Opinions and Philosophy

This site contains my opinions and philosophy on everything and anything that I feel like commenting on. Remember:
Never take yourself too seriously.
A wise man learns from his own mistakes, but a wiser man learns from the mistakes of others.

08/30/2010 - A W Tozer

In his daily walk and ministry Tozer had a sense of God that enveloped him in reverence and adoration. His one daily exercise was the practice of the presence of God, pursuing Him with all his strength and energy. To him, Jesus Christ was a daily wonder, a recurring astonishment, a continual amazement of love and grace.

Toward the end of his life Tozer remarked, "I have found God to be cordial and generous and in every way easy to live with." For almost fifty years Tozer lived in God. He was not a perfect man; He had his faults and “warts,” possessed a disposition that caused him grief and heartache. Although never nasty or venomous, at times he had to apologize to those he inadvertently hurt when he spontaneously popped their balloons of pretense, pomposity and posturing.

Toward the end of his ministry he requested of his congregation: "Pray for me in the light of the pressures of our times. Pray that I will not just come to a wearied end ?- an exhausted, tired old preacher, interested only in hunting a place to roost. Pray that I will be willing to let my Christian experience and Christian standards cost me something right down to the last gasp!" (emphasis mine)

On May 12, 1963, A.W. Tozer's earthly labors ended. His faith in God's majesty became sight as he entered His presence. At the funeral his daughter Becky said something typical of what Tozer himself would have said. "I can't feel sad; I know Dad's happy; he's lived for this all his life." And so he had. Although his physical presence is far removed from us, Tozer will continue to minister to those thirsty for the things of God.

The above is quoted from: A. W. Tozer Classics

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08/27/2010 - Divine and Deathless Treasure

A. W. Tozer

The truth is that God has never planned that His children should live forever stretched upon a cross. Christ Himself endured His cross for only six hours. When the cross had done its work, life entered and took over. "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name." His joyful resurrection followed hard upon His joyless crucifixion. But the first had to come before the second. The life that halts short of the cross is but a fugitive and condemned thing, doomed at last to be lost beyond recovery. That life which goes to the cross and loses itself there to rise again with Christ is a divine and deathless treasure. Over it death hath no more dominion. Whoever refuses to bring his old life to the cross is but trying to cheat death, and no matter how hard he may struggle against it, he is nevertheless fated to lose his life at last. The man who takes his cross and follows Christ will soon find that his direction is away from the sepulcher. Death is behind him and a joyous and increasing life before. His days will be marked henceforth not by ecclesiastical gloom, the churchyard, the hollow tone, the black robe (which are all but the cerements of a dead church), but by "joy unspeakable and full of glory."


James 3:13-18 ESV

13Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 17But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.


James 3:13-18 The Message

Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here's what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It's the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Mean-spirited ambition isn't wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn't wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn't wisdom. It's the furthest thing from wisdom—it's animal cunning, devilish conniving. Whenever you're trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others' throats. Real wisdom, God's wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.

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02/02/2010 - Greater works than these

John 12:14

Intro:

http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/campolo_4001.htm

When we read John 12:14 our mind automatically falls into the trap of defining greater works as miracles and the astounding. We have to remember to use other passages to help us interpret what Jesus meant here. There have been thousands of well intentioned Christians believing this verse means we should be able to do any number of miraculous works at our discretion. This is not the case and a waste of precious time to pursue.

What did Jesus mean by "greater works than these" then? Matthew 25:31-36 tells us how Jesus will judge us on judgment day. Notice that the works he recounts for the righteous are ones of love, mercy, and grace not the miraculous. The unrighteous show an utter lack of these works. Now lets look at a parallel passage to this one in Matthew; Matthew 7:21-23. Here we see those who had done miraculous works, but they counted for naught. I am not saying that God does not on occasion do the miraculous for us. I am saying that the miraculous is not the greater works that Christ is speaking of in John 12:14 as also evidenced here and by 1 Corinthians 13. We need to stop wasting precious time in the pursuit of the fantasy of the miracle filled Christian life and devout our time to "greater works than these". Let's pray for miracles, but lets not dither over them when they do not occur as we wish. There are greater works to do.

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02/01/2010 - Faith or works

Catholics teach a salvation partially through works. Evangelicals teach we are saved solely by faith. Which is correct? Well as we see many times the truth lies somewhere in between. Consider the following passage:

Matthew 25:31-36

We see here that on judgment day people are separated based upon what they did and did not do. Ephesians 2:8 and 9 tell us we are saved by grace not by works. Except there is more to the story. We have to interpret the Ephesians' passage along side of the above passage from Matthew and James 2:20 that teaches us faith without works is dead.

Jesus likened faith to a mustard seed, Matthew 17:19-20, because faith is meant to take root and grow. The fruit of faith are works of grace, love, forgiveness, mercy, and the like. So faith by itself is not enough it must find its completeness in works as evidenced by how Jesus described how we were to be judged upon His return.

We see that works do not save us, but if we are truly followers of Christ our works will make it obvious that we are such since we have an efficacious faith at work inside us.

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01/03/2010 - Faith and Intellect

Faith and intellect are two diametrically opposed forces in many Christian circles it seems. It seems that simply just believing is enough to justify and solidify a belief. Whether there is any actual scriptural foundation for such a belief is not important when it tickles our ears and justifies our actions. We over invest our emotions into many of our beliefs and under invest our minds in searching them out. We do not read dissenting views or study opposing view points because we "believe" they cannot possibly hold any truth as they contradict our assumptions and feelings or we are just ignorant of any other possible interpretations.

The Bible in untrained hands is a very dangerous tool without the mature guidance of others who have spent time truly studying it. I believe we've turned a belief system that was meant to be organic into something quite institutional. We have many "teachers" who presume to teach, but have not been taught themselves in how to listen to dissenting viewpoints and then rightly divide the word of truth with as little personal bias as possible.

Faith and intellect go hand in hand and must or we are lead into all kinds of errors as evidenced by all the silliness that takes place on Christian TV. Many Charismatics especially have created a Christian fantasy world that has divested the Gospel of much of its real practical power for the world most find themselves in. If only God always healed everyone all the time and we could all be materially wealthy if we just exercised the right kind/amount of faith. Such that preach these things hold out false hope whose fruit is disappointment, frustration, and ignorance. God's power is not at its greatest display in signs and wonders. The most powerful display is to be witnessed in those who live their lives with integrity in the most difficult of circumstances. 2 Timothy chapter 3 is all about the display of the power of God in a life continually lived with integrity.

2 Timothy 4:3-5 (The Message)
You're going to find that there will be times when people will have no stomach for solid teaching, but will fill up on spiritual junk food-catchy opinions that tickle their fancy. They'll turn their backs on truth and chase mirages. But you-keep your eye on what you're doing; accept the hard times along with the good; keep the Message alive; do a thorough job as God's servant.

2 Timothy 2:15 (English Standard Version)
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

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