Sunday School Teachers Meeting

Oswald Chambers

• born in 1874 in Aberdeen, Scotland

• came to Christ in his teenage years under ministry of C.H. Spurgeon

• studied art and archaeology at University of Edinburgh

• felt called into Christian ministry

• 1906-1910 itinerant preaching ministry in the U.K., the U.S. and Japan

• married a court stenograher named Gertrude in 1910 at age of 36 - one daughter, Kathleen.

• 1911 founded Bible Training College in Clapham, England - he served as principal

• the school was only open for 4 years and then had to be closed due to WW1

• appt. by YMCA to serve as a chaplain to Australian & NZ troops in Egypt guarding Suez Canal during WW1.

• while there, his appendix ruptured and he died following surgery. He was just 43 years of age. He had been married just 7 years.

• while he was alive, Chambers wrote only one book—an obscure work entitled “Baffled to Fight Better”.

• but whenever he spoke, Gertrude—his wife, the court stenographer—took verbatim shorthand notes of all his messages.

• after he died, she took some of his lectures from the Bible Training College and the devotional talks that he had given to the troops in Egypt, put them together, edited them, and published them in book form in 1928.

• that book was to become the best-selling devotional book of all time: My Utmost for His Highest

• it has been rated by Christianity Today as one of the ten most significant Christian books of the 20th century.

• yet its author never saw it!

• Gertrude collected and published 30 books under Oswald Chambers’ name.

Oswald Chambers is far better known now than he ever was when he was alive. He served the Lord (for the most part) in obscurity. He had a short life and career. But he laboured faithfully. Listen to what he says about this…

Philippians 2:17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you

Are you willing to sacrifice yourself for the work of another believer—to pour out your life sacrificially for the ministry oand faith of others? Or do you say, “I am not willing to be poured out right now, and I don’t want God to tell me how to serve Him. I want to choose the place of my own sacrifice. And I want to have certain people watching me and saying “Well done.”

It is one thing to follow God’s way of service if you are regarded as a hero, but quite another thing if the road marked out for you by God requiares becoming a “doormat” under other people’s feet. God’s purpose may be t o teach you to say, as Paul said in Philippians 4:12 “I know how to be abased.”

Are you ready to be sacrificed like that? Are you ready to be less than a mere drop in the bucket—to be so totally insignificant that no one remembers you even if they think of those you served? Are you willing to give and be poured out until you are used up and exhausted—not seeking to be ministered to, but to minister?

The role of a S.S. teacher is often obscure. Yet it is vitally important and will produce significant results for all eternity.

e.g. - [a teacher] - youth S.S. class - kids being baptized.

Chambers often talks in his writings of being “broken bread and poured out wine”

Philippians 2:17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you