Revisited ~ Renewed ~ Day By Day ~ Devotional ~ A.W. Tozer

Note: This devotional is from a running thread first posted back in 2004. Have long thought about resurrecting this somehow and while the original is complete and remains locked it seemed best to start it again afresh and run day by day. The foundations of SermonIndex while not exclusively, were certainly of a few mainstays. Tozer, T. Austin Sparks, Leonard Ravenhill come first and foremost to mind.

For our newer members there is often an appeal to search out this site for it's riches and with that in mind begins another journey from the pen of the good doctor. Enjoy.

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[b]September 8[/b]

[u]Good Literature: Responsibility of Christian Home[/u]

[i]The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord; but the words of the pure are pleasant words. Proverbs 15:26[/i]

IT IS MY BELIEF THAT WE CHRISTIANS are bound in all conscience to discourage the reading of subversive literature and to promote as fully as possible the circulation of good books and magazines.

\tJust what part evil literature has played in the present moral breakdown throughout the world will never be known till men are called forth to answer to a holy God for their unholy deeds, but it must be very great indeed!

\tFor thousands of young people the first doubt about God and the Bible came with the reading of some evil book. We must respect the power of ideas, and printed ideas are as powerful as spoken ones. They may have a longer fuse but their explosive power is just as great.

\tOur Christian faith teaches us to expect to answer for every idle word; how much more severely shall we be held to account for every evil word, whether printed or spoken.

\tThe desire to appear broad-minded is one not easy to overcome, for it is rooted in our ego and is simply a none-too-subtle form of pride. In the name of broadmindedness many a Christian home has been opened to literature that sprang not from a broad mind, but from a mind little and dirty and polluted with evil!

\tWe require our children to wipe their feet before entering the house. Dare we demand less of the literature that comes into our home?

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 9[/b]

[u]Without Divine Illumination, Theology Is Dead[/u]

[i]That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 1 Corinthians 2:5[/i]

SURELY GOD HAS SOMETHING TO SAY to the pure in heart which He cannot say to the man of sinful life. But what He has to say is not theological, it is spiritual, and spiritual truths cannot be received in the ordinary way of nature!

\t“The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” So wrote the Apostle Paul to the believers at Corinth.

\tOur Lord referred to this kind of Spirit-enlightened knowledge many times. To Him it was the fruit of a divine illumination, not contrary to but altogether beyond mere intellectual light.

\tThe necessity for spiritual illumination before we can grasp spiritual truths is taught throughout the entire New Testament and it is altogether in accord with the teachings of the Psalms, the Proverbs and the Prophets. The New Testament draws a sharp line between the natural mind and the mind that has been touched by divine fire. When Peter made his good confession, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” our Lord replied, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”

\tThe sum of what I am saying is that there is an illumination, divinely bestowed, without which theological truth is information and nothing more. While this illumination is never given apart from theology, it is entirely possible to have theology without the illumination!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 10[/b]

[u]Unbelief: A Luxury No Man or Woman Can Afford[/u]

[i]But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions. Matthew 19:22[/i]

JESUS COULD NOT HAVE MADE IT ANY PLAINER in His teachings that every man during his lifetime must decide for himself whether or not he can afford the terrible luxury of unbelief!

\tWhen the rich young ruler learned the cost of discipleship he went away sorrowing. He could not give up the sunny side of the brae. But thanks be to God, there are some in every age who refuse to go back! The Acts of the Apostles is the story of men and women who turned their faces into the stiff wind of persecution and loss and followed the Lamb whithersoever He went. They knew that the world hated Christ without a cause and hated them for His sake; but for the glory that was set before them they continued steadfastly on the way.

\tWhat is it that Christ has to offer us that is sound, genuine and desirable!

\tHe offers forgiveness of sins, inward cleansing, peace with God, eternal life, the gift of the Holy Spirit, victory over temptation, resurrection from the dead, a glorified body, immortality and a dwelling place in the house of the Lord forever! These are a few of the benefits that come to us as a result of faith in Christ and total committal to Him.

\tTo accept the call of Christ changes the returning sinner indeed, but it does not change the world. The wind still blows toward hell and the man who is walking in the opposite direction will have the wind in his face. We had better take this into account: If the unsearchable riches of Christ are not worth suffering for, we should know it now and cease to play at religion!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 11[/b]

[u]Bible History: Be Careful Whose Advice You Follow[/u]

[i]The way of a fool is right in his own eyes; but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise. Proverbs 12:15[/i]

NO MAN HAS ANY RIGHT TO OFFER ADVICE who has not first heard God speak. No man has any right to counsel others who is not ready to hear and follow the counsel of the Lord!

\tThis rule of listening only to those who have first listened to God will save us from many a snare, for in any group of ten persons at least nine are sure to believe that they are qualified to offer advice to others.

\tIt seems that in no other field of human interest are people as ready to offer advice as in the field of religion and morals. Yet it is precisely in this field that the average person is least qualified to speak wisely and is capable of the most harm when he does speak.

\tFor this reason, we should select our counselors carefully, and selection inevitably carries with it the idea of rejection.

\tDavid warns against the counsel of the ungodly and Bible history gives examples of men who made a failure of their lives because they took wrong advice.

\tIt is especially important that young people learn whose counsel to trust. Having been in the world for such a short time they have not had much experience and must look to others for advice. Those who boast the loudest of their independence, for example, have picked up from someone the idea that independence is a virtue, and their very eagerness to be individualistic is the result of the influence of others. They are what they are because of the counsel they have followed.

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 12[/b]

[u]Redemption: A Moral Restoration to the Divine Image[/u]

[i]Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. 2 Thessalonians 3:16[/i]

SYMMETRY IS A RIGHT PROPORTION of parts in relation to each other and to the whole. By this simple definition symmetry of character is both highly desirable and extremely difficult to attain. Yet it is precisely what Christ had in supreme degree and what every one of us needs if we are to become saints in something beside name!

\tWe can hardly conceive of God’s creating us in such a way that we should be forced to sacrifice one good thing to attain another.

\tIf redemption is a moral restoration to the divine image, (and it must be that ultimately), then we may expect one of the first acts of God in the Christian’s life to be a kind of moral tuning-up, a bringing into harmony the discordant elements within the personality, an adjustment of the soul to itself and to God. And that He does just this is the testimony of everyone who has been truly converted!

\tThe new believer may state it in other language and the emotional lift he enjoys may be so great as to prevent calm analysis, but the gist of his testimony will be that he has found peace, a peace he can actually feel! The twists and tensions within his heart have corrected themselves as a result of his new orientation to Christ.

\tHe can then sing,

“Now rest, my long-divided heart;
Fixed on this blissful center rest.”

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 13[/b]

[u]More Concern Today for Fruit Than for the Root[/u]

[i]The root of the righteous shall not be moved. Proverbs 12:3[/i]

ONE MARKED DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE FAITH of our fathers as conceived by the fathers and the same faith as understood and lived by their children is that the fathers were concerned with the root of the matter, while their present-day descendants seem concerned only with the fruit.

\tToday we write the biographies of the Augustines, the Luthers and the Wesleys and celebrate their fruit, but the tendency is to ignore the root out of which the fruit sprang.

\t“The root of the righteous yielded fruit,” said the wise man in the Proverbs. Our fathers looked well to the root of the tree and were willing to wait with patience for the fruit to appear.

\tWe demand the fruit immediately even though the root may be weak and knobby, or missing altogether. How can we ignore the fact that the bough that breaks off from the tree in a storm may bloom briefly, giving the impression that it is a healthy and fruitful branch, but its tender blossoms will soon perish and the bough itself will wither and die? There is no lasting life apart from the root.

\tMuch that passes for Christianity today is the brief, bright effort of the severed branch to bring forth its fruit in its season. But the deep laws of life are against it. Preoccupation with appearances and a corresponding neglect of the out-of-sight root of the true spiritual life are prophetic signs which go unheeded.

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 14[/b]

[u]Jesus Calls Us to His Rest: Meekness Is His Method[/u]

[i]With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love. Ephesians 4:2[/i]

JESUS CALLS US TO HIS REST, and meekness is His method!

\tThe meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort. He develops toward himself a kindly sense of humor and learns to say, “Oh, so you have been overlooked? They placed someone else before you! They have whispered that you are pretty small stuff after all? And now you feel hurt because the world is saying about you the very things you have been saying about yourself! Only yesterday you were telling God that you were nothing, a mere worm of the dust. Where is your consistency? Come on, humble yourself, and cease to care what men may think!”

\tRest is simply release from the heavy, crushing burden borne by mankind and the word Jesus used for ‘burden’ means a load carried or toil borne to the point of exhaustion. The ‘rest’ is not something we do—it is what comes to us when we cease to do.

\tThe meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God’s estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God has declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight of God of more importance than angels. In himself nothing; in God, everything. He rests perfectly content to allow God to place His own values!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 15[/b]

[u]Prayer of Faith Lays Hold of God’s Omnipotence[/u]

[i]In everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known unto God. Philippians 4:6[/i]

TO “ACCEPT THE UNIVERSE” DOES NOT MEAN that we are to accept evil conditions as inevitable and make no effort to improve them. So to teach would be to cancel the plain teachings of the Scriptures on that point.

\tWhere a situation is contrary to the will of God, and there are clear promises concerning it in the Scriptures, it is our privilege and obligation to pray and labor to bring about a change. Should we become ill, for instance, we should not surrender to the illness as being inevitable and do nothing about it. Rather, we should accept it provisionally as the will of God for the time and seek His will about recovering our health.

\tWhile the prayer of faith enables us to lay hold of the omnipotence of God and bring about many wonderful changes here below, there are some things that not even prayer can change. These lie outside the field of prayer and must be accepted with thanksgiving as the wise will of God for us.

\tWe should, for instance, accept the wisdom of God in nature. In the course of a lifetime there may be a thousand things we could wish had been different, but the word ‘wish’ is not in the Christian’s vocabulary. The very word connotes a fretful rebellion against the ways of God in His universe.

\tAgain, accept yourself. Apart from sin, which you have forsaken, there is nothing about yourself of which you need to be ashamed. Cease to vex yourself about anything over which you have no control. Keep your heart with all diligence and God will look after the universe!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 16[/b]

[u]A Jubilant Longing and Pining for God[/u]

[i]But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:14[/i]

ALMOST EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE I AM PRAYING that “a jubilant pining and longing for God” might come back on the evangelical churches everywhere!

\tWe do not need to have our doctrine straightened out; we are as orthodox as the Pharisees of old. But this longing for God that brings spiritual torrents and whirlwinds of seeking and self-denial—this is almost gone from our midst.

\tI believe that God wants us to long for Him with the longing that will become homesickness, that will become a wound to our spirits, to keep us always moving toward Him; always finding and always seeking; always having and always desiring!

\tSo the earth becomes less and less valuable and heaven gets closer as we move into God and up into Christ.

\tDare we bow our hearts and say, “Father, I have been an irresponsible, childish kind of Christian—more concerned with being happy than with being holy. O God, wound me with a sense of my own sinfulness. Wound me with compassion for the world, and wound me with love of Thee that will always keep me pursuing and always exploring and always seeking and finding!”

\tIf you dare to pray that prayer sincerely and mean it before God, it could mean a turning point in your life. It could mean a great door of spiritual victory opened to you!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 17[/b]

[u]Jesus Taught the Moral Relation between Words and Deeds[/u]

[i]The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up Acts 1:1,2[/i]

I AM AFRAID WE MODERN CHRISTIANS are long on talk and short on conduct. We use the language of power but our deeds are the deeds of weakness.

\tOur Lord and His apostles were long on deeds. The gospels depict a Man walking in power, “who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”

\tThe moral relationship between words and deeds appears quite plainly in the life and teachings of Christ.

\tIn the Sermon on the Mount Christ placed doing before teaching: “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:19).

\tSince in one of its aspects religion contemplates the invisible it is easy to understand how it can be erroneously made to contemplate the unreal. The praying man talks of that which he does not see, and fallen human minds tend to assume that what cannot be seen is not of any great importance and probably not even real, if the truth were known.

\tSo religion is disengaged from practical life and retired to the airy region of fancy where dwell the sweet insubstantial nothings which everyone knows do not exist but which they nevertheless lack the courage to repudiate publicly.

\tI could wish that this were true only of pagan religions; but candor dictates that I admit it to be true also of much that passes for evangelical Christianity.

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 18[/b]

[u]Who Dares to Soften and Change Christ’s Words[/u]

[i]By the resurrection of Jesus Christ; who is gone into heaven angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. 1 Peter 3:21, 22[/i]

AS BELIEVERS, WE SHOULD BE WARNED that any appeal to the public in the name of Christ that rises no higher than an invitation to tranquility must be recognized as mere humanism with a few words of Jesus thrown in to make it appear Christian!

\tStrange, is it not, that we dare without shame to alter, to modulate the words of Christ while speaking for Christ to the very ones for whom He died?

\tChrist calls men to carry a cross; we call them to have fun in His name!

\tHe calls them to forsake the world; we assure them that if they but accept Jesus the world is their oyster!

\tHe calls them to suffer; we call them to enjoy all the bourgeois comforts modern civilization affords!

\tHe calls them to self-abnegation and death; we call them to spread themselves like green bay trees or perchance even to become stars in a pitiful fifth-rate religious zodiac!

\tHe calls them to holiness; we call them to a cheap and tawdry happiness that would have been rejected with scorn by the least of the Stoic philosophers!

\tOnly that is truly Christian which accords with the spirit and teachings of Christ. Whatever is foreign to the Spirit of the Man of Sorrows and contrary to the teachings and practice of His apostles is un-Christian or anti-Christian, no matter whence it emanates!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 19[/b]

[u]Religious Teaching Gives Light: That Is Not Enough[/u]

[i]Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. Ephesians 5:14[/i]

TO FIND THE WAY, WE NEED MORE THAN LIGHT; we need also sight!

\tThe Holy Scriptures are the source of moral and spiritual light. Yet I consider that I cast no aspersion upon the hallowed page when I say that its radiance is not by itself enough. Light alone is not sufficient.

\tThe coming of knowledge is like the rising of the sun. But sunrise means nothing to the unseeing eye. Only the sighted benefit from the light of the sun.

\tBetween light and sight there is a wide difference. One man may have light without sight; he is blind. Another may have sight without light; he is temporarily blind, but the coming of the light quickly enables him to see.

\tWe have said this much to point out that religious instruction, however sound, is not enough by itself. It brings light, but it cannot impart sight. The text without the Spirit’s enlightenment cannot save the sinner. Salvation follows a work of the Spirit in the heart. There can be no salvation apart from the truth but there can be, and often is, truth without salvation.

\tHow many multiplied thousands have learned the catechism by heart and still wander in moral darkness because there has been no inward illumination! The Pharisees looked straight at the Light of the World for three years, but not one ray of light reached their inner beings. Light is not enough!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 20[/b]

[u]Truth Will Not Give Itself to a Rebel[/u]

[i]He that followeth me shall have the light of life. John 8:12[/i]

TOO MANY PEOPLE CONSIDER JESUS CHRIST a ‘convenience.’ We make Him a lifeboat to get us to shore, a guide to find us when we are lost. We reduce Him simply to a Big Friend to help us when we are in trouble. That is not biblical Christianity!

\tJesus Christ is Lord, and when a man is willing to do His will, he is repenting and the truth flashes in. For the first time in his life, he finds himself willing to say, “I will do the will of the Lord, even if I die for it!”

\tIllumination will begin in his heart. That is repentance—for he has been following his own will and now decides to do the will of God.

\tBefore the Word of God can mean anything inside of me there must be obedience to the Word. Truth will not give itself to a rebel. Truth will not impart life to a man who will not obey the light. If you are disobeying Jesus Christ you cannot expect to be enlightened spiritually.

\tNo man can know the Son except the Father tell him. No man can know the Father except the Son reveal Him. I can know about God: that is the body of truth. But I cannot know God, the soul of truth, unless I am ready to be obedient.

\tTrue discipleship is obeying Jesus Christ and learning of Him and following Him and doing what He tells you to do, keeping His commandments and carrying out His will.

\tThat kind of a person is a Christian—and no other kind is!

A.W. Tozer

crsschk wrote:
[b]September 20[/b]

If you are disobeying Jesus Christ you cannot expect to be enlightened spiritually.

:-o

[b]September 21[/b]

[u]The Modern Cry: I Have a Right to Be Happy[/u]

[i]Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Hebrews 13:5[/i]

A SELFISH DESIRE FOR HAPPINESS IS AS SINFUL as any other selfish desire because its root is in the flesh which can never have any standing before God!

\tPeople are coming more and more to excuse every sort of wrongdoing on the grounds that they are “just trying to secure a little happiness!” That is the hedonistic philosophy of old Grecian days misunderstood and applied to everyday living in the twentieth century.

\tIt destroys all nobility of character and makes milksops of all who consciously or unconsciously adopt it; but it has become quite the popular creed of the masses.

\tNow I submit that the whole hectic scramble after happiness is an evil as certainly as is the scramble after money or fame or success. It springs out of a vast misunderstanding of ourselves and of our true moral state.

\tThe man who really knows himself can never believe in his right to be happy. A little glimpse of his own heart will disillusion him immediately so that he is more likely to turn on himself and own God’s sentence against him to be just.

\tThe doctrine of man’s inalienable right to happiness is anti-God and anti-Christ, and its wide acceptance by society tells us a lot about that same society. No man should desire to be happy who is not at the same time holy. Seeking fully to know and do the will of God, he leaves to Christ the matter of how happy he should be!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 22[/b]

[u]A Word to Women: Seek the Inner Adorning[/u]

[i]Even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. 1 Peter 3:4[/i]

CERTAINLY I AM NOT GOING TO TRY TO FILL the role of a feminine counselor, but I do want to remind you that the Apostle Peter, a great man of God, taught that true adorning is the lasting beauty that is within. Peter said that there is a glowing but hidden being of the heart, more radiant than all of the jewels that one can buy!

\tThis ties in with the fact that a Christian woman should be very careful about the kind of person she sets up as a model of character and example in daily life. It is a sad thing to have our minds occupied with the wrong kind of people!

\tEnglish history books will not report that Suzanna Wesley was one of the best-dressed women of her day or that she ever received a medal for social activity. But she was the mother of Charles and John Wesley, those princes of Christian song and theology. She taught her own family, and her spiritual life and example have placed her name high in God’s hall of fame for all eternity.

\tSo, if you want to take models to follow day by day, please do not take the artificial, globe-trotting females who are intent only upon themselves, their careers and their publicity! God help us all, men and women of whatever marital, social or domestic status, that we may do the will of God and thus win our crown!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 23[/b]

[u]God Would Save Us from Spiritual Delusion[/u]

[i]Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders. 2 Thessalonians 2:9[/i]

THERE ARE AREAS OF CHRISTIAN THOUGHT—and because of thought then also of life, where likenesses and differences are so difficult to distinguish that we are often hard put to escape complete deception!

\tThroughout the whole world error and truth travel the same highways, work in the same fields and factories, attend the same churches, fly in the same planes and shop in the same stores.

\tSo skilled is error at imitating truth that the two are constantly being mistaken for each other. It takes a sharp eye these days to know which brother is Cain and which is Abel!

\tWe must never take for granted anything that touches our soul’s welfare. Isaac felt Jacob’s arms and thought they were the arms of Esau. Even the disciples failed to spot the traitor among them; the only one of them who knew who he was was Judas himself. That soft-spoken companion with whom we walk so comfortably and in whose company we take such delight may be an angel of Satan, whereas that rough, plain-spoken man whom we shun may be God’s very prophet sent to warn us against danger and eternal loss.

\tIt is therefore critically important that the Christian take full advantage of every provision God has made to save him from delusion. The most important of these combine as a protective shield—faith, prayer, constant meditation on the Scriptures, obedience, humility, much serious thought and the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 24[/b]

[u]A New Decalogue: Thou Shalt Not Disagree[/u]

[i]Should a wise man utter vain knowledge? Should he reason with unprofitable folk? Job 15:3, 4[/i]

THIS ABOVE ALL OTHERS IS THE AGE of much talk!
\t
Hardly a day passes that the newspapers do not carry one or another of the headlines “Talks to Begin” or “Talks to Continue.” The notion back of this endless official chatter is that all differences between men result from their failure to understand each other!
\t
This yen to confer has hit the church also, which is not strange since almost everything the church is doing these days has been suggested to her by the world. I observe with pained amusement how many “water boys” of the pulpit in their efforts to be prophets are standing up straight and tall and speaking out boldly in favor of ideas that have been previously fed into their minds by the psychiatrists, the sociologists, the novelists, the scientists and the secular educators.
\t
A new Decalogue has been adopted by the neo-Christians of our day, the first word of which reads, “Thou shalt not disagree”; and a new set of Beatitudes too, which begins “Blessed are they that tolerate everything, for they shall not be made accountable for anything.”
\t
It is true that the blessing of God is promised to the peacemaker, for the ability to settle quarrels between members of God’s family is a heavenly gift. That is one thing, but the effort to achieve unity at the expense of truth and righteousness is another. Darkness and light can never be brought together by talk. Some things are not negotiable!

A.W. Tozer

[b]September 25[/b]

[u]Knowledge without Humility Turns to Vanity[/u]

[i]He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words 1 Timothy 6:4[/i]

A NEW SCHOOL WITHIN EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANITY has appeared in our time which appears to me to be in grave danger of producing a prime crop of intellectual snobs!

\tThe disciples of this leaning are orthodox in creed, if by that we mean that they hold the fundamental tenets of the historical faith; but right there the similarity of their school to New Testament Christianity ends. Their spirit is quite other than the spirit of the Early Church.

\tThis new breed of Christian may be identified by certain field marks. One is the habit of puffing out the chest and uttering a noise that sounds suspiciously like crowing. Another is the habit of nesting so high that ordinary Christians have difficulty in locating the aerie. Rarely is an original note sounded—each one waiting to hear what Barth or Brunner or Bultmann or Tillich has to say and then imitating it as nearly as possible, only transposing it into the orthodox key!

\tThey are largely overlooking the fact that truth is not mental only—but moral. A theological fact becomes a spiritual truth only when it is received by a humble mind. The proud mind, however orthodox, can never know spiritual truth!

\tIn the Scriptures knowledge is a kind of experience and wisdom has a moral content. Knowledge without humility is vanity. The religious snob is devoid of truth. Snobbery and truth are irreconcilable!

A.W. Tozer