The Ominous Ecumenical Movement

Part III in a series

The Shepherd and the lamb (by Katherine Brown)

by A. W. Tozer

From his book “Reclaiming Christianity: A Call to Authentic Faith”

The Communion of the Saints

A Christian does not dwell alone, and Christians should stay together for the mutual help they can be to each other. If you think that you do not need the Church, it is proof that you do need the Church. If you did not need the Church, you would probably think you did. It is the same as when a man says he is not sick but it is obvious that he is. He is worse off than the man who knows he is sick. For the man who is sick and does not know he is sick and will not admit it is not going to go anywhere for help.

There is such a thing as a communion of saints and a cultivation of eternal friendships. You can say good-bye to people here at their graveside and meet them again with a warm, immortal handshake at the right hand of God. You can know them, recognize them and know them for who they are and were. So we need each other.

The communion of the saints – I do not want to make too much of it. I do not want to make too much of anything unless it is possible to make too much of Christ. I do not want to preach every time about the communion of saints, nevertheless, I believe in the communion of saints. I believe in the communion of the saints of God on the earth and the communion of the saints of God who have gone from the earth. You say, “Then you believe in spirit tapping and communicating with somebody that is gone.” I did not say communicate, I said commune. There is a difference. I do not believe it is possible to communicate  with the saints in heaven, but I think it is possible to have communion with them.

Suppose a man and a young woman were in love and the man had to leave her and go away to another province somewhere, another state. He said, “Listen, we will be a long, long way apart, but I’ll tell you what you do.”

And he looked at his calendar and said, “At a certain night at a certain hour the moon will be full, and it will be in a certain position at a certain time in the evening of a certain night. Now I can’t come to you, but you go out on the lawn and you look at the moon; and I’ll go out on the lawn and I’ll look at the moon; and I’ll be looking at what you’re looking at, and we’ll be seeing the same thing, and we’ll be thinking about each other.”

That may be a little romantic, but there is something to it. We look at Jesus and they look at Jesus, and though they are over yonder and we are here, we are the church militant and they are the church triumphant, but we meet in the same Person. We do not communicate with each other, just as the young man and the young woman do not yahoo across the meadow to each other because they are too far apart. I believe it is entirely possible to have a communion of saints, which is a unity of appreciation, a unity of love, a unity of worship, a unity of devotion, and more than that, a union in the Holy Spirit, which makes all the people of God one around the world.

I do not know whether I will take my sense of humor to heaven or not. I do not go in much for these articles proving that God has a sense of humor. But I think I may keep mine in the world to come, and I think I am going to laugh, at least with a certain amount of celestial dignity, when I see the astonished look on the face of some people who did not think I was going to get there.

“Oh,” they will exclaim in disbelief, “you didn’t belong to our denomination at all.”

“No, I didn’t belong to your denomination, but I got here.”

The look of astonishment is going to please me. I think I am going to laugh, because I believe that all the people of God are going to make it through without any effort at all, through the blood of the everlasting covenant. There is the communion, so therefore I want to commune with the people of God.

There is always safety near the Shepherd. It can be suicide for a sheep to stray from the Shepherd; so if you stay close by the Shepherd, you will not only be near the Shepherd but you also will be near to each other. Isn’t that reasonable? You crowd in to the Shepherd; you get nearer to each other.

I grieve that we have so little manifestation of the Shepherd’s presence in our churches. We talk about His being here, but we do not sense that He is here. We do not have the feeling that He is here. Do not talk down feeling, for its part of our human constitution; and when He walks into the presence of His people consciously, they cannot help but feel it.

I think that the most wonderful thing would be to each become so Christ-conscious and so Church-loving that we would clean up our lives and purify our hearts and wash our hands and forgive our enemies and love them too. Then we would focus on Him and learn to live and pray and preach and give and worship in the very conscious presence of the Son of God’s love. I think this would be the most beautiful thing in the whole wide world.

I do not mind telling you that if I knew there was any place on the earth where a company of believers enjoyed this as intensely and wonderfully as they should, I think I would try to find them and, if they would have me, spend the rest of my days with them. That is a sweet company when the Lord is in the midst of it.

The King of Love My Shepherd Is

by Henry W. Baker (1821-1877)

The King of love my Shepherd is,

Whose goodness faileth never;

I nothing lack if I am His

And He is mine forever.

Where streams of living water flow

My ransomed soul He leadeth,

And, where the verdant pastures grow,

With food celestial feedeth.

Perverse and foolish oft I strayed,

But yet in love He sought me,

And on His shoulder gently laid,

And home rejoicing brought me.

In death’s dark vale I fear no ill

With Thee, dear Lord beside me;

Thy rod and staff comfort still,

Thy cross before to guide me.

And so through all the length of days

Thy goodness faileth never;

Good Shepherd, may I sing Thy praise

Within Thy house forever.