| Devotional | Stumble Causers
When we are first converted, especially if we come from a non-Christian background, we are likely to be almost too naive for our own good. The wondrous experience through which we have just passed, or perhaps I should say into which we have entered, has predisposed us to believe in everybody. Our trust in other Christians is likely to be boundless. ...read |
| Devotional | Submitting to Christ's Lordship
No one has any right to believe that he is indeed a Christian unless he is humbly seeking to obey the teachings of the One whom he calls Lord. Christ once asked a question (Luke 6:46) that can have no satisfying answer, ?Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,? and do not do what I say??
Right here we do well to anticipate and reply to an objection that ...read |
| Devotional | Superstitious Shadows
Faith honors God by accepting the biblical revelation of the divine character. Faith lets God be what He says He is and adjusts its concepts accordingly. Superstition degrades the reputation of God by believing things unworthy of Him. One rests upon fact and the other upon fancy.
As I said before, there is probably a streak of superstition in eve ...read |
| Devotional | Tainted Tradition
By a kind of poetic justice, Peter has been the center of a number of historical contradictions, or perhaps we should say traditional, for many of them lack the dignity of authentic history. They are the fabrications of the Roman special pleaders who will make a case for themselves even if they must assassinate truth to do it.
Peter is, for insta ...read |
| Devotional | Taking Time to Rest
Sometimes our trouble is not moral but physical. As long as we are in these mortal bodies our spiritual lives will be to some degree affected by our bodies. Here we should notice that there is a difference between our mortal bodies and the ?flesh? of Pauline theology. When Paul speaks of the flesh he refers to our fallen human nature, not to our ph ...read |
| Devotional | Tears Of Joy - Amen!
We need not be afraid of a genuine visitation of the Spirit of God! Blaise Pascal, the famed 17th-century French scientist and philosopher, experienced in his lifetime a personal, overwhelming encounter with God that changed his life. Those who attended him at his death found a worn, creased paper in his clothing, close to his heart; apparently a r ...read |
| Devotional | TELL THE WHOLE TRUTH
It is sad indeed to know that there are Christian leaders among us who are too timid to tell the people all the truth. They are now asking men and women to give to God only that which costs them nothing! The contemporary moral climate does not favor a faith as tough and fibrous as that taught by our Lord and His apostles. Christ calls men to carry ...read |
| Devotional | Temple Cleansers
The critical need in this hour of the church?s history is not what it is so often said to be: soul-winning, foreign missions, miracles. These are effects, not causes. The most pressing need just now is that we who call ourselves Christians should frankly acknowledge to each other and to God that we are astray; that we should confess that we are wor ...read |
| Devotional | Temporal Consequences and Eternal Ones
There is a close cause-and-effect relationship between deeds and consequences. No right-thinking person would try to deny this.
The whole scheme of rewards and punishment is a solid and substantial part of the belief of both Jews and Christians, as well as of many moral philosophers and of religions other than the Judeo-Christian. The human race ...read |
| Devotional | Tension Between the Old Nature and the New
Christ in a believer's heart will act the same as He acted in Galilee and Judea. His disposition is the same now as then. He was holy, righteous, compassionate, meek and humble then, and He has not changed. He is the same wherever He is found, whether it be at the right hand of God or in the nature of a true disciple. He was friendly, loving, pray ...read |
| Devotional | Testing Leaders
There is a common debt that every Christian owes to his fellow Christians; but there is a heavier debt that he owes to particular Christians: to Bible scholars, to translators, to reformers, missionaries, evangelists, revivalists, hymn writers, composers, pastors, teachers and praying saints. For these we should keep the incense of our grateful pra ...read |
| Devotional | Testing the Spirits
Many tender-minded Christians fear to sin against love by daring to inquire into anything that comes wearing the cloak of Christianity and breathing the name of Jesus. They dare not examine the credentials of the latest prophet to hit their town lest they be guilty of rejecting something which may be of God. They timidly remember how the Pharisees ...read |
| Devotional | Tests for Genuineness
How can we tell whether or not a man or a religious demonstration is of God? The answer is easy to find, but it will take courage to follow the facts as God reveals them to us. The tests for spiritual genuineness are two: First, the leader must be a good man and full of the Holy Ghost. Christianity is nothing if not moral. No tricks of theology, n ...read |
| Devotional | Tests of Love
The Christian cannot be certain of the reality and depth of his love until he comes face-to-face with the commandments of Christ and is forced to decide what to do about them. Then he will know. ?He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings? (John 14:24), said our Lord. ?He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me" (Joh ...read |
| Devotional | That Baby in the Manger
One of the most beautiful descriptions of our Savior to be found anywhere is that given by Isaiah in the 53rd chapter of his prophecy: ?He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground? (verse 2).
Those who have at any time been close to the soil will see at once a young shoot just pushing through the ground and will f ...read |
| Devotional | That Magnificent Gift of Thought
Though human nature as we know it now is fallen and morally degenerate, it yet stands at the top in the order of Gods creation. Of no other being was it said, In the image of God created he him. Mans nature indicates that he was created for three things: To think, to worship and to work. Under think may be included everything that the intellect can ...read |
| Devotional | That Narrow Gate
Positive beliefs are not popular these days. A mistaken desire to maintain a spirit of tolerance among all races and religions has produced a breed of Januslike Christians with built-in swivels, remarkable only for their ability to turn in any direction gracefully. The philosophy behind this whole thing is that religious beliefs are matters of pers ...read |
| Devotional | That Questionable Suffering
We delude ourselves when we try to turn our just punishments into a cross and rejoice over that for which we should rather repent. ?For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God? (1 Pet. 2:20) . The cross is al ...read |
| Devotional | The Advent Convergence of Two Worlds
The birth of Christ told the world something. . . . His coming, I repeat, told the world something; it declared something, established something. What was it?
That something was several things, and as Christ broke the loaves into pieces for greater convenience in eating, let me divide the message into parts the easier to understand it. The Adven ...read |
| Devotional | The Ark Analogy
Third, the church is depicted as an ark on the flood waters. As the ark of Noah floated on the waters and contained all who would be salvaged, so the church of Jesus Christ is an ark on the flood waters and contains all who will be salvaged. Remember that! All in the ark are saved, and all outside the ark perish. All around us is a perishing world, ...read |
A.W. Tozer