Advent 2023: A Moment with Lilias

A Moment with Lilias    For the past several years we have journeyed through Advent with our readers in a variety of ways via our social media sites and on our website blog: daily postings, weekly postings, short quotes, long passages, and links to our Light of...

Light of Life: Advent Meditations

      “Once for all, here and now, this light will break on you if you lift up your eyes and behold Jesus Christ with the spiritual vision of the soul. – The Way of the Sevenfold Secret We are pleased to announce that our Lilias Trotter-inspired Advent...

The Way of the Sevenfold Secret

"Like the manna of old that fell in the wilderness, He has come where you are.  You do not need to go on a weary search to find Him."   (from The Way of the Sevenfold Secret)     The announcement of “New Publications” back in August elicited queries about...

Christian History Magazine Lilias Trotter Issue

Exciting News!   We are thrilled to announce the August issue of Christian History magazine featuring Lilias Trotter!  Christian History is an award-winning periodical, issued quarterly, that features one general topic, written by handpicked, trustworthy...

Lilias Trotter Papers

Good News!       Left picture:  Katherine Graber of Wheaton College Special Collections watches as Miriam Rockness of Lilias Trotter Legacy signs paperwork gifting the Lilias Trotter materials to Wheaton College Special Collections. Right picture: Katherine and...

New Publications!

To gather, preserve, and make accessible the written and artistic work of Lilias Trotter To present to a global audience the thought, works, and life of Lilias Trotter To use the enduring legacy of Lilias Trotter to convey the light and love of Jesus to others Two of...

Resurrection Day!

“Yes, life is the uppermost – resurrection life, radiant and joyful and strong – for we represent down here Him who liveth and was dead and is alive forevermore. . . Oh let us not dim it by a shadow of morbidness or of gloom. He is not a god of the dead, but a God of...

Good Friday

“The death of the Cross” – death’s triumph hour – that was the point where God’s gate opened; and to that gate we come again and again, as our lives unfold, and through it pass even on earth to our joyful resurrection, to a life each time more abundant, for each time...

Palm Sunday

"'Death is the gate of life.' Does it look so to us? Have we learnt to go down, once and again, into its gathering shadow in quietness and confidence, knowing that there is always 'a better resurrection' beyond?" ~ Lilias Trotter (Parables of the Cross) Today, the day...

Fifth Sunday in Lent

"This dandelion has long ago surrendered its golden petals, and has reached its crowning stage of dying – the delicate seed-globe must break up now – it gives and gives till it has nothing left. What a revolution would come over the world – the world of starving...

Fourth Sunday in Lent

"Have we learned the buttercup’s lesson yet? Are our hands off the very blossom of our life? Are all things – even the treasures that He has sanctified – held loosely, ready to be parted with, without a struggle, when He asks for them?” ~ Lilias Trotter (Parables of...

Third Sunday in Lent

“We ourselves are ‘saved to save’ – we are made to give – to let everything go if only we may have more to give.” ~ Lilias Trotter (Parables of the Cross)   "We are made to give." What does that really mean? In a me-first culture which emphasizes...

Second Sunday in Lent

"Take the very hardest thing in your life - the place of difficulty, outward or inward, and expect God to triumph gloriously in that very spot. Just there He can bring your soul into blossom." ~ Lilias Trotter (Parables of the Cross)   What is the "very hardest...

First Sunday in Lent

"Holiness, not safety, is the end of our calling." ~ Lilias Trotter (Parables of the Cross) Who wants to be holy?  Perhaps a better question would be:  What would a truly holy person look like?  One might suspect that what we would note about a person “further down...

Lent with Lilias

Ash Wednesday   "'Death is the Gate of Life' . . . man's natural thought of death is that of a dreary ending in decay and dissolution.  And from his standpoint he is right:  death as the punishment of sin is an ending . . . But far other is God's thought in the...

The Letter “M”

“It is for 'Private Circulation' and Blanche Haworth is the editor:  it has brought out already a deal of latent writing capacity, and will be a first linking all round.  It is called 'El Couffa' – a couffa being a native palm-leaf basket:  we are said never to go out...

Advent is Coming!

“Once for all, here and now, this light will break on you if you lift up your eyes and behold Jesus Christ with the spiritual vision of the soul. - The Way of the Sevenfold Secret Advent comes early this year, November 27, hardly giving us time to catch our breath...

Small Gestures Faithfully Spread Divine Life

The following post is shared with permission by the author, Rev. Christine Maddux. She recently shared it on September 16 in her email column, A Cup of Living Water.* Bees first buzzed to the fore of my consciousness when I listened to The Secret Lives of Bees while...

Solomon’s Temple Carvings PDF

We hope you have enjoyed these past two months Lilias' "last lessons" on Solomon's Temple Carvings.  As biographer Miriam Rockness said in her introduction to these lessons, "We tend to 'listen up' when one who has lived life well ventures to draw from their...

Solomon’s Temple Carvings Lesson Seven: The Cherubims

We come now to the carvings of the very innermost part of the building - the cherubims of the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies. The seraphims are the showers-forth of the Glory of God in heaven, while the cherubims are the showers-forth of that glory on earth. To...

Solomon’s Temple Carvings Lesson Six: Open Flowers

“Open flowers.” They are the last but one in the series of the Temple carvings - patience and fearlessness and purity, fruitfulness and the passion for service – we have seen them all symbolized. Open flowers surely tell of the joy that is to run through all. We speak...

Solomon’s Temple Carvings Lesson Five: The Palm-Trees

The palm-tree is the picture of the practical life of service. “Ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake” - this is the palm-tree's lesson. It gives its wood for the rafters of the Arab house; its leaf stalks for its laths, for his fences, his spring mattress, the...

Solomon’s Temple Carvings Lesson Four: The Pomegranates

Pomegranates with lily-work above them, wreathing the capitals of the pillars of the porch:  that would be the next carved work on the way to the inner sanctuary.  The pomegranates would be clustered into the network of the chains – four hundred on the two pillars –...

Solomon’s Temple Carvings Lesson Three: The Lily-Work

Whitsunday.  The “White Sunday” of the baptism of old in the early Church links itself with the lily-work of the laver's brim, that comes next in the Temple carvings.  It does not seem quite sure what the lilies of the field in Palestine were.  Some think they were...

Solomon’s Temple Carvings Lesson Two: The Lion

Today's carvings for our Bible reading show The Lion, a great contrast to the lowly patience lesson of last Sunday, The Ox.  “Bold as a lion,” (his chief characteristic) would be more truly translated as “fearless as a lion.”  And fearless he is as he stalks his prey...

Solomon’s Temple Carvings Lesson One: The Ox

Let us learn the lesson of the ox, who stands lowest in the scale of service:  his place is under the yoke, in lowly submission.  Let us understand first of all the “yoking together with Christ” and learn what that yoke-fellowship with Him means.  If we look at...

Lilias Trotter’s Last Lessons

“We have started Sunday afternoon Bible readings, in my room, on the seven carvings of Solomon's temple.  That temple seems to be in its full sense a picture of the perfect service of the Church during the reign of Christ that is to come, and therefore it behoves us...

Lilias Trotter Journal Ideas and Reviews

Beholdings! A Book of Journaling & Sketching Inspired by the Art & Writings of Lilias Trotter Mother's Day is just around the corner begging the perennial question:  What do I give that special woman (or women!) in my life?  We suggest Beholdings!  It is...

A Blossom in the Desert

AVAILABLE SOON!   PRE-ORDER NOW! Many have asked about the availability of A Blossom in the Desert: Reflections of Faith in the Art and Writings of Lilias Trotter, which has been out-of-stock for the past year.  We are pleased to announce that it will be...

New Lilias Trotter Journal Available to Preorder Now

We are delighted to announce that the new journal, Beholdings:  A Book of Journaling & Sketching Inspired by the Art & Writings of Lilias Trotter, is now available to preorder! See below for more details: [button...

Autumn Update

“There is always a wonderful joy in seeing faith pass into sight.”  2 May 1923 It is our privilege to call your attention to some wonderful events and happenings on the Trotter front this past year.  High on the list of “faith pass into sight” has been new...

A Rare Discovery!

  “In all the dreams that God turns to fact there is, I think in a lesser degree than that of our final vocation, a fulfilling of St. Paul's words about apprehending that for which we are apprehended.”  ~ Lilias Trotter   A recent visit to the Pioneer...

Parables of the Cross Lenten Study Guide Week Six – Holy Week

Lesson 6:  Death to Self is the Gate to a Life of Sacrifice:  Part 2 (Parables of the Cross, pages 59-64) DAY 1 (Monday): Read the Section Summary (below). Then read the assigned pages (above). Jot down some initial impressions. Ask God to give you insight into the...

Parables of the Cross Lenten Study Guide Week Five

Lesson 5:  Death to Self is the Gate to a Life of Sacrifice:  Part 1 (Parables of the Cross, pages 44-59) DAY 1 (Monday): Read the Section Summary (below). Then read the assigned pages (above). Jot down some initial impressions. Ask God to give you insight into the...

Parables of the Cross Lenten Study Guide Week Four

Lesson 4:  Death to Lawful Things is the Gate to a Life of Surrender (Parables of the Cross, pages 32-43) DAY 1 (Monday): Read the Section Summary (below). Then read the assigned pages (above). Jot down some initial impressions. Ask God to give you insight into the...

A Passion for the Impossible

AVAILABLE SOON! PRE-ORDER NOW!   Many have asked about the availability of Passion for the Impossible, the biography of the Lilias Trotter, which has been out-of-stock for the past several months.  We are please to announce that it will be available soon, with a...

Parables of the Cross Lenten Study Guide Week Three

Lesson 3: Death to Sin Is the Gate to a Life of Holiness (Parables of the Cross, pages 15–31) DAY 1 (Monday): Read the Section Summary (below). Then read the assigned pages (above). Jot down some initial impressions. Ask God to give you insight into the idea of dying...

Parables of the Cross Lenten Study Guide Week Two

Lesson 2/Week 2: Death to Sin’s Penalty Is the Gate to a Life of Justification (Parables of the Cross, pages 10–15) DAY 1 (Monday): Read the Section Summary (below). Then read the assigned pages (above). Jot down some initial impressions. Ask God to give you insight...

Parables of the Cross Lenten Study Guide Week One

Lesson 1/Week 1: Death Is the Gate of Life (Parables of the Cross, pages 5–10) DAY 1 (Monday): Read the Section Summary (below). Then read the assigned pages (above). Jot down some initial impressions. Ask God to give you insight into the idea of dying to self and...

Lent with Lilias

" . . .What you hold in your hand is a collection of her observations of the way God has imprinted his entire creation with the secret of the Cross: Life choosing to die so that new life can be born. Birth, death, and resurrection, written both large and small . . ."...

Lenten/Parables of the Cross Study Guide

Introducing our new Lenten Study Guide based on Scripture and Readings from   PARABLES OF THE CROSS     Many followers of Christ, even those not raised in a liturgical church environment, have come to recognize the value of observing the seasons of the...

CHRISTMAS DAY

“Today. . . a Savior has been born.” Luke 2:11 The Incarnation – God became man! Jesus Christ, the Son or God, the second person of the Trinity was and is God Incarnate. It is difficult to grasp the importance of this biblical truth. The Son became a man and so He...

CHRISTMAS EVE

. . .He became poor for your sake so that His poverty might make you rich.” II Corinthians 8:9b   Incarnation Once upon a time there lived a king who had power over all nations and peoples. His courts were of richest splendor; his tables were heavy with finest...

Fourth Wednesday of Advent

Angels Minister   “Are not all angels ministering spirits?” Psalm 91:11 There lies before us a beautiful possible life – one that shall have a passion for giving that shall be poured forth to God – spent out for man. . .   (Parables of the Cross)   Scripture: ...

Fourth Tuesday of Advent

Angels Praise    “Glory to God in the highest” Luke 2:14 I have been finding a great blessedness in these last few months in definitely obeying the command “Let them sing aloud upon their God!” – I remembered Pearsall Smith half a lifetime ago, saying in a...

Fourth Monday of Advent

Angels Prepare   “The angel said, ‘Do not be afraid.’” Luke 1:30 How the angels must watch the first day when that light reaches a new spot on this earth that God so loves – and the great wall of darkness is pushed back one tiny bit – and oh, the joy of being...

Fourth Sunday of Advent

THE ANGELS’ CANDLE The light of the angels who heralded the Good News of Light to a darkened world.   God is the God of joy, and we must drink in the spirit of His joy. . .  He didn’t promise us ease and comfort – but He did promise joy which we may have in the...

Third Saturday of Advent

Our Response:  Go and Do Likewise   “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37 Therefore, my brother, for this first step of the way in which He calls you to walk with Him, put your hands by faith...

Third Friday of Advent

Shepherds’ Life Response   “They returned glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen.” Luke 2:20a Now we turn from all these enemies, the stranger, the thief, the hireling and the wolf, who endanger those who follow afar off, and look at...

Third Thursday of Advent

Shepherds’ Faith Response   “Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened.” Luke 2:15b Christ never promised His disciples an easy life. The road He trod for us was a rough road: how then can it be a smooth one to those who follow Him? He makes...

Third Wednesday of Advent

Paradox:  Shepherd and Sheep   “For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water.  And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Revelation 7:17 I must put down a dear little story told me by a...

Third Tuesday of Advent

Christ the Shepherd   “I am the good shepherd.” John 10:14a There was a pretty sight in the marketplace this morning – a procession of shepherds in from the desert led off by ten or twelve little lads carrying the lambs in their arms. And the Lord with His...

Third Monday of Advent

Birth Announcement   “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11 God Most High who created us and you, knows that it is in our hearts to seek a Leader. He knows that this Leader must be a man like ourselves, who has...

Third Sunday of Advent

THE SHEPHERDS’ CANDLE   The Light of Joy that unexpectedly brightened the hearts of a Humble Band of Shepherds Once for all, here and now, this light will break on you if you lift up your eyes and behold Jesus Christ with the spiritual vision of the soul.  (The...

Second Saturday of Advent

Christ’s Humility:  Our Example   “Though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor.” II Corinthians 8:9 The same lesson is re-iterated all round by God: the simple A.B.C. lesson that where inadequacy and inefficiency on the human side are His conditions for...

Second Friday of Advent

Word Became Flesh   “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” John 1:14a I feel so that the desire that only grows the stronger as it remains unmet – to get down and down alongside the people and live a life on more “apostolic” lines – must be of...

Second Thursday of Advent

Joseph’s Story   “When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him.” Matthew 1:24a My room . . . at sunrise produces a camera abscura of inverted cupolas that ring the changes from rose through orange to straw color against the background of...

Second Wednesday of Advent

Mary’s Song   “My soul praises the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” Luke 1:46 “Faith is the link which joins our uttermost weakness to God’s almighty strength.” I came on that the other day, and it is so true. Faith that comes from the depths has a...

Second Tuesday of Advent

The Visitation   “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!” Luke 1:42 Such a day of small things still, but on God’s terms, and that is enough. Size as well as time and space count nothing with Him.  (1 January 1902)   Scripture: ...

Second Monday of Advent

The Annunciation   “For nothing is impossible with God”  Luke 1:37 Once more, after twenty-two years, Christmas Day in Tolga – and again Christmas-like in its deepest sense with just a touch of the fondouk [inn]to make it beautiful. Common brick walls, earth...

Second Sunday of Advent

THE BETHLEHEM CANDLE   The Light bearing witness to the Savior who was born in Bethlehem. The first impression of Palestine was of the strangely small scale of everything. But before nightfall one came to realize that this is an intrinsic part – that God wants to...

First Saturday of Advent

Prepare for His Coming    “Make straight the way for the Lord.” John 1:23b “Until the daystar arises in your hearts” – that has been lit up these last days with a sense of God’s unfolding: the inner revelation of the coming Jesus that must come before the...

First Friday of Advent

Details Revealed    “The Lord himself will give you a sign.”  Isaiah 7:14 For if the Sun of Righteousness has risen upon our hearts there is an ocean of grace and love and power lying all around us, an ocean to which all earthly light is but a drop, and it is...

First Thursday of Advent

The Plan Unfolds   “‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a king who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the Land.”  Jeremiah 23:5   The sun must come to us, that is clear, for we cannot...

First Wednesday of Advent

The Promise   “Through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed.” Genesis 22:18b Our meeting place with God and our beholding His glory, lies not in our going up to Him, but in His coming down to us in the person of Jesus Christ our Lord.  “God who...

First Tuesday of Advent

Paradise Lost   “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:22 This is the true inward vision, the faith of seeing, as distinct from the faith of deductive proof. It is an illumination that abides from the beginning, not merely...

First Monday of Advent

The Plan   “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.” Genesis 1:31 The morning star is so perfectly marvellous these days. It hangs in the dawn like a great globe of silver fire. Of all the images of Christ it seems the one that is almost more than an...

Light of Life Advent Devotional

Lilias Trotter Legacy is delighted to introduce our new on-line devotional  LIGHT OF LIFE  a daily guide for the Advent Season  Advent means “coming.”  In the church calendar, the Season of Advent begins four Sundays prior to Christmas Day.  In many ways it is a time...

Story Parables

Story Parables   High on the priority list of our most recent Lilias Trotter Board meeting this past spring was to "develop curriculum to link Lilias' works with today's reader."  To that end, we have created a "Tools for Learning" section on our website.  Our...

Virtual Story Time

VIRTUAL STORY TIME   Have you read these books about Lilias Trotter?  Illustrated by award-winning artist,Tim Ladwig, they are a must see as well as a must read.  Published in 2015 and 2018, respectively, they are now available to be viewed on Youtube (links...

Watch Many Beautiful Things for FREE

"Many Beautiful Things is a moving, masterfully constructed story of faith that inspires and heals. It’s a wonder I’d never heard Lilias Trotter’s historic, cross-generational story before now. Her life gives pause and reflection amidst the busyness." ~ Gabe Lyons...

THE SIXTH SUNDAY IN LENT

THE SECRET OF ABIDING “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit . . ." ~ John 15:5     “Here in the last of the Parable secrets that we are studying, this lesson is taught us in a wonderful picture. It...

THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT

THE SECRET OF PROGRESS “I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”   ~ John 14:6  “. . . three of the great aims of the Sufis are to follow the Way, and to know the Truth, and to live the Life of God; and the question before them is how to progress from step to step in...

Think About These Things . . .

Think About These Things . . .

Such a lovely "beholding" today!  I went to the well -- and it was uncovered for me to look down.  Instead of the still circle of water I expected see, it was all heaving and rippling in swelling circles!  Then it stopped and grew quiet, and while I was wondering if...

THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT

THE SECRET OF LIFE OUT OF DEATH "I am the Resurrection and the Life"  ~ John 11:21   ". . .  the deliverance that is brought to us by Christ 'the Resurrection and the Life' goes deeper than the change in our position before God. It is the true opening of the...

THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT

THE SECRET OF LEADERSHIP “I am the Good Shepherd.”  John 10:11a      "If we go back to the end of the last chapter we shall see that there is a link between that one and this one. We have seen there that the first stage is to be led forth by the Shepherd. We...

THE SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT

THE SECRET OF ACCESS ". . . I am the Door of the sheep." John 10:7 "Now if you will follow on, there comes through Him by the light the revelation of another wonderful secret: the secret of access to God. . . In the words of Christ, we have the step of drawing near to...

THE FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT

THE SECRET OF ILLUMINATION "I am the Light of the World. He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the Light of Life. Yet a little while is the Light with you. Walk while ye have the Light, lest darkness come upon you.   John 8:12; 12:35. Now life...

Ash Wednesday

THE SECRET OF SATISFACTION   I Am the Bread of Life. He that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth in Me shall never thirst. I am the living Bread that came down from heaven. If any man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever: and the Bread that...

Parables of the Christ-life

Available now for Purchase! facsimile edition of Parables of the Christ-life by I. Lilias Trotter "These are the things which, small as they are in this world's count, have the very pulse of eternity beating through them."   ~ Parables of the Christ-life ~   In...

Images of Faith, Devotional Edition (Volumes 1 & 2)

We are delighted to announce that the new devotional edition of Images of Faith is now available for purchase.  This, in contrast to our earlier edition (Volume 1), is complete with Volumes 1 & 2 and is in a reader-friendly devotional format.  It is reasonably...

A Way of Seeing

If you enjoyed our daily Lenten postings, they were taken directly from the book, A Way of Seeing: The Inward and Outward Vision of Lilias Trotter. This book is available for purchase from Amazon (click image above). Thank you for joining us for "Lent with Lilias"...

Resurrection Day

“Yes, life is the uppermost – resurrection life, radiant and joyful and strong – for we represent down here Him who liveth and was dead and is alive forevermore. . . Oh let us not dim it by a shadow of morbidness or of gloom. He is not a god of the dead, but a God of...

Lent Day 40

"The beauty of that old line of Hebrew poetry came afresh today. The thickest of the cloud storm would be just where He is passing. We see the dust now, we shall see His Footprints when He has passed along the way." ~ Lilias Trotter (17 August 1919; 20 September 1924)...

Lent Day 39

"The same lesson is reiterated all round by God: the simple ABC lesson that inadequacy and inefficiency on the human side are His conditions for working. 'He sealeth up the hand of every man, that all men may know His work.'" ~ Lilias Trotter (27 February 1904)  ...

Lent Day 38

"Noiseless must be His Holy Habitation within us." ~ Lilias Trotter (30 June 1895)   How is God speaking to you through these words? Through this painting? How is God revealing Himself to you through your own surroundings?

Lent Day 37

"When God delays in fulfilling our little thoughts, it is to have Himself room to work out His great ones." ~ Lilias Trotter (29 December 1903)   How is God speaking to you through these words? Through this painting? How is God revealing Himself to you through...

Lent Day 36

"There is a great sense of rest in being in the way of His steps." ~ Lilias Trotter (7 March 1915) How is God speaking to you through these words? Through this painting? How is God revealing Himself to you through your own surroundings?

Lent Day 35

"You are right to be glad in His April days while He gives them. Every stage of the heavenly growth is lovely to Him; He is the God of the daisies and the lambs and the merry child hearts!" ~ Lilias Trotter (Parables of the Cross)   How is God speaking to you...

Lent Day 34

"I have been thinking lately what a work for God it is just loving people." ~ Lilias Trotter (25 April 1891)   How is God speaking to you through these words? Through this painting? How is God revealing Himself to you through your own surroundings?

Lent Day 33

"There is a vibrating power going on down in the darkness and dust of this world that can make itself visible in starting results in the upper air and sunlight of the invisible. Each prayer beat here vibrates up to the very throne of God, and does its work through...

Lent Day 32

"The morning star is so perfectly marvelous these days. It hangs in the dawn like a great globe of silver fire. Of all the images of Christ, it seems the one that is almost more than an image -- it is so utterly like Him in its pure glory." ~ Lilias Trotter (17...

Lent Day 31

"Take the very hardest thing in your life - the place of difficulty, outward or inward - and expect God to triumph gloriously in that very spot. Just there He can bring your soul into blossom." ~ Lilias Trotter ("Parables of the Cross")   How is God speaking to...

Lent Day 30

"Are our hands off the very blossom of our life? Are all things -- even the treasures that He has sanctified -- held loosely, ready to be parted with, without a struggle, when He asks for them?" ~ Lilias Trotter ("Parables of the Cross")   How is God speaking to...

Lent Day 29

"You can never tell to what untold glories any little humble path may lead, if you only follow far enough." ~ Lilias Trotter (13 August 1899)   How is God speaking to you through these words? Through this painting? How is God revealing Himself to you through your...

Lent Day 28

"If we can listen in stillness, till our hearts begin to vibrate to the thing He is thinking and feeling about the matter in question, whether it concerns ourselves or others, we can from that moment begin praying downwards from His throne, instead of praying upwards...

Lent Day 27

"God only knows the endless possibilities that lie enfolded in each of us." ~ Lilias Trotter ("Parables of the Cross")   How is God speaking to you through these words? Through this painting? How is God revealing Himself to you through your own surroundings?

Lent Day 26

"The history of His wonders in the past is a constant succession of new things and He is not at the end of His resources yet." ~ Lilias Trotter ("The Glory of the Impossible")   How is God speaking to you through these words? Through this painting? How is God...

Lent Day 25

  "A flower that stops short of its flowering misses its purpose. We were created for more than our own spiritual development; reproduction not mere development, is the goal of matured being -- reproduction in other lives." ~ Lilias Trotter ("Parables of the...

Lent Day 24

"All the more beautiful will be God's triumph when it comes. The highest music is not the music where all goes on simple and straight and sweet, but where discord suddenly resolves tensions with harmony." ~ Lilias Trotter (12 February 1905)   How is God speaking...

Lent Day 23

"The baby new moon was hanging in the sunset tonight like a boat for the little angels . . ." ~ Lilias Trotter (11 February 1899)   How is God speaking to you through these words? Through this painting? How is God revealing Himself to you through your own...

Lent Day 22

"Such a day of small things still, but on God's time, and that is enough: size as well as time space count nothing with Him." ~ Lilias Trotter (1 January 1902)   How is God speaking to you through these words? Through this painting? How is God revealing Himself...

Lent Day 21

"We are proving these days that time is nothing to God: nothing in its speeding, nothing in its halting. He is the God that 'inhabiteth eternity.'" ~Lilias Trotter (12 December 1920)   How is God speaking to you through these words? Through this painting? How is...

Lent Day 20

"God wants to show us that nothing is great or small to Him." ~ Lilias Trotter (26 March 1924)   How is God speaking to you through these words? Through this painting? How is God revealing Himself to you through your own surroundings?

Lent Day 19

"I am seeing more and more that we begin to learn what it is to walk by faith when we learn to spread out all that is against us -- all our physical weakness, loss of mental power, spiritual inability, all that is against us inwardly and outwardly -- as sails to the...

Lent Day 18

"Holiness, not safety, is the end of our calling." ~ Lilias Trotter (Parables of the Cross)   How is God speaking to you through these words? Through this painting? How is God revealing Himself to you through your own surroundings?

Lent Day 17

"God's guidance, if our soul's instinct is healthy, tallies with the sense of rest." ~ Lilias Trotter (30 September 1903)   How is God speaking to you through these words? Through this painting? How is God revealing Himself to you through your own surroundings?

Lent Day 16

"The growing point of our soul is the thing with which the Spirit of God is especially dealing with and all depends on faithfulness there." ~ Lilias Trotter (23 September 1902)   How is God speaking to you through these words? Through this painting? How is God...

Lent Day 15

"For the world's salvation was not wrought out by the three years in which He went about doing good, but in the three hours of darkness in which He hung, stripped and nailed, in uttermost exhaustion of spirit, soul, and body - till His heart broke. So little wonder...

Lent Day 14

"Oh, the desert is lovely in its restfulness. The great brooding stillness over and through everything is so full of God. One does not wonder that He used to take His people out into the wilderness to teach them." ~ Lilias Trotter (6 March 1895)   How is God...

Lent Day 13

"The still pool of living water lies in every saved soul, keeping life within that little plot of ground, but there is a world of differences between a pool and a river. A river is wide open to its source and as wide open to the needs lower down. We need all barriers...

Lent Day 12

"The things that are impossible with men are possible with God. May it not be that the human impossibility is just the very thing that set His Hand free? And that it is the things which are possible for us to do that He is in a measure to let alone?" ~ Lilias Trotter...

Lent Day 11

"And it has come to me with a flood of joy that no matter if we are only crooked little chinks, the heavenly Sun can send through us not only light, but the revelation of His Image: 'the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the Face of Jesus.'" ~ Lilias...

Lent Day 10

"We have to do with One who 'inhabiteth eternity' and works in its infinite leisure." ~ Lilias Trotter ("Parables of the Christ-Life")   How is God speaking to you through these words? Through this painting? How is God revealing Himself to you through your own...

Lent Day 9

"We love to see the impossible done. And so does God." ~ Lilias Trotter ("The Glory of the Impossible")   How is God speaking to you through these words? Through this painting? How is God revealing Himself to you through your own surroundings?

Lent Day 8

"He makes the scraps of aloneness very very precious -- one gets a sense among the palms and fruit blossoms that one has so far as possible shut the door. And it is true as of old that 'the doors being shut, came Jesus.'" ~ Lilias Trotter (3 March 1895)   How is...

Lent Day 7

"The daisies have been talking again -- the reason they spread out their leaves flat on the ground is because the flowers stretch out their little hands, as it were, to keep back the blades of grass that would shut out the sunlight. They speak so of the need of...

Lent Day 6

"He didn't promise us ease and comfort - but He did promise joy which we may have in the midst of any weight or heaviness that may be ours to bear." ~ Lilias Trotter (17 July 1920)   How is God speaking to you through these words? Through this painting? How is...

Lent Day 5

"The stretched-out hand of faith on earth, acting in union with the stretched-out hand of God's power in heaven. That is the sort of faith we have got to learn before we have done with it." ~ Lilias Trotter (1 January 1900)   How is God speaking to you through...

Lent Day 4

Let faith swing out on Him.  He is the God of the impossible."  ~ Lilias Trotter (The Glory of the Impossible)   How is God speaking to you through these words? Through this painting? How is God revealing Himself to you through your own surroundings?

Lent Day 3

"Life is grandly simple when the spirit of calculating results and consequences, even spiritual results and consequences, has been left among the things that are behind, when obedience is the one thing that matters, when God Himself, and no mere 'experience' is our...

Lent Day Two

"With God -- these are the wonderful words, this is the wonderful fact that changes earth's sordid surroundings into the heavenly places where we are seated with God."  ~ Lilias Trotter   How is God speaking to you through these words?  Through this painting? How...

Lent Day One (Ash Wednesday)

"Believe in the darkness what you have seen in the light."  ~ Lilias Trotter (1 August 1921)   How is God speaking to you through these words?  Through this painting? How is God revealing Himself to you through your own surroundings?

Lent with Lilias

The spring flowers that stand all about my room in Arab pots of green and yellow earthenware bring a very real revelation of Him "by whom were all things created."  The clear happiness of the daisies, and the radiant shout of the celandines, and the deep sweet joy of...

Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus: A Story and a Song

Behind every song is a story.  Some of the richest stories come from the hymns-of-old and Sunday School favorites.  Who isn't familiar with the story of John Newton, former slave-trader-turned-clergyman writer of "Amazing Grace"?  How can one not be touched by the...

Arab Hospitality

    by Bonnie Camp Palmquist* We had just sat down for supper with our 3 daughters in the Middle Eastern city where we were living when the doorbell rang. Going to the door, we saw an Arab family with 3 little children, all dressed up for a visit. We...

The Lesson of the Palm Trees

Summer, 1928, Lilias began teaching Sunday afternoon Bible lessons in her room, studying life “over the Jordan” (Millennial Reign), as pre-figured in the carvings of Solomon's temple – an especially poignant experience as her own life was drawing to a close (August...

Their Works do Follow Them

And the results need not end with our earthly days.  Should Jesus tarry our works will follow us . . . God may use, by reason of the wonderful solidarity of His Church, the things that He has wrought in us, for the blessing of souls unknown to us:  as these twigs and...

Resurrection Day!

“Yes, life is the uppermost – resurrection life, radiant and joyful and strong – for we represent down here Him who liveth and was dead and is alive forevermore. . . Oh let us not dim it by a shadow of morbidness or of gloom. He is not a god of the dead, but a God of...

Interview with Biographer Miriam Huffman Rockness

We are delighted to share with you the following interview with Miriam Huffman Rockness about her newest publication, Images of Faith: Reflections Inspired by Lilias Trotter. Tell us about the background of this book - how did Images of Fatih come about? In a real...

Palm Sunday

"'Death is the gate of life.' Does it look so to us? Have we learnt to go down, once and again, into its gathering shadow in quietness and confidence, knowing that there is always 'a better resurrection' beyond?"   Today, the day we call Palm Sunday, begins in...

Fifth Sunday in Lent

"This dandelion has long ago surrendered its golden petals, and has reached its crowning stage of dying – the delicate seed-globe must break up now – it gives and gives till it has nothing left. What a revolution would come over the world – the world of starving...

Fourth Sunday in Lent

"Have we learned the buttercup’s lesson yet? Are our hands off the very blossom of our life? Are all things – even the treasures that He has sanctified – held loosely, ready to be parted with, without a struggle, when He asks for them?”   What is this lesson of...

Third Sunday in Lent

“We ourselves are ‘saved to save’ – we are made to give – to let everything go if only we may have more to give.”   "We are made to give." What does that really mean? In a me-first culture which emphasizes self-gratification, this is a difficult concept to grasp,...

Second Sunday in Lent

"Take the very hardest thing in your life - the place of difficulty, outward or inward, and expect God to triumph gloriously in that very spot. Just there He can bring your soul into blossom."   What is the "very hardest thing in your life" - today? Where does...

First Sunday in Lent

"Holiness, not safety, is the end of our calling."   Who wants to be holy?  Perhaps a better question would be:  What would a truly holy person look like?  One might suspect that what we would note about a person “further down the road to holiness” would be their...

Lent with Lilias

Ash Wednesday   Lilias’s classic work, Parables of the Cross, demonstrates through the life stages of plants and flowers how death is necessary for life to continue in the physical world – and in the spiritual: "Death is the gate of life." Parables of the Cross...

Upcoming Orlando Screening of Many Beautiful Things

If you live near Orlando, Florida, consider attending the upcoming free screening of Many Beautiful Things Followed by a Q & A time with Lilias Trotter biographer, Miriam Huffman Rockness.     Event Details: This free movie night is hosted by...

Light of Life – Fourth Week of Advent

Fourth Sunday in Advent   The light of the angels who heralded the Good News of Light to a darkened world.  Luke 2:13,14 As early as Abraham, angels anticipated a descendant “through whom all nations would be blessed…” The Scripture today focuses on the role of...

Light of Life – Third Week of Advent

Third Sunday in Advent   The Light of Joy that unexpectedly brightened the hearts of a Humble Band of Shepherds     Up until now, everything has been in the future tense: anticipation; promises by the prophets; preparation by angels of the principle...

Light of Life – Second Week of Advent

Second Sunday in Advent   The Light bearing witness to the Savior who was born in Bethlehem. “. . . she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2:7   This...

Light of Life – First Week Of Advent

First Sunday in Advent The Light of the Hope of the Prophets “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. . .” Isaiah 9:2a Advent season – a time of anticipation… a time of preparation… As we light the first candle, we see the first flicker of hope – light...

Interview with Illustrator Tim Ladwig

We are pleased to introduce you to Tim Ladwig, the illustrator of Lily: The Girl Who Could See - a beautiful picture book about Lilias Trotter that delights child and adult alike.  Tim has illustrated twenty-five children's books, many of which have been recipients of...

A Passion for the Impossible: The Life of Lilias Trotter

If you have just been introduced to Lilias Trotter or, perhaps, have only a nodding acquaintance with her - but wish to know more - then A Passion for the Impossible is just the book for you. Passion is the story of the woman whose life of faith and devotion inspired...

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