Most missionary candidates would know the name, Jim Elliot.  Probably some responded to the call to mission because of him.

One of his well known quotes is:

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain that which he cannot lose.”

Another: “Wherever you are, be all there! Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.”
It is worth doing a search on his quotes.

What impresses and challenges me is that his life wasn’t about composing memorable quotes but living them out. They emanated from who he was.

If you know anything of his story, you will know that his life was taken by the very ones to whom he felt called to share the gospel.

Paul had much to say, and write, but he also had the confidence to say:

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

The life of Jesus was the pre-eminent resonance of word and deed, and the New Testament writers often held up the example of Jesus’ life and its consistency with the words he spoke.

Which leads me to reflect, do my words echo my life, does my life give image to the words I proclaim?

The Message paraphrases the words in 2 Corinthians 3 as:

Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God’s living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives—and we publish it.

For those who follow Christ, may our lives speak what our mouths proclaim.

Pastor Peter