A DEEP AND SERIOUS MALADY OF THE SOUL

This is a rather prophetic word from A.W. Tozar, especially when you consider this was published in 1948. I wonder what he would have observed and written about the church today.

A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals. We have been trying to apply machine-age methods to our relations with God. We read our chapter, have our short devotions and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar.  

The tragic results of this spirit are all about us. Shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, the preponderance of the element of fun in gospel meetings, the glorification of men, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit: these and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and serious malady of the soul.

THE FRUIT OF FREEDOM

One last pearl from our persecuted brothers and sisters in China to inspire our boldness in proclaiming Christ:

I asked whether, when and how the oppressed could truly threaten a totalitarian oppressor. They offered this scenario in response:

The security police regularly harass a believer who owns the property where a house-church meets. The police say, "You have got to stop these meetings! If you do not stop these meetings, we will confiscate your house, and we will throw you out into the street."

Then the property owner will probably respond, "Do you want my house? Do you want my farm? Well, if you do, then you need to talk to Jesus because I gave this property to Him."

WHAT HINDERS US?

A.W Tozar has the courage to ask the question that haunts my own soul regularly and I dare say weighs on most Christians in some way, shape or form. Wrestling with the apparent disconnect of God's presence made available to us and, in fact, promised to us through faith in Jesus Christ and by the  work of the Holy Spirit, he asks what hinders us from experiencing the fullness of God's presence? Why do we linger in the outer courts of the tabernacle when a way has been made for us into the holy of holies?

Tozar's answer the question is this:

The answer usually given, simply that we are "cold," will not explain all the facts. There is something more serious than coldness of heart, something that may be back of that coldness and be the cause of its existence. What is it? What but the presence of a veil in our hearts? a veil not taken away as the first veil was, but which remains there still shutting out the light and hiding the face of God from us. It is the veil of our fleshly fallen nature living on, unjudged within us, uncrucified and unrepudiated. It is the close-woven veil of the self-life which we have never truly acknowledged, of which we have been secretly ashamed, and which for these reasons we have never brought to the judgment of the cross. It is not too mysterious, this opaque veil, nor is it hard to identify. We have but to look in our own hearts and we shall see it there, sewn and patched and repaired it may be, but there nevertheless, an enemy to our lives and an effective block to our spiritual progress...

A QUESTION TO PIERCE YOUR HEART

A conversation between an old man who had survived major persecution for his faith in Jesus and an American missionary seeking to understand how faith in Christ flourishes amidst suffering:

"I thank God and take great joy in knowing that I was suffering in prison and in my country, so that you, Nik, could be free to share Jesus in Kentucky."

"Oh, no!" I protested. "No! You are not going to do that! You are NOT going to put that on me. That is a debt so large that I can never repay you!"

"Son, that's the debt of the cross!" He leaned forward and poked me in the chest with his finger as he continued, "Don't you steal my joy! I took great joy that was suffering in me country, so that you could be free to witness in your country." 

Then he raised his voice in a prophet-like challenge that I knew would live with me forever: "Don't ever give up in freedom what we would never have given up in persecution!" (Nik Ripken, The Insanity of God, p. 195-196)

If that doesn't pierce your soul you need to read it again. And then let this question confront you which has haunted me today, in both my head and heart: Have I willingly and weakly forfeited in freedom that which this man and so many other people have refused to surrender in the face of the worst forms of suffering and persecution? 

HOLY DESIRE

"The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted. Too bad that with many of us He waits so long, so very long, in vain" (A.W. Tozar, The Pursuit of God, p. 18).

WHY PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS DON'T WRITE BOOKS

In a modern day missionary biography, The Insanity of God, Nik Ripken recalls some of the stories from a major research project he had undertaken, aimed at understanding how faith in Christ is sustained and even flourishes where the gospel is most violently opposed. His rendering of two particular interactions, one with a group of Russian believers and the other with a Ukranian brother, pierced my heart this morning as I read them.

The following account was after a round of interviews with a number of Christians in Russia where believers suffered significantly over a period of decades under communist rule:

When we stopped to eat lunch, I gently scolded the group, saying: "Your stories are amazing. Why haven't they been written down? Your stories sound like Bible stories come to life! I can't believe that you haven't collected them in a book, or recorded them in some video form..."

They seemed confused by what I was saying. Clearly, we were not understanding each other. Then one of the older pastors stood and motioned for me to follow him. He led me over to a large window in the front room of the home. s we stood together in front of the window, the old gentlemen speaking passable, but heavily accented English, said to me: "I understand that you have sons, Nik. Is that true?"

BOLDNESS AND WISDOM IN WITNESSING

I've noticed that the idea of sharing the gospel seems to intimidate most Christians. As I've read the Scriptures, I've also noticed that that fear is not unique to our generation or to the 21st century American brand of Christianity. Fear and insecurity about sharing the gospel was a reality in the early church as well. It was even true of the Apostle Paul. That's why Acts speaks repeatedly of believers gathering together and asking God for boldness to speak His word. That's why Paul let's the churches know he is praying for their boldness in sharing their faith. That's why Paul himself requests that these same churches pray for him to continue to preach the gospel boldly. Prayer for boldness was continuously necessary on behalf of all believers because it was continuously lacking in all believers.

That remains true for us as God's people. Our flesh always inclines us toward the fear of man. In fact, our flesh even inclines us toward contentment with fearing man. Apart from the empowering of the Spirit, we will sit back in a convenient and idle comfort that leads to spiritual apathy and atrophy.

THE LAWFUL USE OF THE LAW

In our church culture, "the law" has taken on a negative connotation. There are few things allegations that sting more for a church leader or a Christian than to be accused being too much law and not enough grace. In fact, the law has been pitted against grace, as though they are bitter enemies who are mutually exclusive. Most Christians or people familiar with the Scriptures would quote the apostle Paul to prove that point. Paul does speak out vehemently against legalists and heavy handed religious types who use the law to weigh people down with the burden of earning right standing with God. Absolutely, the law can be abused and misused to the peril of lost and hurting people in need of grace.

But in a letter to his young pastoral apprentice, Paul tells Timothy "we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully..." (1 Timothy 1:8). Understand, the law is not even morally neutral. Rather, the law, in and of itself, is a good thing. God's laws flow from His wisdom, kindness, goodness, grace, love and desire for our joy. The law is inherently good.