What has Christ to offer to us that is sound, genuine and desirable?
He 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 benefits that come to us as a result of faith in Christ and total committal to Him. Add to these the expanding wonders and increasing glories that shall be ours through the long, long reaches of eternity, and we get an imperfect idea of what Paul called, "the unsearchable riches of Christ.
To 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. And we had better take this into account when we ponder on spiritual things.
If the unsearchable riches of Christ are not worth suffering for, then we should know it now and cease to play at religion.
verse
What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ . . .
— Philippians 3:8
thought
If we are not now in some measure experiencing the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ, then indeed we may be tightly clinging to some things fearing their loss.
prayer
Father, help me to clearly distinguish between what is eternal gain and what is ultimate rubbish.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
In our eagerness to make converts I am afraid we have lately been guilty of using the technique of modern salesmanship, which is of course to present only the desirable qualities in a product and ignore the rest.
We go to men and offer them a cozy home on the sunny side of the brae. If they will but accept Christ He will give them peace of mind, solve their problems, prosper their business, protect their families and keep them happy all day long.
They believe us and come, and the first cold wind sends them shivering to some counselor to find out what has gone wrong; and that is the last we hear of many of them.
The teachings of Christ reveal Him to be a realist in the finest meaning of that word. Nowhere in the Gospels do we find anything visionary or overoptimistic. He told His hearers the whole truth and let them make up their minds. He might grieve over the retreating form of an inquirer who could not face up to the truth, but He never ran after him to try to win him with rosy promises.
He would have men follow Him, knowing the cost, or He would let them go their ways.
All this is but to say that Christ is honest. We can trust Him.
He knows that He will never be popular among the sons of Adam and He knows that His followers need not expect to be.
The wind that blows in His face will be felt by all who travel with Him, and we are not intellectually honest when we try to hide that fact from them.
verse
From this time on many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
— John 6:66
thought
Following Christ is costly in many ways. For some it means physical suffering, even death. For others rejection, ostracism, extreme prejudice. The greatest cost of all is to the old nature, ego, self. Yet consider the cost of not following Christ.
prayer
Lord, if I turn from following You, to whom do I go? Eternal life is in knowing You.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Are You Feeling the Wind? God hath called you to Christs side, wrote the saintly Rutherford, and the wind is now in Christs face in this land; and seeing ye are with Him, ye cannot expect the leeside or the sunny side of the brae.
With that beautiful feeling for words that characterized Samuel Rutherfords most casual utterance he here crystallizes for us one of the great radical facts of the Christian life. The wind is in Christs face, and because we go with Him we too shall have the wind in our face. We should not expect less.
The yearning for the sunny side of the brae is natural enough, and for such sensitive creatures as we are it is, I suppose, quite excusable.
No one enjoys walking into a cold wind. Yet the Church has had to march with the wind in her face through the long centuries.
verse
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
— Micah 6:8
thought
Our desire is to be accepted, to blend in. Yet to walk with Christ means to stay at His side and inevitably that will mean facing the cold and bitter wind. Are you feeling the wind?
prayer
Lord, I want to walk with You even into the wind!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
We delude ourselves when we try to turn our just punishments into a cross and rejoice over that for which we should rather repent. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God?(1 Pet. 2:20)
The cross is always in the way of righteousness. We feel the pain of the cross only when we suffer for Christ?s sake by our own willing choice. I think that there is also another kind of suffering, one that does not fall into either of the categories considered above. It comes neither from the rod nor from the cross, not being imposed as a moral corrective nor suffered as a result of our Christian life and testimony.
It comes in the course of nature and arises from the many ills flesh is heir to. It visits all alike in a greater or lesser degree and would appear to have no clear spiritual significance. Its source may be fire, flood, bereavement, injuries, accidents, illness, old age, weariness or the upset conditions of the world generally.
What are we to do about this? Well, some great souls have managed to turn even these neutral afflictions to good.
By prayer and self-abasement they wooed adversity to become their friend and made rough distress a teacher to instruct them in the heavenly arts. May we not emulate them?
verse
But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.
— Job 23:10
thought
Pain pushes us into the arms of God. There are times when we cannot discern whether it is our cross or chastisement. We can only cling to Him and we find in our hurting His arms tightly around us.
prayer
You know the way I take, Father, the purpose in my hurting. Show me or, if not, hold me close in Your arms.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
But how can we tell in a given situation whether our pain is from the cross or the rod?
Pain is pain from whatever source it comes.
Jonah in flight from the will of God suffered no worse storm than did Paul in the center of Gods will; the same wild sea threatened the life of both.
And Daniel in the lions den was in trouble as deep as was Jonah in the whales belly.
The nails bit as deep into the hands of Christ dying for the sins of the world as into the hands of the two thieves dying for their own sins.
How then may we distinguish the cross from the rod?
I think the answer is plain.
When tribulation comes we have but to note whether it is imposed or chosen. "Blessed are ye," said our Lord, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you? (Matt. 5:11).
But that is not all.
Four other words He added: they are falsely, for my sake. These words show that the suffering must come voluntarily, that it must be chosen in the larger choice of Christ and righteousness. If the accusation men cry against us is true, no blessedness follows.
verse
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
— Hebrews 12:11
thought
C. S. Lewis wrote of God shouting to us in our pains, using pain as a megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Pain is a loud summons to self-examination. Are we suffering for the cause of Christ or because of personal sin?
prayer
Father, when I am experiencing pain due to my sin, help me to recognize it. When it is for other reasons may I accept it as fromYou.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
As the cross stands in the way of obedience, so chastisement is found in the way of disobedience.
God never chastens a perfectly obedient child.
Consider the fathers of our flesh; they never punished us for obedience, only for disobedience.
When we feel the sting of the rod we may be sure we are temporarily out of the right way.
Conversely, the pain of the cross means that we are in the way.
But the Fathers love is not more or less, wherever we may be. God chastens us not that He may love us but because He loves us.
In a well-ordered house a disobedient child may expect punishment; in the household of God no careless Christian can hope to escape it.
verse
Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.
— Hebrews 12:10
thought
God disciplines us for our good that we may share in His holiness. It is the only way we shall ever share in that holiness. To that end He chastens us in love.
prayer
O thank You, Lord, for Your persistent, consistent discipline. I don't learn easily and I often have to relearn but You are patiently loving in chastening me.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Chastisement is an act of God; cross carrying an act of the Christian.
When God in love lays the rod to the back of His children He does not ask permission.
Chastisement for the believer is not voluntary except in the sense that he chooses the will of God with the knowledge that the will of God includes chastisement. ?For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?? (Heb. 12:6-7). The cross never comes unsolicited; the rod always does.
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me? (Matt. 16:24).
Here is clear, intelligent choice, a choice that must be made by the individual with determination and forethought. In the kingdom of God no one ever stumbled onto a cross. But what is the cross for the Christian?
Obviously it is not the wooden instrument the Romans used to execute the sentence of death upon persons guilty of capital crimes. The cross is the suffering the Christian endures as a consequence of his following Christ in perfect obedience. Christ chose the cross by choosing the path that led to it; and it is so with His followers. In the way of obedience stands the cross, and we take the cross when we enter that way.
verse
And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts."
— Hebrews 12:5-6
thought
Henry Lyte wrote: "In Thy service pain is pleasure; with Thy favor loss is gain." It is that way when we follow Christ carrying our cross. When we drop it, there is discipline in love.
prayer
Thank You, Father, that You don't abandon me when I fail You. You lovingly discipline me.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
For the Christian cross carrying and chastisement are alike but not identical.
They differ in a number of important ways.
The two ideas are usually considered to be the same and the words embodying the ideas are used interchangeably. There is, however, a sharp distinction between them.
When we confuse them we are not thinking accurately; and when we do not think accurately about truth we lose some benefit that we might otherwise enjoy.
The cross and the rod occur close together in the Holy Scriptures, but they are not the same thing.
The rod is imposed without the consent of the one who suffers it.
The cross cannot be imposed by another.
Even Christ bore the cross by His own free choice.
He said of the life He poured out on the cross, No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of mysel(John 10:18).
He had every opportunity to escape the cross but He set His face like a flint to go to Jerusalem to die. The only compulsion He knew was the compulsion of love.
verse
And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
— Luke 14:27
thought
The rod is an instrument of discipline, correction wielded by the loving Father. The cross is the instrument of self-discipline, dying to self in order to live fully for Christ.
prayer
Lord, if I sometimes drop my cross along the way, show me, so that I pick it up again and carry it all the way.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
7. The spiritual man habitually makes eternity-judgments instead of time-judgments.
By faith he rises above the tug of earth and the flow of time and learns to think and feel as one who has already left the world and gone to join the innumerable company of angels and the general assembly and Church of the First-born which are written in heaven.
Such a man would rather be useful than famous and would rather serve than be served. And all this must be by the operation of the Holy Spirit within him.
No man can become spiritual by himself.
Only the free Spirit can make a man spiritual.
verse
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
— 2 Corinthians 4:17
thought
Living with eternity's values in view lightens our momentary troubles. It equips us to live our todays in the perspective of the eternal tomorrow.
prayer
Thank You, Father, for the privilege of experiencing inner renewal even when the external wastes away.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/