#amy carmichael

[gardensofgrace]

[icannotbejondenden47]

Visit: hiswordsarekisses

[tail-feathers]

“The day may bring many strange things to us, perplexing or painful or disappointing; but this stands strong: our prayer has not been turned away, nor His loving kindness.” ... Amy Carmichael

Watercolor painting, Love Is In the Air, by Dean Crouser

[thisbibliophiile]

Books of 2023 #37

Amy Carmichael by Janet Benge

[woodsandhearth]

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after love, for they shall be filled.

If I myself dominate myself, if my thoughts revolve around myself, if I am so occupied with myself I rarely have “a heart at leisure from itself,” then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If when I am able to discover something which has baffled others, I forget Him who revealeth the deep and secret things, and knoweth what is in the darkness and showeth it to us; if I forget that it was He who granted that ray of light to His most unworthy servant, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I have not compassion on my fellowservant, even as my Lord had pity on me, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I can easily discuss the shortcomings and the sins of any; if I can speak in a casual way even of a child’s misdoings, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I can write an unkind letter, speak an unkind word, think an unkind thought without grief and shame, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I can hurt another by speaking faithfully without much preparation of spirit, and without hurting myself far more than I hurt that other, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I am afraid to speak the truth, lest I lose affection, or lest the one concerned should say, “You do not understand,” or because I fear to lose my reputation for kindness; if I put my own good name before the other’s highest good, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I am content to heal a hurt slightly, saying “Peace, peace,” where is no peace; if I forget the poignant word “Let love be without dissimulation” and blunt the edge of truth, speaking not right thing but smooth things, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I take offense easily; if I am content to continue in a cool unfriendliness, though friendship be possible, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If a sudden jar can cause me to speak an impatient, unloving word, then I know nothing of Calvary love. For a cup brimful of sweet water cannot spill even one drop of bitter water, however suddenly jolted.

If I feel bitterly towards those who condemn me, as it seems to me, unjustly, forgetting that if they knew me as I know myself they would condemn me much more, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I become entangled in any “inordinate affection”; if things or places or people hold me back from obedience to my Lord, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If the praise of man elates me and his blame depresses me; if I cannot rest under misunderstanding without defending myself; if I love to be loved more than to love, to be served more than to serve, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I wonder why something trying is allowed, and press for prayer that it may be removed; if I cannot be trusted with any disappointment, and cannot go on in peace under any mystery, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I ask to be delivered from trial rather than for deliverance out of it, to the praise of His glory; if I forget that they way of the cross leads to the cross and not to a bank of flowers; if I regulate my life on these lines, or even unconsciously my thinking, so that I am surprised when the way is rough and think it strange, though the word is, “Think it not strange,” “Count it all joy,” then I know nothing  of Calvary love.

That which I know not, teach thou me, O Lord, my God.

"If" by Amy Carmichael, 1938

[petitefleuriste]

— Amy Carmichael

[theexodvs]

List of important heroines of the faith

Gladys Aylward - missionary

Amy Carmichael - missionary

Fanny Crosby - hymn writer

Joni Eareckson Tada - activist for the rights of the disabled

Louise Celia Fleming - missionary

Jane Grey - early Reformation-era noble

Mahalia Jackson - singer

Lin Zhao - martyr

Pandita Ramabai - political activist

Edith Schaeffer - apologist

Mary Slessor - politician

Betty Stam - missionary

Betsey Stockton - missionary

Corrie Ten Boom -Dutch resistance member

Harriet Tubman - member of the Underground Railroad

Katherine von Bora - Reformer

Simone Weil - French resistance member

(I will add more if I feel led.)

[she-is-amused]

Infectious Fear

If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31

Have you ever thought how infectious fear can be? It spreads from one person to another more quickly and certainly than any of the fevers we know so well.

You can refuse the spirit of fear, which never comes to us from God. (And if He does not send it to us, who does?) instead, open your heart wide to the spirit of “power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7 AMP). Because fear is so infectious, let us, for the sake of others and ourselves, refuse it.

Thank God! Courage is as “infectious” as discouragement. Haven’t you often felt the cheer and strength that seem to flow from a person whose mind is fixed and firm on God? I have.

And I have been thinking of another, a greater reason for refusing the spirit of fear.

When we are downhearted our fearful or weak, we are saying to everybody (by the way we look and by our timidity, if not by our words), “After all, the Lord can’t be absolutely trusted.”

We have a Savior who has never once failed us. He will never fail us. He has loved and led and guarded us all these years.

Look to Him now, and pray from the barren bedrock of your heart, if that is the “ground” you are standing on—“Lord, give me courage!”

- Amy Carmichael