We're walking, walking, walking… (Tozer for Tuesday)

We cannot go to heaven any other way but by the simple, pedestrian way: walking by faith. The Lord does not talk about a flight of faith, nor does He talk about a tour of faith; He talks about a walk of faith.—A.W. Tozer, Experiencing the Presence of God, 167

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503 Glorifying God in the Everyday

The wonder of the Incarnation slips into the Life of ordinary childhood; the marvel of the Transfiguration descends to the valley and the demon-possessed boy, and the glory of the Resurrection merges into Our Lord providing breakfast for His disciples on the sea shore in the early dawn. The tendency in early Christian experience is to look for the marvellous. We are apt to mistake the sense of the heroic for being heroes. It is one thing to go through a crisis grandly, but a different thing to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, and no one paying the remotest attention to you. If we don’t want medieval haloes, we want something that will make people say-What a wonderful man of prayer he is! What a pious, devoted woman she is! If anyone says that of you, you have not been loyal to God.—Oswald Chambers
Hymns for the Family of God

Tozer for Tuesday

Unfortunately, many Christians settle for less than God’s conscious, manifest presence in their daily walk. There is a strain of loneliness infecting many Christians, which only the presence of God can cure. Why do so many Christians shy away from the holy presence of God? God’s face (His realized, manifested and enjoyed presence) may be the treasure of all God’s people.—A.W. Tozer, Experiencing the Presence of God, 146

Pitied, petted, and pampered

THE CHURCH WORLD IS FULL of Christian professors and ministers, Sunday school teachers and workers, evangelists and missionaries in whom the gifts of the Spirit are very manifest, and who bring blessing to multitudes. However, when known ”close up,” they are found to be full of self.

They may have ”forsaken all” for Christ and imagine they would be ready, like the disciples of old, to die for their Master, but deep down in their hidden, private lives there lurks that dark, sinister power of self.

Such persons may wonder, all the while, why they do not have victory over their wounded pride, their touchiness, their greediness, their lovelessness, their failure to experience the promised "rivers of living water.” Ah, the secret is not far away. They secretly and habitually practice “shrine worship” at the shrine of self. There they bow daily and do obeisance. They are fundamental. In the outward Cross they glory, but inwardly they worship another god—and stretch out their hands to serve a pitied, petted, and pampered self-life.—L. E. Maxwell, Born Crucified, 65–66

Tozer for Tuesday

I am afraid our lukewarmness about the person of Christ is a great proof that we do not know very much about Him in personal experience. I tell you, we cannot keep still about that which we love. That which we love supremely and above all else, we are going to talk about it a lot. I will never get over it; it is still a delight to me; it is still a pleasure I cannot get over. I do not try to get over it. I just enjoy it.—A.W. Tozer, Experiencing the Presence of God, 141

The humble heart

He who attributes any goodness to himself, obstructs the coming of God’s grace, for the grace of the Holy Spirit always seeks a humble heart. If you would perfectly overcome self and set yourself free from love of creatures, I would come to you with all My grace. But while your interest is in creatures, the vision of the Creator is hidden from you. Learn, then, for love of the Creator, to overcome self in everything, and you shall come to the knowledge of God. But so long as anything, however small, occupies too much of your love and regard, it injures the soul and holds you back from attaining the highest Good.—Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, 148-49 (ch. 42)

That our peace cannot depend on Man

CHAPTER 42 That our Peace cannot Depend on Man

Christ speaking: My son, if your peace depends on anyone. by reason of your afiection or friendship with him, you will always be unsettled, and dependent on him. But if you turn to the living and eternal Truth, the departure or death of your friend will not distress you. Your love for a friend must rest in Me, and those who are dear to you in this life must be loved only for My sake. No good and lasting friendship can exist without Me, and unless I bless and unite all love it cannot be pure and true. You should be so mortified in your affection towards loved ones that, for your part, you would forego all human companionship. Man draws the nearer to God as he withdraws further from the consolations of this world. And the deeper he descends into himself and the lower he regards himself, the higher he ascends towards God.—Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, 148

Are you just dunked?

What I often ponder is how many Christians are there who are Christians only by instruction, religious education or having somebody manipulate them by dunking them in a baptismal pool or sprinkling water on them?

How many of these people come to church every Sunday, take part in the services on Sunday and yet are not known for being Christians, because away from the church they do not act like a Christian? They are Christians by assumption, by manipulation or instruction, rather than by regeneration.—A.W. Tozer, Experiencing the Presence of God, 120

Trust? Or obey? Which is it?

An old saint was once asked, “Which is more important: prayer or the reading of the Word?” He thought for a moment and then responded, “Which is more important to the bird, the right wing or the left?” That is a question I want to pose: Which is more important to a Christian, believing or obeying? For the sparrow flying through the air, both wings are equally important. With only one it is almost impossible to fly. So, we must believe God’s Word and we must obey it. By these two wings, a man will rise to God in faith and humble obedience to the Lord Himself.—A.W. Tozer, Experiencing the Presence of God, 106

More on trust and obey

Trust is on one side of the coin, and obey is on the other. But the Church has taken a fine saw and split them, saying, “You don’t have to obey. Just believe.” Everything is “believe.” You cannot divide that coin. You cannot separate it; if you do, it is no good. It is not just trust; it is not just obey. It is trust and obey. Believe God and then go get obedience. You will find that it will become in your heart eternal salvation. Jesus Christ will become your all in all.—A.W. Tozer, Experiencing the Presence of God, 62

A generation of thumb-suckers (Tozer for Tuesday)

The whole human race has simply grown up seeking pleasure so that we are a race of grownup thumb-suckers. We give over our time to acquiring a pleasant sensation when we ought to give over our time to the advancing of our souls.—A.W. Tozer, Experiencing the Presence of God, 37

Tozer for Tuesday, with a quotation from Thomas à Kempis

Thomas a Kempis wisely observed, "We give all our attention to things that do us little good, or none at all; things that are vitally necessary we don’t bother about them, just give them the go-by. Yes, all that goes to make man drives him to meddle with outward things, and if he doesn’t soon recover his senses, is only too glad to wallow in material interests and pleasures.”—A.W. Tozer, Experiencing the Presence of God, 35

Callous (Tozer for Tuesday—on a Wednesday)

Perhaps the most dangerous situation confronting Christians today is what I call cauterizing the conscience. That is, making a person insensitive or callous to the world around him. In practical terms, he experiences a deadening of feelings toward morals. Quite simply, this moral insensibility is a lack of feeling. You cannot feel the whole moral question. The strange paradox is that a person may be troubled by his inability to feel, yet he cannot feel. Even among those who consider themselves Christians, there is very little outrage at the immorality of our times.—A.W. Tozer, Experiencing the Presence of God, 34 (emphasis original)

Move along, there's nothing here to see (Tozer for Tuesday)

Most people, unfortunately, would peruse these pages with a sense of curiosity and soon grow bored and turn aside for the titillation of some new thing. Becoming fascinated with some exterior trinket, they soon lose interest in pursuing the presence of God. For those, someone always comes along boasting of some new religious gadget to play with. The poor, undernourished, immature Christian goes from one religious gadget to another, ending up with an emptiness inside that they cannot comprehend.—A.W. Tozer, Experiencing the Presence of God, 26

Tozer for Tuesday

Any doctrine that makes the world your friend is not your friend. And any doctrine that makes it easy for you to hobnob with the world and the world’s ways and accept the world’s values, and do the way the world does, is not of God.—A.W. Tozer, Reclaiming Christianity, 216–17

Everyday holiness

The result [of the Reformation abolition of monasteries, etc.] is that “for the ordinary householder” this will require something paradoxical: living in all the practices and institutions of [‘this-worldly’] flourishing, but at the same time not fully in them. Belng in them but not of them; being in them, but yet at a distance, ready to lose them. Augustine put it: use the things of this world, but don’t enjoy them; uti, not frui. Or do it all for the glory of God, in the Loyola-Calvin formulation” (p. 81). Religious devotion — and hence expectations of holiness and virtue — is not sequestered to the monastery or the convent; rather, the high expectations of sanctification now spill beyond the walls of the monastery.—James K. A. Smith, How (Not) to Be Secular, 37

On a Hill Far Away (The Old Rugged Cross)

228 On a Hill Far Away

1 On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
   The emblem of suff'ring and shame;
   And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
   For a world of lost sinners was slain.

Refrain:
   So I'll cherish the cross, the old rugged cross,
   Till my trophies at last I lay down;
   I will cling to the cross, the old rugged cross,
   And exchange it some day for a crown.

2 O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,
   Has a wondrous attraction for me;
   For the dear Lamb of God left His glory above
   To bear it to dark Calvary. [Refrain]

3 In the old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,
   A wondrous beauty I see;
   For 'twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died
   To pardon and sanctify me. [Refrain]

4 To the old rugged cross I will ever be true,
   It's shame and reproach gladly bear.
   Then He'll call me some day to my home far away,
   Where His glory forever I'll share. [Refrain]
                         George Bennard
                         The Methodist Hymnal 1964 edition

<idle musing>
I've mused on this hymn in the past. See here and here.

I was and wasn't surprised to see that it only occurs in about 450 hymnals. He wrote the hymn in 1913. </idle musing>

"Required to live the life they have been given"

Paul does not perfect the efficacy of grace as a form of monergism, because it is clear for him from the baptismal event that the very life in which the believer acts and decides is a life sourced, established, and upheld by Christ (a “life from the dead”). Within this frame, and on this basis, plenty of statements can be made regarding believers as responsible agents who are required to present their bodies in one direction rather than another. Christian obedience is thus vital, but only ever in a responsive mode: it arises in conjunction with faith and gratitude as the answer to a prior gift. The gift is entirely undeserved but strongly obliging: it creates agents who are newly alive, required to live the life they have been given.—J. M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift, 518

<idle musing>
I really like that: "Required to live the life they have been given." That sums up discipleship and Christianity, doesn't it?
</idle musing>

Burn the bridges! (Tozer for Tuesday)

If we become worshipers of God, God will honor us in the hour in which we live. I think we ought to insist that we adore God and that we cannot adore Him until we are purged from our sins, illuminated by a fiery baptism, have renounced the world and all of its deceptions and then offer ourselves on an altar, ready to die. If we burn the bridge and give it all up, then there will be born in our hearts adoration—worship of the Lord Jesus Christ.—A.W. Tozer, Reclaiming Christianity, 174

Popularity vs. discipleship (Tozer for Tuesday)

When a man is converted, he ought to renounce his old life. We are members of a new creation, born from above, sons of the Father, joint heirs with the Son. Heaven is our home, hallelujah is our language, and we belong to a little company—a minority group despised and rejected of men.

Instead of that, Christianity has become popular. Evangelicalism has become popular and consequently, it is dead.—A.W. Tozer, Reclaiming Christianity, 171