| Devotional | Misunderstood Salt
For choosing God as our one all absorbing interest we Christians are sometimes scorned or written off as hopelessly narrow-minded. But must we apologize? Must we apologize that we have chosen Christ as our career? That we deliberately will to walk with those who walk with God? That we have chosen eternity over time and heaven over earth? Must we ap ...read |
| Devotional | MISUSING THE BIBLE
I believe that everything in the Bible is true, but to attempt to make the Bible a textbook for science is to misunderstand it completely and tragically! It has become a fairly popular practice for Bible teachers to claim to find in the Scriptures confirmation of almost every recent discovery made by science. Apparently no one noticed that the sci ...read |
| Devotional | Model Christians
Then there is the removal of faults and abuses. Where are the faults and abuses? Look around at the religious scene and you will see the faults, the abuses and the desperate need for change. Where are the model saints? We ought to be raising model saints, the kind Christians could take as examples and say, "I want to follow these men and women and ...read |
| Devotional | MONEY IS NOT TRUTH
It is a fact in human history that men and women have never in any great numbers sought after truth. The young people who stream from our halls of learning each year confess to having no more than a passing and academic interest in truth. The majority admit that they go to college only to improve their social standing and increase their earning po ...read |
| Devotional | MORAL DETERMINATION
Though we do not have much of it in this age of spineless religion, there is nevertheless much in the Bible about the place of moral determination in the service of the Lord. The Old Testament tells us that "Jacob vowed a vow," and Daniel "purposed in his heart." Paul determined "not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him cruci ...read |
| Devotional | Moral Physicians
In the previous chapter I said that truth should not be passed out indiscriminately, but suited to the circumstances and needs of the hearers.
From the prophets we learn this and from the apostles, as well as from our Lord Himself. These were never bound by a mechanical religious ?curriculum? which dictated unintelligently that certain doctrines ...read |
| Devotional | Moral Sleep
My aim is to awaken some from the rut. I know it is impossible to awaken everybody, but I hope to awaken some. I use the word awaken here advisedly and carefully because the Bible contains significant teaching gathered around the word sleep. There is first of all natural sleep. "He grants sleep to those he loves" (Psalm 127:2). "I will lie down ...read |
| Devotional | MORE THAN A NAME
There have always been professing Christians who argue and insist: "I am all right-I worship in the name of Jesus." They seem to believe that worship of God is based on a formula. They seem to think there is a kind of magic in saying the name of Jesus! Study the Bible carefully with the help of the Holy Spirit and you will find that the name and ...read |
| Devotional | MORE THAN PARDON
It is a fact that the New Testament message of good news, "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures," embraces a great deal more than an offer of free pardon. Surely it is a message of pardon-and for that may God be praised-but it is also a message of repentance! It is a message of atonement-but it is also a message of temperance and ...read |
| Devotional | MORE THAN RELIGION
Contrary to much that is being said and practiced in churches, true worship is not something that we "do" in the hope of appearing to be religious! True worship must be a constant and consistent attitude or state of mind within the believer, a sustained and blessed acknowledgement of love and admiration. If we have this awareness in our own lives ...read |
| Devotional | MYSTICISM PLUS THEOLOGY
Christian preachers and ministers ought to acknowledge, publicly and with humility, their great indebtedness to the apostles John and Paul. Study the Gospel of John and you will concur with me that John is surely the mystic of the New Testament! Explore the epistles of the Apostle Paul and you will also concur with the assessment that Paul is surel ...read |
| Devotional | MYSTICISM PLUS THEOLOGY
Christian preachers and ministers ought to acknowledge, publicly and with humility, their great indebtedness to the apostles John and Paul. Study the Gospel of John and you will concur with me that John is surely the mystic of the New Testament! Explore the epistles of the Apostle Paul and you will also concur with the assessment that Paul is surel ...read |
| Devotional | New Testament Christianity and Ours
The cross is a symbol of the selfless, others-centered life of Christ, but it does not end there. Our Lord made it also a symbol of the normal Christian life. If any man will come after me, He said, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sak ...read |
| Devotional | NEW TESTAMENT ROOTS
It is really a blessed thing in our Christian fellowship and in our congregations that God never asks whether it is a big church or a little church! A young pastor, when introduced to a well-known church leader, said, "You do not know me. I am the pastor of a little rural church." I think it was a wise reply that came from the churchman: "Young ...read |
| Devotional | No Light Without the Divine Enlightener
However unpopular we may become as a result, we must cling to the knowledge that all men are heretics by nature and can never know redeeming truth till they are enlightened from above by and through the inspired revelation we call the Scriptures. We are never kind to our neighbor when for the sake of sweet charity we smile away his perilous error a ...read |
| Devotional | No Looking Back
There is an art of forgetting, and every Christian should become skilled in it. Forgetting the things which are behind is a positive necessity if we are to become more than mere babes in Christ. If we cannot trust God to have dealt effectually with our past we may as well throw in the sponge now and have it over with. Fifty years of grieving over o ...read |
| Devotional | No Morality Without God
It has always seemed to me completely inconsistent that existentialism should deny the existence of God and then proceed to use the language of theism to persuade men to live right. The French writer, Jean-Paul Sartre, for instance, states frankly that he represents atheistic existentialism. ?If God does not exist,? he says, ?we find no values or c ...read |
| Devotional | NO ONE CHANGES GOD'S LAW
Because we live in a period known as the age of God's grace, it has become a popular thing to declare that the Ten Commandments are no longer valid, no longer relevant in our society. With that context, it has become apparent that Christian churches are not paying attention to the Ten Commandments. But Dwight L Moody preached often in the commandm ...read |
| Devotional | No Turning Back
With large blocks of evangelicals praying and preaching like Christians while they live and talk like worldlings, how much longer may we expect them to remain evangelical? Apostasy always begins with the conduct. First there is a wrong orientation of the life, a facing toward the lost world with yearning and enjoyment; later there comes a gradual s ...read |
| Devotional | NORMAL-OR NOMINAL?
Is the Lord Jesus Christ your most precious treasure in the whole world? If so, count yourself among "normal" Christians, rather than among "nominal" Christians! My old dictionary gives this definition as the meaning of nominal: Existing in name only, not real or actual; hence so small, slight, as to be hardly worth the name. With that as a def ...read |
A.W. Tozer