Passion and Purity - Baker Publishing Group

1 Passion andPurityLearning to Bring Your Love Life Under christ s ControlElisabeth Elliotr Elliot/ Passion /MW/BB 6/5/03 3:03 PM Page 3 Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and PurityRevell Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group , 1984, 2002, Used by permission. 1984, 2002 by Elisabeth ElliotPublished by Fleming H. Revella division of Baker Book House Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 Fourth printing, July 2003 Printed in the United States of AmericaAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in aretrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means for example,electronic, photocopy, recording without the prior written permission of thepublisher.

2 The only exception is brief quotations in printed 0-8007-5818-8 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, otherwise identified, Scripture quo-tations are from the King James Version ofthe quotations identified PHILLIPS arefrom THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERNENGLISH, Revised Edition J. B. Phillips,translator. Phillips 1958, 1960, by permission of Macmillan Publish-ing Co., quotations identified YOUNGCHURCHESare from LETTERS TO YOUNGCHURCHES by J. B. Phillips. Copyright 1947, 1957 by Macmillan Publishing Co.,Inc.

3 , renewed 1975 by J. B. Phillips. Usedby identified NEBare taken from TheNew English Bible,Copyright 1961, 1970,1989, by The Delegates of Oxford Univer-sity Press and The Syndics of the CambridgeUniversity Press. Reprinted by from The Shooting of DanMcGrew, by Robert Service, reprinted bypermission of DODD, MEAD, & COMPANY,INC. from THE COLLECTED POEMS OFROBERT from TOWARD JERUSALEM copyrighted material used by permission ofthe Christian Literature Crusade, FortWashington, PA 19034. Night Song at Amalfi reprinted with per-mission of Macmillan Publishing Companyfrom COLLECTED POEMS by Sara Teas-dale.

4 Copyright 1915 by Macmillan Pub-lishing Co., Inc., renewed 1943 by current information about all releasesfrom Baker Book House, visit our web site: Elliot/ Passion /MW/BB 6/5/03 4:28 PM Page 4 Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and PurityRevell Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group , 1984, 2002, Used by by Joshua Harris 7 Preface 11 Introduction by Ruth Bell Graham 171Me, Lord? Single? 192 The Life I Owe 243 Passion Is a Battleground 284 Unruly Affections 335 Does God Want Everything? 386 The Snake s Reasoning 427 The First Date 458 Unfailing Love 489 The Revelation 5110 Does God Notice?

5 5511 Oozing Ache 5812 Holding Pattern 6013 Material for Sacrifice 6514 Honor Above Passion 6815 Little Deaths 7116 Life From Death 7417 What to Do With Loneliness 7818 What Providence Has Gone and Done 8319 The Rebel Sigh 8820 Self-deception 925 Elliot/ Passion /MW/BB 6/5/03 3:03 PM Page 5 Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and PurityRevell Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group , 1984, 2002, Used by What Women Do to Men 9822 What Do Men Look For? 10323 The Mess We ve Made 10824 Hot Sweats and Wet Feet 11225 Nobody Knows the Trouble 11626 A Letter at Last 11927 Whetted Appetites 12428 How Much Can a Kiss Tell You?

6 12729 They Abstain From Nothing 13130 A Small Sin 13531 A Cave and a Driftwood Fire 13832 How Do You Say No? 14233 Four Bare Legs 14634 His Sublime Keeping 15035 Impatience 15336 I Have You Now Unravished 15537 Hold God to His Bargain 15838 God Granted and God Denied 16239 Confused Rollings and Wheels 16740 Love Letters 17241 This Is Our God We Have Waited for Him 17642 Out of Love and Into Charity 18043 A New Act of Creation 186 Source Notes 1896 Contents Elliot/ Passion /MW/BB 6/5/03 3:03 PM Page 6 Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and PurityRevell Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group , 1984, 2002, Used by s a path near my home that I enjoy taking walks winds through woods and beside a pond dotted withCanada Geese.

7 One day after strolling on it for nearly tenminutes I realized that I d been absentmindedly staringdown at my feet the entire time. When I looked up itseemed the world switched from black and white to sky was a piercing blue, the autumn leaves on thetrees towering above were bright orange, yellow, and red. Silly isn t it? That beauty surrounded me and instead ofenjoying it I was looking down at my shoddy pair of ten-nis shoes on the black asphalt. I share this story because I think it illustrates a tendencywe have when it comes to the topic of romance and rela-tionships. Too often we have a downwardgaze we lockour eyes on the drab tones of what we want, need, ordeserve from a relationship.

8 And sadly, there are count-less books ready to feed this wrong perspective. Theypromise self-empowerment and offer endless advice forsqueezing out every last drop of self-fulfillment from arelationship. Fortunately for you and me, there are writers like Elis-abeth Elliot. The book you re holding tells a very movinglove story. It s honest. It s practical. But even as it addresses7 Elliot/ Passion /MW/BB 6/5/03 3:03 PM Page 7 Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and PurityRevell Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group , 1984, 2002, Used by real questions and concerns of single men and womenit always lifts our gaze upward above our immediate pre-occupations, above our longings for human companion-ship to the Maker who created us for Himself.

9 There is somuch wonder and beauty awaiting those who will viewthe path of relationships as a chance to gaze on the good-ness and creativity of God. This book will help you do hope that you ll read these pages differently than I firstdid. I was 16 and in the middle of a serious dating rela-tionship when my mom gave me a copy of Passion & was immediately suspicious of the subtitle which read, Learning to bring your love life under christ s control. I was sure it was going to tell me that I wasn t allowed tokiss my girlfriend (something I thought very vital to mycontinued happiness at the time).

10 So what did I do? I deter-mined before I had even cracked the cover that I was goingto disagree with everything it had to say. As my mom nowjokes, I read all the Passion but skipped all the Purity . What a mistake!A few years later I reread Passion & Purityand realizedthat its message was exactly what I needed to hear in themidst of my high-school dating relationship. Why had itseemed so irrelevant? Why didn t I learn from it at thattime? Because I decided from the beginning that I wasn tgoing to listen. Please don t make my mistake. Please read this bookwith humility. When you come to something you thinkyou disagree with or to a standard of Purity that seems toohigh, ask God to give you His perspective.