Too many times in our world we as Christian attend church Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday and are not better for doing so. This may be shocking but as we look around our world it is confirmed. I have been recently teaching a class called The Christian Atheist. Basically, it talks about how we have head knowledge of God, but it has never transformed our daily actions. It is a knowledge but does not challenge us to dive in head first and do the hard things of life such as forgive, love our neighbor, deny ourselves, follow him, and become like little children. When browsing the Internet I see hundreds of opportunities to study God’s Word. You can do an online study, order a study; listen to a study, download an audible book, and the list just continues to grow yet our deepest desires are not met. As A.W. Tozer says in his book Pursuit of God, “How sad that the children of God pull up to the Father’s table yet they are still starving.” He points out that although we come to the altar, we are merely rearranging the parts and never stop to think God’s consuming fire is not present. You see we cannot be satisfied from one who teaches out of a mere doctrinal relationship, but those who teach that have been in God’s presence. The scribe tells us what he has read, while the prophet tells of what he has seen. One is simply head knowledge of scripture (scribe), while the other is a deep-seated relationship (prophet).
We fill our churches up yet hearts are remaining the same. Could it be that church is just now a social past time where the participant neither expects nor desires a change? Could it be that we think God is now incapable of speaking and controlling our world as he did in the Bible? I heard a pastor ask this question recently, “If your church were to shut its doors today, did you leave deep enough footprints in your community for them to realize you are gone?”
Excerpt from A.W. Tozer- Pursuit of God Chapter 3
“We are lacking those who habitually speak with spiritual authority because they have been in the presence of God. They were prophets not scribes. The scribes tells us what he has read while the
Prophet tells us what he has seen. The distinction is vast between the two. We are today over run with orthodox scribes as teachers, but the prophets where are they? The hard voice of the scribe sounds over evangelicalism but the church waits for the tender voice of the saint who has penetrated the veil into the Holy place. So why do we stay on the outside? Why do we consent to abide all our days right outside the Holy place and never enter to look upon God? We sense the call, but we still fail to draw near. The years pass and we grow old and tired in the outer courts of the tabernacle. What hinders us is simply not that our heart has grown cold. It is that a veil still hangs over our heart blocking the light and serving as an enemy to our life. It is our fleshy nature that we refused to die. It is such a part of us we often don’t recognize it so it is left un-crucified, un-repudiated, un-judged, and the self-life continues. Threads of this veil are woven tightly together and contain self-righteousness, self-pity, self-confidence, self-ambition, and a host of others that are deeply embedded within us. Promoting self under the disguise of promoting Christ is currently so common it is rarely noticed. Self can live un-rebuked at the very altar. It can watch the victim die and not be the least affected by what it sees. It can preach eloquent sermons of salvation by grace. Self is the opaque veil that hides the face of God from us. It can only be removed by a spiritual transformation never by doctrinal instruction alone. Just like you cannot instruct leprosy from someone’s body, you cannot expect doctrinal knowledge to instruct out self. There must be a true work of God before we are free. We must invite the cross to do its deadly work within us. We must bring our self-sin to the cross for judgment. When we talk of rendering the veil the talk is almost poetical and almost pleasant, but in actuality there is nothing pleasant about it. The veil is made of living tissue of self and to touch it is to touch us where we feel pain. Tearing it is to injure us, and cause bleeding, and to say otherwise is to make the cross no cross and death no death at all. It can never be anything but deeply painful because that is what the cross did to Jesus. It will be the same for every man in order to set him free. We can never render the veil without it. The cross is rough and it is deadly. It does not keep its victim hanging on the cross forever. Once the work is finished and the suffering victim dies to self, glory and power come and the pain is forgotten. As the veil is taken away, we enter the very presence of God."
Psalm 34
8Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
9 Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing.
May we never be guilty of profession faith in Jesus Christ, and living as though he does not exist!
We fill our churches up yet hearts are remaining the same. Could it be that church is just now a social past time where the participant neither expects nor desires a change? Could it be that we think God is now incapable of speaking and controlling our world as he did in the Bible? I heard a pastor ask this question recently, “If your church were to shut its doors today, did you leave deep enough footprints in your community for them to realize you are gone?”
Excerpt from A.W. Tozer- Pursuit of God Chapter 3
“We are lacking those who habitually speak with spiritual authority because they have been in the presence of God. They were prophets not scribes. The scribes tells us what he has read while the
Prophet tells us what he has seen. The distinction is vast between the two. We are today over run with orthodox scribes as teachers, but the prophets where are they? The hard voice of the scribe sounds over evangelicalism but the church waits for the tender voice of the saint who has penetrated the veil into the Holy place. So why do we stay on the outside? Why do we consent to abide all our days right outside the Holy place and never enter to look upon God? We sense the call, but we still fail to draw near. The years pass and we grow old and tired in the outer courts of the tabernacle. What hinders us is simply not that our heart has grown cold. It is that a veil still hangs over our heart blocking the light and serving as an enemy to our life. It is our fleshy nature that we refused to die. It is such a part of us we often don’t recognize it so it is left un-crucified, un-repudiated, un-judged, and the self-life continues. Threads of this veil are woven tightly together and contain self-righteousness, self-pity, self-confidence, self-ambition, and a host of others that are deeply embedded within us. Promoting self under the disguise of promoting Christ is currently so common it is rarely noticed. Self can live un-rebuked at the very altar. It can watch the victim die and not be the least affected by what it sees. It can preach eloquent sermons of salvation by grace. Self is the opaque veil that hides the face of God from us. It can only be removed by a spiritual transformation never by doctrinal instruction alone. Just like you cannot instruct leprosy from someone’s body, you cannot expect doctrinal knowledge to instruct out self. There must be a true work of God before we are free. We must invite the cross to do its deadly work within us. We must bring our self-sin to the cross for judgment. When we talk of rendering the veil the talk is almost poetical and almost pleasant, but in actuality there is nothing pleasant about it. The veil is made of living tissue of self and to touch it is to touch us where we feel pain. Tearing it is to injure us, and cause bleeding, and to say otherwise is to make the cross no cross and death no death at all. It can never be anything but deeply painful because that is what the cross did to Jesus. It will be the same for every man in order to set him free. We can never render the veil without it. The cross is rough and it is deadly. It does not keep its victim hanging on the cross forever. Once the work is finished and the suffering victim dies to self, glory and power come and the pain is forgotten. As the veil is taken away, we enter the very presence of God."
Psalm 34
8Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
9 Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing.
May we never be guilty of profession faith in Jesus Christ, and living as though he does not exist!
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