Breathing Out and Breathing In

"The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate" (Proverbs 8:13).

Our attachment to the Person of Christ must exclude all that is contrary to Christ. These are the days when we are trying to be 100 percent positive. But the Scripture says of Jesus, "Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness" (Psalm 45:7). If He had to hate in order to love, so do you and I.

To be 100 percent positive would be as fatal as to inhale steadily all you life without exhaling. You can't do it!

When the Church inhales the Holy Spirit she must exhale everything that is contrary to Him.

I don't believe any man can love until he's able to hate. I don't think he can love righteousness unless he hates sins; for the Scripture leaves us with the belief that in order to accept there are some things you must reject. In order to affirm there are thing you have to deny; in order to say "yes" you have to be able to say "no."

Jesus, breathe Thy Spirit on me,
Teach me how to breathe Thee in,
Help me pour into Thy bosom
All my life of self and sin.

~A. W. Tozer~

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The Cross on the Hill - and In My Heart

"And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts" (Galatians 5:24)

One time a young man came to an old saint and said to him, "Father, what does it mean to be crucified?" The old man thought for a moment and said, "Well, to be crucified means three things. First, the man who is crucified is facing only one direction." I like that - facing only one direction ... and that is the of God and Christ and the Holy Spirit ... the direction of sanctification and the direction of the Spirit-filled life.

And the old man scratched his scraggly gray hair and said, "One thing more, son, about a man on a cross - he's not going back." The fellow going out to die on the cross doesn't say to his wife, "Good-bye, honey. I'll be back shortly after five."

When you go out to die on the cross you bid good-bye - you're not going back! Get a man concerted who knows that if he joins Jesus Christ he's finished, he's not going back - then you have a real Christian indeed.

In every Christian's heart there is a cross and a throne, and the Christian is on the throne till he puts himself on the cross.

~A. W. Tozer~