The Dismal Spirit of Today

A. W. Tozer says, regarding the spirit of Christians today:

"We read our chapter, have our short devotions and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar.

"The tragic results of this spirit are all about us: shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit. These and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and serious malady of the soul.

"For this great sickness that is upon us no one person is responsible, and no Christian is wholly free from blame. We have all contributed directly or indirectly , to this sad state of affairs. We have been too blind to see, or too timid to speak out, or too self-satisfied to desire anything better than the poor, average diet with which others appear satisfied. To put it differently, we have accepted one another's notions, copied one another's lives, and made one another's experiences the model for our own. And for a generation the trend has been downward. Now we have reached a low place of sand and burnt wire grass and, worst of all, we have made the Word of Truth conform to our experience and accepted this low plane as the very pasture of the blessed.

"It will require a determined heart and more than a little courage to wrench ourselve loose from the grip of our times and return to biblical ways. But it can be done. Every now and then in the past Christians have had to do it. History has recorded several large-scale returns led by such men as St. Francis, Martin Luther and George Fox. Unfortunately, there seems to be no Luther or Fox on the horizon at present."

I may be no Luther or Fox, but I, as they did, will stand up and speak out for a return to purity, righteousness, and a separation from worldliness. I must stand on the Bible for my spiritual standards, caring not that the Word of the Spirit may be divisive or disruptive. Will you stand with me?

A Few Words from Leonard

Some quotations from Leonard Ravenhill. I found them encouraging and applicable; I pray they do the same for you.
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"A popular evangelist reaches your emotions. A true prophet reaches your conscience."

"A true shepherd leads the way. He does not merely point the way."

"You never have to advertise a fire. Everyone comes running when there's a fire. Likewise, if your church is on fire, you will not have to advertise it. The community will already know it."

"John the Baptist never performed any miracles. Yet, he was greater than any of the Old Testament prophets."

"I doubt that more than two percent of professing Christians in the United States are truly born again."

"Our God is a consuming fire. He consumes pride, lust, materialism, and other sin."

"There are only two kinds of persons: those dead in sin and those dead to sin."

"Children can tell you what Channel 7 says, but not what Matthew 7 says."

"Some women [some men, too!] will spend thirty minutes to an hour preparing for church externally (putting on special clothes and makeup, etc.). What would happen if we all spent the same amount of time preparing internally for church with prayer and meditation?"

"Maturity comes from obedience, not necessarily from age."

"What good does it do to speak in tongues on Sunday if you have been using your tongue during the week to curse and gossip?"

"Would we send our daughters off to have sex if it would benefit our country? Yet, we send our sons off to kill when we think it would benefit our country!"

"The only time you can really say that 'Christ is all I need,' is when Christ is all you have."

"The Bible is either absolute, or it's obsolete."

"Why do we expect to be better treated in this world than Jesus was?"

"Testimonies are wonderful. But, so often our lives don't fit our testimonies."

"My main ambition in life is to be on the Devil's most wanted list."

"You can't develop character by reading books. You develop it from conflict."

"When there's something in the Bible that churches don't like, they call it: legalism.'"

"We can't serve God by proxy."

"We must do what we can do for God, before He will give us the power to do what we can't do."

"There's a difference between changing your opinion, and changing your lifestyle."

"Our seminaries today are turning out dead men."

"How can you pull down strongholds of Satan if you don't even have the strength to turn off your TV?"

"If a Christian is not having tribulation in the world, there's something wrong!"

"Any method of evangelism will work, if God is in it."

"Church unity comes from corporate humility."

"Many pastors criticize me for taking the Gospel so seriously. But do they really think that on Judgment Day, Christ will chastise me, saying, 'Leonard, you took Me too seriously?'"

"If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified."

"You can know a lot about the atonement, and yet receive no benefit from it."
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And one final quote, a warning to which we would do well to take heed:

"If the whole church goes off into deception, that will in no way excuse us for not following Christ."

Change the World!

As Christians, we need to live according to the God that we serve - not conformed to the world's standards - we are to conduct our lives in righteousness and true holiness; if we would just do this - "shine" as righteous children of God in the midst of our sinful world - the gospel would be half-preached without us saying a word.

Yet, as my friend Sarah notices, most "Christians" are merely living by the world's standards, sullying the holy name of our Lord Jesus by their selfish actions, and refusal to live a life like the one they say they believe in.

True Christians, STAND UP!!! If we don't stand up, we will surely perish in the judgement, for it will begin at the house of God.

EVERYONE who is a true Christian ought to be unmistakeable because of their total committal to God and those around them... if people have to say "I always suspected that you were a Christian..." then you have failed as a Christian - everyone that knows us on a level beyond "Hi, I'm Andrew" should be able to say "I knew you were a Christian - it came out in everything you did."

LET'S GO CHANGE THE WORLD!!!!!! this is no ideal that we can try for, but never reach...this is the whole point of Christians being on this planet. God has commanded it, God has supplied everything we need, all that is lacking is OUR CHOICE TO GO DO IT!!

YOU, the Christian reading these posts, need to do this. If you want to just hang back and stay where you don't have to get out of your "comfort zone" -- FIND ANOTHER RELIGION, because to serve the Living and True God takes more than Sundays and Tuesday nights. Christianity means that your entire heart, soul, mind, and strength are devoted to God, and that the people you meet are just as important as you are. There is no room for selfishness with God - it is all or nothing; this doesn't mean that we cannot have a good time, it simply means that GOD IS MOST IMPORTANT.

I repeat - LET'S GO CHANGE THE WORLD!!! We will not regret any moment spent in the service of God and our fellow man.

The Rudest

My brother-in-law was discussing his job at Costco, and he made the comment that the best day to shop there is on Sunday before 11:30, which is when the traditional church service gets out. That in itself was reasonable, but it was his next comment that was very interesting (and depressing)....he said that the church people who come through are "the rudest customer base of the week."

What kind of witness is it when those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ have that kind of perception of the people who profess to have been changed by the power of the true and living God? The gospel of Christ is so powerful that Christians can do anything, including having the reputation in the eyes of the community as the rudest customers in town. God forbid!


"Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." II Timothy 2:19
"Abstain from all appearance of evil." I Thessalonians 5:22