Coddled or Crucified?

"Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin" (Romans 6:6)

The spiritual giants of old would not take their religion the easy way nor offer unto God that which cost them nothing. They sought not comfort but holiness, and the pages of history are still wet with their blood and their tears.

We now live in softer times. Woe unto us, for we have become adept in the art of comforting ourselves without power. Those who will justify themselves in that kind of dodging are not likely to be much affected by anything I can say or write.

But to those who will hear I would say with all the urgency at my command: Though the Cross of Christ has been beautified by the poet and the artist, the avid seeker after God is likely to find it the same savage implement of destruction it was in the days of old. The way of the Cross is still the pain-wracked path to spiritual power and fruitfulness.

So do not seek to hide from it. Do not accept an easy way. Do not allow yourself to be patted to sleep in a comfortable church, void of power and barren of fruit.

Let the Cross slay you utterly. Seek God. Seek to be holy and fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer.

~A. W. Tozer~

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Not Good, or Bad, But Alive

"Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Romans 8:9)

There are religious persons who have the name of Christ but whose spirit is the spirit of Adam. They belong to the old order which perishes, not to the new order of life in Christ Jesus. The point is not that they are good or bad but that they are dead. Their direction is wrong; they are on their way to the grave, not on their way out of it.

It is not that I plant, but what I plant that matters. A man could plant glass beads for a lifetime and have nothing to show for his trouble.

Christ makes the difference between dead and life, always and everywhere. He is the Prince of Life, and whatever He touches lives. The fabled Midas had a magic power which made everything he touched turn to gold. It is not fable, but wonderously true and real, that the power to give life belongs to Christ. Nothing He touches can ever die, and whatever is dead has only to be touched by Him and it lives again forever.

We who bear the name of Christ should give ourselves no rest till we are sure that we possess the Spirit of Christ. Without that Spirit no man can speak a living word or do an immortal deed.

~A. W. Tozer~