The God of Contemporary Christianity!

The God of contemporary Christianity is only slightly superior to the pagan gods of ancient Greece and Rome if indeed He is not actually inferior to them, in that He is weak and helpless while they at least had some imagined power. 

Among the sins to which the human heart is prone, hardly any other is more hateful to God than idolatry; for idolatry is at bottom a libel on His character. The idolatrous heart assumes that God is other than He is in itself a monstrous sin and substitutes for the true God, one made after its own likeness. Always this god will conform to the image of the one who created it and will be base or pure, cruel or kind, according to the moral state of the mind from which it emerges. 

The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow they are themselves idolatrous. The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true. If we insist upon trying to imagine Him we end with an idol, made not with hands but with thoughts. And an idol of the mind, is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand! 

Before a Christian Church goes into a decline, there must first be a corrupting of her Scriptural thoughts of God. She simply gives a wrong answer to the question, "What is God like?" and goes downhill from there. Though she may continue to cling to a sound nominal creed - her practical working creed has become false. The masses of her adherents come to believe that God is different from what He actually is and that is heresy of the most insidious and deadly kind! The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian Church today is to purify and elevate her concept of God, until it is once more worthy of Him and of her! 

[A. W. Tozer]

Psalm 50:21 ... These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.

✫❤•°*”˜˜”*°•❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫

A Time For Everything ...

A Time to Think: We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thought.

A Time to Act: Express your gratitude for something good that has come your way.

A Time to Pray: Lord, help me to see the blessings that might come from my difficulties. Amen.

[A.W Tozer]

Ephesians 5:16 ... Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 ... To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

Philippians 4:8 ... Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. ❤

Worshippers ...

Worshippers never leave church. We carry our sanctuary wherever we go. We are His witnesses; we are His Church. 

Let us therefore go out and be the church as we carry the gospel to the world. 

[A. W. Tozer]

Isaiah 43:10 ... Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

✫❤•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫

The Error of Textualism

The doctrine of the inability of the human mind to understand divine teaching, and the need for divine illumination, is so fully developed in the New Testament, that it is nothing short of astonishing that we should have gone so far astray concerning the whole issue. Evangelicalism has stood aloof from Liberalism in self-conscious superiority; and has on its own part fallen into the error of textualism, which is simply orthodoxy without the Holy Spirit. 

Everywhere among Conservatives we find people who are Bible-taught, but not Spirit-taught. They conceive truth to be something which they can grasp with the mind. If a man holds to the fundamentals of the Christian faith, then he is thought to possess divine truth. But that is an incorrect assumption. The Bible is a supernatural book and can be understood only by supernatural aid! 

Conservative Christians in this day are stumbling over this truth. We need to re-examine the whole thing. We need to learn that truth consists not in correct doctrine, but in correct doctrine plus the inward enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. A re-preachment of this vital truth could result in a fresh breath from God upon a stale and suffocating orthodoxy. 

Most Christians see Bible knowledge as something to be stored away in the mind, along with an inert mass of other facts. The modern scientist has lost God, amid the wonders of His world. And we Christians are in real danger of losing God, amid the wonders of His Word! Scripture truths must be experienced, before we can really know them. 

Prayer: "Lord, I do believe in the authority of the Scriptures, and thank You for that foundation of truth. But I need to remember that even the inspired text is not alive, until the Holy Spirit takes it and enlightens the recipients. May the Spirit indeed take what I teach and embed it in the hearts and minds of my hearers. Amen." 

[A. W. Tozer] 

 ✞  ✞  ✞ 

1 Corinthians 2:14 ... But 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.

Psalm 119:18 ...  Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

John 16:13 ... Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

John 14:26 ... But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Luke 24:45 ...  Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, ❤

Trusting God!!

What we need very badly these days is a company of Christ’s followers prepared to trust God as completely now as they must do at the last day! For each of us, the time is surely coming when we shall all have nothing but God. To people of pseudo-faith, that is a terrifying thought. For true faith, it is either God or total collapse.

We can prove our faith by our committal to it and in no other way.

[A. W. Tozer]

Proverbs 3:5-6 ... Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Psalm 11:1 ... In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?

Nahum 1:7 ... The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him. ❤

When The Bird of Thought is Let Go

Anyone who wishes to check on his true spiritual condition may do so, by noting what his voluntary thoughts have been over the last hours or days. What has he thought about, when free to think of whatever he pleased? Toward what has his inner heart turned, when it was free to turn wherever it desired? 

When the bird of thought was let go, did it fly out like the raven to settle upon floating carcasses or did it like the dove circle and return again to the ark of God? Such a test is easy to run, and if we are honest with ourselves, we can discover not only what we are, but what we are going to become. We will soon be the sum of our voluntary thoughts! 

 [A. W. Tozer]

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

Romans 12:2 ... And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. ❤

Blessings!!

In trying to count our many blessings the difficulty is not to find things to count, but to find time to enumerate them all.  

[A.W. Tozer]

Psalm 23:5 ... Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.❤

Committed Christians

Christians have been misled by a generation of soft preachers. They would have us believe that to be good Christians we must be able to purr softly and accept everything that comes along with tolerance and understanding. Such ministers never mention words like commitment and conviction and standing on the truth. I am convinced that a committed Christian will show a strong desire for the cause of truth. He or she will live with a set of spiritual convictions taken from the Bible. They will be the toughest to move in their stand for Christ. 

[A. W. Tozer]

✞ ✞ ✞ 

Psalm 16:8 ... I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

1 Corinthians 16:13 ... Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.

1 John 4:1 ... Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.❤

In Christ Alone.

It is Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ alone, who makes sense out of everything in this world.

[A. W. Tozer]

Hebrews 1:3 ... Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:

Colossians 1:17 ... And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

Acts 17:28 ... For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.❤

Reflects.

Worship is no longer worship when it reflects the culture around us more than the Christ within us.

[A. W. Tozer]

John 4:24 ... God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

 ✞ 🕊 ✞ 🕊 ✞ 🕊 ✞ 🕊 ✞ 🕊 ✞ 🕊 ✞ 🕊 ✞

Talk About Him.

Let us resolve to talk more to believers about the Bible when we meet them. Alas, the conversation of Christians, when they do meet, is often sadly unprofitable. How many frivolous, and trifling, and uncharitable things are said! Let us bring out the Bible more, and it will help to drive the devil away, and keep our hearts in tune.

[J.C. Ryle]

Philippians 1:27 ... Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;❤

The Harmless Brand

We have developed in recent times a peace-loving, soft-spoken, tame and harmless brand of Christian of whom the world has no fear and for whom it has little respect. We are careful, for instance, never to speak in public against any of the false cults lest we be thought intolerant. We fear to talk against the destructive sins of modern civilization for fear someone will brand us as bigoted and narrow. Little by little we have been forced off the hard earth into a religious cloud-land where we are permitted to wing our harmless way around, like swallows at sundown, saying nothing that might stir the ire of the sons of this world. That Neo-Christianity, which seems for the time to be the most popular (and is certainly the most aggressive), is very careful not to oppose sin. It wins its crowds by amusing them and its converts by hiding from them the full implications of the Christian message. It carries on its projects after the ballyhoo methods of American business.

Well might we paraphrase Wordsworth and cry, "Elijah, thou should be living at this hour; America has need of thee." We stand in desperate need of a few men like Elijah who will dare to face up to the brazen sinners who dictate our every way of life. Sin in the full proportions of a revolution or a plague has all but destroyed our civilization while church people have played like children in the marketplace. What has happened to the spirit of the American Christian? Has our gold become dim? Have we lost the spirit of discernment till we can no longer recognize our captors? How much longer will we hide in caves while Ahab and Jezebel continue to pollute the temple and ravage the land? Surely we should give this some serious thought and prayer before it is too late if indeed it is not too late already.

[A.W. Tozer]

2 Timothy 4:3 ... For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

✫❤•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫ 

Pseudo-Faith

What we need very badly these days is a company of Christ’s followers prepared to trust God as completely now as they must do at the last day! For each of us, the time is surely coming when we shall all have nothing but God. To people of pseudo-faith, that is a terrifying thought. For true faith, it is either God or total collapse. We can prove our faith by our committal to it and in no other way.

[A. W. Tozer]

✫❤•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫

Partakers!!

I think all of us meet Christian men and women who always seem to look on the gloomy side and are never able to do anything with life's problems but grumble about them! I meet them often and when I do, I wonder: "Can these people be reading and trusting the same Bible I have been reading?"

The Apostle Peter wrote to the tempted, suffering and persecuted believers in his day and noted with thanksgiving that they could rejoice because they counted God's promises and provisions greater than their trials!

We do live in a sinful and imperfect world, and as believers in Christ we acknowledge that perfection is a relative thing now-and God has not really completed a thing with us, as yet! Peter testified that the persecuted and suffering Christians of his day were looking, in faith, to a future state of things immeasurably better than that which they knew, and that state of things would be perfect and complete!

[A. W. Tozer]

1 Peter 4:13 ... But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.❤

Withdrawn?

If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. 

If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference !!!

[A.W. Tozer]

2 Timothy 4:3 … For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 🕊

Punishing the Ungodly!

God's justice stands forever against the unrepentant sinner in utter severity!

The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions! It hushes their fears and allows them to practice all kinds of iniquity while damnation draws every day nearer, and the command to repent goes unregarded. As responsible moral beings, we dare not so trifle with our eternal future!

[A. W. Tozer]

✞ ✞ ✞

Psalm 11:6 … Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.

Isaiah 3:11 …  Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.

1 Thessalonians 2:16 … Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.

Revelation 6:16-17 … And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:  For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

Revelation 14:10 … The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:❤

The Jolliest Thing Imaginable

Professing Christians think of the world not as a battleground, but as a playground!  We are not here to fight, we are here to frolic!  We are not in a foreign land, we are at home.  We try to rid ourselves of our inhibitions and our frustrations, and live this life to the full.

This, we believe, is a fair summary of the religious philosophy of modern professors, openly professed by millions, and tacitly held by many more millions who live out that philosophy without having given it verbal expression.

The idea that this world is a playground instead of a battleground, has now been accepted in practice by the vast majority of professing Christians. They might hedge around the question if they were asked bluntly to declare their position, but their conduct gives them away. They are facing both ways, enjoying Christ and the world, gleefully telling everyone that accepting Jesus does not require them to give up their fun, Christianity is just the jolliest thing imaginable!

The "worship" growing out of such a view of life, is as far off center as the view itself; a sort of sanctified nightclub without the champagne and the dressed-up drunks.

[A. W. Tozer]

2 Timothy 4:3 … For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

Acts 20:29 … For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.

Galatians 1:9 … As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.❤

The Ten-Cent Store Jesus

Unfortunately, the ten-cent-store Jesus being preached now by many is not the Jesus that will come to judge the world.

This harmless, plastic, painted Jesus who has no spine, nor justice, nor wrath but is a soft and pliant friend to everybody; if He is the only Christ, then we might as well close our Bibles, bar our doors and make a bakery or garage out of our church buildings!

The popular Christ being preached today is not the Christ of the Bible, nor the Christ who will be our final Judge.

Jesus Christ our Lord, the Judge with the flaming eyes is the one with whom we must deal. We cannot escape it.

[A. W. Tozer]

Revelation 1:14-16 … His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;  And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

Revelation 6:15-17 … And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;  And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?❤

Self Sins

We all have a number of self-sins:  self-righteousness, self-pity, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-admiration, self-worth, self-love and a host of others like them!  These self-sins are not something we do, they are something we are and therein lies both their subtlety and their power. They dwell too deep within us and are too much a part of our natures, to come to our attention until the light of God is focused upon them.

The grosser manifestations of these sins: egotism, pride, arrogance, self-elevation, self-promotion are strangely tolerated in Christian leaders, even in circles of impeccable orthodoxy! They are so much in evidence as actually, for many people, to become identified with the gospel. I trust that it is not a cynical observation to say that they appear these days to be a requisite for popularity in some sections of the visible Church.

Promoting self under the guise of promoting Christ is currently so common as to excite little notice!

[A. W. Tozer]

✞ ✞ ✞ 

2 Timothy 3:1-5 … This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

Philippians 1:15-17 … Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel.

Romans 1:29-32 … Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.❤

Bird of Thought

Anyone who wishes to check on his true spiritual condition may do so, by noting what his voluntary thoughts have been over the last hours or days.  What has he thought about, when free to think of whatever he pleased?  Toward what has his inner heart turned, when it was free to turn wherever it desired?

When the bird of thought was let go, did it fly out like the raven to settle upon floating carcasses or did it like the dove circle and return again to the ark of God?

Such a test is easy to run, and if we are honest with ourselves, we can discover not only what we are, but what we are going to become. We will soon be the sum of our voluntary thoughts!

[A. W. Tozer]

Philippians 4:8 … Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. ❤