Tozer Devotional

Tozer Devotional
Wednesday, September 28, 2011

What We Are and What We Can Be

Remember, we are compared with what we could be, not just what we should be. God being who He is, and Jesus Christ being His risen and all-powerful Son, anything we ought to be we can be. Anything that God has declared that we should be we can be. In the wonderful book of Romans, perhaps the greatest and most profound book in the Bible, 7 tells us of a man who is struggling and wanting to be something that he feels he cannot be. Finally he gives up and says, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" (verse 24). Immediately, Paul says, "Thanks be to God! . . . because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death" (25; 8:2). In Galatians 5:22-23 we read, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." That is what we ought to be and what we can be. Now compare that with what we are.

Verse
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Galatians 5:16

Thought
As we walk step-by-step by means of the Spirit, he produces in us the product of His control--the fruit of the Spirit. If we walk out of His control the acts of the sinful nature result.

Prayer
Only by leaning hard on You, Spirit of God, can I walk through this life. And as I do, You change me. Thank You!



Tozer Devotional
Tuesday, September 27, 2011

God's Blueprint for Believers' Living

In Matthew 5:3-10 we read: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That is what we ought to be. This passage tells what a true Christian should be like. Go on to the epistles and see what the man of God has to say there. In Ephesians 4:26--5:2 he says, "In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. This is what we ought to be. This is the way we ought to be living. When we say, "Lord, what do I still lack?" the Holy Spirit answers, "This is what you lack."

Verse
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21

Thought
How-to-live imperatives are based on enablement for living. We can be because of God's power that is presently at work within us.

Prayer
Lord, today I recognize by faith Your power at work within me. By Your enablement I rise up to be and do.

Tozer Devotional
Monday, September 26, 2011

Body Health Depends On Body Member Health

First, they misunderstand the nature of Christian faith. . . . Second, they misunderstand the nature of the church. . . . Third, they misunderstand what is wrong with them. You cannot cure a weak member by prescribing a certain diet. You can eat caviar and hummingbird tongue until the sun goes down, but it will not help you, because that is not what is wrong with you. Somebody else says, "Let's take a trip." Take your trip--it is all right. Try not to get killed on the way. But remember, that is not what is wrong with you. Somebody else says, "Let's start a committee to handle it." The lack of a committee is not what is wrong with you, either. You are missing the nature of true Christian faith, for true Christianity is inward, and what is wrong cannot be reached by these external means. Now suppose we are ready to admit that we are in a rut. You say, "Well, what is the church doing?" I don't know, because it is the individual that matters. You see, the church is composed of this fellow that lives out here a little way and those two people who live out there in Scarboro and the five who live in Rexdale and the seven who live up in Willowdale and the 14 who live out east. That is the church. What the church does is what the individuals do. How well or how sick the church is depends on how well or how sick the individuals are. In other words, it depends upon how you are. We must come to the Lord and say, "Oh, Lord, what do I still lack? I have some things, Lord, but what do I lack? Or what is it that I ought to get rid of? How do I compare with what I should be? How do I know what I should be?"

Verse
After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church--for we are members of his body. Ephesians 5:29-30

Thought
The Church can only be as healthy as the individual members who compose it. A local church is a local expression of the Church. Church health depends on our health--yours and mine.

Prayer
By Your Spirit through Your Word, show me my heart need, Lord. I want to be a body member through whom You can reach out in this world.

Tozer Devotional
Sunday, September 25, 2011

On Being Church

First, they misunderstand the nature of Christian faith. . . . Second, they misunderstand the nature of the church. You see, the church is a body of individuals united in Christ but having separate individual responsibilites. Thus the body is improved only as we improve the individuals that compose the body. The Holy Spirit fell at Pentecost on approximately 120 people. But it fell on them individually, and if any had hardened themselves they would have been passed over. Each person is born individually even if he or she is one of a set of triplets. We are born one at a time, and we die one at a time; we face judgment one at a time and, if we as Christians are sick, we will be cured one at a time. The body is composed of individuals, and to say, "All right, let's form committees to look into it," is trying to do by a dozen people what God cannot do for one person--fix the problem by external means. It does not work, and it will never work. Because we misunderstand the nature of the church, we misunderstand how to solve the problem.

Verse
Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. Romans 12:4-5

Thought
Each of us as a believer belongs to all other believers. We are members of the one body of Christ--the Church. Functions vary but we have one Head, Christ. Each of us submitting to Him and functioning as He has gifted us results in body health.

Prayer
Lord, help to live in light of my relation to You and to all other believers. I need them and they, in some measure, need me. Thank You for our oneness.

Tozer Devotional
Saturday, September 24, 2011

On Being Inwardly Christian

Fellowship, committees and clubs are all right under the right circumstances, but this kind of an answer to that kind of a problem presupposes that those who give the answer have misuderstood the problem. There are three things they misunderstand. First, they misunderstand the nature of Christian faith. Christian faith is inward, not outward. It is of the spirit and not of the flesh. The kingdom of God is within you, Christ dwells in your heart, and "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27) is the burning core of the Christian faith. So Christianity, the true Christian faith, is inward in nature--we are to be inwardly Christians. It is inside, somewhere in the spirit, soul and heart--the inner person--that we get into the rut. Because the problem is inward, it is ridiculous to say, "All right. The inner person, the spirit of me, the inner shrine of me, is in a rut. It isn't where it ought to be, so let's eat something."

Verse
To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27

Thought
The external can misrepresent the internal. We uphold appearances as a mirage that cloaks internal want. It is the fulness of the Spirit we lack, not rigorous religious routine.

Prayer
You enthroned in my heart, O Christ. Grow me into what You want me to be. Being gives meaning to doing.

Tozer Devotional
Friday, September 23, 2011

Marching in Place

God in His conscending love and kindness often sends a Moses, or maybe a Joshua or an Isaiah, or in latter times a Luther or Wesley to show us that the work of the Lord is not progressing. Times are bad in the kingdom and getting worse. The tendency is to settle into a rut, and we must get out of it. The time has come to arise and go on from here because God's will is as broad as the land He gave to the Israelites-- "in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates" (Deuteronomy 1:7). . . . I am quite sure that when the man of God thundered, "You have stayed long enough in this place. You are going around in circles. Get you out and take what is given to you by the hand of your God," nobody got up and said, "Mr. Chairman, let's eat something." Eating probably would not have helped. I am quite certain that they did not get up and say, "Let's take a trip," or "Let's start another club." Starting a club is another reaction we have when we find ourselves in a rut and realize we are no taller than we were five years ago; we are no farther along than we were five years ago; we don't know any more than we did five years ago; we are no holier than we were five years ago. We simply met ourselves coming around. If a song could be worn out, we have worn out the same old song: "Revive us again, fill each heart with Thy love." We have sung that one and nobody means it--nobody will pay the price. But we go around and around, and all we see is the other fellow's heels just ahead of us. All the fellow behind us sees is our heels. We go around and around the circle, and somebody says, "Let's start a club now."

Verse
See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore he would give to your fathers--to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob--and to their descendants after them. Deuteronomy 1:8

Thought
So easy to get absorbed in activity, "Christian" activity, "church" activity and find that you have been marching in place all the time. "Go and take possession!"

Prayer
Father, deliver me from feverish activity that avoids acts You desire. Help me to major on the basics.

Tozer Devotional
Thursday, September 22, 2011

Fleeing the Rut

If we call Him Lord, how dare we sit any longer in the rut! The Lord has called us to move on. But when people are in a rut, not even the angel Gabriel can help them if they will not come out of it. This is not an accusation but a suggestion. If you are not in a rut, don't get mad--somebody else is. But if you are in a rut you ought to get out of it. The difference between a wooden leg and a good leg is that if you prick a wooden leg the person would never notice. The difference between a church that has dry rot and a church that is alive is that if you prick the live church it will respond. If you prick the other kind, it is already dead. The tree that stands alive has lush, green leaves. Take a knife, scar the bark deeply and the tree will bleed. It is alive. The old dead tree just stands there, a watchtower for old sentinel crows. Take your knife and dig in as far as you want to, and nothing will happen because the tree is dead. So it is with my message. If you will get neither mad nor glad nor sad under my preaching, I know nothing can be done. But there are some who are alive, and I believe it is the majority.

Verse
. . . I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10

Thought
He is there to lead us out of the rut into life, life to the full. We can walk out of the rut if we will. We can do it by His enablement.

Prayer
O Lord, forgive me for my 'rut-living. ' By faith I reach out to receive from You life to the full.

Tozer Devotional
Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Spiritual Smugness

Self-righteousness is terrible among God's people. If we feel that we are what we ought to be, then we will remain what we are. We will not look for any change or improvement in our lives. This will quite naturally lead us to judge everyone by what we are. This is the judgment of which we must be careful. To judge others by ourselves is to create havoc in the local assembly. Self-righteousness also leads to complacency. Complacency is a great sin and covers just about everything I have said about the rote and the rut. Some have the attitude, "Lord, I'm satisfied with my spiritual condition. I hope one of these days You will come, I will be taken up to meet You in the air and I will rule over five cities." These people cannot rule over their own houses and families, but they expect to rule over five cities. They pray spottily and sparsely, rarely attending prayer meeting, but they read their Bibles and expect to go zooming off into the blue yonder and join the Lord in the triumph of the victorious saints.

Verse
You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. Revelation 3:17

Thought
Spiritual smugness can be a form of self-deception. Is it not also a symptom of spiritual retardation? It is with Christ we are to measure ourselves. Then we see ourselves for what we are."

Prayer
Deliver me, Lord, from complacency. But please don't shock me all at once with spiritual reality. For Jesus' sake.

Tozer Devotional
Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Who is the Church?

For clarification, what is the church? When I say that a church gets into the rote and then onto the rut and finally to the rot, what am I talking about? For one thing, the church is not the building. A church is an assembly of individuals. There is a lot of meaningless dialogue these days about the church. It is meaningless because those engaged in the dialogue forget that a church has no separate existence. A church is not an entity in itself, but rather is composed of inidvidual persons. It is the same error made about the state. Politicians sometimes talk about the state as though it were an entity in itself. Social workers talk about society, but society is people. So is the church. The church is made up of real people, and when they come together we have the church. Whatever the people are who make up the church, that is the kind of church it is--no worse and no better, no wiser, no holier, no more ardent and no more worshipful. To improve or change the church you must begin with individuals. When people in the church only point to others for improvement and not to themselves, it is sure evidence that the church has come to dry rot. It is proof of three sins: the sin of self-righteousness, the sin of judgment and the sin of complacency.

Verse
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 1 Corinthians 12:27

Thought
The Church is not them, it is us. Look in the mirror. You are the Church. We cannot expect from the Church greater spirituality, commitment and devotion than we ourselves are willing to live. We are the Church!

Prayer
O Christ, I want to be a body member through whom You can reach out to people. Live Your life through me!

Tozer Devotional
Monday, September 19, 2011

Rot Sharing

There is a third word, and I do not particularly like to use it, but the history of the church is filled with it. The word is rot. The church is afflicted by dry rot. This is best explained when the psychology of nonexpecation takes over and spiritual rigidity sets in, which is an inability to visualize anything better, a lack of desire for improvement.

Verse
Revelation 3:1 There are many who respond by arguing, "I know lots of evangelical churches that would like to grow, and they do their best to get the crowds in. They want to grow and have contests to make their Sunday school larger." That is true, but they are trying t

Thought
To the angel of the church in Sardis write: 'These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds: you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.'

Prayer
It is one thing to invite people to live in an empty tomb in the reality of resurrection life. It is quite another to invite them to live in a coffin with the smell of death.

Tozer Devotional
Sunday, September 18, 2011

The "Rote" to "Rutness"

We can go one step further and come to what I will call the rut, which is bondage to the rote. When we are unable to see and sense bondage to the rote, we are in a rut. For example, a man may be sick and not even know it. The doctors may have confided in the man's wife and said, "We don't want to frighten your husband, but he could drop any minute. He is critically ill, so just expect it at any moment." But the man himself does not know he is seriously ill. He goes about his business as though nothing is wrong. He may play golf or tennis, maybe even go on a hunting trip. He is sick, and yet he does not know how sick he really is. This may in fact hasten his end. Not knowing is risky business and full of danger. Spiritually speaking, the rut is bondage to the rote, and the greatest danger lies in our inability to sense or feel this bondage.

Verse
He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of faith. Mark 6:5-6

Thought
If we are not significantly aware of His presence, then, we may be unaware of His absence. Do we still know the difference?

Prayer
Father, free me to pursue You, with all of my heart, to pursue You. In Christ's name.

Tozer Devotional
Saturday, September 17, 2011

Mired in the "Rote"

. . . Everybody knows just what will happen, and this has become our deadliest enemy. We blame the devil, the "last days" and anything else we can think of, but the greatest enemy is not outside of us. It is within--it is an attitude of accepting things as they are. We believe that what was must always determine what will be, and as a result we are not growing in expectation. As soon as someone begins talking like this, the Lord's people respond by getting busy. What I am talking about, however, is internal. It is a matter of the soul and mind that ultimately determines our conduct. Let me show you the progressive stages. I begin with what I will call the rote. This is repetition without feeling. If someday someone would read the Scripture and believe it and would believe what is sung in the great Christian hymns, there would be a blessed spiritual revolution underway in a short time. But too many are caught up in the rote, repeating without feeling, without meaning, without wonder and without any happy surprises or expectations. In our services God cannot get in because we have it all fixed up for Him. We say, "Lord, we are going to have it this way. Now kindly bless our plans." We repeat without feeling, we repeat without meaning, we sing without wonder, and we listen without surprise. That is my description of the rote.

Verse
He replied, 'Because you have so little faith, I tell you the truth. If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.' Matthew 17:20-21

Thought
If there is faith that moves mountains there is also faith that keeps mountains from moving!

Prayer
O Father, we want to let You be GOD! Forgive us for limiting You by our own misperceptions and feeble faith. Give us a glimpse of who You are!


Tozer Devotional
Friday, September 16, 2011

A Church Cemented in the Routine

What is the worst enemy the church faces today? This is where a lot of unreality and unconscious hyprocrisy enters. Many are ready to say, "The liberals are our worst enemy." But the simple fact is that the average evangelical church does not have too much trouble with liberalism. Nobody gets up in our churches and claims that the first five books of Moses are just myths. Nobody says that the story of creation is simply religious mythology. Nobody denies that Christ walked on the water or that He rose from the grave. Nobody gets up in our churches and claims that Jesus Christ is not the Son of God or that He isn't coming back again. Nobody denies the validity of the Scriptures. We just cannot hide behind liberalism and say that it is our worst enemy. We believe that evangelical Christians are trying to hold on to the truth given to us, the faith of our fathers, so the liberals are not our worst enemy. Neither do we have a problem with the government. People in our country can do just about whatever they please and the government pays no attention. We can hold prayer meetings all night if we want, and the government would never bother us or question us. There is no secret police breathing down our backs watching our every move. We live in a free land, and we ought to thank God every day for that privilege. The treacherous enemy facing the church of Jesus Christ today is the dictatorship of the routine, when the routine becomes "lord" in the life of the church. Programs are organized and the prevailing conditions are accepted as normal. Anyone can predict next Sunday's service and what will happen. This seems to be the most deadly threat in the church today. When we come to the place where everything can be predicted and nobody expects anything unusual from God, we are in a rut. The routine dictates, and we can tell not only what will happen next Sunday, but what will occur next month and, if things do not improve, what will take place next year. Then we have reached the place where what has been determines what is, and what is determines what will be.

Verse
Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. Acts 2:43

Thought
The routine may be traditional or contemporary or a combination of the two. What shatters the routine is the awesome presence of the Lord. Do we miss Him?

Prayer
Lord, shock us with a Holy Spirit invasion into our routine. Crack the cement and set us free to experience You in ways unexpected. In Jesus name.


Tozer Devotional
Thursday, September 15, 2011

The Tyranny of the Customary

In the Old Testament, the enemy that threatened Israel the most was the dictatorship of the customary. Israel became accustomed to walking around in circles and was blissfully content to stay by the safety of the mountain for a while. To put it another way, it was the psychology of the usual. God finally broke into the rut they were in and said, "You have been here long enough. It is time for you to move on." To put Israel's experience into perspective for our benefit today, we must see that the mountain represents a spiritual experience or a spiritual state of affairs. Israel's problem was that they had given up hope of ever getting the land God had promised them. They had become satisfied with going in circles and camping in nice, comfortable places. They had come under the spell of the psychology of the routine. It kept them where they were and prevented them from getting the riches God had promised them. If their enemy, the Edomites, would have come after them, the Israelites would have fought down to the last man and probably would have beaten the Edomites--Israel would have made progress. Instead they were twiddling their thumbs, waiting for the customary to keep on being customary.

Verse
East of the Jordan in the territory of Moab, Moses began to expound this law, saying: The LORD our God said to us at Horeb, 'You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorities . . . Deuteronomy 1:5-7

Thought
After forty years there, life in the wilderness became customary for the people of Israel. Have we, too, become accustomed to life in the wilderness even though God calls us to move beyond into the life He has promised?

Prayer
Lord, may I move on, closer and closer to You. Give me a holy dissatisfaction for the customary and a deepening heart hunger for You.

Tozer Devotional
Wednesday, September 14, 2011

CRITICAL DECISIONS

People have many different ideas about the most important moment of their lives on this earth. We know of many who have testified to the great importance of their own spiritual decision-the act of faith whereby they committed themselves and their entire futures to God! I believe the Bible makes it plain that the single most critical, most important time in the life of Abraham was when he heard and answered the call of God. Unexpectedly and dramatically, God revealed Himself to Abraham and call him to be a pilgrim. It is a lesson to us that when Abraham was called, he by faith obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going! I have found comfort in the doctrine of prevenient grace, which, simply stated, is the belief that before a sinner can seek God, God must first have sought him. In Abraham's case, I believe that if he had been insensitive, he would never have heard God's voice calling him, and if Abraham had rejected God's overtures, the whole history of the world would have been vastly different-and different for the worse!

Verse
The Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him. Genesis 12:1, 4

Tozer Devotional
Monday, September 12, 2011

PRAYER FOR HUMILITY

Now, 0 Lord of heaven and earth, I consecrate my remaining days to Thee; let them be many or few, as Thou wilt. I accept hard work and small rewards in this life. I ask for no easy place. I shall try to be blind to the little ways that could make life easier. If others seek the smoother path I will try to take the hard way without judging them too harshly. I shall expect opposition and try to take it quietly when it comes. Or if, as sometimes it falleth out to Thy servants, I should have grateful gifts pressed upon me by Thy kindly people, stand by me then and save me from the blight that often follows. Teach me to use whatever l receive in such manner that will not injure my soul nor diminish my spiritual power. Let me never forget that I am a man with all the natural faults and passions that plague the race of men. And if in Thy permissive providence honor should come to me from Thy Church, let me not forget that I am unworthy of the least of Thy mercies.

Tozer Devotional
Tuesday, September 13, 2011

WARNING IN THE GOSPEL

When God warns a nation or a city, a church or a person, it is a grievous sin to ignore such warning. In conservative Christianity, we believe that the Christian message does indeed contain an element of alarm, but not all Christians believe this. Some have been taught that the Christian gospel is "good news exclusively. " They believe that the only way to explain the full meaning of the Christian gospel is to quote one verse: "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." "That is it! That is all there is to it," they say. They surely need to be reminded that in the use of language, it is impossible to make certain definite statements without bringing to mind that which is exactly opposite. So, when the Scriptures admonish us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved, there comes to our mind the fact of mankind's lost condition and the starkly plain message to those who do not believe: "He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" ()John 3:18).

Verse
He that believeth not is condemned already. John 3:18

Tozer Devotional
Sunday, September 11, 2011

ETERNITY IN OUR HEARTS

The only reason that men and women can be saved is the fact that God has put eternity in our hearts! Man is fallen-yes! Man is lost, a sinner and needs to be born again-yes! But God made man in His own image and He keeps the longing after eternity and a desire after everlasting life there within the hearts of men. What, then, is the matter with man? Like the lion in the cage, he paces back and forth and roars to the heavens before he dies. I think this is the truth-we are disturbed because God has put everlastingness in our hearts. He has put a longing for immortality in our beings, something that demands God and heaven. Yet, we are too blind and sinful to find Him or even to look for Him! As Christian witnesses, we must be faithful and timely in our preaching and teaching. There is a note of warning in this-telling men and women why they are lost and that if they will not repent they will certainly perish!

Verse
The high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity... with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit. Isaiah 57:15

Tozer Devotional
Sunday, September 11, 2011

ETERNITY IN OUR HEARTS

The only reason that men and women can be saved is the fact that God has put eternity in our hearts! Man is fallen-yes! Man is lost, a sinner and needs to be born again-yes! But God made man in His own image and He keeps the longing after eternity and a desire after everlasting life there within the hearts of men. What, then, is the matter with man? Like the lion in the cage, he paces back and forth and roars to the heavens before he dies. I think this is the truth-we are disturbed because God has put everlastingness in our hearts. He has put a longing for immortality in our beings, something that demands God and heaven. Yet, we are too blind and sinful to find Him or even to look for Him! As Christian witnesses, we must be faithful and timely in our preaching and teaching. There is a note of warning in this-telling men and women why they are lost and that if they will not repent they will certainly perish!

Verse
The high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity... with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit. Isaiah 57:15


Tozer Devotional
Saturday, September 10, 2011

THE SPIRITUAL ESSENCE

We who are the disciples of Jesus Christ often need to be reminded that God is allowing us to live on two planes at the same time. He lets us live in this religious plane where there are preachers and songleaders and choirs, teachers and evangelists- and that is religion. It is actually "religion in overalls"-it is the external part of religion and it has its own place in God's work and plan. But beyond that and superior to all of the externals in our religious experience is the spiritual essence of it all! It is that spiritual essence that I want to see enthroned in our communion and fellowship in the Church of Jesus Christ! We need the caution that much theology, much Bible teaching and many Bible conferences begin and end in themselves. They circle fully around themselves-but when everyone goes home no one is any better than he was before. We sorely need this caution about holding truth that begins and ends in itself. The danger is that we teach and live so that truth is given no opportunity of moral expression!

Verse
By the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ. Titus 3:5-6

Tozer Devotional
Friday, September 09, 2011

CHRIST GLORIFIED IN US

The Bible tells us that eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of men, the things that God has laid up for those who love Rim! That is why the apostle goes on to remind us that God has revealed these mysteries to us by the Holy Spirit. Oh, if we would only stop trying to make the Holy Spirit our servant and begin to live in His life as the fish lives in the sea, we would enter into the riches of glory about which we know nothing now. Too many of us want the Holy Spirit in order to have some gift-healing or tongues or preaching or prophecy. Yes, these have their place in that total pattern of the New Testament, but let us ever pray that we may be filled with the Spirit for a secondary purpose! Remember, God wants to fill you with His Spirit as an end in your moral life. Go&s purpose is that we should know Him first of all, and be lost in Him; and that we should enter into the fullness of the Spirit that the eternal Son, Jesus Christ, may be glorified in us!

Verse
Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard... the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 1 Corinthians 2:9

Tozer Devotional
Thursday, September 08, 2011

LORD OF OUR LIVING

I have studied the New Testament enough to know that our Lord Jesus Christ never made the sharp distinctions between "secular" and "sacred" that we do! I think it is wrong to place our physical necessities on one side, and put praying and singing and giving and Bible reading and testifying on the other. When we are living for the Lord and living to please and honor Him, eating our breakfast can be just as spiritual as having our family prayers. There is no reason for a committed Christian to apologize: "Lord, I am awfully sorry but you know I have to eat now. I will be with you again just as soon as I am through." Well, we have a better way than that in our living for God, and we see as we consider His feeding of the 5,000 the meaning of His Lordship. Jesus Christ is Lord-Lord of our bread and Lord of our eating and Lord of our sleeping, and Lord of our working! Brethren, our Lord is with us, sanctifying everything we do, provided it is honest and good.

Verse
Who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. 1 Thessalonians 5:10



Tozer Devotional
Wednesday, September 07, 2011

CHRIST RECEIVES SINNERS

What a gracious thing for us that Jesus Christ never thinks about what we have been. He always thinks about what we are going to be! The Savior who is our Lord cares absolutely nothing about your moral case history. He forgives it and starts from there as though you had been born one minute before. The woman of Samaria met our Lord at the well and we ask, "Why was Jesus willing to reveal so much more about Himself in this setting than He did in other encounters during His ministry?" You and I would never have chosen this woman with such a shadow lying across her life, but Jesus is the Christ of God, and He could sense the potential within her innermost being. He gave her the secret of His Messiahship and the secret of the nature of God. Her frankness and her humility appealed to the Savior as they talked of man's need and the true worship of God by the Spirit of God. In Jesus' day, His critics said in scorn: "This man receives sinners!" They were right-and He lived and died and rose again to prove it. The blessed part is this: He is still receiving sinners!

Verse
Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance.. . and forgiveness of sins. Acts 5:31

Tozer Devotional
Tuesday, September 06, 2011

THE SPIRIT'S GIFTS

In our Christian fellowship, we must recognize that the blessed Holy Spirit of God desires to take men and women and control them, and use them as instruments through which He can express Himself in the body of Christ. Someone may try to give me credit for something they think I have done for God-but in actuality, God is doing it through His Holy Spirit-and using me as an instrument. There is no real sense in which we are able to do spiritual work of any kind without the Holy Spirit. We do know that the Apostle Paul said: "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his" (Romans 8:9b). But he also exhorted those early believers not to ignore the Spirit's gifts and to "covet earnestly the best gifts." It is still important for us to fulfill the Spirit-given functions and capabilities which are the spiritual birthright of every regenerated believer. We should not be looking around for some other way. God has given us in His Holy Spirit every gift and power and help that we need to serve Him!

Verse
But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. 1 Corinthians 12:7

Tozer Devotional
Monday, September 05, 2011

BEHIND THE MASK

I think it is pitiful and rather sad that about the only time you can find a fellow citizen who is not a "phony" is when he is mad. In our kind of society, most people feel that they must always be pretending, continually "putting on a front." So, they are never their real selves until they get mad! When Jesus faced His bitter religious enemies as recorded in John 8, there was no pretending, nothing staged for dramatic effect. Jesus confronted them with the words: "He that is of God heareth God's words. You, therefore, hear them not, because you are not of God!" These were firm and severe words; His enemies answered with. angry and insulting words. These men were mad; they were letting go. They had given up pretense. They were acting naturally now, showing what they were within. As humans, we are what we do! If what we do proves us to be wrong, then it is either despair or obtaining the help we need. Jesus came to change our natures. He came to break old habits of sin, to break and conquer them!

Verse
But wilt thou know, 0 vain man, that faith without works is dead? James 2:20




Tozer Devotional
Sunday, September 04, 2011

OUR SOVEREIGN LORD

How can you be a Christian and not be aware of the sovereignty of the God who has loved us to the death? To be sovereign, God must be the absolute, infinite, unqualified ruler in all realms in heaven and earth and sea. To be Lord over all the creation, He must be omnipotent. He must be omniscient. He must be omnipresent. With all that is within me, I believe that the crucified and risen and glorified Savior, Jesus Christ, is the sovereign Lord. He takes no orders from anyone. He has no counselors and no advisers. He has no secretary to the throne. He knows in the one effortless act all that can be known and He has already lived out our tomorrows and holds the world in the palm of His hand. That is the Lord I serve! I gladly own that I am His; glory to God! The Christ we know and serve is infinitely beyond all men and all angels and all archangels; above all principalities and powers and dominions, visible and invisible-for He is the origin of them all!

Verse
The most High dwelleth not in temples mode with hands... Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. Acts 7:48-49

Tozer Devotional
Saturday, September 03, 2011

GOD UNDERSTANDS US

We should revel in the joy of believing that God is the sum of all patience and the true essence of kindly good will! Because He is what He is, we please Him most, not by frantically trying to make ourselves good, but by throwing ourselves into His arms with all our imperfections and believing that He understands everything-and loves us still! The God who desires our fellowship and communion is not hard to please, although He may be hard to satisfy. He expects from us only what He has Himself supplied. When He must chasten us, Re even does this with a smile-the proud, tender smile of a Father who is bursting with pleasure over an imperfect son who is coming every day to look more and more like the One whose child he is! This is the best of good news: God loves us for ourselves. He values our love more than He values galaxies of newly created worlds. He remembers our frame and knows that we are dust!

Verse
God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:16

Tozer Devotional
Friday, September 02, 2011

OUR WILLS MUST SURRENDER

The Christian doctrine of obedience to God and to His will is now largely neglected in modern religious circles, and many in our own congregations seem to feel that our obligation to obey has been discharged by the act of believing on Jesus Christ at the beginning of our Christian lives. We need to remember that "the will is the seat of true religion in the soul." Nothing genuine has been done in a man or woman's life until his or her will has been surrendered in active obedience. It was disobedience that brought about the ruin of the race. It is the obedience of faith that brings us back again into the divine favor! It needs to be said that a world of confusion results from trying to believe without obeying! A mere passive surrender may be no surrender at all. Any real submission to the will of God must include willingness to take orders from Him from that time on. I keep wondering whether the Lord's ministers will again give to obedience the place of prominence it occupies in the Scriptures.

Verse
His servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness. Romans 6:16

Thought
It was disobedience that brought about the ruin of the race. It is the obedience of faith that brings us back again into the divine favor!

Prayer
Lord, I surrender my will to you. I know that nothing I could will or do would please me so much as for you to control my life. My life was bought by you. It is yours. Hallelujah.

A HEBREW SAGE MIGHT SAY. . .
Let another praise you and not your own mouth.

Tozer Devotional
Thursday, September 01, 2011

THE CONDITIONS OF PEACE

In a world like ours, with conditions being what they are, what should a serious-minded man or woman do? First, accept the truth concerning yourself. You do not go to a doctor to seek consolation, but to find out what is wrong and what to do about it. Then seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Seek through Jesus Christ a right relationship to God and then insist upon maintaining a right relation to your fellow man. Set about reverently and honestly to amend your doings. Magnify God, mortify the flesh, simplify your life. Take up your cross and learn of Jesus Christ to die to this world that He may raise you up in due time. If you will do these things in faith and love, you will know peace; the peace of God that passes all understanding. You will know joy; the joy of resurrection. You will know, too, the comfort of the indwelling Spirit of God, for you have sought to do the will of God at any price!

Verse
He came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas... and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Acts 16:29-3O

Thought
You do not go to a doctor to seek consolation, but to find out what is wrong and what to do about it.

Prayer
Lord, I come to you as the Great Physician. I come to you not for consolation but for a cure. I will do as you prescribe.





Tozer Devotional
Wednesday, August 31, 2011

TRUTH HAS A SOUL

I believe there is a positive warning in the gospels that a person's faith may stand in the revealed Bible text-and still be as dead as the proverbial door nail! Consider the prayer of our Lord in Matthew 11: "All things are delivered unto me of my Father; and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." There is more than a body of truth - and if we do not get through to the soul of truth, we have only a dead body on our hands. When the power of God moves in on the text and sets the sacrifice on fire, then you have genuine Christianity! We try to call that revival, but it is not revival at all. It is simply New Testament Christianity. People who thought they were saved get saved! People who have only believed in a code now have placed their faith and trust in Christ's person. It is not any deluxe edition of Christianity- it is simply New Testament Christianity having its place!

Verse
Neither knoweth any man the father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son shall reveal him. Matthew 11:27

Thought
There is more than a body of truth - and if we do not get through to the soul of truth, we have only a dead body on our hands.

Prayer
Lord, let us teach the lost the true nature of salvation. May our approach the regeneration not be dead and meaningless, but vibrant and alive, and based on the person and the work of Christ most of all.

Tozer Devotional
Tuesday, August 30, 2011

"YET SHALL HE LIVE"

This may sound strange-but it is a fact that death is not the worst thing that can happen to a believing Christian! I can recall the first time I heard that statement, in a quiet conversation with Harry M. Shuman, for many years the president of the international Christian and Missionary Alliance. He was a soft-spoken yet forceful man of God, rich in the wisdom of Go&s Word. We were talking of the serious issues of life and death. When he had something especially important to say, Dr. Shuman had an unusual way of lowering his voice and tilting his head just a bit. I can see him yet as he looked out from under his shaggy brows straight into my eyes. "Remember, Tozer," he said, "death is not the worst thing that can happen to a person!" For the Christian, death is a journey to the eternal world. It is a victory, a rest, a delight. I am sure my small amount of physical suffering has been mild compared to Paul's, but I feel as Paul did: "I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far!" (Philippians 2:23).

Verse
He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. John 11:25

Thought
Death is not the worst thing that can happen to a believing Christian!

Prayer
Lord, may I learn to live with anticipation for the day that I may shed this mortal coil, and in living may I glorify the name of the one who saved me from my wretched state.

Tozer Devotional
Monday, August 29, 2011

THE MYSTERY IN WORSHIP

Consider the experience of Moses in the desert as he beheld the fire that burned in the bush without consuming it. Moses had no hesitation in kneeling before the bush and worshiping God. Moses was not worshiping a bush; it was God and His glory dwelling in the bush whom Moses worshiped! This is an imperfect illustration, for when the fire departed from that bush, it was a bush again. But this Man, Christ Jesus, is eternally the Son. In the fullness of this mystery, there has never been any departure, except for that awful moment when Jesus cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46). The Father turned His back for a moment when the Son took on Himself that putrifying mass of sin and guilt, dying on the cross not for His own sin, but for ours. The deity and the humanity never parted, and to this day, they remain united in that one Man. When we kneel before Him and say, "My Lord and my God, Thy throne, 0 God, is forever and ever," we are talking to God!

Verse
Behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. Exodus 3:2

Thought
The deity and the humanity never parted, and to this day, they remain united in that one Man.

Prayer
Lord, your nature amazes me. I cannot fully understand it. I am just very thankful that you saw fit to bring yourself so intimately to us.

Tozer Devotional
Sunday, August 28, 2011

ASCRIPTION OF GLORY

I am discovering that many Christians are not really comfortable with the holy attributes of God. In such cases, I am forced to wonder about the quality of their worship. The word "holy" is much more than an adjective saying that God is a holy God. It is an ecstatic ascription of glory to the triune God. Everything that appears to be good among men and women must be discounted, for we are humans. Abraham, David and Elijah, Moses, Peter and Paul-all were good men, but each had his human flaws and weaknesses as members of Adam's race. Each had to find his own place of humble repentance. Because God knows our hearts and our intentions, He is able to restore His believing children in the faith! So, we should be honest and confess that much of our problem in continuing fellowship with a holy God is that many Christians only repent for what they do, rather than for what they are!

Verse
Yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. 1 Peter 1:18

Thought
Many Christians only repent for what they do, rather than for what they are!

Prayer
Lord, I know that I am a sinner saved by grace, and when I come to you for forgiveness that is how I come. Thank you for loving me so much that you would bestow such rich grace on me.