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Author
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Topic: Tozer Quotes
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wparr
Advanced Member
Member # 891
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posted
By A.W. Tozer quote:
God's Glory or Ours?
In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. —Matthew 5:16
In searching the Holy Scriptures two facts need to be faced squarely:
One is that in the body of revealed truth there are no real contradictions;
The other, that contradictions do sometimes appear to be present.
To admit contradictions is to deny the infallibility of the Word;
to deny that they seem to be there is to be unrealistic and put ourselves at the mercy of our enemies.
In our Lordís teachings concerning good works, for instance, it is easy to find apparent inconsistencies.
In Matthew 5:16 He says plainly, "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds, and praise your Father in heaven."
The words "that they may see" can only mean that it is His purpose to exhibit the righteous lives of His people before the unrighteous world, and the words "and praise your Father in heaven" tell us why He wants thus to exhibit them.
It is that He may provide an example of godliness which will exercise strong moral influence upon persons who would otherwise not be affected.
That much is easy.
The apparent contradiction comes further on when He says, "Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them.
If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing" (Matthew 6:1, 3).
Here our Lord appears, but only appears, to cancel out His instructions given a few moments before.
Bluntly, it would seem that in one place He says "Let" and in the other "Let not."
Christ being the incarnation of truth cannot utter contradictions.
There must be an explanation which will preserve the organic unity of His teachings and reconcile the two passages.
I believe there is.
Prayer
Deliver me, Lord, from serving You for my glory rather than Yours.
Thought
For us as believers to reach out to those in need is a privilege and a responsibility.
But we must be careful to do it for God's glory and not ours.
This is an area in which we are highly vulnerable to self-deception.
Posts: 1203 | From: Eagle Nest, NM | Registered: Jan 2003
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BORN AGAIN
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brother wparr writes that A.W. Tozer writes quote:
The church as we see it today is unsymmetrical, highly complex and anything but beautiful.
I disagree with that. The church is very beautiful to me and to the Lord Yahshua-Jesus of Nazareth, and to His Father the LORD YHWH. The church is very beautiful to me and I think to the LORD God of Israel the church is beautiful too.
When the graves of the house of Israel and the graves of the house of Judah are opened, then also shall the Gentile "strangers who are joined to you" go to the land of Israel, and that must also be the time that the contest between Lucifer-Satan and Yahshua-Jesus has ended as to who is taking the principality next to Jerusalem, the "oblation of land" {I love it"} that the prince will take of Ezekiel 44-48.
We "Gentile strangers" or "proselytes to the faith of Yahshua-Jesus" will apparently also be raised from the dead and together with the dead of the house of Israel {721 B.C.} and together with the dead of the house of Judah {70 A.D.}, the historial dead Gentile believers in Yahshua-Jesus will also be raised from the dead, and then we who are alive will be caught up with them to meet all of them in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord {Kurios}.
Anyway, wparr, the church is already very beautiful to the Lord Yahshua-Jesus and to the LORD YHWH, through the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
![[thumbsup2]](graemlins/thumbsup2.gif)
I am BORN AGAIN by the ![[Cross]](graemlins/cross.gif) of Kurios Yahshua-Jeuss. Who is the Western World counting its year 0 from? From the birth of Yahshua-Jesus
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HE LIVES
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quote:
Give me a fellowship of believers who's leaders say "yea we're not there, but lets forsake our worldly ways and traditions, and start moving in that direction: by God's Grace
Amen brother!!!
Posts: 182 | From: Missouri | Registered: Aug 2005
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hardcore
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wparr - think you'll like this - hc
AW Tozer on the Old & New Cross
The Old and New Cross by A.W. Tozer All unannounced and mostly undetected there has come in modern times a new cross into evangelical circles. It is like the old cross, but different: the likenesses are superficial; the differences, fundamental.
From the new cross has sprung a new philosophy of the Christian Life, and from that new philosophy has come a new evangelical technique - a new type of meeting and a new kind of preaching. The new evangelism employs the same language as the old, but it's content is not the same and it's emphasis not as before.
The old cross would have no truck with the world. For Adam's proud flesh it meant the end of the journey. It carried into effect the sentence imposed by the law of Sinai. The new cross is not opposed to the human race; rather, it is a friendly pal and, if understood aright, it is the source of oceans of good clean fun and innocent enjoyment. It lets Adam live without interference. His life motivation is unchanged; he still lives for his own pleasure, only now he takes delight in singing choruses and watching religious movies instead of singing bawdy songs and drinking hard liquor. The accent is still on enjoyment, though the fun is now on a higher plane morally if not intellectually.
The new cross encourages a new and entirely different evangelistic approach. The evangelist does not demand denial or the surrendering of the old life before a new life can be received. He preaches not contrasts but similarities. He seeks to key into public interest by showing that Christianity makes no unpleasant demands; rather, it offers the same thing the world does, only on a higher level. Whatever the sin-mad world happens to be clamoring after at the moment is cleverly shown to be the very thing the gospel offers, only the religious product is better.
The new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him. It gears him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self-respect. To the self-assertive it says, 'Come and assert yourself for Christ.' To the egotist it says, 'Come and do your boasting in the Lord.' To the thrill seeker it says, 'Come and enjoy the thrill of Christian fellowship.' The Christian message is slanted in the direction of the current vogue in order to make it acceptable to the public.
The philosophy back of this kind of thing may be sincere, but its sincerity does not save it from being false. It is false because it is blind. It misses completely the whole meaning of the cross.
The old cross is a symbol of death. It stands for the abrupt, violent end of a human being. The man in Roman times who took up his cross and started down the road had already said good bye to his friends. He was not coming back. He was not going out to have his life redirected; he was going out to have it ended. The cross made no compromise, modified nothing, spared nothing; it slew all of the man, completely and for good. It did not try to keep on good terms with it's victim. It struck cruel and hard, and when it had finished its work, the man was no more. The race of Adam is under the death sentence. There is no commutation and no escape. God cannot approve any of the fruits of sin, however innocent they may appear or beautiful to the eyes of men. God salvages the individual by liquidating him and then raising him again to newness of life.
That evangelism which draws friendly parallels between the ways of God and the ways of men is false to the Bible and cruel to the souls of its hearers. The faith of Christ does not parallel the world, it intersects it. In coming to Christ we do not bring our old life up onto a higher plane; we leave it at the cross. The corn of wheat must fall into the ground and die.
We who preach the gospel must not think of ourselves as public relations agents sent to establish good will between Christ and the world. We must not imagine ourselves commissioned to make Christ acceptable to big business, the press, or the world of sports, or modern education. We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not compromise but an ultimatum.
God offers life, but not an improved old life. The life he offers is life out of death. It stands always on the far side of the cross. Whoever would possess it must pass under the rod. He must reject and cast out himself and concur in God's just sentence against him.
What does this mean to the individual, the condemned man who would find life in Christ Jesus? How can this theology be translated into life? Simply, he must repent and believe. He must forsake his sins and then go on to forsake himself. Let him cover nothing, defend nothing, excuse nothing. Let him not seek to make terms with God, But let him bow his head before the stroke of God's stern displeasure and acknowledge himself worthy to die. Having done this let him gaze with simple trust upon the risen Savior, and from Him will come life and rebirth and cleansing and power. The cross that ended the earthly life of Jesus now puts an end to the sinner; and the power that raised Christ from the dead now raises him to a new life along side of Christ.
To any who may object to this or count it merely a narrow and private view of truth, let me say God has set His hallmark of approval upon this message from Paul's day to the present. Whether stated in these exact words or not, this has been the content of all preaching that has brought life and power to the world through the centuries. The mystics, the reformers, the revivalists have put their emphasis here, and signs and wonders and mighty operations of the Holy Ghost gave witness to God's approval.
Dare we, the heirs of such a legacy of power, tamper with the truth? Dare we with our stubby pencils erase the line of the blue print or alter the pattern shown us in the Mount? May God forbid. Let us preach the old cross and we will know the old power.
Posts: 627 | Registered: Mar 2005
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wparr
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Member # 891
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By A.W. Tozer quote:
On Being Church
Every local church is a microcosm, having all the qualities of the macrocosm, the church universal.
Each local company is ideally and should be actually equipped to do anything that the Head of the church wills to accomplish.
Wherever such a company is found, there is the true church, the complete church, so complete that if all the believers in the world were to be gathered in one place it would not add anything to the perfection of the smaller assembly.
Each local church is a fellowship in the deepest spiritual meaning of that word.
It comes into being by an afflatus of power and a bestowment of life.
It cannot be produced by organization, though after it is there it may be strengthened and improved by a wise and Spirit-led organization.
A true church existed in Crete before Titus was left there to ''set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city.''
Organization did not create the church; it was imposed upon a church already present, a church which had been born out of the preaching of the gospel.
For it is always the gospel that produces the church; there can be no church apart from the gospel.
Prayer
I am part of Your Church in this world, Lord.
May I recognize my brothers and sisters and with them be a body member through whom You can reach out to people.
Posts: 1203 | From: Eagle Nest, NM | Registered: Jan 2003
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wparr
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Member # 891
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This great man of God never went to Seminary, or a Bible College - Yet he understands God's Word & speaks it profoundly.
He died in 1963 - Yet what he said holds even more true today than when he said them.
By A.W. Tozer
quote:
Church Essentials
(Acts 2:42-43 NIV)
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.
The Church as announced by Christ, seen in the book of Acts and explained by Paul is a thing of great simplicity and rare beauty.
The church as we see it today is unsymmetrical, highly complex and anything but beautiful.
Indeed I think that if some angel of God were made familiar with the church as it appears in the New Testament and then sent to the earth to try to locate it, it would be extremely doubtful whether the heavenly messenger would recognize anything now existing in the field of religion as the church he was looking for.
So far have we departed from the pattern shown us in the mount.
The church as the New Testament pictures it is any company of regenerate believers met in the name of Jesus Christ.
Such a company is called out from the world and gathered to Christ as a flock of sheep is gathered to the shepherd.
The members of this company constitute a despised minority group standing in bold moral contradiction to the world.
Their witness is Christ: His person, work, office and present position at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens.
They carry His gospel to the world and plead ''Be ye reconciled to God,'' then they return to their own company to worship, pray, teach and listen to the Word of the Lord as it is expounded by men of God.
They also exhort, testify and exercise for the good of all such spiritual gifts as each one may possess from the Spirit.
Prayer
O Lord, may we rediscover Churchness in its simplicity and awe with manifestations of Your power and presence. In Jesus' name.
Thought
Devotion to apostolic teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Awesome wonders and miraculous signs by the apostles.
At personal sacrifice helping other believers in need.
Praising God.
But no church buildings, no extensive organization, no worship teams, no multi media, no seminars.
Did the early church realize what they were missing?
This is my problem, I read the book of Acts and see what God's design and intetion are for The Body of Christ.
I soooo long for it.
I seek for it. ![[Confused]](confused.gif)
I go to churches, but are given excuses instead. ![[crying]](graemlins/crying.gif)
Give me a fellowship of believers who's leaders say "yea we're not there, but lets forsake our worldly ways and traditions, and start moving in that direction: by God's Grace ![[hyper]](graemlins/hyper.gif)
I love that question:
Did the early church realize what they were missing?
NO, they knew what they had
Do we realize what we are missing? ![[1zhelp]](graemlins/1zhelp.gif)
Posts: 1203 | From: Eagle Nest, NM | Registered: Jan 2003
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