Showing posts with label Amy Carmichael. Show all posts

 

If God is for us, who can be against us?… I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, no any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

ROMANS 8:31, 37-39
Infectious fear - you shall not spread
Death and life are in His stead
Angels and demons hold no power
He watches over every hour

Infectious fear - were shall you go?
Present and future are His to show
No powers, no height - not even depth
Nothing compares to His loves breadth

Infectious fear - you shall not spread
With great trust I look ahead
Creation holds - not one tiny thing
That can pluck me from His wing

my inspiration 

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. Instead, open your heat wide to the Spirit of “power and love and a calm and well-balanced mind, and discipline and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7, Amplified). 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 seems 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 or fearful or weak, we are saying to everybody, “After all, the Lord can’t be absolutely trusted.”

…We have a Savior who has never once failed us. He never will 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, Edges of His Ways, p.148

My sweet Dad, John Kennedy, was diagnosed with ALS on Tuesday, July 19, 2022. He is braving the most devastating diagnosis that I could imagine. In prayer, he refers to this trial as “my great hurt,” and I never want to forget this.

On Monday, February 6, 2023 (only 7 months after my dad’s diagnosis of ALS) he was told that he can contact hospice – whenever he feels ready. I don’t know what to think of these things. I am hurt, angry, confuses, and scared. I need courage to trust.

ROMANS 8:31, 37-39

18 February 2023

 

Teach me to number my days aright, that I may gain a heart of wisdom. Satisfy me in the morning with your unfailing love, that I may sing for joy and be glad all my days.

PSALM 90:12,14
A dim light shines
Beyond the murky glass between
The circumstances great and small
The ones I have not yet seen

A dim light shines
Each new morning, noonday and night
Satisfying the hopelessness
Making what appears wrong, so right

A dim light shines
I will not get stuck in the murk
I will look right past, we'll beyond
Knowing it's You, that holds my hurt

A dim light shines
Refuse to give way to what's dealt
You the Healer, Powerful God
You dominate the seen and the felt

my inspiration 

If you would live in victory over the circumstances, great and small, that come to you each day… and if you want God’s life and power to well up from the depths of your being… then you must refuse to be dominated by the seen and the felt. You must look steadfastly through the visible, until the invisible opens up to you.

Amy Carmichael, His Thought Said… His Father Said, p.30

My sweet Dad, John Kennedy, was diagnosed with ALS on July 19, 2022. He is braving the most devastating diagnosis that I could imagine. In prayer, he refers to this trial as “my great hurt,” and I never want to forget this.

PSALM 90:12,14

29 January 2023

 

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God…

…Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is within me – a prayer to the God of my life.

PSALM 42:5, 7-8
Deeper depths I shall not dive
I desire to stay on land
Where feet are warm and safe and still
Where I can sit and hold Your hand

Deeper depths I shall not dive
I want to stay close to Thee
Where we can sit and chat and sing
Where I can hear the praises ring

Deeper depths I shall not dive
I long to in comfort stay
Where clothes are cozy, safe, and warm
Where I can smell the ocean spray

- Deep calls to deep -

Deeper depths You'd have me go
You desire a buried life
Where feet are wet and tossed about
Where You grip my hand so tight

Deeper depths You'd have me go
You regulate the tide
Where roaring waves toss to and fro
Where I'm buoyed to Your side

Deeper depths You'd have me go
You will not let me drown
Where conversations are silent
Where fixed eyes of trust are found

Deeper depths You'd have me go
You sing Your song o're me
Where melodies rise to the sky
Where praises cover the sea

my inspiration 

The son greatly wished to make a “Song of Lovely Things” to sing to his Beloved – but he could not find singing-words. He heard the voice of his Beloved saying, “You are walking on the road where all who love Me walk. Some of them walked this way singing, and they’ve left their songs behind them. Find their songs. Sing their words. They will be your songs to me.”

But the son became full of grief, because there came a day when he could find no words to sing… And He who is love eternal whispered, “Then I, too, will approach you, silent in my love.” And the son entered into this silence, to meet the eternal Beloved there… 

After a while there was a sound in the gentle stillness, a voice that whispered, “Even your silence is, to Me, a song of lovely things…”

Amy Carmichael, His Thoughts Said… His Father Said, p.30

PSALM 42:5, 7-8

25 January 2023



Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise. Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

PROVERBS 19:20-21
A rough path lies ahead
But You already knew
the Bible says that I'd be wise
To follow closely You

Your Word is the lantern
The rugged path won't win
It's the grueling steps in between
I have to trust You in

Sometimes faith comes easy
Other times - strenuous
The hand-held lantern to the ground
Truly is arduous

'Tis not til I shrink very low
With lantern in the dirt
That I can see the path clearly
While You hold "my great hurt"

A dark path lies ahead
It's not that You're not light
You want me close - right by your side
To illuminate my sight

my inspiration 

I believe that, in guiding us, God deals with us as He dealt with the Israelites as He led them out of Egypt. The first crossing of the sea was made very easy. The guidance could not have been simpler: the east wind blew and divided the sea before the people had to cross. Not so much as a foot was wet, except perhaps by a wind-driven spray. Moreover, it was impossible. as it were, to disobey, since they were pursued by Pharaoh’s chariots and horsemen. (Exodus 14)

But how difficult it was on the second occasion. The priests had to walk into the strong current of a flooded river and stand still there. What an order to scoff at, and what a site it would pose to other men! But it was not until they obeyed – without a particle of visible proof that they were doing right – and carried the ark right into the river, that the water rolled back before them. (Joshua 3)

So it may be for us as we go with God..

If only the next step is clear, then the one thing to do is take it! Don’t pledge your Lord or yourself to any steps beyond what you know. You don’t see them yet.

Once when I was climbing at night, in a forest before there was a made path, I learned what was meant by the words of Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, and a light for my path.” I had only a lantern, and had to hold it very low or I would certainly have slipped on those rough rocks. 

We don’t walk spiritually by electric light, but by a hand-held lantern. And a lantern shows only the next step – not several steps ahead.

Amy Carmichael, Candles in the Dark, pp. 41,43

My sweet Dad, John Kennedy, was diagnosed with ALS on July 19, 2022. He is braving the most devastating diagnosis that I could imagine. In prayer, he refers to this trial as “my great hurt,” and I never want to forget this.

PROVERBS 19:20-21

23 January 2023

 

Many there be which say of my soul, “There is no help for him in God.” Selah But thou, O Lord, art my helper, my Glory and the lifter of my head!

PSALM 3:2
Wearying voices heap complaints
Murmur both day and night
Constant mutters of weariness
"There is no hope in sight."

Because I am a Child of God
I need not listen in
Such is a time for studied pause
Time to let life sink in

Selah

With a pause and then wondrous praise
My voice shall rise to Thee
Train my soul to with upward gaze
Look upon Calvary

With fixed eyes, as You lift my chin
Cause my fears to desert
For thou, O Lord, art my Sovereign
Larger than "my great hurt"

my inspiration 

We have all been subjected to the wearying voices which flood the very atmosphere around us, complaining, “There is no help…” These voices murmur and mutter the same words, no matter what the challenge or difficulty may be. “There is no help…” But because you and I are in God, we need not listen: “There is no help…,” They repeat.  Pause. “But you, O Lord, are my helper!”

No matter to us what the voices say. Their words bring only weariness – but with His word comes peace and strength and courage to go on. Some believe that selah signifies also a sudden pealing-forth of musical instruments. The pause, then, was for praise. 

Then let us fill all of our pauses with praise! Let us give all that lies within us, not to the voices of the enemy, but to pure praise, to pure loving adoration, and to worship from a grateful heart – a heart that is trained to look up.

Amy Carmichael, Thou Givest – They Gather, p. 18

My sweet Dad, John Kennedy, was diagnosed with ALS on July 19, 2022. He is braving the most devastating diagnosis that I could imagine. In prayer, he refers to this trial as “my great hurt,” and I never want to forget this.

PSALM 3:2

16 January 2023

 

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.

MATTHEW 10:29
If half a penny disappeared
Would I even care?
A sparrow falling to the ground
Never leaves His care

Insignificant, we are not
Always seen by Him
Greatly beloved and not forgot
Trust wells-up within

Father, forgive me for the days
I think meeting you
Insignificant, compared with
All I have to do

my inspiration 

It can even shake our faith in the truth that our Father regards with compassion even the fall of a single sparrow. To me, one of the proofs that God’s hand is behind and all throughout this marvelous Book we know as the Bible is the way it continually touches upon this very fear in us – the fear that we are so insignificant as to be forgotten… Isn’t it beautiful that there was no rebuke at all for their human weakness? And there never is a rebuke for our weaknesses either. Job 24:12 says, “The soul of the wounded calls for help, and God does not regard it as foolish.”

Amy Carmichael, Thou Givest – They Gather, pp. 20-21

MATTHEW 10:29

12 January 2023

 

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.

ISAIAH 26:3-4
Shouldering trepidations, 
Pulling me down 
Suffocating nervousness, 
Shortening my breath 

The Invitation Arrives: 
Come close, my child 
Lean on me 
Trust me 

Place your weight of confidence,
Upon my chest 
Lie alongside my bosom 
Receive true peace 

'Tis the way you will find strength

my inspiration 

Trust, I have learned, means: to lean on, to place the weight of my confidence upon… And after this discovery, I’ve found many verses in the Psalms that provide great comfort when translated in this way… It is marvelous to me that God’s Spirit led the writers of these words to the same special verb, to lean. By one simple word, He means to show us so clearly that it is never anything in us that accounts for the Lord’s goodness to us. Everything we are given is all from Him. 

Amy Carmichael, Thou Givest – They Gather, pp. 1-2

ISAIAH 26:3-4

11 January 2023

 

You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.

PSALM 32:7
Deliver me, deliver me
Pleading both day and night
Deliver me, deliver me
Attempting with vain fight

An earnest look at Calv'ry love
Desisting my next step
His arms outstretched from up above
Proclaiming peace and rest

Post and crossbeam declare, "Come home."
Hiding no longer sin
The bridge that helps me ne'er to roam
Protecting from within

Jesus Christ, the crucified God
Singing gently to me,
"Come home, my child. Come home, my child.
Hide thyself inside me."

my inspiration 

I think distractions in prayer are often because we have let ourselves wander too far from the things that matter most. And so we slip into an easily interrupted, easily distracted frame of mind. We need to live more at home. Acts 17:28 says, “In him we live and move and have our being.” This means, simply, God is our home… I know that an earnest “look” at Calvary does more to help our life of prayer than we imagine. 

Amy Carmichael, Edges of His Ways, p. 60

PSALM 32:7

10 January 2023

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