¨
He has a heart like a volcano and his words are as fire.
He talks to men about God.
He carries the lamp of truth amongst heretics while he is lampooned by men.
He faces God before he faces men, but he is self-effacing.
He hides with God in the secret place, but he has nothing to hide in the marketplace.
He is naturally sensitive but supernaturally spiritual.
He has passion, purpose and pugnacity.
He is ordained of God but disdained by men.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
Cross is radical
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The Cross Is a Radical Thing
The Cross of Christ is the most revolutionary thing ever to appear among men.
The cross of old Roman times knew no compromise; it never made concessions. It won all its arguments by killing its opponent and silencing him for good. It spared not Christ, but slew Him the same as the rest. He was alive when they hung Him on that cross and completely dead when they took Him down six hours later. That was the cross the first time it appeared in Christian history.
After Christ was risen from the dead the apostles went out to preach His message, and what they preached was the cross. And wherever they went into the wide world they carried the cross, and the same revolutionary power went with them. The radical message of the cross transformed Saul of Tarsus and changed him from a persecutor of Christians to a tender believer and an apostle of the faith. Its power changed bad men into good ones. It shook off the long bondage of paganism and altered completely the whole moral and mental outlook of the Western world.
All this it did and continued to do as long as it was permitted to remain what it had been originally, a cross. Its power departed when it was changed from a thing of death to a thing of beauty. When men made of it a symbol, hung it around their necks as an ornament or made its outline before their faces as a magic sign to ward off evil, then it became at best a weak emblem, at worst a positive fetish. As such it is revered today by millions who know absolutely nothing about its power.
The cross effects its ends by destroying one established pattern, the victim’s, and creating another pattern, its own. ‘Thus it always has its way. It wins by defeating its opponent and imposing its will upon him. It always dominates. It never compromises, never dickers nor confers, never surrenders a point for the sake of peace. It cares not for peace; it cares only to end its opposition as fast as possible.
With perfect knowledge of all this Christ said, ”If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” So the cross not only brings Christ’s life to an end, it ends also the first life, the old life, of every one of His true followers. It destroys the old pattern, the Adam pat tern, in the believer’s life, and brings it to an end. Then the God who raised Christ from the dead raises the believer and a new life begins.
This, and nothing less, is true Christianity, though we cannot but recognize the sharp divergence of this conception from that held by the rank and file of evangelicals today. But we dare not qualify our position. The cross stands high above the opinions of men and to that cross all opinions must come at last for judgment. A shallow and worldly leadership would modify the cross to please the entertainment-mad saintlings who will have their fun even within the very sanctuary; but to do so is to court spiritual disaster and risk the anger of the Lamb tuned Lion.
We must do something about the cross, and one of two things only we can do—flee it or die upon it. And if we should be so foolhardy as to flee we shall by that act put away the faith of our fathers and make of Christianity something other than it is. Then we shall have left only the empty language of salvation; the power will depart with our departure from the true cross.
If we are wise we will do what Jesus did: endure the cross and despise its shame for the joy that is set before us. To do this is to submit the whole pattern of our lives to be destroyed and built again in the power of an endless life. And we shall find that it is more than poetry, more than sweet hymnody and elevated feeling. The cross will cut into our lives where it hurts worst, sparing neither us nor our carefully cultivated reputations. It will defeat us and bring our selfish lives to an end. Only then can we rise in fullness of life to establish a pattern of living wholly new and free and full of good works.
The changed attitude toward the cross that we see in modern orthodoxy proves not that God has changed, nor that Christ has eased up on His demand that we carry the cross; it means rather that current Christianity has moved away from the standards of the New Testament. So far have we moved indeed that it may take nothing short of a new reformation to restore the cross to its right place in the theology and life of the Church.
A.W. Tozer
The Cross Is a Radical Thing
The Cross of Christ is the most revolutionary thing ever to appear among men.
The cross of old Roman times knew no compromise; it never made concessions. It won all its arguments by killing its opponent and silencing him for good. It spared not Christ, but slew Him the same as the rest. He was alive when they hung Him on that cross and completely dead when they took Him down six hours later. That was the cross the first time it appeared in Christian history.
After Christ was risen from the dead the apostles went out to preach His message, and what they preached was the cross. And wherever they went into the wide world they carried the cross, and the same revolutionary power went with them. The radical message of the cross transformed Saul of Tarsus and changed him from a persecutor of Christians to a tender believer and an apostle of the faith. Its power changed bad men into good ones. It shook off the long bondage of paganism and altered completely the whole moral and mental outlook of the Western world.
All this it did and continued to do as long as it was permitted to remain what it had been originally, a cross. Its power departed when it was changed from a thing of death to a thing of beauty. When men made of it a symbol, hung it around their necks as an ornament or made its outline before their faces as a magic sign to ward off evil, then it became at best a weak emblem, at worst a positive fetish. As such it is revered today by millions who know absolutely nothing about its power.
The cross effects its ends by destroying one established pattern, the victim’s, and creating another pattern, its own. ‘Thus it always has its way. It wins by defeating its opponent and imposing its will upon him. It always dominates. It never compromises, never dickers nor confers, never surrenders a point for the sake of peace. It cares not for peace; it cares only to end its opposition as fast as possible.
With perfect knowledge of all this Christ said, ”If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” So the cross not only brings Christ’s life to an end, it ends also the first life, the old life, of every one of His true followers. It destroys the old pattern, the Adam pat tern, in the believer’s life, and brings it to an end. Then the God who raised Christ from the dead raises the believer and a new life begins.
This, and nothing less, is true Christianity, though we cannot but recognize the sharp divergence of this conception from that held by the rank and file of evangelicals today. But we dare not qualify our position. The cross stands high above the opinions of men and to that cross all opinions must come at last for judgment. A shallow and worldly leadership would modify the cross to please the entertainment-mad saintlings who will have their fun even within the very sanctuary; but to do so is to court spiritual disaster and risk the anger of the Lamb tuned Lion.
We must do something about the cross, and one of two things only we can do—flee it or die upon it. And if we should be so foolhardy as to flee we shall by that act put away the faith of our fathers and make of Christianity something other than it is. Then we shall have left only the empty language of salvation; the power will depart with our departure from the true cross.
If we are wise we will do what Jesus did: endure the cross and despise its shame for the joy that is set before us. To do this is to submit the whole pattern of our lives to be destroyed and built again in the power of an endless life. And we shall find that it is more than poetry, more than sweet hymnody and elevated feeling. The cross will cut into our lives where it hurts worst, sparing neither us nor our carefully cultivated reputations. It will defeat us and bring our selfish lives to an end. Only then can we rise in fullness of life to establish a pattern of living wholly new and free and full of good works.
The changed attitude toward the cross that we see in modern orthodoxy proves not that God has changed, nor that Christ has eased up on His demand that we carry the cross; it means rather that current Christianity has moved away from the standards of the New Testament. So far have we moved indeed that it may take nothing short of a new reformation to restore the cross to its right place in the theology and life of the Church.
A.W. Tozer
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Picture of a Prophet 04
¨
A prophet is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, but few ”make the grade” in his class.
He is friendless while living and famous when dead.
He is against the establishment in ministry; then he is established as a saint by posterity.
He eats daily the bread of affliction while he ministers, but he feeds the Bread of Life to those who listen.
He walks before men for days but has walked before God for years.
He is a scourge to the nation before he is scourged by the nation.
He announces, pronounces, and denounces!
Leonard Ravenhill
A prophet is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, but few ”make the grade” in his class.
He is friendless while living and famous when dead.
He is against the establishment in ministry; then he is established as a saint by posterity.
He eats daily the bread of affliction while he ministers, but he feeds the Bread of Life to those who listen.
He walks before men for days but has walked before God for years.
He is a scourge to the nation before he is scourged by the nation.
He announces, pronounces, and denounces!
Leonard Ravenhill
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Picture of a Prophet 03
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The prophet lives in ”splendid isolation.”
He is forthright and outright, but he claims no birthright.
His message is ”repent, be reconciled to God or else...!”
His prophecies are parried.
His truth brings torment, but his voice is never void.
He is the villain of today and the hero of tomorrow.
He is excommunicated while alive and exalted when dead!
He is dishonored with epithets when breathing and honored with epitaphs when dead.
Leonard Ravenhill
The prophet lives in ”splendid isolation.”
He is forthright and outright, but he claims no birthright.
His message is ”repent, be reconciled to God or else...!”
His prophecies are parried.
His truth brings torment, but his voice is never void.
He is the villain of today and the hero of tomorrow.
He is excommunicated while alive and exalted when dead!
He is dishonored with epithets when breathing and honored with epitaphs when dead.
Leonard Ravenhill
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Picture of a Prophet 02
¨
The prophet is God’s detective seeking for a lost treasure. The degree of his effectiveness is determined by his measure of unpopularity. Compromise is not known to him.
He has no price tags.
He is totally ”otherworldly.”
He is unquestionably controversial and unpardonably hostile.
He marches to another drummer!
He breathes the rarefied air of inspiration.
He is a ”seer” who comes to lead the blind.
He lives in the heights of God and comes into the valley with a ”thus saith the Lord.”
He shares some of the foreknowledge of God and so is aware of impending judgment.
Leonard Ravenhill
The prophet is God’s detective seeking for a lost treasure. The degree of his effectiveness is determined by his measure of unpopularity. Compromise is not known to him.
He has no price tags.
He is totally ”otherworldly.”
He is unquestionably controversial and unpardonably hostile.
He marches to another drummer!
He breathes the rarefied air of inspiration.
He is a ”seer” who comes to lead the blind.
He lives in the heights of God and comes into the valley with a ”thus saith the Lord.”
He shares some of the foreknowledge of God and so is aware of impending judgment.
Leonard Ravenhill
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Picture of a Prophet 01
¨
The prophet in his day is fully accepted of God and totally rejected by men.
Years back, Dr. Gregory Mantle was right when he said, ”No man can be fully accepted until he is totally rejected.” The prophet of the Lord is aware of both these experiences. They are his ”brand name.”
The group, challenged by the prophet because they are smug and comfortably insulated from a perishing world in their warm but untested theology, is not likely to vote him ”Man of the year” when he refers to them as habituates of the synagogue of Satan!
The prophet comes to set up that which is upset. His work is to call into line those who are out of line! He is unpopular because he opposes the popular in morality and spirituality. In a day of faceless politicians and voiceless preachers, there is not a more urgent national need than that we cry to God for a prophet! The function of the prophet, as Austin-Sparks once said, ”has almost always been that of recovery.”
Leonard Ravenhill
The prophet in his day is fully accepted of God and totally rejected by men.
Years back, Dr. Gregory Mantle was right when he said, ”No man can be fully accepted until he is totally rejected.” The prophet of the Lord is aware of both these experiences. They are his ”brand name.”
The group, challenged by the prophet because they are smug and comfortably insulated from a perishing world in their warm but untested theology, is not likely to vote him ”Man of the year” when he refers to them as habituates of the synagogue of Satan!
The prophet comes to set up that which is upset. His work is to call into line those who are out of line! He is unpopular because he opposes the popular in morality and spirituality. In a day of faceless politicians and voiceless preachers, there is not a more urgent national need than that we cry to God for a prophet! The function of the prophet, as Austin-Sparks once said, ”has almost always been that of recovery.”
Leonard Ravenhill
Friday, August 8, 2008
Revelation or relief
Our Father provides. He has set forth the ministry of the prayer-chamber as the many-faceted means leading a heart into a development of true seeing.
The life of a praying Christian formulates itself in terms of a quest for a revelation of God as He finds Himself pleased to reveal His nature and purposes.
Answered prayer contains something of His own character, His mind and His way planted as a resource in our daily struggle.
Asking and demanding will never open for light and revelation. Praying and waiting respects and uplifts His name. Intercession glorifies His name. The very use of His name to secure man’s will desecrates any heavenly intention. Prayer begins on the inside of His name, in the chambers of His council.
David, the king, the man with a tongue as the pen of a ready writer prayed with words and definitions which were specified – this I need, this I see, this I fear, this I expect. This King of Prayer always expressed the need of revelation – be my Rock, act as my Shield, sing songs of deliverance, surround us with loving-kindness, allow help to descend from the sanctuary, allow us to see Your hands at work.
Prayers, reverently persistent. Prayers specified, but never pressing man’s agendas. Penetrating prayers simply because of the intercessor’s trust in and abandoning to God’s ability to cause all things to work together for good. Piercing, productive prayer because the Lord is trusted to diagnose and differentiate, to determine and decide regarding proper measures to be applied.
Oh, that He would reveal Himself. Pain is involved in the process of securing true revelation. There is always and ever a perennial pain in a heart which is set for true seeing. Two polarities confront man in the prayer-chamber – revelation or relief. An either/or situation constitutes true prayer and true seeing.
Modern man is set to avoid pain and to pursue pleasure. Thereby he disqualifies himself for a praying which secures true seeing. God is there to be seen by the man, or woman, who is ready for spiritual work, a following hard after the Lord. There has to be an “Oh” in a praying man’s heart – to somehow reduce this reality, even praying to be relieved of such an “Oh” is to cut off the life of the prayer-closet.
But revelation is relief – light in darkness, peace amidst pain. Revelation is relief – a seeing, tangible glory amidst hardship. Revelation is relief – “I have come to reveal the Father.” Revelation is relief – deliverance because of His songs, surrounded by His loving-kindness.
Seeing Him is relief. Enjoying Him is relief – relief from a crooked presumption of what is glorious living. Rejoicing in Him is relief – a severing from, a cutting off from contemporary means and modes of operation aiming at securing pace and prosperity.
True seeing finds a burning bush.
True seeing finds a calling to a ministry in the chambers of prayer, in the council of God.
True seeing formulates life, maturing life.
True seeing is Life, newness of Life.
True seeing finds God. True seeing rests with God.
True seeing is secured by the willingness to carry a radical “Oh, that. . .” in your heart.
True seeing is yours by choice.
Lars Widerberg
The life of a praying Christian formulates itself in terms of a quest for a revelation of God as He finds Himself pleased to reveal His nature and purposes.
Answered prayer contains something of His own character, His mind and His way planted as a resource in our daily struggle.
Asking and demanding will never open for light and revelation. Praying and waiting respects and uplifts His name. Intercession glorifies His name. The very use of His name to secure man’s will desecrates any heavenly intention. Prayer begins on the inside of His name, in the chambers of His council.
David, the king, the man with a tongue as the pen of a ready writer prayed with words and definitions which were specified – this I need, this I see, this I fear, this I expect. This King of Prayer always expressed the need of revelation – be my Rock, act as my Shield, sing songs of deliverance, surround us with loving-kindness, allow help to descend from the sanctuary, allow us to see Your hands at work.
Prayers, reverently persistent. Prayers specified, but never pressing man’s agendas. Penetrating prayers simply because of the intercessor’s trust in and abandoning to God’s ability to cause all things to work together for good. Piercing, productive prayer because the Lord is trusted to diagnose and differentiate, to determine and decide regarding proper measures to be applied.
Oh, that He would reveal Himself. Pain is involved in the process of securing true revelation. There is always and ever a perennial pain in a heart which is set for true seeing. Two polarities confront man in the prayer-chamber – revelation or relief. An either/or situation constitutes true prayer and true seeing.
Modern man is set to avoid pain and to pursue pleasure. Thereby he disqualifies himself for a praying which secures true seeing. God is there to be seen by the man, or woman, who is ready for spiritual work, a following hard after the Lord. There has to be an “Oh” in a praying man’s heart – to somehow reduce this reality, even praying to be relieved of such an “Oh” is to cut off the life of the prayer-closet.
But revelation is relief – light in darkness, peace amidst pain. Revelation is relief – a seeing, tangible glory amidst hardship. Revelation is relief – “I have come to reveal the Father.” Revelation is relief – deliverance because of His songs, surrounded by His loving-kindness.
Seeing Him is relief. Enjoying Him is relief – relief from a crooked presumption of what is glorious living. Rejoicing in Him is relief – a severing from, a cutting off from contemporary means and modes of operation aiming at securing pace and prosperity.
True seeing finds a burning bush.
True seeing finds a calling to a ministry in the chambers of prayer, in the council of God.
True seeing formulates life, maturing life.
True seeing is Life, newness of Life.
True seeing finds God. True seeing rests with God.
True seeing is secured by the willingness to carry a radical “Oh, that. . .” in your heart.
True seeing is yours by choice.
Lars Widerberg
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