muses

One word: wow.

***

Unbelief says:

Some other time, but not now;
some other place, but not here;
some other people, but not us.

Faith says:

Anything He did anywhere else He will do here;
anything He did any other time He is willing to do now;
anything He ever did for other people He is willing to do for us!With our

feet on the ground,
and our head cool,
but with our heart ablaze with the love of God,we walk out in this fullness of the Spirit, if we will yield and obey.

God wants to work through you!

- A.W. Tozer, The Counselor: Straight Talk About the Holy Spirit from a 20th Century Prophet

I-can’t-breathe… It’s Tozer on audio!

Aiden Wilson Tozer was one of the first Christian authors I knew. He never minced his words in his messages, always allowing the words to cut straight to the heart, challenging believers to love God for who He is. I never thought I would get to hear him preach, but what do you know? The Alliance has made more than 200 audio sermons available on their website. Some of these trace back to 1953… Ah, the wonders of technology!

Orthodoxy, or right opinion, is, at best, a very slender part of religion. Though right tempers cannot subsist without right opinions, yet right opinions may subsist without right tempers. There may be a right opinion of God without either love or one right temper toward Him. Satan is a proof of this.

A. W. Tozer quoted Wesley (dunno if it’s Charles or John) in the preface of his book, the Pursuit of God, to communicate the fact that one may claim to have the knowledge of God, yet not know His presence. This reminds me of James 2:19 (”You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.”), where James talked about how faith must be accompanied by works, lest we are like demons who believe that there is one God and fear Him, yet remain demons still.

I can’t help but ask myself as well, do I just have a right opinion of God, or do I truly know Him personally? This would have to be tested and proven in my everyday activities then. I don’t want to be presumptuous to answer the question now.

Just as I shared that all of our deeds can be performed to the glory of God, A.W. Tozer also pointed out some things that I didn’t know of in the past:

It does not mean… that everything we do is of equal importance with everything else we do or we may do. One act of a good man’s life may differ widely from another in importance. Paul’s sewing of tents was not equal to his writing of an Epistle to the Romans, but both were accepted of God and both were true acts of worship. Certainly it is more important to lead a soul to Christ than to plant a garden, but the planting of the garden can be as holy an act as the winning of a soul.

Again, it does not mean that every man is as useful as every other man. Gifts differ in the body of Christ. A Billy Bray is not to be compared with a Luther or a Wesley for sheer usefulness to the church and to the world; but the service of the less gifted brother is as pure as that of the more gifted, and God receives both with equal pleasure.

The ‘layman’ need never think of his humbler task as being inferior to that of his minister. … It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it. The motive is everything. Let a man sanctify the Lord God in his heart (i.e. to set apart his heart for God) and he can therefore do no common act. All he does is good and acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

I realised that the truth shared by Tozer is related to what was taught in Youth Fellowship for the last month. When Christ is the centre of my life and everything is aligned to Him – that is true worship. I used to think that one who display personal worship in his/her life would lift hands and break into songs spontaneously every day (ha, ha). Yes, I had such silly thoughts. And now I’m just starting to learn how to worship God in what I do, especially in work, which I give at least 8.5 hours to every weekday.

I’ve finished reading a book by one of my favourite authors last week and the last chapter has reminded me of truth that I’ve learned and shed light on those that I didn’t know. I will share the truth that God has reinforced first. In A.W. Tozer’s the Pursuit of God, the chapter titled ‘the Sacrament of Living’ touched on the issue of Sacred vs. Secular, and discussed the believers’ response toward sacred acts (e.g. prayer, Bible reading) and ordinary activities (e.g. working, eating, washing my laundry). Toward the latter, he wrote,

These we often do reluctantly and with many misgivings, often apologising to God for what we consider a waste of time and strength. The upshot of this is that we are uneasy most of the time. We go about our common tasks with a feeling of deep frustration, telling ourselves pensively that there’s a better day coming when we shall slough off this earthly shell and be bothered no more with the affairs of this world… Most Christians are caught in this trap. They cannot get a satisfactory adjustment between the tightrope between two kingdoms (the spiritual and natural) and they find no peace in either. Their strength is reduced, their outlook confused and their joy is taken from them.

Yes, there were times that I wonder why I gave my time to activities that seemed purposeless and dull. If I’m a full-time Christian worker, then perhaps my life would be more pleasing to God. That was my immature thought. And God had already corrected me through the verse in 1 Cor. 10,

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. (v. 31)

The word of God has opened the possibility of our every act contributing to the glory of God. And in Jesus’ life, He demonstrated a life that pleased God in all things (John 8:29). So my life is not made holier because of supposedly ‘holier’ deeds or work; my mundane life can be worship unto God when I offer all my acts to Him in faith (even ironing the clothes). But as Tozer said, this would only come with committed prayer to get away from the twisted opinion of the sacred-secular divide. And the evil one would be there ‘to remind the Christian that he is giving the better part of the day to the things of the world and allotting to his religious duties only a trifling portion of his time.’ And as you know, it is but to discourage and confuse us. So be on guard! And pray!