“Does it make sense to pray for guidance about the future if we are not obeying in the thing that lies before us today? How many momentous events in Scripture depended on one person's seemingly small act of obedience! Rest assured: Do what God tells you to do now, and, depend upon it, you will be shown what to do next.” 
― Elisabeth Elliot, Quest for Love: True Stories of Passion and Purity

One act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Quotes

Tuesday, September 02, 2014

The oak comes out of the acorn, the eagle out of that little egg in the nest, the harvest out of the seed. Thus the glory of the coming age is coming out of the Christ-life now, even as the majesty of His kingdom was all wrapped up that night in the baby in Bethlehem.

Let us take Jesus for our total lives. Let us be united to His person and His risen body. Let us know what it is to say, The body is . . . for the Lord; and the Lord is for the body (1 Corinthians 6:13). We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones (Ephesians 5:30).

He who gave that little infant, His only begotten Son, on that dark winter night to the arms of a cruel and ungrateful world will not refuse to give Him to us in all His fullness if we will but open our hearts and give Him right of way and full ownership and possession. Then we shall know in measure His quickening life, even as our hope shall reach its full fruition when we sit with Him on His throne with every fiber of our immortal beings even as He.

Wednesday, September 03, 2014

The little plant may grow out of a pile of refuse and be surrounded by filth and covered with the dust that floats on the breeze, but its white roots are separated from the unclean soil, and it leaves and flowers have no affinity with the dust that settles upon them. After a show of summer rain they throw off every particle of defilement and look up as fresh and spotless as before. Their intrinsic nature cannot have any part with these defiling things.

This is the separation which Christ requires and which He gives. There is no merit in my staying from the theater is I want to go. There is no value in my abstaining from the foolish novel or the intoxicating bottle if I am continually wishing I could have them. My heart is there, and my soul is defiled by the desire for evil things. It is not the world that stains us, but the love of the world. The true Levite is separated from the desire for earthly things, and even if he could, he would not have the forbidden pleasures which others prize.

Someone asked me, "Do you pray for the dead?" I said, "No, I preach to them!" I think every pew in every church is death row. Think about that! They're dead! They sing about God; they talk about God, but they're dead! They have no living relationship (with God). ~Leonard Ravenhill~

Can you remember the last time you didn't go to bed because people were

dying without Christ?

“Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11).

Watchman - Thank you for the service you render our family in Christ here, for the love you have for our Lord. I see that and respect that.

blessings

9/12/2014

Infinite Equity

He Acts Like Himself

The Lord lives! Blessed by my Rock! Let God be exalted, the Rock of my salvation! --2 Samuel 22:47 

O God, be Thou exalted over my possessions. Nothing of earth's treasures shall seem dear unto me if only Thou art glorified in my life. Be Thou exalted over my friendships. I am determined that Thou shalt be above all, though I must stand deserted and alone in the midst of the earth. Be Thou exalted above my comforts. Though it mean the loss of bodily comforts and the carrying of heavy crosses, I shall keep my vow made this day before Thee. Be Thou exalted over my reputation. Make me ambitious to please Thee even if as a result I must sink into obscurity and my name be forgotten as a dream. Rise, O Lord, into Thy proper place of honor, above my ambitions, above my likes and dislikes, above my family, my health and even my life itself. Let me decrease that Thou mayest increase; let me sink that Thou mayest rise above. Ride forth upon me as Thou didst ride into Jerusalem mounted upon the humble little beast, a colt, the foal of an ass, and let me hear the children cry to Thee, "Hosanna in the highest." The Pursuit of God, 101-102.

"In my increasing knowledge of You, Lord, and as I spend more time in solitude and silence before You, this prayer becomes so logical. Be Thou exalted in my life. Amen." 

sermonindex.com

Enjoy -

2 Peter 3:1-9

1This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: 2That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:

3Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 5For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 6Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

8But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

You can't offend a man that's filled with the Spirit.

The darker it gets, the brighter your light will shine.

It's going to demand alot of courage before too long-- to really live and maintain the true Christian life according to the Word of the Living God.

Christ will not stand competition. This vain world should have no pull on us at any level at all.

You have no right to sin. If you have sin in your life, you've got something which is illegal in the sight of God; you're giving the devil a hand in your life.

You can't say, "Christ is all I need," until Christ is all you have. 

Sin is abnormal in the Christian life.

Are you beyond the place where anyone can offend you?

If you're going to be a true Christian, I'll tel l you one thing amongst others: it'll be a lonely life. It's a narrow way and it becomes narrower and narrower and narrower.

He wants to get us to the place where we'd rather fast than feast; where we'd rather be unknown than known.

God didn't come to be a shareholder, forget it! God doesn't want to share your lif, He wants to own it! He doesn't want partnership, He wants ownership of every part of my being!

It's not simp1e being a Christian. After all, it's a majestic thing!

All you have to do is get in a closer walk with God and you'll find your enemies are in your own church.

~Leonard Ravenhill~

I can't figure out how to make a hyperlink. Oi! I put a copy of the essay on the Major Prophets in the blogs. It's under your blog where you asked about it.

Love,

Mary

BETTER FARTHER ON

Truth that is not experienced is no better than error, and may be fully as dangerous. Remember that the scribes who sat in Moses' seat were not the victims of error; they were the victims of failure to experience the truth they taught! We should see that one of the greatest foes of the Christian is religious complacency. The man who believes that he has "arrived" will not go any further; and the present neat habit of quoting a text to prove we have arrived may be a dangerous one if in truth we have no actual inward experience of the text. The great saints of the past have all had yearning hearts. Their longing after God all but consumed them; it propelled them onward and upward to heights toward which less ardent Christians look with languid eye and entertain no hope of reaching. May we offer this word of exhortation: pray on, fight on, sing on! Press on into the deep things of God. Keep your feet on the ground, but let your heart soar as high as it will!

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Love Disposes Him

Henry Stanley, a worldly reporter, was sent to the jungles of Africa in search of David Livingstone. The last time the old missionary had been seen was seven years before when he returned to Africa in 1865. Finally, when Stanley found Livingstone in the middle of nowhere, the encounter changed him completely.

Stanley lived with Livingstone for four months, sharing the same hut and every part of his life as well. He watched him closely and listened to his words. To his amazement, he could find no fault in this man. Up to that point, Stanley had been very critical of religion and even described himself as the worst infidel in London. But there in the jungle he encountered a man who simply lived out the words of Jesus: “Leave all and follow Me” (see Luke 18:22). Seeing Livingstone’s love, his zeal and his commitment, Stanley’s heart changed. “I was converted by him,” he wrote, “although he had not tried to do it.”

With all the frantic activities of modern-day Christianity, it is time for us to learn that it is not the plans we make or the programs that matter most, but the simple truth of letting His life flow through us.

Don’t let it end. The journey continues . . .

~K.P. YOHANNAN~

http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/articles/index.php?view=article&...

"The chief danger of the Church today is that it is trying to get on the same side as the world, instead of turning the world upside down. Our Master expects us to accomplish results, even if they bring opposition and conflict. Anything is better than compromise, apathy, and paralysis.  God give to us an intense cry for the old-time power of the Gospel and the Holy Ghost." - A. B. Simpson (Preacher, pastor, writer, and promoter of foreign missions)

"To employ soft words and honeyed phrases in discussing questions of everlasting importance; to deal with errors that strike at the foundations of all human hope as if they were harmless and venial mistakes; to bless where God disapproves, and to make apologies where He calls us to stand up like men and assert, though it may be the aptest method of securing popular applause in a sophistical age, is cruelty to man and treachery to Heaven. Those who on such subjects attach more importance to the rules of courtesy than they do to the measures of truth do not defend the citadel, but betray it into the hands of its enemies. Love for Christ, and for the souls for whom He died, will be the exact measure of our zeal in exposing the dangers by which men's souls are ensnared." - James Henry Thornwell

Completely Dedicated to Christ:  Are We?

The truth is, dedication of the life to any thing or anyone short of God Himself, is a prostitution of noble powers and must bring a harvest of grief and disappointment at last. Only God is worthy of the soul He has made in His own image. To devote our lives to any cause, however worthy, is to sell ourselves short. Not money, position, fame, can justly claim our devotion. Art, literature, music also fall short. And, if God is forgotten, even the loftiest and most unselfish task is unworthy of the souls full surrender. Complete dedication unto death in the cause of freedom, for instance, is a touching thing and has given to history many of her greatest heroes, but only the God of freedom should have our last full measure of devotion. These are strenuous times and men are being recruited everywhere to devote themselves to one or another master. Let us be careful. No one has any true right to claim my life except the One who gave His own life for my redemption. If He gets my full dedication then I may engage in any good and worthy cause under His Spirit's guidance. But anything short of complete devotion to Christ is inadequate and must end in futility and loss. 

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Isaiah 42:21--

The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.

I hear you Watchman...... I just read what you wrote below...  I will be praying for you. And just so you know..... I am learning from you. Its so good to see the Lord front and center in a persons life no matter what and with no excuses.  I care for you and I should show that more often.... I just don't know how.. that is all.  <3

Do not quench the Spirit. --1 Thessalonians 5:19 

It is time for us to repent, for our transgressions against the blessed Third Person have been many and much aggravated. We have bitterly mistreated Him in the house of His friends. 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 the 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. By 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.... 

We can best repent our neglect by neglecting Him no more. Let us begin to think of Him as One to be worshipped 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. The Pursuit of Man, 71-72. 

"Forgive me. Change me. Indwell me. Control me. Amen." ....And Amen

http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/articles/index.php?view=article&...

Well....I have learned some very hard lessons today.  My heart feels like it's bleeding from a big gaping hole.  I know that what is being, has been removed by God's hand will be replaced with something beautiful and wonderful and perfect, for that I believe today I am being blessed...while painful to admit the horrible truth of myself, it's bearable because I know that God is with me through this and will heal me.  It's going to be a process and take time, but this is where I find myself today...I need to heal, I need forgiveness, and I need to say I'm sorry to anyone and everyone I have hurt here.  

VICTORS OR VICTIMS

If Satan opposes the new convert he opposes still more bitterly the Christian who is pressing on toward a higher life in Christ. The Spirit-filled life is not, as many suppose, a life of peace and quiet pleasure. It is likely to be something quite the opposite. Viewed one way it is a pilgrimage through a robber-infested forest; viewed another, it is a grim warfare with the devil. Always there is struggle, and sometimes there is a pitched battle with our own nature where the lines are so confused that it is all but impossible to locate the enemy or to tell which impulse is of the Spirit and which of the flesh. There is complete victory for us if we will but take the way of the triumphant Christ, but that is not what we are considering now. My point here is that if we want to escape the struggle we have but to draw back and accept the currently accepted low-keyed Christian life as the normal one. That is all Satan wants. That will ground our power, stunt our growth and render us harmless to the kingdom of darkness. Compromise will take the pressure off. Satan will not bother a man who has quit fighting. But the cost of quitting will be a life of peaceful stagnation. We sons of eternity just cannot afford such a thing.

~A.W. TOZER~

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Sound Conversion

I am convinced that many evangelicals are not truly and soundly converted. Among the evangelicals it is entirely possible to come into membership, to ooze in by osmosis, to leak through the cells of the church and never know what it means to be born of the Spirit and washed in the blood. A great deal that passes for the deeper life is nothing more or less than basic Christianity. There is nothing deeper about it, and it is where we should have been from the start. We should have been happy, joyous, victorious Christians walking in the Holy Spirit and not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. Instead we have been chasing each other around the perpetual mountain.

What we need is what the old Methodists called a sound conversion. There is a difference between conversion and a sound conversion. People who have never been soundly converted do not have the Spirit to enlighten them. When they read the Sermon on the Mount or the teaching passages of the epistles that tell them how to live or the doctrinal passages that tell how they can live, they are unaffected. The Spirit who wrote them is not witnessing in their hearts because they have not been born of the Spirit. That often happens.

~A. W. Tozer~

~

http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/articles/index.php?view=article&...

"Many people today don't want honest answers insofar as honest means unpleasant or disturbing, They want a soft answer that turneth away anxiety." - Louis Kronenberger

GASPING FOR THE GLORY OF GOD

True spirituality manifests itself in certain dominant desires. These are ever-present, deep-settled wants sufficiently powerful to motivate and control the life. For convenience let me number them, though I make no effort to decide the order of their importance. 1. First is the desire to be holy rather than happy. The yearning after happiness found so widely among Christians professing a superior degree of sanctity is sufficient proof that such sanctity is not indeed present. The truly spiritual man knows that God will give abundance of joy after we have become able to receive it without injury to our souls, but he does not demand it at once. John Wesley said of the members of one of the earliest Methodist societies that he doubted that they had been made perfect in love because they came to church to enjoy religion instead of to learn how they could become holy. 2. A man may be considered spiritual when he wants to see the honor of God advanced through his life even if it means that he himself must suffer temporary dishonor or loss. Such a man prays ?Hallowed be Thy name,? and silently adds, ?at any cost to me, Lord.? He lives for God?s honor by a kind of spiritual reflex. Every choice involving the glory of God is for him already made before it presents itself. He does not need to debate the matter with his own heart; there is nothing to debate. The glory of God is necessary to him; he gasps for it as a suffocating man gasps for air.

~A.W. TOZER~

DIVINE JEALOUSY FOR THE TRUTH

“O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth?” –Jeremiah 5:3

The word “truth” in Scripture refers both to doctrine and practice. It points both to the “error” and the “lie.” It classes both together. It condemns both. False speaking, whether in reference to teaching or witness-bearing, is declared to be abominable to God. His eyes are upon the truth. They watch over it, to guard it and to maintain it.

The theory of many is that God’s eyes are not upon the truth, and that therefore a man may believe what he pleases, and say what he likes, without fearing God’s displeasure. It is only when the untrue thing which he thinks and says interferes with human rights, or social privileges that he is to be visited with punishment. Jehovah’s eyes, then, are upon the truth,–the truth as found on earth among the sons of men.

In this watchfulnesss, this discernment, this justice, there are some things specially to be observed.

1. There is but one standard of truth. God fixes the standard and acts on it, without caprice, or partiality, or compromise. Error is a thousandfold,–pliable, moveable, uncertain,–truth is ONE. On this God calls on us to act, on this he acts himself. So that man cannot excuse his error or his falsehood on the ground that there were more standards than one.

2. This one standard is definite. It is not vague or shadowy. It does not merely settle certain great principles, but smaller ones as well. It is so very definite and precise as to leave man without excuse. It lets man know explicitly God’s present estimate of truth and falsehood, as well as his future judgment on these. It is so distinct that no one with an open ear and eye can hesitate about it. In our day men call this narrowness, bigotry, littleness. But if we only insist on being of one mind with God, he that condemns us condemns God himself. Let us be as broad as he is, but no broader; that is enough, whatever the age may say.

3. That one standard is universal. It is for every age and clime. It never becomes obsolete. It is like God himself,–unchangeable; like the Christ of God,–the same yesterday, today, and forever. It was given to our fathers, it is given to us. It suited the East, it suits the West. It suited the Jew, it suits the Gentile also; barbarian, Scythian, bond, or free. It suited the Asian, it suits the European. It suits the Briton, it suits the Indian, and the African. It suits the unlearned, it suits the learned too. One standard for all! One universal test or measurement of truth.

4. That one standard is the Bible. It is no secret standard that He judges us by, or by which He tests truth and error. The test which He gives to us He acts upon himself. The Bible is His book of truth as well as ours. That book contains what God calls truth,–truth definite, fixed, certain, not moveable, nor waxing obsolete, nor falling behind the age. The Bible is the one book of the age, nay, of the ages,–of all ages and all climes. Man’s present unbelief seeks to loosen its authority, to dilute its statements, to render indefinite its doctrines. But the word of the Lord endureth forever. God is not a man that he should lie. His word is sure, his truth is everlasting, his book is like the sun in the firmament; a light for all ages and lands.

Thus God’s eyes are on the truth. It is truth that he delights in, it is error that he abhors. It is truth that he is seeking for among the sons of men. What a condemnation to the laxity of thought in the present day! As if man were at liberty to think as he pleases, irrespective of God and his book! God watches over the truth; he marks each error, each deviation from his one standard.

O man

Continued from DIVINE JEALOUSY FOR THE TRUTH

O man, hast thou received the very truth, and the whole truth of God? He has given man a book for a standard, not that he may speculate, but that he may not speculate, but believe. What God, in and by that book, demands of men is not criticism, opinion, speculation, but BELIEF. God’s eyes are on the truth, to see if men believe it.

The day is at hand, the great day of the Lord, when TRUTH only shall be set on high, and error put to shame. O man, God’s eyes are on the truth, let thine be on it too. Be true to truth; be true to thyself; be true to God. ~HORATIUS BONAR~

-Taken from Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts and Themes, Vol. I, 1868.

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MISUNDERSTOOD SALT

For choosing God as our one all absorbing interest we Christians are sometimes scorned or written off as hopelessly narrow-minded. But must we apologize? Must we apologize that we have chosen Christ as our career? That we deliberately will to walk with those who walk with God? That we have chosen eternity over time and heaven over earth? Must we apologize that we have chosen to seek good and not evil all the days of our lives? That we have chosen so to live that we dare to die? In so choosing whom have we injured? Whose son or daughter is the worse for knowing us? Whose house have we robbed or whose money have we stolen? Whom have we led into crime? Who is a worse husband or father or citizen for following our Savior? If we have wronged anyone it is in spite of our Christian faith, not because of it. No man, no home, no nation is the worse for the presence of a real Christian. Gerhard Tersteegen, the saintly silk weaver, said it for us in a delightful little bit of verse: Child of the Eternal Father, Bride of the Eternal Son, Dwelling place of God the Spirit, Thus with Christ made ever one; Dowered with joy beyond the angels, Nearest to His throne, They the ministers attending His beloved one: Granted all my hearts desire, All things made my own; Feared by all the powers of evil, Fearing God alone; Walking with the Lord in glory Through the courts divine, Queen within the royal palace, Christ forever mine: Say, poor worldling, can it be That my heart should envy thee? ~A.W. TOZER~

http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/articles/index.php?view=article&...

" ...that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory." Eph 1:12

"The joy of anything... is to fulfill its created purpose: 'that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.' (Eph 1:12)

"We are not here to win souls, to do good to others. That is the natural outcome, but it is not our aim, and this is where so many of us cease to be followers. We will follow God as long as He makes us a blessing to others, but when He does not, we will not follow.

"Suppose our Lord had measured His life by whether or not He was a blessing to others. Why, He was a 'stone of stumbling' to thousands, actually to His own neighbors, to His own nation... and in His own country 'He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief' (Matt. 13:58).

"If our Lord had measured His life by its actual results, He would have  been full of misery. We get switched off when instead of following God we follow Christian work and workers. We are much more concerned over the passion for souls than the passion for Christ....

"The passion for souls in not a New Testament idea at all, but religious commercialization. When we are taken up with this passion, the joy of the Lord is never ours but only an excitable joy which always leaves a snare behind."

 http://www.crossroad.to/HisWord/notes/oswald/purpose.htm

MEDIOCRE CHRISTIANITY

Read your New Testament again and you will agree that mediocrity in the Christian life is not the highest that Jesus offers. Certainly God is not honored by our arrested spiritual development - our permanent half-way spiritual condition. We all know that the Bible tells us that we honor God by going on to full maturity in Christ! Why, then, do we settle for those little pleasures that tickle the saintlets and charm the fancy of the carnal? It is because we once heard a call to take up the cross and instead of following toward the heights, we bargained with the Lord like a street huckster! We felt an urge to be spent for Christ, but instead of going on, we started asking questions. We began to bicker and bargain with God about His standards for spiritual attainment. This is plain truth-not about unbelieving "liberals"-but about those who have been born again and who dare to ask, "Lord, what will it cost me?"

~A. W. TOZER~

Acquaintance, Not Hearsay

SOME NEW MYSTERY BAGGED

For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. --Acts 17:21 

The temptation to forget the few spiritual essentials and to go wandering off after unimportant things is very strong, especially to Christians of a certain curious type of mind. Such persons find the great majors of the faith of our fathers altogether too tame for them. Their souls loathe that light bread; their appetites crave the gamy tang of fresh-killed meat. They take great pride in their reputation as being mighty hunters before the Lord, and any time we look out we may see them returning from the chase with some new mystery hanging limply over their shoulder. 

Usually the game they bring down is something on which there is a biblical closed season. Some vague hint in the Scriptures, some obscure verse about which the translators disagree, some marginal note for which there is not much scholarly authority: these are their favorite meat. They are especially skillful at propounding notions which have never been a part of the Christian heritage of truth. Their enthusiasm mounts with the uncertainty of their position, and their dogmatism grows firmer in proportion to the mystery which surrounds their subject. The Next Chapter After the Last, 12-13. 

"Lord, keep me faithful to Your Word, give me understanding of the unfathomable truths contained therein, but deliver me from that danger of seeking some new insight to enhance my reputation as some kind of brilliant scholar. Amen." 

~A.W. TOZER~

"We have gotten accustomed to the blurred puffs of gray fog that pass for doctrine in churches and expect nothing better. From some previously unimpeachable sources are now coming vague statements consisting of a milky admixture of Scripture, science, and human sentiment that is true to none of its ingredients because each one works to cancel the others out.  Little by little Christians these days are being brainwashed. One evidence is that increasing numbers of them are becoming ashamed to be found unequivocally on the side of truth. They say they believe, but their beliefs have been so diluted as to be impossible of clear definition. Moral power has always accompanied definite beliefs. Great saints have always been dogmatic. We need a return to a gentle dogmatism that smiles while it stands stubborn and firm on the Word of God that lives and abides forever." - A. W. Tozer

A Bottle in the Ocean

...To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. --Ephesians 3:19 

Pentecost means that the Deity came to mankind to give Himself to man, that man might breathe Him in as he breathes in the air, that He might fill men. Dr. A. B. Simpson used an illustration which was about as good as any I ever heard. He said, "Being filled with the fullness of God is like a bottle in the ocean. You take the cork out of the bottle and sink it in the ocean, and you have the bottle completely full of ocean. The bottle is in the ocean, and the ocean is in the bottle. The ocean contains the bottle, but the bottle contains only a little bit of the ocean. So it is with the Christian." 

We are filled unto the fullness of God, but, of course, we cannot contain all of God because God contains us; but we can have all of God that we can contain. If we only knew it, we could enlarge our vessel. The vessel gets bigger as we go on with God. The Counselor, 68. 

"Enlarge my vessel, Lord, and fill me with more and more of the fullness of God. Amen."

~A.W. Tozer~

Hey Watrchman,

 I hope your week is starting out great. I have been reading some of your AW Tozer quotes. Do they come to your email or do you find them yourself? It seems I used to have a website bookmarked with AW Tozer among other past preachers .. but I cant find it. I have what seems like hundreds of sites saved.  Mostly "how to" sites though.     I should go through them someday. Anyway..... thank you for posting his writings.  Love to you and I hope the best for you and yours. love janie

No , my coffee table isn't cleaned off yet, as for now it is cluttered with a wood pegged jumbling tower ,an old macdonald had a farm book a sweater and an empty cup. Ive been lazy today . My grandkids and daughters were here yesterday .. so today I layed around doing nothing.  I am afraid I am addicted to youtube videos. I started out "I think" on youtube watching preachers and some songs. But now I just watch random videos. I think now I am into the vlogs of some people. A while ago it was three ladies sitting on a couch reminiscing about their day. Other videos I sometimes watch are what is called skyping while out. Ladies get together and either go shopping in thrift stores or drive on scenic routes. I love watching those for sure. I guess my rason for telling you all that is because that's my rotten excuse of saying I haven't read any of John chapter 2. Well. I am thinking maybe I did a while back... Im not sure. I even forgot again about the bible sites. I am sorry.... I will look now to one of the sites you gave me and listen now. Thank you for reminding me of my coffee table. I see my bible and the AW Tozer book on the bottom shelf of it now.  <3  Thank you for letting me know how you find AW Tozers writings.

I forgot.... yes I will also listen to LTs link... I will find it and copy the link into a folder. Thank you again. :-). Are there any certain titles you would like to discuss first?  Let me know and I will listen to that one first. Thank you again . I laughed when I read your comment about my coffee table.... that was funny... but still a good reminder for me.

GOD ENCOUNTER

It is fear of falling into the hands of God that makes us so eager to get things reduced to a formula. We feel that if we can learn the ?secret? of salvation or the ?steps? into the blessed life, we can control our future and (though we would not admit it) control God Himself to a large degree. This saves face and preserves our self-confidence, but it also mutes the voice of power in the gospel and weakens the operations of God in the soul. Only the despairing heart can know the inward witness. 
In the final analysis, no one can lead another to God. All he can do is to lead the inquirer to the door of the kingdom and urge him onward. Between God and the returning soul there is a zone of obscurity through which he cannot see. It is the light that no man can approach unto and past which no one can go on his feet or by means of reason or theological knowledge. There faith must make its leap of pure trust into the arms of God crying with Job, ?Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him? (Job 13:15), or with Newton, ?O Lord, I trust in Thee completely, and if I go to hell I?ll go down standing on Thy Word.? 

It is this utter desperation that brings the witness, and yet I cannot tell anyone how to reach such a state. All I can do is to urge everyone to repent and believe on Jesus Christ. If the repentance is genuine and the faith real, all human confidence will come crashing down and the humbled soul will be forced to make its leap of faith alone. 

The reader that cannot find his way from here is in all probability still impenitent. And let him beware of seeking cheap comfort from a text jockey who will cry ? `Peace, peace,?. . . when there is no peace? (Jeremiah 6:14). He had better by far take his Bible and retire to the secret place to seek God alone. If there?s hope for him, he?ll find it there. But he?ll find it nowhere else. ~A.W. TOZER~

I looked back of what I had read and I think I was reading in !st John instead of the book of John. Im getting ready to lie down and listen to one of them.  Thank you for reminding me.

STANDING FOR TRUTH

We have developed in recent times a peace-loving, soft-spoken, tame and harmless brand of Christian of whom the world has no fear and for whom it has little respect. We are careful, for instance, never to speak in public against any of the false cults lest we be thought intolerant. We fear to talk against the destructive sins of modern civilization for fear someone will brand us as bigoted and narrow. Little by little we have been forced off the hard earth into a religious cloud-land where we are permitted to wing our harmless way around, like swallows at sundown, saying nothing that might stir the ire of the sons of this world. That Neo-Christianity, which seems for the time to be the most popular (and is certainly the most aggressive), is very careful not to oppose sin. It wins its crowds by amusing them and its converts by hiding from them the full implications of the Christian message. It carries on its projects after the ballyhoo methods of American business. Well might we paraphrase Wordsworth and cry, "Elijah, thou shouldst be living at this hour; America has need of thee." We stand in desperate need of a few men like Elijah who will dare to face up to the brazen sinners who dictate our every way of life. Sin in the full proportions of a revolution or a plague has all but destroyed our civilization while church people have played like children in the marketplace. What has happened to the spirit of the American Christian? Has our gold become dim? Have we lost the spirit of discernment till we can no longer recognize our captors? How much longer will we hide in caves while Ahab and Jezebel continue to pollute the temple and ravage the land? Surely we should give this some serious thought and prayer before it is too late--if indeed it is not too late already.~A.W. TOZER~

Hey :-)

Yes I listened to 1 John and I think 2 and 3. The audio continued on without stopping. I will need to listen again but this time have pen and paper with me because I had a few questions that I cant remember. I actually told myself I would remember but I don't.  I'm getting ready to go to bed , so Im going to click on one of LTs links to listen to. I actually started to listen to one of his links the other day that he posted but decided not to because it was mentioned that something messed up and some of the ending was gone. To me that would be like reading a good book but then you find that the last page had been ripped out. I will look for one though.  Thank you for your help.   <3

Neither the word adoration nor any of its forms is found in our familiar King James Bible, but the idea is there in full bloom. The great Bible saints were, above all, enraptured lovers of God. The psalms celebrate the love which David (and a few others) felt for the person of God. As suggested above, Paul admitted that the love of God was in his breast a kind of madness: ?For whether we be beside ourselves, it is of God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love of Christ constraineth us? (2 Cor. 5:13-14). In Weymouth?s translation the passage reads, ?For the love of Christ overmasters us.? The idea appears to be that Paul?s love for Christ carried him beyond himself and made him do extravagant things which to a mind untouched with the delights of such love might seem quite irrational. Perhaps the most serious charge that can be brought against modern Christians is that we are not sufficiently in love with Christ. The Christ of Fundamentalism is strong but hardly beautiful. It is rarely that we find anyone aglow with personal love for Christ. I trust it is not uncharitable to say that in my opinion a great deal of praise in conservative circles is perfunctory and forced, where it is not downright insincere. ~A.W. Tozer~

John 5:39-47

39Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. 40And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. 41I receive not honour from men. 42But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. 43I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. 44How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? 45Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. 46For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. 47But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?