Standing, Walking And Running For God +10
Eleven Distinct, Brief, Powerful Contemplations for the True Believer
“If you are what you’ve always been, you are not a Christian. A Christian is a new creation.”
~Vance Havner
All For Us
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam
Have you ever thought how much God has done “for us” in Christ?
In Romans 8:32 we read that to save us from sin, God “spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up FOR US all”. In Titus 2:14 we are told that Christ “gave Himself FOR US, that He might redeem us from all iniquity…”. In Romans 5:8 the Apostle declares that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died FOR US”. Galatians 3:13 says that Christ was “made a curse FOR US”.
Hebrews 9:12 states that “He entered…into the holy place [the presence of the Father], having obtained eternal redemption FOR US”. And if we trust Him for this “eternal redemption” we may read further in Hebrews 9:24 that “Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands…but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God FOR US”. Romans 8:34 asks who can condemn the believer in Christ, since HE [the Lord Jesus Christ] is now “at the right hand of God” and “maketh intercession FOR US”.
Hebrews 6:20 declares that our Lord entered the Father’s presence “FOR US” as our “Forerunner”. Hebrews 10:19,20 therefore encourages believers to come to God in prayer: “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to ENTER into the holiest by the blood of Jesus…a new and living way, which He hath consecrated FOR US…”.
Just think how much God has done FOR US in Christ! He delivered His beloved Son to death FOR US, Christ gave Himself FOR US, died FOR US, became a curse FOR US, intercedes FOR US, entered heaven FOR US as a Forerunner, and consecrated “a new and living way” into God’s presence FOR US, so that we may “come boldly unto the throne of grace” to “obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). “If God be FOR US, who can be against us” (Romans 8:31)?
JESUS MADE REAL
By Vance Havner
He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you.
John 16:14.
We do not make Jesus real by conjuring up a mental picture of Him long ago in Galilee and trying to walk in imagination with Him there. We do not have to go back two thousand years or travel to Palestine to find Jesus. There is a fad for that sort of thing, but so might one inwardly visualize any character of history. Such mental association may, indeed, affect one’s life to some degree, but it is far from the way Christ is made real to the believer.
The Holy Spirit has come for that purpose. All things spiritual are from God through Christ and are communicated to us by the Spirit. It was expedient that Jesus should go that the Spirit might come. He does not testify of Himself but of Christ, and He makes the Lord real to the heart. It is not a mere mental exercise but the work of the Spirit that enables us to say, “He is real to me.”
The Most Favored of All Creatures
By A.W. Tozer
God constantly encourages us to trust Him in the dark. “I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.”
It is heartening to learn bow many of God’s mighty deeds were done in secret, away from the prying eyes of men or angels. When God created the heavens and the earth, darkness was upon the face of the deep. When the Eternal Son became flesh, He was carried for a time in the darkness of the sweet virgin’s womb. When He died for the life of the world, it was in the darkness, seen by no one at the last. When He arose from the dead, it was “very early in the morning.” No one saw Him rise. It is as if God were saying, “What I am is all that need matter to you, for there lie your hope and your peace. I will do what I will do, and it will all come to light at last, but how I do it is My secret. Trust Me, and be not afraid.”
With the goodness of God to desire our highest welfare, the wisdom of God to plan it, and the power of God to achieve it, what do we lack? Surely we are the most favored of all creatures.
In all our Maker’s grand designs,
Omnipotence, with wisdom, shines;
His works, through all this wondrous frame,
Declare the glory of His Name.
Thomas Blacklock
Verse
I will go before you / and will level the mountains; / I will break down gates of bronze / and cut through bars of iron. / I will give you the treasures of darkness, / riches stored in secret places, / so that you may know that I am the Lord, / the God of Israel, who summons you by name. Isaiah 45:2–3
Thought
God says to us, “What I am is all that should matter to you. For therein lies your hope and your peace. I will do what I will do.”
Prayer
Thank You, Father, that we are Your favored creatures!
“If you are what you’ve always been, you are not a Christian. A Christian is a new creation.”
~Vance Havner
The One True Church And How To Join It
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam
Many people have been saved and have truly come to know Christ after having been sincere, religious “church members” for years. Though faithful supporters of some earthly church organization they had never experienced the truth of II Corinthians 5:17: “If any man [be] in Christ there is a new creation.”It is possible to be a member in good standing of a church organization, yet be outside the one true Church of which the Bible speaks.
This is because the true Bible Church is not an organization, much less a political state. It is a living organism, a spiritual body, with a living Head and living members. Again and again St. Paul, by divine inspiration, calls the Church, the Body of Christ (Romans 12:5; I Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 5:30).
It should be observed too, that the true Bible Church has one Head — not a man on earth, but the glorified Christ in heaven (Ephesians 1:22; 4:4,5; 5:23; Colossians 1:18). Nowhere in Scripture do we read that any man is to act as His earthly representative as Head of the Body.
How, then, do we become members of this one true Bible Church, the Body of Christ? First, we must acknowledge ourselves to be sinners in God’s sight, for Ephesians 2:16 relates how Christ died for sinful men “that He might RECONCILE both [Jew and Gentile] to God in one Body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.” Thus, when believing sinners are RECONCILED to God by faith in Christ, they are REGENERATED, given a new life, by the Spirit, and by the Spirit are BAPTIZED into the Church, the Body of Christ.
Titus 3:5: “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of REGENERATION, and renewing of the Holy Spirit.”
I Corinthians 12:13: “For BY ONE SPIRIT ARE WE ALL BAPTIZED INTO ONE BODY”.
Every one of us should ask himself: “Have I been baptized by the Spirit into the Body of Christ?” Those who have not, do not belong to the one Church which God recognizes. But membership in the true Church is still open. Simply, but sincerely, trust Christ as your Savior. He is the Head of the Church. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). Then associate yourself with some local assembly where Christ is honored and the Bible taught, rightly divided.
ADMINISTRATOR’S NOTE:
In these times of great apostasy, of the great falling away and the entering in of ravenous wolves devouring the Truth and the flock in its path, in these times of massive false teachers and their false teachings misleading tens, in truth hundreds of millions astray from the Head of the Church and His Truth it is vital — absolutely vital; imperative that every spirit and soul truly seeking God and Jesus the Lord and Messiah become a NEW MAN or NEW WOMAN — A NEW CREATION through Jesus the Lord and Messiah, and as such they do not go it alone, nor enter into a place of false doctrine and false teachings. This is most important! So truly take careful measure and earnest prayer in finding a place of worship with like-minded TRUE believers well-founded on sound doctrine and totally 100% Scripture based preaching, exhorting, reading from Genesis on through Revelation and every necessary book and chapter in between.
If no such place can be found? Still do not go it alone. Pray fervently and earnestly unto the Lord our God for strength and direction and find a way — either through beginning a home church and Bible study, or through an online church or Bible study which you know in your heart, in your spirit, in your soul is founded solidly upon the Word of God and is not a denomination created of and by and for men. Seek that which is of, by, and for God and His honor, His glory, and for the honor, glory, praise, and worship of Yeshua, Jesus the Lord and Messiah. This is my sincere prayer for every person reading this and desiring to serve the Lord our God with all their heart, all their soul, all their mind, all their strength!
Your brother in the faith of the One True God, Jehovah Elyon, HaShem, Adonai, and His Son, Yeshua, Jesus the Lord and Messiah at the Right Hand of the Throne of God Almighty,
Ken Pullen
“If you are what you’ve always been, you are not a Christian. A Christian is a new creation.”
~Vance Havner
Sovereignty and Omnipotence Go Together
By A.W. Tozer
Our Heavenly Father, we have heard Thee say, “I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.” But unless Thou dost enable us by the exceeding greatness of Thy power how can we who are by nature weak and sinful walk in a perfect way? Grant that we may learn to lay hold on the working of the mighty power that wrought in Christ when Thou didst raise Him from the dead and set Him at Thine own right hand in the heavenly places. Amen.
In the time of his vision John the Revelator heard as it were the voice of a great multitude and as the voice of many waters and as the voice of mighty thunderings sounding throughout the universe, and what the voice proclaimed was the sovereignty and omnipotence of God: “Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”
Sovereignty and omnipotence must go together. One cannot exist without the other. To reign, God must have power, and to reign sovereignly, He must have all power. And that is what omnipotent means, having all power. The word derives from the Latin and is identical in meaning with the more familiar almighty which we have from the Anglo-Saxon. This latter word occurs 56 times in our English Bible and is never used of anyone but God. He alone is almighty.
God possesses what no creature can: an incomprehensible plenitude of power, a potency that is absolute. This we know by divine revelation, but once known, it is recognized as being in full accord with reason. Grant that God is infinite and self-existent and we see at once that He must be all-powerful as well, and reason kneels to worship before the divine omnipotence.
“Power belongeth unto God,” says the psalmist, and Paul the apostle declares that nature itself gives evidence of the eternal power of the Godhead (Romans 1:20). From this knowledge we reason to the omnipotence of God this way—God has power. Since God is also infinite, whatever He has must be without limit; therefore God has limitless power, He is omnipotent. We see further that God the self-existent Creator is the source of all the power there is, and since a source must be at least equal to anything that emanates from it, God is of necessity equal to all the power there is, and this is to say again that He is omnipotent.
Verse
“I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless.” Genesis 17:1
Thought
God possesses what no creature can—an incomprehensible plenitude of power, potency that is absolute.
Prayer
Praise God! The Lord God omnipotent reigneth forever.
The Cross And The Christian
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam
Nothing will prove so helpful to a Christian in overcoming sin as an appreciation of Christ’s death for sin at Calvary .The Bible teaches that:
1. The cross stands between the believer and his SINS: the wrong things he does, or is prone to do, in thought, word and deed.
“And you, that were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled, in the body of His flesh, through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight” (Colossians 1:21,22).
2. The cross stands between the believer and his SIN. It is not only men’s sins that keep them out of heaven, but their sin; not merely what they have done, but what they are and what they will do; not merely their deeds, but their nature. But Christ’s death took care of this too.
“…by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin… But… much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many… That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:12,15,21).
“For [God] hath made Him to be sin for us, [Him] who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Corinthians 5:21).
3. The cross stands between the believer and his SINNING.
“What shall we say, then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? … Our old man [nature] has been crucified with Him… that henceforth we should not serve sin… let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof; neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves to God, as those who are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God” (Romans 6:1,2, 6,12,13).
“If you are what you’ve always been, you are not a Christian. A Christian is a new creation.”
~Vance Havner
Secularized Mentality
By A.W. Tozer
God has delegated power to His creatures, but being self-sufficient, He cannot relinquish anything of His perfections and, power being one of them, He has never surrendered the least iota of His power. He gives but He does not give away. All that He gives remains His own and returns to Him again. Forever He must remain what He has forever been, the Lord God omnipotent.
One cannot long read the Scriptures sympathetically without noticing the radical disparity between the outlook of men of the Bible and that of modern men. We are today suffering from a secularized mentality. Where the sacred writers saw God, we see the laws of nature. Their world was fully populated; ours is all but empty. Their world was alive and personal; ours is impersonal and dead. God ruled their world; ours is ruled by the laws of nature, and we are always once removed from the presence of God.
And what are these laws of nature that have displaced God in the minds of millions? Law has two meanings. One is an external rule enforced by authority, such as the common rule against robbery and assault. The word is also used to denote the uniform way things act in the universe, but this second use of the word is erroneous. What we see in nature is simply the paths God’s power and wisdom take through creation. Properly these are phenomena, not laws, but we call them laws by analogy with the arbitrary laws of society.
Verse
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. Romans 1:20
Thought
What we see in nature is simply the paths God’s power and wisdom take through creation. Properly these are phenomena, not laws.
Prayer
God, make our world alive and personal, fused with the energy of the Almighty God.
The Trustworthiness of God’s Behavior
By A.W. Tozer
Science observes how the power of God operates, discovers a regular pattern somewhere and fixes it as a “law.” The uniformity of God’s activities in His creation enables the scientist to predict the course of natural phenomena. The trustworthiness of God’s behavior in His world is the foundation of all scientific truth. Upon it the scientist rests his faith and from there he goes on to achieve great and useful things in such fields as those of navigation, chemistry, agriculture, and the medical.
Religion, on the other hand, goes back of nature to God. It is concerned not with the footprints of God along the paths of creation, but with the One who treads those paths. Religion is interested primarily in the One who is the source of all things, the master of every phenomenon. For this One philosophy has various names, the most horrendous that I have seen being that supplied by Rudolf Otto: “The absolute, the gigantic, never-resting, active world stress.” The Christian delights to remember that this “world stress” once said “I AM,” and that the greatest teacher of them all directed His disciples to address Him as a person: “When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.” The men of the Bible everywhere communed with this “gigantic absolute” in language as personal as speech affords, and with Him prophet and saint walked in a rapture of devotion, warm, intimate, and deeply satisfying.
Verse
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what your are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.'” Exodus 3:14
Thought
Religion is primarily interested in the One who is the source of all things, the master of every phenomenon.
Prayer
Father, hallowed be your name, may your kingdom come.
Power Absolute
By A.W. Tozer
Omnipotence is not a name given to the sum of all power, but an attribute of a personal God whom we Christians believe to be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and of all who believe on Him to life eternal. The worshiping man finds this knowledge a source of wonderful strength for his inner life. His faith rises to take the great leap upward into the fellowship of Him who can do whatever He wills to do, for whom nothing is hard or difficult because He possesses power absolute.
Because He has at His command all the power in the universe, the Lord God omnipotent can do anything as easily as anything else. All His acts are done without effort. He expends no energy that must be replenished. His self-sufficiency makes it unnecessary for Him to look outside of Himself for a renewal of strength. All the power required to do all that He wills to do lies in undiminished fullness in His own infinite being.
The Presbyterian pastor, A. B. Simpson, approaching middle age, broken in health, deeply despondent and ready to quit the ministry, chanced to hear the simple Negro spiritual, “Nothing is too hard for Jesus, No man can work like Him.” Its message sped like an arrow to his heart, carrying faith and hope and life for body and soul. He sought a place of retirement and after a season alone with God arose to his feet completely cured, and went forth in fullness of joy to found what has since become one of the largest foreign missionary societies in the world. For 35 years after this encounter with God, he labored prodigiously in the service of Christ. His faith in the God of limitless power gave him all the strength he needed to carry on.
Almighty One! I bend in dust before Thee;
Even so veiled cherubs bend;
In calm and still devotion I adore Thee,
All-wise, all-present Friend.
Thou to the earth its emerald robe hast given,
Or curtained it in snow;
And the bright sun, and the soft moon in heaven,
Before Thy presence bow.
Sir John Bowring
Verse
“I am God Almighty.” Genesis 17:1
Thought
Because God has at His command all the power in the universe, He can do anything as easily as anything else. All His acts are done without effort.
Prayer
Thank You, Father, for the promise that nothing is too hard for You to do. Truly, no man can work like Jesus.
“If you are what you’ve always been, you are not a Christian. A Christian is a new creation.”
~Vance Havner
Standing, Walking And Running For God
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam
In a way the Christian life is a stand; in another it is a walk, and in still another a race.
In I Corinthians 15:1 the Apostle Paul writes of “the gospel… wherein ye stand” and in Romans 5:2 of “this grace wherein we stand,” while in Galatians 5:1 he bids us: “Stand fast… in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.” Perhaps all this is well summed up in his appeal to his beloved Philippians:
“Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown… stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved” (Philippians 4:1).
But the Christian life is more than a stand — it is a walk (which in Scripture refers to conduct). Once, says Paul, we walked “in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1,2) but having been saved by grace, through faith in Christ, we are now to “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). Thus the Apostle bids us to “walk worthy of the Lord” (Colossians 1:10), to “walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16).
But the Christian life is even more than a walk; it is a race. Sad to say, many Christians whose “walk” is consistent and commendable, have never come to look upon the Christian life as a race. These never put enough into it so that it might be said of them that they are running. Yet the same great Apostle wrote, by divine inspiration:
“Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).
The word “patience” in this passage points up the fact that the Christian life is not a short “hundred-yard dash”; it requires much endurance. Thus we should put into it all that we have. “They which run in a race,” says the Apostle, “run all,” but they do not all receive the prize. Hence the admonition: “So run that ye may obtain” (I Corinthians 9:24).
Those who have not trusted Christ as Savior have not even begun to stand, or walk, much less to run a race for Him. These might as well forget rewards until they first accept “the gift of God… eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
“If you are what you’ve always been, you are not a Christian. A Christian is a new creation.”
~Vance Havner
Confessing Christ
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam
“…if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9,10).
In these sublime words the Apostle Paul sets forth God’s simple plan of salvation. He calls it, in the preceding verse, “The word of faith, which we preach.”
But often babes in Christ are urged to get to their feet in public testimony on the basis of the words: “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth . . . thou shalt be saved.” Thus new Christians are given to feel that a heart faith is not enough to make them secure; that not until they have risen in public testimony are they saved and safe.
But what, then, does the Apostle mean by these words? Does he not plainly say, “If thou shalt confess… thou shalt be saved?” Yes, but here again, as with so many other passages, a traditional meaning has been superimposed upon the actual words of Scripture. What does the English word “confess” mean? Why, nothing more than to “acknowledge,” to “admit.” And this is exactly what the original Greek word means too, nor does Romans 10:9,10 say anything about confessing before men.
The trouble is that the idea of confession has been changed to profession — even public profession — and multitudes have followed the tradition of the fathers instead of examining the Word to see what it actually says. And so “the Word of faith” has been corrupted.
But does not the Apostle clearly say “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth… thou shalt be saved?” Indeed! And he adds, “and shalt believe in thine heart!” Now let us ask: Is it with that physical organ which pumps blood into our veins that we believe on Christ as our Savior? Oh, no! You say that is merely a figure of speech; somehow the heart is associated with believing. Exactly! Then you would insist that it is with the physical mouth we must confess! Can mutes not be saved then?
As if anticipating the misinterpretation of his words, the Spirit-inspired Apostle adds:
“For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed… For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Vers.11,13).
This is “the Word of Faith, which we preach.”
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