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Apples of Gold
Radio Script for January 14, 2009
“Advice From The Love Doctor”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
Jim and Elisabeth were dating.
They liked each other, maybe loved each other, but Jim wasn’t ready for a commitment.
Oh, he was a good Christian guy. He just didn’t know if she was the one. Or maybe he just wasn’t ready to commit to anyone.
But there was no denying the electricity in the air. The philosopher Agur said he did not understand the way of a man with a maiden, but we all know what it feels like.
And Jim and Elisabeth felt it, like a powerful magnet drawing them together. Love was in the air.
Now if this was a popular TV show, what would happen later that night? What kind of advice would these two get from today’s so-called love doctors?
Can you see the advice column?
“Dear Jill, I really like this guy. Can we sleep together? What are the rules? Signed, Puppy Love.”
“Dear Puppy Love, Go for it! It’s your body and your relationship. No one can tell you what’s right for you. It’s not a question of morals or what anyone else has to say. What matters is that you feel safe and comfortable.”
Now that advice is absurd, but you probably didn’t even blink when you heard it. This is the kind of thing that is being passed off as good advice these days.
Thankfully, Elisabeth did not turn to Dear Jill for advice. And Jim’s respect for Elisabeth went through the roof.
Listen to this excerpt from Jim’s journal on September 13th:
“She has been gone just one hour. What thunders of feeling I have known in that short time. I could not read the neon lights as I turned away from the bus, and somehow couldn’t face the people as they passed me. My lip kept contorting, and I could not seem to look natural without twisting tight together both my lips. How terrible I sound sobbing. Not like myself at all, but uncontrolled grating, animal sounds – and tears that trickled over my jaw and to my throat. Leaving her is terrible. I remember three times now. The station in Chicago as she walked alone down the tracks next to a Sante Fe train on her way to Wycliffe. Then her face in the back window of the taxi on Washington Street behind the Stupe last September. And now this – her twisted brow, the tragic pain of her glance. And she goes off – still wondering.”
Wow, what did Elisabeth do to stir up such emotion in this man? I can assure you, it was not by following the advice of the “love doctors.”
Let’s go back to Jim’s journal from September 13th. Listen to this:
“Her uprightness makes it so hard. She loves, I know, but oh, how bitter is love unexpressed. And she will not let me hold her, hardly touch her, for she says, ‘I am not mine to give you.’”
Stop right there. Did you catch that?
Here’s Jim, completely drawn in by this woman, so much so that he was literally grieving her departure. And what did she do to cause this reaction?
Here are Jim’s words again:
“…she will not let me hold her, hardly touch her, for she says, ‘I am not mine to give you.’”
Did she want to touch? Of course, she is human. She is a woman in love. She grieves the separation as well.
So why not just take the advice of the day and go for it? What held her back?
Here is what held her back. “I am not mine to give.”
Not mine to give? What’s that all about?
It’s from First Corinthians 6. It says, “Flee from sexual immorality.” It says, “…your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit…” And it says, “You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”
I’m sure Elisabeth felt the temptation to fall into the arms of Jim Elliot before they were married. The drawing power of the physical can feel undeniable. But she denied herself by focusing on this important truth.
It’s a truth that everyone dating needs to pay close attention to.
It’s a truth that when you apply it, you will eventually enjoy love that the “love doctors” can only imagine.
And that truth is simply this.
I am not mine to give.
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
Excerpts from “The Journals of Jim Elliot,” edited by Elisabeth Elliot, published by Revell in 1978 (pp.154, 155).
© 2009 The Arrow’s Tip
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(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
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