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A Yes to Your Cross
Basilea Schlink

Basilea Schlink (1904 - 2001). German religious leader, writer, and co-founder of the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, born Klara Schlink in Darmstadt to a professor of mechanics. Raised Lutheran, she studied at Fröbelseminar in Kassel (1923) and Berlin’s Inner Mission girls’ school (1924), later earning a doctorate in psychology from Hamburg University in 1934 with a thesis on adolescent faith struggles. From 1933 to 1935, she led the Women’s Division of the German Student Christian Movement, resisting Nazi exclusion of Jewish Christians. In 1947, with Erika Madauss, she founded the Sisterhood in Darmstadt, taking the name Mother Basilea, growing it to 209 sisters across 11 global branches by 2001. Schlink authored over 60 books, including My All for Him, translated into 60 languages, and published tracts in 90. Her radio programs aired in 23 languages, emphasizing repentance and reconciliation, especially between Germans and Jews. Unmarried, she dedicated her life to prayer and ministry, shaping interdenominational Christian communities.
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The video is a sermon by Basilias Schlink on the importance of saying "yes" to the cross and embracing suffering and sacrifice. Schlink emphasizes that by willingly giving up our rights and desires, we can break free from the power of our flesh and soul. He encourages listeners to choose the path of sacrifice and death to self, following Jesus' example. Schlink also highlights the significance of confessing our sins and humbling ourselves before God, as this is the key to true freedom and victory over the enemy.
Sermon Transcription
God lives and works today. He can live and work in your life today, if you let him. But that means you have to give him something, a yes. Today's meditation by Basilia Schlenk will share about the yes that makes you free. Who can measure the great treasure suffering and grief have brought? Who has sight and understanding for the goods that pain has brought? If you have a yes to your cross, that means if you're willing to suffer to give up all your rights, then the desires of your flesh and your soul will lose their power over you. However, if you're always seeking an escape, toying with this or that easy and dangerous way out, you'll never become free. Only a yes to this situation which is now difficult for you to bear, whether it's sickness, sleeplessness, loneliness, inner turmoil, incompetence, humiliations, or whatever it is, will make the enemy go from you and give you the power to overcome. This yes to the difficulties which God has placed upon you is like a weapon which will bring you into victory from your bondages. However, if you don't want to say a yes to that which is hard for you, doesn't that mean that in the end you really don't think that you're a sinner? For sinners need the cross. Therefore, those who are humble and confess themselves as being a sinner will always have a yes to their cross. How else will we become free from our bondages and the power of our sinful flesh without the cross upon which all of these false desires and powers can be put to death? If we feed them by trying to escape as much as possible all difficulties and hardships which God gives us, then we will never become free. Therefore, the Yes, Father prayer is the key of freedom which will set us free from all sinful lusts. Jesus has won this freedom for us. He has taken the power away from the enemy. But if we hold on to our desires and won't let them go, then we're holding on to the enemy and we will never become free. It's in our hands if we don't become free. For Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. And as it is recorded in the Gospel of John, if the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Let us pray. Lord Jesus, I bind myself to you now to choose with you daily the way of sacrifice and death to self, the way of the cross out of which life and love is poured out. I don't want to live any more for myself but rather for you and your kingdom and to pour myself out for your concerns. Yes, I believe that out of death comes life because you have risen from the dead and now reign in eternity. Amen. I bind myself to you, to you alone, to your commandments, to your way. Oh, now your hand upon me lay. I'll follow, follow you. You are my great reward. I'll follow you, my Savior, my Sovereign and my Lord. You have been listening to a program written by Basile Schlenk of the Little Land of Canaan. To learn more about how God lives and works today, visit us at our website, www.canaan.org. That's K-A-N-A-A-N dot org. If you contact us, we would be happy to send you a free inspirational booklet. If you do not have access to the web, please contact this radio station for our postal address. God bless you.
A Yes to Your Cross
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Basilea Schlink (1904 - 2001). German religious leader, writer, and co-founder of the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, born Klara Schlink in Darmstadt to a professor of mechanics. Raised Lutheran, she studied at Fröbelseminar in Kassel (1923) and Berlin’s Inner Mission girls’ school (1924), later earning a doctorate in psychology from Hamburg University in 1934 with a thesis on adolescent faith struggles. From 1933 to 1935, she led the Women’s Division of the German Student Christian Movement, resisting Nazi exclusion of Jewish Christians. In 1947, with Erika Madauss, she founded the Sisterhood in Darmstadt, taking the name Mother Basilea, growing it to 209 sisters across 11 global branches by 2001. Schlink authored over 60 books, including My All for Him, translated into 60 languages, and published tracts in 90. Her radio programs aired in 23 languages, emphasizing repentance and reconciliation, especially between Germans and Jews. Unmarried, she dedicated her life to prayer and ministry, shaping interdenominational Christian communities.