HER UTMOST--FOR HIGH PURPOSES

Two “seasoned” devotionals have been my go-to's for decades. One is Streams in the Desert (c.1925, 1953, 1965), a compilation of spiritual encouragement and instruction from the files of a missionary to China. The other is My Utmost for His Highest (c. 1935), a collection of missionary-teacher Oswald Chamber's messages, mostly to students and later World War I soldiers serving in Egypt. In those days before modern recording devices, Chambers' messages were diligently “saved” in shorthand by his wife, Biddy (nickname for her real name “Gertrude”). Yes, shorthand. There were no electronic and computer aids in the early 1900s, when he ministered in England, Scotland and Egypt.

Oswald had known Gertrude Hobbs casually through mutual friends. Afflicted early in life with bronchitis, Gertrude had worked diligently to perfect her short-hand skills, achieving a remarkable speed of 250 words a minute. Her goal was to someday work in the secretarial offices of Britain's monarchy. But before that came an ocean voyage to America, where she intended to pursue a job opportunity. Also on the ship that crossing: Oswald Chambers, brother of her family's pastor.

Oswald was a bachelor and Holiness-movement Bible teacher in London before his life direction turned to evangelistic work among Australian and New Zealand troops in Egypt during World War I. Earlier, during his ministries in England and the United States, he became better acquainted with Gertrude, whom he'd nicknamed “Biddy” (for “beloved disciple”). In marrying Chambers, instead of using her shorthand in service of the British king, Biddy used them for their Heavenly King. When Chambers spoke, she would be in the audience taking down his words in shorthand to later transcribe.

His ministry would take them in 1915 to Egypt, where he preached to soldiers under the auspices of the YMCA. Sometimes hundreds of soldiers would pack his wooden-framed hut to hear his messages. While there, in 1917 he died of appendicitis, having resisted medical care for his health emergency, saying the wounded soldiers needed medical care more. His death left Biddy (and their young daughter) living under what one biographer called “very straitened circumstances” (meaning financially difficult).

Returning to England with their daughter, Biddy devoted the rest of her life to transcribing 29 years of shorthand-saved sermons and lessons into messages for publication. Most successful of his forty-plus books would be a daily devotional titled My Utmost For His Highest, prepared while she also ran a boarding house in Oxford. England. Since its publication early a century ago (first self-published in 1924, then commercially in 1927, then in the US 1935), it has never been out of print, and has sold more than 13 million copies and been translated into 39 languages.

One takeaway from her story: you never know what God can do with a skill entrusted to you. Because of Biddy's diligence in using shorthand—because she gave her utmost for God's highest--more than a hundred years later, Oswald Chambers still speaks.

'STREAMING'--MISSION STYLE

The story behind a classic devotional.
They were kids raised in a tiny Midwest country town (Thayer, Iowa, current population 48), who met, fell in love and got married, with missionary service on their hearts. (That calling was a big change from his job as a telegraph operator!) After Bible school, they headed for Japan in 1901 as independent missionaries. Through their bold “Every Creature Crusade” (1912-1918) they hoped to reach every home in Japan with the Gospel via evangelistic rallies and a daytime Bible training school, co-founding the Oriental Missionary Society (now known as OMS International). But his declining health cut short their work. She'd later write a now well-known devotional book, Streams in the Desert. Their names: Charles and Lettie Cowman.

With Charles' health problems ending their missionary work in Japan, they returned to the United States in 1918. During his final, six-year-long illness, Lettie wrote a daily devotional out of her life's lessons of fellowship with God amidst hardship.

After Charles' death in 1924, Lettie found a note he'd written and put in her Bible: “Go on with my unfinished work.” And she did—though not quite what she and Charles had envisioned it when they first went to Japan. As young missionaries they hoped to evangelize Japan through literature distribution in five years, then do the same in Korea and China. Instead, she would write Charles' biography and pour herself into the OMS ministry, watching it expand throughout the world. Her husband had been the mission's first president, another man its second, and when that man died four years after Charles, Lettie became the mission's third president. Besides leading the mission, she spoke widely overseas, including Wales, Ethiopia, Finland, and Colombia.

Besides her mission leadership, her preparation of devotional materials put her name in the history of Christian publishing. Best known are her compilations, Streams in the Desert (copyright 1925) and a follow-up, Springs in the Valley (1939). “Compiled” is the key word, as both books are “cut-and-paste” devotions of her own spiritual reflections incorporating quotations from authors and ministers of the early evangelical movement--like Charles Spurgeon, F.B. Meyer, George Mueller, Christina Rossetti and Samuel Rutherford (Scottish Presbyterian, 1600s). While writing these devotionals, she continued to lead the mission and traveled widely, and eventually stepping away as its president in 1949, the year she turned 79. She would live another decade-plus, dying on Easter Sunday in 1960.

Streams in the Desert has never been out of print since its first publication in 1925, with an estimated six million copies in multiple languages sold. It's also available online--a publishing venue completely unknown when it was written!

SHORT LIFE, ENDURING MESSAGE

I can't recall when I got my first copy of the classic devotional, “My Utmost for His Highest.” I only know that from early adulthood it was among the books that challenged and help grow my faith-walk. Only recently, learning the story of its author, I am even more grateful that it came to be.

The book's author is listed as Oswald Chambers, a British evangelist and missionary who ended up in Egypt, where he ministered to British soldiers, dying of appendicitis in 1917, only 43 years old. By one report, he refused medical intervention for his agonizing condition, saying the wounded soldiers needed the doctors more than he did.

Though the book carries his name as author, the real credit goes to his wife “Biddy” (her nickname for “Gertrude”), a skilled stenographer. As a single woman, she'd committed herself to excellence in that business skill, hoping it might come to the attention of England's prime minister. But before that might have happened, she met and married Britisher and evangelist Oswald Chambers. She'd follow him in his missionary endeavors, finally ending up in Egypt where World War I battles raged between the British and Ottoman Empire. He served the troops as a chaplain, speaking at the soldiers' chapels. Quietly, in the audience, sat Biddy, taking meticulous notes in shorthand.

Seven years after their marriage, Chambers died—reportedly of appendicitis for which he refused treatment, saying the injured soldiers needed medical help more. Biddy would spend the next 35 years raising their daughter (their only child) and transcribing Oswald's shorthand-saved devotional messages into books. She refused personal name recognition for her work, with only his name listed as author.

First published posthumously in the United Kingdom in 1927, and in the United States in 1934, it has reportedly sold more than 13 million copies. All that—ironically--because a little-known woman who knew shorthand carried forth the skill to bring glory to God. In other words, to live out in her unique (yet God-planned) circumstance, the scriptural admonition to “train yourself for the purpose of godliness” (1 Timothy 4:7).

Breath mints or meat?

Thirsty for God as the new year opens? Maybe you feel like the parched deer in the opening phrases of Psalm 63: “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Where can I go and meet with God?”

The answer, of course, is anywhere the Word of God can reach your heart deeply. Americans are blessed with an abundance of helps to study and apply the Bible. But we’re also plagued with spiritual apathy and impatience. We’re prone to want the quick fix, the minute (or less) devotional, a spiritual “tweet,” as it were. We want a spiritual breath mint in the morning (or evening) rather than something meaty we need to chew on.

For those just starting their life with Christ—or exploring Christianity—those quickie devotional guides are helpful. A quick quoted verse, maybe 200 words of story or discussion, and something of scripture touches you life in about a minute. But a minute is also pronounced mine-OOT, as in “small.”

But if you’ve come to the point of wanting more, of looking over the shoulders of saints who’ve thought and prayed deeply, may I make some suggestions?

Streams in the Desert (two volumes) and Springs in the Valley by Mrs. Charles Cowman. Since the first publication in 1925, this has become one of the best-selling devotionals of all time. Combining her writings and others’ meditations, poems, hymns and stories, its overriding theme is discovering hope and God's higher purposes through suffering. If you are going through difficult places, you will resonate with many of the daily entries. Lettie Cowman and her husband Charles helped form the Oriental Missionary Society in the early 1900s during their work in Japan and China. His poor health forced their return to the United States in 1917, and he died six years later. Her experiences and heartbreaks form the backdrop of her selections. She died at age 90 in 1960.

My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers (copyright 1935). Born in Scotland in 1874, and a gifted artist and musician, Chambers sensed God calling him to the ministry during college. Eventually he came to the United States, teaching six months at a Cincinnati, Ohio, Bible school. Then he went to Japan, visiting the Tokyo Bible School founded by the Cowmans (see above). His world travels marked a transition to fulltime work with the Pentecostal League of Prayer. He was serving as a YMCA chaplain to British Commonwealth soldiers in Egypt, 1915-1917, when he died of complications from an appendectomy. His wife, an incredible note-taking help-meet, compiled his writings into devotional books. When you read Chambers, prepare to be challenged to a more God-focused life and to identify subtle sins that stand in the way. A more recent collection of his writings is Devotions for a Deeper Life, edited by Glenn Black and published by Zondervan (1986).

What am I using this year? First Light: Morning Conversations with God by William S. Stoddard (Multnomah, 1990). Alas, this one is out of print, but available from used book dealers. Stoddard, a pastor who ended his career at Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church, has written a meaty volume of 181 sections that focus on going deeper in prayer. Instead of a quickie verse like “breath mint” devotionals, he sends you into lesser-read Old Testament passages and their complementary portions in the New. Then comes a discussion of the passages and a transparent prayer. So far, I have covered a fourth of the book, and I will admit to a deep—yes, weeping—reaction to some of the topics. God is doing a work in my life through this book.

There’s a smorgasbord of devotional literature available. Billy Graham’s classic Unto the Hills has encouraged and challenges millions. Another on my shelves (Near to the Heart of God) collects readings from spiritual classics, including the “church fathers” and others from the first thousand years after Christ.

Whatever you choose, don’t rush through the devotional without thoughtful time in the scripture it references. Go for meat, not a “breath mint.”