Now, while we cannot project ourselves backward through time and walk again in Galilee with Christ and His disciples,
we can by faith actually experience "the substance of things hoped for";
we can have every sufficient "evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1, KJV);
we can taste "the powers of the coming age" (6:5);
we can "know" and "comprehend";
we can have the inner witness, the spiritual illumination that brings out the typography of the kingdom of God as clearly as any earthly landscape is revealed by the rising sun.
Then every word will be like a sharp, clear shadow thrown by the objects on the terrain, not to stand in place of reality, but to outline it and set it in relief.
A word is valid only when it refers to some reality in the mind of the user.
It must submit to definition as used by the speaker. Its dictionary meaning cannot save it from semantic fraud.
It must have a real meaning in its limited context at a given time.
By this test an alarmingly great amount of our religious talk is phonetic breath, no more.
verse
For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. . . .
— First Thessalonians 1:4-5
thought
There is "religious talk" and there are words of truth validated by power, the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. Such words penetrate the heart, assuring us that God speaks through His servant who himself has been radically changed.
prayer
Deliver me, Lord, from spouting religious talk. May I speak of whom and what I know from the vantage of personal encounter.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Religious people are psychologically conditioned to the trite phrase and the hackneyed expression.
True, the stereotyped pattern varies slightly between different groups, but there would seem to be no reason why a clever speaker could not preach tonight to Calvinists, tomorrow to Arminians, the next day to Pentecostals, the next to Holiness people, and successively to Separatists and Adventists, and preach acceptably to each one by the simple expedient of finding out what they were conditioned to expect and giving it to them.
A clever man could do this, I say, but an honest man would not.
And the reason the clever man could do it is that the ability to create a specific pattern of words is all that is demanded of the speaker. That he may be talking about something he has never experienced to people who do not understand him seems not to occur to anyone. The reassuring drone of safe and familiar religious phrases is enough to give the listeners an enjoyable sense of well-being. The absence of reality is not even noticed.
A Christian is among other things a witness, and as such he speaks of those things which he has personally experienced.
The Bible was, for the most part, written by men who saw and heard certain great realities and reported on them. "I saw" and "I heard" are familiar Old Testament expressions, and the New Testament literally pulsates with life and experience.
John's vivid words are a sample: That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.
The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.
We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard (1 John 1:1-3).
verse
For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
— 2 Timothy 4:3
thought
Itching ears are tuned to hear what they want to hear. Our inclination is to so accommodate them. But words God uses to speak to and change people through us are those words of truth that we ourselves have personally proved to be true.
prayer
I confess, Lord, that at times I want to hear only soothing, assuring words. But Your Word through those who are living it, forces me to see who I am and who You want me to be.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
We Christians owe it to ourselves and to the human race to be above all persons, candid, downright and completely transparent.
We must have no truck with fancy, but see to it that our religious talk hugs the facts as tightly as a glove and that our words always have some reality corresponding to them.
Over the years I have been disturbed more than a little by the vague unreality of much that I hear among religious people. This is not a charge of insincerity. I have no doubt of the sincerity of most religious persons. It is the lack of reality that disturbs me.
Indeed the gravity of the situation is increased by the very earnestness with which many persons are occupied with unreality.
Religion stands at the top as being among all fields of human interest the one most addicted to words. Nowhere else are there so many words and so few deeds to support them.
There is something about a religious gathering, and particularly about a church building, that produces in the worshiper a state of pleasant languor and suspends his critical faculties for the duration of the service.
The average Christian goes to church expecting to hear certain words and phrases and the average preacher knows what they are. It does not matter too much in what order they occur, and if they should be spoken with a considerable degree of enthusiasm, so much the better; only let them be familiar and harmless.
Nothing more is required or expected.
verse
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with them.
— Ephesians 5:6
thought
There are words full of meaning, expressing the heart. And there are empty words by which we may deceive ourselves and others. By empty words we may "talk the talk" while not "walking the walk."
prayer
Father, I cannot control the words of others but I am responsible for my own. Give me increased sensitivity to the use of words that fail to express spiritual reality.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
When we are first converted, especially if we come from a non-Christian background, we are likely to be almost too naive for our own good.
The wondrous experience through which we have just passed, or perhaps I should say into which we have entered, has predisposed us to believe in everybody.
Our trust in other Christians is likely to be boundless.
That there could be hypocrites, double-minded professors, religious pretenders, carnal camp followers, never once enters our minds.
The result is that our first encounter with a worldly church member comes as a frightful shock to our sensitive minds. Some never recover from this shattering of their confidence. They become religious cripples. Their growth is stunted and their usefulness destroyed, or at the least greatly hindered from that moment on.
That I speak truly here may be proved by everyday experience; but there is a more sure word of Scripture: "But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin [shall offend any one of these, KJV] it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea" (Matthew 18:6).
When we learn that the word offend actually means cause to stumble or to sin, we know how serious the whole thing is.
Better to die than to imperil the faith of a weak disciple. Christ's words may mean more than that, but they can hardly mean less.
verse
Jesus said to his disciples: 'Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come.'
— Luke 17:1
thought
It is tragic when we ourselves stumble. It is far more grievous for us to cause others to stumble. To avoid causing others to stumble is itself strong incentive to walk by the Spirit.
prayer
O Lord, may I be an encouragement to others in their walk with You and not a cause for stumbling. In Jesus' name.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The newborn Christian finds himself alive with a sweet, enjoyable kind of life that he accepts naively, almost unconsciously.
To him everything is simple and immediate. He knows no intermediary. Christ is to him on an infinitely higher level what its mother is to a baby warmth, nourishment, protection, rest and an object of satisfying affection.
Right here is where the wrong kind of Bible teacher can do his damage.
The first thing he does is to destroy the new Christian's simplicity.
He introduces something between the Christian and Christ. He makes him Biblo-centric instead of Christo-centric. (And there is a difference, let no one deceive you.)
The Spirit-anointed Bible teacher will so teach the Word as to keep it transparent, so as to allow it to be what it always should be, a kind of burning bush which God indwells and out of which He shines in awesome splendor.
The beholder sees the bush, it is true, but the object of his interest is the Presence, not the bush.
The wrong kind of teacher gets so technical about the bush that the fire dims down and the light ceases to fall on the Christian's face. That is what the gentle cynic meant when he said "before he has met too many Bible teachers."
As for "too many church members" spoiling the new Christian's happiness, it is the result of disillusionment pure and simple.
verse
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.
— Ephesians 4:14
thought
There are those "teachers" who parade their "wisdom" and scholarship intent on attracting those taught to themselves and their "great knowledge." Then, there are those Spirit-filled teachers who point us to Christ and show us how to study the Word for ourselves.
prayer
Thank You, Lord, for those teachers who have labored to teach me to study Your Word and discern Your voice speaking through it.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The happiest man in the world," said a well-known preacher some time ago, "is the new convert before he has met too many Bible teachers and seen too many church members." . . . The first half of our opening quotation, then, is so true as to need no verification.
"The happiest man in the world is a new convert." But it is the last half that disturbs me.
Why should a Bible teacher or a church member tend to destroy the joy of the new convert?
Well, to be just to everyone I must assert positively that not all Bible teachers and church members would have such an adverse effect. I know Bible teachers who would delight in piling more fuel on the blazing altar of the young Christian's heart, and I know church members whose influence and example would be a source of great strength to his whole life.
But I also know many of the other kind, the kind the young convert must actually climb over in his struggle to advance in the Christian life.
The way some Bible teachers injure the new convert is to take away his simplicity; and the way some church members do it is by disillusioning him before
he is ready for it.
verse
You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?
— Galatians 5:7
thought
How injurious to the new believer are the false teachers and carnal Christians. Confusion and disillusionment can result, impeding growth. Exposure to solid Bible teaching and a model of Spirit-filled living provide invaluable encouragement.
prayer
O Lord, by Your enablement, may I be a help to new believers and not a hindrance.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The happiest man in the world," said a well-known preacher some time ago, "is the new convert before he has met too many Bible teachers and seen too many church members."
Even after we have made what allowance we must for the obvious irony in these words, there still remains in them sufficient truth to perturb the honest Christian soul more than a little. Surely one of the happiest persons in the world should be the new convert. Has he not found Him of whom Moses and all the prophets did write?
The spontaneous song that bursts from his lips is likely to be: "Hallelujah! I have found Him Whom my soul so long has craved. Jesus satisfies my longings; Through His blood I now am saved." Old things pass away and all things become new. So brilliant is the contrast between the dark despair of but a few short hours ago and the new, bright world into which he has been thrust by the miracle of faith that every nerve and cell in his complex personality vibrates joyously.
The testimony of many persons known for their poise and self-restraint has been that at the time of their first satisfying encounter with Christ the whole world took on a new luster.
It is not unusual to hear people say that on the night of their conversion, the air smelled sweeter, the stars shone more brightly and all the common familiar objects of nature appeared to glow with a subdued light. And that these men and women were not the victims of a hallucination is proved triumphantly by the stability of their subsequent lives and the salty good sense manifest in all their religious attitudes.
verse
For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.
— Psalm 36:9
thought
Through faith in Christ we find Him to be the fountain of the light of life. His light dispels the darkness and His life is that light. How blazingly bright is that light!
prayer
You, O Christ, are the Light of life to me. I was blind and dead. In You I see and live. Hallejuah!
malliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
If this working, yet not working, doing God's work, yet not doing it, should seem to be confusing, remember there is a parallel for it in the well-known testimony of Paul in Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me."
From all this I think we may draw the following conclusion: We can no more do the work of God than we can live the life of God.
In the believing and surrendered soul, Christ lives His life again and continues to live it, and in the obedient, believing man, God will continue to work, reaching out and through the human instrument to accomplish His wonders among men.
It is critically important that we grasp this truth.
Much religious work is being done these days that is not owned by our Lord and will not be accepted or rewarded in that great day. Superior human gifts are being mistaken for the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and neither they who exercise these gifts nor the Christian public before whom they are exercised are aware of the deception.
Never has there been more activity in religious circles and, I confidently believe, never has there been so little of God and so much of the flesh.
Such work is a snare because it keeps us busy and at the same time prevents us from discovering that it is our work and not God's. "Nothing is wrought by creatures," said Meister Eckhart; "the Father works alone. The soul shall never stop until she works as well as God. Then she and the Father shall do His work together: she shall work as one with Him, wisely and lovingly.
That we may be in unity with Him. God help us. Amen."
verse
For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.
— First Corinthians 3:9
thought
What a sacred privilege to be
prayer
Lord, only as I fully surrender to You will You use me as You want to use me. May I so give myself to You!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Certain passages of Scripture, if carelessly read, might give the impression that God delegates some of His work to Christian leaders to do for Him as a manufacturer might sublet to others certain items in a contract; such, for instance, as First Corinthians 15:58,
"Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."
In First Corinthians 16:10 Paul says plainly that Timothy "is carrying on the work of the Lord, just as I am," but we must never understand from this that these men did a work of God apart.
Rather they were the obedient instruments in whom and through whom God wrought His own work.
Any misunderstanding about this is cleared up by the explanation of Paul in Colossians 1:29,
"To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me";
and First Corinthians 15:10, "I worked harder than all of them yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me."
verse
Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
— 1 Corinthains 15:58
thought
Labor in the Lord is not in vain. Labor outside the Lord may well be in vain. We labor in the Lord when we labor using His enablement for His glory.
prayer
Forgive me, Lord, for trying to serve You in my own strength and ability when You have provided Your enablement.
cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/