Indeed.

_________________
Mike Balog

[b]November 20[/b]

[u]It Is Best to Cooperate with the Inevitable[/u]

[i]I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me. Psalm 57:2[/i]

A SIMPLE-HEARTED MAN WAS ONCE ASKED how he managed to live in such a state of constant tranquility even though surrounded by circumstances anything but pleasant.

His answer was as profound as it was simple: “I have learned to cooperate with the inevitable!”

The idea here set forth is so wise and practical that it is hard to see how we Christians have managed to overlook it so completely in our everyday living. That we do overlook it is shown by our conduct and conversation. Some of us “kick against the pricks” for a lifetime, all the while believing that we are surrendered to the will of God.

What wicked men do should not disturb the good man’s tranquility. The inner world consists of our thoughts and emotions, presided over by our will. While we cannot determine circumstances we can determine our reaction to them. And that is where the battle is to be fought and victory won!

This is not to teach fatalism or to deny the freedom of the human will. Quite the contrary, it is to assert that freedom unequivocally.

Though we cannot control the universe, we can determine our attitude toward it. We can accept God’s will wherever it is expressed. If my will is to do God’s will, then there will be no controversy with anything that comes in the course of my daily walk. Let God make the alterations as He may see fit, either by His own sovereign providence or in answer to believing prayer!

A.W.Tozer

_________________
Mike Balog

[b]November 21[/b]

[u]Tearless Teachers Have Harmed Us[/u]

[i]Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations Acts 20:19[/i]

IT IS NOT A REASSURING THOUGHT that the writings of the grief-stricken prophets are often pored over by persons whose interests are curious merely and who never shed one tear for the woes of the world.

They have a prying inquisitiveness about the schedule of future events, forgetting apparently that the whole purpose of Bible prophecy is to prepare us morally and spiritually for the time to come.

The doctrine of Christ’s return has fallen into neglect, on the North American continent at least, and as far as I can detect, today exercises little power in the lives of the rank and file of Bible-believing Christians. For this there may be a number of contributing factors; but the chief one is, I believe, the misfortune suffered by prophetic truth when men without tears undertook to instruct us in the writings of the tear-stained prophets. Big crowds and big offerings resulted until events proved the teachers wrong on too many points.

Another field where tearless men have done us untold harm is in prayer for the sick. Thankfully, there have always been reverent, serious men who felt it their sacred duty to pray for the sick that they might be healed in the will of God. But when tearless promoters took up the doctrine it was turned into a lucrative racket. Smooth, persuasive men used superior salesmanship methods to make impressive fortunes out of their campaigns—and this in the name of the Man of Sorrows who had not where to lay His head!

A.W.Tozer

_________________
Mike Balog

[b]November 22[/b]

[u]God Knows the Potential of the Human Soul[/u]

[i]If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9[/i]

ONLY MAN WAS CREATED IN GOD’S OWN IMAGE, according to the Scriptures.

I know that I take a chance of being misunderstood when I state that man was more like God than any other creature ever created. Because of the nature of man’s creation, there is nothing in the universe so much like God as the human soul.

Even in the face of man’s sin and lost condition, there is still that basic potential in the soul and nature of man that through grace can become more like God than anything in the universe.

There is no question about man’s sin—therefore there is no question about his being lost. A man is lost if he is not converted—overwhelmed in the vast darkness of emptiness!

Man was created to know God but he chose the gutter. That is why he is like a bird shut away in a cage or like a fish taken from the water. That is the explanation of man’s disgraceful acts—war and hate, murder and greed, brother against brother!

Is there still a good word for man in his lost condition!

Is there an answer for man in whom there is that instinctive groping and craving for the lost image and the knowledge of the Eternal Being!

Yes, the positive answer is in the Word of God, teaching the sinner-man that it is still possible for him to know God. It all has to do with forgiveness and grace and regeneration and justification in Jesus Christ!

A.W.Tozer

_________________
Mike Balog

[b]November 23[/b]

[u]A Thankful Heart Cannot Also Be Cynical[/u]

[i]Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:20[/i]

LET ME RECOMMEND THE CULTIVATION of the habit of thankfulness as an effective cure for the cynical, sour habits of fault-finding among Christian believers.

Thanksgiving has great curative power. The heart that is constantly overflowing with gratitude will be safe from those attacks of resentfulness and gloom that bother so many religious persons. A thankful heart cannot be cynical!

Please be aware that I am not recommending any of the “applied psychology” nostrums so popular in liberal circles. We who have been introduced to God through the miracle of the new birth realize that there is good scriptural authority for the cultivation of gratitude as a cure for spiritual sourness. Further, experience teaches us that it works!

We should never take any blessing for granted, but accept everything as a gift from the Father of Lights. We should write on a tablet, one by one, the things for which we are grateful to God and to our fellow men.

Personally, I have gotten great help from the practice of talking over with God the many kindnesses I have received. I like to begin with thanking Him for His thoughts of me back to creation; for giving His Son to die for me when I was still a sinner; for giving the Bible and His blessed Spirit who inwardly gives us understanding of it. I thank Him for my parents, teachers, statesmen, patriots.

I am grateful to God for all of these and more—and I shall not let God forget that I am!

A.W.Tozer

_________________
Mike Balog

[b]November 24[/b]

[u]The Bible World: Still the Warm, Living World[/u]

[i]Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15[/i]

WHEN READING THE SCRIPTURES the sensitive person is sure to feel the marked difference between the world as the Bible reveals it and the world as conceived by religious people today. And the contrast is not in our favor!

The world as the men and women of the Bible saw it was a personal world, warm, intimate, populated. Their world contained first of all the God who had created it, who still dwelt in it as in a sanctuary and who might be discovered walking among the trees of the garden if the human heart were but pure enough to feel and human eyes clear enough to see. There were also present many beings sent of God to be ministers to them who were the heirs of salvation. They also recognized the presence of sinister forces which it was their duty to oppose and which they might conquer by an appeal to God in prayer.

Jacob saw a ladder set up on the earth with God standing above it and the angels ascending and descending upon it. Abraham and Balaam and Manoah and how many others met the angels of God and conversed with them. Moses saw God in the bush; Isaiah saw Him high and lifted up and heard the antiphonal chant filling the temple.

Christians today think of the world in wholly different terms—a world cold and impersonal and completely without inhabitants except for man. The blind eyes of modern Christians cannot see the invisible but that does not destroy the reality of the spiritual creation. If we will believe we may even now enjoy the presence of God and the ministry of His heavenly messengers.

A.W.Tozer

_________________
Mike Balog

[b]November 25[/b]

[u]Our Humor Should Not Lead to Foolish Talk[/u]

[i]Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting but rather giving of thanks. Ephesians 5:1, 4[/i]

FEW THINGS ARE AS USEFUL in the Christian life as a gentle sense of humor and few things are as deadly as a sense of humor out of control.

Many lose the race of life through frivolity. Paul is careful to warn us. He says plainly that the Christian’s characteristic mood should not be one of jesting and foolish talking but rather one of thanksgiving. It is significant that the apostle classifies levity along with uncleanness, covetousness and idolatry.

Now obviously an appreciation of the humorous is not an evil in itself. When God made us He included a sense of humor as a built-in feature, and the normal human being will possess this gift in some degree at least. The source of humor is the ability to perceive the incongruous.

Humor is one thing but frivolity is quite another. Cultivation of a spirit that can take nothing seriously is one of the great curses of society, and within the church it has worked to prevent much spiritual blessing that otherwise would have descended upon us. We have all met those people who will not be serious. They meet everything with a laugh and a funny remark. This is bad enough in the world, but positively intolerable among Christians.

I see no value in gloom and no harm in a good laugh. My plea is for a great seriousness which will put us in mood with the Son of Man and with the prophets and apostles, that we may attain that moral happiness which is one of the marks of spirituality.

A.W.Tozer

_________________
Mike Balog

[b]November 26[/b]

[u]The Church Must Look First to Christ[/u]

[i]And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. Ephesians 2:20, 22[/i]

THE FIRST LOOK OF THE CHURCH is toward Christ, who is her Head, her Lord and her All!

After that she must be self-regarding and world-regarding, with a proper balance between the two.

By self-regarding I do not mean self-centered. I mean that the Church must examine herself constantly to see if she be in the faith; she must engage in severe self-criticism with a cheerful readiness to make amends; she must live in a state of perpetual penitence, seeking God with her whole heart; she must constantly check her life and conduct against the Holy Scriptures and bring her life into line with the will of God.

By world-regarding I mean that the Church must know why she is here on earth; that she must acknowledge her indebtedness to all mankind (Romans. 1:14, 15); that she must take seriously the words of her Lord, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” and “Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

The task of the Church is twofold: to spread Christianity throughout the world and to make sure that the Christianity she spreads is the pure New Testament kind. To spread an effete, degenerate brand of Christianity to pagan lands is not to fulfill the commandment of Christ or discharge our obligation to the heathen!

A.W.Tozer

_________________
Mike Balog

[b]November 27[/b]

[u]Christian Reproof: With Kindness and Charity[/u]

[i]Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness. Galatians 6:1[/i]

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. Our first impulse may 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.

Satan has achieved a real victory when he succeeds in getting us to react in an unspiritual way toward sins and failures in our brethren. We cannot fight sin with sin or draw men to God by frowning at them in fleshly anger, “for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”

Often acts done in a spirit of religious irritation have consequences far beyond anything we could have guessed. Moses allowed himself to become vexed with Israel and in a fit of pique smote the rock. With the same stroke he closed the land of promise against him for the rest of his life.

It is not an easy task to stand for God as we should in our generation and yet maintain a spirit of kindliness toward the very ones we are sent to reprove—but it is not impossible! In this as in everything else, Christ is our perfect example and He can do the impossible if we but yield and obey. He will surely show us how to oppose with kindness and reprove with charity and the power of the Holy Spirit within will enable us to follow His blessed example!

A.W.Tozer

_________________
Mike Balog

[b]November 28[/b]

[u]The Holy Spirit Is at Hand to Help You[/u]

[i]But why dost thou judge thy brother for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Romans 14:10[/i]

GOD IN LOVE AND WISDOM has given us in His Holy Spirit every gift and power and help that we need to serve Him. We do not have to look around for some other way!

The most solemn aspect of this is our individual responsibility. The Bible teaches that a day is coming when we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that everyone faces a review of the things done in the body, whether good or bad.

In that day we will be fully exposed and the things that we have done in our own strength and for our own glory will be quickly blown away, like worthless straw and stubble, forever separated from the kind of deeds and ministries which were wrought by the Spirit and which are described as eternal treasures in the sight of God, gold and silver and precious stones that the fire cannot harm.

In that day, all that is related to the work of the flesh will perish and pass away, and only that which has been wrought by the Spirit of God will remain and stand.

Do you dare to accept the fact that the sovereign God has designed to do all of His work through spiritually gifted men and women! Therefore, He does all of His work on earth through humble and faithful believers who are given spiritual gifts and abilities beyond their own capacities.

It was the promise of Christ that “you shall receive power” through the ministry of the Holy Spirit—and along with power the bestowment of sweet graces and pleasant fruits of godliness when He is allowed to gain control of our persons!

A.W.Tozer

_________________
Mike Balog