The great weight of exhortation these days is in the direction of zeal and activity. "Let's get going" is the favorite watchword for gospel workers, with the result that everyone feels ashamed to sit down and think.
But it will pay to do it, nevertheless.
It would be a shock to most of us to learn just what God thinks of our breathless activity, and a greater shock to many to find out the true quality of our service as God sees it.
For not all religious activity is accepted of God, not even when it appears to produce results and get things done. The Lord seeth not as man seeth. Christian service, to be accepted of God, must be fresh and sincere.
Whatever is done out of habit is not approved; anything done in a perfunctory manner is below the level of quality expected of us. The careless song, the sermon preached for no higher reason than because it is Sunday again, the tithe tossed into the plate, the testimony given because it seems the thing to do not one of these will stand up under the searching eyes of God.
In Christian service motive is everything, for it is motive that gives to every moral act its final quality.
verse
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
— Colossians 3:17
thought
For the believer there is no secular/sacred dichotomy. All is sacred whether carrying out work in the office, the school, the shop, the home. We may do all to the glory of God!
prayer
Lord, please remind me that service to You is not restricted to a church building or a church office position. I can do the menial tasks of life to Your glory though unnoticed by others.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
David's religion had social implications, but he was no mere do-gooder, no patcher-upper of the world's hurts.
All his service was rendered according to the will of God. It was the divine quality in his ministry that made it immortal.
Many good deeds may be done whose final effects will not be lasting. A sick man laboring to cure the ills of another sick man may be a moving sight, but it can hardly be a reassuring one, for both will die at last. But the service that can bring the healing touch of God into human life is infinitely to be preferred to any other.
It is the will of God that brings eternity into human toil. We should remember that if we are to serve our generation we must get at it right away, for our generation will not be around long.
Isaac Watts wrote: "Time, like an ever rolling stream Bears all its sons away; They fly, forgotten, as a dream Dies at the opening day."
We are all born in debt to the world, and that debt increases as we grow older.
If we are wise in the Spirit, we shall see to it that we turn the tables and put the world in debt to us.
This we can do only by serving our generation by the will of God before it is too late.
verse
I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. — Romans 1:14
thought
As was Paul so are we under obligation to share the Good News of Christ with people all around us. We are under obligation to share Christ by our life, our daily living and our words. People need the Lord!
prayer
Holy Spirit, use even me. I'm so weak, so small, so unimpressive. But reach out through me. For Christ's sake.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The life Ideal was described by the apostle in the Book of Acts: "For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep."
We submit that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to improve upon this. It embraces the whole sphere of religion, appearing as it does in its three directions: God, the individual, society. Within that simple triangle all possible human activities are carried on.
To each of us there can be but these three dimensions: God, myself, others. Beyond this we cannot go, nor should we even attempt to go.
If we serve God according to His own will, and in doing so serve our generation, we shall have accomplished all that is possible for any human being. David was smart enough to serve God and his generation before he fell asleep.
To fall asleep before we have served our generation is nothing short of tragic. It is good to sleep at last, as all our honored fathers have done, but it is a moral calamity to sleep without having first labored to bless the world.
No man has any right to die until he has put mankind in debt to him. No man has any moral right to lie down on the earth till he has wrought to take something of the earth out of the hearts of men, till he has helped to free men from the tyranny of that same earth and pointed them to that kingdom that will abide after the heavens and the earth are no more.
verse
For when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed.
— Acts 13:36
thought
David served God's purpose in his generation. What purpose does God have for you and me in our generation? Are we serving it?
prayer
Father, I am not a David in spiritual strength, gifts or leadership. But I am Your servant where You have placed me. Reach out to people through me for Jesus' sake.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Two questions are embraced within the one problem: What shall I do with my sin? and what shall I do with Jesus which is called Christ?
In spite of every effort of the pseudo-learned world to dispose of the sin question, it remains still, a perennial heartache to the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. It is one of those persistent pains that lies deep in the soul and never quite stops hurting. It just won't go away.
The devil and the busy sons of men have sought throughout the centuries for something to make this problem go away. They have invented how many thousands of amusements, they have created innumerable pleasures to take the mind off its central woe; but nothing works.
Sin is still the world's first problem.
The second question, What shall I do with Jesus? is the answer to the first one, because Jesus came to save men from their sins.
Let us answer the second one rightly and the first one will be solved automatically. If we but come to Jesus with our sin upon us and without any hope except His mercy, we shall surely be delivered from the ancient curse. But remember, sin demands an answer. It won't just go away. It must be carried away by redeeming blood, and redeeming blood was never shed by any other lamb except the Lamb of God.
verse
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
— 1 Peter 2:24
thought
Christ has died for your sin and mine. Not just the sin of the past which we have confessed and for which we have asked forgiveness but sin in the future which we shall confess. What unfailing love! What amazing grace!
prayer
O Christ, You bore my sins in Your body on the cross. By Your wounds I am healed. You did it so that I might die to sins and live for righteousness. Lord, I want so to live!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
It is an illuminating experience to read the history of the great spiritual movements that have blessed the world over the last 2,000 years.
Scarcely any of these began quietly; almost always they struck the earth with the suddenness of a cyclone. . . . History shows another fact also.
When the first heat of the originators of great movements had spent itself after their death, immediately another spirit entered and took over?it was the spirit of conventionalism. It retained the outward form of the orginal movement but lost all the inward heat. The movement ceased to move; its adherents gained popularity and lost power; the apocalyptic quality of its message disappeared; its new teachers set about to make its teaching acceptable to Christendom?and their success became at last their greatest tragedy.
It is a lamentable fact that the crusading spirit is almost wholly lost to the deeper life branches of the church. Modern crusaders are for the most part no more than high octane proselyters operating down on a level far below New Testament plateaus.
They make all the noise and get all the notice, while hungry-hearted saints shake their heads in discouragement and wait for-what?
verse
Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?
— Psalm 85:6
thought
Often God uses little people in bringing revival to His Church. People filled with the Spirit who are fully convinced of their weakness and unworthiness but firmly trusting in God's power. Many of us God could not use in reviving His Church. We would tak
prayer
Father, will You not revive us again? By Your Spirit cause our "movement" to move! Not by our might nor our power but by Your Spirit, O God.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Such a fast hold does inertia have upon almost everything religious that it takes a powerful and sudden attack by determined forces to move anything.
It takes something like a crusade to get anything done these days. The principle of laissez faire is so firmly implanted in all of us that something in the nature of an earthquake is needed to jar us loose and start us on the right way.
It is an illuminating experience to read the history of the great spiritual movements that have blessed the world over the last 2,000 years.
Scarely any of these began quietly; almost always they struck the earth with the suddenness of a cyclone.
We have only to mention a few to prove our point: the ministry of John the Baptist, the appearance of Jesus Christ with His miracles, Pentecost, the Reformation, the Wesleyan revivals, the Great Awakening, revivals in Wales, in Korea, the strange and wonderful work under the Prophet Harris in Africathe list is long.
These movements struck with the unexpectedness of lightning and found people without a defense against them. Methodism, for instance, moved with the speed of a forest fire and took on the character of a crusade.
The spiritual certainty within the hearts of a select few became so white-hot that it set others on fire around it and started an unplanned movement toward a return to New Testament standards and the deeper things of the Spirit.
verse
Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.
— Habakkuk 3:2
thought
True revival is not something we can manufacture. It must come from God. It is not about personalities and methods and strategies. It is God moving in sovereign power.
prayer
O Lord, do it again! Stir Your Church with renewing power as You have done in times past. Send refreshing. In Jesus' name.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
There will always be danger from one or the other of these two extremes, slavish dependence or arrogant independence.
Some Christians (by far the majority) will accept a place of timid conformity and surrender themselves to the bondage of authority and custom.
In all things religious they will become meek followers of popular trends within their own circle. Such as these have no vision of their own, no true convictions, no inward freedom. They are slaves of the religious machine; they know nothing of the liberty with which Christ has made us free. The other extreme is found here and there among us, and while it never has as many followers as the cult of bondage, it is nevertheless quite well represented in orthodox circles.
Its followers glorify freedom to a point where they deny their proper debt to fellow Christians and scorn the interdependence of the body. They are often contemptuous of spiritual authority, and they deny the right of Spirit-gifted men to exercise their gifts within the church.
This breeds a kind of religious anarchy that is altogether unscriptural and, as might be expected, extremely injurious to the cause of true spirituality.
Both extremes must be avoided. We must live in the paradox of happy dependent freedom.
verse
You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.
— Galatians 5:13
thought
Christ is the source of true freedom. He teaches us and leads us through other believers. But we are primarily servants to Him not to them. With our brothers and sisters in Christ we are fellow pilgrims, fellow servants. We serve Him in serving others. W
prayer
Thank You, Father, for freedom in Christ. Help me to guard against self-indulgence. May I freely serve others in love by Your enablement.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
It is a difficult thing to do, yet very necessary that we find a place of complete spiritual freedom and loving dependence upon one another.
Here in the wide valley between two high and dangerous peaks is the broad dwelling of God's true and wise children.
The spirit of complete inward freedom is a precious heritage from the cross and should be treasured as one of life's most wonderful possessions. It is our privilege to be wholly free from evil habits, from superstition, from the fear of men, from the slavery of popular customs, from the necessity of pleasing the self-elected dictators of society. Such freedom is wondrously delightful, near to the joy of heaven itself.
The one whom the Son has set free is as free from others as if there were no others living in the world. He would walk with God in quiet inward liberty if no one else on earth were to go along with him. Yet such a happy soul has no feeling of independence; he is deeply conscious that he is a member of a larger body of which Christ is the head, and he willingly acknowledges his indebtedness to all other Christians.
He thanks God for every one of His children and is eager to learn from all of them. He is grateful for "holy men of God who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," for translators, expositors, teachers, intercessors, hymnists, and he thankfully acknowledges the part they all had in ministering to his own life the liberating things of the free Spirit.
verse
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
— John 8:36
thought
How much we owe to those men and women of God who have gone on before. From their experience and example we have learned much. Yet we, too, may walk with God, enjoying the freedom He gives while learning of Him through others who so walked.
prayer
Father, I want to know that full freedom which is in Christ. I want to be free in the Spirit yet sensitive to what You teach me through other believers.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Some good Christians are afraid to give notice to any lovely virtues which may appear here and there among God's people lest they detract from the glory of Christ.
Such timidity is understandable, but uncalled for. If we know to begin with that all goodness is from Christ, that all sweetness, all holiness, all loveliness are out of Him and from Him and in Him, we will not hesitate to recognize moral excellence wherever it may occur on this dark planet. If a ray of holy light shines out from any man's life, it must be because Christ is there shining in secret in a human breast, and we should be quick to catch this dim glimpse of the Light of the World again incarnated in a human being.
The glory of Christ will not suffer from this frank and eager acknowledgment of virtue where we find it. Because we are sentient beings, we must have some love-motivation to keep us running. This fact (on a lower level) is well known to everyone.
God knew this (for He made us) and gave us the supreme love-Object of the universe to fire our hearts with holy passion. That Object is Jesus. The Christian faith may be summed up in the love of Jesus.
To love Him enough is to be sweetly and wonderfully free.
To love Him as He should be loved is to know at once complete release from religious forms and traditions.
It is to reach the goal of life even here below.
verse
And let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us, confirming the work that we do. Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do! (The Message).
— Psalm 90:17
thought
Experiencing Christ's love and loving Him brings a new dimension to daily living. We serve Him, we obey Him, we follow Him because we love Him! Have we opened ourselves to that love?
prayer
May Your loveliness rest on me and all your people. It is that loveliness that confirms the work we do. We serve You as an expression of our love for You.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/