Among the many wonders of the Holy Scriptures is their ability frequently to compress into a sentence truth so vast, so complex, as to require a whole shelf of books to expound.
Even a single phrase may glow with a light like that of the ancient pillar of fire and its shining may illuminate the intellectual landscape for miles around.
An example is found in Jeremiah 10:23. After the Lord had spoken of the vanity of idols and had set in contrast to the gods of the heathen the glory of the living God, the King of Eternity, the prophet responded in an inspired exclamation that very well states the whole problem of humankind: O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
The prophet here turns to a figure of speech, one which appears in the Scriptures so frequently that it is not easy to remember that it is but a figure.
Man is seen as a traveler making his difficult way from a past he can but imperfectly recollect into a future about which he knows nothing.
And he cannot stay, but must each morning strike his moving tent and journey on toward-and there is the heavy problem-toward what?
verse
I know, O LORD, that a mans life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps.
— Jeremiah 10:23
thought
It is not for us to direct our steps but how often we try. Only God knows the way ahead. The Good Shepherd leads if we will but follow.
prayer
It is for You to direct my steps. Today, Good Shepherd, lead me and I will follow.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The dream of a universal brotherhood based upon the ethics of Jesus is just that-a dream.
It is compounded of a few words of Christ mixed with vast numbers of uninspired words spoken by men whose yearnings are to be commended but whose wisdom is suspect. To arrive at the doctrine of brotherhood it is necessary that we reject the major portion of the New Testament and misunderstand the rest.
There were once two brothers. They lived in a society that had not had time to develop the many social evils we know today.
Yet one killed the other because sin was there. If two brothers in the morning of the world could not get on together, how can we hope that the gentle teachings of Jesus can ever bring brotherhood to a race filled with complex iniquities, where men inherit hates and where the souls of all are lacerated by jealousy, envy, egotism, greed and lust?
The hope of the individual is the new birth and the acceptance of the teachings of Christ as a way of life.
The hope of the race is that Christ shall come again to earth. Even so, Lord, come quickly.
verse
Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all you soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.
— Matthew 22:37-39
thought
Can men and women obey the Great Commandments without submitting themselves to the Great Commander? Lets not be shocked when unbelievers fail to live by the Great Commandments. But what is our excuse for not doing so?
prayer
Forgive me, Lord, for expecting of others Christlike living when they have never been born of You. By Your Spirit show me those areas of life in which it is me living and not You.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The ethics of Jesus must be imposed upon society, we are told, then all inequalities will vanish; the division of humanity into rich and poor, great and small, privileged and underprivileged will be no more.
Under the benign influence of Christs ethics of love, greed and war will disappear from the earth and the dream of universal brotherhood be realized at last.
The teachings of Jesus belong to the Church, not to society. In society is sin and sin is hostility to God. Christ did not teach that He would impose His teachings upon the fallen world.
He called His disciples to Him and taught them, and everywhere throughout His teachings there is the overt or implied idea that His followers will constitute an unpopular minority group in an actively hostile world. The divine procedure is to go into the world of fallen men, preach to them the necessity to repent and become disciples of Christ and, after making disciples, to teach them the ethics of Jesus, which Christ called all things whatsoever I have commanded you.
The ethics of Jesus cannot be obeyed or even understood until the life of God has come to the heart of a man in the miracle of the new birth.
The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in them who walk in the Spirit.
Christ lives again in His redeemed follower the life He lived in Judea; for righteousness can never be divorced from its source, which is Jesus Christ Himself.
verse
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them . . . and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. . . .
— Matthew 28:19-20
thought
We all discover that we cant practice the ethics of Jesus without His enablement. He makes that enablement available to us by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
prayer
O Christ, I am breathing out my own life, that I may be filled with Thine; letting go my strength and weakness, breathing in Thy life divine.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
It may seem a bit odd that the religious teachers who exalted the teachings of Jesus to the seventh empyrean should in the same breath demote the person of Jesus to the level of a common man; yet they did just that.
They lamented with many a crocodile tear the error of the Church in worshiping Jesus and failing to spread His ethics throughout the earth.
The implication was that the man Jesus was important only because of the sterling quality of His ethics; though it was hard for some then and it is hard for others now to understand how a mans teaching can be greater than the man.
The same persons who exalted His doctrine of love completely ignored His claim to deity and brushed aside His teachings on sin, judgment and hell, as well as His whole system of eschatology. This arrogant picking and choosing among the words of Christ gave some persons the impression that these teachers were far less sincere than they claimed to be, for a man need not be a genius to reach the conclusion that if Jesus was wrong about almost all of His teachings there could be no certainty that He was right about the rest.
Well, it is not my intention to fight again the battle of Bunker Hill. If all this belonged only to the past we might be content to let the dead bury their dead and pass on to something else; but the ghosts of the old Modernists appear to have been reincarnated and many of the arguments raised by the liberals a generation ago are now being repeated by the orthodox.
verse
They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
— Acts 2:42
thought
It seems that in each generation certain biblical teaching is debated as to the authors intent, meaning, cultural context and whether locally or universally applicable. Current issues include homosexual practice and the nature of family. Do disciples hav
prayer
Lord, keep me from error in understanding Your Word and the response You desire from me to it. In Jesus name.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The truth in the Person of the Logos, the Word, is seeking to illuminate the minds of men.
That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
For this reason, when we conceive ourselves to be honest seekers who cannot find the light we are in a state of dangerous self-deception.
It is a grave situation.
Unless help comes quickly the darkness may close down upon us permanently. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness. Behind all our failure to find light is an unconfessed and possibly an unconscious love of darkness.
This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God (John 3:19-21).
We should always remember that we are accountable not only for the light we have but also for the light we might have if we were willing to obey it.
Truth is sovereign and will not allow itself to be trifled with.
And it is easy to find for it is trying to find us.
Obedience is the big problem: and unwillingness to obey is the cause of continued darkness.
verse
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
— John 3:19
thought
Are we going through life with our eyes closed to the light because we love darkness? Rise up to obey the Light and more light will flood into our lives. We have been reborn to walk in light.
prayer
Shine, Jesus, shine in this heart of mine. Expose those pockets of darkness. I want to live in the sunlight of Your love.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Our Lord said, I am the Truth, and again He said, The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Truth therefore is not hard to find for the very reason that it is seeking us.
Truth is not a thing for which we must search, but a Person to whom we must hearken.
This is taught or taken for granted in the record of Gods dealings with men throughout the Sacred Scriptures.
After the sin in Eden it was not Adam who cried O God, where art Thou? but God who cried Where art thou? as He sought for Adam among the trees of the Garden.
Abraham heard God speak and responded, but it was God who was the aggressor.
God appeared unto Jacob before Jacob came to appear before God. And in the burning bush God revealed Himself to Moses.
Again and again did God take the initiative.
He sought for Gideon and found him on the threshing floor of Ophrah.
He showed Himself to Isaiah when there is no evidence that Isaiah was seeking Him.
Before Jeremiah was born God laid His hand upon him, and He opened heaven to let the discouraged priest Ezekiel see a vision and hear a voice.
Amos said he was not a prophet neither a prophets son, but the Lord took him as he followed the flock.
Again God was the aggressor.
In the New Testament things are not otherwise. True, multitudes came to Christ for physical help, but only rarely did one seek Him out to learn the truth; and even that rare one usually turned away when the truth was told him.
The whole picture in the Gospels is one of a seeking Savior, not one of seeking men.
The truth was hunting for those who would receive it, and relatively few did. Many are called, but few are chosen.
verse
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.
— Luke 19:10
thought
Christ is the Truth. He is also the seeker of lost people. Long before we ever sought truth, Truth was seeking us.
prayer
Before I ever reached out to You, You were reaching out to me. All praise to You, Im found!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
It is born in every man to want to dramatize his life and to cast himself as the star of the performance .
Once let a man become persuaded that he is a hero in quest of the holy grail of truth and he becomes a victim of a pretty and pleasant delusion that inflates his ego and blinds him to the very truth he claims to seek. And if he is later forced to admit that he has not found it he absolves himself from all guilt, for has he not searched?
Has he not hunted through the years for the precious treasure?
Where is the stone he has left unturned?
Where has he not drilled or digged among the philosophies and religions of the world?
Why then has he not found?
To him there can be only one answer: The Spirit and Wisdom of the universe has let him down.
The great Oversoul has withheld the secret from him. So he tells himself and in wounded dignity walks stiffly into the sunset convinced that he has been deeply wronged in his effort to discover lifes summum bonum. His is a tragedy worthy of Aeschylus and he himself grand in failure and noble in defeat. Disillusioning people is a thankless task and quite plainly does not come under the category of making friends and thinking positively.
Nevertheless it must be done if we are to rescue lost men from the consequences of their delusions.
So let me say boldly that it is not the difficulty of discovering truth but the unwillingness to obey it that makes it so rare among men.
verse
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
— John 8:31-32
thought
Often it is the simple, marginally educated people who find ultimate truth while the intelligentsia search in vain. The reason is that truth to be discovered must be obeyed.
prayer
Thank You, Father, for the example of common but godly people whose lives have demonstrated to me that the simplest may find the truth if they are but willing to obey it.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The world is full of seekers, true enough, and they gravitate quite naturally toward the church.
Seekers after peace of mind are plentiful enough to keep the printing presses busy; seekers after physical health are always with us in sufficient numbers to make our leading faith healers comfortably rich; seekers after success and safety are legion, as our popular religious leaders know too well.
But real seekers after truth are almost as rare as albino deer.
And here is why: Truth is a glorious but hard master.
It makes moral demands upon us.
It claims the sovereign right to control us, to strip us, even to slay us as it chooses.
Truth will never stoop to be a servant but requires that all men serve it.
It never flatters men and never compromises with them.
It demands all or nothing and refuses to be used or patronized.
It will be all in all or it will withdraw into silence.
It was Christ who capitalized truth and revealed that it was not an it at all but a Being with all the attributes of personality.
I am the Truth, He said, and followed truth straight to the cross.
The truth seeker must follow Him there; and that is the reason few men seek truth.
verse
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;
— Romans 8:5-6
thought
Seeing truth means following Christ who is the Truth. Inevitably Christ leads us to the cross, our cross-saying no to the sinful nature so as to live in accordance with the indwelling Spirit.
prayer
Lord, saying no to desires of the sinful nature seems to close the door on so many self-pleasing pleasures. Yet it opens to me the Spirit-controlled life, living the truth.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Almost everywhere it is assumed that people are seeking truth, that society is literally swarming with dedicated truth seekers.
The fact is that men have never in any numbers sought after truth.
If we may judge peoples interests by their deeds, then of the young men and women who stream forth from our halls of learning each year the vast majority have no more than a passing and academic interest in truth.
They go to college not to satisfy a yearning to discover truth, but to improve their social standing and increase their earning power.
These motives are not necessarily to be despised; but they should be known for what they are, and not hidden beneath a pink cloud of specious idealism.
What are people actually seeking?
Of course they seek satisfaction for the basic urges such as hunger, sex and social companionship; but beyond these what?
Certainly for nothing as high and noble as truth. Ask the average American what he wants from life and if he is candid he will tell you he wants success in his chosen field; and he wants success both for the prestige it brings him and for the financial security it affords. And why does he want financial security?
To guarantee him against the loss of comforts, luxuries and pleasures, which he believes are rightfully his as a part of his American heritage.
The ominous thing about all this is that everything he wants can be bought with money.
It would be hard to think of an indictment more terrible than that.
verse
And Ill say to myself, You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry. But God said to him, You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourse
— Luke 12:19-20
thought
For the rich man wealth insured his future. But what a very limited future it proved to be. Financial security is of no worth beyond death. After death what counts is having found truth and obeyed it.
prayer
Father, I know that money cannot buy eternal truth. Deliver me from living as if it could.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/