Every man has some contribution to make to your life if you know how to receive it; certain men will astonish you with their ability to answer your unexpressed question and tell you what is in your heart. But never attach yourself to any man as a parasite. Adopt no man as a guru. Apart from the inspired writers of Holy Scriptures no man is worthy of such confidence. The sweetest saint can be mistaken.
I repeat, never let any man become necessary to you. Christ alone is necessary. Apart from Him we are completely wretched; without Him we cannot live and dare not die. Our need of Him is real and vital and will outlast time and go on into eternity. That deep and desperate need is met by Christ so completely that when we have Him we need no one else. We may receive help from our fellow Christians as they from us, but our need for them is relative and fleeting. Let anyone become spiritually indispensable to us and we have deserted the Rock to build on shifting sand.
It requires deep consecration, I admit, and complete detachment from earthly interests to reach such a place of independence. And it is only after we become completely dependent upon God that we can walk without leaning on men. It takes much prayer and quiet contemplation to maintain the nice balance that will permit us to receive help from our fellow Christians and at the same time be sweetly independent of them. But we should not despair; it is not beyond the possibilities of grace. Not even for such weak Christians as we are.
By A. W. Tozer
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
NEGLECT OF GOD - PART 2
First of all, I must apologize as I bring everybody down from the “High” we were riding on yesterdays devotional; “Feed my sheep”, part #1 in the series the neglect of God. But I must address the last point in this issue. In this part #2, we must examine our side of the neglect issue.
It is obvious from the previous devotional that neglect is not in God’s vocabulary. Indeed, we see in scripture that God has provided every means possible to NOT ever be guilty of the sin of neglect. All thru the Old Testament, God kept providing a lifeline to fallen mankind by means of the blood of bulls and sheep. One historian wrote that the Kidron valley ran red, as if painted, by so much killing of animals and shedding their blood as a temporary offering to momentarily appease the Holiness of God. And God accepted these weak and putrid sacrifices, just to keep in touch with us.
He sent us prophet after prophet, to speak with us because we had no way to communicate with him. Then finally, after hundreds of years of putting up with temporary means, and animal sacrifices, that could never satisfy his curse pronounced in the garden of Eden, that the soul that sinneth shall surely die, he sent us his best, his PLAN A. He sent us Jesus. And be sure of one thing reader, everything Jesus did was not for his benefit, but for ours. Scripture records this; “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2). Neglect from God? Let me put it this way, that phrase “joy that was set before him” is translated poorly. Let’s read it the right way, it goes like this; “who for INSERT YOUR NAME HERE, endured the cross, despising the shame.” Neglect from God? The Bible states;” Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him;” (Isaiah 53:10). God so loved this world that it gave him Joy to destroy his own son, knowing he would get many sons in return. He was not satisfied with just one son; he wanted many, so he gave his only begotten son to the curse of sin, to get you and me. I ask you, could you ever say God has neglected you? Never my friend!
But we have him haven’t we? Be honest, you will spend more time watching football, reading a book, watching a movie, putting overtime in for that precious dollar of yours than one hour with a God who bankrupted his supplies in Heaven to get to us. We will stand and shout and wave as some man throws a stupid ball across a field to another, but the house of God is as dead as a mortuary in worship and praise. God’s word teaches that to those who have been forgiven much loves that much more. I ask you, what has he cleaned up in you? What kind of dirty, filthy, horrid things has he set you free from? Has he took the broken and busted and unfixable thing called your life, and repaired it back to normal? Even better than that, has he took the thing that you thought was lost forever in your life and gave it back to you like it never left? He certainly did when he gave you his son Jesus. Make a commitment today to rid yourself of the sin of neglect.
Spend time with God in prayer. Read his word and begin to commune with the Holy Spirit every day. God gave you his best, his PLAN A, and he gave some of you reading this your PLAN A back in your life when you thought all was lost. Let’s don’t be guilty of shaking our nose of neglect in God’s face any longer.
It is obvious from the previous devotional that neglect is not in God’s vocabulary. Indeed, we see in scripture that God has provided every means possible to NOT ever be guilty of the sin of neglect. All thru the Old Testament, God kept providing a lifeline to fallen mankind by means of the blood of bulls and sheep. One historian wrote that the Kidron valley ran red, as if painted, by so much killing of animals and shedding their blood as a temporary offering to momentarily appease the Holiness of God. And God accepted these weak and putrid sacrifices, just to keep in touch with us.
He sent us prophet after prophet, to speak with us because we had no way to communicate with him. Then finally, after hundreds of years of putting up with temporary means, and animal sacrifices, that could never satisfy his curse pronounced in the garden of Eden, that the soul that sinneth shall surely die, he sent us his best, his PLAN A. He sent us Jesus. And be sure of one thing reader, everything Jesus did was not for his benefit, but for ours. Scripture records this; “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2). Neglect from God? Let me put it this way, that phrase “joy that was set before him” is translated poorly. Let’s read it the right way, it goes like this; “who for INSERT YOUR NAME HERE, endured the cross, despising the shame.” Neglect from God? The Bible states;” Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him;” (Isaiah 53:10). God so loved this world that it gave him Joy to destroy his own son, knowing he would get many sons in return. He was not satisfied with just one son; he wanted many, so he gave his only begotten son to the curse of sin, to get you and me. I ask you, could you ever say God has neglected you? Never my friend!
But we have him haven’t we? Be honest, you will spend more time watching football, reading a book, watching a movie, putting overtime in for that precious dollar of yours than one hour with a God who bankrupted his supplies in Heaven to get to us. We will stand and shout and wave as some man throws a stupid ball across a field to another, but the house of God is as dead as a mortuary in worship and praise. God’s word teaches that to those who have been forgiven much loves that much more. I ask you, what has he cleaned up in you? What kind of dirty, filthy, horrid things has he set you free from? Has he took the broken and busted and unfixable thing called your life, and repaired it back to normal? Even better than that, has he took the thing that you thought was lost forever in your life and gave it back to you like it never left? He certainly did when he gave you his son Jesus. Make a commitment today to rid yourself of the sin of neglect.
Spend time with God in prayer. Read his word and begin to commune with the Holy Spirit every day. God gave you his best, his PLAN A, and he gave some of you reading this your PLAN A back in your life when you thought all was lost. Let’s don’t be guilty of shaking our nose of neglect in God’s face any longer.
Monday, October 19, 2009
NEGLECT OF GOD - PART 1
NOTE FROM THE WATCHMEN: THIS WILL BE A TWO PART SERIES ON THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE CHURCH. AS I BEGAN TO FORMULATE WHICH ISSUE I WANTED TO SPEAK ON FIRST, I HAPPENED UPON PASTOR DAVID WILKERSON'S MORNING ADDRESS. I DON'T THINK I COULD SAY IT ANY BETTER ON ISSUE #1. TOMORROW - ISSUE #2, BE READY.
FEED MY SHEEP. - By David Wilkerson
When I asked the Holy Spirit to show me how to guard against neglect, he led me to consider Peter’s drifting and his eventual renewal. This man denied Christ, even cursing, telling his accuser, “I don’t know him.”
What had happened? What had brought Peter to that point? It was pride, the result of self-righteous boasting. This disciple had said to himself and others, “I could never grow cold in my love for Jesus. I’ve reached a place in my faith where I don’t have to be warned. Others may drift, but I will die for my Lord.”
Yet Peter was the first among the disciples to give up the struggle. He forsook his calling and returned to his old career, telling the others, “I’m going fishing.” What he really was saying is, “I can’t handle this. I had thought I couldn’t fail, but nobody ever failed God worse than I did. I just can’t face the struggle anymore.”
By that point, Peter had repented of his denial of Jesus. And he had been restored in Jesus’ love. Yet he was still a frayed man inside.
Now, as Jesus waited for the disciples to return to shore, an issue remained unsettled in Peter’s life. It wasn’t enough that Peter was restored, secure in his salvation. It wasn’t enough that he would fast and pray as any devoted believer would do. No, the issue that Christ wanted to address in Peter’s life was neglect in another form. Let me explain.
As they sat around the fire on shore, eating and fellowshipping, Jesus asked Peter three times, “Do you love me more than these others?” Each time Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, you know I do,” and Christ responded in turn, “Feed my sheep.” Note that Jesus didn’t remind him to watch and pray, or to be diligent in reading God’s Word. Christ presumed those thing had already been well taught. No, the instruction he gave Peter now was, “Feed my sheep.”
I believe that in that simple phrase, Jesus was instructing Peter on how to guard against neglect. He was saying, in essence, “I want you to forget about your failure, forget that you drifted from me. You’ve come back to me now, and I’ve forgiven and restored you. So it’s time to get your focus off of your doubts, failures and problems. And the way to do that is by not neglecting my people and to minister to their needs. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
FEED MY SHEEP. - By David Wilkerson
When I asked the Holy Spirit to show me how to guard against neglect, he led me to consider Peter’s drifting and his eventual renewal. This man denied Christ, even cursing, telling his accuser, “I don’t know him.”
What had happened? What had brought Peter to that point? It was pride, the result of self-righteous boasting. This disciple had said to himself and others, “I could never grow cold in my love for Jesus. I’ve reached a place in my faith where I don’t have to be warned. Others may drift, but I will die for my Lord.”
Yet Peter was the first among the disciples to give up the struggle. He forsook his calling and returned to his old career, telling the others, “I’m going fishing.” What he really was saying is, “I can’t handle this. I had thought I couldn’t fail, but nobody ever failed God worse than I did. I just can’t face the struggle anymore.”
By that point, Peter had repented of his denial of Jesus. And he had been restored in Jesus’ love. Yet he was still a frayed man inside.
Now, as Jesus waited for the disciples to return to shore, an issue remained unsettled in Peter’s life. It wasn’t enough that Peter was restored, secure in his salvation. It wasn’t enough that he would fast and pray as any devoted believer would do. No, the issue that Christ wanted to address in Peter’s life was neglect in another form. Let me explain.
As they sat around the fire on shore, eating and fellowshipping, Jesus asked Peter three times, “Do you love me more than these others?” Each time Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, you know I do,” and Christ responded in turn, “Feed my sheep.” Note that Jesus didn’t remind him to watch and pray, or to be diligent in reading God’s Word. Christ presumed those thing had already been well taught. No, the instruction he gave Peter now was, “Feed my sheep.”
I believe that in that simple phrase, Jesus was instructing Peter on how to guard against neglect. He was saying, in essence, “I want you to forget about your failure, forget that you drifted from me. You’ve come back to me now, and I’ve forgiven and restored you. So it’s time to get your focus off of your doubts, failures and problems. And the way to do that is by not neglecting my people and to minister to their needs. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
Friday, October 16, 2009
ARE WE EVANGELICALS SOCIAL CLIMBING? (PART #2)
Christ: The Only Basis for Boasting
Traditionally Christianity has been the religion of the common people. Whenever the upper classes have adopted it in numbers, it has died. Respectability has almost always proved fatal to it.
The reasons back of this are two, one human and the other divine.
The second reason Christianity tends to decline as its devotees move up the social scale is that God will not respect persons nor share His glory with another. Paul sets this forth plainly enough in his First Corinthians epistle:
For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him (1 Corinthians 1:25–29).
When God sent His Son to redeem mankind He sent Him to the home of a working man and He grew up to be what we now call a peasant. When He presented Himself to Israel and launched into His earthly ministry, He was rejected by the respectable religionists and had to look for followers almost exclusively from among the poor, plain people. When the Spirit came and the church was founded, its first members were the socially unacceptable. For generations the church drew her numbers from among the lower classes, individual exceptions occurring now and again, of which Saul of Tarsus was the most noteworthy.
By A.W. Tozer.
Traditionally Christianity has been the religion of the common people. Whenever the upper classes have adopted it in numbers, it has died. Respectability has almost always proved fatal to it.
The reasons back of this are two, one human and the other divine.
The second reason Christianity tends to decline as its devotees move up the social scale is that God will not respect persons nor share His glory with another. Paul sets this forth plainly enough in his First Corinthians epistle:
For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him (1 Corinthians 1:25–29).
When God sent His Son to redeem mankind He sent Him to the home of a working man and He grew up to be what we now call a peasant. When He presented Himself to Israel and launched into His earthly ministry, He was rejected by the respectable religionists and had to look for followers almost exclusively from among the poor, plain people. When the Spirit came and the church was founded, its first members were the socially unacceptable. For generations the church drew her numbers from among the lower classes, individual exceptions occurring now and again, of which Saul of Tarsus was the most noteworthy.
By A.W. Tozer.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
ARE WE EVANGELICALS SOCIAL CLIMBING?
Self-dependency and God-dependency
Traditionally Christianity has been the religion of the common people. Whenever the upper classes have adopted it in numbers, it has died. Respectability has almost always proved fatal to it.
The reasons back of this are two, one human and the other divine.
Schleiermacher has pointed out that at the bottom of all religion there lies a feeling of dependence, a sense of creature helplessness. The simple man who lives close to the earth lives also close to death and knows that he must look for help beyond himself; he knows that there is but a step between him and catastrophe. As he rises in the social and economic scale, he surrounds himself with more and more protective devices and pushes danger (so he thinks) farther and farther from him. Self-confidence displaces the feeling of dependence he once knew and God becomes less necessary to him. Should he stop to think this through he would know better than to place his confidence in things and people; but so badly are we injured by our moral fall that we are capable of deceiving ourselves completely and, if conditions favor it, to keep up the deception for a lifetime.
Along with the feeling of security that wealth and position bring comes an arrogant pride that shuts tightly the door of the heart to the waiting Savior. Our Very Important Man may indeed honor a church by joining it, but there is no life in his act. His religion is external and his faith nominal. Conscious respectability has destroyed him.
By A.W. Tozer
Traditionally Christianity has been the religion of the common people. Whenever the upper classes have adopted it in numbers, it has died. Respectability has almost always proved fatal to it.
The reasons back of this are two, one human and the other divine.
Schleiermacher has pointed out that at the bottom of all religion there lies a feeling of dependence, a sense of creature helplessness. The simple man who lives close to the earth lives also close to death and knows that he must look for help beyond himself; he knows that there is but a step between him and catastrophe. As he rises in the social and economic scale, he surrounds himself with more and more protective devices and pushes danger (so he thinks) farther and farther from him. Self-confidence displaces the feeling of dependence he once knew and God becomes less necessary to him. Should he stop to think this through he would know better than to place his confidence in things and people; but so badly are we injured by our moral fall that we are capable of deceiving ourselves completely and, if conditions favor it, to keep up the deception for a lifetime.
Along with the feeling of security that wealth and position bring comes an arrogant pride that shuts tightly the door of the heart to the waiting Savior. Our Very Important Man may indeed honor a church by joining it, but there is no life in his act. His religion is external and his faith nominal. Conscious respectability has destroyed him.
By A.W. Tozer
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