I heard a story one time about a man who was stranded by himself on a small island in the middle of the ocean. When he was finally located and the rescue team arrived, they noticed three huts on the island. While he was being tended to by the medical team, one of the doctors asked him why there were three huts. The man grinned as he sat up, pointed to the first one, and said, “That one is my home.” Then he pointed to the next one and said, “That one is my church.” And then he pointed to the last one and said, “And that was my former church.” Such a story is humorous and makes us laugh because of the irony and silliness, but is it really that far off from the attitude of so many people? It is astonishing the reasons that people come up with […]

Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil. (Prov 4:25-27 NIV)   Life can get busy, and it can be pretty tough to keep everything straight and to even slow down and think at times. And with so many tasks that need to be accomplished, we’re often challenged to maintain an underlying focus in life beyond simply trying to get done everything we need to. As we try to fulfill job responsibilities, care for family and friends, take care of our homes and belongings, and carve out some time to relax, our focus can be scattered and ever-changing. Throughout our busy days, if we don’t have an underlying focus or consistent guiding point of reference, we […]

What do silence and solitude have to do with spirituality and Christian faith? There is a long and rich tradition of seeking in silence the Divine and self-discernment within Christianity. This sort of practice developed a lot in the 3rd-5th centuries with the rise of monasticism in Christianity. One of the earliest desert monks wrote extensively about a concept called hesychia, which is practicing a deep inner stillness and silence. Hesychia isn’t just about finding a quiet environment or a place without distractions. It is about cultivating a profound inner tranquility and quietness in your soul. Much of the practice of hesychia has to do with wrestling the endless stream of thoughts that flood into our mind, which if we are not careful of and paying attention to, can be relentlessly noisy and drown out all shimmers of silence and stillness in ourselves. With increasing practice of contemplative prayer and […]

“We Christians are cut from the same bolt as the rest of mankind, and while we have been made partakers of a new nature we have not yet been entirely divested of the old. For this reason we are under constant temptation to lapse into the flesh and manifest the old nature rather than the new . . . Among the purest gifts we have received from God is truth. Another gift almost as precious and without which the first would be meaningless is our ability to grasp truth and appreciate it. For these priceless treasures we should be profoundly grateful . . . And because these and all other blessings flow to us by grace without merit or worth on our part we should be very humble and watch with care lest such undeserved favors, if unappreciated, be taken from us . . . The very truth that makes […]

“As we move farther on in the Christian life we may expect to encounter increased hostility from the enemy of our souls. Although this is seldom presented to Christians as a fact of life it is a very solid fact indeed as every experienced Christian knows, and one we shall learn how to handle or stumble over to our own undoing. 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. Satan hates the true Christian for several reasons. One is that God loves him, and whatever is loved by God is sure to be hated by the devil. Another is that the Christian, being a child of God, bears a family resemblance […]

“The Christian should always be aware that the devil’s master strategy against us is to destroy our power to wage spiritual warfare! And he has been succeeding, we must add. The average Christian these days is a harmless enough thing, God knows. He is a child wearing with considerable self-consciousness the harness of the warrior; he is a sick eaglet that can never mount up with wings; he is a spent pilgrim who has given up the journey and sits with a waxy smile trying to get what pleasure he can from sniffing the wilted flowers he has plucked by the way. Such as these have been reached! Satan has gotten to them early. By means of false teaching or inadequate teaching, or the huge discouragement that comes from the example of a decadent church, he has succeeded in weakening their resolution, neutralizing their convictions, and taming their original urge […]

“What is generally overlooked among humankind is that truth as set forth in the Christian Scriptures is a moral thing; it is not addressed to the intellect only, but to the will also. It addresses itself to the total man, and its obligations cannot be discharged by grasping it mentally. Truth engages the citadel of the human heart and is not satisfied until it has conquered everything there. The will must come forth and surrender its sword. It must stand at attention to receive orders, and those orders it must joyfully obey. Short of this any knowledge of Christian truth is inadequate and unavailing. Bible exposition without moral application raises no opposition. It is only when the hearer is made to understand that truth is in conflict with his heart that resistance sets in…Much that passes for New Testament Christianity is little more than objective truth sweetened with song and […]

“For a long time I have believed that truth, to be understood, must be lived; that Bible doctrine is wholly ineffective until it has been digested and assimilated by the total life. The essence of my belief is that there is a difference, a vast difference, between fact and truth. Truth in the Scriptures is more than a fact. A fact may be detached, impersonal, cold, and totally disassociated from life. Truth on the other hand, is warm, living, and spiritual. A theological fact may be held in the mind for a lifetime without its having any positive effect upon the moral character, but truth is creative, saving, transforming, and it always changes the one who receives it into a humbler and holier man. At what point, then, does theological fact become for the one that holds it a life-giving truth?—At that point where obedience begins.” ~A. W. Tozer, That […]

“Yet for all God’s good will toward us, He is unable to grant us our heart’s desires till all our desires have been reduced to one. When we have dealt with our carnal ambitions; when we have trodden upon the lion and adder of the flesh, have trampled the dragon of self-love under our feet and have truly reckoned ourselves to have died unto sin, then and only then can God raise us to newness of life and fill us with His blessed Holy Spirit. For everyone that actually crosses over into the Promised Land there are many who stand for a while and look longingly across the river and then turned sadly back to the comparative safety of the sandy wastes of the old life!” ~A. W. Tozer, Born After Midnight Oh how foolish our heart is! We pray to God to fill our cup with his goodness, mercy, and […]

“We can hold a correct view of truth only by daring to believe everything God has said about Himself.” ~A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy “Much of our difficulty as seeking Christians stems from our unwillingness to take God as He is and adjust our lives accordingly. We insist upon trying to modify Him and to bring Him nearer to our own image.” ~A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God I think one of the most uncomfortable things a Christian can come across while reading Scripture is a verse that states something that is contrary to what they want to believe or have traditionally believed for a long time. A dark cloud of dissonance forms within their mind and they scramble for any suitable explanation to dismiss the words in order to relax their taut nerves. Most Christians do not have the backbone to stand up and examine […]