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?

On Interpreting Scripture

Sometimes, I feel dumb asking other people what they think about this or that spiritual topic. Not all the time, but when I don’t know the “answer” – for some reason, it strikes me as presumptuous (maybe that’s not the right word, but it seems not quite right, anyway) to ask others, when it is the Spirit of God that leads us into all truth – shouldn’t I simply ask the Author what He meant, if I don’t understand?

If Jesus said that the Spirit, when He was come, would guide us into all truth, I must lay hold on that promise and bring it before God as the basis for my prayer – God has promised that He would send the Spirit, and that the Spirit would guide me into all truth – if I am to live and walk in the Spirit, then I must take God at His word, and actually live that way. So if I am to rightly interpret a section of Scripture, I must be in the Spirit (for who knoweth the mind of man, save the spirit of man; who knoweth the mind of God, save the Spirit of God?).

Now, the wisdom (that is, the correct and skilful application of knowledge) that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated. Easy to be intreated. That means that any enduement of heavenly wisdom will only make me more approachable and willing to listen to others’ thoughts and arguments. Hmm…like love, pure, not rejoicing in iniquity, but rejoicing in truth; heavenly wisdom is first pure, seeking the pure, the right, the truth, so as not to fall into error or sin.

Looking the Part

"I once saw a man at a golf course step out of his cart and approach the first tee. He looked immaculate -- expensive set of clubs, sharp looking clothes, confidence all over his face. He looked every inch the pro...until he tried to play golf. He was simply not very good. He might have looked the part, but he should have just hung around the clubhouse where he was a convincing golfer instead of demonstrating his true abilities by actually attempting to play."
--Benny Perez

"We are a generation of cheap Christians going to heaven as inexpensively as possible; religious hobos and spiritual deadbeats living on milk instead of meat, crusts of bread instead of manna, as though we were on a cut-rate excursion."
--Vance Havner
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Are we dressed for the part of living for Christ -- but unable to actually live it out, as the golfer was? Do we have the form of godliness without the power of God? Are we truly living victoriously, using and showing the power of Christ....or would it be better if we just hung around in our "clubhouse", where we can look convincingly spiritual? If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit -- for if we live after the flesh, we shall die: but if we through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, we shall live; for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

If He has given us strength that is according to His glory (which He has), and if Christ dwells in our hearts by faith (which He does)-- we must live our lives out according to His glory, and according to the love in which we are rooted and grounded. If we do not...we are in serious trouble!