Exactly 100 years ago today, one of the UK's best-loved Christian writers and communicators died in an Egyptian army camp during the Great War. Oswald Chambers is known to millions of readers around the world, especially in North American. Sadly, in his own country, he is hardly a household name, as he should be.
Only 43 when he died, Chambers left a young widow and a small daughter to carry on his literary work. Significantly, he is better known now than ever he was in his lifetime.
Rev Oswald Chambers was born in Aberdeen in 1874, the son of a Baptist minister and one of eight children. His family moved to Perth and then to London where teenager Oswald became a Christian under the preaching of Charles Spurgeon.
He really had his sights set on being an artist and went to the Royal College of Art in London and then on to Edinburgh University to study psychology and philosophy as well as art. But when he ran out of money and couldn't fund his studies, he realised that maybe art wasn't the career for him. God had something better.
So he attended a small Bible College in Dunoon and spent the next nine years as a student there and later a lecturer. All the time he was honing his preaching skills and became well-known as a brilliant communicator, especially to young people.
During his time in Dunoon, Oswald spent four dark, soul-searching years which ended with what we might call nowadays a charismatic experience. He was renewed and strengthened by the Holy Spirit.
For four years, 1911-1915, Oswald Chambers founded and was Principal of the Bible Training College in Clapham, London, training young men and women for missionary service abroad.
During that period Oswald travelled widely overseas and was especially appreciated in the USA where he is now regarded in the same league as C S Lewis as an inspirational writer and deep thinker.
Which is ironic, because Oswald Chambers never 'wrote' a book at all! His gifted wife Biddy was an extremely fast stenographer and took down every spoken word of her husband at 250 words a minute in shorthand.
After his death in 1917, she spent the rest of her life extracting and arranging nuggets from her notes and editing the works for publication. She held the copyright to his works which are now curated by the Oswald Chambers Publications Association.
32 books are attributed to Oswald Chambers, now translated into over 40 languages. His golden book, the daily devotional classic 'My Utmost For His Highest' was first published in the UK in 1927 and has sold over 13 million copies worldwide, ten million in the last 20 years.
'My Utmost' is read by hundreds of thousands every day in hardback, paperback and digitally on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Google 'Oswald Chambers' or 'My Utmost' to see how just widely his writings are loved and appreciated on social media. There is a huge and growing online fan-base for this stimulating centenarian.
Oswald Chambers died in the desert after complications following an operation to remove his appendix. He had accepted the challenge to help the WW1 war effort as a YMCA chaplain serving the Anzac troops in Egypt following the Gallipoli disaster. He prepared young men spiritually for both life and death.
The proof that his teaching was and is so valuable lies in the testimonies of the millions who have found in Oswald Chambers' writings the hallmark of practical truth for living the Christian life.
'My Utmost for His Highest' will be published this week in the Bulgarian language to celebrate his life and legacy one hundred years after Oswald Chambers died.
