(no subject)
unbelievers say 'take your cowboy god and go home' and we get angry and say 'they're vile heathen.' no they're not vile heathen- or at least that's not why they say that. they can't respect our 'cowboy god.' and since evangelism has gone overboard to 'cowboy religion' its conception of God is unworthy of Him. our religion is little because our god is little. our religion is weak because our god is weak. our religion is ignoble because the god we serve is ignoble. we do not see God as He is.
-a.w. tozer
note that there are two gods spoken of in this passage. the god that so many of us follow and believe in...and then the one true God who is worthy of all acclaim and adoration. there is, unfortunately, a distinct difference. there have been many times when i've thought 'what is the difference between me and unbeliever?' sometimes there seems to be none. those are the times when i am seeking a god that will sanction my borderland lifestyle, who lets me languish in the complacency, who desires nothing for me. this god is not the God of the universe, who spoke all into being. that God pushes and pulls me into holiness and desires that i become more and more satisfied in things of eternity and find security in His arms alone.
very often, our experience of Christ and our life in Christ is a stunted, wizened-up thing. it doesn't live up to the rhetoric. it's like hearing music muted through water, kissing through canvas. it hardly seems worth the effort.
-mark buchanan
when our lives are indistinguishable from the unbelievers, we are portaying a god that no person desires to follow. there would be no purpose in getting up in the morning to go to church if there is no change within us. to be a Christian means a dramatic change in lifestyle, thought processes, attitude, in short...everything. it's hard to do that. it's hard to sustain such a path in life...but the easy path leads to borderland...the place where you are pretending, where you are waiting where there is no joy or power or anything of worth...only boredom.
to receive the Holy Spirit is the most precious and amazing of gifts. the best gift that you will receive this side of heaven. to be in communion with God at each and every moment of your day...what a treasure! what a glorious source of power! to think that the God that formed the heavens is bending down to us. God desires us to be holy, to be refined more and more into His image...and He alone has the power to get us there. let us bow down before His throne and allow His glorious Spirit to fill us. fill us with His power and glory and love and truth.
awake, awake, put on your strength, o zion; put on your beautiful garments, o jerusalem, the holy city...shake yourself from the dust and arise; be seated, o jerusalem; loose the bonds from your neck, o captive daughter of zion.
-isaiah 52:1,2
kare bear
-a.w. tozer
note that there are two gods spoken of in this passage. the god that so many of us follow and believe in...and then the one true God who is worthy of all acclaim and adoration. there is, unfortunately, a distinct difference. there have been many times when i've thought 'what is the difference between me and unbeliever?' sometimes there seems to be none. those are the times when i am seeking a god that will sanction my borderland lifestyle, who lets me languish in the complacency, who desires nothing for me. this god is not the God of the universe, who spoke all into being. that God pushes and pulls me into holiness and desires that i become more and more satisfied in things of eternity and find security in His arms alone.
very often, our experience of Christ and our life in Christ is a stunted, wizened-up thing. it doesn't live up to the rhetoric. it's like hearing music muted through water, kissing through canvas. it hardly seems worth the effort.
-mark buchanan
when our lives are indistinguishable from the unbelievers, we are portaying a god that no person desires to follow. there would be no purpose in getting up in the morning to go to church if there is no change within us. to be a Christian means a dramatic change in lifestyle, thought processes, attitude, in short...everything. it's hard to do that. it's hard to sustain such a path in life...but the easy path leads to borderland...the place where you are pretending, where you are waiting where there is no joy or power or anything of worth...only boredom.
to receive the Holy Spirit is the most precious and amazing of gifts. the best gift that you will receive this side of heaven. to be in communion with God at each and every moment of your day...what a treasure! what a glorious source of power! to think that the God that formed the heavens is bending down to us. God desires us to be holy, to be refined more and more into His image...and He alone has the power to get us there. let us bow down before His throne and allow His glorious Spirit to fill us. fill us with His power and glory and love and truth.
awake, awake, put on your strength, o zion; put on your beautiful garments, o jerusalem, the holy city...shake yourself from the dust and arise; be seated, o jerusalem; loose the bonds from your neck, o captive daughter of zion.
-isaiah 52:1,2
kare bear