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Charles E. Cowman

Charles E. Cowman

Lettie Burd Cowman (March 3, 1870 – April 17, 1960), also known as L.B. Cowman, was an American writer and author of the devotional books Streams in the Desert and Springs in the Valley. Cowman published her books under the author name Mrs. Charles E. Cowman. She was also one of the cofounders of The Oriental Missionary Society (later known as OMS International, and eventually One Mission Society).
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Charles E. Cowman

Be Strong

"Quit you like men, be strong" (1 Cor. 16:13). Do not pray for easy lives! Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be a miracle. --Phillips Brooks. We must remember that i... Read More
Charles E. Cowman

Be Sure of His Promises

"Do as thou hast said, that thy name may be magnified forever" (1 Chron. 17:23-24). This is a most blessed phase of true prayer. Many a time we ask for things which are not absolutely promised. We are not sure therefore until we have persevered for some time whether our petitions are in the line of ... Read More
Charles E. Cowman

Bearing the Sting

"He opened not his mouth" (Isa. 53:7). How much grace it requires to bear a misunderstanding rightly, and to receive an unkind judgment in holy sweetness! Nothing tests the Christian character more than to have some evil thing said about him. This is the file that soon proves whether we are electro-... Read More
Charles E. Cowman

Beginning Without Finishing

"He spoke a parable unto them…that men ought always to pray, and not to faint" (Luke 18:1). No temptation in the life of intercession is more common than this of failure to persevere. We begin to pray for a certain thing; we put up our petitions for a day, a week, a month; and then, receiving as yet... Read More
Charles E. Cowman

Being Proven

"There he proved them" (Exod. 15:25). I stood once in the test room of a great steel mill. All around me were little partitions and compartments. Steel had been tested to the limit, and marked with figures that showed its breaking point. Some pieces had been twisted until they broke, and the strengt... Read More
Charles E. Cowman

Belief, Not Understanding

"Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?" (John 11:40). Mary and Martha could not understand what their Lord was doing. Both of them said to Him, "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." Back of it all, we seem to read their thought... Read More
Charles E. Cowman

Believe in Order to See

"Then believed they his words; they sang his praise. They soon forgot his works; they waited not for his counsel; but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul" (Ps. 106:12-15). We read of Moses, that "he en... Read More
Charles E. Cowman

Believing Before Seeing

"The land which I do give them, even the children of Israel" (Joshua 1:2). God here speaks in the immediate present. It is not something He is going to do, but something He does do, this moment. So faith ever speaks. So God ever gives. So He is meeting you today, in the present moment. This is the t... Read More
Charles E. Cowman

Believing Prayer

"Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way" (John 4:50). "When ye pray, believe" (Mark 11:24). When there is a matter that requires definite prayer, pray till you believe God, until with unfeigned lips you can ... Read More
Charles E. Cowman

Believing Prayer

"Peter was kept in prison: but prayer (instant and earnest prayer) was made for him" (Acts 12:5, margin). Peter was in prison awaiting his execution. The Church had neither human power nor influence to save him. There was no earthly help, but there was help to be obtained by the way of Heaven. They ... Read More
Charles E. Cowman

Bread Corn is Bruised

"Bread corn is bruised" (Isa. 28:28). Many of us cannot be used to become food for the world's hunger until we are broken in Christ's hands. "Bread corn is bruised." Christ's blessing ofttimes means sorrow, but even sorrow is not too great a price to pay for the privilege of touching other lives wit... Read More
Charles E. Cowman

Broken Things

"By reason of breakings they purify themselves" (Job 41:25). God uses most for His glory those people and things which are most perfectly broken. The sacrifices He accepts are broken and contrite hearts. It was the breaking down of Jacob's natural strength at Peniel that got him where God could clot... Read More
Charles E. Cowman

By Death We Live

"As dying and behold we live" (2 Cor. 6:9). I had a bed of asters last summer, that reached clear across my garden in the country. Oh, how gaily they bloomed. They were planted late. On the sides were yet fresh blossoming flowers, while the tops had gone to seed. Early frosts came, and I found one d... Read More
Charles E. Cowman

By Faith Abraham Obeyed

"By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed" (Heb. 11:8). Whither he went, he knew not; it was enough for him to know that he went with God. He leant not so much upon the promises as upon the Promiser. He looked not on the dif... Read More
Charles E. Cowman

By Thy Spirit

"Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith Jehovah of hosts" (Zech. 4:6). My way led up a hill, and right at the foot I saw a boy on a bicycle. He was pedalling up hill against the wind, and evidently found it a tremendously hard work. Just as he was working most strenuously and doing his ... Read More
Charles E. Cowman

Call Back

"It shall turn to you for a testimony'' (Luke 21:13). Life is a steep climb, and it does the heart good to have somebody "call back" and cheerily beckon us on up the high hill. We are all climbers together, and we must help one another. This mountain climbing is serious business, but glorious. It ta... Read More
Charles E. Cowman

Call Upon the Lord

"And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered" (Joel 2:32). Why do not I call on His name? Why do I run to this neighbor and that when God is so near and will hear my faintest call? Why do I sit down and devise schemes and invent plans? Why not at on... Read More
Charles E. Cowman

Can Thine Heart Endure

"We know not what we should pray for as we ought" (Rom. 8:26). Much that perplexes us in our Christian experience is but the answer to our prayers. We pray for patience, and our Father sends those who tax us to the utmost; for "tribulation worketh patience." We pray for submission, and God sends suf... Read More
Charles E. Cowman

Carry Your Cross

"Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Mark 8:34). The cross which my Lord bids me take up and carry may assume different shapes. I may have to content myself with a lowly and narrow sphere, when I feel that I have capacities for much higher work.... Read More
Charles E. Cowman

Cast Down

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul" (Ps. 43:5). Is there ever any ground to be cast down? There are two reasons, but only two. If we are as yet unconverted, we have ground to be cast down; or if we have been converted and live in sin, then we are rightly cast down. But except for these two things th... Read More

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