We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
— Romans 6:4
The celebration of Easter began very early in the Church and has continued without interruption to this day. There is scarcely a church anywhere but will observe the day in some manner, whether it be by simply singing a resurrection hymn or by the performance of the most elaborate rites. Ignoring the etymological derivation of the word Easter and the controversy that once gathered around the question of the date on which it should be observed, and admitting as we must that to millions the whole thing is little more than a pagan festival, I want to ask and try to answer two questions about Easter. The first question is, What is Easter all about? and the second, What practical meaning does it have for the plain Christian of today? The first may be answered briefly or its answer could run into a thousand pages. The real significance of the day stems from an event, a solid historical incident that took place on a certain day in a geographical location that can be identified on any good map of the world. It was first announced by the two men who stood beside the empty tomb and said simply, ?He is not here; he has risen? (Matthew 28:6), and was later affirmed in the solemnly beautiful words of one who saw Him after His resurrection: But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him (1 Corinthians 15:20-23). That is what Easter is about. The Man called Jesus is alive after having been publicly put to death by crucifixion. The Roman soldiers nailed Him to the cross and watched Him till the life had gone from Him. Then a responsible company of persons, headed by one Joseph of Arimathea, took the body down from the cross and laid it in a tomb, after which the Roman authorities sealed the tomb and set a watch before it to make sure the body would not be stolen away by zealous but misguided disciples. This last precaution was the brain child of the priests and the Pharisees, and how it backfired on them is known to the ages, for it went far to confirm the fact that the body was completely dead and that it could have gotten out of the tomb only by some miracle.
thought
Because Christ rose from the dead there is hope beyond the grave for those who trust in Him. But there is more! We may experience His resurrection life today! Are we?
prayer
O Christ, You are risen from the dead and, as I trust You, the power of sin is broken and new life is mine.
Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good.
— 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21
In the Old Testament it is recorded that after years of bad leadership had brought Judah to her knees, a new king, Hezekiah, came to the throne. Immediately he called the priests and Levites together and said to them, ?Listen to me, Levites, consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the temple of the LORD, the God of your fathers. Remove all defilement from the sanctuary.? The priests went into the sanctuary of the LORD to purify it. They brought out to the courtyard of the LORD?s temple everything unclean that they found in the temple of the LORD. The Levites took it and carried it out to the Kidron Valley (2 Chronicles 29:5, 16).
It took a week to get rid of the junk, but when they had obeyed God there followed immediately a sunburst of revival; and the good effects lasted nearly thirty years. I do not wish to draw too close a parallel between conditions under Ahaz and conditions in the churches today, but every enlightened soul can see how we languish for fearless leaders and bold reformers who will dare to pass holy judgment upon the unscriptural goings on that are being substituted for New Testament Christianity in the majority of our churches. Somewhere there may be a freckle-faced stripling as yet unknown who will hear the call of God and go forth in dauntless love to become a conscience to the churches. Too many prophets of Jehovah these days are hiding in their caves, but somewhere there may be an Elijah. The bloodless softlings will say at first that he is uncharitable and harsh, but when he gets the prophets of Baal on the run they will tag along behind him, trying to look as if they had been on his side all the time. Well, he can?t come a day too soon.
thought
A major prophetic function is the evaluation of the present by looking into the past and peering into the future. O for prophets today who can see where the church is and give direction from God as to where to go; who can discern trends and see their outcome!
prayer
Lord, will You raise up prophets in Your Church ? those leaders enlightened by Your Spirit ? to diagnose our present state and lead us into what You desire us to be and in what direction You want us to go.
It is ironic that the modernistic churches which deny the theology of the great hymns nevertheless sing them, and regenerated Christians who believe them are yet not singing them; in their stead are songs without theological content set to music without beauty.
Not our religious literature only and our hymnody have suffered from the notion that love to be true to itself must be silent in the presence of any and every abomination, but almost every phase of our church life has suffered also.
Once a Bible and a hymnbook were enough to allow gospel Christians to express their joy in the public assembly, but now it requires tons of gadgets to satisfy the pagan appetites of persons who call themselves Christians.
verse
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
— Colossians 3:16
thought
Older ones of us greatly value some of the old hymns because they were especially meaningful in certain critical times in life and still are. May today's younger ones find such treasures in their music!
prayer
Enable me, Lord, to lovingly disagree when needed. I have difficulty with the love factor.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
As long as it is held to be an evidence of advanced spirituality to approve whatever is written by gospel Christians and a mark of carnality to criticize anything they write, our direction can only continue to be down.
If things go on in their present course, we conservatives will soon be living in a world of soft unreality where smiling, timorous brethren walk about praising the Lord and complimenting each other for literary works so atrocious both in content and style that they would not get past the office boy in a first-class publishing house. It can only be a cause for deep regret that the fear of offending has silenced the voices of so many men of discernment and put Bible Christianity at the mercy of the undiscerning.
Religious music has long ago fallen victim to this weak and twisted philosophy of godliness.
Good hymnody has been betrayed and subverted by noisy, uncouth persons who have too long operated under the immunity afforded them by the timidity of the saints.
The tragic result is that for one entire generation we have been rearing Christians who are in complete ignorance of the golden treasury of songs and hymns left us by the ages. The tin horn has been substituted for the silver trumpet, and our religious leaders have been afraid to protest.
verse
Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
— Ephesians 5:19-20
thought
Today's Christian music. There are factors of generational difference, personal taste and cultural influence. There are also issues of biblical accuracy in text and whether music and accompaniement is dissonant with respect to words. What a treasure is that music we can live by in difficult times of life.
prayer
Lord, when to speak and when to keep silent. I often mistake the two. Give me wisdom.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
It is unfortunate for the cause of truth that the thinnest skin in the world is that which wraps the saints. God's children are as easily injured as new-hatched hummingbirds, and worst of all, they do not heal readily. I was reminded of this some time ago when I wrote what was meant to be a good-natured, if realistic, appraisal of a bad book. Not morally bad, understand, but just bad as a book. I was not mad at anybody, and I even tried to soften my review with a bit of what I supposed was recognizable humor.
To the credit of the books author, he simply ignored me and my review; but a few of my friends were appalled by what I had written. They felt that I had, by my frankness, hurt my Christian testimony and sinned against the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. Had I actually been living the victorious life, they reasoned, I would never have expressed myself so bluntly about a book written by another Christian. I suppose there will always be sensitive souls who think that the only way to keep sweet is to keep quiet, and who mistake honesty for carnality.
These tender-minded saints confuse humility with timidity and believe that credulity and sanctification are synonymous. As they see it, every book written by an evangelical, no matter how sub-standard it may be, should have the wholehearted endorsement of all other evangelicals.
Anything less is uncharitable and un-Christian. One result of this weak attitude is that mediocrity has become normal in the field of evangelical literature. Shoddy thinking and shoddier writing are accepted as earmarks of orthodoxy, to the grief of all better minds and to the delight of the enemies of Christ.
verse
Each one should test his own actions. . . .
— Galatians 6:4a
thought
There are times when our honest expression of an opinion will be misinterpreted, our motive and heart misread. It is well, at such times, to examine our heart and review the form of our expression to insure that we have spoken or written in love.
prayer
Father, keep me from mediocrity but remind me, too, to test my actions, my words, my attitudes. For Jesus' sake.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
It has been the experience of some great souls that the Spirit actually rests the human organism into which He enters.
The Bible would seem to support this belief.
Could this be what Isaiah had in mind when he wrote, till the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest. Justice will dwell in the desert and righteousness live in the fertile field.
The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.
My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest. Though hail flattens the forest and the city is leveled completely, how blessed you will be, sowing your seed by every stream, and letting your oxen and donkeys range free (32:15-20).
Maybe we have been missing something very wonderful and very necessary. It might be well if we gave the matter some prayerful attention.
Who knows but we may discover a secret of health long hidden from the rank and file of Christians. And God knows we need it.
verse
'Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.' By this he meant the Spirit . . .
— John 7:38-39b
thought
By "streams of living water" Jesus meant the Spirit. We have received the Spirit. He dwells within. By submitting to His control we may experience those "streams of living water."
prayer
Lord, I want to fully yield to the Spirit's control. In Jesus' name.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
It is possible to work far beyond the normal strength of the human constitution and yet experience little or no fatigue because the energy for the work has been provided, not by the burning up of human tissue, but by the indwelling Spirit of power.
This has been realized by a few unusual souls, and the pity is that they are unusual.
Attention has recently been focused upon the fact that ministers suffer a disproportionately high number of nervous breakdowns compared with other men.
The reasons are many, and for the most part they reflect credit on the men of God.
Still I wonder if it is all necessary.
I wonder whether we who claim to be sons of the new creation are not allowing ourselves to be cheated out of our heritage. Surely it should not be necessary to do spiritual work in the strength of our natural talents. God has provided supernatural energies for supernatural tasks.
The attempt to do the work of the Spirit without the Spirit's enabling may explain the propensity to nervous collapse on the part of Christian ministers.
verse
. . . Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
— Second Corinthians 12:9c
thought
Are we praying that our pastors and leaders will know supernatural energy for spiritual ministry? Let's cultivate the heart habit of praying that they will experience the Spirit's empowerment.
prayer
So easy is it to lapse into ministry in my own strength, Lord. It is Satan's great deception. Deliver me, I pray.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Apart from a few brief experiences when the pressure of the world's woes seemed about to crush Him, our Lord while on earth lived a life of relative tranquillity.
So at least we would gather from such sketchy biographical material as God has been pleased to furnish us in the four Gospels.
Though Christ was a man of sorrows and though His purity, honesty and penetrating moral insight brought Him into sharp conflict with the hollow religious world around Him, still He maintained a certain quiet poise and freedom from strain throughout His earthly sojourn.
Only when He entered purposefully into the dark regions of death to bear the sins of man did He show evidence of exhaustion. But then He was a victim, the Victim, and the normal order of His life was deliberately forsaken for the tears and blood and dying that rightfully belonged to those for whom He was vicariously suffering.
Our Lord was able to work with a minimum of weariness because He was a man completely possessed by the Holy Spirit.
As a man He did grow tired and had to sleep and rest to refresh Himself, but the strain and the exhaustion that He would otherwise have suffered were spared Him by the constant quickening of the Holy Spirit.
Peter explained that Christ went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil,after God had anointed [Him] with the Holy Spirit and power(Acts 10:38).
verse
You know . . . how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.
— Acts 10:37a-38
thought
For our Lord the anointing of the Holy Spirit meant the availability of power. Ministry can be powerless without the anointing of the Spirit. But even with the anointing there is necessary appropriation by faith of the power He provides. May we minister by His power!
prayer
O Lord, may I know the Spirit's anointing and exercise Your power. And may I remember that it is by Your power and not my own.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The prophet had said before that His name should be called Wonderful; and His very first wonder was to be born above nature.
We do not wish to read into Isaiah's strangely beautiful words meanings that are not there; but the believing heart that sees the Bible an organic spiritual unit will have no trouble finding here the truth long held sacred by all Christians, the truth of the virgin birth.
Had Israel been like a young woman at the peak of her reproductive powers, the rising of such a prodigy as Jesus from within her might have had some logic in it; but He was born of Israel when her powers had waned and her strength had withered.
By no stretch of fancy could anyone who knew Israel in that day have visioned Jesus as her offspring. Israel was dry ground politically, morally and spiritually effete. Only the few old saints who still remembered the story of Sarah and Isaac could yet hope. And perhaps even they laughed as Sarah had laughed, half in unbelief and half in expectation. Whatever Christmas may be today, that first Christmas was the celebration of a miracle. A root had come up out of a dry ground.
verse
On coming to the house, they [the Magi] saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.
Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.
— Matthew 2:11
thought
Born of a relatively unknown young woman in a stable in a small village, a helpless baby enters the world. But He is the Son of God, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. The miracle of Christmas!
prayer
May I not be distracted by the gaily wrapped packages, the tinsel, the modern commercialization, Lord, and miss the utter miracle of Christmas. I, too, would worship You.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/