| Devotional | GOD AT THE CENTER
After Jacob's first memorable encounter with God in the wilderness, he called the place Beth-el, which means "the house of God." Many years later, after he had suffered and sinned and repented, and discovered the worthlessness of all earthly things, he renamed the place, El-beth-el; literally "the God of the house of God." Thus Jacob had shif ...read |
| Devotional | God at Work or Just Me?
To apply pressure, a person projects himself or herself into the minds and consciences of people made in the image of God and forces them psychologically to do something they have no particular reason for wanting to do. They are not basically interested in it and have no satisfactory reason for doing it, but they are under pressure. If they do not ...read |
| Devotional | God Encounter
It is fear of falling into the hands of God that makes us so eager to get things reduced to a formula. We feel that if we can learn the ?secret? of salvation or the ?steps? into the blessed life, we can control our future and (though we would not admit it) control God Himself to a large degree. This saves face and preserves our self-confidence, but ...read |
| Devotional | God Encounter
It is fear of falling into the hands of God that makes us so eager to get things reduced to a formula. We feel that if we can learn the ?secret? of salvation or the ?steps? into the blessed life, we can control our future and (though we would not admit it) control God Himself to a large degree. This saves face and preserves our self-confidence, but ...read |
| Devotional | God Exegesis
There is only one Man whom we can trust to follow. That Man is Jesus Christ. Why is He different from any other person? Why do I refuse to follow other people, and yet follow this Man? Of no other person can it be said, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). "The Word became flesh and made hi ...read |
| Devotional | GOD GIVES-AND GIVES
We ought to spend more time remembering the blessings and the benefits God is continually giving us while we are alive-before we leave this vale of tears! He gives us forgivenes - so we are to live for Him as forgiven sinners. He gives us eternal life. This is not just a future reality - our life in Him is a present bestowment. He gives us sonship: ...read |
| Devotional | GOD HAS A REMEDY
Seekers and inquirers have often voiced this deep question of concern: "Why does God forgive? and how does God forgive sin?" There is plain teaching throughout the Old and New Testaments concerning God's willingness to forgive and forget. Yet there are segments of the Christian church which appear to be poorly taught concerning God's clear reme ...read |
| Devotional | God Hunger
These words are addressed to those of God's children who have been pierced with the arrow of infinite desire, who yearn for God with a yearning that has overcome them, who long with a longing that has become pain.
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled" (Matthew 5:6). Hunger is a pain. It is God's ...read |
| Devotional | God is God
But someone may say, it is not God people fear, but demons--the devil himself and evil spirits generally. The answer is that the whole business is still superstition, for it makes God a party to all this supernatural carryings-on, and even if He is on our side He is unable to help us without certain magic passes on our part, such as knocking on woo ...read |
| Devotional | GOD IS ON OUR SIDE
It was a gracious revelation to my human spirit when I discovered that the Word of God was actually on my side, operating in my behalf! I was reading Psalm 71 and I came to this amazing statement: "Thou hast given commandment to save me!" My heart has been warmed with that realization ever since. I believe that the Word of the living God has gone ...read |
| Devotional | GOD IS SOVEREIGN
Oh, how I wish that I could adequately set forth the glory of the One who is worthy to be the object of our worship! I do believe that if our new converts-the babes in Christ-could be made to see His thousand attributes and even partially comprehend His being, they would become faint with a yearning desire to worship and honor and acknowledge Him, ...read |
| Devotional | GOD KNOWS MY PRAYER
We modern Christians seem to be a strange breed in many of our ways. We are so completely satisfied with earthly things and we enjoy our creature comforts so much that we would just rather stay on here for a long, long time! Probably most of us do not tell God about that kind of desire when we pray. But for years I have made a practice of writing m ...read |
| Devotional | GOD KNOWS THE HYPOCRITES
I do not consider that it is my place as a Christian to stand around making judgments and calling other people "hypocrites." Our Lord Jesus Christ is the only man I know who was holy and perfect enough to call the religious leaders of the day hypocrites. I am just a man with faults and shortcomings of my own, and I must always consider myself les ...read |
| Devotional | God Lives in People
The truth of the divine indwelling is developed more fully in the epistles of Paul. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? . . . For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are" (1 Cor. 3:16-17). And again (1 Cor. 6:19), "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is ...read |
| Devotional | God Love
God being who and what He is must love Himself with pure and perfect love. The Persons of the Godhead love each other with a love so fiery, so tender, that it is all a burning flame of intense desire ineffable. God is Himself the only being whom He can love directly; all else that He loves is for His own sake and because He finds some reflection of ...read |
| Devotional | God Moves in Mysterious Ways
To the child of God, there is no such thing as accident. He travels an appointed way. The path he treads was chosen for him when as yet he was not, when as yet he had existence only in the mind of God.
Accidents may indeed appear to befall him and misfortune stalk his way; but these evils will be so in appearance only and will seem evils only b ...read |
| Devotional | 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 Him ...read |
| Devotional | GOD SETS NO LIMIT
Do you know that there are Bible "interpreters" now who believe they can set rules as to how much we can have of God? However, the Lord Himself has promised that as far as He is concerned, He is willing to keep the candles of my soul brightly burning! So, my heart tells me to ignore the modern scribes whose interpretations, 1 fear, are forcing t ...read |
| Devotional | God the Heart Opener
About the intimate workings of the Holy Spirit in the human heart there is a highly personal relationship in which no third person can share. The sacred work of redemption was wrought in darkness. No strange eye could see what was taking place when the sins of the world entered the holy soul of Christ that He might die under their weight and thus m ...read |
| Devotional | 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 ...read |
A.W. Tozer