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Oswald Chambers
Oswald Chambers (1874–1917). Born on July 24, 1874, in Aberdeen, Scotland, to a Baptist minister’s family, Oswald Chambers became a renowned Bible teacher and author, best known for My Utmost for His Highest. Raised in a devout home, he studied art at the University of Edinburgh and Dunoon Theological College, developing a gift for preaching influenced by Charles Spurgeon, whom he heard at 16. Converted in his teens, he felt called to ministry after a profound spiritual experience and traveled globally, teaching at Bible schools in the UK, U.S., and Japan. In 1910, he married Gertrude “Biddy” Hobbs, who later compiled his teachings; they had one daughter, Kathleen. Chambers founded the Bible Training College in London (1911–1915), closing it to serve as a YMCA chaplain in Egypt during World War I. There, he ministered to soldiers at Zeitoun Camp until his death from appendicitis complications on November 15, 1917, in Cairo, at age 43. His books, like Biblical Psychology and Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, were published posthumously from Biddy’s shorthand notes. Chambers said, “The great essential of the missionary is that he remains true to the call of God.”
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Oswald Chambers preaches about the importance of yielding to Jesus rather than just deciding for Him, emphasizing that true strength lies in recognizing our poverty and inability, as it is through this humility that we enter God's Kingdom. He highlights that the loveliness that pleases God is unconscious and unaffected, and that examining our own actions can lead us to lose touch with the Lord. Chambers urges surrendering our will to God, acknowledging that true freedom and strength come from being captivated by Him and finding our life in His embrace.
The Poor in Spirit
...The preaching of today is apt to emphasize strength of will, beauty of character -- the things that are easily noticed. The phrase we hear so often, ‘Decide for Christ,’ is an emphasis on something Our Lord never trusted. He never asks us to decide for Him, but to yield to Him, a very different thing. At the basis of Jesus Christ’s Kingdom is the unaffected loveliness of the commonplace. The thing I am blessed in is my poverty. If I know I have no strength of will, no nobility of disposition, then Jesus says -- Blessed are you, because it is through this poverty that I enter His Kingdom. I cannot enter His Kingdom as a good man or woman, I can only enter it as a complete pauper. [Jesus said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." Luke 5:31] The true character of the loveliness that tells for God is always unconscious. ... If I examine the outflow, I lose the touch of the Lord. Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free. Force me to render up my sword, and I shall conqueror be. I sink in life's alarms when by myself I stand. Imprison me within Thine arms, and strong shall be my hand. My will is not my own 'till Thou hast made it Thine. If it would gain a monarch's throne, it must its crown resign. It only stands unbent, amidst the clashing strife, When on thy bosom it has lent, and found in thee its life. By George Matheson
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Oswald Chambers (1874–1917). Born on July 24, 1874, in Aberdeen, Scotland, to a Baptist minister’s family, Oswald Chambers became a renowned Bible teacher and author, best known for My Utmost for His Highest. Raised in a devout home, he studied art at the University of Edinburgh and Dunoon Theological College, developing a gift for preaching influenced by Charles Spurgeon, whom he heard at 16. Converted in his teens, he felt called to ministry after a profound spiritual experience and traveled globally, teaching at Bible schools in the UK, U.S., and Japan. In 1910, he married Gertrude “Biddy” Hobbs, who later compiled his teachings; they had one daughter, Kathleen. Chambers founded the Bible Training College in London (1911–1915), closing it to serve as a YMCA chaplain in Egypt during World War I. There, he ministered to soldiers at Zeitoun Camp until his death from appendicitis complications on November 15, 1917, in Cairo, at age 43. His books, like Biblical Psychology and Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, were published posthumously from Biddy’s shorthand notes. Chambers said, “The great essential of the missionary is that he remains true to the call of God.”