Revisited ~ Renewed ~ Day By Day ~ Devotional ~ A.W. Tozer

Note: This devotional is from a running thread first posted back in 2004. Have long thought about resurrecting this somehow and while the original is complete and remains locked it seemed best to start it again afresh and run day by day. The foundations of SermonIndex while not exclusively, were certainly of a few mainstays. Tozer, T. Austin Sparks, Leonard Ravenhill come first and foremost to mind.

For our newer members there is often an appeal to search out this site for it's riches and with that in mind begins another journey from the pen of the good doctor. Enjoy.

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[b]September 8[/b]

[u]Good Literature: Responsibility of Christian Home[/u]

[i]The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord; but the words of the pure are pleasant words. Proverbs 15:26[/i]

IT IS MY BELIEF THAT WE CHRISTIANS are bound in all conscience to discourage the reading of subversive literature and to promote as fully as possible the circulation of good books and magazines.

\tJust what part evil literature has played in the present moral breakdown throughout the world will never be known till men are called forth to answer to a holy God for their unholy deeds, but it must be very great indeed!

\tFor thousands of young people the first doubt about God and the Bible came with the reading of some evil book. We must respect the power of ideas, and printed ideas are as powerful as spoken ones. They may have a longer fuse but their explosive power is just as great.

\tOur Christian faith teaches us to expect to answer for every idle word; how much more severely shall we be held to account for every evil word, whether printed or spoken.

\tThe desire to appear broad-minded is one not easy to overcome, for it is rooted in our ego and is simply a none-too-subtle form of pride. In the name of broadmindedness many a Christian home has been opened to literature that sprang not from a broad mind, but from a mind little and dirty and polluted with evil!

\tWe require our children to wipe their feet before entering the house. Dare we demand less of the literature that comes into our home?

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 9[/b]

[u]Without Divine Illumination, Theology Is Dead[/u]

[i]That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 1 Corinthians 2:5[/i]

SURELY GOD HAS SOMETHING TO SAY to the pure in heart which He cannot say to the man of sinful life. But what He has to say is not theological, it is spiritual, and spiritual truths cannot be received in the ordinary way of nature!

\t“The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” So wrote the Apostle Paul to the believers at Corinth.

\tOur Lord referred to this kind of Spirit-enlightened knowledge many times. To Him it was the fruit of a divine illumination, not contrary to but altogether beyond mere intellectual light.

\tThe necessity for spiritual illumination before we can grasp spiritual truths is taught throughout the entire New Testament and it is altogether in accord with the teachings of the Psalms, the Proverbs and the Prophets. The New Testament draws a sharp line between the natural mind and the mind that has been touched by divine fire. When Peter made his good confession, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” our Lord replied, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”

\tThe sum of what I am saying is that there is an illumination, divinely bestowed, without which theological truth is information and nothing more. While this illumination is never given apart from theology, it is entirely possible to have theology without the illumination!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 10[/b]

[u]Unbelief: A Luxury No Man or Woman Can Afford[/u]

[i]But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions. Matthew 19:22[/i]

JESUS COULD NOT HAVE MADE IT ANY PLAINER in His teachings that every man during his lifetime must decide for himself whether or not he can afford the terrible luxury of unbelief!

\tWhen the rich young ruler learned the cost of discipleship he went away sorrowing. He could not give up the sunny side of the brae. But thanks be to God, there are some in every age who refuse to go back! The Acts of the Apostles is the story of men and women who turned their faces into the stiff wind of persecution and loss and followed the Lamb whithersoever He went. They knew that the world hated Christ without a cause and hated them for His sake; but for the glory that was set before them they continued steadfastly on the way.

\tWhat is it that Christ has to offer us that is sound, genuine and desirable!

\tHe offers forgiveness of sins, inward cleansing, peace with God, eternal life, the gift of the Holy Spirit, victory over temptation, resurrection from the dead, a glorified body, immortality and a dwelling place in the house of the Lord forever! These are a few of the benefits that come to us as a result of faith in Christ and total committal to Him.

\tTo accept the call of Christ changes the returning sinner indeed, but it does not change the world. The wind still blows toward hell and the man who is walking in the opposite direction will have the wind in his face. We had better take this into account: If the unsearchable riches of Christ are not worth suffering for, we should know it now and cease to play at religion!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 11[/b]

[u]Bible History: Be Careful Whose Advice You Follow[/u]

[i]The way of a fool is right in his own eyes; but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise. Proverbs 12:15[/i]

NO MAN HAS ANY RIGHT TO OFFER ADVICE who has not first heard God speak. No man has any right to counsel others who is not ready to hear and follow the counsel of the Lord!

\tThis rule of listening only to those who have first listened to God will save us from many a snare, for in any group of ten persons at least nine are sure to believe that they are qualified to offer advice to others.

\tIt seems that in no other field of human interest are people as ready to offer advice as in the field of religion and morals. Yet it is precisely in this field that the average person is least qualified to speak wisely and is capable of the most harm when he does speak.

\tFor this reason, we should select our counselors carefully, and selection inevitably carries with it the idea of rejection.

\tDavid warns against the counsel of the ungodly and Bible history gives examples of men who made a failure of their lives because they took wrong advice.

\tIt is especially important that young people learn whose counsel to trust. Having been in the world for such a short time they have not had much experience and must look to others for advice. Those who boast the loudest of their independence, for example, have picked up from someone the idea that independence is a virtue, and their very eagerness to be individualistic is the result of the influence of others. They are what they are because of the counsel they have followed.

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 12[/b]

[u]Redemption: A Moral Restoration to the Divine Image[/u]

[i]Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. 2 Thessalonians 3:16[/i]

SYMMETRY IS A RIGHT PROPORTION of parts in relation to each other and to the whole. By this simple definition symmetry of character is both highly desirable and extremely difficult to attain. Yet it is precisely what Christ had in supreme degree and what every one of us needs if we are to become saints in something beside name!

\tWe can hardly conceive of God’s creating us in such a way that we should be forced to sacrifice one good thing to attain another.

\tIf redemption is a moral restoration to the divine image, (and it must be that ultimately), then we may expect one of the first acts of God in the Christian’s life to be a kind of moral tuning-up, a bringing into harmony the discordant elements within the personality, an adjustment of the soul to itself and to God. And that He does just this is the testimony of everyone who has been truly converted!

\tThe new believer may state it in other language and the emotional lift he enjoys may be so great as to prevent calm analysis, but the gist of his testimony will be that he has found peace, a peace he can actually feel! The twists and tensions within his heart have corrected themselves as a result of his new orientation to Christ.

\tHe can then sing,

“Now rest, my long-divided heart;
Fixed on this blissful center rest.”

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 13[/b]

[u]More Concern Today for Fruit Than for the Root[/u]

[i]The root of the righteous shall not be moved. Proverbs 12:3[/i]

ONE MARKED DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE FAITH of our fathers as conceived by the fathers and the same faith as understood and lived by their children is that the fathers were concerned with the root of the matter, while their present-day descendants seem concerned only with the fruit.

\tToday we write the biographies of the Augustines, the Luthers and the Wesleys and celebrate their fruit, but the tendency is to ignore the root out of which the fruit sprang.

\t“The root of the righteous yielded fruit,” said the wise man in the Proverbs. Our fathers looked well to the root of the tree and were willing to wait with patience for the fruit to appear.

\tWe demand the fruit immediately even though the root may be weak and knobby, or missing altogether. How can we ignore the fact that the bough that breaks off from the tree in a storm may bloom briefly, giving the impression that it is a healthy and fruitful branch, but its tender blossoms will soon perish and the bough itself will wither and die? There is no lasting life apart from the root.

\tMuch that passes for Christianity today is the brief, bright effort of the severed branch to bring forth its fruit in its season. But the deep laws of life are against it. Preoccupation with appearances and a corresponding neglect of the out-of-sight root of the true spiritual life are prophetic signs which go unheeded.

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 14[/b]

[u]Jesus Calls Us to His Rest: Meekness Is His Method[/u]

[i]With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love. Ephesians 4:2[/i]

JESUS CALLS US TO HIS REST, and meekness is His method!

\tThe meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort. He develops toward himself a kindly sense of humor and learns to say, “Oh, so you have been overlooked? They placed someone else before you! They have whispered that you are pretty small stuff after all? And now you feel hurt because the world is saying about you the very things you have been saying about yourself! Only yesterday you were telling God that you were nothing, a mere worm of the dust. Where is your consistency? Come on, humble yourself, and cease to care what men may think!”

\tRest is simply release from the heavy, crushing burden borne by mankind and the word Jesus used for ‘burden’ means a load carried or toil borne to the point of exhaustion. The ‘rest’ is not something we do—it is what comes to us when we cease to do.

\tThe meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God’s estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God has declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight of God of more importance than angels. In himself nothing; in God, everything. He rests perfectly content to allow God to place His own values!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 15[/b]

[u]Prayer of Faith Lays Hold of God’s Omnipotence[/u]

[i]In everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known unto God. Philippians 4:6[/i]

TO “ACCEPT THE UNIVERSE” DOES NOT MEAN that we are to accept evil conditions as inevitable and make no effort to improve them. So to teach would be to cancel the plain teachings of the Scriptures on that point.

\tWhere a situation is contrary to the will of God, and there are clear promises concerning it in the Scriptures, it is our privilege and obligation to pray and labor to bring about a change. Should we become ill, for instance, we should not surrender to the illness as being inevitable and do nothing about it. Rather, we should accept it provisionally as the will of God for the time and seek His will about recovering our health.

\tWhile the prayer of faith enables us to lay hold of the omnipotence of God and bring about many wonderful changes here below, there are some things that not even prayer can change. These lie outside the field of prayer and must be accepted with thanksgiving as the wise will of God for us.

\tWe should, for instance, accept the wisdom of God in nature. In the course of a lifetime there may be a thousand things we could wish had been different, but the word ‘wish’ is not in the Christian’s vocabulary. The very word connotes a fretful rebellion against the ways of God in His universe.

\tAgain, accept yourself. Apart from sin, which you have forsaken, there is nothing about yourself of which you need to be ashamed. Cease to vex yourself about anything over which you have no control. Keep your heart with all diligence and God will look after the universe!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 16[/b]

[u]A Jubilant Longing and Pining for God[/u]

[i]But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:14[/i]

ALMOST EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE I AM PRAYING that “a jubilant pining and longing for God” might come back on the evangelical churches everywhere!

\tWe do not need to have our doctrine straightened out; we are as orthodox as the Pharisees of old. But this longing for God that brings spiritual torrents and whirlwinds of seeking and self-denial—this is almost gone from our midst.

\tI believe that God wants us to long for Him with the longing that will become homesickness, that will become a wound to our spirits, to keep us always moving toward Him; always finding and always seeking; always having and always desiring!

\tSo the earth becomes less and less valuable and heaven gets closer as we move into God and up into Christ.

\tDare we bow our hearts and say, “Father, I have been an irresponsible, childish kind of Christian—more concerned with being happy than with being holy. O God, wound me with a sense of my own sinfulness. Wound me with compassion for the world, and wound me with love of Thee that will always keep me pursuing and always exploring and always seeking and finding!”

\tIf you dare to pray that prayer sincerely and mean it before God, it could mean a turning point in your life. It could mean a great door of spiritual victory opened to you!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 17[/b]

[u]Jesus Taught the Moral Relation between Words and Deeds[/u]

[i]The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up Acts 1:1,2[/i]

I AM AFRAID WE MODERN CHRISTIANS are long on talk and short on conduct. We use the language of power but our deeds are the deeds of weakness.

\tOur Lord and His apostles were long on deeds. The gospels depict a Man walking in power, “who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”

\tThe moral relationship between words and deeds appears quite plainly in the life and teachings of Christ.

\tIn the Sermon on the Mount Christ placed doing before teaching: “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:19).

\tSince in one of its aspects religion contemplates the invisible it is easy to understand how it can be erroneously made to contemplate the unreal. The praying man talks of that which he does not see, and fallen human minds tend to assume that what cannot be seen is not of any great importance and probably not even real, if the truth were known.

\tSo religion is disengaged from practical life and retired to the airy region of fancy where dwell the sweet insubstantial nothings which everyone knows do not exist but which they nevertheless lack the courage to repudiate publicly.

\tI could wish that this were true only of pagan religions; but candor dictates that I admit it to be true also of much that passes for evangelical Christianity.

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 18[/b]

[u]Who Dares to Soften and Change Christ’s Words[/u]

[i]By the resurrection of Jesus Christ; who is gone into heaven angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. 1 Peter 3:21, 22[/i]

AS BELIEVERS, WE SHOULD BE WARNED that any appeal to the public in the name of Christ that rises no higher than an invitation to tranquility must be recognized as mere humanism with a few words of Jesus thrown in to make it appear Christian!

\tStrange, is it not, that we dare without shame to alter, to modulate the words of Christ while speaking for Christ to the very ones for whom He died?

\tChrist calls men to carry a cross; we call them to have fun in His name!

\tHe calls them to forsake the world; we assure them that if they but accept Jesus the world is their oyster!

\tHe calls them to suffer; we call them to enjoy all the bourgeois comforts modern civilization affords!

\tHe calls them to self-abnegation and death; we call them to spread themselves like green bay trees or perchance even to become stars in a pitiful fifth-rate religious zodiac!

\tHe calls them to holiness; we call them to a cheap and tawdry happiness that would have been rejected with scorn by the least of the Stoic philosophers!

\tOnly that is truly Christian which accords with the spirit and teachings of Christ. Whatever is foreign to the Spirit of the Man of Sorrows and contrary to the teachings and practice of His apostles is un-Christian or anti-Christian, no matter whence it emanates!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 19[/b]

[u]Religious Teaching Gives Light: That Is Not Enough[/u]

[i]Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. Ephesians 5:14[/i]

TO FIND THE WAY, WE NEED MORE THAN LIGHT; we need also sight!

\tThe Holy Scriptures are the source of moral and spiritual light. Yet I consider that I cast no aspersion upon the hallowed page when I say that its radiance is not by itself enough. Light alone is not sufficient.

\tThe coming of knowledge is like the rising of the sun. But sunrise means nothing to the unseeing eye. Only the sighted benefit from the light of the sun.

\tBetween light and sight there is a wide difference. One man may have light without sight; he is blind. Another may have sight without light; he is temporarily blind, but the coming of the light quickly enables him to see.

\tWe have said this much to point out that religious instruction, however sound, is not enough by itself. It brings light, but it cannot impart sight. The text without the Spirit’s enlightenment cannot save the sinner. Salvation follows a work of the Spirit in the heart. There can be no salvation apart from the truth but there can be, and often is, truth without salvation.

\tHow many multiplied thousands have learned the catechism by heart and still wander in moral darkness because there has been no inward illumination! The Pharisees looked straight at the Light of the World for three years, but not one ray of light reached their inner beings. Light is not enough!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 20[/b]

[u]Truth Will Not Give Itself to a Rebel[/u]

[i]He that followeth me shall have the light of life. John 8:12[/i]

TOO MANY PEOPLE CONSIDER JESUS CHRIST a ‘convenience.’ We make Him a lifeboat to get us to shore, a guide to find us when we are lost. We reduce Him simply to a Big Friend to help us when we are in trouble. That is not biblical Christianity!

\tJesus Christ is Lord, and when a man is willing to do His will, he is repenting and the truth flashes in. For the first time in his life, he finds himself willing to say, “I will do the will of the Lord, even if I die for it!”

\tIllumination will begin in his heart. That is repentance—for he has been following his own will and now decides to do the will of God.

\tBefore the Word of God can mean anything inside of me there must be obedience to the Word. Truth will not give itself to a rebel. Truth will not impart life to a man who will not obey the light. If you are disobeying Jesus Christ you cannot expect to be enlightened spiritually.

\tNo man can know the Son except the Father tell him. No man can know the Father except the Son reveal Him. I can know about God: that is the body of truth. But I cannot know God, the soul of truth, unless I am ready to be obedient.

\tTrue discipleship is obeying Jesus Christ and learning of Him and following Him and doing what He tells you to do, keeping His commandments and carrying out His will.

\tThat kind of a person is a Christian—and no other kind is!

A.W. Tozer

crsschk wrote:
[b]September 20[/b]

If you are disobeying Jesus Christ you cannot expect to be enlightened spiritually.

:-o

[b]September 21[/b]

[u]The Modern Cry: I Have a Right to Be Happy[/u]

[i]Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Hebrews 13:5[/i]

A SELFISH DESIRE FOR HAPPINESS IS AS SINFUL as any other selfish desire because its root is in the flesh which can never have any standing before God!

\tPeople are coming more and more to excuse every sort of wrongdoing on the grounds that they are “just trying to secure a little happiness!” That is the hedonistic philosophy of old Grecian days misunderstood and applied to everyday living in the twentieth century.

\tIt destroys all nobility of character and makes milksops of all who consciously or unconsciously adopt it; but it has become quite the popular creed of the masses.

\tNow I submit that the whole hectic scramble after happiness is an evil as certainly as is the scramble after money or fame or success. It springs out of a vast misunderstanding of ourselves and of our true moral state.

\tThe man who really knows himself can never believe in his right to be happy. A little glimpse of his own heart will disillusion him immediately so that he is more likely to turn on himself and own God’s sentence against him to be just.

\tThe doctrine of man’s inalienable right to happiness is anti-God and anti-Christ, and its wide acceptance by society tells us a lot about that same society. No man should desire to be happy who is not at the same time holy. Seeking fully to know and do the will of God, he leaves to Christ the matter of how happy he should be!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 22[/b]

[u]A Word to Women: Seek the Inner Adorning[/u]

[i]Even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. 1 Peter 3:4[/i]

CERTAINLY I AM NOT GOING TO TRY TO FILL the role of a feminine counselor, but I do want to remind you that the Apostle Peter, a great man of God, taught that true adorning is the lasting beauty that is within. Peter said that there is a glowing but hidden being of the heart, more radiant than all of the jewels that one can buy!

\tThis ties in with the fact that a Christian woman should be very careful about the kind of person she sets up as a model of character and example in daily life. It is a sad thing to have our minds occupied with the wrong kind of people!

\tEnglish history books will not report that Suzanna Wesley was one of the best-dressed women of her day or that she ever received a medal for social activity. But she was the mother of Charles and John Wesley, those princes of Christian song and theology. She taught her own family, and her spiritual life and example have placed her name high in God’s hall of fame for all eternity.

\tSo, if you want to take models to follow day by day, please do not take the artificial, globe-trotting females who are intent only upon themselves, their careers and their publicity! God help us all, men and women of whatever marital, social or domestic status, that we may do the will of God and thus win our crown!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 23[/b]

[u]God Would Save Us from Spiritual Delusion[/u]

[i]Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders. 2 Thessalonians 2:9[/i]

THERE ARE AREAS OF CHRISTIAN THOUGHT—and because of thought then also of life, where likenesses and differences are so difficult to distinguish that we are often hard put to escape complete deception!

\tThroughout the whole world error and truth travel the same highways, work in the same fields and factories, attend the same churches, fly in the same planes and shop in the same stores.

\tSo skilled is error at imitating truth that the two are constantly being mistaken for each other. It takes a sharp eye these days to know which brother is Cain and which is Abel!

\tWe must never take for granted anything that touches our soul’s welfare. Isaac felt Jacob’s arms and thought they were the arms of Esau. Even the disciples failed to spot the traitor among them; the only one of them who knew who he was was Judas himself. That soft-spoken companion with whom we walk so comfortably and in whose company we take such delight may be an angel of Satan, whereas that rough, plain-spoken man whom we shun may be God’s very prophet sent to warn us against danger and eternal loss.

\tIt is therefore critically important that the Christian take full advantage of every provision God has made to save him from delusion. The most important of these combine as a protective shield—faith, prayer, constant meditation on the Scriptures, obedience, humility, much serious thought and the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 24[/b]

[u]A New Decalogue: Thou Shalt Not Disagree[/u]

[i]Should a wise man utter vain knowledge? Should he reason with unprofitable folk? Job 15:3, 4[/i]

THIS ABOVE ALL OTHERS IS THE AGE of much talk!
\t
Hardly a day passes that the newspapers do not carry one or another of the headlines “Talks to Begin” or “Talks to Continue.” The notion back of this endless official chatter is that all differences between men result from their failure to understand each other!
\t
This yen to confer has hit the church also, which is not strange since almost everything the church is doing these days has been suggested to her by the world. I observe with pained amusement how many “water boys” of the pulpit in their efforts to be prophets are standing up straight and tall and speaking out boldly in favor of ideas that have been previously fed into their minds by the psychiatrists, the sociologists, the novelists, the scientists and the secular educators.
\t
A new Decalogue has been adopted by the neo-Christians of our day, the first word of which reads, “Thou shalt not disagree”; and a new set of Beatitudes too, which begins “Blessed are they that tolerate everything, for they shall not be made accountable for anything.”
\t
It is true that the blessing of God is promised to the peacemaker, for the ability to settle quarrels between members of God’s family is a heavenly gift. That is one thing, but the effort to achieve unity at the expense of truth and righteousness is another. Darkness and light can never be brought together by talk. Some things are not negotiable!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 25[/b]

[u]Knowledge without Humility Turns to Vanity[/u]

[i]He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words 1 Timothy 6:4[/i]

A NEW SCHOOL WITHIN EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANITY has appeared in our time which appears to me to be in grave danger of producing a prime crop of intellectual snobs!

\tThe disciples of this leaning are orthodox in creed, if by that we mean that they hold the fundamental tenets of the historical faith; but right there the similarity of their school to New Testament Christianity ends. Their spirit is quite other than the spirit of the Early Church.

\tThis new breed of Christian may be identified by certain field marks. One is the habit of puffing out the chest and uttering a noise that sounds suspiciously like crowing. Another is the habit of nesting so high that ordinary Christians have difficulty in locating the aerie. Rarely is an original note sounded—each one waiting to hear what Barth or Brunner or Bultmann or Tillich has to say and then imitating it as nearly as possible, only transposing it into the orthodox key!

\tThey are largely overlooking the fact that truth is not mental only—but moral. A theological fact becomes a spiritual truth only when it is received by a humble mind. The proud mind, however orthodox, can never know spiritual truth!

\tIn the Scriptures knowledge is a kind of experience and wisdom has a moral content. Knowledge without humility is vanity. The religious snob is devoid of truth. Snobbery and truth are irreconcilable!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 26[/b]

[u]The Word of Authority by Which We Can Die[/u]

[i]These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them Hebrews 11:13[/i]

THERE IS NOT ONE WORD PUBLISHED on the North American continent today that I would want to die by!

\tIf I knew that tomorrow evening was to be my last, and that I would never see another sunrise, there isn’t a newspaper published anywhere in the world that I would want to see.

\tThere hasn’t been a book published this year that I would want to read. There hasn’t been a word uttered in the United Nations that I would want to hear. There is no authority anywhere.

\tEverybody is writing and talking, but for dying men there is not one word of authority anywhere, except as you hear the sure, true, terrifying words of Jesus Christ! The only authoritative word ever published is that which comes from the Holy Scriptures.

\t“Holy” books that have been compounded out of all the high, fine, lofty thoughts of mankind since the beginning do not change the basic facts and the basic problems.

\tJesus alone could teach: “I am the Light of the world and he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness.”

\tYou are responsible to the Light—and to the authority of the Word of God. You cannot hide behind differences of opinion, behind church politics, behind the philosophies of men. Neither can you hide behind this crazy relativity of morals now being taught in the schools.

\tIf you quench the light, and dim it down, how great will be the darkness!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 27[/b]

[u]Christlike Conduct: The Goal of Christian Faith[/u]

[i]Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect. James 2:22[/i]

RIGHTLY UNDERSTOOD, FAITH IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE for moral conduct but a means toward it.

\tThe tree does not serve in lieu of fruit but as an agent by which fruit is secured. Fruit, not trees, is what God has in mind in yonder orchard; so Christlike conduct is the end of the Christian faith! To oppose faith to works is to make the fruit the enemy to the tree; yet that is exactly what we have managed to do and the consequences have been disastrous!

\tIn practice we may detect the subtle (and often unconscious) substitution when we hear a Christian assure someone that he will “pray over his problem,” knowing full well that he intends to use prayer as a substitute for service. It is much easier to pray that a poor friend’s needs may be supplied than to supply them! The mystical John noted the incongruity involved in substituting religion for action: “But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”

\tA proper understanding of our spiritual foundation will destroy the false and artificial “either/or.” Then we will have not less faith but more godly works; not less praying but more serving; not fewer words but more holy deeds; not weaker profession but more courageous possession; not a religion as a substitute for action but religion in faith-filled action! And what is that but to say that we will have come again to the teaching of the New Testament!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 28[/b]

[u]God’s Spirit Bears Witness Within[/u]

[i]Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men and not after Christ. Colossians 2:8[/i]

WHEN I WAS A YOUNG CHRISTIAN I had my Bible and a hymnbook and a few other books, including Andrew Murray and Thomas á Kempis and I got myself educated as well as I could by reading books. I read the philosophy of all the great minds—and many of those men did not believe in God, you know—and they did not believe in Christ.

\tI remember reading White’s Warfare of Science with Christianity, and if any man can read that and still say he is saved, he isn’t saved by his reading; he is saved by the Holy Ghost within him telling him that he is saved!

\tDo you know what I would do after I would read a chapter or two and find arguments that I could not possibly defeat? I would get down on my knees and with tears I would thank God with joy that no matter what the books said, “I know Thee, my Saviour and my Lord!”

\tI didn’t have it in my head—I had it in my heart! There is a great difference, you see.

\tIf we have it only in our heads, then philosophy may be of some help to us; but if we have it in our hearts, there is not much philosophy can do except stand aside reverently, hat in hand, and say, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty!”

\tIn short, if you have to be reasoned into Christianity, some wise fellow can reason you out of it, as well!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 29[/b]

[u]We Should Always Seek to Know Christ Better[/u]

[i]Seek ye the Lord, and his strength: seek his face evermore. Psalm 105:4[/i]

ARE YOU AWARE THAT WE HAVE BEEN SNARED in the coils of a modern spurious logic which insists that if we have found Christ we need no more seek Him!

\tThis is set before us as the last word in orthodoxy, and it is taken for granted that no Bible-taught Christian ever believed otherwise. Thus the whole testimony of the worshiping, seeking, singing Church on that subject is crisply set aside!

\tThe experiential heart-theology of a grand army of fragrant saints is rejected in favor of a smug interpretation of Scripture which would certainly have sounded strange to an Augustine, a Rutherford or a Brainerd.

\tIn the midst of this great chill there are some, I rejoice to acknowledge, who will not be content with shallow logic. They will admit the force of the argument, and then turn away with tears to hunt some lonely place and pray, “O God, show me Thy glory!” They want to taste, to touch with their hearts, to see with their inner eyes the wonder that is God.

\tComplacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted!

\tToo bad that with many of us He waits so long, so very long, in vain!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 30[/b]

[u]A Tragedy: Believers Arguing about Christ’s Return[/u]

[i]For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God 1 Thessalonians 4:16[/i]

THE BELIEVING CHRISTIAN SHOULD BE LIVING in joyful anticipation of the return of Jesus Christ, and that is such an important segment of truth that the devil has always been geared up to fight it and ridicule it. In fact, one of his big successes is being able to get people to argue and get mad about the details of the Second Coming—rather than looking and waiting for it.

\tSuppose a man has been overseas two or three years, away from his family. Suddenly a cable arrives for the family with the message: “My work completed here; I will be home today.”

\tAfter some hours he arrives at the front door with his bags. But in the house the family members are in turmoil. There has been a great argument as to whether he would arrive in the afternoon or evening and what transportation he would be using. So, no one is actually watching for his arrival.

\tYou may say, “That is only an illustration.”

\tBut what is the situation in the various segments of the Christian community?

\tThey are fighting with one another and glaring at each other. They are debating whether He is coming and how He is coming. That is the work of the devil—to make Christian people argue about the details of His coming so they forget the most important thing!

A.W. Tozer

[b]October 1[/b]

[u]You Cannot Worship God without Loving Him[/u]

[i]Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Jude 21[/i]

BOTH THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS TEACH that the essence of true worship is the love of God.

\tOur Lord declared this to be the sum of the Law and the Prophets: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”

\tNow, love is both a principle and an emotion; it is something both felt and willed. It is capable of almost infinite degrees. Love in the human heart may begin so modestly as to be hardly perceptible and go on to become a raging torrent that sweeps its possessor before it in total helplessness.

\tSomething like this must have been the experience of the Apostle Paul, for he felt it necessary to explain to his critics that his apparent madness was actually the love of God ravishing his willing heart!

\tIn the love which any intelligent creature feels for God there must always be a measure of mystery. It is even possible that it is almost wholly mystery, and that our attempt to find reasons is merely a rationalizing of a love already mysteriously present in the heart as a result of some secret operation of the Spirit within us.

\tWe can be certain that it is quite impossible to worship God without loving Him. Scripture and reason agree to declare this. And God is never satisfied with anything less than all. This may not at first be possible, but the inward operations of the Holy Spirit will enable us in His time to offer Him our poured-out fullness of love!

A.W. Tozer

[b]October 2[/b]

[u]Encouragement: The Eternal Nature of Our Father[/u]

[i]The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms Deuteronomy 33:27[/i]

THE ETERNAL NATURE OF OUR HEAVENLY FATHER should humble us and encourage us, too. It should humble us when we remember how frail we are, how utterly dependent upon God, and it should encourage us to know that when everything else has passed we may still have God no less surely than before!

\tThe remembrance of this could save nations from many tragic and bloody decisions. Were notes written by statesmen against the background of such knowledge they might be less inflammatory; and were kings and dictators to think soberly on this truth, they would walk softly and speak less like gods. After all, they are not really important and the sphere of: their freedom is constricted more than they dream.

\tShelley wrote of the traveler who saw in the desert two vast and trunkless legs of stone and nearby a shattered face half-buried in the sand. On the pedestal where once the proud image had stood were engraven these words: “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.”

\tAnd, says the poet, “Nothing else remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare the lone and level sands stretch far away.”

\tShelly was right except for one thing: Something else did remain! It was God. He had been there first to look in gentle pity upon the mad king who could boast so shamelessly in the shadow of the tomb. He was there when the swirling sands covered with a mantle of pity the evidence of human decay. God was there last!

A.W. Tozer

[b]October 3[/b]

[u]Right Concept of Jesus—Savior and Judge[/u]

[i]In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. Romans 2:16[/i]

WHAT IS YOUR CONCEPT OF JESUS CHRIST as Saviour and Judge!

\tIf the “ten-cent-store Jesus” that is being preached by a lot of men, the plastic, painted Christ who has no spine and no justice and is pictured as a soft and pliable friend to everybody—if He is the only Christ there is, then we might as well close our books and bar our doors, and make a bakery or garage out of the church!

\tBut that Christ that is being preached and pictured is not the Christ of God, nor the Christ of the Bible, nor the Christ we must deal with.

\tThe Christ we must deal with will be the judge of mankind—and this is one of the neglected Bible doctrines in our day!

\tThe Father judges no man. When the Lord, the Son of Man, shall come in the clouds of glory, then shall be gathered unto Him the nations, and He shall separate them.

\tGod has given Him judgment, authority to judge mankind, so that He is both the Judge and Saviour of men.

\tThat makes me both love Him and fear Him! I love Him because He is my Saviour and I fear Him because He is my Judge.

\tGod Almighty is never going to judge the race of mankind and allow a mistake to enter. The judge must be one who has all wisdom. Therefore, I appeal away from St. Paul; I appeal away from Moses and Elijah; I appeal away from all men because no man knows me well enough to judge me, finally! Only Jesus Christ qualifies as one who is able to be the judge of all mankind.

A.W. Tozer

[b]October 4[/b]

[u]God Was First to Say, “You Are My Friends”[/u]

[i]Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13[/i]

THE IDEA OF THE DIVINE-HUMAN FRIENDSHIP originated with God. Had not God first said “Ye are my friends” it would be inexcusably brash for any man to say “I am a friend of God.”

\tBut since He claims us for His friends it is an act of unbelief to ignore or deny the relationship!

\tEven though radically different from each other, two persons may enjoy the closest friendship for a lifetime; for it is not a requisite of friendship that the participants be alike in all things; it is enough that they be alike at the points where their personalities touch. Harmony is likeness at points of contact, and friendship is likeness where hearts merge.

\tFor this reason the whole idea of the divine-human friendship is logical enough and entirely credible. The infinite God and the finite man can merge their personalities in the tenderest, most satisfying friendship. In such relationship there is no idea of equality; only of likeness where the heart of man meets the heart of God!

\tThis likeness is possible because God at the first made man in His own image and is now remaking men in the image that was lost by sin. Perfection lies on God’s side but on man’s side there are weaknesses of purpose, lack of desire and small faith.

\tIn spite of human frailties we can grow in grace and move progressively toward a more perfect experiential union with God, exercising robust faith in the truths revealed in the Scriptures!

A.W. Tozer

[b]October 5[/b]

[u]Spiritual Fruit Comes Only from Spiritual Life[/u]

[i]For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Matthew 6:21[/i]

WATER CANNOT RISE ABOVE ITS OWN LEVEL, and neither can a Christian by any sudden, spasmodic effort rise above the level of his own spiritual life!

\tI have seen in my own experience how a man of God will let his tongue go all day in light, frivolous conversation; let his interest roam abroad among the idle pleasures of this world; and then under the necessity of preaching at night, seek a last minute reprieve just before the service by cramming desperately in prayer to put himself in a position where the spirit of the prophet will descend upon him as he enters the pulpit.

\tMen do not gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles. The fruit of a tree is determined by the tree, and the fruit of life by the kind of life it is. What a man is interested in to the point of absorption both decides and reveals what kind of man he is; and the kind of man he is by a secret law of the soul decides the kind of fruit he will bear.

\tThe catch is that we are often unable to discover the true quality of our fruit until it is too late!

\tOf what do we think when we are free to think of what we will?

\tWhat object gives us inward pleasure as we brood over it?

\tOver what do we muse in our free moments?

\tTo what does our imagination return again and again?

\tWhen we have answered these questions honestly we will know what kind of persons we are, and when we have discovered what kind of persons we are we may deduce the kind of fruit we will bear. If we would do holy deeds we must be holy men and women!

A.W. Tozer

[b]October 6[/b]

[u]Much of Our Praying Never Brings Anything Back[/u]

[i]If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. John 15:7[/i]

IN EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN CIRCLES, the question is often raised: “Why are there not more miracles and wonders wrought in our midst through faith?”

\tIn our day everything seems to be commercialized, and I must say that I do not believe in wonders and miracles that are organized and incorporated!

\t“Miracles, Incorporated”—you can have it!

\t“Healing, Incorporated”—you can have that, too! And the same with “Evangelism, Incorporated”; you can have it all.
\t
I have my doubts about some signs and wonders that have to be organized, that demand a letterhead and a president and a secretary and a big trailer with lights and cameras. God isn’t in that!
\t
But the man of faith can go alone into the wilderness and get on his knees and command heaven—God is in that!
\t
The Christian who is willing to put himself in a place where he must get the answer from God and God alone—the Lord is in that!
\t
But there is no use trying to cover up the fact that there is a great deal of praying being done among us that does not amount to anything—it never brings anything back! It is like sending a farmer into the field without a plow.
\t
Little wonder that the work of God stands still!

A.W. Tozer

[b]October 7[/b]

[u]Greatness among the Sons and Daughters of Faith[/u]

[i]But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister. Mark 10:43[/i]

FROM THE WORDS OF JESUS TO HIS DISCIPLES, we may properly conclude that there is nothing wrong with the desire to be great provided: (1) we seek the right kind of greatness; (2) we allow God to decide what greatness is; (3) we are willing to pay the full price that greatness demands, and (4) we are content to wait for the judgment of God to settle the whole matter at last!

\tIt is vitally important, however, that we know what Christ meant when He used the word great in relation to men, and His meaning cannot be found in the lexicon or dictionary. Only when viewed in its broad theological setting is it understood aright. No one whose heart has had a vision of God, however brief or imperfect that vision may have been, will ever consent to think of himself as being great.

\tAll this being true, still God Himself applies the word great to men, as when the angel tells Zacharias that the son who is to be born “shall be great in the sight of the Lord.”

\tObviously, there are two kinds of greatness recognized in the Scriptures: an absolute, uncreated greatness belonging to God alone, and a relative and finite greatness achieved by or bestowed upon certain friends of God and sons of faith, who by obedience and self-denial sought to become as much like God as possible.

\tIt is obvious that Jesus was not impressed with the idea of greatness inherent in the political power and dominion held by “the princes of the Gentiles.”

\t“It shall not be so among you!” He told his followers.

A.W. Tozer

[b]October 8[/b]

[u]Learn the Truth about the Enemy of Your Soul[/u]

[i]Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. 2 Corinthians 2:11[/i]

THE DEVIL IS DECLARED IN THE SCRIPTURES to be an enemy of God and of all good men. Because he is a spirit he is able to “walk up and down in the earth” at his pleasure.

\tWhile we must not underestimate the strength of our foe, we must at the same time recognize that we need not live in constant fear of him! If he cannot make skeptics of us he will make us devil-conscious and thus throw a permanent shadow across our lives, for there is but a hairline between truth and superstition.

\tWe should learn the truth about the enemy, but we must stand bravely against every superstitious notion he would introduce about himself. The truth will set us free but superstition will enslave us!

\tThe scriptural way to see things is to set the Lord always before us, put Christ in the center of our vision; and if Satan is lurking around he will appear on the margin only and be seen as but a shadow on the edge of the brightness. It is always wrong to invert this—to set Satan in the focus of our vision and push God out to the margin. Nothing but tragedy can come from such inversion!

\tThe best way to keep the enemy out is to keep Christ in! The sheep need not be terrified by the wolf; they have but to stay close to the shepherd. The instructed Christian whose faculties have been developed by the Word and the Spirit will practice the presence of God moment by moment!

A.W. Tozer

[b]October 9[/b]

[u]Cultivate Grace That Makes Holiness Attractive[/u]

[i]For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Psalm 5:4, 5[/i]

GOD’S WORD IS UNUSUALLY PLAIN IN TEACHING us that the operations of grace within the heart of a believer will turn that heart away from sin and toward holiness; “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:11-13).

\tI do not see how it could be plainer!

\tThe same grace that saves teaches the believer inwardly, and its teaching is both negative and positive. Negatively it teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. Positively it teaches us to live soberly, righteously and godly right here in this present world.

\tThe man of honest heart will find no difficulty here. He has but to check his own bent to discover whether he is concerned about sin in his life more or less since the supposed work of grace was done. Anything that weakens his hatred of sin may be identified immediately as false to the Scriptures, to the Saviour and to his own soul .

\tWhatever makes holiness more attractive and sin more intolerable may be accepted as genuine!

A.W. Tozer

[b]October 10[/b]

[u]Stop! God Wants More Than a Minute[/u]

[i]I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord Philippians 3:8[/i]

A THOUSAND DISTRACTIONS WOULD WOO us away from thoughts of God, but if we are wise we will sternly put them from us and make room for the King—and take time to entertain Him!

\tProgress in the Christian life is exactly equal to the growing knowledge we gain of the Triune God in personal experience. And such experience requires a whole life devoted to it and plenty of time spent at the holy task of cultivating God.

\tGod can be known satisfactorily only as we devote time to Him.

\tWithout meaning to do it we have written our serious fault into our book titles and gospel songs.

\t“A little talk with Jesus,” we sing and we call our books “God’s Minute,” or something else as revealing.

\tThe Christian who is satisfied to give God His “minute” and to have “a little talk with Jesus” is the same one who shows up at the evangelistic service weeping over his retarded spiritual growth and begging the evangelist to show him the way out of his difficulty!

\tSome things may be neglected with but little loss to the spiritual life, but to neglect communion with God is to hurt ourselves where we cannot afford it.

\tGod will respond to our efforts to know Him. The Bible tells us how; it is altogether a matter of how much determination we bring to the holy task!

A.W. Tozer

[b]October 11[/b]

[u]Choosing God’s Will Does Not Deny Man’s Free Will[/u]

[i]Paul answered, I am ready to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done. Acts 21:13, 14[/i]

SOMEONE HAS ASKED A THOUGHTFUL QUESTION: “When we pray ‘Not my will, but Thine be done,’ are we not voiding our will and refusing to exercise the very power of choice which is part of the image of God in us!”

\tThe answer to that question is a flat No, but the whole thing deserves further explanation.

\tNo act that is done voluntarily is an abrogation of the freedom of the will. If a man chooses the will of God he is not denying but exercising his right of choice. What he is doing is admitting that he is not good enough to desire the highest choice nor is he wise enough to make it, and he is for that reason asking Another who is both wise and good to make his choice for him. And for fallen man, this is the ultimate use he should make of his freedom of will!

Tennyson saw this and wrote of Christ,

Thou seemest human and divine,
\tThe highest, holiest manhood, Thou;
\tOur wills are ours, we know not how;
Our wills are ours, to make them Thine.
\t
There is a lot of sound doctrine in these words—”Our wills are ours, to make them Thine.” The true saint acknowledges that he possesses from God the gift of freedom. He knows that he will never be cudgeled into obedience nor wheedled like a petulant child into doing the will of God; he knows that these methods are unworthy both of God and of his own soul!

A.W. Tozer

[b]October 12[/b]

[u]Significant: The Low Level of Moral Enthusiasm[/u]

[i]How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation! Hebrews 2:3[/i]

IN ONLY ONE FIELD OF HUMAN INTEREST do we Americans seem slow and apathetic: that is the field of personal religion.

\tChurch people habitually approach the matter of their personal relation to God in a dull, halfhearted way which is altogether out of keeping with their general temperament and wholly inconsistent with the importance of the subject.

\tDante, on his imaginary journey through hell, came upon a group of lost souls who sighed and moaned continually as they whirled about aimlessly in the dusky air. Virgil, his guide, explained that these were the “wretched people,” the “nearly soulless,” who while they lived on earth had not moral energy enough to be either good or evil. They had earned neither praise nor blame, and with them and sharing in their punishment were those angels who would take sides neither with God nor Satan.

\tThe writer pictured the doom of all of the weak and irresolute crew to be suspended forever between a hell that despised them and a heaven that would not receive their defiled presence. Not even their names were to be mentioned again in heaven or earth or hell.

\tWas Dante saying in his own way what our Lord had said long before to the church of Laodicea: “I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth”?

\tThe low level of moral enthusiasm among us may have a significance far deeper than we are willing to believe!

A.W. Tozer

[b]October 13[/b]

[u]Seeking Man’s Favor: The Root of Religious Unbelief[/u]

[i]How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another! John 5:44[/i]

THE WHOLE COURSE OF OUR LIVES WILL BE UPSET by failure to put God where He belongs. We exalt ourselves instead of God and the curse follows!

\tConsider the very disturbing question that Jesus asked of men when He was on earth: “How can ye believe, which receive honour of one another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God alone!”

\tIf I understand this correctly, Christ taught here the alarming doctrine that the desire for honor among men made belief impossible!

\tIs this sin at the root of religious unbelief?

\tCould it be that those “intellectual difficulties” which men blame for their inability to believe are but smoke screens to conceal the real cause that lies behind them!

\tWas it this greedy desire for honor from man that made men into Pharisees and Pharisees into Deicides?

\tIs this the secret back of religious self-righteousness and empty worship! I believe it may be.

\tMen and women who will make the honest once-for-all decision to exalt and honor God and His Christ over all are precious to God above all treasures of earth or sea, for He knows that His honor is safe in such consecrated hands!

A.W. Tozer

[b]October 14[/b]

[u]The Deadening Effect of Religious MakeBelieve[/u]

[i]Let no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way. Romans 14:13[/i]

THE DEADENING EFFECT OF RELIGIOUS MAKE-BELIEVE on the human mind is beyond all describing.

\tWhat can the effect be upon the spectators who live day after day among the professed Christians who habitually ignore the commandments of Christ and live after their own private notions of Christianity!

\tTruth sits forsaken and grieves until her professed followers come home for a brief visit, but she sees them depart again when the bills become due. They protest great and undying love for her but they will not let their love cost them anything!

\tWill not those who watch us from day to day conclude that the whole thing is false?

\tWill they not be forced to believe that the faith of Christ is an unreal and visionary thing which they are fully justified in rejecting?

\tCertainly the non-Christian is not too much to be blamed if he turns disgustedly away from the invitation of the Gospel after he has been exposed for a while to the inconsistencies of those of his acquaintances who profess to follow Christ.

\tIn that great and terrible day when the deeds of men are searched into by the penetrating eyes of the Judge of all the earth what will we answer when we are charged with inconsistency and moral fraud?

\tAnd at whose door will lie the blame for millions of lost men who while they lived on earth were sickened and revolted by the religious travesty they knew as Christianity?

A.W. Tozer

[b]October 15[/b]

[u]A Great Loss: Power to Wage Spiritual Warfare[/u]

[i]Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. 1 Timothy 3:7[/i]

THE CHRISTIAN SHOULD ALWAYS BE AWARE that the devil’s master strategy against us is to destroy our power to wage spiritual warfare! And he has been succeeding, we must add.

\tThe average Christian these days is a harmless enough thing, God knows. He is a child wearing with considerable self-consciousness the harness of the warrior; he is a sick eaglet that can never mount up with wings; he is a spent pilgrim who has given up the journey and sits with a waxy smile trying to get what pleasure he can from sniffing the wilted flowers he has plucked by the way.

\tSuch as these have been reached! Satan has gotten to them early.

\tBy means of false teaching or inadequate teaching, or the huge discouragement that comes from the example of a decadent church, he has succeeded in weakening their resolution, neutralizing their convictions and taming their original urge to do exploits; now they are little more than statistics that contribute financially to the upkeep of the religious institution.

\tThere can be complete victory for us if we will but take the way of the triumphant Christ, but too many have accepted the low-keyed Christian life as the normal one. That is all Satan wants. That will ground our power, stunt our growth and render us harmless to the kingdom of darkness—and we sons of eternity just cannot afford such a thing!

A.W. Tozer

[b]October 16[/b]

[u]Christians Often Act Like They Are Bored with God[/u]

[i]And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen. Luke 24:52, 53[/i]

ONE CAN ONLY CONCLUDE THAT GOD’S PROFESSED CHILDREN are bored with Him, for they must be wooed to meeting with a stick of striped candy in the form of religious movies, games and refreshments.

\tIt is scarcely possible in most places to get anyone to attend a meeting where the only attraction is God!

\tSo we have the strange anomaly of orthodoxy in creed and heterodoxy in practice. The striped-candy technique has been so fully integrated into our present religious thinking that it is simply taken for granted. Its victims never dream that it is not a part of the teachings of Christ and His apostles.

\tAny objection to the carryings on of our present golden-calf Christianity is met with the triumphant reply, “But we are winning them!” And winning them to what? To true discipleship? To cross-carrying? To self-denial? To separation from the world? To crucifixion of the flesh? To holy living? To nobility of character? To a despising of the world’s treasures? To hard self-discipline? To love for God? To total committal to Christ?

\tOf course the answer to all these questions is NO!

\tWe are paying a frightful price for our religious boredom. And that at the moment of the world’s mortal peril!

A.W. Tozer

[b]October 17[/b]

[u]By God’s Call the Minister Is a Man Apart[/u]

[i]Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. 1 Corinthians 4:1[/i]

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IS GOD’S WITNESS to each generation, and her ministers are her voice. Through them she becomes vocal. By them she has spoken always to the world, and by them God has spoken to the Church herself.

\tThe testimony of her godly laymen has ever been a mighty aid in the work she seeks to accomplish. But laymen can never do, and assuredly are not called to do the work of her ministers. By gift and calling the minister is a man apart.

\tTo be effective the preacher’s message must be alive; it must alarm, arouse, challenge; it must be God’ s present voice to a particular people. Then, and not till then is it the prophetic word and the man himself a prophet.

\tTo fulfill his calling the prophet must be under constant sway of the Holy Ghost; and further, he must be alert to moral and spiritual conditions. All spiritual teaching should be related to life. It should intrude into the daily and private living of the hearers.

\tWithout being personal, the true prophet will yet pierce the conscience of each listener as if the message had been directed to him alone. Really to preach the truth it is often necessary that the man of God know the people’s hearts better than they themselves do!

\tThus a minister is driven to God for wisdom. He must speak the mind of Christ and throw himself on the Holy Spirit for spiritual power and mental acumen equal to the task.

A.W. Tozer

[b]October 18[/b]

[u]Weak Christianity Tends toward Humanism[/u]

[i]That your love may abound more and more in knowledge and in all judgment that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ. Philippians 1:9, 10[/i]

I AM IN DISAGREEMENT WITH MANY when I insist that the flaw in current evangelism lies in its humanistic approach. It struggles to be supernaturalistic but never quite makes it. It is frankly fascinated by the great, noisy, aggressive world with its big names, its hero worship, its wealth and its garish pageantry.

\tIn this quasi-Christian scheme of things God becomes the Aladdin lamp who does the bidding of everyone that will accept His Son and sign a card. The total obligation of the sinner is discharged when he accepts Christ. After that he has but to come with his basket and receive the religious equivalent of everything the world offers and enjoy it to the limit.

\tThose who have not accepted Christ thus must be content with this world, but with the view held by many today the Christian gets this world with the one to come thrown in as a bonus!

\tThis gross misapprehension of the truth is back of much of our present evangelical activity. It determines directions, builds programs, decides the content of sermons, fixes the quality of local churches and even of whole denominations, sets the pattern for religious writers.

\tThis concept of Christianity is little more than weak humanism allied with weak Christianity to give it ecclesiastical respectability. It may be identified by its religious approach. Invariably it begins with man and his needs and then looks around for God; true Christianity reveals God as searching for man to deliver him from his ambitions!

A.W. Tozer

[b]October 19[/b]

[u]Men Are Lost—But They Are Not Abandoned[/u]

[i]And unto Adam he said cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Genesis 3:17[/i]

THERE IS SOUND BIBLE REASON TO BELIEVE that nature itself, the brute creation, the earth and even the astronomical universe, have all felt the shock of man’s sin and have been adversely affected by it.

\tWhen the Lord God drove out the man from the eastward garden and placed there cherubim and a flaming sword to prevent his return, the disaster was beginning to mount, and human history is little more than a record of its development.

\tIt is not quite accurate to say that when our first parents fled from before the face of God they became fugitives and vagabonds in the earth; and it is certainly not true to say that they passed from the love and care of the One who had created them and against whom they had so deeply revolted. God never abandoned the creatures made in His image. Had they not sinned He would have cared for them by His presence; now He cares for them by His providence until a ransomed and regenerated people can look once more on His face (Rev. 21:3,22,24).

\tMen are lost but not abandoned: that is what the Scriptures teach and that is what the Church is commissioned to declare.

\tIn times of extraordinary crisis ordinary measures will not suffice. The world lives in such a time of crisis. Christians alone are in a position to rescue the perishing. We dare not settle down to try to live as if things were “normal.”

\tNothing is normal while sin and lust and death roam the world!

A.W. Tozer

(My apologies, have been neglecting this for a few days)

[b]October 20[/b]

[u]Seek More of God for Himself Alone[/u]

[i]Or despiseth thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? Romans 2:4[/i]

WHY SHOULD A MAN WRITE AND DISTRIBUTE a tract instructing us on “How to Pray So God Will Send You the Money You Need”?

\tAny of us who have experienced a life and ministry of faith can tell how the Lord met our needs. Surely we believe that God can send money to His believing children—but it becomes a pretty cheap thing to get excited about the money and fail to give the glory to Him who is the Giver!

\tSo, many are busy “using” God. Use God to get a job! Use God to give us safety! Use God to give us peace of mind! Use God to obtain success in business! Use God to provide heaven at last!

\tBrethren, we ought to learn—and learn it very soon—that it is much better to have God first and have God Himself even if we have only a thin dime than to have all the riches and all the influence in the world and not have God with it!

\tJohn Wesley believed that men ought to seek God alone because He is love. I think in our day we are in need of such an admonition as: “Seek more of God, and seek Him for Himself alone!”

\tIf we become serious-minded about this, we would soon discover that all of the gifts of God come along with the knowledge and the presence of God Himself.

A.W. Tozer

[b]October 21[/b]

[u]Mankind’s Basic Need Remains Ever the Same[/u]

[i]By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people. Psalm 65:5, 7[/i]

SOME EARNEST PERSONS TRY TO REASON that since there is no stillness in this mechanized world, we must learn to get along without it.

\tThis is the summation of their reasoning: we cannot hope to bring back the still waters and the quiet pastures where David once led his sheep. This rat race of civilization is too noisy for us to hear the still, small Voice, so we must learn to hear God speak in the earthquake and the storm. And if modern evangelism is geared to the tumult and the agitation of the times, why should anyone complain? Does it not represent an honest effort to be all things to all men that by any means some should be saved?

\tThe answer is that the soul of man does not change fundamentally, no matter how external conditions may change!

\tThe aborigine in his hut, the college professor in his study, the truck driver in the bedlam of city traffic have all the same basic need: to be rid of their sins, to obtain eternal life and to be brought into communion with God. Civilized noises and activities are surface phenomena, a temporary rash on the epidermis of the human race.

\tTo attribute sound values to them and then to try to bring religion into harmony with them is to commit a moral blunder so huge as to stagger the imagination, and one for which we shall surely be paying long after this frenetic extravaganza we call civilization has ended in tragedy and everlasting grief!

A.W. Tozer

[b]October 22[/b]

[u]We Look for Christ’s Victory—Not Annihilation[/u]

[i]They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Isaiah 11:9[/i]

NO ONE WITH A TRACE OF HUMAN PITY can think of the effects of nuclear warfare without feeling utter abhorrence for such a thing and deepest compassion for those who may sometime be caught in its fiery hell.

\tYet we Christians would be foolish to allow ourselves to be carried away by the ominous predictions of unbelieving men. We know well enough that nuclear energy is theoretically capable of wiping out every form of life on this planet, including mankind. But we also know that such a catastrophe will never occur. We further know that the earth will never be inhabited by a degenerate race of off-human mutants made so by huge overdoses of radiation.

\tFirst, the Holy Scriptures tell us what we could never learn in any other way: They tell us who we are and what we are, how we got here, why we are here and what we are required to do while we remain here. They trace our history from the beginning down to the present time and on into the centuries and millenniums ahead. They track us into the atomic age, through the space age and on into the golden age. They reveal that at an appropriate time direction of the world will be taken away from men and placed in the hands of the Man who alone has the wisdom and power to rule it!

\tThe details are given in satisfying fullness in the writings of the holy prophets and apostles and in the words of Christ while He was yet among us.

A.W. Tozer