The Bible is a life-bringing and a life-giving book.
It is not primarily concerned with any department of human thought for its own sake.
If the Bible speaks about the rainbow, it is that we may be reminded of Gods covenant of mercy with mankind.
If it tells the story of Abraham, it does so that we may learn to know the place of faith in our relation to God.
If it points us to the moon and the stars, it is that we may know now frail we are.
If it talks about the birds, it is to teach us to trust our Heavenly Father without fear or doubting.
It tells us about hell not to satisfy our morbid curiosity, but that we may steer our feet far from its terrors. It tells us about heaven that we may be prepared to enter there.
It writes the history of human disgrace that we may learn the value of divine grace.
It warns in order that it may turn our feet away from the paths that go down to the path of destruction.
It rebukes in order that we may see our own faults and be delivered from them.
verse
Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.
— Psalm 119:18
thought
As we expose ourselves to it, the Bible illumines the dark corners of heart and mind. It exposes sin but reveals the way of cleansing and forgiveness. It confronts us with eternal reality but comforts and encourages. May that precious treasure be open before us rather than gathering dust on a distant bookshelf.
prayer
Open my eyes, Lord, to see the light You project from Your Word.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The Bible is unique among books, which means simply that no book has been produced just like it.
The Bible is not a book of history, though it contains much history, and all it does contain is authentic.
It is not a book of science, though all its pronouncements upon the facts usually falling into the category of science are accurate and trustworthy. It is not a book of biography, though its biographical sketches are easily the most inspiring in the world. It is not a book of philosophy, though it is the sum of all that is deep and sound philosophy.
It is not a book of astronomy, though its references to the sun and the stars rate among the loftiest sayings ever recorded. It is not a book of psychology, though its knowledge of the workings of the human mind astonishes the reader and lays bare his soul.
It is not strictly a book of theology, though it is the source of all the true theology this fallen world will ever know.
What, then, is the Bible?
It is the Book of Life.?
The words that I speak unto you, said our Lord, they are spirit, and they are life.
verse
The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.
— John 6:63
thought
Christ comes to us as the bread, the food of life. His words are spirit and life. This is the meaning of the sign of the feeding of the five thousand (John 6). One way He feeds us is through His word.
prayer
O Christ, feed me!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
We need to cultivate a healthy skepticism toward everything that cannot be supported by the plain teaching of the Bible. Belief is faith only when it has Goss revealed truth for its object; beyond that it may be fully as injurious as unbelief itself.
Many of the stories brought forward to justify the ways of God to men actually prove nothing except the unsoundness of the speakers intellectual fiber. Yet if all chimney-corner Scripture and old wives tales were forbidden, many a preacher would have to get out of the ministry.
It is a deep pity that the Christian public must be forced to listen to so much nonsense and be helpless to do anything about it.
The point is, the Word of God needs no support from men. It stands alone, strong and majestic as the Matterhorn.
When we call in the aid of childish stories and shaky illustrations to prove its truth, we do no more than to reveal our hidden unbelief and air our weak credulity.
verse
Test everything. Hold on to the good.
— First Thessalonians 5:21
thought
There is the danger of putting out the Spirit's fire and treating valid prophecies with contempt. That necessitates truth-testing so that we avoid the evil but hold on to the good.
prayer
Thank You, Father, for Your Spirit and Your Word. May I lean heavily upon both.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Credulity and faith are like toadstools and mushrooms respectively, near enough in appearance to be mistaken for each other, but so wholly unlike that their effects are exactly opposite. The true man of faith is seldom credulous, and the credulous man seldom has real faith. Faith belongs to the simple-hearted, credulity to the simple-minded. They are worlds apart.
The one honors God by believing His promises against all evidence; the other is a child of superstition and honors nobody. Rather, he reveals untidy mental habits and lack of spiritual insight. It is astonishing what some people will believe when they get going.
They properly hold it a sin to doubt the Bible, so they refuse to doubt anything that is served up along with the Bible, however ridiculous and unscriptural it may be. If the story has a flavor of wonder about it, these uncritical friends will accept it without question and repeat it in an awed voice with much solemn shaking of the bowed head.
Multiply such people in any given church, and you have a perfect soil for the growth of every kind of false teaching and fanatical excess.
verse
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
— First John 4:1
thought
Satan delights to deceive by means of what is falsely biblical and apparently miraculous. Is it what it pretends to be? Our responsibility is to test the spirits and the teaching.
prayer
Lord, keep me from the counterfeit and the false. Lead me in the way of faith rooted in You and Your Word.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The man of true faith may live in the absolute assurance that his steps are ordered by the Lord. For him, misfortune is outside the bounds of possibility.
He cannot be torn from this earth one hour ahead of the time which God has appointed, and he cannot be detained on earth one moment after God is done with him here. He is not a waif of the wide world, a foundling of time and space, but a saint of the Lord and the darling of His particular care. All this is not mere dreaming, not a comforting creed woven as a garment to warm the shivering hearts of lonely, frightened souls in a dark and unfriendly world.
Rather it is of the essence of truth, a fair summation of the teaching of the Bible on the subject and should be received reverently and joyously along with everything else which is taught in the Scriptures of truth.
Here then I doubt no more, But in His pleasure rest, Whose wisdom, love and truth, and power Engage to make me blest.
verse
My times are in your hands; . . . Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love.
— Psalm 31:15a-16
thought
We and our times are in God's hands of unfailing love whether we recognize it or not. How restful in the storms of life to sink by faith into His arms.
prayer
Lord, I sink back into Your everlasting arms. Thank You I am Yours!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
To the child of God, there is no such thing as accident. He travels an appointed way. The path he treads was chosen for him when as yet he was not, when as yet he had existence only in the mind of God.
Accidents may indeed appear to befall him and misfortune stalk his way; but these evils will be so in appearance only and will seem evils only because we cannot read the secret script of God's hidden providence and so cannot discover the ends at which He aims.
When true faith enters, chance and mischance go out for good. They have no jurisdiction over them that are born of the Spirit, for such as these are sons of the new creation and special charges of the Most High God.
While sojourning here below, these children of the eternal covenant may pay token tribute to nature; sickness, old age and death may levy upon them, and to the undiscerning eye, they may seem to be as other men. Here, as in all its other judgments upon Christianity, the world is completely fooled by appearances, for it cannot see that these believing ones are hid with Christ in God.
verse
I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth.
— Isaiah 42:16
thought
Wrote William Cowper: ''Ye fearful saints fresh courage take; the clouds ye so much dread are big with mercy, and shall break in blessings on your head. . . . Blind unbelief is sure to err, and scan His work in vain: God is His own interpreter, and He will make it plain.'' God does move in mysterious ways!
prayer
Mysterious are Your ways, O Lord, but You are God and in You I may rest.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The true Christian, though he is in revolt against the world's efforts to brainwash him, is no mere rebel for rebellion's sake. He dissents from the world because he knows that it cannot make good on its promises. He has tasted the pleasures of society and he knows that they leave a bitter taste; and he has found that blessing of the Lord of which the wise man speaks, which maketh rich and addeth no sorrow with it.
And the Christian is not left without a "norm" to which he seeks to become adjusted. The Lord Jesus Christ is Himself the norm, the ideally perfect model, and the worshiping soul yearns to be like Him. Indeed the whole drive behind the Christian life is this longing to be conformed to the image of Christ. The energy with which the believing man revolts against conformity to the image of unregenerate society will be in exact proportion to the intensity of his yearning to be like Christ.
The classic expression of this burning desire to be Christlike is, of course, Paul's personal testimony in his letter to the Philippian Christians which begins, "But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ," and ends with the fervent declaration, "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:7-14).
verse
"I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward ? to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back" (The Message).
— Philippians 3:14
thought
The more we run toward Christ and the closer we draw to Him, the more we light up this world and become salt in it. This is the way to become adjusted to Christ.
prayer
O God, I run toward Christ. Enable me to increasingly concentrate on that goal in all of my life.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
. . . The truth is that the world does not know where it is going; it has not found life's summum bonum; it is not qualified as a model for the members of society to follow. It is instead puzzled, frightened and frustrated.
Generation follows generation into an uncertain future, completely beaten, disappointed and sick at heart.
It was to this kind of world that Jesus came, to save it from itself. He died for its sins and now lives for the salvation of all who will repudiate it, deny the validity of its philosophies and put their trust wholly in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Those who do this no longer seek to be adjusted to society. They have renounced this world and have chosen a new model after which to pattern their lives. This is the aspect of the Christian life that most people do not like. They want comfort, blessing and peace, but they recoil from this radical, revolutionary break with the world. To follow Christ in this rough and thorough-going way is too much for them.
verse
''. . . For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. . . .''
— Second Corinthians 6:14, 17
thought
Saying ''yes'' to Christ and ''no'' to this world is not an emotional reaction or an intellectual exercise. It is a radical decision of the will to be ever exercised in the present tense.
prayer
O Lord, may I closely follow You as Your Spirit shows me Your way in Your Word.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
To be happy, adjust to the social norm. That is the popular notion but it will not hold up under examination. This norm to which we must adjust-where did it come from? What Moses brought it down from what mount?
Where are its credentials?
From whence its authority?
Since the world insists that I adjust to its beliefs, its moral standards and its practical working philosophies, it should be able to demonstrate that it knows where it is going, what it wants and why, and it should be able to come up with a few million happy men and women who by adjusting to its standards have found life's summum bonum.
Furthermore, nations that have had the benefit of such adjustment should be prosperous, peaceful, contented and happy.
These stipulations do not appear to me at all unreasonable considering how much depends upon the outcome and how much evangelistic zeal the world puts into the effort to get everyone properly adjusted.
But these simple tests show how phony the whole thing is. . . .
verse
''Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.''
— Romans 1:28
thought
Adjustment to American societal norms promise success, financial stability, relatively high standard of living and freedom from absolutes. Adjustment also means acceptance of sexual promiscuity, abortion, homosexual lifestyle, assisted suicide and ''me first-ism.''
prayer
I see it all around me. Heart serenity is not found in adjustment to this world's values and standards. It is found only in You, Christ.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/