Of all plans for securing success the most certain is Christ’s own, becoming a corn of wheat, falling into the ground and dying.

-Thomas Ragland, as quoted in Things as They Are by Amy Carmichael

The prophet neither astonied with fear, nor carried away with anger, nor forced by desperation, would kill Saul: but with a quiet mind directed his earnest prayer to God, who did preserve him.

Psalm 142

A Psalm of David, to give instruction,
and a prayer when he was in the cave.

I cried unto the Lord with my voice:
with my voice I prayed unto the Lord.
(David’s patience and instant prayer
to God condemneth their wicked rage,
which in their troubles either despair
and murmur against God, or else seek
to others than to God, to have redress
in their miseries.)

I poured out my meditation before him,
and declared mine affection in his presence.

Though my spirit was in perplexity in me,
(Hebrew, was folden or wrapped in me:
meaning, as a thing that could have no issue.)
yet thou knewest my path:
in the way wherein I walked,
have they privily laid a snare for me.

I looked upon my right hand, and beheld,
but there was none that would know me:
all refuge failed me,
and none cared for my soul.
(Or, sought for myself.)

Then cried I unto thee, O Lord, and said,
Thou art mine hope, (Though all means failed him,
yet he knew that God would never forsake him.)
and my portion in the land of the living.

Hearken unto my cry,
for I am brought very low:
deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are too strong for me.

Bring my soul out of prison,
(For he was on all sides beset with his enemies,
as though he had been in a most straight prison.)
that I may praise thy Name:
then shall the righteous come about me,
(Either to rejoice at my wonderful deliverance,
or to set a crown upon my head.)
when thou art beneficial unto me.

-From the 1599 Geneva Bible

Original study notes in italics.

God looks down on all the world; and for every one of the millions who have never crowned Him King, Christ wore the crown of thorns. What do we count these millions worth? Do we count them worth the rearrangement of our day, that we may have more time to pray? Do we count them worth the laying down of a single ambition, the loosening of our hold on a single child or friend? Do we count them worth the yielding up of anything we care for very much? Let us be still for a moment and think. Christ counted souls worth Calvary. What do we count them worth?

-From Things as They Are by Amy Carmichael

THE QUESTION:

“Canst thou by searching find out God?” – Job 11:7

THE ANSWER:

Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. – Jeremiah 29:13

How does a young woman go from a simple childhood faith, to unbelief, and then to a strong, mature faith? In Isobel Kuhn’s autobiography By Searching: My Journey Through Doubt Into Faith, she documents a journey of faith that will give every hungry soul a vision for the life that God offers. Although Isobel Kuhn walked this journey almost a century ago, her story of struggle and growth is written with a timeless simplicity and clarity that holds your attention. Her story gave me faith for other doubting souls, a faith that has not been in vain! I saw someone miraculously turn to the Lord after I read this book. But I am getting ahead of myself . . .

Isobel grew up in a good Presbyterian home and was carefully prepared for expected challenges to her faith in college. All the same, an atheist professor quickly shattered her childhood faith. She decided to “accept no theories of life which I had not proved personally”. This led her to a period of wandering in what she called “the misty flats” - where life has no end but amusement and there is no reason for opposing anything. So she exchanged her Christian habits for a life of worldliness. However, the name of Jesus still called to her. “His name was the sweetest melody I knew and it never failed to stir my heart, even though I had ceased to seek Him. His purity and holiness made me hate besmirching things.” So even though she believed the Bible was a myth, certain habits such as drinking and smoking were offensive to her, and she chose to steer clear of such things. “So amidst the gay group at the university I was considered a good girl, and even a Christian! But I myself knew that I wasn’t.” She spent her evenings dancing, dated non-Christian men, and suffered the resulting heartbreaks. “So I found myself in the slippery places of darkness. Pride wounded me, love wounded me, and sleep departed from me.”

This downward spiral brought her to a confrontation with God. In the middle of the night, while contemplating suicide, she desperately decided to test God’s existence. “God, if there be a God, if You will prove to me that You are, and if You will give me peace, I will give You my whole life. I’ll do anything You ask me to do, go where You send me, obey You all my days.” 

The next thing she knew, it was morning. And more amazingly, she had peace! Thus began a time of searching, stumbling, and testing. She was determined to find God, yet also determined not to believe what could not be proven. In spite of her immaturity and faithlessness, God met her where she was. She found that God answered her prayers even when she doubted Him. She found that He was faithful, even when she asked Him for silly things. However, she also learned that her life of silly nonsense would never satisfy her.

Even after she began to inwardly seek God, outwardly she showed no interest and usually spent Sundays catching up on her sleep. One day, however, her mother persuaded her to attend a Bible class. There, a friend of her father’s shared with her he had been praying for her for seven years. This stirred her to the depths, because it was seven years before that she had rejected her childhood upbringing for worldly things. Gradually, although the world still had a hold on her, she began to climb out of the mist onto the High Way.

For Isobel, the High Way led her somewhere she had not expected. Foreign mission work had never occurred to her until she attended a Christian convention in 1923. A young missionary who had recently lost her husband in a tragic accident was her roommate, and her hunger for the Lord and her total dedication to Him showed Isobel, for the first time, what a consecrated life looked like. “She sought the Lord’s face before that of anyone else at the beginning of each day. There was no wake-up chatter and pillow-flinging nonsense at dawn. This deeply bruised heart hungered and panted after the Lord, and her first waking thought was a longing for His fellowship and presence. And she kindled the same hunger in me. Remember, I had a bruised heart, too.” One thing Isobel learned - “I had promised Him my life . . . . I was no longer my own.” This awakening opened her heart to a life of sacrifice.

As she grew in the consecrated life, she began to see the uselessness of indulgent time-wasters such as card-playing, romantic fiction, dancing, the theater. Her old habits gradually gave way to new ones, albeit very slowly. Little did she know that God had a much grander plan for her, and others were already secretly praying that God would appoint her as a missionary to China!

Stories from J. O. Fraser of the China Inland Mission stirred her. From him, she learned of the Lisu, an illiterate tribe living in villages perched on the edges of deep canyons in southern China. The call, to her, was clear. She made known to Mr. Fraser the calling God had awakened in her. His immediate response, however, was to tell her of his own sufferings. “I believe now that he did it deliberately to sift me. If I were truly called of God, I would not be discouraged by plain talk about the cost.” Carefully, Mr. Fraser explained to her the challenges she would face and the pitfalls she must avoid. “It was an afternoon well spent. Upon the plastic material of a young life had been imprinted standards and ideals which were to last forever. And a deep glimpse had been afforded me into the life that is hidden in God – the cost of it, the fragrance of it, and the power of it.”

Isobel went on to study at Moody Bible Institute and was later accepted by the China Inland Mission. But the theme of this book is not really Bible study and missions. It’s about searching for God – and finding Him. Isobel Kuhn found God. Have you found Him? Have you really found Him? The Scriptures testify of Him – it is up to us to open those pages and find Him.

“When is The Search ended?” writes Isobel. “In one sense, it is finished when our hand, stretched out to God in the name of His appointed mediator Jesus Christ feels the answering grasp and knows that He is there. But in another sense the searching never ends, for the first discovery is quickly followed by another, and that by another – and so it goes on.”

“I have found that He can overcome obstacles and that we do not need to arouse a great hullabaloo to get Him to do so. . . . By searching I have discovered that God has strange and sweet ways of manifesting Himself, at sundry times and in divers manners He is still speaking.”

He is still speaking. Today.

You can get this book here.

-From Things as They Are

by Amy Carmichael

Kindred Grace  has been around for a while. Formerly known as Young Ladies’ Christian Fellowship (YLCF), it’s a community of Christian women who encourage each other through writing. I have read the blog off and on for years, and have grown along with it. I appreciate the gentle atmosphere of fellowship combined with the strength of trust in a great God. Today’s Christian women are often burdened by divisive teachings, but over the years the writers at KG have compassionately pointed out truth without casting stones. It’s a place to grow, to learn, to share, to dig deeper. And, of course, a place to find out about great books!

-From If ye shall ask . . .

by Oswald Chambers

“And He went down with them, . . . and He was subject unto them.” An amazing submission! For thirty years Jesus lived at home with brothers and sisters who did not believe in Him, and when He began His ministry they said He was mad. “As He is, so are we in this world.” We say, ‘When I was born again I thought it would be a time of great illumination and service, and instead of that I have had to stay at home with people who have criticized me and limited me on the right hand and on the left; I have been misunderstood and misrepresented.’ “The disciple is not above his master.” Do we think our lot ought to be better than Jesus Christ’s? We can easily escape the submissions if we like, but if we do not submit, the Spirit of God will produce in us the most ghastly humiliation before long. Knowing that Jesus has prayed for us makes us submit.

 -From If ye shall ask . . .

by Oswald Chambers

Giving thanks. I have continued my list in a private journal. God is good. That I have learned, and, like a child, am continuing to learn. I feel like I have only taken baby steps into the world of God’s exceedingly abundant grace. What I have learned is that when I start to accept God’s gifts, He gives more.

Seeking for God’s gifts in this world requires new eyes, new vision. Because God’s gifts do not always fit our common definition of “good”. But we know that God only gives good gifts to His children. Will we accept that in faith, become willing to give thanks daily while waiting for God to lift the veil and show us that His gifts really are good?

Giving thanks. Is it possible to give thanks in this world where children suffer, lives are crushed, the innocent are imprisoned, humanity is trampled on like garbage underfoot? When all hope in this world is actually gone?

I have learned from beds and hearts full of suffering that when hope has run out, the worst has already happened, the verdict has been given and there is no way back and no way out, that there is still one thing, one only thing that can always be done, in all circumstances.

GIVE THANKS.

Because I have learned that what we see is not all there is! Surrounding every visible tragedy are invisible oceans of God’s abundant, amazing grace. Grace that gives, as to Job, far more than was ever taken.

Let’s hold out our hands for this grace.

Let us never forget that our prayers are heard, not because we are in earnest, not because we suffer, but because Jesus suffered. It is because our Lord Jesus Christ went through the depths of agony to the last ebb in the Garden of Gethsemane, because He went through Calvary, that we have “boldness to enter into the holy place.”

-From If ye shall ask . . .
by Oswald Chambers