Monday, July 13, 2009

In My Father's House...

is a book written by Corrie Ten Boom detailing her life before The Hiding Place years. I read The Hiding Place years ago and have long admired Corrie Ten Boom's life and work, but I had never read about her life before. This book gives a convicting picture of the spiritual foundation that was poured into her life before God called her to exercise that foundation in the most dire of circumstances.

I have often heard that a person's true character is revealed in crisis. I have begun to dispute this statement. I think that daily life reveals more accurately a person's true character. Crisis may serve to reveal it on a wider scale or to a larger audience. But a shallow stream will return to being a shallow stream though a heavy storm might temporarily fill its banks to overflowing. Unless the true bottom of the stream, its foundations, is dug deeper, shallow it will return to being.

Here are some quotes I have been pondering:

"When Jesus takes your hand, He keeps you tight. When Jesus keep you tight, He leads you through your whole life. When Jesus leads you through your life, He brings you safely home."

"Today I know that memories are the key not to the past, but to the future. I know that the experiences of our lives, when we let God use them, become the mysterious and perfect preparation for the work He will give us to do."

"Children need the wisdom of their elders; the aging need the encouragement of a child's exuberance."

"Father answered, 'The ground on which I build my faith is not in me, but in the faithfulness of God."

"God can give a straight blow with a crooked stick. He blesses in spite of our blunders."

"I realized that all we do through our own strength has to be cleansed, but what we do through the Lord has value for time and eternity."

Throughout the book Corrie ten Boom relates her childhood training, the work of her young adult years, and the missions of her mid-adult years to the foundation she depended upon for her very survival in the German concentration camps. The Lord wasted nothing of her life. The character she showed in crisis had been built day by day in the small opportunities of trusting in the Lord.

I want that my small opportunities would not be wasted either. What small opportunities is God using in your life to build trust in Him?

5 comments:

  1. Loved reading these quotes and your thoughts Elle!

    Right now my areas of trust building are living in southern California away from my children and my home and where I would rather be. Learning to trust God with the struggle our son and DIL are having with not being able to conceive. Our middle sons unemployment and frustration over what he should do.
    Just to name a few until he leads us safely home... :0)

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  2. Great quotes. The truth that God wastes NOTHING is very encouraging to me. We are in a holding pattern right now. Until our old house sells, we can't more forward on anything -- a change in our location, a major shift in my husband's career, etc.

    I sometimes throw my frustration at God. "Why would you want to keep us here, when we want to be free to serve you?" But I know, deep in my heart, He has His good and perfect reasons. And the fact that He's using even this "wasted" time keeps me going.

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  3. He's using a lot of little daily interpersonal contacts to teach me to be a God-pleaser and not a man-pleaser... to trust that honoring Him before all others will yield the fruit I cannot manufacture not matter how hard I try.

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  4. "I have often heard that a person’s true character is revealed in crisis. I have begun to dispute this statement. I think that daily life reveals more accurately a person’s true character. Crisis may serve to reveal it on a wider scale or to a larger audience. But a shallow stream will return to being a shallow stream though a heavy storm might temporarily fill its banks to overflowing. Unless the true bottom of the stream, its foundations, is dug deeper, shallow it will return to being."

    I really agree with you here. I immediately thought (and Googled) this poem:

    “Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
    Watch your words, for they become actions.
    Watch your actions, for they become habits.
    Watch your habits, for they become character.
    Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”

    I've never read Corrie Ten Boom - thanks for the referral.

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  5. I love Corrie.

    What small opportunities is the Lord using? All of them. I am learning to serve Him in the small and the mundane, to offer the most ordinary of moments to Him in worship, doing all things in the name of Jesus Christ!

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