To read the Bible well in public we must first love it.
The voice, if it is free, unconsciously follows the emotional tone.
Reverence cannot be simulated.
No one who does not feel the deep solemnity of the Holy Word can properly express it.
God will not allow His Book to become the plaything of the rhetorician.
That is why we instinctively draw back from every simulated tone in the reading of the Scriptures. The radio announcer's artificial unction cannot hide the absence of the real thing. The man who stands to declaim the Scriptures like a schoolboy reciting a passage from Hamlet can only leave his hearers with a feeling of disappointment. They know they have been cheated, though most of them could not tell just how.
Again, to read the Bible well, one must know what the words mean and allow them to mean just that, without putting any body English on the passage to make it take a turn of meaning not found in the text.
Probably the hardest part of learning to read well is eliminating ourselves.
We read best when we get ourselves out of the transaction and let God talk through the imperfect medium of our voice.
The beginner should read aloud whole books of the Bible in the privacy of his own room. In that way he can learn to hear his own voice and will know how he sounds to others.
Let him consult a pronouncing Bible to learn the correct pronunciations of the names and places of the Bible.
Let him cultivate the habit of reading slowly and distinctly with the reverence and dignity proper to the subject matter.
Surely Protestants deserve a better sort of Scripture reading than they are now getting in our churches. And we who do the reading are the only ones who can give it to them.
verse
Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.
— 1 Timothy 4:13
thought
Public reading of the Scripture is closely related to preaching and teaching. Certainly preaching and teaching need to be done well but so does the public reading of the Scripture. All are part of corporate church worship.
prayer
May we read Your Word from our hearts, Father, and may we listen with our hearts when we hear it read.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Of course we of this generation cannot know by firsthand experience how the Word of God was read in other times.
But it would be hard to conceive of our fathers having done a poorer job than we do when it comes to the public reading of the Scriptures.
Most of us read the Scriptures so badly that a good performance draws attention by its rarity. It could be argued that since everyone these days owns his own copy of the Scriptures, the need for the public reading of the Word is not as great as formerly.
If that is true, then let us not bother to read the Scriptures at all in our churches. But if we are going to read the Word publicly, then it is incumbent upon us to read it well.
A mumbled, badly articulated and unintelligent reading of the Sacred Scriptures will do more than we think to give the listeners the idea that the Word is not important.
We do not, however, concur in the belief that because the Word has attained such wide circulation we should not read it in our public meetings. We should by all means read it, and we should make the reading a memorable experience for those who hear.
Every man who is honored with the leadership of public worship should learn to read well.
And do not imagine that anyone who can read at all can read well.
Even learned men break down here. We are all familiar with those public figures who can talk fluently on almost any subject but flunk out miserably when they try to quote the Scriptures.
Reading the Bible well is something not picked up overnight.
verse
He [Ezra] read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.
— Nehemiah 8:3
thought
Ezra read the Book of the Law of Moses to the people from daybreak till noon. There was no public address system. Ezra must have read well. The people stood and listened attentively.
prayer
O God, help us to read Your Word well and to listen attentively. For it is Your Word.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Certainly the only book that should claim the place of honor in the public worship of God.
We are, we trust, duly grateful for every good spiritual book written since the close of the New Testament canon. We do not undervalue the devotional book or the carefully prepared theological work, but when saints meet in communion there should be but one book, the Bible.
The place given to the Scriptures by the different churches may be learned from the very architecture of the building in which their congregations gather. The ritualistic church builds itself around the altar. Toward that altar all eyes are directed and around that altar various and sundry choirs are ranged, to chant or respond or sing as the occasion may demand.
The typical Protestant church is quite different. Its center of interest is the pulpit, and upon that pulpit rests a copy of the Bible printed in the language of the people. Preachers may come and preachers may go, but that old pulpit Bible remains. There it lies while generations pass, a source of light in the world's darkness, a fountain of pure water in the world's barren desert.
And that minister is considered the best who can expound its sweet mysteries.
Lack of oratorical gifts will be forgiven if the man of God will but open the Book and give his hearers to eat of the heavenly manna.
verse
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
— 2 Timothy 2:15
thought
The pulpit has been replaced by the small podium or just empty space. Preachers seem to walk miles around the platform. But the pulpit Bible remains a source of light in the world’s darkness, a fountain of pure water in the world’s barren desert.
prayer
Lord, may Your Word be central in our church services. May it be clearly and carefully presented so that we might grow.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The will of God is always the proper goal for every one of us.
Where God is must be the place of desire.
Any motion toward God is a forward motion.
Even repentance is not a retreat toward the past but a decided march into a more glorious future.
Restitution is not a return to yesterday but a step into a blessed tomorrow.
There is such a thing as going backward in the spiritual life.
There is such a thing as a retreat from a spiritual position once held by us as individual Christians.
And there is such a thing as denominations and missionary societies making a wholesale withdrawal from ground once won at tremendous cost.
If we find that we have gone back, then we should immediately reverse the direction and again go forward.
The great truths of superior spiritual experiences, of high levels of personal living, of rapturous communion with the Three Persons of the Godhead, of victory over the flesh, of the gifts and power of the Spirit: what has happened to these?
Once they marked us out and made us peculiar. What about it today?
These are fair questions and they demand an answer. If candid self-examination reveals a departure from the green pastures where once our fathers grazed, what then?
Let there be no wasting of time in a futile mooning over the past.
Rather let us arise and go! Let us go forward to a new and better place in God. The land lies before us. Let us go in and take it.
verse
Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity ... And God permitting, we will do so.
— Hebrews 6:1, 3
thought
Let's go on to maturity! Let's grow in Christ! Christ wants us to know Him, to experientially know Him. Let's make it our highest priority.
prayer
From Your Word, Lord, from the lives of Your people, I know there are bridges to cross and mountains to climb that take me deeper into You. I want to go on by Your Spirit!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Today is our day. No one at any time has ever had any spiritual graces that we at this time cannot enjoy if we will meet the terms on which they are given.
If these times are morally darker, they but provide a background against which we can shine the brighter.
Our God is the God of today as well as of yesterday, and we may be sure that wherever our tomorrows may carry us, our faithful God will be with us as He was with Abraham and David and Paul.
Those great men did not need us then, and we cannot have them with us now. Amen.
So be it. And God be praised. We cannot have them, but we can have that which is infinitely better?
We can have their God and Father, and we can have their Savior, and we can have the same blessed Holy Spirit that made them great.
verse
Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water ... And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
— Hebrews 10:22, 24
thought
The God of our mothers and fathers is with us. He is with us no less than He was with them. To Him we may draw near and by His Spirit encourage one another.
prayer
Thank You, Father, for the invitation to draw near to You. To get closer to You than I have ever been before. I come in Jesus' name.
malliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
We have little sympathy for the psychology expressed in the various "Back To" movements among Christians today.
Our direction is not back, but forward.
Few acts are as futile as sitting down and singing "Backward, turn backward, O Time, in thy flight." We cannot turn the clock back. We cannot bring back better days. And it is not necessary or desirable that we should.
If by means of some fantastic "time machine" one of us were permitted to go backward and visit some favorite period of the past, he would in all probability find the experience extremely disappointing. He would find himself a kind of anachronism, wholly out of place and thoroughly unhappy.
To each one it is given to occupy his own spot in history. He must, like David, do the will of God by serving his own generation.
It is in his own day that he must meet God in satisfying encounter. It is in his today, not in some pensive yesterday, that he must explore the riches of divine grace, do his allotted work and win his crown.
Psychologists attribute certain abnormal mental conditions to an unconscious desire to escape the responsibilities of adult life by returning to the quiet and security of the prenatal state.
Our habit of trying to recapture the spiritual glow of some better time by going backward creates a suspicion that we have lost the will to fight and are retiring to a safer spot behind the lines where we can sit down in peace to dream of armies defeated and battles won.
verse
This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
— Psalm 118:24
thought
Today is an opportunity to know God and to serve Him. We no longer have yesterday and may have left no tomorrows. But today is uniquely God-given.
prayer
My tendency, Lord, is to look back or forward. In doing so, I often miss the strategic value of today. Thank You for this day.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
We are sent to bless the world, but never are we told to compromise with it.
Our glory lies in a spiritual withdrawal from all that builds on dust.
The bee finds no honey while crawling around the hive. Honey is in the flower far away, where there is quiet and peace and the sun and the flowing stream; there the bee must go to find it.
The Christian will find slim pickings where professed believers play and pray all in one breath.
He may be compelled sometimes to travel alone or at least to go with the ostracized few.
To belong to the despised minority may be the price he must pay for power. But power is cheap at any price.
verse
I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
— John 17:14-16
thought
In the world but not of the world?a distinction often difficult to maintain. God's enablement is the only means.
prayer
Oh Lord, may I experience Your power to be in the world but not of it. May I be light to it. For Jesus' sake.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
History shows clearly enough that true spirituality has never at any time been the possession of the masses.
In any given period since the fall of the human race, only a few persons ever discerned the right way or walked in God's law.
God's truth has never been popular.
Wherever Christianity becomes popular, it is not on its way to die?it has already died.
Popular Judaism slew the prophets and crucified Christ.
Popular Christianity killed the Reformers, jailed the Quakers and drove John Wesley into the streets.
When it comes to religion, the crowds are always wrong.
At any time there are a few who see, and the rest are blinded.
To stand by the truth of God against the current religious vogue is always unpopular and may be downright dangerous.
The historic church, while she was a hated minority group, had a moral power that made her terrible to evil and invincible before her foes. When the Roman masses, without change of heart, were made Christian by baptism, Christianity gained popularity and lost her spiritual glow.
From there she went on to adopt the ways of Rome and to follow her pagan religions.
The fish caught the fisherman, and what started out to be the conversion of Rome became finally the conversion of the church.
From that ignominious captivity, the church has never been fully delivered.
verse
If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
— John 15:19
thought
That the world hates us because we are disciples of Christ is a positive indication that we are indeed following Him. If the world welcomes us as disciples of Christ, alarms go off. How closely are we walking with Him?
prayer
Lord, help me to express Your love to the people of the world without conforming to the world.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice.
— Isaiah 59:15
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 shouldst 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? f indeed it is not too late already.
thought
In our culture today there seem to be only two absolutes: (1) that there are no absolutes except that there are no absolutes; and (2) everything must be tolerated, since there is no absolute truth. As painful and uncomfortable as it is, we must stand up for God’s truth.
prayer
Father, give me courage and boldness to lovingly and graciously stand for You in my sphere of influence. May I be Your ambassador.