Vatican City monuments

Vatican City monuments

“Religious groups usually have a history in four stages: a man, a movement, a machine, a monument.”

~Vance Havner

 

“I have read somewhere that Theodore Roosevelt owned a little dog that was always getting into fights and always getting the worst of them. On one occasion he tackled a mangy cur and took a beating. Someone said to Teddy, “Your dog isn’t much of a fighter.” “Oh, yes, he’s a good fighter,” replied the Colonel, “he’s just a poor judge of dogs!” We should never underestimate our adversaries.”

~Vance Havner

 

““What I believe about God is the most important thing about me.”

~A.W. Tozer

 

Nothing Like Him

By A.W. Tozer

 

God in His essential Being is unique in the only sense that word will bear. That is, there is nothing like Him in the universe. What He is cannot be conceived by the mind because He is “altogether other” than anything with which we have had experience before. The mind has no material with which to start. No man has ever entertained a thought that can be said to describe God in any but the vaguest and most imperfect sense. Where God is known at all it must be otherwise than by our creature-reason.

Novatian, in a famous treatise on the Trinity written sometime about the middle of the third century, says, “In all our meditations upon the qualities of the attributes and content of God, we pass beyond our powers of fit conception, nor can human eloquence put forth a power commensurate with His greatness. At the contemplation and utterance of His majesty, all eloquence is rightly dumb, all mental effort is feeble. For God is greater than mind itself. His greatness cannot be conceived. Nay, if we could conceive of His greatness, He would be less than the human mind which could form the conception. He is greater than all language, and no statement can express Him. Indeed, if any statement could express Him, He would be less than human speech, which could by such statement comprehend and gather up all that He is. Up to a certain point, of course, we can have experience of Him, without language, but no man can express in words all that He is in Himself. Suppose, for instance, one speaks of Him as light; this is an account of part of His creation, not of Himself. It does not express what He is. Or suppose one speaks of Him as power. This too sets forth in words His attribute of might, rather than His being. Or suppose one speaks of Him as majesty. Once again, we have a declaration of the honor which is His Own, rather than of Him in Himself. . . . To sum up the matter in a single sentence, every possible statement that can be made about God expresses some possession or virtue of God, rather than God Himself. What words or thoughts are worthy of Him, Who is above all language and all thought? The conception of God as He is can only be grasped in one way, and even that is impossible for us, beyond our grasp and understanding; by thinking of Him as a Being Whose attributes and greatness are beyond our powers of understanding, or even of thought.”

Verse

But they do not know / the thoughts of the Lord; / they do not understand his plan, / he who gathers them like sheaves to the threshing floor. Micah 4:12

Thought

No man has ever entertained a thought that can be said to describe God in any but the vaguest and most imperfect sense.

Prayer

Kind Father, permit us to know enough of You to know that we can never understand or grasp or Your greatness and majesty.

 

Spiritual Flame

By A.W. Tozer

 

The Holy Spirit is also a spiritual flame. He alone can raise our worship to true spiritual levels. For we might as well know once for all that morality and ethics, however lofty, are still not Christianity. The faith of Christ undertakes to raise the soul to actual communion with God, to introduce into our religious experiences a supra-rational element as far above mere goodness as the heavens are above the earth. The coming of the Spirit brought to the Book of Acts this very quality of supra-mundaneness, this mysterious elevation of tone not found in as high intensity even in the Gospels. The key of the Book of Acts is definitely the major. There is in it no trace of creature-sadness, no lingering disappointment, no quaver of uncertainty. The mood is heavenly. A victorious spirit is found there, a spirit that could never be the result of mere religious belief. The joy of the first Christians was not the joy of logic working on facts. They did not reason, “Christ is risen from the dead; therefore we ought to be glad.” Their gladness was as great a miracle as the resurrection itself; indeed these were and are organically related. The moral happiness of the Creator had taken residence in the breasts of redeemed creatures and they could not but be glad.

Verse

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Acts 2:4

Thought

Morality and ethics, however lofty, are not Christianity.

Prayer

Make us glad, Kind Father, as we realize the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

 

 

A Moral Contradiction

By A.W. Tozer

 

No one whose senses have been exercised to know good and evil but must grieve over the sight of zealous souls seeking to be filled with the Holy Spirit while they are yet living in a state of moral carelessness or borderline sin. Such a thing is a moral contradiction. Whoever would be filled and indwelt by the Spirit should first judge his life for any hidden iniquities; he should courageously expel from his heart everything that is out of accord with the character of God as revealed by the Holy Scriptures.

At the base of all true Christian experience must lie a sound and sane morality. No joys are valid, no delights legitimate where sin is allowed to live in life or conduct. No transgression of pure righteousness dare excuse itself on the ground of superior religious experience. To seek high emotional states while living in sin is to throw our whole life open to self-deception and the judgment of God. “Be ye holy” is not a mere motto to be framed and hung on the wall. It is a serious commandment from the Lord of the whole earth. “Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into heaviness” (James 4:8–9). The true Christian ideal is not to be happy but to be holy. The holy heart alone can be the habitation of the Holy Spirit.

Verse

Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. James 4:8–9

Thought

“Be ye holy” is not a mere motto to be framed and hung on the wall. It is a serious commandment from the Lord of the whole earth.

Prayer

Cleanse our hearts, Holy Father, so that Your Spirit might dwell within us.

 

 

Those Who Bless Israel

January 23, 2015

“They will chop down her forest,”
declares the LORD,
“dense though it be.
They are more numerous than locusts,
they cannot be counted.” — Jeremiah 46:23

The Torah portion for this week is Bo, which means “come,” from Exodus 10:1–13:16, and the Haftorah is from Jeremiah 46:13–28.

In this week’s Haftorah reading, once again we are told about the pending destruction of Egypt. In the Torah reading, Moses warned Pharaoh about the 10 plagues; in the Haftorah, we read about Jeremiah warning another Pharaoh. The times have changed but the story is the same. Would Egypt ever learn?

In describing the destruction that would come to Egypt, God said, “They will chop down her forest,” declares the LORD, ”dense though it be. They are more numerous than locusts . . .” In describing the enemies about to conquer Egypt, God compared them to locusts. This wasn’t by accident. This is a direct reference to one of the 10 plagues that hit Egypt in Moses’ time. By making this connection, God was telling Egypt that they should have learned from their past. But they didn’t.

After the monumental and miraculous destruction of Egypt brought about in Moses’ time, you would think that Egypt had learned its lesson and would never touch Israel again. Yet, we read in 1 Kings 14:25–26 that just after King Solomon’s death, Shishak, king of Egypt, ransacked Jerusalem and even audaciously stole all Solomon’s gold shields. Later on in 2 Kings 23:29–30, the Egyptian Pharaoh Neco killed the righteous king of Judah, Josiah. Numerous times throughout biblical history Egypt violated Israel’s trust and either attacked or betrayed her.

In this week’s Haftorah, God was basically saying enough is enough. The time for judgment had come.

Today, we have to ask the same question: Will Israel’s enemies ever learn? Throughout history God has punished those who oppress Israel. Why do nations continue to provoke Him?

In Genesis 12:3, God says, “whoever curses you I will curse.” As God said, it will be. Take a look at Joel 3:1–2, “In those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will put them on trial for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel, because they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land.” God has restored the Jewish people to Judah. The nations have already divided up the land. The only thing left is judgment. As two parts of the prophecy have already come true, we must have faith that the rest will be fulfilled in due time. Enemies of Israel, take note!

However, Genesis 12:3 also teaches us that “I will bless those who bless you.” God will bless those who bless Israel. It’s time to take a stand. Speak up for Israel. Stand up for Israel. Bless Israel today, and may God bless you in return.

With prayers for shalom, peace,

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein

 

 

Nothing Wavering

By Vance Havner

 

But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.
James 1:6

The man who lacks wisdom is promised it, but he must ask in faith and not be like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. Our Lord said we could move mountains if we commanded them to move and did not doubt in our hearts (Mark 11:23). The positive side of that is in the next verse, which says, “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”

Abraham “staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith.” There we have the negative and positive again (Romans 4:20). Some are saved from sin but not from staggering.

“Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.” Positive and negative! Are you walking by faith or wobbling in doubt? “We lie to God in prayer when we do not rely on God after prayer.” James is very clear: “Let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord.”

Asking without believing marks a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

 

 

Moral Flame

By A.W. Tozer

 

One of the most telling blows that the enemy ever struck at the life of the Church was to create in it a fear of the Holy Spirit. No one who mingles with Christians in these times will deny that such a fear exists. Few there are who without restraint will open their whole heart to the blessed Comforter. He has been and is so widely misunderstood that the very mention of His name in some circles is enough to frighten many people into resistance. The source of this unreasoning fear may easily be traced, but it would be a fruitless labor to do it here. Sufficient to say that the fear is groundless. Perhaps we may help to destroy its power over us if we examine that fire that is the symbol of the Spirit’s Person and Presence.

The Holy Spirit is first of all a moral flame. It is not an accident of language that He is called the Holy Spirit, for whatever else the word holy may mean, it does undoubtedly carry with it the idea of moral purity. And the Spirit, being God, must be absolutely and infinitely pure. With Him there are not (as with men) grades and degrees of holiness. He is holiness itself, the sum and essence of all that is unspeakably pure.

Verse

The Light of Israel will become a fire, / their Holy One a flame; / in a single day it will burn and consume / his thorns and his briers. Isaiah 10:17

Thought

It is not an accident of language that the Spirit is called the Holy Spirit, for whatever else the word holy may mean, it does undoubtedly carry with it the idea of moral purity.

Prayer

Holy Spirit, do Your work in us to make us holy, pure.

 

 

Alienation And Reconciliation

by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

It is impossible, and unnecessary, to reconcile friends. Reconciliation postulates alienation. It is only after men become alienated that we may try to reconcile them. Thus the reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles to God “in one body” could not begin until Israel, along with the Gentiles, had been alienated from God. This is why the Apostle Paul declares in Romans 11:15 that “the casting away of them is,” or opens the way for, “the reconciling of the world.” Thus “God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all” (Romans 11:32). Little wonder the Apostle goes on to exclaim:

“O, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!” (Verse 33).

So now the wonderful message from God to a lost world is one of grace and peace, and it is with these words that the Apostle Paul opens all of his epistles signed by his name. In Ephesians 2, where he declares that we were all “the children of disobedience,” and therefore “by nature the children of wrath,” he goes on to tell of the riches of God’s mercy and love and grace, and says:

“And [He] came and preached peace to you [Gentiles] which were afar off, and to them [Israelites] that were nigh” (Verse 17).

What a blessing to enjoy peace with God, to be reconciled to Him! But this is possible only as we commit ourselves to Him who was “delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification.” Indeed, Paul follows these words in Romans 4:25 with the declaration:

“Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

 

Visible Fire

By A.W. Tozer

 

Deity indwelling men! That, I say, is Christianity, and no man has experienced rightly the power of Christian belief until he has known this for himself as a living reality. Everything else is preliminary to this. Incarnation, atonement, justification, regeneration; what are these but acts of God preparatory to the work of invading and the act of indwelling the redeemed human soul? Man who moved out of the heart of God by sin now moves back into the heart of God by redemption. God who moved out of the heart of man because of sin now enters again His ancient dwelling to drive out His enemies and once more make the place of His feet glorious.

That visible fire on the day of Pentecost had for the Church a deep and tender significance, for it told to all ages that they upon whose heads it sat were men and women apart; they were “creatures out of the fire” as surely as were they whom Ezekiel in his vision saw by the river Chebar. The mark of the fire was the sign of divinity; they who received it were forever a peculiar people, sons and daughters of the Flame.

Verse

I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. Ezekiel 1:27

Thought

Man who moved out of the heart of God by sin now moves back into the heart of God by redemption. God who moved out of the heart of man because of sin now enters again His ancient dwelling to drive out His enemies and once more make the place of His feet glorious.

Prayer

We long to be a peculiar people, Holy Father. Mark us with Your holy fire!

 

Second Adam

By Vance Havner

 

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
I Corinthians 15:22

We are all children of the first Adam. He fell and to this day we suffer the consequences. Sin, disease, death, all the corruptions and frailties of the body, mind and spirit, we inherit from our father, the first man of the earth, earthy.

But God started a new race with His Son from heaven. To as many as receive Him to them gives He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name. Read Romans 5 for a glorious picture of the two Adams.

Here is the true super race of sons of God whose citizenship is in heaven. We still carry the marks of Adam’s fall, and our bifocals and bridges and baldness and all our frailties bear witness that we are his offspring. But from the day we believe, we begin a new life which shall discard this shell for a new body at the resurrection. Our New Adam is perfect, and all we need here and hereafter is found in Him. We can reign in life now by Christ Jesus.