The God of Contemporary Christianity (and others)

The God of Contemporary Christianity (and others)

"These things you have done, and I kept silent. You thought that I was altogether like you! But I will rebuke you and accuse you to your face!" (Psalm 50:21).

The God of Contemporary Christianity is only slightly superior to the pagan gods of ancient Greece and Rome - if indeed He is not inferior to them, in that He is weak and helpless - while they at least had some imagined power.

Among the sins to which the human heart is prone, hardly any other is more hateful to God than idolatry; for idolatry is at bottom a libel on His character. The idolatrous heart assumes that God is other than He is - in itself a monstrous sin - and substitutes for the true God, one made after its own likeness. Always this god will conform to the image of the one who created it - and will be base or pure, cruel or kind, according to the moral state of the mind from which it emerges.

The essence of idolatry, is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry imagines things about God - and acts as if they were true.

If we insist upon trying to imagine Him - we end with an idol, made not with hands but with thoughts. And an idol of the mind, is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand!

Before a Christian Church goes into a decline, there must first be a corrupting of her Scriptural thoughts of God. She simply gives a wrong answer to the question, "What is God like?" - and goes downhill from there. Though she may continue to cling to a sound nominal creed - her practical working creed has become false. The masses of her adherents come to believe that God is different from what He actually is - and that is heresy of the most insidious and deadly kind!!

The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian Church today is to purify and elevate her concept of God, until it is once more worthy of Him - and of her!

~A. W. Tozer~
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The Work of the Holy Spirit

I love to meditate on the work of the Holy Spirit, from whom we receive such great and invaluable blessings, and to whom we are so much indebted. To Him, I feel that I am indebted for every good thought, and for every good work. How wonderful His patience - that He should bear with me so long; and how wonderful His loving-kindness - that He should confer on me so much! O that I was more deeply sensible of my obligations!

It was the Holy Spirit who quickened me when I was dead in trespasses and sins...imparting a new life, infusing new thoughts, and producing new desires in my soul.

Having quickened me, He conquered me, subduing the enmity of my heart, the obstinacy of my will, the worldliness of my affections, and bringing every thought into subjection to the obedience of Christ.

Having quickened and conquered me, He comforted me, assuring me of a saving interest in the love of God, the perfect work of Jesus, the precious promises of the Word, and the eternal rest which remains for the people of God.

Having quickened, conquered, and comforted me, He sanctified me by separating me from the world, and setting me apart for my Redeemer's glory and praise.

As my Sanctifier, He became my Guide, leading me into the truth, conducting me out of the paths of danger, and directing me into the everlasting way.

Not only my guide, but He became my Guard, preserving me from danger, protecting me from foes, and becoming a wall of fire around about me.

Whenever I wander - He reproves me; when I willfully go astray - He corrects me, and makes me smart for my folly.

The work He began so long ago - He carries on; nor will He withdraw His hand from it, until it is perfected, and I am fully fitted for glory.

Dear Reader; what do you experimentally know of the work of the Holy Spirit? Has He quickened you? Has He conquered you? Does He comfort you? Are you sanctified by His presence, power, and operation in your heart? Does He guide you by His counsel, guard you by His power, and correct you for your follies?

The work of the Spirit within us - is as necessary as the work of Jesus for us! For if the atonement of Christ entitles us to glory - it is the work of the Holy Spirit that prepares us to possess and enjoy it. We must be washed, justified, and sanctified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of God - or we cannot be saved!

~James Smith~