Why doesn't God do something about suffering? He has, He did, He is, and He will. Yet, it was in her deepest suffering that she learned the deepest lessons about God. Her first husband, Jim, was murdered by the Waoroni people in Ecuador moments after he arrived in hopes of sharing the gospel. Elisabeth Elliot was no stranger to suffering. When we walk through suffering, it has the potential to devastate and destroy, or to be the gateway to gratitude and joy. Book Review: 100 Bible Verses Everyone Should Know.Hard times come for all in life, with no real explanation.Live Like You're Loved: How's Your Memory?.Live Like You're Loved: Ten for Every Day.Live Like You're Loved: Spiritual Exercises.Live Like You're Loved: Memory Verse Suggestions.Live Like You're Loved: Defining the Gospel.There is no tidy ending, no 'aha' moment when everything clicks into place and her struggles with herself, with God, cease. Just know that it asks more questions than it answers.

If you want to read a book about a woman struggling with living out her calling and wrestling out her doctrines about God in the real world, then this one is worth picking up and reading.

And if Margaret's lacking was intentional on the part of the author, or, if Elliot herself struggled with God's sovereignty.Īs a happy, comfy-cozy read, No Graven Image fails to satisfy. I'm not sure if Margaret grasped these truths or not. She doesn't have anything to 'prove' to God. Her efforts-no matter how mighty and fierce-cannot bring about results. The issue she doesn't quite address straight-forwardly is the idea that God is sovereign in missions-as He is sovereign over the whole universe-and that it is God who works in the heart, that salvation is all His from start to finish. She definitely believes that by being there and serving, she is doing 'her part' to bring people to Christ, and, that God should honor that service by blessing her with definite converts. She definitely starts out with belief that she is doing God a favor by being a missionary and serving in Ecuador. She wrestles with her beliefs about God quite a bit. The book has more questions than answers, in my opinion. Is being a missionary simply living in another country-having other people pay you to live in another country? How does one justify spending one's time when you're a missionary? Is it serving God to go to the marketplace and buy food from natives? Or is the only time that 'counts' the time you spend 'sharing the gospel'? Think of it like this: I'm a missionary, now what? Now that I'm actually here in a foreign country instead of back home training to be this missionary whom God will use.what do I do? How does a missionary do missions. She has to overcome the 'who-does-she-think-she-is' and 'is-that-lady-crazy' viewpoint.įrom start to finish, Margaret experiences troubles and frustration.

Before she can teach them-at least as she sees it-she has to show them that she's trustworthy and/or worthy of their respect and friendship. Now you might think that was challenging enough, but no, before anyone can benefit from this new translation of the Bible, she will have to teach them to read their own native language, that it's worth the time and effort to learn to read. She will pay him to help her translate the Bible. She will pay him to teach her the language. There are some barriers to their friendship-language, culture, social class-but eventually he becomes 'the one' to help her in her work. About a third of the way through the novel, she meets Pedro. She's seeking someone who speaks Spanish and Quichua. She hopes to learn the language-Quichua-and eventually translate the Bible into the native language. Ecuador is her first placement, and, it is without a doubt where she feels called by God to serve. It's narrated by an American missionary-a single woman-named Margaret.

No graven image elisabeth elliot