A.W. Tozer

We must admit that the true Christian is a rather strange person in the eye of the unbeliever.

I use the adjective true in regard to the Christian not only to point out the necessity for the new birth but to indicate, also, the Christian who is living according to his new birth. I speak here of a transformed life pleasing to God, for if you want to be a Christian, you must agree to a very much different life. The life of obedience to Jesus Christ means living moment by moment in the Spirit of God and it will be so different from your former life that you will often be considered strange. In fact, the life in the Spirit is such a different life that some of your former associates will probably discuss the question of whether or not you are mentally disturbed. The true Christian may seem a strange person indeed to those who make their observations only from the point of view of this present world, which is alienated from God and His gracious plan of salvation.

Consider now these glorious contradictions and you will no longer wonder why the true believer in Jesus Christ is such an amazement to this world.

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In light of the recent revelations and discussions in the past few days, I thought this a very apt reminder from A.W. Tozer:

The Church at this moment needs men, the right kind of men, bold men. The talk is that we need revival, that we need a new [movement] of the Spirit–and God knows we must have both; but God will not revive mice. He will not fill rabbits with the Holy Ghost.

We languish for men who feel themselves expendable in the warfare of the soul, who cannot be frightened by threats of death because they have already died to the allurements of this world. Such men will be free from the compulsions that control weaker men. They will not be forced to do things by the squeeze of circumstances; their only compulsion will come from within–or from above.

This kind of freedom is necessary if we are to have [powerful preachers] in our pulpits again instead of mascots. These free men will serve God and mankind from motives too high to be understood by the rank and file of religious retainers who today shuttle in and out of the sanctuary. They will make no decisions out of fear, take no course out of a desire to please, accept no service for financial considerations, perform no religious act out of mere custom; nor will they allow themselves to be influenced by the love of publicity or the desire for reputation.

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An email from a good brother, Coram Deo, about his visit to a Christian bookstore in the U.S. while on vacation prompted me to share my experience with such bookstores in Singapore.

Now, I love books and am someone who loves browsing through a bookstore for hours on end. Borders at Wheelock Place used to be a favorite haunt of mine. Ultimately, the fact that they are a secular bookstore just means that I have not much interest in what they had to offer.

So I spend much of my time in bookstores in Christian establishments. There used to be one at Jurong Point, the nearest mall to where I stay, but the small shop has since closed down and given way to some store selling items that have a wider consumer appeal.

Ah, the wonders of free enterprise!

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What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there a thing of which it is said,
“See, this is new”?
It has been already
in the ages before us.
There is no remembrance of former things,
nor will there be any remembrance
of later things yet to be
among those who come after.

Ecclesiastes 1:9-11

Indeed, there is nothing new under the sun as the Bible, the Word of God, very rightly points out (for who has wisdom like the Lord our God concerning all truths?).

This article by John Green was written 10 years ago, but what was written still very much applies today. We can see, perhaps without much surprise to some of us, that many of the same arguments against many who call out the truth are not new.

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