The announcement of the birth of Christ came as a sunburst of joy to a world where grief and pain are known to all and joy comes rarely and never tarries long.
The joy the angel brought to the awe-struck shepherds was not to be a disembodied wisp of religious emotion, swelling and ebbing like the sound of an aeolian harp in the rising and falling of the wind. Rather it was and is a state of lasting gladness resulting from tidings that there was born in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord. It was an overflowing sense of well-being that had every right to be there.
The birth of Christ told the world something. That He should come to be born of a woman, to make Himself of no reputation and, being found in fashion as a man, to humble Himself even to death on a cross this is a fact so meaningful, so eloquent as to elude even the power of a David or an Isaiah fully to celebrate. His coming, I repeat, told the world something; it declared something, established something. What was it?
verse
"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich."
— 2 Corinthians 8:9
thought
Incomprehensible the sacrifice Christ made for us. He laid aside His glory as the Son of God to enter this world as a weak human baby. He voluntarily became poor with the purpose that we might become rich. Are we living in the experience of that richn...
prayer
Lord, You have made me a spiritual billionaire. May I so live.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Every local church is a microcosm, having all the qualities of the macrocosm, the church universal.
Each local company is ideally and should be actually equipped to do anything that the Head of the church wills to accomplish.
Wherever such a company is found, there is the true church, the complete church, so complete that if all the believers in the world were to be gathered in one place it would not add anything to the perfection of the smaller assembly.
Each local church is a fellowship in the deepest spiritual meaning of that word. It comes into being by an afflatus of power and a bestowment of life. It cannot be produced by organization, though after it is there it may be strengthened and improved by a wise and Spirit-led organization.
A true church existed in Crete before Titus was left there to set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city. Organization did not create the church; it was imposed upon a church already present, a church which had been born out of the preaching of the gospel.
For it is always the gospel that produces the church; there can be no church apart from the gospel.
verse
''The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.''
— 1 Corinthians 12:12, 27
thought
Every local church is an expression of Church because as believers we are members of Christ's body through whom He seeks to reach out to people around us.
prayer
I am part of Your Church in this world, Lord. May I recognize my brothers and sisters and with them be a body member through whom You can reach out to people.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The Church as announced by Christ, seen in the book of Acts and explained by Paul is a thing of great simplicity and rare beauty.
The church as we see it today is unsymmetrical, highly complex and anything but beautiful. Indeed I think that if some angel of God were made familiar with the church as it appears in the New Testament and then sent to the earth to try to locate it, it would be extremely doubtful whether the heavenly messenger would recognize anything now existing in the field of religion as the church he was looking for. So far have we departed from the pattern shown us in the mount.
The church as the New Testament pictures it is any company of regenerate believers met in the name of Jesus Christ. Such a company is called out from the world and gathered to Christ as a flock of sheep is gathered to the shepherd. The members of this company constitute a despised minority group standing in bold moral contradiction to the world. Their witness is Christ: His person, work, office and present position at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. They carry His gospel to the world and plead ''Be ye reconciled to God,'' then they return to their own company to worship, pray, teach and listen to the Word of the Lord as it is expounded by men of God. They also exhort, testify and exercise for the good of all such spiritual gifts as each one may possess from the Spirit.
verse
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.
— Acts 2:42-43
thought
Devotion to apostolic teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Awesome wonders and miraculous signs by the apostles. At personal sacrifice helping other believers in need. Praising God. But no church buildings, no extensive organization, no worship teams, no multi media, no seminars. Did the early church realize what they were missing?
prayer
O Lord, may we rediscover Churchness in its simplicity and awe with manifestations of Your power and presence. In Jesus' name.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
. . . No man is ever the same after God has laid His hand upon him. He will have certain marks, and though they are not easy to detect perhaps we may cautiously name a few. . .
Another mark of the Spirit's working is a mighty moral discontent. In spite of our effort to make sinners think they are unhappy the fact is that wherever social and health conditions permit the masses of mankind enjoy themselves very much. Sin has its pleasures (Hebrews 12:25) and the vast majority of human beings have a whale of a time living. The conscience is a bit of a pest but most persons manage to strike a truce with it quite early in life and are not troubled much by it thereafter.
It takes a work of God in a man to sour him on the world and to turn him against himself; yet until this has happened to him he is psychologically unable to repent and believe. Any degree of contentment with the world's moral standards or his own lack of holiness successfully blocks off the flow of faith into the man's heart. Esau's fatal flaw was moral complacency; Jacob's only virtue was his bitter discontent.
Again before a man can be saved he must feel a consuming spiritual hunger. Anyone who lives close to the hearts of men knows that there is little spiritual hunger among them. Religion, pious talk, yes; but not real hunger. Where a hungry heart is found we may be sure that God was there first. ''Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you . . .'' (John 15:16)
verse
You did not chose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit ? fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
— John 15:16
thought
Moral discontent and spiritual hunger make us terribly uncomfortable in this world. Yet they mark us as appointed to be fruit-bearers. Is the fruit evident to those around us?
prayer
This world is not my home. Thank You, Father, for moral discontent and spiritual hunger for You. It is inconceivable that You should have chosen me but You have! Hallelujah!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
. . . No man is ever the same after God has laid His hand upon him. He will have certain marks, and though they are not easy to detect perhaps we may cautiously name a few. One mark is a deep reverence for divine things.
A sense of the sacred must be present or there can be no receptivity to God and truth. This mysterious feeling of awe precedes repentance and faith and is nothing else but a gift from heaven. Millions go through life unaffected by the presence of God in His world. Good they may be and honest, but they are nevertheless men of earth, ''finished and finite clods,'' and proof against every call of the Spirit.
Another mark is a great moral sensitivity. Most persons are apathetic, insensitive to matters of the heart and the conscience, and so are not salvable, at least not in their present condition.
But when God begins to work in a man to bring him to salvation He makes him acutely sensitive to evil. Inward repulsion toward the swine pen that rouses the prodigal and starts him back home is a gift of God to His chosen.
verse
He went on to say, This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.
— John 6:65
thought
''Finished and finite clods'' can, by God's enablement, become sensitive to spiritual reality and the sinfulness of sin. Amazing how God works in the human heart!
prayer
O Lord, Your people are miracles of Your grace. Thank You for changing me. In Jesus' name, continue that transformation!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
In the ''sixth'' chapter of John our Lord makes some statements which gospel Christians seem afraid to talk about. The average one of us manages to live with them by the simple trick of ignoring them. They are such as these
: 1. Only they come to Christ who have been given to Him by the Father (John 6:37).
2. No one can come of himself; he must first be drawn by the Father (John 6:44).
3. The ability to come to Christ is a gift of the Father (John 6:65).
4. Everyone given to the Son by the Father will come to Him (John 6:37)
It is not surprising that upon hearing these words many of our Lord's disciples went back and walked no more with Him. Such teaching cannot but be deeply disturbing to the natural mind. It takes from sinful men much of the power of self-determination upon which they had prided themselves so inordinately. It cuts the ground out from under their self-help and throws them back upon the sovereign good pleasure of God, and that is precisely where they do not want to be. They are willing to be saved by grace, but to preserve their self-esteem they must hold that the desire to be saved originated with them; this desire is their contribution to the whole thing, their offering of the fruit of the ground, and it keeps salvation in their hands where in truth it is not and can never be.
Admitting the difficulties this creates for us, and acknowledging that it runs contrary to the assumptions of popular Christianity, it is yet impossible to deny that there are certain persons who, though still unconverted, are nevertheless different from the crowd, marked out of God, stricken with an interior wound and susceptible to the call of Christ to a degree others are not.
verse
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.
— John 6:37
thought
As believers we are the Father's gift to Christ. When we come to Christ He will never drive us away!
prayer
By Your Spirit, Lord, make me sensitive to those whom You are drawing to Yourself that I may be used of You in making clear the Jesus Way.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The Christian Scriptures, particularly the Gospel of John, contain two truths which appear to stand opposed to each other.
The Christian Scriptures, particularly the Gospel of John, contain two truths which appear to stand opposed to each other.
One is that whosoever will may come to Christ. The other is that before anyone can come there must have been a previous work done in his heart by the sovereign operation of God.
The notion that just anybody, at any time, regardless of conditions, can start from religious scratch, without the Spirit's help, and believe savingly on Christ by a sudden decision of the will, is wholly contrary to the teachings of the Bible.
God's invitation to men is broad but not unqualified. The word 'whosoever' throws the door open wide, indeed, but the church in recent years has carried the gospel invitation far beyond its proper bounds and turned it into something more human and less divine than that found in the sacred Scriptures.
What we tend to overlook is that the word 'whosoever' never stands by itself. Always its meaning is modified by the word 'believe' or 'will' or 'come'. According to the teachings of Christ no man will or can come and believe unless there has been done within him a prevenient work of God enabling him so to do.
verse
No one can come to me unless the Father draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
— John 6:44
thought
The verb translated draw is used of Peter drawing his sword (John 18:10); of Peter dragging fishing nets (John 21:6. 11); of Paul and Silas dragged from the temple (Acts 21:30). The Father draws. Initiative in salvation is always with God.
prayer
Father, how deceived we are in assuming that we can bring people to You. Only You can draw them. In intercession we can pray that You will do so.ne is that whosoever will may come to Christ. The other is that before anyone can come there must have been a previous work done in his heart by the sovereign operation of God.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Another substitute for discipleship I would mention (though these do not exhaust the list) is zealous religious activity.
Working for Christ has today been accepted as the ultimate test of godliness among all but a few evangelical Christians.
Christ has become a project to be promoted or a cause to be served instead of a Lord to be obeyed.
Thousands of mistaken persons seek to do for Christ whatever their fancy suggests should be done, and in whatever way they think best.
The what and the how of Christian service can only originate in the sovereign will of our Lord, but the busy beavers among us ignore this fact and think up their own schemes.
The result is an army of men who run without being sent and speak without being commanded.
To avoid the snare of unauthorized substitution I recommend a careful and prayerful study of the Lordship of Christ and the discipleship of the believer.
verse
She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, 'Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!
— Luke 10:39-40
thought
There is a time to work for the Lord and a time to sit at His feet. We need to do both in His time
prayer
Father, help me to know when to work for You with all my strength and when to sit quiet before You with all my concentration.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Another substitute for discipleship is . Our Lord referred to this when He reproached the Pharisees for their habit of tithing mint and anise and cumin while at the same time omitting the weightier matters of the Law such as justice, mercy and faith.
Literalism manifests itself among us in many ways, but it can always be identified in that it lives by the letter of the Word while ignoring its spirit. It habitually fails to apprehend the inward meaning of Christs words, and contents itself with external compliance with the text. If Christ commands baptism, for instance, it finds fulfillment in the act of water baptism, but the radical meaning of the act as explained in Romans 6 is completely overlooked. It reads the Scriptures regularly, contributes consistently to religious work, attends church every Sunday and otherwise carries on the common duties of a Christian and for this it is to be commended.
Its tragic breakdown is its failure to comprehend the Lordship of Christ, the believers discipleship, separation from the world and the crucifixion of the natural man.
Literalism attempts to build a holy temple upon the sandy foundation of the religious self.
It will suffer, sacrifice and labor, but it will not die. It is Adam at his pious best, but it has never denied self to take up the cross and follow Christ.
verse
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
— Mark 8:34
thought
It is commendable to fulfill religious forms in doctrine and practice. It is quite another to fulfill them substantively from the heart in daily life. It is the latter that expresses true discipleship.
prayer
Forgive me, Lord, for trying to follow You without taking up that self-death instrument daily.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/