"We know the secrets of the Fire Swamp. We can live there quite happily for some time."

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of 

God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2 Cor. 5:1).

The owner of the tenement which I have occupied for many years has given notice that he will furnish but little or nothing more for repairs. I am advised to be ready to move.

At first this was not a very welcome notice. The surroundings here are in many respects very pleasant, and were it not for the evidence of decay, I should consider the house good enough. But even a light wind causes it to tremble and totter, and all the braces are not sufficient to make it secure. So I am getting ready to move.

It is strange how quickly one's interest is transferred to the prospective home. I have been consulting maps of the new country and reading descriptions of its inhabitants. One who visited it has returned, and from him I learn that it is beautiful beyond description; language breaks down in attempting to tell of what he heard while there. He says that, in order to make an investment there, he has suffered the loss of all things that he owned here, and even rejoices in what others would call making a sacrifice. Another, whose love to me has been proven by the greatest possible test, is now there. He has sent me several clusters of the most delicious fruits. After tasting them, all food here seems insipid.

Two or three times I have been down by the border of the river that forms the boundary, and have wished myself among the company of those who were singing praises to the King on the other side. Many of my friends have moved there. Before leaving they spoke of my coming later. I have seen the smile upon their faces as they passed out of sight. Often I am asked to make some new investments here, but my answer in every case is, "I am getting ready to move." -Streams in the Desert

"Westley and I are joined by the bonds of love. And you cannot track that, not with a thousand bloodhounds. And you cannot break it, not with a thousand swords."

I John 4. 16: (Rotherham) We have come to understand and to trust the love which God hath in us.

I have been thinking much of this translation. We can never fully understand that love, but we can begin to understand it even here and now, and as we understand, we trust. This means that we trust all that the love of God does; all He gives, and all He does not give; all He says, and all He does not say. To it all we say, by His loving enabling, I trust. Let us be content with our Lord's will, and tell Him so, and not disappoint Him by wishing for anything He does not give. The more we understand His love, the more we trust.

--from Edges of His Ways, by Amy Carmichael

"Fezzik, are there rocks ahead?" "If there are, we all be dead!"

Thou art my Lord Who slept upon the pillow,
Thou art my Lord Who calmed the furious sea;
What matter beating wind and tossing billow
If only we are in the boat with Thee?

Hold us in quiet through the age-long minute
While Thou art silent and the wind is shrill;
What boat can sink when Thou, dear Lord, art in it?
What heart can faint that resteth on Thy will?

Psa. 107. 29, 30 : He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so He bringeth them unto their desired haven.

"Then are they glad because they be quiet;" the words were music to me. Then, in reading the different stories of the Lord calming the sea, I found this: "He cometh...and would have passed by them"--"as if intending to pass them"--"and was wishing to pass by them". The more literal the translation, the more startling it is.

As I ponder the matter I saw that this "age-long minute" was part of the spiritual preparation of these men for a life that at that time was unimagined by them--a life of dauntless faith and witness in the absence of any manifestation of the power of their Lord; and it must be the same to-day. Such minutes must be in our lives, unless our training is to be unlike that of every saint and warrior who ever lived. Our "minute" may seem endless--"How long wilt Thou forget me," cried David out of the depths of his--but perhaps looking back we shall see in such an experience a great and shining opportunity. Words are spoken then that are spoken at no other time, such as the immortal words to John the Baptist, "And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me." We have a chance to prove our glorious God, to prove that His joy is strength and that His peace passeth all understanding, and to know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge.

And the "minute" always ends in one way, there is no other ending recorded anywhere: "He talked with them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer: It is I; be not afraid...and the wind ceased."

"Then are they glad because they be quiet; so He bringeth them unto their desired haven."

--from The Edges of His Ways, by Amy Carmichael

"We have already succeeded."

"May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in your faith, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, your whole life and outlook may be radiant with hope" (Rom. 15:13, PHILLIPS).

This was Paul's prayer for the Romans, a group of Christians he had not yet met, but he knew they were a mixed bag--Jews and non-Jews--and were tempted to look down on one another. It was always the prayer of my dear spiritual mother for me. She knew my nature--not a hopeful one. Faith raises the Christian's sights from the conflicts and discouragements that are our routine experience in a broken world to Him who holds out the very real hope of triumph. It is not a forlorn hope. It is assured, for by His Cross and passion Christ has overcome the world. This confidence is enough reason for joy and peace. It is enough, if I dwell on it by faith, and by the Spirit's power, to make even my whole life and outlook radiant with hope. --from The Music of His Promises, by Elisabeth Elliot

"There is but one working castle gate. And it is guarded by... sixty men."

The Focus of Faith


In one of the photo albums from my years in Ecuador is a close-up of a big scorpion on a window screen. I know what was beyond that ugly thing--a green lawn set about with palm trees, a garden of pineapples, a sweep of pasture land, and then the curve of a wide river. The photograph knows nothing of all that. The photographer had focused on the scorpion. He got a very good picture of a scorpion. The eye of the camera saw nothing else.

The eye of faith looks through and past that which the human eye focuses on. Faith looks at the facts--even the ugly ones (remember Abraham who looked at his wife's barrenness and his own impotence)--but does not stop there. It looks beyond to the beauty of things the human eye can never see--things as invisible as the palms and the pineapples are in my photograph.

When the eye of the heart is fixed on the world and the self, everything eternal and invisible is blurred and obscure. No wonder we cannot recognize God--we are studying the scorpion. Instead of gazing at Him in all his majesty and love, we peer at the screen, horrified at what we see there.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Make my heart pure, Lord, that I may will to do your will. Give me the courage to see my world with all its evil and pain, but change the focus of my life.

--from A Lamp for My Feet, by Elisabeth Elliot

"I think no man in a century will suffer as greatly as you will."

"He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." (Mal. 3:3.)

Our Father, who seeks to perfect His saints in holiness, knows the value of the refiner's fire. It is with the most precious metals that the assayer takes the most pains, and subjects them to the hot fire, because such fires melt the metal, and only the molten mass releases its alloy or takes perfectly its new form in the mould. The old refiner never leaves his crucible, but sits down by it, lest there should be one excessive degree of heat to mar the metal. But as soon as he skims from the surface the last of the dross, and sees his own face reflected, he puts out the fire."--Arthur T. Pierson.


"He sat by a fire of seven-fold heat,
     As He watched by the precious ore,
And closer He bent with a searching gaze
     As He heated it more and more.
He knew He had ore that could stand the test,
     And He wanted the finest gold
To mould as a crown for the King to wear,
     Set with gems with a price untold.
So He laid our gold in the burning fire,
     Tho' we fain would have said Him 'Nay,'
And He watched the dross that we had not seen,
     And it melted and passed away.
And the gold grew brighter and yet more bright,
     But our eyes were so dim with tears,
We saw but the fire--not the Master's hand,
     And questioned with anxious fears.
Yet our gold shone out with a richer glow,
     As it mirrored a Form above,
That bent o'er the fire, tho' unseen by us,
     With a look of ineffable love.
Can we think that it pleases His loving heart
     To cause us a moment's pain?
Ah, no! but He saw through the present cross
     The bliss of eternal gain.
So He waited there with a watchful eye,
     With a love that is strong and sure,
And His gold did not suffer a bit more heat,
     Than was needed to make it pure."

"A few more steps and we'll be safe in the fire swamp."

"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. . . and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (Eph. 2:4-6.)

This is our rightful place, to be "seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus," and to "sit still" there. But how few there are who make it their actual experience! How few, indeed think even that it is possible for them to "sit still" in these "heavenly places" in the everyday life of a world so full of turmoil as this.

We may believe perhaps that to pay a little visit to these heavenly places on Sundays, or now and then in times of spiritual exaltation, may be within the range of possibility; but to be actually "seated" there every day and all day long is altogether another matter; and yet it is very plain that it is for Sundays and week-days as well.

A quiet spirit of inestimable value in carrying on outward activities; and nothing so hinders the working of the hidden spiritual forces, upon which, after all, our success in everything really depends, as a spirit of unrest and anxiety.

There is immense power in stillness. A great saint once said, "All things come to him who knows how to trust and be silent." The words are pregnant with meaning. A knowledge of this fact would immensely change our ways of working. Instead of restless struggles, we would "sit down" inwardly before the Lord, and would let the Divine forces of His Spirit work out in silence the ends to which we aspire. You may not see or feel the operations of this silent force, but be assured it is always working mightily, and will work for you, if you only get your spirit still enough to be carried along by the currents of its power."--Hannah Whitall Smith.


"There is a great point of rest
At the great center of the cyclone's force,
A silence at its secret source;
A little child might slumber undisturbed,
Without the ruffle of one fair curl,
In that strange, central calm, amid the mighty whirl."


It is your business to learn to be peaceful and safe in God in every situation.