the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Morning and Evening with A.W. Tozer
Tozer in the Morning
We Were Made to Worship
Mans nature indicates that he was created for three things: To think, to worship and to work. But thinking is not enough. Men are made to worship also, to bow down and adore in the presence of the Mystery inexpressible. Mans mind is not the top peak of his nature. Higher than his mind is his spirit, that something within him which can engage the supernatural, which under the breath of the Spirit can come alive and enter into conscious communion with heaven, can receive the divine nature and hear and feel and see the ineffable wonder that is God. When, therefore, an institution dedicated to the growth and development of the thinking person seeks at the same time to turn this thinker into a worshiper, our debt to that institution becomes all the greater. So many schools on every level are content to train the intellect, forgetting that they are dealing with but part of the man-an important part certainly, but a part only. The wise of the world who have not learned to worship are but demi-men, unformed and rudimentary. Their further development awaits the life-giving touch of Christ to wake them to spiritual birth and life eternal.
Tozer in the Evening
Confining the Holy Spirit to a Footnote
The question being discussed by many these days--why religion is increasing and morality slipping, all at the same time--finds its answer in this very error, the error of religious intellectualism. Men have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. The text alone will not elevate the moral life. To become morally effective, the truth must be accompanied by a mystic element, the very element supplied by the Spirit of truth. The Holy Spirit will not be banished to a footnote without taking terrible vengeance against His banishers. That vengeance may be seen today in the nervous, giggling, worldly minded and thoroughly carnal fundamentalism that is spreading over the land. Doctrinally, it wears the robes of scriptural belief, but beyond that it resembles the religion of Christ and His apostles not at all.
The mysterious presence of the Spirit is vitally necessary if we are to avoid the pitfalls of religion. As the fiery pillar led Israel through the wilderness, so the Spirit of truth must lead us all our journey through. One text alone could improve things mightily for us if we would but obey it: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding" (Proverbs 3:5).
