Helen Roseveare

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Dr Helen Roseveare died in 2016, but 'Living Words - A Legacy of Quotes' has only just been published and contains quotes from each of her four books in the 'Living...' series. If you don't know anything of Helen Roseveare have a read of our review of Living Sacrifice from this series. Helen was a medical missionary in the Congo during the 50's & 60's and has much to say on the subject of the ups and downs of daily Christian Living. As an introductory offer, when you buy 'Living Words' you will receive a copy of her smaller books 'Enough' and 'Count it all Joy'. These are both real gems. Have a read of our blog review of Enough to get an overview (although please note that the blog post was written in 2011 so the free damaged copy on offer is no longer available!).

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Enough.

Helen Roseveare is a very practical & down to earth writer.  She is so honest about her failings in her Christian walk it becomes easy to admit to yours.  In this book she has challenged me again. The general thesis is that Christ is enough to fulfil all our needs.  Sounds obvious and I'm sure we all know the theory and the scripture texts to prove it.  But do we really live it out?  Really?  Honestly? 
What about all those 'respectable sins' - worry, perfectionism, that ever-so-small feeling of discontent, the grumbling about the weather, impatience, moral superiority - we may talk about them as little weaknesses or failings but they are certainly not very Christ-like. How longsuffering our Lord is!  Do we really rely on Him to know what is for our real good? 
What about that sneaky 'Jesus... plus'?  If we could just be successful in this situation, if only God would provide a spouse/a new house, if only those around me would respect me more, life would be so much better.  Since when was Jesus and Him alone not enough for our complete happiness? 'The joy of the Lord is your strength' (Nehemiah 8:10).
These 'not enough' errors that Helen talks about are so subtle, but ring horribly true. Suddenly I have become more aware of far too many of them tucked away in my own heart where no-one would necessarily see them - except a Holy God of course.  This is very humbling and could lead to feelings of despair of never being good enough - but Helen deals with this too.  Indeed we fall far short of pleasing our Heavenly Father, but the death of Christ is enough to cover all our sins.  Enough.
This is a book that I found searching and profitable.  It's only small and takes less than an hour to read through.  Buy it and digest.  In fact don't bother buying it - the copy I picked off the shelf in the shop has since had tea spilt on it (an over-enthusiastic little helper!) so I'm happy to give it away free. All you need to do is 'like' us on our facebook page (or get a friend to like us if you don't have a facebook account), then let me have your address & its yours for keeps!
Lorna
Enough.  by Helen Roseveare, published by Christian Focus, £2.99

Living Sacrifice

Helen Roseveare is so honest it is easy to warm to her style. Using illustrations from her life as a medical missionary in Africa, 'Living Sacrifice' is a candid analysis of her failings and the lessons she learnt about her practical Christian walk and specifically the need to sacrifice ALL to the Lord. Her chapter headings show how fully she deals with the subject: With all my heart, With all my soul, With all my mind, With all my strength, and in so doing encourages the reader to analyse their own Christian walk in the same way. Apologising, sacrificing possessions, re-evaluating priorities, submitting to physical weakness are all issues dealt with in a very practical way. To give you a taster, I will leave you with a quote taken from the chapter 'With all my Soul' when Helen was struggling with her 'rights' in terms of the way she did her job...
"If I would learn to love God with all my soul, I would have to learn to give Him my will. That would mean giving Him the right to exercise control over it. I had to learn that I had no rights. All rights are His. How was I ever going to learn to live in the atmosphere of the prayer: 'Not My will, but Thine be done' (Luke 22:42)? My right to be considered, to have my opinion listened to, to give my advice, to make choices and decisions, certainly insofar as these related directly to my own life and the outworking of the vision He had given me, all seemed so essentially right and reasonable. It is against all modern teaching and practice to deny any human being the right to be himself and to express himself. Hence the freedom of speech,and of the press, and many other avenues of self-expression have become precious and almost fundamental to our whole way of life and thinking. Psychologically it is sound. Intellectually it is reasonable. Practically, it may lead to anarchy and strikes and disruption of whole communities, though perhaps one might not say so (even in these days of freedom of speech!).This is considered a small price to pay for a basic freedom. However, spiritually, it is not God's way. He has a perfect plan for each one of us, a plan that fits into His overall purpose for the whole world. My individual liberty is safeguarded within His plan. If I truly believe in Him, I'll trust Him to desire for me that which is for my highest good, and to have planned for it's fulfilment. How hard this comes!"
There is certainly much food for thought throughout the book.
Living Sacrifice - Willing to be Whittled as an Arrow, by Helen Roseveare, £6.99 (first published 1980, reprinted by Christian Focus Publications 2007)
Lorna