| Devotional | REVIVAL-AND RENEWAL
I hope some of you will agree with me that it is of far greater importance that we have better Christians than that we have more of them! If we have any spiritual concerns, our most pressing obligation is to do all in our power to obtain a revival that will result in a reformed, revitalized, purified church. Each generation of Christians is the see ...read |
| Devotional | RICHES OF GRACE
Would it startle you if I dared to say that the living God has never done anything in His universe apart from Jesus Christ? Christians seem to be woefully unaware of the full meaning and measure of the grace of God. Why should we question God's provision when the Holy Spirit tells us through the Apostle John that the Word who became flesh is "ful ...read |
| Devotional | Room to Grow
This concept of the Christian life as a journey to be taken, a growth to be attained, is being lost to us through two widely separated modern errors.
. . .
The second error is found among us evangelicals. This error is the exact opposite of the liberal's, which assumes spiritual life to be present when it is not; this one assumes that life ...read |
| Devotional | RUNNING LIFE'S RACE
The writer to the Hebrews gives us good New Testament counsel: "Let us run the race with patience." The Holy Spirit here describes Christian believers as runners on the track, participants in the race which is the Christian life. He provides both strong warning and loving encouragement, for there is always the danger of losing the race, but there ...read |
| Devotional | Running Toward the Goal
The true Christian, though he is in revolt against the world's efforts to brainwash him, is no mere rebel for rebellion's sake. He dissents from the world because he knows that it cannot make good on its promises. He has tasted the pleasures of society and he knows that they leave a bitter taste; and he has found that blessing of the Lord of whic ...read |
| Devotional | Sacrifice is No Substitute for Obedience
It is almost unbelievable how far we will go to avoid obeying God. We call Jesus "Lord" and beg Him to rejuvenate our souls, but we are careful to do not the things He says. When faced with a sin, a confession or a moral alteration in our life, we find it much easier to pray half a night than to obey God.
Intensity of prayer is no criterion of ...read |
| Devotional | SALVATION'S PRICE
Too many Christian leaders, acting like enthusiastic promoters, are teaching that the essence of faith is this: "Come to Jesus-it will cost you nothing!" The price has all been paid - "it will cost you nothing!" Brethren, that is a dangerous half-truth. There is always a price connected with salvation and with discipleship. God's grace is free ...read |
| Devotional | Satanic Diversion
Failing in his frontal attacks upon the child of God, Satan often turns to more subtle means of achieving his evil purpose. He resorts to devious methods in his attempt to divert the Christian from carrying out the task God has committed to him. He often succeeds by involving the saint in some other lesser occupation and so distracting him.
Nehem ...read |
| Devotional | SAVIOR AND LORD
God chose His only begotten Son as the channel for His grace and truth, for John witnesses that "grace and truth came by Jesus Christ!" The Law was given by Moses-but that was all that Moses could do. He could only "command" righteousness. In contrast, only Jesus Christ produces righteousness. All that Moses could do was to forbid us to sin. In ...read |
| Devotional | Savior But Not Lord?
In the New Testament salvation and discipleship are so closely related as to be indivisible. They are not identical, but as with Siamese twins they are joined by a tie which can be severed only at the price of death.
Yet they are being severed in evangelical circles today. In the working creed of the average Christian salvation is held to be imme ...read |
| Devotional | Saying Goodbye to the Rut
Jesus gives the story of the man who was covetous and lost his soul. So do not be covetous--be generous. Do not be stingy, but be free with your money. Do not be afraid--thank the Lord, trust Him and put fear away. These are examples of the constituted means of faith and obedience. We sing this and do not know we are singing it: "Trust and obey, f ...read |
| Devotional | Seeing Ourselves in Peter
For some queer reason, we seem to love people more when they are not too perfect.
In the presence of a faultless saint, the average one of us feels ill at ease. We are likely to be discouraged rather than inspired by the sight of a character too impeccable to be human. We draw more help from a man if we know that he is going through the fire alon ...read |
| Devotional | Seeing with Compassion
"Excitement, perturbation, feeling." These are states of mind we are all familiar with. In a world as violent and full of conflict as this these come and go, blaze up and die down in the average man's bosom a hundred times a day. The normal man and woman will in the course of a few months experience every degree of emotion from near ecstasy to m ...read |
| Devotional | Seeker, Pretender, or In-the-Rut Disciple
. . . People in the rut never know when the last leaves are falling for them. Why are people in the rut? There are several possibilities. They may never have been truly converted at all, and this is one of our great problems now. We have a dozen ways of getting people into the kingdom of God, when the Lord said there was only one. They leak in, ooz ...read |
| Devotional | Seekers After God
Seekers after God. Thanks be to God on high that these too are among us. They are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Their number is not large when counted against the millions who have forgotten their Maker, but taken together they are a goodly company and dear to the heart of God. Ah, those God-hungry souls! By nature they are no b ...read |
| Devotional | SEEKING AFTER TRUTH
We live in a mixed-up kind of world in which many people are not at all sure of what they believe or what they ought to believe. Some churches advertise that way-you do not have to believe anything: "just be a seeker after truth." Some actually settle for poetry, siding with Edwin Markham who "saw his bright hand sending signals from the sun." ...read |
| Devotional | Seeking God with ALL Our Heart
I have previously shown that any Christian who desires to may at any time experience a radical spiritual renaissance, and this altogether independent of the attitude of his fellow Christians.
The important question now is, How? Well, here are some suggestions which anyone can follow and which, I am convinced, will result in a wonderfully improved ...read |
| Devotional | Selective Acceptance of the Teaching of Christ and the Apostles
It may seem a bit odd that the religious teachers who exalted the teachings of Jesus to the seventh empyrean should in the same breath demote the person of Jesus to the level of a common man; yet they did just that. They lamented with many a crocodile tear the error of the Church in worshiping Jesus and failing to spread His ethics throughout the ...read |
| Devotional | Selective Scripture Screening
Heresy is not so much rejecting as selecting. The heretic simply selects the parts of the Scripture he wants to emphasize and lets the rest go.
This is shown by the etymology of the word heresy and by the practice of the heretic. "Beware," an editorial scribe of the fourteenth century warned his readers in the preface to a book. "Beware thou ...read |
| Devotional | Selective Scripture Screening
Heresy is not so much rejecting as selecting. The heretic simply selects the parts of the Scripture he wants to emphasize and lets the rest go.
This is shown by the etymology of the word heresy and by the practice of the heretic. "Beware," an editorial scribe of the fourteenth century warned his readers in the preface to a book. "Beware thou t ...read |
A.W. Tozer