Amy Carmichael quote

'Trust Me, My child,' He says.  'Trust Me with a fuller abandon than you ever have before.  Trust Me, as minute succeeds minute, every day of your life for as long as you live.  And if you become conscious of anything hindering our relationship, do not hurt Me by turning away from Me.  Draw all the closer to Me, come, run to Me!  Allow Me to hide you, to protect you, even from yourself.  Tell Me your deepest cares, your every trouble.  Trust Me to keep My hand upon you.  I will never leave you.  I will shape you, mold you, and perfect you. Do not fear.  I love you.

~ Amy Carmichael     

"The measure of the worth of our public activity for God is the private profound communion we have with Him.  Rush is wrong every time, there is always plenty of time to worship God. . . .  There are not three stages in spiritual life--worship, waiting, and work.  Some of us go in jumps like spiritual frogs, we jump from worship to waiting, and from waiting to work.  God's idea is that the three should go together.  They were always together in the life of our Lord.  He was unhasting and unresting.  It is a discipline, we cannot get into it all at once."  (Oswald Chambers; My Utmost for His Highest, January 6)


"The idea is not that we do work for God, but that we are so loyal to Him that He can do His work through us--'I reckon on you for extreme service, with no complaining on your part and no explanation on Mine.'  God wants to use us as He used His own Son."  (Oswald Chambers; My Utmost for His Highest, December 18)

Stay Focused--K.P. Yohannan

Stay Focused

While Jesus was on earth, He could have done all sorts of fantastic things.

He could have built buildings that would have made the engineers and architects of the Roman Empire look stupid. He could have opened a university and taught science to the smartest scholars from every nation.

He could have conducted the largest Gospel crusade the world had ever seen.

He could have healed all the sick people on earth and cleared out every hospital.

He could have sent out 12,000 apostles instead of 12 to build His Church.

Why did Jesus refrain from doing these and a million other wonderful things that were within His power? The simple answer is this:

Jesus knew His mission—the one task for which He came.

He stated it very clearly: "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10).

Although He was well aware that He would die for the sins of the whole world, He also knew that He needed to accomplish His mission within the tiny nation of Israel. Jesus lived daily to fulfill His mission and never allowed Himself to be distracted by anything or anyone. When His journey came to an end, He simply said to His Father, "I have finished the work which You have given Me to do" (John 17:4). And on the cross, He looked at humanity past, present and future and proclaimed, "It is finished" (John 19:30).

Jesus was surrounded by distractions just like we are.

Right before He began His ministry, the devil attempted to cause Jesus to use His embodied spiritual powers in a selfish way and without the authorization of His Father. Jesus could have indeed turned stones into bread, jumped off the tower and survived, or walked away from the cross, but He refused.

Even when the devil used Peter and later the Greeks to try to prevent Him from completing His mission, Jesus still didn't give in to distractions. Instead, He explained why He was keeping His focus: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain [fruit]" (John 12:24). And then in the last few hours of His life, when Judas betrayed Him, Peter denied Him and all of His disciples ran away, Jesus could have easily given up and said, "It's all been a mistake. They betrayed everything I showed and lived before them. It's not worth it"—and walked away from the cross. Thank God He didn't.

Paul and Nehemiah also didn't give in to distractions.

One of the secrets behind the Apostle Paul's achievements in life was his absolute focus. His statement, "None of these things move me" (Acts 20:24) meant that none of the difficulties, persecutions and problems he faced could persuade him to walk away.

Nehemiah had the same determination when he was building the wall of Jerusalem. Although his enemies used every tactic in the book to frighten him into quitting, he kept right on building and answered, "Should such a man as I flee?" (Nehemiah 6:11).

Others gave in—and forfeited the most incredible possibilities they could have achieved in their lives.

Baalam the prophet was handpicked by God. Gehazi was in line to inherit Elisha's mantle and a double portion of his master's ministry. Demas could have possibly been the one to receive the torch from Paul. Yet all three got distracted by the love of this world and money and hence were sidetracked from their mission.

We are asked to follow Jesus' example in handling distractions.

Each of us has a mission to fulfill in winning the lost world and building God's kingdom. The writer of Hebrews gives us precise instructions about what we must do to keep our focus: "Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross ..." (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Christ, our example, is the One who has gone before us in the race. We are not asked to look at the spectators in the arena or at the other runners, but to keep our eyes on Jesus and imitate Him. Jesus Himself said, "Follow Me," because He knew that staying focused would be one of the most difficult things for us to do.

I remember well when, during the early days of our ministry, someone offered me all the financial assistance in the world if I would give up my calling and commit myself to advance his cause overseas.

The thing that helped me walk away from this distraction was when my wife asked me, "When the journey comes to an end and you look back, what will you answer? If for the sake of money you compromise your calling and your walk with the Lord, how will you explain this to the people who are following you?"

My dear brothers and sisters, let us faithfully encourage each other daily to stay focused and to say no to distractions.

Dr. K.P. Yohannan
Founder & President of Gospel for Asia

Calvary Love

~If I belittle those whom I am called to serve, talk of

their weak points in contrast perhaps with what I

think of as my strong points; if I adopt a superior

attitude, forgetting "Who made thee to differ? And

what hast thou that thou has not received?" then I

know nothing of Calvary Love.

~If I find myself taking lapses for granted, "Oh, that's

what they always do," "Oh, of course she talks like that;

he acts like that," then I know nothing of Calvary Love.

~If I can enjoy a joke at the expense of another; if I can

in any way slight another in conversation, or even in thought,

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 do not feel far more for the grieved Savior than for

my worried self when troublesome things occur, then I

know nothing of Calvary Love.

~If I can rebuke without a pang, then I know nothing of

Calvary Love.

~If my attitude is one of fear, not faith, about one who has

disappointed me; if I say, "Just what I expected" if a fall occurs,

then I know nothing of Calvary Love.

~If I am afraid to speak the truth, lest I lose affection, or least

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 there is no peace; if I forget the poignant word

"Let love be without dissimulation" and blunt the edge of truth,

speaking not right things but smooth things, then I know

nothing of Calvary Love.

~If I hold on to choices of any kind, just because they are my

choices, then I know nothing of Calvary Love.

~If I am soft to myself and slide comfortably into self-pity and

self-sympathy; if I do not by the grace of God practice fortitude,

then I know nothing of Calvary Love.

~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, the moment I am conscious of the shadow of self crossing

my threshold, I do not shut the door, and keep that door shut,

then I know nothing of Calvary Love.

~If I cannot in honest happiness take the second place (or the

twentieth); if I cannot take the first without making a fuss

about my unworthiness, 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 I feel injured when another lays to my charge things that I

know not, forgetting that my sinless Savior trod this path to the

end, then I know nothing of Calvary Love.

~If I am bitter toward 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 souls can suffer alongside and I hardly know it because the

spirit of discernment is not in me, then I know nothing of Calvary Love.

~If the praise of others elates me and their 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 crave hungrily to be used to show the way of liberty to a

soul in bondage, instead of caring only that it be delivered;

if I nurse my disappointment when I fail, instead of asking that

to another the word of release may be given,then I know nothing

of Calvary Love.

~If I do not forget about such a trifle as personal success, so that

it never crosses my mind, or if it does, is never given room there;

~If the cup of flattery tastes sweet to me, then I know nothing

of Calvary Love.

~If in the fellowship of service I seek to attach a friend to myself,

so that others are cause to feel unwanted; if my friendships

do not draw others deeper in, but are ungenerous

(to myself, for myself), then I know nothing

of Calvary Love.

~If I refuse to allow one who is dear to me to suffer for the sake

of Christ,

~If I do not see such suffering as the greatest honor that can

be offered to any follower of the Crucified, then I know

nothing of Calvary Love.

~If I slip into the place that can be filled by Christ alone,

making myself the first necessity to a soul instead of leading

it to fasten upon Him, then I know nothing of Calvary Love.

~If my interest in the work of others is cool; if I think of my

own special work; if the burdens of others are not my

burdens too, and their joys mine, 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 now nothing of Calvary Love.

~If the ultimate, the hardest, cannot be asked hesitate to ask

it and turn to someone else, then I know nothing of

Calvary Love.

~If I covet any place on earth but the dust at the foot of the

Cross,then I know nothing of Calvary Love.

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

-Amy Carmichael

God's Rosebud

A new minister was walking with an older, more seasoned minister in the garden one day. Feeling a bit insecure about what God had for him to do, he was asking the older preacher for some advice. The older preacher walked up to a rosebush, handed the younger preacher a rosebud, and told him to open it without tearing off any petals. The young preacher looked in disbelief at the older preacher and was trying to figure out what a rosebud could possibly have to do with his wanting to know the will of God for his life and ministry. But because of his great respect for the older preacher, he proceeded to try to unfold the rose while keeping every petal intact. It wasn't long before he realized how impossible this was to do. Noticing the younger preacher's inability to unfold the rosebud without tearing it, the older preacher began to recite the following poem:

It is only a tiny rosebud,

A flower of God's design;

But I cannot unfold the petals

With these clumsy hands of mine.

The secret of unfolding flowers

Is not known to such as I.

God opens these flowers so easily,

But in my hands they die.

If I cannot unfold a rosebud,

This flower of God's design,

Then how can I have the wisdom

To unfold this life of mine?

So I'll trust in God for leading

Each moment of my day.

I will look to God for guidance

In each step of the way.

The path that lies before me

Only my Lord knows.

I'll trust God to unfold the moments,

Just as He unfolds the rose.