It is God Himself that Nourishes the Soul

This is from the Chosen Rebel's Blog:

The poverty of evangelical reflection, the shallowness of our deepest thoughts about God is becoming the Achilles heal of our witness in the world. Our deepest thoughts about God barely skim the surface of the reality of who God is and what He has revealed about Himself in His word. 

And it is killing us.

We are so pragmatic, so filled up to our ears with “relevance” and the flood of information and entertainment at our finger tips and those BORG-like extensions of the human body called “mouses” and “smart phones”* that there is no room for any proper and sustained reflection on anything, let alone the wonder and majesty of the nature of God.

Every word I write on the subject seems alien to the pragmatic spirit of this age. The helter-skelter of activity, seemingly for activities sake, leaves no time, no space, no mental energy for the examination of the glory that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”  (2 Cor. 5:19)

Pastors, I’m begging you, as I’m preaching to myself, make time in your schedule, your overwhelmingly busy schedule, to pursue God.

The situation we find ourselves in is not new. It is part of a long declension seen long ago by such men as A.W. Tozer and others who saw the eclipse of God in the culture in the 50’s and 60’s and wondered aloud and in print about where it would lead. Tozer in particular saw what was happening and gave, many years ago, the antidote.

To great sections of the Church the art of worship has been lost entirely, and in its place has come that strange and foreign thing called the “program.”

. . . it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.

The Pursuit of God
A.W. Tozer, p. 10

That’s it. We have got to get back to nourishing our souls with God Himself.

• Not success. 

• Not power. 

• Not political influence. 

• Not likes and thumbs up in social media. 

• Not bigger budgets. 

• Not bigger buildings. 

• Not better music. 

• Not conferences attended or spoken at. 

• Not “cutting edge” programs. 

• Not ___________________________________. (Fill in the blank with anything that isn’t Jesus and Him crucified dead and buried, gloriously raised from the dead and coming again for His bride.)

Read the Tozer quote above again. Read it again, slowly. Ask yourself if this isn’t a major problem in your own heart and therefore and inevitably, a problem in your congregation.

Then do something about it.

• Shut your mouth.

• Close your door. 

• Take your Bible in hand.

• Pray.

• And seek the living God.

Your congregation, your community, your neighbors, your culture, your nation, your family, need you to be a man who pursues the living God. You and they need that more than anything you can preach this week.

* The irony of “smart phones” making us dumber is a painful but inescapable truth.

Why Jesus Never Believed in the Crowd

Full of the Holy Spirit

This is from the Pioneer Library:

In the Old Testament, most instances of being filled with the Spirit involve outward ministry and potent action. But Jesus is full of the Spirit, and goes to the desert to be tested and tempted.

The filling of the Holy Spirit does not just prepare us to preach and do miracles. In his Passion week, Jesus told his disciples many roles that the Holy Spirit would fulfill: “He shall bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you.” “He shall glorify me.” “He will convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment.”

The Holy Spirit also helps us to minister to the Father. He is “the Spirit of sonship, whereby we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’” (Rom. 8:15) Any believer that is full of the Holy Spirit has a full-time ministry, because the Holy Spirit is in them to help them minister to the Father.

There are two Greek words translated ‘worship’ in the New Testament. One means to bow, to personally prostrate yourself in homage. The other means to serve, in a liturgical sense, fulfilling a role in a temple or church worship ceremony. Revelation 22:3 uses this word when it says “his servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face.”

John was exiled to Patmos, a Greek island measuring only a few miles from end to end. The island is volcanic and mostly lifeless. But John wrote, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” (Rev. 1:10, ESV) Whether or not anyone else was with him, John could walk in the Holy Spirit and worship the Father. Even in exile, he had a full-time ministry as far as God was concerned.

Jesus went to the desert, full of the Holy Spirit. That means that the Holy Spirit is with me and in me even when I am ministering to no one except the Father. Exile and desertion can never take that away.

Fasting is a ministry to the Lord—not just a spiritual warfare tactic. Our fasting is misguided if we only think about what we are going to get out of it, and not about ministering to the Father.

Now we know that when we walk alone, he is not merely preparing us for something more important that we will do. If we are ministering to the Father, we are already fulfilling our most important calling. Oswald Chambers said, “Prayer is not preparation for greater work. Prayer is the greater work.”

This desert, this place of solitude, is our greatest work. Our greatest calling is simply to know him in prayer and praise.

Father, thank you that I can know you and walk in your Holy Spirit, even in solitude, even in conflict. Teach me that my first and greatest ministry is simply to know you.

Amen.

Worship as a Lifestyle

This is from the blog ecomalen:

Jeremiah 35 was given to me. This is a chapter I had never read before but I believe is relevant to us today. It tells the story of how Jeremiah was instructed to go and speak to the Racabites.

They were a group of very simple living people who lived above the sinful lifestyle of the cities. They were nomads. They did not even settle down to one spot when they were in the city. They were constantly on the move. They were people of very high morals.  Their lifestyle depicts the fact that all believers are strangers in this land. This is not our home. We are headed for our home in heaven. They were not materialistic people and we can learn from this. Their religious convictions were similar to the Israelites but the difference was that they lived more holy lives than the Israelites.

These Rechabites were rewarded for living a holy life by obeying the commandments of Jonadab. God never overlooks even one person who is living upright before Him. They had made a stand, and had not backslidden . God respects this type of loyalty and faithfulness. I believe this applies to us. We are not called to be just ‘christians’. With so many people using the word and with so many different meanings perhaps it has little relevance to us now. People often think of the Israelites but not much mention is given to the Racabites who lived a very holy life, a life set apart and although they lived among and were related to the Israelites God used them to show the Israelites that if you want to follow God you have to set yourself apart. There have been many movements that we can learn from like this and again in the 16th century the movement of the ‘Quakers’ was founded , a movement that pushed away from ‘mainstream Christianity’ (whatever that means) to search for truth and the roots of faith and God’s face.

I wanted to share this with you that when you set yourself apart God can do mighty things so don’t go with the flow and follow the crowd. God bless you.

George Fox Warning False Christians
The Day of the Lord - Francis Howgill
The Inward Cross - Hall Worthington