Tears

Tears

by Charles R. Swindoll

Lamentations 1:12-16; 3:46-50; Jeremiah 50:4; Luke 7:36-50

When words fail, tears flow.

Tears have a language all their own, a tongue that needs no interpreter. In some mysterious way, our complex inner-communication system knows when to admit its verbal limitations . . . and the tears come.

Eyes that flashed and sparkled only moments before are flooded from a secret reservoir. We try in vain to restrain the flow, but even strong men falter.

Tears are not self-conscious. They can spring upon us when we are speaking in public or standing beside others who look to us for strength. Most often they appear when our soul is overwhelmed with feelings that words cannot describe.

Our tears may flow during the singing of a great, majestic hymn or when we are alone, lost in some vivid memory or wrestling in prayer.

Did you know that God takes special notice of those tears of yours? Psalm 56:8 tells that He puts them in His bottle and enters them into the record He keeps on our lives.

David said, "The Lord has heard the voice of my weeping."

A teardrop on earth summons the King of Heaven. Rather than being ashamed or disappointed, the Lord takes note of our inner friction when hard times are oiled by tears. He turns these situations into moments of tenderness; He never forgets those crises in our lives where tears were shed.

One of the great drawbacks of our cold, sophisticated society is its reluctance to show tears. For some strange reason, men feel that tears are a sign of weakness . . . and many an adult feels to cry is to be immature. How silly! How unfortunate! The consequence is that we place a watchdog named "restraint" before our hearts. This animal is trained to bark, snap, and scare away any unexpected guest who seeks entrance.

The ultimate result is a well-guarded, highly respectable, uninvolved heart surrounded by heavy bars of confinement. Such a structure resembles a prison more than a home where the tender Spirit of Christ resides.

Jeremiah lived in no such dwelling. His transparent tent was so tender and sensitive he could not preach a sermon without the interruption of tears. "The weeping prophet" became his nickname and even though he didn't always have the words to describe his feelings, he was never at a loss to communicate his convictions. You could always count on Jeremiah to bury his head in his hands and sob aloud.

Strange that this man was selected by God to be His personal spokesman at the most critical time in Israel's history. Seems like an unlikely choice---unless you value tears as God does. I wonder how many tear bottles in heaven are marked with his name.

I wonder how many of them bear your initials. You'll never have many until you impound restraint and let a little tenderness run loose. You might lose a little of your polished respectability, but you'll have a lot more freedom. And a lot less pride.

The Glorious Pursuit

"For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit: and these three are one" (1 John 5:7)

You and I are in little (our sins excepted) what God is in large. Being made in His image we have within us the capacity to know Him.  In our sins we lack only the power. The moment the Spirit has quickened us to life in regeneration our whole being senses its kinship to God and leaps up in joyous recognition.  That is the heavenly birth without which we cannot see the Kingdom of God. It is, however, not an end but an inception, for now begins the glorious pursuit, the heart's happy exploration of the infinite riches of the Godhead. That is where we begin, I say, but where we stop no man has yet discovered, for there is in the awe and mysterious depths of the Triune God neither limit nor end.

Shoreless Ocean, who can sound Thee?
Thine own eternity is round Thee,
Majesty divine!

Jehovah - Father, Spirit, Son -
Mysterious Godhead, Three-in-One,
Before Thy throne we sinners bend;
Grace, pardon, life to us extend. Amen

~A. W. Tozer~

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The Paradox of Love

"...my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee ... to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary" (Psalm 63:1-2)

To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul's paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too-easily-satisfied religionist, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart. St. Bernard stated this holy paradox in a musical quatrain that will be instantly understood by every worshiping soul:

We taste Thee, O Thou Living Bread,
And long to feast upon Thee still:
We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead
And thirst our souls from Thee to fill.

Each of the fruits of the Spirit is but a phase of love. Joy 
is love exulting; peace is love reposing;
patience is love enduring; goodness is the good manners of love; kindness is love in action; faithfulness is love confiding; gentleness is love yielding; and self-control is true self-love.

~A. W. Tozer~

Access to Power

Access to Power 

And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron; They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’—as I also have received from My Father; and I will give him the morning star. Revelation 2:26-28, NKJV



A few years ago a tornado ripped through the small town where I grew up. Everything in its path was uprooted and destroyed. For a period of time my in-laws were powerless—until we were able to find a generator and personally deliver it to their home. In a similar fashion my life can be in disarray from sin’s destruction. I feel powerless to forces outside my control, but God gives me access to His power. Grace is His generator to empower my life during destructive times.



John wrote to Christians who were dismissed and suppressed for their beliefs and their behavior. Humanly speaking, they were powerless in the face of an overreaching government and a hostile culture. However, the Holy Spirit speaking through the pen of the Apostle reminded this influential minority—a band of believers in Christ—to remain faithful in their love for the Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit’s power supersedes society’s criticism and apathy toward God. We diligently serve until the sunset of life—anticipating the morning star of our Savior’s glory!



“I [Jesus] have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).



Do you feel powerless with a problem or person? You may feel hopeless—even helpless, but your heavenly Father has the power to energize your faith in your fragile condition. The Spirit specializes in taking the weak and making them strong. An ailing condition qualifies you to be a recipient of God’s grace. Satan tries to short circuit your trust with his destructive lies: “Your spouse doesn’t really care—he doesn’t love you.” “There are no solutions, you will always be frustrated.” But Jesus has answers: “Remain in My love—I will empower you with My wisdom”.



Seek the Lord’s wisdom in His word. Truth is our “flu shot” against the virus of sickly thinking. Empowered by God’s grace we are positioned to serve for the benefit of others. Our life on earth is a test in the faithful management of the Spirit’s blessings, so we can be entrusted with more favor in eternity. The Lord’s power used for His glory electrifies all of us who are citizens of the Kingdom. The world will one day bow down to the One who gave away all power to empower. So, be bold—not shy about the Gospel’s incredible power. Access God’s power for His glory!



“For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7).



Prayer: Heavenly Father, by faith I access Your power for energy and grace to serve in Your Kingdom. 

~Wisdom Hunters Devotional~

Confront With Kindness

"Be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine" (2 Timothy 4:2)

It is quite natural, and even spiritual, to feel sorrow and heaviness when we see the professed followers of Christ walking in the ways of the world. And our first impulse may easily be to go straight to them and upbraid them indignantly.

But such methods are seldom successful. The heat in our spirit may not be from the Holy Spirit, and if it is not then it can very well do more harm than good.

In this as in everything else Christ is our perfect example. A prayerful, face-down meditation on the life of Christ will show us how to oppose with kindness and reprove with charity. And the power of the Holy Spirit within us will enable us to follow His blessed example.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit will always bring a spirit of love and sweetness and charity toward all men.

~A. W. Tozer~

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Blessings Through Obedience

"So will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing: fear not, but let your hands be strong" (Zechariah 8:13)

Christ is to His people so many wonderful things and brings to them such a wealth of benefits as the mind cannot comprehend nor the heart find words to express.

These treasures are both present and to come. The Spirit of Truth, speaking through Paul, assures us that God has in Christ blessed us with all spiritual blessings. These are ours as sons of the new creation and are made available to us now by the obedience of faith.

Peter, moved by the same Spirit, tells us of an inheritance guaranteed us by the resurrection of Christ, an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled and unfading, reserved in heaven for us.

There is no contradiction here, for one apostle speaks of present benefits and the other of benefits yet to be conferred upon us at the coming of Christ. And both exhaust human speech to celebrate the many blessings which we have already received.

As soon as thou givest thyself to God from thy whole heart, and seekest neither this nor that, thou shalt find thyself united and at peace.

~A. W. Tozer~

Do the Next Thing

But David said to Saul, "Your servant used to keep his father's sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it."

—1 Samuel 17:34–35

When David was anointed as the next king of Israel, his job description at the time was watching sheep. Now, sheep are not the most interesting animals on earth. Maybe when David was sitting around watching them, he thought, They are dumb, but I love them. They really need me, because if I don't come through for them and defend them, they are leg of lamb for a predator.

There were times when David took on lions and bears and killed them. I don't think David knew he was being tested or prepared, but he was. And that is how God always works. He preps us. He gets us in shape for what is yet to come.

There was no timeline given after Samuel showed up and poured oil on David, anointing him as the next king. So what did David do? He went back to the last thing.

In his excellent book on David, Chuck Swindoll wrote, "[David] did not go down to the nearest department store and try on crowns. . . . He went right back to the sheep."

God's selection of David was so unexpected that we should pay careful attention to it. In choosing David, God is showing us what kind of person He is looking for. David was faithful.

Joseph had visions of grandeur as a young man, but he wasn't ready yet. God was preparing Joseph for the next thing, and he didn't realize it. God would allow him to go through some suffering first. Joseph was a dreamer, but God was getting him ready for reality.

When you don't know what to do, go back to the last thing God showed you. Work hard. Be faithful in what God has set before you, and He will show you what to do next.

~Greg Laurie~

Beware the File-Card Mentality

"Pure religion and undefiled... is this, To visit the fatherless and widows ... and to keep himself unspotted from the world" (James 1:27)

The essence of true religion is spontaneity, the sovereign movings of the Holy Spirit upon and in the free spirit of redeemed me. This has through the years of human history been the hallmark of spiritual excellency, the evidence of reality in a world of unreality.

When religion loses its sovereign character and becomes mere form, this spontaneity is lost also, and in its place come precedent, propriety, system - and the file-card mentality.

Back of the file-card mentality is the belief that spirituality can be organized. Then is introduced into religion those ideas which never belong there - numbers, statistics, the law of averages, and other such natural human things.

And creeping death always follows.

There are churches so completely out of the hands of God that if the Holy Spirit withdrew from them, they wouldn't find it out for many months.

~A. W. Tozer~

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Here's How It Works

"Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (1 Thessalonians 5:17-18)

Here's how the file cared works when it gets into the Christian life and begins to create mental habits: It divides the Bible into sections fitted to the days of the year, and compels the Christian to read according to rule. No matter what the Holy Spirit may be trying to say to a man, still he goes on reading where the card tells him, dutifully checking it off each day.

Inevitably the calendar crowds out the Spirit and the face of the clock hides the face of God. Prayer ceases to be the free breath of a ransomed soul and becomes a duty to be fulfilled. And even if under such circumstances he succeeds in making his prayer amount to something, still he is suffering tragic losses and binding upon his soul a yoke from which Christ died to set him free.

It is the privilege of every Christian to live so fully in God that he never gets out of the experienced Presence for one moment. The whole life becomes a prayer... thoughts become mental prayers, deeds become prayers in action and even sleep may be but unconscious prayer.

~A. W. Tozer~

Famine

Famine

by Charles R. Swindoll

Nehemiah 8:1-12; Mark 12:41-44; Acts 13:44-48

The word hangs like an awful omen in our heads.

Mentally, we picture a brutal, grotesque image. Cows' hips protrude. Babies' eyes are hollow. Bloated stomachs growl angrily. Skin stretches across faces tight as a trampoline. The outline of the skull slowly emerges. Joints swell. Grim, despairing stares replace smiles. Hope is gone . . . life is reduced to a harsh existence as famine takes its toll. Those who have seen it cannot forget it. Those who haven't cannot imagine it.

We are told it is coming. "It's only a matter of time," declare the experts. There was a time when such predictions appeared only in science fiction books and novels, but no longer. Prophets of doom are now economists, university profs, and official spokesmen for our government, not to mention those authors who interpret our times as "threatening" or "terminal."

For us who are so well fed, the idea of famine is foreign---almost a fantasy. It's something that plagues India or China, never America! Fear of famine doesn't square with our "amber waves of grain," our "fruited plains," certainly not our streets lined with McDonalds, thirty-one flavors, and innumerable shops bulging with every conceivable type of food.

My first rude awakening to the reality of hunger occurred early in 1958 when our troop ship full of U.S. Marines pulled into the harbor of Yokohama, Japan. We were so thrilled to see land, having been at sea for seventeen days, we were initially unaware of the barges full of Japanese men and women that encircled our ship. I later discovered that this was a common occurrence. They had come to paint the ship while we were at the dock for several days. Their pay in return? The garbage from our tables! The thought stunned me.

There is another kind of famine equally tragic . . . but far more subtle. God spoke of it through the prophet Amos. Listen to his words:

"The time is surely coming," says the Lord God, "when I will send a famine on the land---not a famine of bread or water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. Men will wander everywhere from sea to sea, seeking the Word of the Lord, searching, running here and going there, but will not find it." (Amos 8:11-12 TLB)

We may find physical famine almost impossible to believe, but how about a spiritual famine? You don't have to wait until the future for that! Take a trip across these United States. Or pick a country---any country. Talk about a famine! It's easy to misread the words of Amos. He didn't predict a lack of churches or chapels or temples or tabernacles or seminars or sermons. He spoke of "a famine . . . of hearing the words of the Lord." Remember, a famine does not mean an absence of something . . . but as hortage of it . . . a scarcity that creates a scene of starvation.

In our enlightened, progressive, modern age, an ancient, dusty prophecy is fulfilled. Hearing the unadulterated truth of God is a rare experience. How easy to forget that! We have come upon hard times when those who declare and hear the Word of God are a novelty.

How easy to be spoiled . . . presumptuous . . . sassy . . . ungrateful . . . when our spiritual stomachs are full! Funny thing---those who are full usually want more. We belch out increased demands rather than humble gratitude to God for our horn o' plenty.

Tell me, when was the last time you thanked God for the sheer privilege of hearing more of His Word than you could ever digest? And when did you last share a crumb from your table?

That's why there's a famine.