| Devotional | NOTHING BUT SWEETNESS
Let me caution you about the attitudes of some of the bubbly "happy! happy!" people in our congregations who will insist that the Word of God can never be anything but honey sweet! Fellow believers, when we digest, absorb and soak up the Word of the Lord, it becomes part and parcel of our daily lives. It is our delight. It is indeed honey and swe ...read |
| Devotional | Now It Is The Lord
Is it possible to become so enamored of God's good gifts that we fail to worship Him, the Giver? Dr. Albert B. Simpson, the founder of The Christian and Missionary Alliance, invited to preach in a Bible conference in England discovered on his arrival that he was to follow two other Bible teachers. All three had been given the same topic, "Sanctific ...read |
| Devotional | Obeying God
The second question is: How many are worthy to hear His voice? In Acts 13:46b Paul and Barnabas told the people, "Since you reject it . . . we now turn to the Gentiles." This is a terrible judgment. But here is the gist of what I want to say: A radical and sweeping reformation is imperative among the people called Christians--Protestants generall ...read |
| Devotional | OCCUPIED WITH PRAISE
It is surely an erroneous supposition for humans to think or to believe that death will transform our attitude and dispositions. This is what I mean: if in this life we are not really comfortable talking and singing about heaven and its joy, I doubt that death will transform us into enthusiasts! If the worship and adoration of God are tedious now, ...read |
| Devotional | On Becoming More Lovable
God desires that all men should become Christlike, for in so doing they present larger and more perfect objects for the reception of His outpoured love. Conformity to the nature of Christ on the part of a redeemed man restores the image of God in the soul and thus makes it possible for God to lavish on the soul without restraint all the boundless l ...read |
| Devotional | 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 app ...read |
| Devotional | On Being Different
The Church's mightiest influence is felt when she is different from the world in which she lives. Her power lies in her being different, rises with the degree in which she differs and sinks as the difference diminishes. This is so fully and clearly taught in the Scriptures and so well illustrated in Church history that it is hard to see how we can ...read |
| Devotional | 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 ...read |
| Devotional | On Being Men and Women of God
"Your calling," said Meister Eckhart to the clergy of his day, "cannot make you holy; but you can make it holy." No matter how humble that calling may be, a holy man can make it a holy calling. A call to the ministry is not a call to be holy, as if the fact of his being a minister would sanctify a man; rather, the ministry is a calling for a ho ...read |
| Devotional | On Being Seekers and Servers of God
Sins of great magnitude may indicate an energy of soul which if turned in a right direction can lead far up the way toward spiritual perfection. Conversely, there is a meanness of soul that inhibits and restricts the scope and intensity of even the most common activities. When such a soul is converted, it may be only to mediocrity.
On his own tes ...read |
| Devotional | On Being Trustworthy Investors
To each of us God has issued a certain store as it has pleased Him: to one more, to another less. And since God owes us nothing, anything He gives us may be put down to His unearned generosity. The man with a smaller store dare not complain against God for having given him less than his neighbor received. God?s gifts are not debts which He pays us, ...read |
| Devotional | On Knowing the Will of God
One of the problems most frequently encountered by serious-minded Christians is how to discover the will of God in a given situation. This is not a small matter. To countless thousands of Christians it is vitally important. Their peace of heart depends upon knowing that God is actually guiding them, and their failure to be sure that He is destroys ...read |
| Devotional | On Pursuing Quality
The emphasis today in Christian circles appears to be on quantity, with a corresponding lack of emphasis on quality. Numbers, size and amount seem to be very nearly all that matters even among evangelicals. The size of the crowd, the number of converts, the size of the budget, the amount of the weekly collections: if these look good the church is p ...read |
| Devotional | OUR CHARTER IS FROM GOD
While we are right to thank God in appreciation for all of the great and good men in the history of the Christian church, we actually "follow" none of them. Our charter goes farther back and is from a higher source. They were rightly looked upon as leaders, but they were all servants of God, even as you and I are. Luther sowed. Wesley watered. Fi ...read |
| Devotional | Our Ever Living Intercessor
Christ in His high priestly prayer specifically states, "I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me" (John 17:9). That is what He said; it only remains to learn by reverent comparison with other Scripture just what the words mean.
To insist that by these words Christ meant that He never prayed for sinners would be to read i ...read |
| Devotional | Our Faith Reflects Our Concept of God
All things else being equal, the destiny of a man or nation may safely be predicted from the idea of God which that man or that nation holds. No nation can rise higher than its conception of God. While Rome held to her faith in the stern old gods of the Pantheon she remained an iron kingdom. Her citizens unconsciously imitated the character of her ...read |
| Devotional | OUR FUTURE REWARDS
Our motives in the Christian life should be both right and genuine. God is the Faithful One. We are to love Him and serve Him because He is God-not because of the gracious things He does for us or for the rewards He promises us! However, it should be said that God does not expect us to forget or ignore the gracious future promises He has made to us ...read |
| Devotional | 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 et ...read |
| Devotional | Our Grit and God's Grace
I am cheered to know so many of you are with me on this. We are going to go to the New Testament and be Bible Christians. We are going to sell out to God and not the devil. We are going to pray more, read our Bible more and attend prayer meeting more. We are going to give more and break bad habits by the power of God. We are going to become Christi ...read |
| Devotional | OUR HIGHEST HAPPINESS
Let me call it to your attention that the happiness of all moral creatures lies in the giving of obedience to God, the Creator. The psalmist cries out in Psalm 103:20: "Bless the Lord, ye his angels; that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word." The angels in heaven find their complete freedom and highe ...read |
A.W. Tozer