Enjoying the Benefits

"Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in his ways ... Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee" (Psalm 128:1-2)

Our contact with civilization make our clothes dirty, greasy, sometimes spotted. The dirt is not only on our clothes; soon it is actually "in" them. We can shake the garment, argue with it, talk to it, read Shakespeare to it ... Still it is soiled and dirty. The dirt must be loosed. The garment must be set free from its soil.

The only solution that will loose us from our sins is the blood of Jesus Christ. He loved us and freed us - washed us - from our sins in His own blood. Education, refinement - nothing else worked. But when Jesus' blood did its work, we were free!

"Ye shall know the truth," Jesus said, "and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). But there must be a moral commitment. If that is not, there is no understanding. If there is no understanding, there is no cleansing.

Are you obeying the truth as it is revealed by the Spirit of God? Are you enjoying the benefits of freedom in Jesus Christ? Are you one of His "true" disciples?

Happiness is nothing but that inward sweet delight, which will arise from the harmonious agreement between our wills and the will of God.

~A. W. Tozer~

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The Word and the Spirit

"Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures" (James 1:18)

Some people wish they could have lived in Jesus' day so they could have heard His voice and His teaching. They forget there were thousands who heard Jesus but who had no idea what He was talking about. They forget that His own disciples had to wait for the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to know what He had been telling them.

"If only I had heard Jesus," you may have said. No, you are better off now. You have the Light that lights every person. You have the voice of the inner conscience.

Some are sorry they never heard Dwight L. Moody or Albert B. Simpson in person. But I remind you that even if we could have heard the apostle Paul on tape his speech could do no more for us than the Holy Spirit can do with the Bible the the human conscience.

We have heard the voice of Light within the heart. The Church needs to listen to the inner voice and do something about its message!

There are two extremes. The Word without the Spirit is dry and dead, but the Spirit without the Word is incomplete.

~A. W. Tozer~