Tozer Devotional
Collective Writings from the Books of A.W. Tozer
Created in the Image of God
At the risk of being charged with inexcusable boldness, we venture the assertion that while the Incarnation is mysterious, it is not illogical or contrary to reason. We would not presume to settle with a pen stroke those profound and awful mysteries which have stilled the voices of the ages and brought men and angels to their knees in worship; but we would dare to say that in our opinion the act of becoming man was altogether reasonable from God's standpoint. It placed no strain upon the divine nature and admitted into the scheme of God nothing unnatural or inconsistent. The reasons for so believing are these: Man was originally made in the image of God. "God created man; in the likeness of God made he him." This is a cardinal docrine of the Christian faith. It is not necessary to understand all that is included in this doctrine, for even here we run into some real theological problems. But faith can soar where reason can never climb, and it is only necessary that we believe the truth. Its power over us depends upon our believing it, not upon our understanding it. The fact is all that matters: man was made in the image of God. Now, if man was made in the image of God, then God must certainly carry something of the image of man. (That sin has marred the image and introduced a foreign and destructive element into human nature does not detract from the force of the argument.) If a boy looks like his father it must surely follow that the father must look like the boy. Somewhere within man's nature, twisted and deformed as it may be, there is godlikeness. This will not be seriously questioned by anyone who knows his Bible. No student of Christian theology would deny this as a fact, though he might reject the conclusions we draw from the fact.
Posted on 5 February 2012 | 9:00 am
The Great and Sovereign God
Any sound religious experience must begin with a proper conception of the nature of God. The terrible power of idolatry for evil lies in its unworthy conception of the character of the Supreme Being. Indeed it may be said without qualification that all religious experience that incorporates in itself low or ignoble ideas of God is in essence superstitious. The god of superstition is an irresponsible god, arbitrary and without character. The supersititious person must constantly try to outwit him or placate him or catch him with words and force a favor out of him. But such a person is never at peace because he is never sure of anything. His hope is fugitive and skittish. There is no trustworthy being back of his faith; there are only words. True faith does not rest upon texts alone but upon God who wrote the text. The word is an expression of the character of God and is exactly as good as that character, no more and no less. The free man in Christ has been delivered from the "tyranny of words." He has gone beyond the word to God Himself and has found there his true fatherland and everlasting home. He can no longer be intimidated by the little slave-men who threaten him with punishment if he fails to repeat this religious phrase or mutter that sacred word. He has discovered the true ground of religious hope--the character of God. To such a man the Scriptures are the very words of God, meaningless apart from Him but altogether glorious when understood as the verbal expression of His holy being.
Posted on 4 February 2012 | 9:00 am
Magical Words and Real Faith
Faith differs from superstition in its ground of hope. Faith rests upon character, specifically the character of God. A word is only as good as the character of the one who uttered it. Superstition counts upon a word, a text, and never thinks back of the text to the one who gave it. For the superstitious man there is a magic power in a word quite apart from the one who spoke it. The very word is magical and has only to be spoken under the right circumstances to be effective; morality or character have no place in this scheme of things. Words only count there. This in its various manifestations is a sure mark of superstition. Even in some Christian circles this ill-grounded trust in sounds and symbols is encountered all too frequently. Some believers, for instance, fear to speak the name of Jesus apart from the titles which accompany it. They dare not say Jesus, but must always say the Lord Jesus Christ, regardless of the circumstances. Obviously they believe that God is concerned with the protocol of word arrangement and will be displeased if the order is broken. Such words as amen, hallelujah, glory and others of like sacred association are repeated endlessly and meaninglessly in the apparent belief that they have in them some strange power for good. This can be no more than high-grade magic. It will pay us to search our own hearts thoroughly to discover just why we use these words.
Posted on 3 February 2012 | 9:00 am
Quality Service
The great weight of exhortation these days is in the direction of zeal and activity. "Let's get going" is the favorite watchword for gospel workers, with the result that everyone feels ashamed to sit down and think. But it will pay to do it, nevertheless. It would be a shock to most of us to learn just what God thinks of our breathless activity, and a greater shock to many to find out the true quality of our service as God sees it. For not all religious activity is accepted of God, not even when it appears to produce results and get things done. The Lord seeth not as man seeth. Christian service, to be accepted of God, must be fresh and sincere. Whatever is done out of habit is not approved; anything done in a perfunctory manner is below the level of quality expected of us. The careless song, the sermon preached for no higher reason than because it is Sunday again, the tithe tossed into the plate, the testimony given because it seems the thing to do--not one of these will stand up under the searching eyes of God. In Christian service motive is everything, for it is motive that gives to every moral act its final quality.
Posted on 2 February 2012 | 9:00 am
Serving God in Serving Others
Any serious-minded Christian may at some time find himself wondering whether the service he is giving to God is the best it could be. He may even have times of doubting, and fear that his toil is fruitless and his life empty. This is not as bad as it sounds, and may actually prove to be an excellent thing for him--if he knows how to use it. Christian service, like every other phase of religion, can become a very hollow affair. The church has marked out certain work and approved it as service acceptable to God, and for the most part the church has been right. But is should be kept in mind that it is not the kind or quantity of work that makes it true service--it is the quality. Before the judgment seat of Christ, very little will be heard of numbers or size; moral quality is about all that will matter then. If we are wise we will give attention now to the quality of our service; it is obvious that it will be too late to do anything about it when the service is ended and the account rendered up.
Posted on 1 February 2012 | 9:00 am
Under Obligation
David's religion had social implications, but he was no mere do-gooder, no patcher-upper of the world's hurts. All his service was rendered according to the will of God. It was the divine quality in his ministry that made it immortal. Many good deeds may be done whose final effects will not be lasting. A sick man laboring to cure the ills of another sick man may be a moving sight, but it can hardly be a reassuring one, for both will die at last. But the service that can bring the healing touch of God into human life is infinitely to be preferred to any other. It is the will of God that brings eternity into human toil. We should remember that if we are to serve our generation we must get at it right away, for our generation will not be around long. Isaac Watts wrote: Time, like an ever rolling stream Bears all its sons away; They fly, forgotten, as a dream Dies at the opening day.We are all born in debt to the world, and that debt increases as we grow older. If we are wise in the Spirit, we shall see to it that we turn the tables and put the world in debt to us. This we can do only by serving our generation by the will of God before it is too late.
Posted on 31 January 2012 | 9:00 am
Serving God's Purpose in This Generation
The life Ideal was described by the apostle in the Book of Acts: "For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep." We submit that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to improve upon this. It embraces the whole sphere of religion, appearing as it does in its three directions: God, the individual, society. Within that simple triangle all possible human activities are carried on. To each of us there can be but these three dimensions: God, myself, others. Beyond this we cannot go, nor should we even attempt to go. If we serve God according to His own will, and in doing so serve our generation, we shall have accomplished all that is possible for any human being. David was smart enough to serve God and his generation before he fell asleep. To fall asleep before we have served our generation is nothing short of tragic. It is good to sleep at last, as all our honored fathers have done, but it is a moral calamity to sleep without having first labored to bless the world. No man has any right to die until he has put mankind in debt to him. No man has any moral right to lie down on the earth till he has wrought to take something of the earth out of the hearts of men, till he has helped to free men from the tyranny of that same earth and pointed them to that kingdom that will abide after the heavens and the earth are no more.
Posted on 30 January 2012 | 9:00 am
The World's Primary Problem
Two questions are embraced within the one problem: What shall I do with my sin? and what shall I do with Jesus which is called Christ? In spite of every effort of the pseudo-learned world to dispose of the sin question, it remains still, a perennial heartache to the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. It is one of those persistent pains that lies deep in the soul and never quite stops hurting. It just won't go away. The devil and the busy sons of men have sought throughout the centuries for something to make this problem go away. They have invented how many thousands of amusements, they have created innumerable pleasures to take the mind off its central woe; but nothing works. Sin is still the world's first problem. The second question, What shall I do with Jesus? is the anwer to the first one, because Jesus came to save men from their sins. Let us answer the second one rightly and the first one will be solved automatically. If we but come to Jesus with our sin upon us and without any hope except His mercy, we shall surely be delivered from the ancient curse. But remember, sin demands an answer. It won't just go away. It must be carried away by redeeming blood, and redeeming blood was never shed by any other lamb except the Lamb of God.
Posted on 29 January 2012 | 9:00 am
That Persistent Question
A droll bit of advice sometimes given to persons who are being bothered by some disagreeable problem is, "Let it alone and it will go away by itself." While the words are usually intended to be humorous, they express, better than many more serious words would do, an unfortunate habit which is altogether too prevalent among us. It is the habit of neglecting spiritual questions in the vague hope that they will stop bothering us and go away of themselves. We all come into the world with one tremendous question facing us, the question of our relation to the God from whose hand we came. None of the heavy problems propounded by philosophy can equal this one in vital significance and solemn meaning for the individual man. So important is it that it may properly be said that no other question really exists at all till this one has been settled. And it will not settle itself; it must be settled by each one of us personally and individually. lf we ignore it, it will not go away. It will be there to haunt us in the last day we spend on earth, and it will be there to face us in the day of judgment when it is too late to do anything about it. The question is not a philosophical one merely; it is not even a theological one. It is strictly personal. The deceitful human heart would like only too well to involve it in the fog of doctrinal argument and thus rob it of its real meaning. That is a common way to deal with it, but it is never a satisfactory way. The question will come back again out of the fog to demand a true answer, that is, a moral answer. What shall I do with my sin?
Posted on 28 January 2012 | 9:00 am
Movements That Cease to Move
It is an illuminating experience to read the history of the great spiritual movements that have blessed the world over the last 2,000 years. Scarcely any of these began quietly; almost always they struck the earth with the suddenness of a cyclone. . . . History shows another fact also. When the first heat of the originators of great movements had spent itself after their death, immediately another spirit entered and took over--it was the spirit of conventionalism. It retained the outward form of the orginal movement but lost all the inward heat. The movement ceased to move; its adherents gained popularity and lost power; the apocalyptic quality of its message disappeared; its new teachers set about to make its teaching acceptable to Christendom--and their success became at last their greatest tragedy. It is a lamentable fact that the crusading spirit is almost wholly lost to the deeper life branches of the church. Modern crusaders are for the most part no more than high octane proselyters operating down on a level far below New Testament plateaus. They make all the noise and get all the notice, while hungry-hearted saints shake their heads in discouragement and wait for-what?
Posted on 27 January 2012 | 9:00 am
"Lord, Do It Again!"
Such a fast hold does inertia have upon almost everything religious that it takes a powerful and sudden attack by determined forces to move anything. It takes something like a crusade to get anything done these days. The principle of laissez faire is so firmly implanted in all of us that something in the nature of an earthquake is needed to jar us loose and start us on the right way. It is an illuminating experience to read the history of the great spiritual movements that have blessed the world over the last 2,000 years. Scarely any of these began quietly; almost always they struck the earth with the suddenness of a cyclone. We have only to mention a few to prove our point: the ministry of John the Baptist, the appearance of Jesus Christ with His miracles, Pentecost, the Reformation, the Wesleyan revivals, the Great Awakening, revivals in Wales, in Korea, the strange and wonderful work under the Prophet Harris in Africa--the list is long. These movements struck with the unexpectedness of lightning and found people without a defense against them. Methodism, for instance moved with the speed of a forest fire and took on the character of a crusade. The spiritual certainty within the hearts of a select few became so white-hot that it set others on fire around it and started an unplanned movement toward a return to New Testament standards and the deeper things of the Spirit.
Posted on 26 January 2012 | 9:00 am
Dependent Freedom
There will always be danger from one or the other of these two extremes, slavish dependence or arrogant independence. Some Christians (by far the majority) will accept a place of timid conformity and surrender themselves to the bondage of authority and custom. In all things religious they will become meek followers of popular trends within their own circle. Such as these have no vision of their own, no true convictions, no inward freedom. They are slaves of the religious machine; they know nothing of the liberty with which Christ has made us free. The other extreme is found here and there among us, and while it never has as many followers as the cult of bondage, it is nevertheless quite well represented in orthodox circles. Its followers glorify freedom to a point where they deny their proper debt to fellow Christians and scorn the interdependence of the body. They are often contemptuous of spiritual authority, and they deny the right of Spirit-gifted men to exercise their gifts within the church. This breeds a kind of religious anarchy that is altogether unscriptural and, as might be expected, extremely injurious to the cause of true spirituality. Both extremes must be avoided. We must live in the paradox of happy dependent freedom.
Posted on 25 January 2012 | 9:00 am
Free Indeed!
It is a difficult thing to do, yet very necessary that we find a place of complete spiritual freedom and loving dependence upon one another. Here in the wide valley between two high and dangerous peaks is the broad dwelling of God's true and wise children. The spirit of complete inward freedom is a precious heritage from the cross and should be treasured as one of life's most wonderful possessions. It is our privilege to be wholly free from evil habits, from superstition, from the fear of men, from the slavery of popular customs, from the necesssity of pleasing the self-elected dictators of society. Such freedom is wondrously delightful, near to the joy of heaven itself. The one whom the Son has set free is as free from others as if there were no others living in the world. He would walk with God in quiet inward liberty if no one else on earth were to go along with him. Yet such a happy soul has no feeling of independence; he is deeply conscious that he is a member of a larger body of which Christ is the head, and he willingly acknowledges his indebtedness to all other Christians. He thanks God for every one of His children and is eager to learn from all of them. He is grateful for "holy men of God who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," for translators, expositors, teachers, intercessors, hymnists, and he thankfully acknowledges the part they all had in ministering to his own life the liberating things of the free Spirit.
Posted on 24 January 2012 | 9:00 am
Christ's Loveliness Reflected in His People
Some good Christians are afraid to give notice to any lovely virtues which may appear here and there among God's people lest they detract from the glory of Christ. Such timidity is understandable, but uncalled for. If we know to begin with that all goodness is from Christ, that all sweetness, all holiness, all loveliness are out of Him and from Him and in Him, we will not hesitate to recognize moral excellence wherever it may occur on this dark planet. If a ray of holy light shines out from any man's life, it must be because Christ is there shining in secret in a human breast, and we should be quick to catch this dim glimpse of the Light of the World again incarnated in a human being. The glory of Christ will not suffer from this frank and eager acknowledgment of virtue where we find it. Because we are sentient beings, we must have some love-motivation to keep us running. This fact (on a lower level) is well known to everyone. God knew this (for He made us) and gave us the supreme love-Object of the universe to fire our hearts with holy passion. That Object is Jesus. The Christian faith may be summed up in the love of Jesus. To love Him enough is to be sweetly and wonderfully free. To love Him as He should be loved is to know at once complete release from religious forms and traditions. It is to reach the goal of life even here below.
Posted on 23 January 2012 | 9:00 am
Christ the Source of Moral Beauty
One thing the Bible teaches very plainly is that Christ is the sum of all virtues and the essense of all beauty. On this subject, modern Christians have a lot to learn. We have been cheated of this truth for the last half-century or more, the emphasis falling elsewhere. And we are always victims of the prevailing religious vogue. Whatever is getting the attention from our spiritual leaders is what we finally come to accept as orthodoxy in any given period of history. And right now we are definitely not hearing much about the loveliness of Jesus. Christ is God shining through the personality of a man, and shining unhindered. His sacred humanity does not veil His divine beauty in any degree. The Christ who lived among men showed forth the nature of God as certainly as if He had still been with His Father in the preincarnate state. There is no moral beauty but what Christ is the source of it. Every trait of lovely character we see in any believing man or woman is but an imperfect demonstration of how wonderful Jesus is. Even those moral beauties that appear to be "natural" to some people have their source in Him. For human goodness cannot exist apart from Christ. They are but broken lights of Thee, And Thou, O Christ, are more than they.
Posted on 22 January 2012 | 9:00 am