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I am Thy servant to do Thy will, and that will is sweeter to me than position or riches or fame and I choose it above all things on earth or in heaven. Though I am chosen of Thee and honored by a high and holy calling, let me never forget that I am but a man of dust and ashes, a man with all the natural faults and passions that plague the race of men. I pray Thee therefore, my Lord and Redeemer, save me from myself and from all the injuries I may do myself while trying to be a blessing to others. Fill me with thy power by the Holy Spirit, and I will go in Thy strength and tell of Thy
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Unfortunately, today it seems that many in the Church will accept any person who calls himself or herself a prophet. They hang on the individual’s every word, regardless of whether what he or she says ever materializes. It is the oratory of the moment that matters. The prophets we find in Scripture, however, spoke words that actually came to pass.
The remedy Tozer proposed was as drastic as the spiritual condition of the Church warranted. One item he emphasized was the fact that the world was too much with Christians, and that believers needed to be separated from it. This idea of separation from the world is one that has been lost on this generation of Christians. The Church is so intertwined with the world around that the two are essentially one and the same. However, Tozer recognized that unless believers are separated from the world, they will succumb to spiritual lethargy.
For Tozer, entertainment was simply the Church synchronizing with the world and succumbing to it.
For some reason, each generation of Christians believes they need to reinvent the spiritual wheel, but Tozer was able to see above and beyond all of this because his focus was not on the passing trends.
As the Church stands now, the man who sees this condition of worldly evangelicalism is written off as being somewhat fanatical. But the day is coming when the house will be left desolate and there will not be a man of God left among them.
I would like to live long enough to watch this develop and see how things turn out. I would like to live to see the time when the men and women of God—holy, separated and spiritually enlightened—walk out of the evangelical church and form a group of their own; when they get off the sinking ship and let her go down in the brackish waters of worldliness and form a new ark to ride out the storm.
To negotiate with the world is to forfeit the sense of God’s presence.
This spirit of Babylon, in the form of entertainment, has not only seeped into the Church but has also been welcomed through the front door with inviting arms and has come in like a flood.
The average Christian today is addicted to exterior pleasures. Can any Christian church survive today without a heavy dose of entertainment? It is the culture of fun, fun and more fun. Performance has replaced worship. We no longer have worshipers but rather observers and spectators who sit in awe of the performance. The demand is for something that will make us feel good about ourselves and make us forget about all of our troubles.
To confuse the matter and make it even worse, we have now what I shall call a performance-oriented worship. Just because you tack the word “worship” onto a phrase does not mean that it is worship acceptable to God.
The Church Fathers came into the presence of God with a sense of overwhelming reverence, which captivated them and brought them before God in holy silence. What has happened to reverence today? Where are those who get caught up in the spirit of reverence before their God? Where are those who have experienced the holy hush in the presence of God?
By lethargy, I mean living on yesterday’s momentum. That seems to explain the condition today. The Church Fathers did not look back and try to live in the past. The Church Fathers looked back to find their compass so they could go forward in the power and demonstration of the Holy Spirit.
The Church Fathers did not enjoy their religion. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs shows what their religion cost them. They did not expect an easy time of it. It was Charles Wesley (1707–1788) in his marvelous hymn “Soldiers of Christ, Arise” that set the tone for his generation: Soldiers of Christ, arise And put your armor on, Strong in the strength which God supplies, Through His eternal Son. Strong in the Lord of Hosts, And in That mighty power, Who in the strength of Jesus trusts Is more than a conqueror.
It is not by reading the Scriptures in the original languages or in some contemporary version that makes us better Christians. Rather, it is getting on our knees with the Scriptures spread before us, and allowing the Spirit of God to break our hearts. Then, when we have been thoroughly broken before God Almighty, we get up off our knees, go out into the world and proclaim the glorious message of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.
I fear that we may have become too apologetic with our apologetics, and in trying to please everyone we end up destroying the truth.
Now we have teams of experts who only know the letter of the law. We have people who have become religious snobs putting on a show for Christians in the hopes that the Sunday offering would be more than sufficient to subsidize a lifestyle of greed.
The first cult dominating Christianity today is to imitate what we see outside of the Church. This is a characteristic of immaturity, like a little toddler who sees someone do something and tries to imitate it without knowing what it really means. The secular media in America sets the standards for us in the Church. Churches now have “programs” directed by “emcees.” This is directly from the world of entertainment. This sacred cow of the world has been brought into the sanctuary of the living God. The Church naïvely imitates what it sees in the world without any regard to consequence.
What satisfies the Church should in no way satisfy the world. The true Christian has an insatiable appetite for Christ and the things of Christ, while the world has no such appetite.
Many evangelical churches are closer to the world than to New Testament standards in almost every regard.
The idea that religion is a form of entertainment is so far removed from New Testament teaching that it amazes me that otherwise good churches have succumbed to it.
It is true that what we feed is what grows. If we feed the carnal nature and its appetite, that will be the overpowering aspect of our life. If we feed the spiritual, our appetite for the things of God will grow.
For some reason the leaders in the evangelical church today believe that in order to accomplish what they want to accomplish for Christ, they need some converted celebrity to lead the way.
St. Ignatius said, “Apart from Him, let nothing dazzle you.” We are allowing everything but “Him” to dazzle us these days. We have become rather bored with God and the truths of Scripture. We seem to need something to jazz it all up and excite us. This has taken us far down the road to replacing God.
The Early Church was in wonderment at Christ. He dazzled them and stirred within such feelings of amazement that they could never get over Christ. All they talked about was Christ. All they thought about, from morning to night, was Christ. Christ was their only reason for living, and they were more than willing to die for Him.
When do we have time to stay at home? When do we have time to go to our closets and spend time in prayer and intercession for the community around us?
What we must remember is that only he who takes orders from Jesus Christ belongs to Him. The evangelical church is in the process of compromising this very thing and ignoring “thus saith the Lord.” Yes, we want any benefits that Christ may confer upon us. We want His help, protection and guidance. We even get misty-eyed over His birth, life, death, teaching and example. The problem comes when we will not take orders from Him. Christ cannot save the one He cannot control. To claim to be saved while ignoring His commandments is to live in utter delusion.
