“The devil is not persecuting Christianity nowadays – he is professing it.”
~Vance Havner
“It is sometimes argued that hospitals minister to sick people and schools to ignorant people and the church to sinful people; therefore we should not set too high a standard for our church members. But sick people are expected to get well, and ignorant people are supposed to learn, and Christians should grow and become better. There is no excuse for us to stay babes on milk when we should mature and feed on meat.”
~Vance Havner
“A Senator is reported to have said that our early victories in American history were products of “reckless youth favored by improbable run of luck” and that now “we must come of age.” Some of us have felt that an overruling Providence had a hand in the exploits of our forefathers. An attitude similar to the Senator’s prevails among some churchmen as to the early days of the church. The Book of Acts is not the record of Christianity in its “reckless youth” when its early success was due to high enthusiasm favored by circumstance. Nor have we come of age today in our passionless churchanity. America needs to recover the early fervor that made her great and the church needs a new chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.”
~Vance Havner
Providential Circumstances
By A.W. Tozer
To believe actively that our Heavenly Father constantly spreads around us providential circumstances that work for our present good and our everlasting well-being brings to the soul a veritable benediction. Most of us go through life praying a little, planning a little, jockeying for position, hoping but never being quite certain of anything, and always secretly afraid that we will miss the way. This is a tragic waste of truth and never gives rest to the heart.
There is a better way. It is to repudiate our own wisdom and take instead the infinite wisdom of God. Our insistence upon seeing ahead is natural enough, but it is a real hindrance to our spiritual progress. God has charged Himself with full responsibility for our eternal happiness and stands ready to take over the management of our lives the moment we turn in faith to Him. Here is His promise: “And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.”
Let Him lead thee blindfold onwards,
Love needs not to know;
Children whom the Father leadeth
Ask not where they go.
Though the path be all unknown,
Over moors and mountains lone.
Gerhard Tersteegen
Verse
I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, / along familiar paths I will guide them; / I will turn the darkness into light before them / and make the rough places smooth. Isaiah 42:16
Thought
Our insistence on seeing ahead is natural, but it is a real hindrance to our spiritual progress. God has charged Himself with full responsibility for our eternal happiness and stands ready to take over the management of our lives the moment we turn in faith to Him.
Prayer
Father God, help us to turn the management of our lives over to You and turn to You in complete faith, trusting in Your infinite wisdom.
DOING BUSINESS WITH CHRIST: PAUL
By Vance Havner
Who art thou, Lord? …Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
Acts 9:5, 6
Paul did business with the Lord. His was the authentic Who-What experience. Men who mean business with the Lord are definite and practical: “What comes next? What shall I do now?” Whatsoever He says, they do.
We live in a slovenly age, when duty and obedience and discipline have been relegated to the attic, along with the worn-out parlor lamp and cylinder-record phonograph. We had better bring them downstairs. We are not doing too well without them. A generation of unconverted young Sauls kicks against the pricks. They will not do business with Christ, because to do so He must be confessed and obeyed as Lord. “Who, Lord? Lord, what?” A lot of sentimental slush about Jesus forgets that “love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”
The young ruler refused to submit to the Lordship of Jesus. Paul started right: “Who, Lord? Lord, what?” And who ever did greater business with and for His Lord?
Its Own Defense
By A. W. Tozer
Without the creation, the wisdom of God would have remained forever locked in the boundless abyss of the divine nature. God brought His creatures into being that He might enjoy them and they rejoice in Him. “And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.”
Many through the centuries have declared themselves unable to believe in the basic wisdom of a world wherein so much appears to be so wrong. Voltaire in his Candide introduces a determined optimist, whom he calls Dr. Pangloss, and into his mouth puts all the arguments for the “best-of-all-possible-worlds” philosophy. Of course the French cynic took keen delight in placing the old professor in situations that made his philosophy look ridiculous.
But the Christian view of life is altogether more realistic than that of Dr. Pangloss with his “sufficient reason.” It is that this is not at the moment the best of all possible worlds, but one lying under the shadow of a huge calamity, the Fall of man. The inspired writers insist that the whole creation now groans and travails under the mighty shock of the Fall. They do not attempt to supply “sufficient reasons”; they assert that the “creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope.” No effort here to justify the ways of God with men; just a simple declaration of fact. The being of God is its own defense.
Verse
For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. Romans 8:20–21
Thought
Our “best of all possible worlds” lies under the shadow of a huge calamity—the fall of man.
Prayer
Lord, help us to celebrate Your being, Your wisdom.
DOING BUSINESS WITH CHRIST: THE YOUNG
RULER
by Vance Havner
Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
Matthew 19:16
This promising youth did no real business with Jesus, because he did not really mean business. For all his manners and morals and money, he would not pay the price of real discipleship. Some very nice people would like to have eternal life as a good investment, but Jesus is not handing out salvation in return for another “good thing” on our self-righteous record of commandments already kept. He wanted to blast this young ruler into a real venture of daring faith that would cut him loose from his security, but the prospective disciple would not move from his moorings. It turned out that, after all, he loved his money more than his soul.
It takes a radical break to turn a man from earth’s trash to heaven’s treasure. Our Lord came immediately to the issue and would have this young man cut the knot instead of gradually untying it. He would have him bring the matter to a quick climax and be done with it.
For all his good points, this fine prospect missed his blessing while poorer specimens like Bartimaeus, Zacchaeus, the Samaritan woman, got theirs. Jesus loved him, but lost him because the questioner never meant business, though no man ever seemed to mean business more than he.
We Base Our Hope in God Alone
By A.W. Tozer
But there is hope in all our tears. When the hour of Christ’s triumph arrives, the suffering world will be brought out into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. For men of the new creation the golden age is not past but future, and when it is ushered in, a wondering universe will see that God has indeed abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. In the meantime we rest our hope in the only wise God, our Savior, and wait with patience the slow development of His benign purposes.
In spite of tears and pain and death we believe that the God who made us all is infinitely wise and good. As Abraham staggered not at the promises of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and was fully persuaded that what He had promised He was able to perform, so do we base our hope in God alone and hope against hope till the day breaks. We rest in what God is. I believe that this alone is true faith. Any faith that must be supported by the evidence of the senses is not real faith. “Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”
The testimony of faith is that, no matter how things look in this fallen world, all God’s acts are wrought in perfect wisdom. The incarnation of the Eternal Son in human flesh was one of God’s mighty deeds, and we may be sure that this awesome deed was done with a perfection possible only to the Infinite. “Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.”
Verse
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” John 20:27
Thought
We base our hope in God alone and hope against hope until the day of Christ’s return. We rest in what God is.
Prayer
Father, show us truth faith, not faith that must be supported by the evidence of the senses.
Children And Grown-ups
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam
The Lord Jesus said to a religious leader of His day: “Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). All true Christians have been born again by the Spirit of God (Titus 3:5). They are therefore the children of God (Romans 8:16).
Children are a joy in any normal household, but it is a tragedy when a child remains a child, physically, mentally or both. It is a tragedy too, that so many Christians, truly born again, remain spiritual babes — they do not grow. They know that Christ died for their sins but have made no progress in grace or in the knowledge of the Word. To such Paul wrote:
“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual [men], but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat; for hitherto ye were not able to bear [digest] it, neither yet now are ye able” (I Corinthians 3:1,2).
Thus those who, spiritually undeveloped, were able to digest only the milk, or the simple things, of the Scriptures, were called “carnal” and “babes,” in contrast to those “spiritual” believers who had grown in grace and were able to assimilate the deeper, richer truths of the Word of God.
This is not a compliment to those who constantly boast that they are satisfied with “the simple things,” and fail to study God’s Word, as II Timothy 2:15 commands. To such Paul writes, by divine inspiration:
“For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again… and are become such as have need of milk… For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the Word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat [solid food] belongeth to them that are of full age…” (Hebrews 5:12-14).
A new-born babe in Christ is a joy to behold, but every born-again Christian should grow through the study of the Word. I Peter 2:2 says:
“As newborn babes desire the sincere [pure] milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby.”
Infinite Fullness of Wisdom
By A.W. Tozer
Atonement, too, was accomplished with the same flawless skill that marks all of God’s acts. However little we understand it all, we know that Christ’s expiatory work perfectly reconciled God and men and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. Our concern is not to explain but to proclaim. Indeed I wonder whether God could make us understand all that happened there at the cross. According to the apostle Peter not even angels know, however eagerly they may desire to look into these things.
The operation of the gospel, the new birth, the coming of the divine Spirit into human nature, the ultimate overthrow of evil, and the final establishment of Christ’s righteous kingdom—all these have flowed and do flow out of God’s infinite fullness of wisdom. The sharpest eyes of the holiest watcher in the blest company above cannot discover a flaw in the ways of God in bringing all this to fruition, nor can the pooled wisdom of seraphim and cherubim suggest how an improvement might be made in the divine procedure. “I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.”
It is vitally important that we hold the truth of God’s infinite wisdom as a tenet of our creed; but this is not enough. We must by the exercise of faith and by prayer bring it into the practical world of our day-by-day experience.
Verse
It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things. 1 Peter 1:12
Thought
We must hold the truth of God’s infinite wisdom as a tenet of our creed, and by faith and prayer, we must bring it into the practical world of our day-to-day lives.
Prayer
Help us, Father, to bring the reality of Your infinite wisdom into our every-day lives.
DOING BUSINESS WITH CHRIST: PILATE
By Vance Havner
What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?
Matthew 27:22
Pilate had to do business with Jesus, and so must we all. We cannot wash our hands of the whole business any more than could he. We cannot leave Christ alone. The question is not, “What will you do with Jesus?” but “What are you doing with Him now?” We are for or against, we gather with Him or we scatter abroad.
Pilate faced the alternatives of cynicism: “What is truth?”; criminality: “Barabbas or Jesus?”; Caesar: “If thou let this man go thou art not Caesar’s friend.” The issue is always “Christ or…”
This unbelieving world, whether it choose the cynic, the criminal, or Caesar, must do something with Christ. He is inescapable. And men must settle with Christ, not with a church or a preacher. Let us never obscure the issue: what are you doing with Jesus the Christ? “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
DOING BUSINESS WITH CHRIST: DEMONS
By Vance Havner
What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God?
Matthew 8:29
The devil and the world of demons must face Christ. The devil tried to do business with Him, but the Lord dismissed him: “Get thee hence, Satan.” The devil is not in the first two chapters of the Bible or in the last two. Thank God for a Book that disposes of the devil!
There is no concord between Christ and Belial. The demons cried, “Art thou come to torment us before the time?” They are doomed to the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels. They are overactive today because their time is short. The only power that can control them is Christ. Much that goes by other names today is really the work of the powers of darkness. And note that they know Jesus is the Son of God, a fact which many poor humans will not accept.
Our Lord has no traffic with the world of demons. There is no ground where they can get together. Let us beware of doing business with the devil. And if you don’t want to trade with him, stay out of his shops!
The Root of All Truth
By A.W. Tozer
The idea of God as infinitely wise is at the root of all truth. It is a datum of belief necessary to the soundness of all other beliefs about God. Being what He is without regard to creatures, God is of course unaffected by our opinions of Him, but our moral sanity requires that we attribute to the Maker and Sustainer of the universe a wisdom entirely perfect. To refuse to do this is to betray the very thing in us that distinguishes us from the beasts.
In the Holy Scriptures, wisdom, when used of God and good men, always carries a strong moral connotation. It is conceived as being pure, loving, and good. Wisdom that is mere shrewdness is often attributed to evil men, but such wisdom is treacherous and false. These two kinds of wisdom are in perpetual conflict. Indeed, when seen from the lofty peak of Sinai or Calvary, the whole history of the world is discovered to be but a contest between the wisdom of God and the cunning of Satan and fallen men. The outcome of the contest is not in doubt. The imperfect must fall before the perfect at last. God has warned that He will take the wise in their own craftiness and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Wisdom, among other things, is the ability to devise perfect ends and to achieve those ends by the most perfect means. It sees the end from the beginning, so there can be no need to guess or conjecture. Wisdom sees everything in focus, each in proper relation to all, and is thus able to work toward predestined goals with flawless precision.
All God’s acts are done in perfect wisdom, first for His own glory, and then for the highest good of the greatest number for the longest time. And all His acts are as pure as they are wise, and as good as they are wise and pure. Not only could His acts not be better done: a better way to do them could not be imagined. An infinitely wise God must work in a manner not to be improved upon by finite creatures. O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! In wisdom hast Thou made them all. The earth is full of Thy riches!
Verse
To the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Romans 16:27
Thought
All God’s acts are done in perfect wisdom, and all His acts are as pure as they are wise. Not only could His acts not be better done—a better way to do them could not be imagined!
Prayer
Lord, we praise Your name! How manifold are Your works! The earth is full of Your riches!
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