Martha Christian - Searching for Mrs. Oswald Chambers: One Womans Quest to Uncover the Truth about the Woman behind the Most Celebrated Devotional of ...

Women were important to Jesus. He honored them, set them free, and raised them to a high calling for their lives.

In a time when women were considered unimportant property, slaves to service, and items to be kept under lock and key in the back rooms of society, Jesus came.

Jesus loved and cared for his mother, Mary. The divine love and loyalty he demonstrated to his friends Mary and Martha during the illness and death of Lazarus lifted them, curing their crisis. Jesus bridged the chasm of racial discrimination when he spoke to the woman of Samaria. He broke the bondage of her life, offering her life eternal instead.

Jesus cared about women. He set the example of sacrificial love, to the point of his death on the cross, and he provided the path for women to be set free.

Oswald Chambers, best known for the words found in My Utmost for His Highest and often considered a spiritual giant and evangelical prophet, loved Biddy Chambers, his wife, with Christlike love. He cared for her, prayed for her, and joined his life with hers to serve God.

In 1916, he wrote a note to his wife saying, When I consider how completely and nobly you have foregone all quiet civilised influences that other women have and have been living a literal hand-to-mouth existence all transfigured by your great love for me and Him, I must bow my head in dedication and say God bless thee!

Biddy was clearly the kind of woman of whom the book of Proverbs says, Her husband praises her (Proverbs 31:28, NLT ).

These words from her husband must have caused Biddys spirit to soar above the trials of a life of physical hardship. That note, tucked under her pillow when her husband had to be away for a night, lightened her load by cheering her heart.

Already serving God, Biddy Chambers was lifted to the very throne of God by her husband. His love for her set her free to abandon her own life to the life of Christ in her.

She lived the powerful life of Christs love flowing through her to everyone around her.

One year after receiving that treasured note, Mrs. Oswald Chambers became a widow. The sudden death of her husband after only seven years of marriage left Biddy with a young daughter to raise alone, facing a future of uncertainty thousands of miles away from home. Biddy Chambers accepted these trials with the certainty of faith in Jesus Christ.

The Word spoke to her: Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me (Psalm 142:7, KJV ).

Out of the bounty of God comes Searching for Mrs. Oswald Chambers.

Martha Christian

You must give some time to your fellow man. Even if it is a little thing, do something for those who have need of a mans help, something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it. For remember, you dont live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here, too.

ALBERT SCHWEITZER