DISCIPLE

This article by William MacDonald was written in the 1960s, but it seems to have been written for today. Spiritually we are in a shocking condition. The status of many local fellowships is bad news, and deteriorating by the minute. It is fairly well known that there have been scandalous cases of immorality involving even elders and full-time workers. Of course this type of news never gets into the magazines; there everything is sweetness and light. But the awful truth is that some respected spiritual leaders have fallen into gross sin in recent months and the only reaction seems to have been to hush up the whole thing, lest the word get out and our reputation be impaired. We have been arrogant, and have not rather mourned ( 1 Cor. 5:2 ). And that isn’t all. We have become materialists to the core. Supposing that gain is godliness, we have degraded ourselves to the worship of money. We have become more proud of the number of successful businessmen in our chu...

by A. W. TOZER 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. My relations with my own church as well as with Christians of other denominations have been friendly, courteous and pleasant. My grief is simply the result of a condition which I believe to be almost universally prevalent among the churches. I think also that I should acknowledge that I am myself very much involved in the situation I here deplore. As Ezra in his mighty prayer...

If you go to a doctor when you’re sick, what’s wrong with seeing a psychologist? IS THERE A DIFFERENCE? The above question is asked by people who confuse the use of medicine with the practice of psychotherapy. Individuals making such an error assume that the medical and the mental can be thought of and talked about in the same manner and with the same terms. This error is one of using the medical model to justify the use of psychotherapy. In the field of logic this is what is known as a false analogy . One logic text explains: An argument from analogy draws a conclusion about something on the basis of an analogy with or resemblance to some other thing. The assumption is that if two or more things are alike in some respects, they are alike in some other respect. 1 In regard to a false analogy the text says: ...

I have given up all for Jesus; This vain world is naught to me. All its pleasures are forgotten In remembering Calvary. Though my friends despise, forsake me, And on me the world looks cold, “Fear no evil; I’ll be with you When the pearly gates unfold." When the voice of Jesus calls me, And the angels whisper low, I will lean upon my Savior, In the valley as I go. I will claim his precious promise, Worth to me a world of gold: “Fear no evil; I’ll be with you When the pearly gates unfold." Just beyond the waves of Jordan, Just beyond the chilly tide, Blooms the tree of life eternal, Where the living waters glide. In that happy land of spirits, Flowers bloom on hills of gold, And the angels are in waiting When the pearly gates unfold. Herbert H. Booth (1862–1926) 590 in Sankey's Sacred Songs & Solos 

A great proof that the Bible is God’s Word is the tragic calamities with follow on its rejection.     The alternative to accepting the Bible is illustrated in the corrupted lives of infidels and skeptics, in the wrecking of families and the debasing of communities and even nations. A dark background against which the Bible shines in heavenly purity...     The testimony of Joseph Baker, a member of the Mother of Parliaments and an ex-President of the British National Secular Society cannot be invalidated:      “I have see the dreadful effects which infidelity produces on men’s characters; I have had the proof of its deteriorating effects in my own experience; its tendency is to utter debasement.” Mrs. Mary Benjamin, and eyewitness of the death-bed agonies of the notorious infidel Thomas Paine writes: “I was invited by a distant connection...to go and see T. Paine on his death-bed...The scene to me was appalling, and I wished t...

Will the Old Book stand, when the “higher critics” state That grave errors are discovered on its page? Will it save the sinful soul? Will it make the wounded whole? Will its glorious truth abide from age to age? Will its message still abide, when the scientists decide That its record of Creation is untrue? Tell us the ascent of man is by evolution’s plan, Will its principles the sinful heart renew? When in language wondrous fair, “Christian Scientists” declareThat there is no evil, only mortal mind. When mental treatment fails, and seeming death prevails, May we in the Bible consolation find? When infidels parade the mistakes which Moses made, When the truth of Revelation they deny, Will the Ten Commandments still the demands of justice fill? Will its support us when we come to die? Yes, the Word of God shall stand, though assailed on every hand, its foundations are eternally secure; It will bear the critic’s test, and the idle scoffers jest, Its saving truth forever shall endure....

by William MacDonald Like every other good thing, grace can be abused. Fire and water can be great blessings, but they can be used wrongly. People can twist the sovereignty of God to teach fatalism: what is going to be is going to be, and there's nothing you can do about it. The doctrine of election is sometimes perverted to suggest that evangelizing is a waste of time and effort.     Sad to say, it is possible to use the grace of God as an excuse for careless living, for believers to use their freedom as a pretext for launching into all kinds of indulgence. This does not mean that the doctrine is faulty. It simply means that some people are desperate to justify ungodly behavior, and if they can do it by using Scripture, so much the better, or so they think.     It is true that believers are not under law but under grace. But that does not mean that they have a right to be lawless. They are not under the law, with all the penalty and condemnation that is...

  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...

Just as there are no special priviliges, advantages, opportunities and pleasures for prisoners in this world, so it is infinitely worse in Hell.   1. There is no Peace. The Devil, demons and the wicked rejecters of God are hateful and hate each other.  2. There is no Good. No Bibles, Churches, gospel tracts, preachers, missionaries, and none to help, advise, comfort, even prayer cannot help them.  3. There is no Hope, no Grace, and no Mercy. All chances to be saved there, are gone forever. JesusChrist saves here, but He can't in Hell, for He only died for man in this world. Just as demons in Hell cannot be saved, so man cannot be saved there.   4. There is no rest from the torment of a guilty conscience. 5. There is no end, no relief, no annihilation.  The torment is eternal. Newton Parker, adapted

“You cannot put one little star in motion; You cannot shape one single forest leaf; Nor fling a mountain up, nor sink an ocean; Presumptuous pygmy, large with unbelief! You cannot bring one dawn of regal splendor; Nor bid the day to shadowy twilight fall; Nor send the pale moon forth with radiance  tender; And dare you doubt the One Who’s done it all?” A. W. Pink

  What would you think if I told you I had a way of making you a millionaire in a month? How about if I knew a way you could lose 25 pounds in one month or a way to make you look younger in one week? If you have any discernment at all you would be skeptical of such promises.     There is, however, one easy way that we can increase our spiritual growth in sanctification and service. It is a rather simple method eliminate excuses! We have all made excuses in our lives. Society around us is filled with them, many of them ridiculous. For example, in New Zealand a woman who drove for 25 years without a license explained to the judge who fined her, “I only drive on roads that have very little traffic. And none of those roads lead to an office where I could apply for a driver’s license.”     The Bible tells of those who made excuses for not accepting the Gospel. Felix waited for a “more convenient season” (Acts 24:25). Those invited to the great supper had...

by William Yuille Generations of Christians from the first century onwards have lived in the expectation that the Lord was coming soon. But here we are in the year 2012* [*date of this article] and He hasn’t come yet.  Why not?  Peter speaks to this in 2 Peter 3.     God doesn’t estimate time the way we do. “Do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (v. 8). Some Christians, all the way back to post apostolic times, have interpreted this as a sort of formula and have applied it to human history over a period of one week or 7,000 years.     According to Archbishop Ussher’s calculations, Adam was created around 4,000 BC, so there  were four days before the coming of Christ; another two days take us to 2,000 AD, at which time the seventh day, the millennial age, should arrive. Now that we are in the year 2012*, that theory doesn’t look too likely. In any case, if Peter ...