Vapor

“Eric, Jeff died.”  

“What?”

“He fell, thought he was OK, then died in his sleep.  The funeral is this afternoon.”

“Wow. Life is a vapor.”

That truth from the book of James has been dominant in my mind ever since.

Life is a vapor.

Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue  there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow.  For what is your life?  It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away.

What is life?  Life is a vapor.   Life is a morning mist that dissolves with the first rays of sunlight.  Life is a disappearing steam above a swirling cup of tea.  Life is a for a little time and vanishes.

Do we really think this way? 

For the first time in my life, I went to the funeral of someone who was younger than I.  The young man’s parents were there.  The pastor noted, “This is not how it is supposed to be.”  And, minus that fact that the situation was very real and in the hands of God, he was right.  But the fact that I consider him right is evidence that I do not really think life is a vapor, as God clearly tells us.

For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that.  But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.  Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

“So, did you still hang out with Jeff?”

“Well, no, we sort of disconnected.  We talked on Facebook a few times, but…”

Silence.

“Kind of makes you think.”  

As this statement was made, a young man looked me in the eyes in a way that made it clear that we were both struggling with the reality of the vapor like quality of life.

Do we truly realize that this day, this moment, this night, might be the day, the moment, the night when our mist dissolves?

Do we realize that our future intentions to do what is right is unpleasing to God?  

Do we consider that when we fail to do the good we know to do now, that it is sin?

Sobering.  Kind of making me think.

Life is a vapor.

Do I need to read the rest?

"Peacemakers are people who breath grace."  (Sande 11)


This is the first sentence of the preface of The Peacemaker.  I am kind of thinking that that idea alone, if truly activated in the life of every believer, would revolutionize fundamentalism.  


What is breathing?  I am not a doctor, but if I am remembering correctly it is the life sustaining process of taking in air, allowing our blood to gain the oxygen we need, and letting the air out.  Science books were not brought out for that definition, folks, but I think that is a fairly accurate description of what breathing is.  If not, let me know.


Now, what if, in our soul and spirit, we breathed grace?  What if we were continuously allowing God's unmerited favor bathe our being, nourishing our eternal life, and, in turn, poured out unmerited favor on those around us out of a heart of love for God and man?


Again, I am not a doctor, but, I think our physical life depends on breathing.  If we are not breathing, it is pretty much the end of our sojourn on this earth.


Is the same true of our spiritual life?  How "alive" would you be if you considered whether or not you are breathing grace?


Sande, Ken. The Peacemaker. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004.

Result

The end result of truth should be charity.


True or false?

What is Grace?

What is Grace?

In pondering what Jesus is really like, John 1 was brought to mind.  

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John 1:14

So, the real Jesus was full of grace and truth.  So, whatever grace is, Jesus was completely filled with it.  So, if Jesus is ours and we our His, should not grace be a major aspect of our character?  Should it not be a great measure of what God is working in us?

A common definition of grace is “God’s unmerited favor.”  That alone should impact our relations with one another.  Are we full of granting unmerited favor to those around us?  

Think about how wretched we would be before God without the righteousness of Christ.  Yet it is in that wretchedness that God extends His grace to us.  Consider Ephesians 2.  It is not a pretty picture.  Dead in trespasses and sins.  Following the world and Satan.  Fulfilling the lusts of the flesh and the mind.  Children of wrath.  This is not a lovely description.  But it us in this condition, that wretched and wicked state, that He extends both mercy and grace.  He is the absolutely holy and just God, but His love and mercy and grace devised a plan whereby we could be reconciled to Him.  If I am remembering a line from The Screwtape Letters correctly, Screwtape notes, “He actually loves those little vermin.”  Compared to God, that is really what we are.  But He does love us.  And He does give grace.  He gives us His favor, His fellowship, communion with Him, the glorious privilege of knowing Him by His grace.

Is that what we are like?  Do we give and love and fellowship to those who have sinned against us?  Are we full of grace?  

Fade, Fade Each Earthly Joy

Fade, fade each earthly joy,
Jesus is mine!
Break every tender tie,
Jesus is mine!
Dark is the wilderness,
Earth has no resting place,
Jesus alone can bless,
Jesus is mine!

Tempt not my soul away,
Jesus is mine!
Here would I ever stay,
Jesus is mine!
Perishing things of clay,
Born but for one brief day,
Pass from my heart away,
Jesus is mine!

Farewell, ye dreams of night,
Jesus is mine!
Lost in this dawning light,
Jesus is mine!
All that my soul has tried,
Left but a dismal void,
Jesus has satisfied,
Jesus is mine!

Farewell, mortality,
Jesus is mine!
Welcome eternity,
Jesus is mine!
Welcome, O loved and blest,
Welcome, sweet scenes of rest,
Welcome, my Savior’s breast,
Jesus is mine!

This song and its tune have been on the mind a bit since the past Lord’s day evening.  In fact, as the song was being hummed this afternoon one of the students proclaimed, “You have a nice voice!  Will you sing for us?”  Oh my!  Someone’s ears must be broken.  Well, of course, the answer was “No way.  You do not want to hear singing.”  But, I think that may be a rare time singing has been requested.  Actually, a select few have claimed to like Riccipediaish singing, but it is a rare breed and they may be going into extinction.

All that to say, this is a great song to ponder, though it has its puzzlements.

The song was written by Jane Bonar, the wife of Horatius Bonar.  To me, that was an intriguing fact, as I have Night of Weeping by Mr. Bonar in my stack of books to read.  Looks like a good one, one that came through many sorrows and has the purpose of encouraging profit from the affliction God allows.  The Bonars experienced the affliction of losing a number of children at young ages, which, I would guess, provided background for this hymn text.

It seems obvious that the theme of the song is that all we need is Jesus. And that is so true.  But, this is where the puzzlement comes.  What does “Jesus” mean?  Have you ever really thought about that.  Who is He?  What is He truly like?  If, amazing, He is mine, and, what is more amazing, I am His, what are the ramifications of this amazing truth?  Should it not result in radical devotion is His Words?  And not just to the external and peripheral Words, but to the essence and root of them?  And what is the essence?  Love God and love man.  Is that not who He is?  What does that look like?  Do we know?  Have you seen it?  Are you doing it?  

Should we say farewell to much we claim to know and be?  Should realize there is much essential truth that is fading in this wilderness?  

Should we strive to grip what it essentially means to exclaim, “Jesus is mine”?

What is Forgiveness? Part 2

Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many.  So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.  Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him.  ⁹For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things.  To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ;  Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. 2 Corinthians 2:6-11

What accompanies forgiveness? Riccipedia is not very musical, but this word reminds Riccipedia of music.  What are the harmony, chords, and whatever other musicy terms you would like to throw in, that are the companions to Christlike, tenderhearted and kind, forgiveness?

Comfort.  Strengthening the very one who has come for forgiveness.  God using humans vessels and His Word to build up the body by His grace and mercy.

Love.  Godlike, unconditional love in action.  Not just words, but to “confirm”, to truly display, the love of Christ for the forgiven.

Obedience.  Obedience to the command to forgive.  Forgiveness is not an option.  If we do not forgive others, God does not forgive us.  The standard of forgiveness is found in Ephesians 4, “even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”  That is a high, high standard.    

Why?

From this passage, so that Satan will not have the victory.  Lack of forgiveness is one of the great deceiver’s devices in seeking to destroy the body of Christ.  Of course, he will not ultimately be victorious, but he can inflict much damage by deluding us with a shallow forgiveness that is not of Christ.

As a final note, a praise to God for Pastor Jon’s biblical, sincere,  and practical message on forgiveness.

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,  Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,   That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;  That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,  May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;  And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.  Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,  Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.  Ephesians 3:14-21

What is Forgiveness?

"And again I say, you are never more like God than when you forgive, when you express kindness, when you are tenderhearted and forgive just as God has forgiven you. And it's not a shallow forgiveness, it's a deep forgiveness, it's a lavish forgiveness."  John MacArthur

What is Missing?

“He felt that what missing was the day-to-day reality of dying to self, of following Christ with every ounce of one’s being in every moment, in every part of one’s life.  This dedication and fire existed among pietist groups like the Herrnhuter, but he thought they bordered on being “works” oriented and overly “religious” in the Barthian sense.  They had pushed away from the “world” too much, had pushed away the very best of culture and education in a way that he didn’t feel was right.  Christ must be brought into every square inch of the world and culture, but one’s faith must be shining and bright and pure and robust.  It must be free of cant and “phraseology” and mere religiosity, or the Christ whom one was bringing into the world and the culture was not Christ at all, but a tawdry man-made counterfeit.  Bonhoeffer advocated a Christianity that seemed too worldly for traditional Lutheran conservatives and too pietistic for theological liberals.  He was too much something for everyone, so both sides misunderstood and criticized him.”  

From Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas. P. 248.

Metaxas, Eric. Bonhoeffer, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010.

Why Should We Be Thankful? Part 2

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Why be thankful?  It is the clear will of God.  Always.  In every situation of life, being thankful is absolutely what God would have you to do.  And it is a great thing to know that you are doing God’s will according to His Word.  Hebrews 13:15 tells us that our giving of thanks should be continual.  So, again, we see, always, for every thing, giving thanks.

Why be thankful?  Because God is good.  Always.  Because God is merciful.  Always. 1 Chronicles 16, 2 Chronicles 5, Ezra 3, and Psalms 106, 107, 118, and 136 all proclaim, “O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.” Psalm 100 states the same, but with a little variation in wording.  It seems that God’s goodness and His mercy are most often the biblical reason for thankfulness.

Why be thankful?  Because God has freed us from the bondage of sin.

“But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.”  Romans 6:17

Why be thankful?  Because God is causing us to triumph.

“Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.” 2 Corinthians 2:14

Why be thankful?  On the practical side, having a grateful heart, remembering all of God’s goodness and mercy towards us, considering what great things He has done, helps conform us to His Word and drives away selfishness, strife, unforgiveness, and bitternesss.

Why Should We Be Thankful? Part 1

The unthankful heart discovers no mercies; but the thankful heart will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings.
-- Henry Ward Beecher

Infirmity's Purpose?

The “condition of being actually defenseless may perhaps reveal to these people certain actualities of our human existence, in which we are in fact basically defenseless, more clearly than can ever be possible for those of us who are healthy.”  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  2 Corinthians 12:9

The Sum of All?

Can it be true?  One sentence is the sum, the absolute total, of the whole of God’s expansive revelation to man?

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.  Matthew 7:12

Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.  For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.  Romans 13:8-10

For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  Galatians 5:14

It must be true because God has said exactly that three times. And He has said it in other ways.

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.  Matthew 22:37-40

And He expands upon it.

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. John 13:34-35

The truth God gives concerning love for others is extensive.  And they are commands to be followed.  

May I ask a question?  What would life be like if we truly obeyed, with our whole beings, these principles?  I am sure I do not know the answer.  

May God mercifully help us to, by His grace and strengthening, to have the love of Christ for one another.  

Cut Off?

This story was found on various websites.  It is certainly a powerful truth.

Lessons from the 1905 Revival in India

That evening a friend called to see me; she had spent many years in India, she knew the life, she had learnt her lessons and gained her experience. "I was in the Great Revival", she said to me. "I was here when it broke out in the Khasya Hills. I will tell you about it." And there until midnight we sat and talked of the wonder-working power of the Blood of the Lamb and the Life Giving Spirit sent to revive. She had a great story to tell, and it has made an impression upon me that I never want to forget.

Eagerly she bent forward, and her face lit up, as she began to tell of the wonderful happenings she herself had seen and felt. It was the time of the Welsh Revival, and the weekly mail brought letters telling us how God was using one man to stir the principality; sinners were convicted of sin, whole villages were converted and the Holy Ghost was working in power in every town and village they knew. A hunger and a thirst for God took possession of them. The Mission to which they belonged was a part of the same church in Wales gripped by Revival. It didn’t take long for them to realize that this was for them too, and prayer was vital. They felt the power in the letters received and they knew it was of God, and nothing else would satisfy them, but that they should also be in a Revival, and so they gave themselves to prayer.

Pentecost was their need, Pentecost was what they asked for, and it was Pentecost they received. In a little Chapel where a few Christians were gathered for prayer, they suddenly felt an Unseen Power, and all went down in His Presence. Their cries went up as one, and the noise was so great that the heathen in the village ran to see what it was, and a great fear came over them. "What was this power?" they asked. "Why are these men on their faces? " And even while they questioned, they were silenced by the Spirit moving over them, and they cried out to be saved.

The Revival spread; one station after another caught the fire, and the glory of the Lord was revealed. Singing and praying and worshipping God went on through the night and a band of born-again Christians were gathered into the fold. The missionaries were revived, new life came to them, and this missionary friend said to me: "I have never known such glory, wherever we went we saw the work of the Holy Ghost, and we gathered together to tell each other of what we knew.  We read about the Revival in Wales, but we experienced it in the Khasya Hills, and never was there such an experience before or since. The fire melted us all together; we saw the Lord and we trod the heavenly way. Oh, it was glory just to walk with Him."

"I went to another station to meet some friends; others arrived at the same time, and I was put into a grass hut, for the house was full. It was the cold weather, and I wondered how I could keep warm. A hot bottle was put there for me; sleep would not come, but oh the glory that filled my soul! I felt as if I must be in Heaven; the cold night was filled with holy gladness, and I sang unto the Lord in an ecstasy of joy unspeakable, and love inexpressible was mine. I knew I had found Him, and He had found me, and the Holy Ghost had come to immerse me in Himself that I might abide in Christ forever."

"I got out of bed to kneel before Him in worship and adoration. The clock struck twelve, then one and two, and I lived in the glory; my heart was satisfied and His presence filled the little hut. Before breakfast was served the next morning we sat round the table and sang to Him. All our conversation was of Him. In a very real and intimate way He had come to us. The Welsh Revival had reached US. God had spoken to us, and was speaking through us to others. Every day we heard of those who were being added to the Church. Conviction of sin was very real; repentance and restitution came hand in hand, and we all felt that we had lived for that time, and all my being said, ' Glory’."

"We were there for some days, and then a friend called to see me, and we began to gossip and criticize others. Something was said that was detrimental to another, and as we talked something happened." The speaker paused, and her voice quivered, "I lost the glory from my soul; it just slipped away, and I stood there after the friend left, feeling as if something was slain within me. I went to my grass hut, but there was no glory. I knelt to pray, and I could only cry. I knelt in an agony of mind. What had I done? Nothing very much, I only joined in conversations that led to gossip, making light of another and with drastic swiftness we took away her good name, and the glory I had received departed from my soul."

"And then?" I questioned. She shook her head and with a very sad voice answered; "I have never felt the same; that glory has not come back to me." I was awed by the story, and I felt her agony. Oh, to be a helper. "Thou shall not go up and down as a talebearer," is written in The Book, and how little we heed it! Is that why we see so little of His glory? I asked myself. Then Psalm 101:5 came to my mind: "He that secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will cut off." "CUT OFF"? What is this thing that must be handled with such drastic treatment? Slander is falsely accusing another. It is taking away a good name and putting something else there. It generally begins with a bit of gossip, no harm is intended, but gossip leads to criticism, and criticism kills love and creates unkind thoughts and words, and slander is made easy. "Shun gossip, as you shun the Devil," wrote one who knows what she is talking about, and I remembered her then. We sat in silence for a very long time, and then we knelt to pray. A longing that was inexpressible took hold of me, and I prayed that I might never forget that lesson.

God knows all there is to know about us. He has nothing to find out and He is not deceived by any one of us. When He told us to be holy in all manner of conversation, He meant exactly what He said. It may be that some of us have missed the way because we have not ordered our conversation aright. To be entangled in the yoke of gossip is a snare and a delusion, it is love destroying, time killing, and a power that separates beyond recall, and it had stolen the glory from the friend who sat with me.

Hand clasped hand as we stood at the door. We looked up at the stars, and then she went out into the night. I turned in and began to think it all over. I knew that God had a special reason for letting me hear that story and a solemn responsibility of the truth of life took possession of me. I sat there alone while a long procession of God's children passed before my mind. I saw visions, and heard words, and gathered thoughts that are a sign and a warning. There are no shortcuts in the way of holiness. An unguarded word may send one who seemed safe down a steep incline. A word of slight may take all the heart out of a brave warrior, and a good word withheld may do untold harm when it might be said.

I thought on, and I seemed to hear the whisperings of those people who had seen the miracles of the Savior. Being jealous of His reputation because the Crowds followed Him, they began to gossip. "Who is He?" asked one. "He does that which is not lawful on the Sabbath." "He is a nobody." "Is not this the carpenter's Son?" And as they talked, another joined the group. "He is a friend of publicans and sinners. He is a wine-bibber. He is a bastard." And though they knew His life and heard His words and saw His miracles, they set Him at naught. Who likes to be set at naught ? Yet they did it to Him. The leading religious people of the day called Him up and asked Him to explain Himself, but " He answered them nothing."

He understands the suffering caused by unkind criticism. He has led the way of silence in cruel and unjust accusation. He has made a clear cross-marked way for those who would follow Him, and if we are ever tempted to think that we suffer unjustly, one look at Him will silence every murmur, and in reverent awe we shall sing:

"Follow, follow, I will follow Jesus-
Anywhere, everywhere, I will follow on.
Follow, follow, I will follow Jesus,
By the Cross-marked pathway,
Till my journey's done."

From These Things I Have Seen by Mary Warburton Booth

Who shall stand?

If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?  But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.  Psalm 130:3-4

The answer, no one.  Without the merciful forgiveness of God, there is no hope, no standing,  for any man.

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32

What does God’s forgiveness look like?

The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.  He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.  He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.  For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.  As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.  Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.  For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.  As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.  For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.  But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children;  Psalm 103:8-17

Does our forgiveness towards one another resemble God’s?  Do we deal with one another after one another’s sins?  Are we plenteous in mercy?  Do we remember that we are all dust?  Do we remove transgressions as far as east is from west?

Why weep?

For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.

Lamentations 1:16

We see that Jeremiah was clearly weeping.  The immediate answer to why his eye was running with water is that he sensed an alienation from the source of comfort.  The theme of there being “no comfort” is repeated five times in Lamentations 1.  It was that sense of estrangement from God, the source of all comfort, and man that caused him to weep.

Walter C. Kaiser’s commentary, Grief and Pain in the Plan of God, contains some excellent insights into Lamentations.  And it is needed.  We need the whole counsel of God, and this grief filled portion of His Word should not be neglected.

So, looking at the whole chapter, why was Jeremiah weeping.  Well, read the chapter.  There is total desolation, both physically and emotionally.  What else to do but weep?

Well, there are some things that accompany the weeping.  Kaiser notes that the chapter is really just telling God how things are.  It is pouring out the reality of the situation before God, even when His comforting presence is not experienced.  And that is painful and real.  It is plainly admitting the sin that has been committed.  It is begging God to look on the distress, even though it is a result of rebellion.

There is another thing that must merge with weeping in time of grief.  It is recognizing that God is righteous, as declared in verse 18.  Whether our grief and apparent abandonment by God and man is a result of disobedience, as in Lamentations, or not, we must recognize that God is righteous and just and loving in all His dealings with us.  And we can weep as we recognize this.  Kaiser wisely concludes, “Jeremiah teaches us in Lamentations 1 that such emotions, properly controlled, are not obnoxious to God.  He, in fact, planted the ability for such emotions in us.  Romans 12:15 commands us in the normal affairs of life to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.  Steeling oneself against the misfortunes of life may lead to a heart of bitterness, revenge, and permanent loneliness.  Weep, then, we must.”

There is a time, a season, of weeping.  Joy will come, but often God works tremendous things in the night of weeping.

What is it to seek God?

I am quite sure I barely know the answer.  We talk about it. Men preach about it.  Books are written about it.  But do we do it? Can we understand it?  Why do we seek God?

The answer seems barely known because the God who is sought is so great.  And even in writing that, the sentence, the words, seem so infinitesimally small for such a God as ours.

But He is to be sought.  He promises to be found.

“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13

“But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.”  Deuteronomy 4:29

That “all” part is perhaps part of our problem.  There are so many distractions, so much busyness.  How many of us have truly decided, as James Fraser did, that seeking God is he most important part of our ministries?  Do we really agree with, “I used to think that prayer should have the first place and teaching the second. I now feel that it would be truer to give prayer the first, second and third place, and teaching the fourth?”  Is seeking God first, second, and third place to most of us?  Is it truly?

Can we understand it?  Yes.  We are told to do it, thus is must be within the realm of our comprehension.  Yet, the magnitude of the One we are seeking, I think, makes human understanding seem minuscule.  Yet, He, think about that...He wants us to seek Him.  He wants us to seek Him.

What is our motive?  This is a concerning question.  I almost hear a panic in many voices as they proclaim their fear that they will not be used of God.  Is being “used” the chief motive?  Is having the appearance of His blessing upon our life what we are after?  Or are we after Him and Him alone?  Do we seek Him even when all, all, all around us suggests nothing of His goodness?

Is He what we really want to find?  I fear, if we are completely honest, what we really want is Him plus some other “blessing,” whether small or great.  And, God in His mercy and grace, very often gives those things.  But, what should our heart be?  Simply and only seeking Him.  Him.

He is there.  He is good.  He is healing.  He is might.  He is love. He is sufficient.  He is.  And He is to be found.  Seek Him.

A.W. Tozer

A Passion for God is certainly an appropriate title for a book about A.W. Tozer as that is what the man certainly had.  Thinking back about the book, I would say that that passion was most clearly manifested in Tozer’s life of prayer.  The man prayed to the God he passionately adored.

He also proclaimed the truth.  Interestingly, Tozer did not think of himself as a pastor or preacher, but as a modern prophet.  In his Prayer of a Minor Prophet he asks, “Anoint me with the oil of a New Testament prophet.  Forbid that I should become a religious scribe and thus lose my prophetic calling.  Save me from the curse that lies dark across the face of the modern clergy, the curse of compromise, of imitation, of professionalism.  Save me from the error of judging a church by its size, its popularity or the amount of its yearly offering.  Help me to remember that I am a prophet; not a promoter, not a religious manager - but a prophet. Let me never become a slave to crowds.  Heal my soul of carnal ambitions and deliver me from the itch for publicity.”    A prophet who declared God’s Word and discerned the times.  A prophet who was sometimes misunderstood, yet he continued to pursue God.

There is one other facet of Tozer’s life that was unexpected.  He was lonely.  He said so himself near the end of his life.  Why?  It seems that this passionately prayerful prophet was somewhat alienated from his wife and family.  His wife said, “My husband was so close to God, a man of such deep prayer, always on his knees, that he could not communicate with me or our family.  No one knew what a lonely life I had, especially after the kids left home.”  It is sadly strange that these two who were one, serving the Lord, both led lonely lives.

A passion for God.  If someone read a book about my life or your life, would they come away thinking, “That person passionately sought God in prayer”?  I think most of us would have to answer, “No.”  Do we have the heart of a prophet, dedicated to declaring truth?  Perhaps.

Do we have flaws?  Tozer did.  A lonely life and a lonely wife and children who felt like they hardly knew their father.  Yet, our merciful God still blessed this man’s ministry.

Is our God that merciful?  Are we that merciful?

Fear Not

From I quick count, I think God tells people to “fear not” thirty-four times in His Word.

Jesus tells us to “fear not” five times.

And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. Luke 5:10

But when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole.  Luke 8:50

But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.  Luke 12:7

Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.  Luke 12:32

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:

His love casts out fear.