From Amy Carmichael-

The vows of God are on me, and I may not stay
To play with shadows, or pluck earthy flowers
Till I my work have done, and rendered up account.

We are here to live holy, loving, lowly lives. We cannot do this unless we walk very, very close to our Lord Jesus. Anything that would hinder us from the closest walk that is possible to us till we see Him face to face is not for us. We need to be sensitive to the first approach of the hindering thing. For the sake of the souls that may be stumbled if we turn even ever so little aside, for the sake of our Master’s glory-dearer surely to us than all else-let us ask him now to show us whether in anywise we have been showing “crooked patterns.”

We should write it down as a law of the house that those who are absent are not to be discussed to their detriment, that no belittling stories are told of anyone, nor anything said about anyone unless it passes through the three sieves: Is it true? kind? necessary? We must humble ourselves lest ever, unawares, we break this law. There is an astonishing amount of talk of the kind that can harm the spirit of those whom we are discussing. The frothy talk of nothingness, the mere noise of words that can dull and make dusty a whole table of Christian people, will not taste good to us if by God’s grace we hold to that law. Talk can pull down as well as build up, and it can entrap and weaken in a very curious way. But the talk that is the kind Christ would enjoy-frank and simple and sincere and happy as the song of the birds-this kind of talk lifts up and helps. Imagination is appropriate here. Imagine the Lord at table or in the room (and He is): How would our talk sound to Him? All we need, all we want, is to have His ungrieved Presence with us always.

-Excerpts from God’s Missionary

~ by nve on June 6, 2008.