Tozer Devotional

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Mon, August 03, 2015
CHRIST IS NOT DIVIDED
Much of our full gospel literature and much of our preaching tend to perpetuate a misunderstanding of what the Bible says about obedience and Christian discipleship. I think the following is a fair statement of what I was taught in my early Christian experience and before I began to pray and study and anguish over the whole matter: "We are saved by accepting Christ as our Savior." "We are sanctified by accepting Christ as our Lord." "We may do the first without doing the second." What a tragedy that in our day we often hear the gospel appeal made in this way: "Come to Jesus! You do not have to obey anyone. You do not have to give up anything. Just come to Him and believe in Him as Savior!" The fact that we hear this everywhere does not make it right! To urge men and women to believe in a divided Christ is bad teaching-for no one can receive a half or a third or a quarter of the divine Person of Christ!

Verse
Jesus answered, If a man love me, he will keep my words.
John 14:23

Thought
To urge men and women to believe in a divided Christ is bad teaching-for no one can receive a half or a third or a quarter of the divine Person of Christ!

Prayer
Dear Lord, I pray you remind me always that believing is obeying, and I pray that you will create a spirit of evangilism in our churches that teaches the true meaning of conversion.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Sun, August 02, 2015
TRUTH IS A PERSON
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. 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! So we learn that Truth is not a thing for which we must search, but a Person to whom we must hearken! In the New Testament, multitudes came to Jesus for physical help, but only rarely did one seek Him out to learn the Truth. 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, for "many are called, but few are chosen."

Verse
Then said Jesus... And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
John 8:31-32

Thought
So we learn that Truth is not a thing for which we must search, but a Person to whom we must hearken!

Prayer
Lord, you have said that you are the truth, now please make me listen. I am ready.

August 1 - Joy of Harvest

He that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life everlasting, that both he that reapeth and he that soweth may rejoice together.

Do you not see that if you are careless about the reaping you have prevented the harvest-joy of the sower?

If by your life and character you do not reap to the full that which they have sown, you are robbing them of the well-earned fruit of their labors.

Further learn this lesson. There are many of My workers and servants in different spheres of the activity to whom you owe the seed of word or example or loving help that has influenced you.

It is a sacred trust. Use it fully.


blessings to you and yours this day and always...

www.twolisteners.org

contact us: servant@twolisteners.com




TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Sat, August 01, 2015
BOTH LORD AND CHRIST
No Christian believer should ever forget what the Bible says about the Person and the offices of the eternal Son, the Christ of God. "God hath made this same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36). Jesus means Savior; Lord means Sovereign; Christ means Anointed One. The Apostle Peter did not proclaim Jesus only as Savior-he preached to them Jesus as Lord and Christ and Savior, never dividing His Person or His offices. Remember, also, the declaration of Paul: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, thou shalt be saved." Three times in the passage to the Roman Christians telling how to be saved, Paul calls Jesus "Lord." He says that faith in the Lord Jesus plus confession of that faith to the world brings salvation to us!

Verse
God hath made this same Jesus... both Lord and Christ.
Acts 2:36

Thought
Jesus means Savior; Lord means Sovereign; Christ means Anointed One.

Prayer
Lord, thank you for who you are. Please strengthen me as I live to serve you and accomplish your will.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Fri, July 31, 2015
JESUS SAID HE WAS GOD
The more we study the words of our Lord Jesus Christ when He lived on earth among us, the more certain we are about who He is. Some critics have scoffed: "Jesus did not claim to be God. He only said He was the Son of Man." It is true that Jesus used the term, "Son of Man" frequently. But He testified boldly, even among those who were His sworn enemies, that He was God. He said with great forcefulness that He had come from the Father in heaven and that He was equal with the Father. Bible-believing Christians stand together on this. They may differ about the mode of baptism, church policy or the return of the Lord. But they agree on the deity of the eternal Son. Jesus Christ is of one substance with the Father-begotten, not created (Nicene Creed). In our defense of this truth we must be very careful and old-belligerent, if need be! Christ is the brightness of God's glory, and the express image of God's Person!

Verse
But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, 0 God, is for ever and ever.
Hebrews 1:8

Thought
Christ is the brightness of God's glory, and the express image of God's Person!

Prayer
Lord, I do reallize that you are just who you said you are, and I worship you as the Son of God

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Thu, July 30, 2015
GOD REVEALS HIMSELF
I often wonder how so many people can live with a continuing hope that they will in some way be able to commune with God through their intellectual capacities. When will they realize that if they could possibly "discover" God they realize that with the intellect, they would be equal to God? Isaiah is a dramatic example of God's revelation of Himself to mankind. Isaiah could have tried for a million years to reach God by means of his intellect. But brainpower is not the means by which we find God! Brethren, it is true that all of us would still be far from God if He had not graciously and in love revealed Himself to us. In the space of a short second of time, the Lord who loves us can reveal Himself to the willing spirit of a man or woman. It is only then that an Isaiah, or any one of us, can say with humble assurance, "I know Him!" A committed Christian, then, should have upon him an element that is beyond psychology-beyond all natural laws and into spiritual laws!

Verse
I saw also the Lord... then said I, woe is me! for I am undone.
Isaiah 6:1, 5

Thought
Brainpower is not the means by which we find God!

Prayer
Lord, I pray that you will continue to help me find you in your own way, because I know that the wisdom of man is foolishness to you.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Wed, July 29, 2015
Sharing God's Nature
Our heavenly Father disciplines us for our own good, "that we may share in His holiness." God's motives are always loving! I have known people who seemed to be terrified by God's loving desire that we should reflect His own holiness and goodness. As God's faithful children, we should be attracted to holiness, for holiness Godlikeness-likeness to God! God encourages every Christian believer to follow after holiness. We know who we are and we know who God is. He does not ask us to be God and He does not ask us to produce the holiness that only He Himself knows. Only God is holy absolutely: all other beings can be holy only in relative degrees. Actually, it is amazing and wonderful that God should promise us the privilege of sharing in His nature. He remembers we were made of dust. So He tells us what is in His being as He thinks of us: "It is My desire that you grow in grace and in the knowledge of Me. I want you to be more like Jesus, My eternal Son, every day you live!"

Verse
Precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.
2 Peter 1:4

Thought
God encourages every Christian believer to follow after holiness. We know who we are and we know who God is. He does not ask us to be God and He does not ask us to produce the holiness that only He Himself knows.

Prayer
Lord, I pray that you will help me to grow in grace today, as you make me more like you.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Tue, July 28, 2015
Our God: All Sufficient
Have we modern men and women never given thought or meditation concerning the eternal nature of God? Who are we to imagine that we are "bailing out" the living God when we drop a $10 bill in the Sunday offering plate? Let us thank God for the reality of His causeless existence. Our God only is all sufficient, uncreated, unborn, the living and eternal and self-existent God! I refer often to the great worshiping heart of Frederick William Faber, who in these words celebrated his vision of God's eternal self-existence: Father! the sweetest, dearest Name, That men or angels know! Fountain of life, that had no fount From which itself could flow. Thy vastness is not young or old, Thy life hath never grown; No time can measure out Thy days, No space can make Thy throne!

Verse
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Genesis 1:10

Thought
Our God only is all sufficient, uncreated, unborn, the living and eternal and self-existent God!

Prayer
Lord, I do not come close to being able to understand what you are, except that you loved me enough to make me your son, so I call you Father. I fear you as the one and only God.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Mon, July 27, 2015
Everyone's Savior
It may shock some people to be told that Christ is not an American. Nor was He a Jew merely. He was born of the seed of Abraham of the line of David, and His mother was a Jewess of the tribe of Judah. Still Christ is vastly more than a Jew. His dearest name for himself was "the Son of man." He came through the Jewish race, but he came to the human race. He is Everyman's countryman and Everyman's contemporary. He is building a kingdom of all nations and tribes and tongues and peoples. He has no favorites, "but in every nation he that fearest him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him." Let us remember that the gospel is a divine thing. It receives no virtue from any of man's religions or philosophies. It came down to us out of heaven, a separate thing, like Peter's sheet, wholly on its own. It is something given of God. It operates in the individual heart wherever that heart may be found. Any form of human government, however lofty, deals with the citizen only as long as he lives. At the graveside it bids him adieu. It may have made his journey a little easier, and, if so, all lovers of the human race will thank God for that. But in the cool earth, slaves and free men lie down together. Then what matter the talk and the turmoil? Who was right and who was wrong in this or that political squabble doesn't matter to the dead. Judgment and sin and heaven and hell are all that matter then. So, let's keep cool, and let's think like Christians. Christ will be standing upright, tall and immortal, after the tumult and the shouting dies and the captains and the kings lie stretched side by side, the "cause" that made them famous forgotten and their whole significance reduced to a paragraph in a history book.

Verse
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
John 1:14a

Thought
Christ did not come to a particular people in a particular area of the world. He assumed a certain ethnicity. He took on full humanity. But He came to be the Savior and Lord of every man and woman. He belongs to all peoples who will open their hearts to

Prayer
O Christ, You are praised and worshiped today in hundreds of languages and cultural forms. You are no more my Lord than the Lord of other believers around the world. But You are my Lord and my God.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Sun, July 26, 2015
Distinguishing What is Caesar's and What is God's
One thing must be kept in mind: We Christians are Christians first and everything else after that. Our first alliegiance is to the kingdom of God. Our citizenship is in heaven. We are grateful for political freedom. We thank God for democracy as a way of life. But we never forget that we are sons of God and citizens of another city whose builder and maker is God. For this reason, we must not identify the gospel with any political system or make Christianity to be synonymous with any form of government, however noble. Christ stands alone, above and outside of every ideology devised by man. He does not join any of our parties or take sides with any of our great men except as they may come over on His side and try to follow Him in righteousness and true holiness. Then He is for them, but only as individuals, never as leaders of some political faction. The true Christian will be loyal to his country and obedient to those in authority, but he will never fall into the error of confusing his own national culture with Christianity. Christianity is bigger than any country, loftier than any civilization, broader than any human ideology.

Verse
Then he said to them, 'Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.'
Matthew 22:21b

Thought
We have dual citizenship--God's kingdom and a nation of the world. To that country's government we have responsibility--laws to follow, taxes to pay, duties inherent in citizenship. Being good citizens will mean working to change what needs to be changed

Prayer
Your kingdom, Lord, includes followers of Christ from differing ethnic groups, socal classes, political persuasions. Oh God, help me to accept the diversity while rejoicing in family. For Jesus' sake.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Sat, July 25, 2015
God's Word Gives Light
"I'm sorry. . . . I'm a stranger here myself." That is the only honest answer. Others are sometimes given, but they are never valid answers. They spring out of pride or error or uncritical and wishful thinking, and they are not to be trusted. It is no good asking for information of another who is as ignorant as ourselves. We are all strangers in a strange world. Is our state hopeless then? Is no answer to be had? Must we live in a world we do not understand and go out into a future of dark uncertainty? No, thank God, things are not as bad as that. There is an answer. We can find light. Our questions have been answered. "From a child," wrote Paul to Timothy, "thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." It is the universal testimony of the saints of the ages that when the light of the Scriptures enters, the darkness of spiritual ignorance vanishes. God's Word giveth light. It has answer for every qestion that matters. The merely curious question it ignores, but every real inquiry made by the sincere heart is met with full light. It is important that we search the Scriptures daily, and more important still that we approach them with faith and humility, bowing our hearts to their instructions and commands. Then through faith in Christ we cease to be strangers and become sons of God.

Verse
The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.
Psalm 119:130

Thought
God's words give light on those most difficult of life issues. That light does not necessarily illuminate quickly nor to our full satisfaction. Imperative is careful searching of God's Word and serious listening to His voice. But God does give light!

Prayer
Father, You are God. You know all things. You are from forever to forever. To You I come with those burning questions. Your answers to some I cannot yet understand. My mind is restricted and my experience limited. Yet in You I find light and peace.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Fri, July 24, 2015
Wrestling with those Unanswerable Questions
All of us at some time in our life become suddenly aware that we are in a strange place called the world. We do not remember coming here and we are not sure when or how we are going to leave. A score of pressing questions fill our minds. We must have the answers. Where did we come from? What are we? Why are we here? Where do we go next? What does God require of us? How can we find the heaven of peace? Such questions as these insist upon an answer. But we have no answer. Then we approach someone who looks as if he might know. We eagerly put our question, but we get only a shake of the head and the usual, "I'm sorry. I'm a stranger here myself." At first we are frightfully disappointed, for we had hoped someone might know. There are the great stone buildings covered with ivy where the best brains of the world hold forth day after day. There are the great libraries piled with solemn books, each filled with learned words. But the desired answer is nowhere. A few attempt to direct us, but prove by their own bewilderment that they know as little as we do about the whole thing. The philosopher seeks, but never finds. The scientist searches, but finds no data to help us beyond the last hour and the narrow house and the shroud. The poet soars on stubby wings, but soon comes down again, tired and confused. Each one has the same answer: "I'm sorry. . . . I'm a stranger here myself."

Verse
Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.
Psalm 147:5

Thought
God's understanding has no limit, ours does. He is God. We are created humans. There is so much we do not understand, have not experienced, cannot comprehend. Some of our questions will never be answered in this life. Others will not need to be. But we c

Prayer
Father, those burning questions for which I have found no answer I bring to You. Into Your arms I place them and I place myself. You are my Abba.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Wed, July 22, 2015
Living as Relatives to Humankind
We human beings were made for each other, and what any of us is doing at any time cannot be a matter of indifference to the rest of us. On the human plane all men are brothers. The Son of Man never denied this sweet tie with humankind. Over a stubborn and sinful Jerusalem He frankly shed tears and, in the hour of death, prayed for men who were so blind as to nail their God on a tree. And Paul, who burned always to be like his Lord, wept over the unbelieving Israel with an anguish that goaded him to an utterance so daring as to cause the ages to wonder: "I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." Peace of heart that is won by refusing to bear the common yoke of human sympathy is a peace unworthy of a Christian. To seek tranquility by stopping our ears to the cries of human pain is to make ourselves not Christians but a kind of degenerate stoic having no relation either to stoicism or Christianity. We Christians should never try to escape from the burdens and woes of life among men. The hermit and the anchorite sound good in poetry, but stripped of their artificial romance, they are not good examples of what the followers of Christ should be. True peace comes not by a retreat from the world but by the overpowering presence of Christ in the heart. "Christ in you" is the answer to our cry for peace. The Salvation Army lassie distributing gospel literature in a saloon is a better example of the separated life than a prim and cold-faced saint who has long ago fled the world to take refuge in the barren caverns of her soul.

Verse
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9

Thought
The Lord does not want anyone to perish. Do I? Do I care enough to pray and to reach out in His name?

Prayer
Father, to the extent I can bear it, will you enable me to see people as You see them.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Thu, July 23, 2015
Living as Good Samaritans
The testimony of the true follower of Christ might well be something like this: The world's pleasures and the world's treasures henceforth have no appeal for me. I reckon myself crucified to the world and the world crucified to me. But the multitudes that were so dear to Christ shall not be less dear to me. If I cannot prevent their moral suicide, I shall at least baptize them with my human tears. I want no blessing that I cannot share. I seek no spirituality that I must win at the cost of forgetting that men and women are lost and without hope. If in spite of all I can do they will sin against light and bring upon themselves the displeasure of a holy God, then I must not let them go their sad way unwept. I scorn a happiness that I must purchase with ignorance. I reject a heaven that I must enter by shutting my eyes to the sufferings of my fellow men. I choose a broken heart rather than any happiness that ignores the tragedy of human life and human death. Though I, through the grace of God in Christ, no longer lie under Adam's sin, I would still feel a bond of compassion for all of Adam's tragic race, and I am determined that I shall go down to the grave or up into God's heaven mourning for the lost and the perishing. And thus and thus will I do as God enables me. Amen

Verse
"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
Luke 10:36–37

Thought
Good Samaritan living does not come naturally. We are afraid of rejection, of being robbed ourselves, of being taken advantage of. But intercession for those around will eventually result in reaching out to them in Christ's name.

Prayer
O Lord, help me to see people, people around me, as You see them. To pray for them. To reach out to them. To be a "Good Samaritan" to them. I can't do it myself, I've tried. Change me, for Christ's sake.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Tue, July 21, 2015
Living as Light in the World
Whether or not the Christian should separate himself from the world is not open to debate. The question has been settled for him by the Sacred Scriptures, an authority from which there can be no appeal. The New Testament is very plain: "They are not of the world," said our Lord, "even as I am not of the world." James wrote, "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." John said, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Such teaching as this would appear to be plain enough, and there should be no doubt about what is intended. But we must never underestimate the ability of the human mind to get itself lost on a paved highway in broad daylight. Some well-intentioned souls have managed to get themselves confused about their relation to the world and have sought to escape it by hiding from it. They read into the biblical command to separate from the world the idea of complete withdrawal from all human activities and seek peace of heart by cutting themselves off, as far as possible, from the great stream of human life and thought. And that is not good.

Verse
You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:14–16

Thought
If God had wanted us completely out of the world He could have taken us home to heaven at the time of our spiritual birth. No, we are to be in the world but not of it. We are to shine as light in world-system darkness.

Prayer
Forgive me, Lord, for unhealthy accommodation to the world in which I live. May I not forget that I am a stranger here with citizenship in heaven—but a stranger ablaze with the light of Christ.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Mon, July 20, 2015
Meaningful Love
While the all-important distinction between the human and the spiritual love of Jesus is one that must be discerned, and one which can scarcely be explained, we yet venture to point out some marks which may distinguish the two. Reverence, for one thing, will always be present in the heart of the one who loves Christ in the Spirit. The Spirit gives a holy solemnity to every thought of Jesus, so that is psychologically impossible to think of the true Christ with humor or levity. Neither can there be any unbecoming familiarity. The Person of Christ precludes all such. Then, self-abasement is always found in the heart that loves Jesus with true spiritual love. When Paul saw Jesus, he fell on his face. John fell down as dead, and every soul that ever saw and felt the terror and wonder of His glorious Presence, has known some such experience of self-abasement. It is important that we know whether our relation to Jesus is divine or human. It will pay us to find out now.

Verse
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.
John 15:9–10

Thought
Christ has loved us as the Father loved Him. We are to live in Christ's love. That love will be shown to Him by obeying Him, not merely to escape the results of disobedience, but because we love Him.

Prayer
O Lord, forgive me for those sentimental outbursts of which I am sometimes guilty which are supposed to express love. If I really love You I will obey You, worship You.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Sun, July 19, 2015
"Spiritual" Love
The human heart can love the human Jesus as it can love the human Lincoln, but the spiritual love of Jesus is something altogether different from and infinitely superior to the purest love the human heart can know. Indeed it is not possible to love Jesus rightly except by the Holy Spirit. Only the Third Person of the Trinity can love the Second Person in a manner pleasing to the Father. The spiritual love of Jesus is nothing else but the Spirit in us loving Christ the Eternal Son. Christ, after the flesh, receives a great deal of fawning attention from the liberal and the modernist, but love that is not the outflow of the indwelling Holy Spirit is not true spiritual love and cannot be acceptable to God. We do Christ no honor when we do no more than to give Him the best of our human love. Even though we love Him better than we love any other man, still it is not enough if He merely wins first place in competition with Socrates or Walt Whitman. He is not rightly loved until He is loved as very God of very God, and the Spirit within us does the loving. There is much in present-day gospel circles that illustrates the distinction we are pointing out. A great many loud protestations of love for Christ leave the discerning heart with the impression that they are but sounding brass and tinkling cymbals. Innumerable sweet love ballads are sung to Jesus by persons who have never known the inward illumination of the Holy Spirit or felt the shock that comes with a true sight of the sinful pollution of nature.

Verse
Again Jesus said, 'Simon son of John, do you truly love me?' He answered, 'Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.' Jesus said, 'Take care of my sheep.'
John 21:16

Thought
The love Christ asks of us is not the sentimental kind with emotional outbursts tearfully expressed. Love for Him is expressed in loving His sheep--releasing to people the love of Christ produced by the indwelling Spirit.

Prayer
Father, teach me to love with that love which is part of the Fruit of the Spirit produced in me as I walk daily by the Spirit. That is spiritual love.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Wed, July 15, 2015
Keeping the Message of the Bible Central
The Bible is the most important book in the world, and for Christians it is just about the only book--certainly the only book that should claim the place of honor in the public worship of God. We are, we trust, duly grateful for every good spiritual book written since the close of the New Testament canon. We do not undervalue the devotional book or the carefully prepared theological work, but when saints meet in communion there should be but one book, the Bible. The place given to the Scriptures by the different churches may be learned from the very architecture of the building in which their congregations gather. The ritualistic church builds itself around the altar. Toward that altar all eyes are directed and around that altar various and sundry choirs are ranged, to chant or respond or sing as the occasion may demand. The typical Protestant church is quite different. Its center of interest is the pulpit, and upon that pulpit rests a copy of the Bible printed in the language of the people. Preachers may come and preachers may go, but that old pulpit Bible remains. There it lies while generations pass, a source of light in the world's darkness, a fountain of pure water in the world's barren desert. And that minister is considered the best who can expound its sweet mysteries. Lack of oratorical gifts will be forgiven if the man of God will but open the Book and give his hearers to eat of the heavenly manna.

Verse
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth."
2 Timothy 2:15

Thought
The pulpit has been replaced by the small podium or just empty space. Preachers seem to walk miles around the platform. Pulpit Bibles are a thing of the past. Pulpits and pulpit Bibles are not biblically decreed. But the careful exposition of the Bible i

Prayer
Lord, may Your Word be central in our church services. May it be clearly and carefully presented so that we might grow
TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Thu, July 16, 2015
The Word of God
Of course we of this generation cannot know by firsthand experience how the Word of God was read in other times. But it would be hard to conceive of our fathers having done a poorer job than we do when it comes to the public reading of the Scriptures. Most of us read the Scriptures so badly that a good performance draws attention by its rarity. It could be argued that since everyone these days owns his own copy of the Scriptures, the need for the public reading of the Word is not as great as formerly. If that is true, then let us not bother to read the Scriptures at all in our churches. But if we are going to read the Word publicly, then it is incumbent upon us to read it well. A mumbled, badly articulated and unintelligent reading of the Sacred Scriptures will do more than we think to give the listeners the idea that the Word is not important. We do not, however, concur in the belief that because the Word has attained such wide circulation we should not read it in our public meetings. We should by all means read it, and we should make the reading a memorable experience for those who hear. Every man who is honored with the leadership of public worship should learn to read well. And do not imagine that anyone who can read at all can read well. Even learned men break down here. We are all familiar with those public figures who can talk fluently on almost any subject but flunk out miserably when they try to quote the Scriptures. Reading the Bible well is something not picked up overnight.

Verse
He [Ezra] read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law."
Nehemiah 8:3

Thought
Ezra read the Book of the Law of Moses to the people from daybreak till noon. There was no public address system. Ezra must have read well. The people stood and listened attentively.

Prayer
O God, help us to read Your Word well and to listen attentively. For it is Your Word.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Fri, July 17, 2015
Public Bible-Reading as Part of Worship
To read the Bible well in public we must first love it. The voice, if it is free, unconsciously follows the emotional tone. Reverence cannot be simulated. No one who does not feel the deep solemnity of the Holy Word can properly express it. God will not allow His Book to become the plaything of the rhetorician. That is why we instinctively draw back from every simulated tone in the reading of the Scriptures. The radio announcer's artificial unction cannot hide the absence of the real thing. The man who stands to declaim the Scriptures like a schoolboy reciting a passage from Hamlet can only leave his hearers with a feeling of disappointment. They know they have been cheated, though most of them could not tell just how. Again, to read the Bible well, one must know what the words mean and allow them to mean just that, without putting any body English on the passage to make it take a turn of meaning not found in the text. Probably the hardest part of learning to read well is eliminating ourselves. We read best when we get ourselves out of the transaction and let God talk through the imperfect medium of our voice. The beginner should read aloud whole books of the Bible in the privacy of his own room. In that way he can learn to hear his own voice and will know how he sounds to others. Let him consult a pronouncing Bible to learn the correct pronunciations of the names and places of the Bible. Let him cultivate the habit of reading slowly and distinctly with the reverence and dignity proper to the subject matter. Surely Protestants deserve a better sort of Scripture reading than they are now getting in our churches. And we who do the reading are the only ones who can give it to them.

Verse
Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.
1 Timothy 4:13

Thought
Public reading of the Scripture is closely related to preaching and teaching. Certainly preaching and teaching need to be done well but so does the public reading of the Scripture. All are part of corporate church worship.

Prayer
May we read Your Word from our hearts, Father, and may we listen with our hearts when we hear it read.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Sat, July 18, 2015
Loving God and Our Neighbor
The whole of true religion can be summed up in the spiritual love of Jesus. To love God and to love our neighbor was said by our Lord to be the fulfilling of the law and the prophets. All Christians believe that God reveals Himself as Christ; so the love of Jesus is in truth the love of God. Love as experienced by human beings may be on either of two levels, the human or the divine. These are not the same. They differ not only in intensity and elevation but in kind. Human love is undoubtedly the best thing left to the human race. Though it is often perverted and sometimes degraded, it is still Adam's best product, and without it, life on earth would be unendurable. Let us imagine what the world would be like if every trace of human love were suddenly removed. The heart recoils from the contemplation of such a horror. Without love, earth would not differ from hell except for the difference of location. Let us treasure what is left of love among the sons of men. It is not perfect, but it makes life bearable and even sweet here below. But human love is not divine love and should never be confused with it. Among the sentimental religionists, the two are accepted as being the very same and no distinctions are made. This is a great moral blunder and one that leads to spiritual frustration and disappointment. If we are to think clearly and pray rightly, we must recognize the difference between love that is merely human and that other love which cometh down from above. Charles Wesley knew the difference and made it clear in his famous lines: Love divine, all loves excelling, Joy of heaven, to earth come down. Here all grades and degrees of human love are acknowledged, and the true love which comes down from heaven is placed above them as far as the heaven is above the earth. This is not only good poetry, it is good theology as well.

Verse
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:10-11

Thought
God's love for us is John 3:16 kind of love. It is only with God's love that we can love one another--love not only the lovable but the terribly unlovable.

Prayer
Your love, O God, is so deep, so wide. Grant increased understanding of it so that I may love others with Your love. In Christ's name.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Tue, July 14, 2015
Let's Go On!
The will of God is always the proper goal for every one of us. Where God is must be the place of desire. Any motion toward God is a forward motion. Even repentance is not a retreat toward the past but a decided march into a more glorious future. Restitution is not a return to yesterday but a step into a blessed tomorrow. There is such a thing as going backward in the spiritual life. There is such a thing as a retreat from a spiritual position once held by us as individual Christians. And there is such a thing as denominations and missionary societies making a wholesale withdrawal from ground once won at tremendous cost. If we find that we have gone back, then we should immediately reverse the direction and again go forward. The great truths of superior spiritual experiences, of high levels of personal living, of rapturous communion with the Three Persons of the Godhead, of victory over the flesh, of the gifts and power of the Spirit: what has happened to these? Once they marked us out and made us peculiar. What about it today? These are fair questions and they demand an answer. If candid self-examination reveals a departure from the green pastures where once our fathers grazed, what then? Let there be no wasting of time in a futile mooning over the past. Rather let us arise and go! Let us go forward to a new and better place in God. The land lies before us. Let us go in and take it.

Verse
Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, . . . And God permitting, we will do so.
Hebrews 6:1, 3

Thought
Let's go on to maturity! Let's grow in Christ! Christ wants us to know Him, to experientially know Him. Let's make it our highest priority.

Prayer
From Your Word, Lord, from the lives of Your people, I know there are bridges to cross and mountains to climb that take me deeper into You. I want to go on by Your Spirit!

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Sat, July 11, 2015
In the World But Not of It
We are sent to bless the world, but never are we told to compromise with it. Our glory lies in a spiritual withdrawal from all that builds on dust. The bee finds no honey while crawling around the hive. Honey is in the flower far away where there is quiet and peace and the sun and the flowing stream; there the bee must go to find it. The Christian will find slim pickings where professed believers play and pray all in one breath. He may be compelled sometimes to travel alone or at least to go with the ostracized few. To belong to the despised minority may be the price he must pay for power. But power is cheap at any price.

Verse
I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as
John 17:14-16

Thought
In the world but not of the world--a distinction often difficult to maintain. God's enablement is the only means.

Prayer
Oh Lord, may I experience Your power to be in the world but not of it. May I be light to it. For Jesus' sake.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Sun, July 12, 2015
Making the Most of Today
We have little sympathy for the psychology expressed in the various "Back To" movements among Christians today. Our direction is not back, but forward. Few acts are as futile as sitting down and singing "Backward, turn backward, O Time, in thy flight." We cannot turn the clock back. We cannot bring back better days. And it is not necessary or desirable that we should. If by means of some fantastic "time machine" one of us were permitted to go backward and visit some favorite period of the past, he would in all probability find the experience extremely disappointing. He would find himself a kind of anachronism, wholly out of place and thoroughly unhappy. To each one it is given to occupy his own spot in history. He must, like David, do the will of God by serving his own generation. It is in his own day that he must meet God in satisfying encounter. It is in his today, not in some pensive yesterday, that he must explore the riches of divine grace, do his allotted work and win his crown. Psychologists attribute certain abnormal mental conditions to an unconscious desire to escape the responsibilities of adult life by returning to the quiet and security of the prenatal state. Our habit of trying to recapture the spiritual glow of some better time by going backward creates a suspicion that we have lost the will to fight and are retiring to a safer spot behind the lines where we can sit down in peace to dream of armies defeated and battles won.

Verse
This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."
Psalm 118:24

Thought
Today is an opportunity to know God and to serve Him. We no longer have yesterday and may have left no tomorrows. But today is uniquely God-given.

Prayer
My tendency, Lord, is to look back or forward. In doing so, I often miss the strategic value of today. Thank You for this day.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Mon, July 13, 2015
Let Us Draw Near Today
Today is our day. No one at any time has ever had any spiritual graces that we at this time cannot enjoy if we will meet the terms on which they are given. If these times are morally darker, they but provide a background against which we can shine the brighter. Our God is the God of today as well as of yesterday, and we may be sure that wherever our tomorrows may carry us, our faithful God will be with us as He was with Abraham and David and Paul. Those great men did not need us then, and we cannot have them with us now. Amen. So be it. And God be praised. We cannot have them, but we can have that which is infinitely better--we can have their God and Father, and we can have their Savior, and we can have the same blessed Holy Spirit that made them great.

Verse
Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. . . And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love a
Hebrews 10:22, 24

Thought
The God of our mothers and fathers is with us. He is with us no less than He was with them. To Him we may draw near and by His Spirit encourage one another.

Prayer
Thank You, Father, for the invitation to draw near to You. To get closer to You than I have ever been before. I come in Jesus' name.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Thu, July 02, 2015
Growing Oaks or Ears of Popcorn
The church must claim again her ancient dowry of everlastingness. She must begin again to deal with ages and millenniums rather then with days and years. She must not count numbers but test foundations. She must work for permanence rather than for appearance. Her children must seek those enduring things that have been touched with immortality. The shallow brook of popular religion chatters on its nervous way and thinks the ocean too quiet and dull because it lies deep in its mighty bed and is unaffected by the latest shower. Faith in one of its aspects moves mountains; in another it gives patience to see the promises afar off and to wait quietly for their fulfillment. Insistence upon an immediate answer to every request of the soul is an evidence of religious infantilism. It takes God longer to grow an oak than to grow an ear of popcorn. It will cost something to walk slow in the parade of the ages while excited men of time rush about confusing motion with progress. But it will pay in the long run--and the true Christian is not much interested in anything short of that.

Verse
Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
Genesis 15:6

Thought
Abraham believed God and kept on believing God. He waited 25 years for the birth of Isaac. In his lifetime, Abraham never saw the emergence of the people Israel or experienced possession of the promised land. He just believed and kept on believing. What

Prayer
Father, You are everlasting. You are forever. Help me to trustfully walk with You through the valleys and over the mountains. I want to be an oak.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Fri, July 03, 2015
Concentrating on Things that Really Matter
In the Christian life also we find this pattern repeated: a few important things and a world of burdensome but unimportant ones. The Spirit-taught Christian must look past the multiplicity of incidental things and find the few that really matter. And let it be repeated for our encouragement, they are few in number and surprisingly easy to identify. The Scriptures make perfectly clear what they are: the fact of God, the Person and work of Christ, faith and obedience, hope and love. These along with a few more constitute the essence of the truth which we must know and love. Christ summed up the moral law as love to God and man. Salvation He made to rest upon faith in God and in the One whom He had sent. Paul simplified the wonders of the spiritual life in the words, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." The temptation to forget the few spiritual essentials and to go wandering off after unimportant things is very strong, especially to Christians of a certain curious type of mind. Such persons find the great majors of the faith of our fathers altogether too tame for them. Their souls loathe that light bread; their appetites crave the gamy tang of fresh-killed meat. They take great pride in their reputation as being mighty hunters before the Lord, and any time we look out we may see them returning from the chase with some new mystery hanging limply over their shoulder. Usually the game they bring down is something on which there is a biblical closed season. Some vague hint in the Scriptures, some obscure verse about which the translators disagree, some marginal note for which there is not much scholarly authority: these are their favorite meat. They are especially skillful at propounding notions which have never been a part of the Christian heritage of truth. Their enthusiasm mounts with the uncertainty of their position, and their dogmatism grows firmer in proportion to the mystery which surrounds their subject.

Verse
always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.
2 Timothy 3:7

Thought
Seizing upon minor issues and becoming engrossed in details can be an excuse for failure to live the unmistakable truth.

Prayer
O God, You are the Light. The closer I come to You the more clearly the dark holes of my heart are exposed. Shine on me and burn away the dross. For Christ's sake.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Sat, July 04, 2015
Heart Health Food or Just Tasty Snacks
Dr. Samuel Johnson, the famous English sage, once said that one of the surest evidences of intellectual immaturity is the desire to startle people. Yet there are Christians who have been fed upon the odd, the strange and the curious so long and so exclusively that they have become wholly unfitted spiritually to receive or to appreciate sound doctrine. They live to be startled by something new or thrilled by something wonderful. They will believe anything so long as it is just a little away from the time-honored beliefs of sober Christian men. A serious discourse calling for repentance, humbleness of mind and holiness of life is impatiently dismissed as old-fashioned, dull and lacking in "audience appeal." Yet these things are just the ones that rank highest on the list of things we need to hear, and by them we shall all be judged in that great day of Christ. A church fed on excitement is no New Testament church at all. The desire for surface stimulation is a sure mark of the fallen nature, the very thing Christ died to deliver us from. A curious crowd of baptized worldlings waiting each Sunday for the quasi-religious needle to give them a lift bears no relation whatsoever to a true assembly of Christian believers. And that its members protest their undying faith in the Bible does not change things any. "Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."

Verse
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.
Acts 2:42-43

Thought
Is the "apostles' teaching" still at the heart of our worship services or do we feature the more interesting story-telling and Christian entertainment? Perhaps it is the Spirit's power demonstrated in some wonders and miraculous signs we need.

Prayer
Lord, give me a hunger for the solid food that feeds the heart and a holy dissatisfaction with anything less.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Sun, July 05, 2015
Staying with the Clear Teaching of Scripture
Every believer as well as every minister of Christ must decide whether he will put his emphasis upon the majors or the minors. He must decide whether he will stay by the sober truths which constitute the beating heart of the Scriptures or turn his attention to those marginal doctrines which always bring division and which, at their best, could not help us much on our way to the Celestial City. No man has any moral right to propound any teaching about which there is not full agreement among Bible Christians until he has made himself familiar with church history and with the development of Christian doctrine through the centuries. The historic approach is best. After we have discovered what holy men believed, what great reformers and saints taught, what the purest souls and mightiest workers held to be important for holy living and dying--then we are in a fair position to appraise our own teaching. Humility is the only state of mind in which to approach the Scriptures. The Spirit will teach the humble soul those things that make for his salvation and for a holy walk and fruitful service here below. And little else matters.

Verse
Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, 'Do not go beyond what is written.' Then you will not take pride in one man over against another.
1 Corinthians 4:6

Thought
There is the danger of embellishing the written, even ranging beyond it, in order to serve up the new, the exotic, the innovative. Oh, for preachers who open to us the meat of God's Word with contextual accuracy, clarity, sound exegesis and meaningful ap

Prayer
Thank You for access to Your Word, Lord. There are many in the world without the Word in their language. May I receive it and live it to Your glory. Amen.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Mon, July 06, 2015
The Illogic of Complaining
Among those sins most exquisitely fitted to injure the soul and destroy the testimony, few can equal the sin of complaining. Yet the habit is so widespread that we hardly notice it among us. The complaining heart never lacks for occasion. It can always find reason enough to be unhappy. The object of its censure may be almost anything: the weather, the church, the difficulties of the way, other Christians or even God Himself. A complaining Christian puts himself in a position morally untenable. The simple logic of his professed discipleship is against him with an unanswerable argument. Its reasoning runs like this: First, he is a Christian because he chose to be. There are no conscripts in the army of God. He is, therefore, in the awkward position of complaining against the very conditions he brought himself into by his own free choice. Secondly, he can quit any time he desires. No Christian wears a chain on his leg. Yet he still continues on, grumbling as he goes, and for such conduct he has no defense.

Verse
Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation.
Philippians 2:14-15

Thought
The cause for complaint is often a God-given opportunity for growth and praise. What at first appear to be thorns may prove to be divine prods that move us closer to God.

Prayer
Deliver me from complaining, Lord. Rather, teach me to praise You and thank You for the opportunities to grow.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Tue, July 07, 2015
Costs of Complaining
The complainer is further embarassed by the moral company in which he finds himself. His is a spiritual affinity with some pretty shady characters: Cain, Korah, the sulky elder brother, the petulant Jews of the Book of Malachi who answered every fatherly admonition of God with an ill-humored "Wherefore have we? Wherein have we?" These are but a few faces that stand out in the picture of the disgruntled followers of the religious way. And the complaining Christian, if he but looks closely, will see his own face peering out at him from the background. Lastly, the believer who complains against the difficulties of the way proves that he has never felt or known the sorrows which broke over the head of Christ when He was here among men. After one look at Gethsemane or Calvary, the Christian can never again believe that his own path is a hard one. We dare not compare our trifling pains with the sublime passion endured for our salvation. Any comparison would itself be the supreme argument against our complaints, for what sorrow is like unto His? After saying all this we are yet sure that no one can be reasoned out of the habit of complaining. That habit is more than a habit--it is a disease of the soul, and as such, it will never yield to mere logic. The only cure is cleansing in the blood of the Lamb.

Verse
Korah son of Izhar, the sons of Kohath, . . . and certain Reubenites . . . became insolent and rose up against Moses. With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council.
Numbers 16:1-2

Thought
Korah and members of the council challenged Moses' leadership. They experienced God's judgment as a result. Are there churches experiencing God's judgment because of grumbling and complaint against God-appointed leaders? It is far easier to criticize lea

Prayer
Lord, I find it far easier to grumble and complain against leaders than to graciously submit to them. May I faithfully pray for my leaders.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Wed, July 08, 2015
Daring to Stand for Truth
The nearer we draw to the heart of God the less taste we will have for controversy. The peace we know in God's bosom is so sweet that it is but natural that we want to keep it unbroken to enjoy as fully and as long as possible. The Spirit-filled Christian is never a good fighter. He is at too many disadvantages. The enemy is always better at invective than he will allow himself to be. The devil has all the picturesque epithets, and his followers have no conscience about using them. The Christian is always more at home, blessing than he is opposing. He is, moreover, much thinner-skinned than his adversaries. He shrinks from an angry countenance and draws back from bitter words. They are symbols of a world he has long ago forsaken for the quiet of the kingdom of God where love and good will prevail. All this is in his favor, for it marks him out as a man in whom there is no hate and who earnestly desires to live at peace with all men. In spite of his sincere longing for peace, however, there will be times when he dare not allow himself to enjoy it. There are times when it is a sin to be at peace. There are circumstances when there is nothing to do but to stand up and vigorously oppose. To wink at iniquity for the sake of peace is not a proof of superior spirituality; it is rather a sign of a reprehensible timidity which dare not oppose sin for fear of the consequences. For it will cost us heavily to stand for the right when the wrong is in the majority, which is 100 percent of the time.

Verse
So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.
2 Thessalonians 2:15

Thought
It is easier to excuse ourselves from religious conflict than to assert the truth in a Spirit-emboldened manner. But there are times when we are God's strategically-placed person. We speak and live as His representative.

Prayer
Lord, You know that my inclination is to flee from controversy and confrontation. O Lord, show me when to confront and enable me to do it for Christ's sake.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Thu, July 09, 2015
Standing for Truth
We have developed in recent times a peace-loving, soft-spoken, tame and harmless brand of Christian of whom the world has no fear and for whom it has little respect. We are careful, for instance, never to speak in public against any of the false cults lest we be thought intolerant. We fear to talk against the destructive sins of modern civilization for fear someone will brand us as bigoted and narrow. Little by little we have been forced off the hard earth into a religious cloud-land where we are permitted to wing our harmless way around, like swallows at sundown, saying nothing that might stir the ire of the sons of this world. That Neo-Christianity, which seems for the time to be the most popular (and is certainly the most aggressive), is very careful not to oppose sin. It wins its crowds by amusing them and its converts by hiding from them the full implications of the Christian message. It carries on its projects after the ballyhoo methods of American business. Well might we paraphrase Wordsworth and cry, "Elijah, thou shouldst be living at this hour; America has need of thee." We stand in desperate need of a few men like Elijah who will dare to face up to the brazen sinners who dictate our every way of life. Sin in the full proportions of a revolution or a plague has all but destroyed our civilization while church people have played like children in the marketplace. What has happened to the spirit of the American Christian? Has our gold become dim? Have we lost the spirit of discernment till we can no longer recognize our captors? How much longer will we hide in caves while Ahab and Jezebel continue to pollute the temple and ravage the land? Surely we should give this some serious thought and prayer before it is too late--if indeed it is not too late already.

Verse
Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice.
Isaiah 59:15

Thought
In our culture today there seem to be only two absolutes: (1) that there are no absolutes except that there are no absolutes; and (2) everything must be tolerated since there is no absolute truth. Painful and uncomfortable as it is, we must stand up for

Prayer
Father, give me courage and boldness to lovingly and graciously stand for You in my sphere of influence. May I be Your ambassador.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Fri, July 10, 2015
When Fish Catch the Fisherman
History shows clearly enough that true spirituality has never at any time been the possession of the masses. In any given period since the fall of the human race, only a few persons ever discerned the right way or walked in God's law. God's truth has never been popular. Wherever Christianity becomes popular, it is not on its way to die--it has already died. Popular Judaism slew the prophets and crucified Christ. Popular Christianity killed the Reformers, jailed the Quakers and drove John Wesley into the streets. When it comes to religion, the crowds are always wrong. At any time there are a few who see, and the rest are blinded. To stand by the truth of God against the current religious vogue is always unpopular and may be downright dangerous. The historic church, while she was a hated minority group, had a moral power that made her terrible to evil and invincible before her foes. When the Roman masses, without change of heart, were made Christian by baptism, Christianity gained popularity and lost her spiritual glow. From there she went on to adopt the ways of Rome and to follow her pagan religions. The fish caught the fisherman, and what started out to be the conversion of Rome became finally the conversion of the church. From that ignominious captivity, the church has never been fully delivered.

Verse
If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
John 15:19

Thought
That the world hates us because we are disciples of Christ is a positive indication that we are indeed following Him. If the world welcomes us as disciples of Christ, alarms go off. How closely are we walking with Him?

Prayer
Lord, help me to express Your love to the people of the world without conforming to the world.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Thu, July 02, 2015
Growing Oaks or Ears of Popcorn
The church must claim again her ancient dowry of everlastingness. She must begin again to deal with ages and millenniums rather then with days and years. She must not count numbers but test foundations. She must work for permanence rather than for appearance. Her children must seek those enduring things that have been touched with immortality. The shallow brook of popular religion chatters on its nervous way and thinks the ocean too quiet and dull because it lies deep in its mighty bed and is unaffected by the latest shower. Faith in one of its aspects moves mountains; in another it gives patience to see the promises afar off and to wait quietly for their fulfillment. Insistence upon an immediate answer to every request of the soul is an evidence of religious infantilism. It takes God longer to grow an oak than to grow an ear of popcorn. It will cost something to walk slow in the parade of the ages while excited men of time rush about confusing motion with progress. But it will pay in the long run--and the true Christian is not much interested in anything short of that.

Verse
Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
Genesis 15:6

Thought
Abraham believed God and kept on believing God. He waited 25 years for the birth of Isaac. In his lifetime, Abraham never saw the emergence of the people Israel or experienced possession of the promised land. He just believed and kept on believing. What

Prayer
Father, You are everlasting. You are forever. Help me to trustfully walk with You through the valleys and over the mountains. I want to be an oak.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Wed, July 01, 2015
The Contemporary vs. the Eternal
Pastors and churches in our hectic times are harassed by the temptation to seek size at any cost and to secure by inflation what they cannot gain by legitimate growth. The mixed multitude cries for quantity and will not forgive a minister who insists upon solid values and permanence. Many a man of God is being subjected to cruel pressure by the ill-taught members of his flock who scorn his slow methods and demand quick results and a popular following regardless of quality. These children play in the marketplaces and cannot overlook the affront we do them by our refusal to dance when they whistle or to weep when they out of caprice pipe a sad tune. They are greedy for thrills, and since they dare no longer seek them in the theater, they demand to have them brought into the church. We who follow Christ are men and women of eternity. We must put no confidence in the passing scenes of the disappearing world. We must resist every attempt of Satan to palm off upon us the values that belong to mortality. Nothing less than forever is long enough for us. We view with amused sadness the frenetic scramble of the world to gain a brief moment in the sun. "The book of the month," for instance, has a strange sound to one who has dwelt with God and taken his values from the Ancient of Days. "The man of the year" cannot impress those men and women who are making their plans for that long eternity when days and years have passed away and time is no more.

Verse
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
Psalm 119:105

Thought
Contemporary and Eternal. Are they compatible? The challenge is to recognize and communicate the eternal without contemporary or traditional forms letting in syncretistic or current worldview error.

Prayer
Father, Your Word is my light along the way. It keeps me from detouring into the momentary popular or the hoary traditional. Increase my sensitivity to perceive Your light. In Jesus' name.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Tue, June 30, 2015
The Psychology of Impermanence
Time may show that one of the greatest weaknesses in our modern civilization has been the acceptance of quantity rather than quality as the goal after which to strive. This is particularly evident in the United States. Costly buildings are constantly being erected with no expectation that they shall last more than one short generation. . . . Not only in our architecture but almost everywhere else is this psychology of impermanence found. A beauty salon ad recently defined a term which has long needed clarification. It read: "Permanent Waves. Guaranteed to last three months." So, permanence is the quality of lasting three months! These may be extreme cases, but they illustrate the transiency of men's hopes and the brevity of their dreams apart from God. The church also is suffering from a left-handed acceptance of this philosophy of impermanence. Christianity is resting under the blight of degraded values. And it all stems from a too-eager desire to impress, to gain fleeting attention, to appear well in comparison with some world-beater who happens for the time to have the ear or the eye of the public. This is so foreign to the Scriptures that we wonder how Bible-loving Christians can be deceived by it. The Word of God ignores size and quantity and lays all its stress upon quality. Christ, more than any other man, was followed by the crowds, yet after giving them such help as they were able to receive, He quietly turned from them and deposited His enduring truths in the breasts of His chosen 12. He refused a quick shortcut to the throne and chose instead the long painful way of the cross. He rejected the offers of the multitude and rested His success upon those eternal qualities which He was able to plant in the hearts of a modest number of redeemed men. The ages have thanked God that He did.

Verse
Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.
Acts 9:31

Thought
Quantity growth of the church is noted at least 9 times in Acts 2--9. Occasionally specific numbers are given. But quality is not sacrificed for quantity. That growing first century church is characterized by Spirit-filled witness, healings, miracles, pe

Prayer
Lord, give discernment to our church leaders so that they are deceived neither by growth in numbers nor desperate clinging to decline and methods of the past. May their eyes be focused on the primary goal of Spirit-filled living.

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Mon, June 29, 2015
The Unending Chapter
That next chapter after the last is the source of all the Christian's hope, for it assures us that our Lord has put death in its place and has delivered us from the ancient curse. Death did not end the activities of our Lord; it did not even interrupt them, for while His body lay in Joseph's new tomb, He was preaching to the spirits in prison (1 Peter 3:18-20). And after three days, His spirit was reunited with His body and the new chapter began, the chapter which can have no ending. Had Christ not risen from the dead, His life, beautiful as it was, would have been a human tragedy. Since He did in fact rise, His life has been shown to be an unrelieved triumph. The blood, the pain, the rejection, the agony of dying, the cold, stiff body and the colder tomb--these belong to the former days. The days that are now are days of hope and life and everlasting freedom. What is true of Christ is true also of all who believe in Him. How many saints since New Testament times have lived and hoped and labored and worshiped, only to grow old and bent and to drop at last, weak and helpless, into the open grave. If that was for them the end, then we Christians would be of all men most miserable. But it was not the end. For all of God's true children there will be another chapter, a chapter that will begin with the resurrection and go on as long as eternity endures.

Verse
But Christ indeed has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen alseep.
1 Corinthians 15:20

Thought
Relatively little is revealed in Scripture concerning the believer's life in heaven. Are not able to grasp what it will be like? We have little or nothing in human experience that qualifies as an accurate simile.

Prayer
My only hope for life in that unending chapter is You, O Christ. You are the firstfruits. We are those that follow!

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Sun, June 28, 2015
The Period Becomes a Comma
He was dead, but He is alive forevermore. That such a thing could be was intimated by the miracles of restoration which our Lord performed during His earthly ministry. The widow's son was brought back to life for a brief time; at our Lord's gentle call Jairus's little daughter rose from her bed of death; and Lazarus, at Christ's command, came forth bound hand and foot. These were but vague disclosures of what was to come, and were at best only temporary suspensions of the inexorable law which demands that death shall always follow life--death complete and final. For these all died again, and the rule of biography was upheld. Each ended in a sepulcher at last. And that sepulcher was the period at the end of the last chapter. What a perpetual wonder it is, then, that the biography of Jesus had to be resumed. Luke added not merely another chapter, but a whole book. The book of Acts was a logical necessity. "He showed himself alive after his passion," writes Luke. The rest of the New Testament gives us some idea of what He is doing now, and prophecy reveals a little of what He will be doing through the ages to come.

Verse
The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, Take off the grave clothes and let him go.
John 11:44

Thought
What was it like for Lazarus to be dead four days and then be raised to life again? Did he want to return? There is nothing recorded concerning Lazarus after that experience. The period became a comma. Lazarus would die again but he would be raised forev

Prayer
Thank You, Father, that for the believer the period becomes a comma. From here we go home through Christ. Amen!

TOZER DEVOTIONAL
Sat, June 27, 2015
The Chapter after the Last
Matthew says, "And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb." Mark says, "And he [Joseph] bought fine linen, and took him [Jesus] down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock." Luke writes, "And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid." John says, ". . . There was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, . . . There laid they Jesus." They all agree: Jesus was dead. The life about which they had been writing was gone, The biography was ended. Then for the only time in this history of human thought, a biographer adds to his book a new section which is authentic biography and begins to write a chapter to follow the last chapter. This time the story did not end with a funeral. The Subject, whose story should have ended at death, was once again back among men to challenge new writers to try to find enough paper and enough ink to write the rest of the story of the life that can never end. Whatever is written of Him now is written of a living man. He was dead, but He is alive forevermore.

Verse
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

Thought
What if Christ had not risen? That demonstration of His post-resurrection power would be absent. Those promises of His unfulfilled--the coming of the Holy Spirit, the presence of Christ with us, His intercession for us, His coming again.

Prayer
Forgive me, Lord, for failure to live in the experience of Your resurrection power. You declare that I died with You and may know new life just as You were raised from the dead.