Look Inside ~ Jim Elliot

History

Background

Overview of the Messages

     "Spiritual Desire"

     "The Effects of Sin in the Christian"

     "Peter"

     "God's Prophet" 

Topic One: Spiritual Warfare

2. Spiritual Desire

The Nature of Spiritual Desire

What Is Spiritual Desire?

The Inception of Spiritual Desire

Where Does Spiritual Desire Come From?

Why Don't I Have Spiritual Desire? 

The Increase of Spiritual Desire

How Can Spiritual Desire Be Increased?

What Does it Mean to Delight in God?

3. The Effects of Sin in the Christian

Views of Sin

What Is Man's View of Sin?

What Is God's View of Sin?

Sin and Relationships

Why Does God Seem Distant?

Why Does God Seem Deaf?

Sin and Our Personality

What Does Sin Do to the Body?

What Does Sin Do to the Soul?

What Is Sin?

What Does Sin Do to the Spirit?

Topic Two: Peter, the Disciple

4. Peter

Peter Was the Recipient of Great Mercy

     Why Was It Great Mercy?

     What Does "Born Again" Mean? 

Peter Was a Man Reborn unto a Living Hope

Peter's Faith Was Based upon the Resurrection

Topic Three: Jesus Christ, God's Prophet  

5. God's Prophet

God's Representatives on Earth

The Unique Prophet

Who Was This Unique Prophet?

What Does "Christ" Mean?

Men Recognized Christ as a Prophet

What Is a Prophet?  

The Disciples Recognized Christ as a Prophet

How Was the Prophet Received?

Christ Called Himself a Prophet

There Are False Prophets

Christ Was a True Prophet

What Is a Prophet's Role?

What Did Christ Prophesy?

What About Christ's Prophecies of the Yet Future?

As a Prophet Christ Spoke of Judgment

Why Did Christ Speak About Hell?

Why Does God Judge Men?

Why Does God Send Men to Hell?

How Can We Escape Hell?  

Appendix - Related Material  

Notes  

About the Editor

Additional Thoughts

Now desire is more than just willingness. I once worked for the Foreign Missions Fellowship, which is a group of collegiate kids who are considering going to the mission field. You know, every time I would talk to some Christians in college, their big cry about the mission field was, "Well you know, I'm willing to go. I'm quite willing to go to the mission field. Very willing to go. Willing. But I need a call from God (or some such thing) because I don't feel as if I'm sent to the mission field." Well, I'm telling you that passive willingness is not desire. I was willing to go to the mission field a long time before I willed to go to the mission field. And it is the desire of the will that God wants.

Desire is the putting of my will into God's concern. It's not a passive, sitting back in your easy chair, folding your arms sort of thing, which says, "Well, I'm willing, if God would only give me a good swift kick and send me." That's willingness all right. But God doesn't want willingness, He wants will! He wants your will put behind those desires.

You've got to get proper desires before you can really will to do good. And you get those desires by delight - in God. "Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of thine heart." He'll give you desires.  

~ pages 28-29  

John sees the life coming from heaven. James sees it wrought out on earth. Peter sees it as it has its end in the heavens. John its source in the heavens, James its working out on the earth, and Peter its end in the Heavens. So what we have in the three men is a past, a present, and a future perspective to this being born again.

John - born from above. James - born for the earth, to do the will of God. And here it is, laying it out, pleasing God, acting as though you knew the will of God. Living according to the law of God on the earth. Peter - unto a living hope, unto an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in the heavens for you.

Now, all three talk about being born again. They all use different words, but they mean the same thing. Paul, however, never used this concept except in another relation, for he said in the fourth chapter of First Corinthians, "I have begotten you through the Word," through the gospel. It's as though Paul himself were the father when he uses the idea of being born again.  

~ pages 63-64