Introduction

Biography

Avis was the wife of Er­nest C. Chris­tian­sen (mar­ried 1917), who lat­er be­came vice pre­si­dent in charge of in­vest­ments for the Moo­dy Bi­ble In­sti­tute.

Encouraged by her grand­mo­ther, a god­ly wo­man who loved the mu­sic of the soul as ex­pressed in verse, Av­is wrote her first po­em at age ten.

One Sun­day morn­ing in Moo­dy Church, as she list­ened to a new song by Har­ry Loes, the Lord re­mind­ed her that the tal­ent en­trust­ed to her be­longed to Him.

Her im­me­di­ate long­ing to ex­press His love and bless­ing re­sult­ed in two hymns. One of them, That Is Far Enough for Me, was quick­ly set to mu­sic by Da­ni­el Town­er, then di­rect­or of mu­sic for the Moo­dy Bi­ble In­sti­tute.

In spite of ful­fill­ing the ma­ny du­ties of a bu­sy home­mak­er, she con­tin­ued to write with un­fail­ing zeal.

Works

• His Faith­ful­ness, 1949
• Avis Chris­tian­sen’s Most-Loved Po­ems, 1962

In the fore­word to her first book of po­et­ry, pas­tor and au­thor H. A. Ir­on­side wrote:

Avis B. Chris­tian­sen is the gift­ed au­thor of ma­ny of our sweet­est gos­pel songs. By means of these her name is known around the world, for ma­ny of these de­light­ful lyr­ics have been trans­lat­ed in­to va­ri­ous lang­uag­es.

She is a mod­est, re­tir­ing per­son whom few get to know be­yond the cir­cle of her im­me­di­ate fa­mi­ly and friends.

With a ve­ry keen ap­pre­hen­sion of spir­it­ual re­al­ities, and a clear un­der­stand­ing of the great truths re­vealed in the Word of God, her hymns and po­ems are em­in­ent­ly Scrip­tur­al and soul-up­lift­ing.