But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. –James 1:22

“There is scarcely anything so dull and meaningless as Bible doctrine taught for its own sake. Truth divorced from life is not truth in its Biblical sense, but something else and something less…

No man is better for knowing that God in the beginning created the heaven and the earth. The devil knows that, and so did Ahab and Judas Iscariot. No man is better for knowing that God so loved the world of men that He gave His only begotten Son to die for their redemption. In hell there are millions who know that. Theological truth is useless until it is obeyed. The purpose behind all doctrine is to secure moral action…

Any man with fair pulpit gifts can get on with the average congregation if he just “feeds” them and lets them alone. Give them plenty of objective truth and never hint that they are wrong and should be set right, and they will be content. On the other hand, the man who preaches truth and applies it to the lives of his hearers will feel the nails and the thorns. He will lead a hard life, but a glorious one. May God raise up many such prophets. The church needs them badly.” – A.W. Tozer

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Concerning the man who preaches and applies truth, it’s very poignant that Tozer mentioned that he will “feel the nails and the thorns” – are we surprised that this is NOT persecution by the world, but by Christians as they will not tolerate sound biblical truth?!

We are in warfare – not a circus of entertainment as so many ‘Christians’ treat their profession. It’s not about getting a ‘kick’ or ‘fix’ to get rich or feel selfishly happy and clappy 24/7. The way is hard, it will cost you dearly, it will mean living sacrificially unto God – but the joy of knowing Him, of being owned by Him, by being heirs of Him makes sacrifice pale into insignificance! The real Christians are in a fight constantly until the day they die; rest from this spiritual war ends only when we’re called home to glory.

This also reminds me of Tozer’s book, ‘This World: Playground or Battleground’. It’s a message for Christians; a hard message! I know the world is in need of a Savior, just like all of us professing Christians do; I know the world needs to turn from their sin but I am tired of many professing Christians always blaming the world in such a blind and self righteous way. The Church must first put her own house in order! How dare she instruct others how to live without applying it herself! Regrettably, the Church is no different from the world and we complain at how wicked the world is – and it is wicked – but WE as Christians are responsible and to blame for being so ineffective! We have the light, the cure, we know what to do and how to live but we sit on it and spiritually procrastinate. Leonard Ravenhill couldn’t be more correct when he stated, “How can we be so dead when we’ve been so well fed?!”

What is the seat of our principles and convictions – Christ’s kingdom, or our comforts? We need to be a whole lot less patriotic and a whole lot more Kingdom orientated; we need to be a whole lot less nationalistic and realize that the ‘city’ and ‘country’ we wait for is not of this world. We’re too focused upon our political rights, thinking that we are fighting the Christian cause. We really need to reevaluate our priorities! We fight for a national day of prayer and we don’t even pray in our own homes, let alone know how to pray; we fight for the doors of our churches to remain open and we don’t know how to worship God aright; we fight against abortion, while at the same time aborting sound doctrine in our churches; we speak out against certain ‘sins’ – the symptoms, while failing to diagnose the root problem which is man’s sinful nature in rebellion and opposition to God; we fight for freedom of speech but fail to preach the true Gospel. As Michael Horton entitled his book, a ‘Christless Christianity’ is the very thing westernized Christians wrongly fight for!

Is it any wonder why God is silent and we don’t get what we ask for? We ask with wrong motives, not understanding what we’re asking for, as James says. God cannot trust us with the answer to such praying because we wouldn’t know what to do with it! The church, particularly in the great revivals, positively influenced the world by BEING what she was called to be, which inevitably shaped the government of the world. There is absolutely no use whatsoever in the church trying to shape and mould the authorities when she has lost her power; the Church was heard not merely by profession and protesting but by demonstration of the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Surely it wasn’t the early Christians that overcame the Roman Empire by their protests but rather by HOW they lived. Sadly the modern church is like an orchestra attempting to perform without the written score; we make a noise but a downright pointless, ineffective and irritating one!

God’s glory has never changed, but eternally remains the same; His majesty and awe still burn more glorious than any other existing power and brightest sun that even the angelic realm has to shield their eyes! We ought to be ashamed of ourselves for being such poor representatives of Him to this world. Do we honestly think we could look God in the eye and say we did all that we were asked to do, that His will burned as the center of our lives? It’s a hard word, a hard truth that we don’t want to be inconvenienced with, but the truth of the matter is that the only ones who will dwell and share in the eternal presence and awe of God will be those who did the will of God here on this earth (Matthew 7:21-23). Of course it’s all due to the unmerited grace and favor of God, but the hardcore evidence that saving grace has been born in the heart must result itself in action. How can we continue insulting God’s grace? We never deserved it to begin with and will never be in a position to change that truth, but we can live worthily for Him as His power and resources are continually and abundantly in store to enable and equip us to do so. The world owes NOTHING to us – never has and never will – but we remain heavily in debt to the lost souls that continually surround us and are searching for answers in order to be free. We hold that light, that treasure in earthen vessels; how we live our lives makes the difference.

God humble, renew and use us for His glory!