000 highlanders. If God tarries, the natives must be taught to spread southward with the message of the reigning Christ, establishing New Testament groups as they go. Thence the Word must go south into Peru and Bolivia. The Quichuas must be reached for God! Enough for policy. Now for prayer and practice.
THE ECUADOR YEARS
In February 1952 Jim finally left America to travel to Ecuador with Pete Fleming. In May Elisabeth moved to Quito and though they didnât feel the need to get engaged she and Jim did begin a courtship.
In August Jim left Elisabeth in Quito and travelled with Pete to Shell Mera. At the Mission Aviation Fellowship headquarters in Shell Mera, Jim and Pete learned more about the Acua Indians, a people group that was largely unreached and very savage.
Leaving Shell Mera, Pete and Jim moved on to Shandia where Jim was captivated by the Quichua. He felt very strongly that this was exactly where God intended for him to work to spread the Gospel.
While Jim was in Shandia, Elisabeth was working to learn more about the Colorado Indians near Santa Domingo. In January of 1953 he went to Quito and she met him there and they were finally engaged. They married in October of that year and their only child Valerie was born in 1955.
They settled in Shandia and continued their work with the Quichua Indians. It was Jimâs desire to be able to reach the Waodoni tribe that lived deep in the jungles and had little contact with the outside world. A Waodoni woman who had left the tribe was taken in by the missionaries and helped them to learn the language.
Jim, along with Pete, Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, and their pilot Nate Saint began to search by plane in hopes of finding a way to contact the Waodoni. The found a sandbar in the middle of the Curaray River that worked as a landing strip for the plane and it was there that they first made contact with the Waodoni. They were elated to be able to finally be able to attempt to share the love of Christ with this people group.
After their first meeting, one of the tribe, a man they called George lied to the tribe about the menâs intentions. This lie led the Waodoni warriors to plan an attack for when the missionaries returned. The men did return on January 8, 1956 and were surprised by ten members of the tribe who massacred the missionaries.
Jimâs short life that was filled with the desire to share Godâs love can be summed up by a quote that is attributed to him. âHe is no fool who gives that which he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.â
what is the unforgivable sin
âBlasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.â Itâs one of Jesusâs most enigmatic, controversial, and haunting statements. In the last two millennia, many a tortured soul have wrestled over this warning. Have I committed âthe unforgivable sinâ?  When I addressed my angry profanity to God, when I spoke rebelliously against him, did I commit unforgivable blasphemy?  Or, perhaps more often, especially in todayâs epidemic of Internet porn, âCould I really be saved if I keep returning to the same sin I have vowed so many times never to return to again?â Despite the enigma and controversy, we do have a simple pathway to clarity. Jesusâs âblasphemy against the Spiritâ statement only appears in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). If we get a concrete sense of what he did (and didnât) mean there, then weâre positioned to answer what such âunforgivable sinâ might (and might not) mean for us today. What Jesus Actually Said Jesus hadnât been teaching in public long when his hearers began comparing him to their teachers, called âthe scribes,â part of the conservative Jewish group known as the Pharisees. The growing crowds âwere astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribesâ (Mark 1:22). The scribes heard the comparison and felt the tension, and soon escalated it (Mark 2:6, 16), as these Bible teachers of the day, with their many added traditions, quickly grew in their envy, and then hatred, for Jesus. The threat is so great these conservatives even are willing to cross the aisle to conspire with their liberal rivals, the Herodians (Mark 3:6). The showdown comes in Mark 3:22â30 (Matthew 12:22â32). Scribes have descended from Jerusalem to set straight the poor, deceived people of backwater Galilee. âHe is possessed by Beelzebul,â they say. âBy the prince of demons he casts out the demonsâ (Mark 3:22). Jesus calmly answers their lie with basic logic (verses 23â26) and turns it to make a statement about his lordship (verse 27). Then he warns these liars, who know better deep down, of the spiritual danger theyâre in. âTruly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin â â for they were saying, âHe has an unclean spirit.ââ (Mark 3:28â30) Itâs one thing to suppose that Jesus is out of his mind (his family fears as much at this early stage, Mark 3:21), but itâs another thing to attribute the work of Godâs Spirit to the devil â to observe the power of God unfolding in and through this man Jesus, be haunted by it in a callous heart, and turn to delude others by ascribing the Spiritâs work to Satan. This evidences such a profound hardness of heart in these scribes that they should fear they are on the brink of eternal ruin â if itâs not already too late. Jesus does not necessarily declare that the scribes are already condemned, but he warns them gravely of their precarious position. Who Did the Scribes Blaspheme? Before we ask about our sin today, letâs gather the pieces in the Gospels. The teachers of Godâs covenant people, here at this crucial and unique point in redemptive history, have God himself among them. Godâs long-anticipated kingdom is dawning. âIf it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon youâ (Matthew 12:28). The very day that their stories and prophets and Scriptures have prepared them for is being unveiled before them, and in their hard and impenitent hearts, they are rejecting it. And not only are they cold toward how God is doing it, and murmuring about it to each other, but as teachers of Godâs people, they now are speaking up to draw others away from the truth. And they do so by declaring that the power at work in Jesus, manifestly from God, is the power of Satan. Here Jesus warns them, âWhoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sinâ (Mark 3:29). Why so? Matthew adds a detail we donât have in Mark. âWhoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit  will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to comeâ (Matthew 12:32). Attacking Jesus is one thing. He refers to himself as âthe Son of Manâ â God himself among his people, but not yet fully revealed in his death and resurrection. Attack this enigmatic Son of Man, and the Spirit can overcome that. But itâs another thing to see what God is doing and turn to attack his Spirit . Who is left to help these scribes if theyâre settling in against the Spirit of God? Insult, dishonor, and make enemies with the Spirit, and who is left to bring you back? The reason these scribes are dangerously close to being guilty of âeternal sinâ is because they are evidencing such a settled hardness of heart â not just against this mysterious âSon of Man,â but now explicitly against the Spirit â that their hearts may no longer be capable of repentance. Itâs not that they may be genuinely repentant but given the stiff arm, but that they will ânever have forgivenessâ because they will never meet the simple, invaluable, softhearted condition for it: repentance. Is Anyone Unforgivable Today? When Jesus addresses the scribes in his day, it is on the brink of a seismic redemptive-historical change that comes with his life and ministry. So in what sense might his warning to the scribes about âblasphemy against the Spiritâ be uniquely for Jesusâs day, on the cusp of the old covenant being fulfilled and a new covenant being inaugurated? Should these words fall in the same way on our ears twenty centuries later? When we turn forward in the story to Acts and the Epistles, we donât find anything called âblasphemy against the Spirit.â Which signals our need for exercising care in applying this precise term today. However, we do find a concept similar to âunforgivable sin,â even if the terms are not exactly the same. The essence of Jesusâs warning to the scribes in his day lands on us in some form, even if not in the precise way it did originally for the scribes. Ephesians 4:30 speaks of âgrieving the Holy Spirit,â but this is not the same as Jesusâs warning to the scribes. Those who âgrieveâ the Spirit are reminded that by him they are âsealed for the day of redemption.â However, Hebrews 10:29 speaks of âoutraging the Spirit of grace,â and Hebrews 12:17 warns professing Christians not to be like Esau who âfound no place of repentance.â Like Jesusâs warning to the scribes, we are not told that Esau asked for forgiveness but was denied. Rather, he âfound no place of repentanceâ â his heart had grown so callous, he was no longer able to genuinely repent and thus meet the condition for the free offer of forgiveness. Throughout his letter, the author of Hebrews warns his audience of this danger. In the past, they have professed faith in Jesus and claimed to embrace him. Now, because of pressure and persecution from unbelieving Jews, they are tempted to abandon Jesus to restore their peace and comfort. They have experienced remarkable measures of grace in association with the new-covenant people of God (Hebrews 6:4â5), but now they are nearing the brink of falling away from Christ â and Hebrews warns them of the peril: having known the truth, and rejected it, are they now coming into a kind of settled hardness of heart from which they no longer will be able to repent and thus be forgiven? For Christians today, we need not fear a specific moment of sin, but a kind of hardness of heart that would see Jesus as true and yet walk away â with a kind of hardness of heart incapable of repenting. Again, itâs not that forgiveness isnât granted, but that itâs not sought. The heart has become so recalcitrant, and at such odds with Godâs Spirit, that itâs become incapable of true repentance. Hope for Those Feeling âUnforgivableâ If you do fear youâve committed some âunforgivable sin,â or even that your heart has already reached such a state of hardness, God does offer you hope. If you worry about unforgivable sin, then most likely you are not there. Not yet. Hearts with settled hardness against Jesus and his Spirit donât go around worrying about it. Itâs easy to get worked up over this enigmatic âunforgivable sinâ in the Gospels and miss the remarkable gospel expression of Jesusâs open arms that comes immediately before the warning: âTruly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utterâ (Mark 3:28). All sins. Whatever blasphemies uttered. Through faith in Jesus. This is where the Gospel accounts all lead: to the cross. This Son of Man, as he progressively demonstrates in the Gospels, is God himself and Lord of the universe. And he became one of us, and died for our sins, and rose to offer full and entire forgiveness for all who repent and embrace him as Lord, Savior, and Treasure. If your worries about âunforgivable sinâ relate to a pattern of sin and unrepentance in your life, your very concerns may be Godâs Spirit working to keep you from continuing to harden your heart beyond his softening. Donât despair. And donât treat it lightly. As the Holy Spirit encourages his hearers on the edge of such danger, âToday, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heartsâ (Psalm 95:7â8; Hebrews 3:7â8). You are not guaranteed tomorrow. But you do have today. Itâs not too late, if you still have it in you to repent. More Good News However, we should be careful that the enigma and controversy over âunforgivable sinâ doesnât keep us from missing the main reality underneath this episode in Mark 3 and Matthew 12. Jesusâs main point isnât that there is such a sin as âblasphemy against the Spirit,â but that there is such a person as the Holy Spirit! How remarkable that God has not left us to ourselves in the ups and downs of this life. As he did with his own Son in his full humanity, he makes available to us supernatural power by his Spirit. How did Jesus, as man, perform his miracles? By the power of the Spirit. âIt is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demonsâ (Matthew 12:28). When Jesus hears the scribes say, âBy the prince of demons he casts out the demons,â he hears an outrageous attack, not on himself, but on the Spirit. The last word in the story explains it all: â for  they were saying, âHe has an unclean spiritââ (Mark 3:30). How amazing that the same Spirit who empowered Jesus in his earthly life, and on the path to his sacrificial death, has been given to us today. We âhave the Spiritâ (Romans 8:9, 15, 23; 1 Corinthians 6:19). What a gift weâve received (Romans 5:5; 1 Corinthians 2:12; 2 Corinthians 5:5; 1 John 3:24). How much do we underappreciate what power is available to us (and through us) by the Spirit?
