DISCIPLE

  By A.W. Tozer   T HINGS ARE FOR US NOT ONLY what they are – they are what we hold them to be. That is to say, our attitude toward things is likely in the long run to be more important than the things themselves. This is a common coin of knowledge, like an old dime wo rn smooth by use, yet it bears upon it the stamp of truth and must not be rejected simp ly because it is familiar.       It is strange how a fact may remain fixed, while our interpreta tion of the fact changes with th e generations and the years. One such fact is the world in which we live. It is here and has been here through the centuries. It is a stable fact, quite unchanged by the passage of time, but how different is modern man's view of it from the view our fathers held! Here we see plainly how great is the power o f interpretation. The world is for all of us not only what it is – it is what we believe it to be. And a tremendous load of woe o r weal rides on the soundness...

by A. W. Tozer     “As you think of this story (Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace), keep in mind that their obedience to God was what got them in trouble in the first place....True obedience is the refusal to compromise in any regard our relationship with God, regardless of the consequences.     “As long as you believe in God as millions of Americans do today, and do not make Him the number one exclusive priority in your life, the devil has no issue with you. The evangelical church today is following the course of the liberal movement and going down the same pathway of compromise. One compromise here, another compromise there, and soon there is very little, if any, difference between the so-called Christian and the man in the world.     “True obedience, as illustrated in the story of the three Hebrew children, always brings us to a point of no return.  This is where faith comes in. We do not have to understand what...

by A. W. Tozer The current effort of so many religious leaders to harmonize Christianity with science, philosophy and every natural and reasonable thing is, I believe, the result of failure to understand Christianity and, judging from what I have heard and read, failure to understand science and philosophy as well. At the heart of the Christian system lies the cross of Christ with its divine paradox. The power of Christianity appears in its antipathy toward, never in its agreement with, the ways of fallen men. The truth of the cross is revealed in its contradictions. The witness of the church is most effective when she declares rather than explains, for the gospel is addressed not to reason but to faith. What can be proved requires no faith to accept. Faith rests upon the character of God, not upon the demonstrations of laboratory or logic. The cross stands in bold opposition to the natural man. Its philosophy runs contrary to the proce...

This article appeared in The Alliance Witness May 15, 1963, just two days after the death of Tozer. In a sense it was his valedictory, for it expressed the concern of his heart. Since this condition existed in the 1960s, one can only wonder what he would say of the evangelical churches in the 21st Century.     - - - -   HERE IS THE BURDEN of my heart; and while I claim for myself no special inspiration I yet feel that this is also the burden of the Spirit. If I know my own heart it is love alone that moves me to write this. What I write here is not the sour ferment of a mind agitated by contentions with my fellow Christians. There have been no such contentions. I have not been abused, mistreated or attacked by anyone. Nor have these observations grown out of any unpleasant experiences that I have had in my association with others... Let me state the cause of my burden. It is this: Jesus Christ has today almost no authority at all among the ...

This chapter first appeared in The Alliance Witness in 1937. Twenty-three years later (1960) it was reprinted because, said Dr. Tozer, "apparently it had little or no effect, for the conditions it describes have grown increasingly worse year by year. And to make matters still more serious, crippled churches have now been accepted as normal. . . . When will this abuse end?" The article has been widely circulated since then and still bears repeating. [Note: it is more needful than ever in 2018 when practically all semblance of Christian faithfulness has disappeared and churches have become entertainment and cultural centers. It is doubtful that many give more in offerings to the Lord than what they spend on annual vacations, or show as keen an interest in Christian growth and sacrifice as they do in "fun" and "relaxation." In 1937 When Tozer wrote his article, some churches suspended the evening service in the summer months, and in 1960  when he reprint...

"...their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another."  Romans 2:15 One way the devil has of getting rid of things is to make jokes about them–and one of the sick jokes you hear is that the conscience is that part of you which makes you sorry when your get caught!     There are some things that are not the proper objects of humor, and one of them is conscience.     That power of conscience that God has set in the human breast can suddenly isolate a soul, and hang it between heaven and hell, as lonely as if God had never created but one soul–that´s not a joking matter.     Remember the conscience is always on God's side–always on God's side! It judges conduct in the light of the moral law, and as the Scripture says, excuses or accuses.      The Light that lighted every man that comes into the world is not a joking matter. The eternal, universal Presence of the ...

Our Lord Still Demands New Testament Standards     A. W. Tozer “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:10). Not the naked Word only but the character of the witness determines the quality of the Christian convert.  The church can do no more than transplant herself. What she is in one land she will be in another.  A crab apple does not become a Grimes Golden by being carried from one country to another.     God has written His law deep into all life; everything must bring forth after its kind!     It would appear logical that a subnormal, powerless church would not engage in missionary activity, but again the facts contradict the theory.  Christian groups that have long ago lost every trace of moral fire nevertheless continue to grow at home and reproduce themselves in other lands.     There is a weaknes...

The Old Cross and the New      ALL UNANNOUNCED AND MOSTLY UNDETECTED there has come in modern times a new cross into popular evangelical circles. It is like the old cross, but different: the likenesses are superficial; the differences, fundamental.      From this 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. This new evangelism employs the same language as the old, but its content is not the same and its 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 liv...

Chapter 12 of  THIS WORLD: PLAYGROUND OR BATTLEGROUND? by A. W. Tozer Books and Moral Standards     The late Jimmy Walker, playboy mayor of New York during the roaring 20s, was widely quoted for a quip viewed as the distilled essence of gospel truth by those who wanted to believe it. "I never heard," said Jimmy, "of anyone who has ruined by a book."     These profound words were tossed off, as near as we can remember, during an official inquiry into the effect of certain questionable literature upon the morals of the reading public. Now, we can offer no proof that Mr. Walker had ever heard of anyone who had been ruined by a book, but that could only mean that the man's knowledge of the subject was vastly small or that his idea of what it meant to be "ruined" was not the same as that of the more conscientious persons within our population who still feel bothered about the effect of bad reading upon the collective public mind. Whatever t...

by A. W. Tozer     It is difficult for us to shake off the notion that a person is as spiritual as he or she feels. Our basic spirituality seldom accords our feelings. There are many carnal personas whose religious emotions are sensitive to every impression and who manage to keep themselves on a fairly high plane of inward enjoyment, but who have no marks of godliness upon them. They have a low boiling point and can get heated up over almost anything religious at a moment's notice. Their tears are close to the surface and their voices carry a world of emotional content. Such have a reputation for being spiritual, and they themselves may easily believe they are. But they are not necessarily so.     Spiritual people are indifferent to their feelings - they live by faith in God with little care about their own emotions. They think God's thoughts and see things as God sees them. They rejoice in Christ and have no confidence in themselves. They are more...

Separation From Evangelicals      Let me go out on a limb a little bit and prophesy. I see the time coming when all the holy men whose eyes have been opened by the Holy Spirit will desert worldly evangelicalism, one by one. The house will be left desolate and there will not be a man of God, a man in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, left among them. The curse of worldliness     I hear Jesus saying, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Matt. 23:37). As the Church stands now, the man who sees this condition of worldly evangelicalism is written off as being somewhat fanatical. But the day is coming when the house will be left desolate and there will not be a man of God left among them.     I would like to live long enough to watch this develop and see how th...

"The contemporary moral climate does not favor a faith as tough and fibrous as that taught by our Lord and His apostles. The delicate, brittle saints being produced in our religious hothouses today are hardly to be compared with the committed, expendable believers who once gave their witness among men. And the fault lies with our leaders. They are too timid to tell the people all the truth. They are now asking men to give to God that which costs them nothing. Our churches these days are filled (or one-quarter filled) with a soft breed of Christian that must be fed on a diet of harmless fun to keep them interested. About theology they know little. Scarcely any of them have read even one of the great Christian classics, but most of them are familiar with religious fiction and spine-tingling films. No wonder their moral and spiritual constitution is so frail. Such can only be called weak adherents of a faith they never really understood." A. W. Tozer

by A. W. Tozer "Let...no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way." Romans 14:13     The deadening effect of religious make-believe on the human mind is beyond all describing.     What can the effect be upon the spectators who live day after day among the professed Christians who habitually ignore the commandments of Christ and live after their own private notions of Christianity?     Truth sits forsaken and grieves until her professed followers come home for a brief visit, but she sees them depart again when the bills becomes due. They protest great and undying love for her but they will not let their love cost them anything!     Will not those who watch us from day to day conclude that the whole thing is false?     Will they not be forced to believe that the faith of Christ is an unreal and visionary thing which they are fully justified in rejecting?   ...