. . . The truth is that the world does not know where it is going; it has not found life's summum bonum; it is not qualified as a model for the members of society to follow. It is instead puzzled, frightened and frustrated.
Generation follows generation into an uncertain future, completely beaten, disappointed and sick at heart.
It was to this kind of world that Jesus came, to save it from itself. He died for its sins and now lives for the salvation of all who will repudiate it, deny the validity of its philosophies and put their trust wholly in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Those who do this no longer seek to be adjusted to society. They have renounced this world and have chosen a new model after which to pattern their lives. This is the aspect of the Christian life that most people do not like. They want comfort, blessing and peace, but they recoil from this radical, revolutionary break with the world. To follow Christ in this rough and thorough-going way is too much for them.
verse
''. . . For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. . . .''
— Second Corinthians 6:14, 17
thought
Saying ''yes'' to Christ and ''no'' to this world is not an emotional reaction or an intellectual exercise. It is a radical decision of the will to be ever exercised in the present tense.
prayer
O Lord, may I closely follow You as Your Spirit shows me Your way in Your Word.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
To be happy, adjust to the social norm. That is the popular notion but it will not hold up under examination. This norm to which we must adjust-where did it come from? What Moses brought it down from what mount?
Where are its credentials?
From whence its authority?
Since the world insists that I adjust to its beliefs, its moral standards and its practical working philosophies, it should be able to demonstrate that it knows where it is going, what it wants and why, and it should be able to come up with a few million happy men and women who by adjusting to its standards have found life's summum bonum.
Furthermore, nations that have had the benefit of such adjustment should be prosperous, peaceful, contented and happy.
These stipulations do not appear to me at all unreasonable considering how much depends upon the outcome and how much evangelistic zeal the world puts into the effort to get everyone properly adjusted.
But these simple tests show how phony the whole thing is. . . .
verse
''Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.''
— Romans 1:28
thought
Adjustment to American societal norms promise success, financial stability, relatively high standard of living and freedom from absolutes. Adjustment also means acceptance of sexual promiscuity, abortion, homosexual lifestyle, assisted suicide and ''me first-ism.''
prayer
I see it all around me. Heart serenity is not found in adjustment to this world's values and standards. It is found only in You, Christ.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
. . . advertising, at least in the United States, is the most powerful educational agent extant. Those who write the advertising copy probably do more to determine the way the average person thinks than the school and church combined.
The reasons for this are two. One is that men may flee from the admonitions of parents and the good counsel of the church, but where can anyone hide from the advertiser? He is as near to being ubiquitous as anything on earth except gravity.
The second reason the advertiser exercises such incredibly powerful influence is that he has learned to perfection the art of communication. He may be lying, and often is, but he does get his ideas across; and that is more than can be said for the school and the church.
The big problem with Christians is that they come to Christ with their minds already made up on one point, viz., to stay sane they must remain adjusted to society. This notion has been drilled into them from their playpen, and it never occurs to them to question it. There is a norm out there somewhere to which they must conform, and that norm is above criticism. Their success and happiness depend upon how well they adjust to it. And Christianity, though it may add something to it, must never disagree with the main idea.
verse
''But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ . . .''
— Philippians 3:20
thought
We all suffer from artful media invasion so much so that we are hardly aware of its influence. We live in this world but our citizenship is in heaven. It is to the kingdom of God that we are to adjust.
prayer
I am constantly bombarded by this world's influence, Lord. May I take time daily to wait before You and so bring into focus kingdom adjustment.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
A word that is being greatly overused in modern society is adjust.
I am certainly not the first one to complain about it, but my objection to its overuse is, I believe, on a little higher level, for most persons who register their objections are thinking only about its social effects while I am concerned with its effect in the spiritual realm.
Thinking persons who deplore the present mania for adjustment point out that almost all adjustment is made downward to bring people into harmony with the common and the mediocre, so that society is educated toward a dead level with ordinariness as its ultimate end.
This passion to be mediocre and to make everyone else the same begins with the parent in the home, spreads to the schools and is propagated with missionary zeal by the advertisers. And advertising, at least in the United States, is the most powerful educational agent extant. Those who write the advertising copy probably do more to determine the way the average person thinks than the school and church combined.
verse
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
— James 1:27
thought
Adjusting can be helpful, even needful. It depends on what one adjusts to. Societal adjustment may result in spiritual maldjustment ? adjustment to evil and error, to this world system.
prayer
Lord, pressure is on to adjust to this world system, its values and lifestyle. Keep me from world pollution and may I not forget those in distress.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
In recent years the Bible has been recommended for many other purposes than the one for which it was written. The peace of mind cults, for instance, manage to find in it oil for the troubled waters of the soul; but to make it work they must pick, choose, misunderstand and misapply quite literally to their heart's content. Now, the Bible when read honestly and responsibly does bring peace of mind, but only after it has first brought the heart to a repentance that is often anything but peaceful. When the entire life has been morally transformed and the heart purified from sin, then the seeker can know real and legitimate peace. Any manipulation of the Scriptures to make them speak peace to the natural man is evil and can only lead to ruin.
A few years ago it was fairly popular practice for Bible teachers to claim to find in the Scriptures confirmation of almost every new discovery made by science. Apparently no one noticed that the scientist had to find it before the Bible teacher could, and it never seemed to occur to anyone to wonder why, if it was there in the Bible in such plain sight, it took several thousand years and the help of science before anyone saw it.
Now, I believe that everything in the Bible is true, but to attempt to make it a textbook for science is to misunderstand it completely and tragically. The purpose of the Bible is to bring men to Christ, to make them holy and prepare them for heaven. In this it is unique among books, and it always fulfills its purpose when it is read in faith and obedience.
verse
''For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.''
— First Peter 1:23
thought
Some view the Bible as great literature. Others treat it as something of a fetish to keep away evil. But the Bible's purpose is to change us as we read it, believe it and obey it.
prayer
Forgive me, Lord, for misuse of Your Word. May I listen to Your voice through it and so be changed by it.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Of the millions of Bibles bought during the last few years there is no certain way to discover how many are being read. But there is a pretty sure way to discover how many readers obey them. Total committal of a few hundred thousand persons to the message of the Bible anywhere in the world would work a moral revolution that would affect for good every facet of modern life. Since no such revolution has occurred we can only conclude that the Best Seller is not being read, or at least not being obeyed.
In a time of disaster such as earthquake or flood first-aid information and the instructions of the medical authorities are often matters of life or death. What would we think of a man if we found him at such a time comfortably reclined reading this material for its literary beauty? He might feel an aesthetic thrill at the terse, concise language and still die of typhoid, for his life depends not upon his admiration of the words of the official directives but upon his obedience to them.
As preposterous as such conduct would be, yet something like it is practiced constantly in a sphere where the consequences are far more weighty. Men who have but a little while to prepare themselves for the eternal world read the only book that can tell them how ? not to learn how, but to enjoy the literary beauty of the book. Only the blindness of heart occasioned by sin would permit men so to do.
verse
"How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!"
— Psalm 119:103
thought
Count the Bibles you have in your home. Why do we have them? We may feast daily in God's Word but some of us seem to be fasting.
prayer
O God, may I be a man of the Book ? not just studying it but living it.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The Bible was called forth by the moral emergency occasioned by the fall of man. It is the voice of God calling men home from the wilds of sin; it is a road map for returning prodigals; it is instruction in righteousness, light in darkness, information about God and man and life and death and heaven and hell. In it God warns, commands, rebukes, promises, encourages. In it He offers salvation and life through His Eternal Son. And the destiny of each one depends upon the response he or she makes to the voice of the Word.
Because the Bible is the kind of book it is there can be no place for the detached, appraising attitude in our approach to it. ''O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.'' God's Word is not to be enjoyed as one might enjoy a Beethoven symphony or a poem by Wordsworth. It demands immediate action, faith, surrender, committal. Until it has secured these it has done nothing positive for the reader, but it has increased his responsibility and deepened the judgment that must follow.
verse
''Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.''
— Psalm 119:105
thought
It was John Burton, Sr., who wrote of the Bible: ''Mine to chide me when I rove; mine to show a Saviour's love; mine thou art to guide and guard; mine to punish or reward. Mine to comfort in distress, suffering in this wilderness; mine to show by living faith man can triumph over death.''
prayer
Your Word, Lord, is light to my path. This day may I walk in that light. In Jesus' name.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The boast that the Bible is the world's best seller sounds a little hollow when the character and purpose of the Bible are understood.
It is not how many Bibles are sold that counts, nor even how many people read them; what matters is how many actually believe what they read and surrender themselves in faith to live by the truth. Short of this the Bible can have no real value for any of us.
A great deal is said, and rightly said, about the superiority of the Bible as literature. So beautiful are the words of prophet and psalmist, as well as those of our Lord and His apostles, that they can scarcely be made less than beautiful, even by the clumsiest translator. Speaking any word here in praise of the beauty of the Authorized Version (the one usually selected to be ''read as literature'') would be to gild the lily or set a candle to the sun, so I refrain. But to study the Scriptures for their literary beauty alone is to miss the whole purpose for which they were written.
verse
''For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the LORD, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel.''
— Ezra 7:10
thought
Ezra devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the LORD. It is good to read the Bible, to hear accurate Bible teaching. But are we studying the Bible for ourselves and observing it? Is personal Bible study a daily discipline?
prayer
What a treasure, Lord, to have access to Your Word in my language. To have innumerable resources available to aid in understanding the Word. May I cultivate the daily discipline of personal Bible study.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
We make a serious mistake when we become so attached to the preaching or writing of a great Christian leader that we accept his teaching without daring to examine it. No man is that important in the kingdom of God. We should follow men only as they follow the Lord and we should keep an open mind lest we become blind followers of a man whose breath is in his nostrils.
No Christian leader but has his blind spot, his unconscious prejudices, and these will influence his teachings. We will have plenty of our own without weakly accepting those of our teachers.
What then shall we do? Learn from every holy man who exercises a ministry toward us, be grateful to every one of them and thankful for all, and then follow Christ. No free believer should ever sell his freedom to another. No Christian is worthy to be the master of other Christians. Christ alone is worthy to be called Master; there is no other.
''But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him'' (1 John 2:27).
verse
''But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.''
— First John 2:20
thought
God uses human leaders to lead us and to teach us but ultimately it is the Holy Spirit who is our teacher. To Him we are to submit. He will confirm, deny, correct that instruction that comes through human leaders.
prayer
O God, may I be increasingly sensitive to Your Spirit's direction so as to discern the teaching that is from You and that which is not.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/