The evangelical Christian need make no apology for his beliefs.
They are in direct lineal descent from those of the apostles.
He can check the tenets of his total creed against the life giving, transforming beliefs of church fathers both East and West, reformers, mystics, missionaries, saints and evangelists, and they will check out one by one.
Then let him check them all with the Holy Scriptures and again they will prove to be sound. What then is the trouble?
Why the inertia, the torpor that lies over the church?
The answer is that we are too comfortable, too rich, too contented. We hold the faith of our fathers, but it does not hold us.
We are suffering from judicial blindness visited upon us because of our sins. To us has been committed the most precious of all treasures, but we are not committed to it.
We insist upon making our religion a form of amusement and will have fun whether or not. We are afflicted with religious myopia and see only things near at hand. God has set eternity in our hearts and we have chosen time instead.
He is trying to interest us in a glorious tomorrow and we are settling for an inglorious today.
We are bogged down in local interests and have lost sight of eternal purposes.
We improvise and muddle along, hoping for heaven at last but showing no eagerness to get there, correct in doctrine but weary of prayer and bored with God.
verse
. . .And I pray that you . . . may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
— Ephesians 3:17-19
thought
Paul prays that the Ephesian believers may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. To the measure of all the fullness of God! Why are we satisfied with infinitely less?
prayer
Forgive me, Lord, for the pursuit of the good things to the neglect of You the source of real goodness and heart satisfaction.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
It would be too easy to dismiss this dislike for church as only another symptom of original sin and love of moral darkness, but I believe that explanation is too pat to be wholly true.
It doesnt explain enough.
Some persons, for instance, find church intolerable because there is no objective toward which pastor and people are moving, aside possibly from the limited one of trying to enlist eight more women and 10 more men to chaperon the annual youth cookout or reaching the building fund quota for the month. And believe me, that can get mighty wearisome after a while, so wearisome indeed that alert, forward-looking persons often forsake the churches in droves and leave the spiritless, the dull and those afflicted with permanent insouciance to carry on, if a phrase so active dare be used to describe what they do.
To Paul there was nothing dull or tiresome in the religion of Christ.
God had a plan which was being carried forward to completion, and Paul and all the faithful in Christ Jesus were part of that plan.
It included predestination, redemption, adoption and the obtaining of an eternal inheritance in the heavenly places.
Gods purpose has now been openly revealed (Ephesians 3:10,11). It was the knowledge that they were part of an eternal plan that imparted unquenchable enthusiasm to the early Christians.
They burned with holy zeal for Christ and felt that they were part of an army which the Lord was leading to ultimate conquest over all the powers of darkness.
That was enough to fill them with perpetual enthusiasm.
verse
His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
— Ephesians 3:10-11
thought
Gods eternal purpose is that His manifold wisdom be made known through the Church. Is that the purpose statement of your church? Lets find out what God means and adopt His purpose for us.
prayer
Lord, give me greater understanding of what You are about in this world that our local church may be CHURCH as You intend.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The faith of the Christian rests upon Christ Himself.
On Him we repose and in Him we live.
Christ gains nothing from any human philosophy, however pure and noble it may be. He owes nothing to Plato or to Aristotle. If these men had never lived the Christ in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily would have been all He ever was and is world without end.
His redemptive work was completed centuries before the dawn of modern science, and of course seeks no aid from science.
Christ is unique in the only sense that word will bear. He is the mystery of Godliness, a miracle, an emergence of the Deity into time and space for a reason and a purpose. He is complete in Himself. Because we Christians live on two life-levels simultaneously, the spiritual and the natural, we do, as sons of Adam, owe to philosophy and science a lasting debt of gratitude.
Music, literature, art, state-craft, economics, learning contribute to our welfare and make the world a more comfortable place in which to live while we wait for the manifestation of the sons of God and the redemption of our bodies. So it is good that we gain all the knowledge we can in the short time that is ours. Whatever we learn that is true will remain our treasured possession in the world to come.
For these reasons I believe in education, as full as possible for as many as possible as quickly as possible. That is one thing.
It is quite another to try to equate the faith of Christ with Philosophy or science or any other or all of the products of superior human minds.
And to make that faith dependent upon these things is in the light of Christs deity not only preposterous but near to sacrilegious.
Christ is enough.
To have Him and nothing else is to be rich beyond conceiving.
To have all else and have not Christ is to be a cosmic pauper, cut off forever from all that will matter at last.
verse
It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God-that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.
— First Corinthians 1:30-31
thought
Wisdom, righteousness, holiness and redemption-Christ is all! Its time that we enjoyed our spiritual wealth in Him and left spiritual poverty behind.
prayer
O Christ, everything is in You and You are everything!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Our frantic and futile effort to harmonize the truth of Christ with psychology, philosophy and science is proof enough of a deep incertitude among us concerning the sufficiency of Christ. It is a tragicomic sight to see our modern apostles licking the palm of any man of learning who will condescend to say something complimentary about Jesus Christ.
How eagerly we rush into print with any quotation from the lips of the Great Man of the world that can be tortured into an admission that he believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
The New Testament points to Christ and says God now commands all men everywhere to repent: because He has appointed a day, in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He has ordained; whereof He has given assurance unto all men, in that He has raised Him from the dead.
God validated forever the claims of Christ.
He is who He said He was and what He said He was.
Christ stands before no man to be judged, but every man stands before Him.
Any uncertainty about Him was swept away forever when He arose from the dead, ascended into heaven and sent down the Holy Spirit as His final witness among men.
Now it may be said that Christ as the Second person of the Godhead is self-validating.
He needs no supplementary witness from the world of nature or from the race of men. He is His own witness.
verse
Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, O LORD.
— Psalm 89:15
thought
Transformation of life and continued communion with God is sufficient validation that He is all that scripture reveals Him to be. What matters is not what others affirm or deny concerning Christ but who we have personally found and are finding Him to be.
prayer
Knowing You, Lord, and experiencing Your presence is the greatest affirmation for me that You are God.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
One thing the young Christian should be taught as quickly as possible after his conversion is that Jesus Christ is all he needs.
When he believes effectively on Christ as his Lord and Savior he can humbly declare his independence of everyone and everything outside of Christ.
This the New Testament teaches with great emphasis and clarity and with fullness of detail. We need not quote any proof text in support of this statement, but suggest simply that the inquirer read the Scriptures to see for himself, especially John, Ephesians, Colossians and Hebrews.
One marked characteristic of modern evangelicalism is its lack of assurance, resulting in a pathetic search for external evidence to corroborate its faith.
It sets out bravely to declare its trust in Christ, but is shortly overawed by the counter declarations of science and philosophy and before long it is looking hesitantly about for some collateral evidence to restore its confidence.
verse
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
— Ephesians 1:3
thought
Blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ what more do we need? To lay claim to those blessings by faith. Having died with Christ by faith, we now live with Him.
prayer
Thank You, Lord, You are all I need!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
A sinful man should be afraid; he has plenty to be afraid of.
The consequences of his sins, death, judgment and hell are all awaiting him and he cannot escape them by looking the other way.
While he lives on earth there are dangers of every kind facing him and everyone he loves. Any religious teacher that exhorts him to ignore these dangers is unrealistic, false to the facts and a deadly enemy to his soul.
The prophet of tranquility is indeed another source of danger to him and should be considered one more object of fear. Where there are mortal perils and no place to hide, fear is the only sane reaction. To dismiss fear while the danger still exists is little short of insanity. Until the danger has been removed, fear should remain.
Only that man has a right to be unafraid who has fled for refuge to the mighty Savior. Such a man knows the danger is there, but he also knows that his Almighty Lord will bring him safely through and present him at last faultless before the presence of God.
There are in the Scriptures innumerable exhortations to put away fear; but they are all addressed to Gods own children, never to the children of this world.
Someone must care, and if a man has not cast his fears on Christ, he must bear them himself.
The safety of the Rock is for those who have put their trust in the Rock.
All others must face their enemies alone.
verse
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
— Romans 8:1-2
thought
There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. But what about those who are not in Him? Terrible condemnation and judgment await. Christ is the Savior to whom all may flee!
prayer
Praise to You, Lord, You have fully paid my sin-debt. In You is life abundant!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Over the years I have read or thumbed through a great many books on how to conquer fear.
The cult of relaxation has, in fact, quite taken over certain areas of the religious thinking of the day.
Of course the fear-not cultists are able to assemble a lot of Scripture to support their teaching, but the catch is that practically all of it is misunderstood or misapplied.
It just doesnt mean what they say it does, and what is still worse, it isnt addressed to the people they try to apply it to.
The fear-not philosophers all begin with the same error; namely, that there is nothing to fear, and all we need to do to get deliverance is to believe it. To teach people living in a world like ours that there is nothing to be afraid of is to be guilty of gross irresponsibility, and any teacher who does so disqualifies himself instantly and proves himself unworthy of the confidence of serious-minded men.
Both the Bible and human experience teach that the world is full of enemies to mankind, not the least of those dangers being man himself.
Our Lord said, I will forewarn you whom you shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.
verse
It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
— Hebrews 10:31
thought
How terrible to be lulled into false peace by those who peddle untruth. This life provides the only opportunity to bow before the living God and place our faith in Him. If we waste that opportunity we will one fall into the hands of the living God who wi
prayer
Lord, I have placed by faith in You. Thank You for the peace-Your peace-that You give.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Because the inner lostness is the same in all human beings the work of God to reclaim them must be the same in all. And the Spirit broods over all, illuminating, revealing, convicting, enabling them to hear and see and understand.
It is one of the wonders and delights of preaching that the same message will often affect people differently, producing in one repentance, in another hope, in still others courage, humility or faith, according as the particular soul has need.
Without this mighty, skillful working of the Spirit, preaching would be futile; with it the ministry of the Word can be easy and delightful as well as marvelously effective.
verse
One of the those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Pauls message.
— Acts 16:14
thought
It is the Holy Spirit who opens hearts to respond to the Good News. It is the Spirit who illuminates the Word. It is the Spirit who reveals Christ and convicts of sin. We minister in vain without the Spirits ministry!
prayer
Thank You, Lord, that You do not hold me responsible to open the hearts of people. Forgive me for sometimes trying to. It is Your Spirit who so works!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The man of God may labor on in complete trust and in full expectation of success, provided he is aware of a few basic truths.
One is that however different people may be in externals, they are all alike fundamentally.
That in us to which the Christian message is directed is the same in every human being.
Before the cross of Jesus we are not old or young, educated or ignorant, cultured or uncouth, dull or brilliant; we are just people-human beings lost and ruined deep inside where incidental differences do not matter, where indeed they are not even known.
As gold is gold whether it is mixed with the sand of the stream or wrought into an exquisite work of art by the hand of a Cellini, so the essential stuff of human nature is the same under whatever conditions it may be found.
That about us which yields itself to social differentiation, is not that for which Christ died.
He did not, for example, die for doctors, farmers, authors, laborers, artists, engineers, professors, vagrants, presidents, musicians, lumbermen; He died for lost humanity, and any one can receive the benefits of His atonement, but only as lost beings.
Color, race, social standings, occupation, cultural levels do not count, for they do not alter the basic human thing for which His blood was shed.
verse
God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die (Contemporary English Version).
— John 3:16
thought
Whoever we are in the world our most basic need is to know Christ as our Savior and Lord. In dependence upon the Holy Spirit that Good News must be communicated in a linguistically and culturally perceptible form to each one of the worlds billions.
prayer
O Lord, people need You-those people around me and around the world. Use me to reach some of them. In Jesus name.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/