Time to Repent

"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord" (Isaiah 55:7)

It is time for us to repent, for our transgressions against the blessed Third Person have been many and much aggravated. We have crucified Him in His own temple as they crucified the Eternal Son on the hill above Jerusalem. And the nails we used were not of iron, but of finer and more precious stuff of which human life is made.

Out of our hearts we took the refined metals of will and feeling and thought, and from them we fashioned the nails of suspicion and rebellion and neglect.

But unworthy thoughts about Him and unfriendly attitudes toward Him we grieved and quenched Him days without end.

The truest and most acceptable repentance is to reverse the acts and attitudes of which we repent.

Worship rises or falls depending upon the attitude we take toward God, whether we see God big or whether we see  Him little. If there is one terrible disease in the Church of Christ, it is that we're too familiar with God.

~A. W. Tozer~

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Welcome, Holy Spirit

"In all their affliction he was afflicted ... and in his pity he redeemed them ... But they ... vexed his holy Spirit" (Isaiah 63:9-10)

We can best repent our neglect by neglecting the Holy Spirit no more.

Let us begin to think of Him as One to be worshiped and obeyed.

Let us throw open every door and invite Him in.

Let us surrender to Him every room in the temple of our hearts and insist that he enter and occupy as Lord and Master within His own dwelling.

And let us remember that He is drawn to the sweet name of Jesus as bees are drawn to the fragrance of clover.

Where Christ is honored the Spirit is sure to feel welcome; where Christ is glorified He will move about freely, pleased and at home.

When the Scripture says, "And grieve not the holy Spirit of God" (Ephesians 4:30), it is telling us that He loves us so much that when we insult Him, He is grieved; when we ignore Him, He is grieved; when we resist Him, He is grieved; and when we doubt Him, He is grieved.

~A. W. Tozer~