~ emerging thought in Montana ~

Labels: A.W. Tozer, Bible, emerging church, exchanged life

Posted by iggy at 7/21/2008 10:39:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Labels: A.W. Tozer, Christian mystics, emerging church, life

Posted by iggy at 5/20/2008 07:15:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Labels: A.W. Tozer, Christian mystics, emerging church, ken silva

Posted by iggy at 2/28/2008 01:31:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Labels: A.W. Tozer, emerging church, prayer, Truth

Posted by iggy at 2/23/2008 10:08:00 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Labels: A.W. Tozer, emerging church, exchanged life, free will, Truth

Posted by iggy at 2/12/2008 04:03:00 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Labels: A.W. Tozer, Faith, in Christ, thoughts

Posted by iggy at 1/24/2008 08:31:00 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Labels: A.W. Tozer, discernment, emerging church

Posted by iggy at 1/16/2008 03:45:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Labels: A.W. Tozer, contemplation, emerging church, great quotes

Posted by iggy at 1/11/2008 08:02:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Labels: A.W. Tozer, contempation, emerging church, exchanged life, Grace, great quotes., Salvation

Posted by iggy at 11/27/2007 07:07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

The Next Chapter after the Last
Chapter # Twenty-Five
The Logic of the Incarnation
God in "People" Expression

If in the infinite condescension of God, mankind was made with a nature somewhat like its creator, then is it not reasonable that God could clothe Himself with human nature in the mystery of incarnation? and all within the framework of easy possibility without the embarrassment of uniting things unlike each other? When the ancient Word stood up in human flesh, He felt at home. He was not out of His element, for had He not heard the Father say, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness"? There was nor jar, no wrench caused by the forced union of dissimilar natures. It is our humble opinion that the "exile" element in the earthly experience of our Lord has been greatly overplayed. That He was sad and lonely and far from home, a stranger in a strange land, is an idea that has grown up around the beautiful and the simple fact, but it is not necessarily a part of the fact. So far as we can recall there is nothing in the record to give the impression that His presence in human flesh was an unnatural or painful experience. He happily called Himself "the Son of man," not an exile among men. All this is not to attempt to take away from the valid mystery that surrounds the Incarnation or to lessen the awe with which we contemplate the wonder of the Word becoming flesh to dwell among us. It is rather to clear away unauthorized notions and give the beauty of the Incarnation a chance to make its own impression upon us. That impression will be deep enough without our adding anything to it.

Prayer
Father, I see in Christ living among people what You desire in my living by means of the indwelling Spirit. He produces the product of His control-the fruit of the Spirit. May that fruit characterize my life!
Scripture

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.— John 1:14

Thought
In Christ, God becomes "people"-you and me kind of people except for our sin. He exuded the glory of the Only Begotten. The eye of faith could perceive His origin and sense that He was full of grace and truth. All this in "people" expression.

Labels: A.W. Tozer, contemplation, emerging church, exchanged life, in Christ, Incarnational living

Posted by iggy at 10/27/2007 09:42:00 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Labels: A.W. Tozer, Christian mystics, Christian Research Network, critics of the emerging church, CRN, discernment ministries, emerging church, free will, ken silva.

Posted by iggy at 9/16/2007 12:46:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Labels: A.W. Tozer, confession, contemplation, CRN, emerging church, Faith, Grace, hope, Sliced, SOL

Posted by iggy at 9/14/2007 06:28:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Being and Doing as God Enables

Failing to get ready in time for eternity, and failing to get ready now for the great then that lies out yonder, is a trap in plain sight. There is an odd saying in the Old Testament, "How useless to spread a net in full view of all the birds" (Proverbs 1:17). When the man of God wrote that, he gave the birds a little credit. It would be silly for a bird watching me set the trap to conveniently fly down and get into it. Yet there are people doing that all the time. People who have to live for eternity fall into that trap set for them in plain sight. It is folly to put off to a tomorrow because you may never see the things that you should do now. It is an act of inexcusable folly to count on help that will never come. It is foolish to ignore God's help now offered us. Many are guilty of ignoring the help that is presently being extended to them, all the while waiting for help that will never come from others. There is not much that can be said in favor of lazy or careless Christians. God never told anyone to do anything that he or she could not do. Jesus said to the man with the paralyzed arm that hung at his side like a limp piece of flesh, "Stretch out your hand" (Matthew 12:13a). And the man, believing that Jesus was the Christ, stretched out his hand and was healed instantly. God has never asked anyone yet to do anything that He was not enabling the person to do.


Prayer
O Lord, teach me the sufficiency of Your grace and strength as I live this day. In Christ's name.

Scripture
I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
— Philippians 4:13

Thought
If He gives us strength we can do it. But what if He gives us strength and we don't use it? God's enablement unexercised--the story of many believers.

Labels: A.W. Tozer, Faith, Grace, great quotes, Works

Posted by iggy at 8/01/2007 11:31:00 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

God at Work or Just Me?

To apply pressure, a person projects himself or herself into the minds and consciences of people made in the image of God and forces them psychologically to do something they have no particular reason for wanting to do. They are not basically interested in it and have no satisfactory reason for doing it, but they are under pressure. If they do not have a reason for doing what they are going to do, they will not know why they are invovled. Then when they get out they will not be sure that they were in, and so the whole process makes for weak, spineless religion. This violates the law of human nature, which dictates that all valid acts must arise from a natural urge or from a convinced mind. An example of a natural urge is when you are hungry. You may be very hungry, but your hunger does not have a high intellectual content in it. Nobody needs to stand up and say, "Now, all you who are hungry raise your hands." You know you are hungry, and you just go out to eat. Hunger is a natural urge. Another legimate reason for an act is a convinced mind. I am convinced that I ought to do something, and I do it because I have a conviction that it ought to be done. Those are the only two reasons for doing anything. If I force people under psychological pressure and steamroll them into doing something because they are too weak to resist, I have violated their nature. Our approach to getting people out of the rut, then, must not be to pressure them to do something they don't want to do. Instead, we must present the truth and let the Holy Spirit prompt them to want to escape.

Prayer
Lord, my greatest offensive weapon is prayer--believing, trustful prayer. I want to be Your instrument but keep me from trying to do what only You can do.
Scripture
. . . Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:— John 16:7-8

Thought
Can we trust the Holy Spirit to convict of sin, to reveal Christ, to open the minds of people to understand spiritual truth? If He doesn't do it, it doesn't get done despite all our efforts.

Labels: A.W. Tozer, emerging church, great quotes, new creation, thoughts, Works

Posted by iggy at 7/29/2007 01:00:00 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Rut, Rot or Revival
Chapter # One
The Christian's Greatest Enemy


Spiritual Smugness

"Self-righteousness is terrible among God's people. If we feel that we are what we ought to be, then we will remain what we are. We will not look for any change or improvement in our lives. This will quite naturally lead us to judge everyone by what we are. This is the judgment of which we must be careful. To judge others by ourselves is to create havoc in the local assembly. Self-righteousness also leads to complacency. Complacency is a great sin and covers just about everything I have said about the rote and the rut. Some have the attitude, "Lord, I'm satisfied with my spiritual condition. I hope one of these days You will come, I will be taken up to meet You in the air and I will rule over five cities." These people cannot rule over their own houses and families, but they expect to rule over five cities. They pray spottily and sparsely, rarely attending prayer meeting, but they read their Bibles and expect to go zooming off into the blue yonder and join the Lord in the triumph of the victorious saints."

Labels: A.W. Tozer, emerging church, great quotes

Posted by iggy at 6/14/2007 06:22:00 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

I have heard people say that Only doctrine is important. Would they leave no room for Christian experience? Consider the preaching and the example of the famed Jonathan Edwards, used so mightily by God in the Great Awakening throughout New England in the 18th century. But you say, Jonathan Edwards was a Calvinist!

I know and that is my point. Edwards was acknowledged by society to have been one of the greatest intellects of his time. Yet he believed in genuine Christian experience so positively that he wrote a well-accepted blood, Religious Affections, in defense of Christian emotion. Charged by some that his revivals had too much emotion, Edwards stood forth and proclaimed that when men and women meet God, accepting His terms, they experience an awareness that lifts their hearts to rapture. What higher privilege is granted to mankind on earth than to be admitted into the circle of the friends of God! ~ Tozer

Labels: A.W. Tozer, Christian mystics, emerging church, great quotes., Spirituality

Posted by iggy at 5/31/2007 11:20:00 PM | Permalink | links to this post

Recently A.W. Tozer has been being used by some as one that would approve of a hate/judgementalism/shame based faith. I would beg to say this is far from the truth. These same people condemn and write against Christian mystics yet then quote Tozer proudly as one of themselves. This just goes to show the depravity of the "religionists" in their hatred to the Grace, Mercy, and Freedom that is in Jesus Christ. They argue over "words" like "meditate", "contemplation" and such as if these words are evil in and of themselves... they twist "mysticism" to be an unholy thing as if seeking after God was also evil. Here is a great chapter that should show that Tozer was actually writing against these people who proudly post his comments and twist what he taught to mean something quite contrary to what he did teach.

Blessings,
iggy


The Sanctification of the Secular (Chapter 13)

THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES that all things are pure to the pure, and I think we may assume that to the evil man all things are evil. The thing itself is not good or bad; goodness or badness belongs to human personality.

Everything depends upon the state of our interior lives and our heart's relation to God. The man that walks with God will see and know that for him there is no strict line separating the sacred from the secular. He will acknowledge that there lies around him a world of created things that are innocent in themselves; and he will know, too, that there are a thousand human acts that are neither good nor bad except as they may be done by good or bad men. The busy world around us is filled with work, travel, marrying, rearing our young, burying our dead, buying, selling, sleeping, eating and mixing in common social intercourse with our fellowmen.

These activities and all else that goes to fill up our days are usually separated in our minds from prayer, church attendance and such specific religious acts as are performed by ministers most of the week and by laymen briefly once or twice weekly.

Because the vast majority of men engage in the complicated business of living while trusting wholly in themselves, without reference to God or redemption, we Christians have come to call these common activities "secular" and to attribute to them at least a degree of evil, an evil which is not inherent in them and which they do not necessarily possess.

The Apostle Paul teaches that every simple act of our lives may be sacramental. "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." And again, "Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him."

Some of the great saints, who were great because they took such admonitions seriously and sought to practice them, managed to achieve the sanctification of the secular, or perhaps I should say the abolition of the secular. Their attitude toward life's common things raised those above the common and imparted to them an aura of divinity. These pure souls broke down the high walls that separated the various areas of their lives from each other and saw all as one; and that one they offered to God as a holy oblation acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Nicholas Herman (Brother Lawrence) made his most common act one of devotion: "The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer," he said, "and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament."

Francis of Assisi accepted the whole creation as his house of worship and called upon everything great and small to join him in adoration of the Godhead. Mother earth, the burning sun, the silver moon, the stars of evening, wind, water, flowers, fruits-all were invited to praise with him their God and King. Hardly a spot was left that could be called secular. The whole world glowed like Moses' bush with the light of God, and before it the saint kneeled and removed his shoes.

Thomas Traherne, the seventeenth century Christian writer, declared that the children of the King can never enjoy the world aright till every morning they wake up in heaven, see themselves in the Father's palace, and look upon the skies, the earth and the air as celestial joys, having such a reverent esteem for all as if they were among the angels.

All this is not to ignore the fall of man nor to deny the presence of sin in the world. No believing man can deny the Fall, as no observing man can deny the reality of sin; and as far as I know no responsible thinker has ever held that sin could ever be made other than sinful, whether by prayer or faith or spiritual ministrations. Neither the inspired writers of Holy Scripture nor those illuminated souls who have based their teachings upon those Scriptures have tried to make sin other than exceedingly sinful. It is possible to recognize the sacredness of all things even while admitting that for the time the mystery of sin worketh in the children of disobedience and the whole creation groaneth and travaileth, waiting for the manifestation of the children of God.

Traherne saw the apparent contradiction and explained it: "To contemn the world and to enjoy the world are things contrary to each other. How can we contemn the world, which we are born to enjoy? Truly there are two worlds. One was made by God, and the other by men. That made by God was great and beautiful. Before the Fall it was Adam's joy and the temple of his glory. That made by men is a Babel of confusions: invented riches, pomps and vanities, brought in by sin. Give all (saith Thomas a Kempis) for all. Leave the one that you may enjoy the other."

Such souls as these achieved the sanctification of the secular. The church today is suffering from the secularization of the sacred. By accepting the world's values, thinking its thoughts and adopting its ways we have dimmed the glory that shines overhead. We have not been able to bring earth to the judgment of heaven so we have brought heaven to the judgment of the earth. Pity us, Lord, for we know not what we do!

Labels: A.W. Tozer, Christian mystics, emerging church, Grace, great quotes, religionist, Teaching

Posted by iggy at 5/25/2007 09:25:00 PM | Permalink | links to this post

Regeneration does not precede faith…

He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. -Titus 3:5-7


How can it?

Once one actually notices the context of Titus 3:5-7 one should notice that one must be saved first to be regenerated… notice the first three words of the paragraph.



“He saved us.”

This is written to those who are already saved, not to those who need to get saved.
To say one must have a regenerate mind to receive the salvation gets things so out of whack… it is saying one must somehow get saved… before getting saved!

This is a teaching widely spread and is accepted. Yet, if one bothered to read the passage one might actually see the great salvation of our Great God!

We are saved by Grace…

By Faith…

Not of works…

It is Faith that is a gift… given to us that enables us to turn, we still must come to Christ and be regenerated as we must first receive the Holy Spirit to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit. If one has not yet been filled by the Holy Spirit then how can they be regenerated? Only after one come to Christ Jesus will they be regenerated and renewed by the Holy Spirit.

Note also these same people often teach of the wrath of God at the expense of God’s great grace… yet in the verses just before Titus 3:5-7 it is stated in verses 1 -4:

“Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men. For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,”

We are to be ready to do good works… to speak evil of no man… and to live after the kindness and love of God our Saviour. It is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance… not His wrath nor regeneration.

We cannot be regenerated of our spirit if one has not yet received the Holy Spirit Who does the work or regeneration. That is why man must acknowledge his sin nature and turn to God for salvation. Until that takes place and pride is removed… only when man humbly bends his knee and cries out “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” The God will now act upon the faith He gave for one to cry out for deliverance… only then will He deliver and give New Life… only then can man enter in through the Kindness of God’s Merciful Grace… only then will man be given the Spirit of Life that is the regeneration of our Spirit, only then by Grace do we then mover forward to conform to the Image of Jesus… only then do we be transformed by the renewing of our mind…


To say one is regenerate before salvation is heresy upon heresy as it negates the Blood of Jesus. For what value then is it if man is regenerate with out the washing of the Blood of our sins?

Again, some appeal to Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin all mighty men of God in their way… but even men of great knowledge fall prey to prove their doctrine at the expense of what the bible actually teaches. Salvation is a process and it seems some teach that regeneration can come before the process even begins.


Pray we do not fall victim this error… and lead someone to receiving the Holy Spirit before they have even turned to God. That would be just foolishness. The Spirit woos but has yet to indwell… and then we are regenerated by Him.

Faith is the gift to see in a moment our sin, and to also see the kindness of God in Christ Jesus... it is then at that moment we receive the gift of Faith by Grace... It is trusting at that moment that even though we cannot see who we are to be, we still trust that God will be faithful to do it, and after that regeneration begins. Regeneration is coming into New Life in Christ... one cannot come into that Life before they come into His Life... It is again nonsensical.

Faith is more about God's faithfulness to us than what some call our own faith. Salvation is offered by Grace. In that we respond to knowledge that God has done all for us at the Cross by His Blood... and in His death and Resurrection. We must accept that we do nothing except fall at His feet to be saved. For, just as Jesus must be our very Life... He is our only Salvation. The just shall live by faith... we are justified at the Cross and saved by His Blood, and Live by His Life giving Spirit.

So, again, all one needs to do is read three little words that sum up the issue... "He saved us".

Blessings,
iggy

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Labels: A.W. Tozer, beware, Bible, CNR, emerging church, exchanged life, Faith, False Teacher, Grace, John McArthur, lies, Lordship Salvation, Love, Salvation, Spurgeon, Steve Camp, Teaching, Truth, Works

Posted by iggy at 3/12/2007 09:59:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

I have come across many anti emerging sites that often quote A.W. Tozer. Many of these same sites rail against contemplation, meditation and "Christian" mysticism... I was looking into some new books and came across a wonderful book by A.W. Tozer called "The Christian book of Mystical Verse" which has some great poems and prose by some of his favorite "mystics"...





Here is a quote from the back of the book:





"Although many Christians cringe at the term "mystic," A.W. Tozer used the term to mean, "that spiritual experience common to the saints of the Bible times and well known to multitudes of person in the post-biblical era." He referred to the evangelical mystic as one "who has been brought by the gospel into intimate fellowship with the Godhead."





Here is one of the "gems" in the book... I might in the future share more.



Cooling Streams by Na­hum Tate
Nicholas Brady, 1696.


As pants the hart for cooling streams,
When heated in the chase,
So longs my soul, O God, for Thee
And Thy refreshing grace.
For Thee, my God, the living God,
My thirsty soul doth pine;
O, when shall I behold Thy face,
Thou majesty divine?
Why restless, why cast down, my soul?
Hope still; and thou shalt sing
The praise of Him Who is thy God,
Thy health’s eternal spring.
To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
The God Whom we adore,
Be glory as it was, is now,
And shall be evermore.






Blessings,
iggy

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Labels: A.W. Tozer, Answers to my Critics, Christian mystics, Christian Research Network, contempation, emerging church, exposing the watchdogs, prayer, Truth

Posted by iggy at 2/21/2007 06:09:00 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post