It Is Modern Man Himself Who Is the Dreamer: by AW Tozer

You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.  So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. 1 Thessalonians 5:5-6

We of the Christian faith need not go on the defensive, for it is the modern man of the world who is the dreamer, not the Christian believer!

The sinner can never be quite himself. All his life he must pretend. He must act as if he were never going to die, and yet he knows too well that he is. He must act as if he had not sinned, when in his deep heart he knows very well that he has. He must act unconcerned about God and judgment and the future life, and all the time his heart is deeply disturbed about his precarious condition. He must keep up a front of nonchalance while shrinking from facts and wincing under the lash of conscience. All his adult life he must dodge and hide and conceal. When he finally drops the act he either loses his mind or tries suicide.

If realism is the recognition of things as they actually are, the Christian is of all persons the most realistic. He of all intelligent thinkers is the one most concerned with reality. He pares things down to their stark essentials and squeezes out of his mind everything that inflates his thinking. He demands to know the whole truth about God, sin, life, death, moral accountability and the world to come. He wants to know the worst about himself in order that he may do something about it. He takes into account the undeniable fact that he has sinned. He recognizes the shortness of time and the certainty of death. These he does not try to avoid or alter to his own liking. They are facts and he faces them full on.

The believer is a realist—his expectations are valid and his faith well grounded!

The Omnipresence of Christ: by Andrew Murray

I will be with you. Exodus 3:12

When Christ said to His disciples, “I have been given complete authority in heaven and on earth,” the promise immediately followed, “I am with you always”

Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20

The Omnipotent One is truly the Omnipresent One. The writer of Psalm 139 speaks of God’s omnipresence as something beyond his comprehension: “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to know!” (verse 6).

The revelation of God’s omnipresence in the man Christ Jesus makes the mystery still deeper. The fact that we can experience this presence every moment is inexpressibly wonderful. And yet many of us find it difficult to understand all that Christ’s presence implies and how, through prayer, it can become the practical experience of our daily life.

When Christ says “always,” He means to give us the assurance that there should never be a moment in which that presence cannot be our experience. Yet, it does not depend upon what we can effect, but upon what He undertakes to do.

The omnipotent Christ is indeed the omnipresent Christ. His promise to us is: “I am with you always.” Let your faith in Christ, the Omnipresent One, be in the quiet confidence that He will be with you every day and every moment. Meet Him in prayer, and let His presence be your strength for service. 

The Cross: by TA Sparks

Christ is all, and in all. (Colossians 3:11)

Beloved, the Cross was intended only to make the Lord Jesus all, and in all, for us; and is it not true that, because of the way that the Lord has dealt with us, the way in which He has applied the Cross, planting us into that death and burial, we know Him in a way in which we never knew Him before? Is it not by that way that He has become what He is to us, ever more and more dear to our hearts? The increase of the Lord Jesus in and to us is by the way of the Cross. We know quite well that our chief enemy is ourselves, our flesh. This flesh gives us no rest, no peace, no satisfaction; we have no joy in it. It obsesses, engrosses, and constantly struts across our path to rob us of the very joy of living. What is to be done with it? Well, in and by the Cross we are delivered from ourselves; not only from our sins, but from ourselves; and being delivered from ourselves we are delivered into Christ, and Christ becomes far more than we.

It is a painful process, but it is a blessed issue; and those amongst us who may have had the greatest agony along this line would, I believe, testify that what it has brought to us of the knowledge and riches of the Lord Jesus has made all the suffering worthwhile. So the work of the Lord for us and the work of the Lord in us, by the Cross, is only intended in the Divine thought to make room for the Lord Jesus.

A Bible Fact: A Regenerated Man Knows God – by AW Tozer

So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. Acts 27:25

The Bible assumes as a self-evident fact that men can know God with at least the same degree of immediacy as they know any other person or thing that comes within the field of their experience.

The same terms are used to express the knowledge of God as are used to express knowledge of physical things:

“O TASTE and see that the Lord is good.”

“All thy garments SMELL of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia.”

“My sheep HEAR my voice.”

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall SEE God.”

These are but four of countless such passages from the Word of God. And more important than any proof text is the fact that the whole import of the Scripture is toward this belief.

We apprehend the physical world by exercising the faculties given us for the purpose, and we possess spiritual faculties by means of which we can know God and the spiritual world if we will obey the Spirit’s urge and begin to use them.

That a saving work must first be done in the heart is taken for granted here. The spiritual faculties of the unregenerate man lie asleep in his nature; they may be quickened to active life again by the operation of the Holy Spirit in regeneration!

Restoring His Presence: by Andrew Murray

“Restore to me again the joy of your salvation” (Psalm 51:12).
When sin is cast out, God’s presence is restored. This truth is so simple. God’s presence restored means victory secured. Then, if there is defeat, we are responsible for it. Sin somewhere is causing it. We need to discover the sin and repent. The moment the sin is put away, we may confidently expect God’s presence.
God never speaks to His people of sin except with the purpose of saving them from it. The same light that shows the sin will show the way out of it. The same power that condemns will give the power to rise up and conquer.
God is speaking to us about this sin:
“He is amazed to see that no one intervened to help the oppressed” (Isaiah 59:16).
The God who says this will work the change in His children when they seek His face. He will make the shame of sin confessed a door of hope. Let us simply confess that we have sinned; we dare not sin any longer.
In the matter of prayer God does not demand impossibilities. He does not give us an impracticable ideal. He does not ask us to pray without giving the grace to enable us to do so. Believe Him. He will give the grace to do what He asks.
“Father, I bow in stillness and wait before You. Overshadow me with Your presence. Deliver me from the sin or prayerlessness. I trust you to forgive me and to teach me to pray. Amen.”

HE Is!!! By TA Sparks

HE Is!!! By TA Sparks

Whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst. John 6:35

“I am the bread of life” (John 6:35). “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:14). “I am the true vine” (John 15:1). “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). Here is the great I AM saying what He is. And then you notice how frequently He links with that a ‘shall’. The ‘shalls’ of the ‘I am's’ in John’s Gospel are tremendously impressive – not always using the exact word, but in the context you will find the same conclusion. But here are some of the ‘shalls’. “I am the bread of life... he that eats this bread shall live for ever” (John 6:58). “I am the light of the world; he that follows Me shall not walk in darkness” (John 8:12). The link between what He is and ourselves is this, “he that believeth on Me.” What I AM shall become true of him. “He that believeth on Me shall never die” (John 11:26), “...shall not hunger” (John 6:35), shall never wander like sheep without a shepherd, he shall have a governing, controlling reality like a shepherd in his life. “Shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” What I AM shall become true. “I am the resurrection, and the life; he that believeth on Me, though he die, yet shall he live; and whosoever lives and believes on Me shall never die.” What I AM is made good when you believe.

Now it is not what we are. I am dead; He is alive. I can never be other than dead, but He as the Life can become Life in me in my death, if only I believe. I am hungry, spiritually starved; He is Bread, and I need never hunger; although I shall always hunger in myself, yet He will become the Bread to supply me. Think of it! I need never hunger, I am down there in the country, isolated, getting no fellowship, no food; I am away in some place where there is no spiritual bread, and He says, “He that eats Me shall never hunger.” Is that dependent upon where I am, what my situation and circumstances are as to available spiritual meat? No, it is Himself, not a place; it is Himself, not circumstances. But how can it be? – “He that believes.”

Difficult Prayer: by Andrew Murray

“He prayed more fervently, and He was in such agony of spirit that His sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.” – Luke 22:44
Have you ever noticed how much difficulties play a part of life? They call forth our power as nothing else can. They strengthen character.
All nature has been arranged by God so that nothing is without work and effort. Education is developing and disciplining the mind by new difficulties which the student must overcome. The moment a lesson has become easy, the student is advanced to one that is more difficult. It is in confronting and mastering difficulties that our highest accomplishments are found.
It is the same way in our relationship with God. Imagine what the result would be if the child of God had only to kneel down, ask, get and go away. Loss to the spiritual life would result. Through difficulties we discover how little we have of God’s Holy Spirit. There we learn our own weakness and yield to the Holy Spirit to pray in us. There we take our place IN Christ Jesus and abide in Him as our only plea with the Father. There our own will and strength are crucified. There we rise in Christ to newness of life. Praise God for the need and the difficulty of persistent prayer as one of His choicest means of His grace.
Think what Jesus owed to the difficulties in His path. He persevered in prayer in Gethsemane and the prince of the world with all his temptation was overcome.
“Lord Jesus, in persevering prayer may I walk with You and learn of crucifixion. May I share in the fellowship of Your cross. Amen.”

You Will Find Christ Everywhere in the Bible: by AW Tozer

…To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things…. 1 Corinthians 8:6

I do not mind telling you that I have always found Jesus Christ beckoning to me throughout the Scriptures. I am convinced that it was God’s design that we should find the divine Creator, Redeemer and Lord whenever we search the Scriptures.

The Son of God is described by almost every fair and worthy name in the creation. He is called the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings. He is called the Star that shone on Jacob. He is described as coming forth with His bride, clear as the moon. His Presence is likened unto the rain coming down upon the earth, bringing beauty and fruitfulness. He is pictured as the great sea and as the towering rock. He is likened to the strong cedars. A figure is used of Him as of a great eagle, going literally over the earth.

Where the person of Jesus Christ does not stand out tall and beautiful and commanding, as a pine tree against the sky, you will find Him behind the lattice, but stretching forth His hand. If He does not appear as the sun shining in his strength, He may be discerned in the reviving by the promised gentle rains.

Our Lord Jesus Christ was that One divinely commissioned to set forth the mystery and the majesty and the wonder and the glory of the Godhead throughout the universe. It is more than an accident that both the Old and New Testaments comb heaven and earth for figures of speech or simile to set forth the wonder and glory of God!

Nurturing Spirituality: part 1

Nurturing Spirituality: part 1

As followers of Jesus Christ we are called to a Lifestyle of Evangelism & Discipleship… it is what we should be about.  Jesus Christ came in the flesh and now He lives His life out in the flesh through His body, more specifically you and me in this world.

The believer’s highest call in ministry is to reproduce the life of Christ in others. Reproduction takes the form of evangelism for those who do not know Christ, and edification for those who do. This series develops a philosophy of discipleship and evangelism and looks at edification and evangelism as a way of life; lifestyle discipleship and evangelism are the most effective and realistic approaches to unbelievers and believers within our sphere of influence. (Dr. Ken Boa)

Every believer should have a Philosophy of Discipleship, that is fleshed out in his or her life.

In the first birth we receive the gift of bios, biological life; in the second birth we receive the greater gift of zoç, spiritual life. Just as we mature and reproduce on the biological level, God wants us to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28; 9:1) on the spiritual level. This divinely-ordained process of growth and reproduction after our kind is a significant facet of the spiritual life, because it is directly related to God’s purpose for us to become like His Son and to reproduce the life of Jesus in others. He calls us to nurture people spiritually by building into them, feeding them, protecting them, encouraging them, training them, and assisting in their maturation so that they can learn to do the same with others.

1. A Lifestyle of Nurturing Others

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:13-14
 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Romans 8:29
 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'  The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." Mark 12:30-31

“Nondiscipleship costs abiding peace, a life penetrated throughout by love, faith that sees everything in the light of God’s overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances, power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil. In short, it costs exactly that abundance of life Jesus said he came to bring (John 10:10).” Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines

God Expects Gratitude When He Gives Us Gifts: by AW Tozer

Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. 2 Corinthians 9:15

Because we are so very human there is real danger that we may inadvertently do the human thing and turn our blessings upside down. Unless we watch and pray in dead earnest we may turn our good into evil and make the grace of God a trap instead of a benefit!

Men are notoriously lacking in gratitude. Bible history reveals that Israel often took God’s gifts too casually and so turned their blessings into a curse. This human fault appears also in the New Testament, and the activities of Christians through the centuries show that as Christ was followed by Satan in the wilderness so truth is often accompanied by a strong temptation to pride.

Among the purest gifts we have received from God is truth. Another gift, almost as precious, and without which the first would be meaningless, is our ability to grasp truth and appreciate it.

For these priceless treasures we should be profoundly grateful; for them our thanks should rise to the Giver of all good gifts throughout the day and in the night seasons. And because these and all other blessings flow to us by grace without merit or worth on our part, we should be very humble and watch with care lest such undeserved favors, if unappreciated, be taken from us!

The very truth that makes men free may be and often is fashioned into chains to keep them in bondage. Never forget that there is no pride so insidious and yet so powerful as the pride of orthodoxy.