A Seat to Remember

"Wah, didn't know such shows are so popular.
Only left front row seats?
Guess no choice.
The next showtime won't be convenient."
So we took two seats, right in front of the
screen in the Picturehouse Theatre.

The show was "Feet Unbound,"
a sort of English documentary by a female,
young, modernised Beijing reporter.

No, the show's not about women in the past
talking about their bound feet.
It's about the communists' Long March
but this time, giving attention to the
female soldiers who took part.

Normally, I would give such shows a miss.
After all,'if you've seen one, you've seen all'.
And you don't want to be reminded of the
cruelty, sadness and tragedy of wars.

But this time, different.
Thought it would help me understand better
the Exodus account.
And it did.

When I imagine it was the Israelites and
not the Red Army soldiers who were
trudging the wilderness, the grasslands,
the mountains - feeling the hunger, the
tiredness, the helplessness, the pain
and the fear .....

It comes through very strongly,how good
and gracious God was to His children in
the exodus.

There was no account of their walking
until their feet were swollen. When hungry,
they had manna to eat until they reached the
Promised Land. They didn't have to resort to
gross ways of finding food,like going through
the shit of the yaks for their undigested seeds!

And when faced with Pharaoh's army and the
Amalekites, they had God to fight for them.
Their men were not killed by bandits. Their women
were not raped. Their children were not taken away.
Their leaders were not beheaded and their heads put
on display! Which was happened to the Red Army.

Truly God was gracious to His children.

And God was good to me, too. The front seat was really
too close for my comfort.The back seats were all taken
by a class of students. But the male teacher noticed me
standing and offered me his seat instead. How kind!

Truly, it was a seat to remember. To remember that God
was gracious to me even on so small a matter.

The Seven Sins

The 7 Sins God Hates - Proverbs 6:16 -19 (NASB)

"There are 6 things which the Lord hates,
Yes, 7 which are an abomination to Him" :

1. Haughty eyes

2. A lying tongue

3. Hands that shed innocent blood

4. A heart that devises wicked plans

5. Feet that run rapidly to evil

6. A false witness who utters lies

7. One who spreads strife among brothers

"You Can't Delegate Prayer"

How difficult is it to set time to pray?
Or to have a prayerful attitude, "never
ceasing to pray" through the day?

We are tempted to jump into the doing
part, the activity of service itself.
And leave the praying to others.They
pray and we do. Isn't that ideal?

It isn't, by Tozer's standard.
Not to pray is "a deadly snare".
Why? I quote Tozer again:

"It is prayer that gives power to all these
things. Singing, giving, entertaining,teaching,
working and serving: those are all good things
if we set them aflame by prayer."

Doing them without prayers and they end up
"wood, hay and stubble in the day of Jesus Christ."

Tozer reminds, "The true success of any church
is going to be prayer."

He didn't end here. Stronger words to come:

"Whoever doesnt' practice prayer at least
in some degree of regularity should never be
accepted in any church as a deacon or elder.

"Deacons and elders should be picked because
they are spiritual people, and if they are
not praying they are not spiritual people.

"No man should ever sit and discuss the
affairs of the church, a holy body, unless
he is a prayingman.

"If he hasn't prayed, he has no right to
make decisions.

"Oh, friends, if we want this church to be
a rich, fruitful, G0d-filled church, we're
going to have to accept the Holy Ghost's
philosophy: in everything by prayer'.

"We're going to have to accept the Holy
Ghost's technique: 'In everything by prayer.'

(so) that the power of God and the grace of
God and the Holy Spirit of God may be on what
we're trying to do."

Yes. Though it requires great discipline,
and we may have relapses, we cannot deny that
Tozer was right: we can't delegate prayer. We
have to do the praying ourselves for the work
we are to do. Or do them in the flesh, and we
work in vain.

MONEY WITHOUT PRAYER

How important is money today?

Well, as Tozer puts it, the world will
say extremely important.

"The world says, "In everything by money."
If you just have money enough,you can do
anything, everything. Money talks and
money opens doors."

True, isn't it? But here is Tozer's
reminder to Christians:

"Christ hadn't a dime,but we say,'Money,
if we just have more money."

Is Tozer then suggesting that Christians
live on fresh air and love?

"We know that in the Kingdom of God, God
uses money, but He uses it only because
everything is done by prayer."

"But if you have money without prayer,
you have a great curse on you."

I believe the greatest curse that could
happen to any church would be for someone
to will it $100,000 and for the Lord not
to raise up praying people commensurate
with it."

"You get money without prayer and you get
a curse. Get prayer without money it's
amazing what God can do and where He will
find money."

Why do you think Tozer asserted that getting
money without prayer will bring a curse?
Such a strong pronouncement. This preacher
really didn't mince his words. Or was it his
way of driving home his point?

Or could it be based on his observations of
Christians and churches who have gotten rich
or gotten money to 'run the church'without
prayers and then see them fall into sin as a
consequence?

The Lord says in His Word, Phil.4:6
"Be careful for nothing;
but in everything by prayer
and supplication with thanksgiving
let your requests be made known unto
God."

God knows we need money to survive.But we
need to have them according to His way. And
to know His way, we need to ask Him in prayer.
That, I believe, was Tozer's point.

A CUT OF THE GLORY

After being convinced that we do indeed need
to restore a vision of the Most High God back
to churches if we want revival, there is a
danger of which we need to be warned.

It is the danger of wanting to be the one God
uses to reveal His glory.

"What?" You may exclaim. "Is that a danger?"
"Isn't it great that you desire to do that?"
"What is so wrong with that?"

Well, according to Tozer in his sermon,the
danger lies in "asking for a cut of the glory
of God; a percentage of the glory of God."

Behind the zeal may lurks the desire for
self-glory, praise and applause.

Tozer put it so graphically:

"We want the army of the Lord to win, but
we like to be a commissioned officer so
that when it wins, we can ride at the head
of the parade."

"We want our church to triumph over her foes,
but we like to be around there working,so
when it triumphs,everyone will say we had a
part in it."

"We want our Sunday school to grow for the
glory of God, but we also would like to be
known that great Sunday school man:Under
his superintendency, it went from 25 - 39."

Self. Self. Self. Rearing his ugly head.
Never wanting to lose out. Even to God.

Tozer said this is how we should pray:

"O God, honor Thyself, but do it through me
or do it without me. If you want to use me,
all right.But if not, I'll back the man you
do use.I'll love him; I won't be jealous.
I'll pray for him and I'll work hard behind
the scene and do my dead-level best, unseen
to do what I can do."

"We have to pray like that.Otherwise we're
praying selfishly.If it's the glory of God
we want to see restored,then we don't care
if we have any part in it or not."

According to Tozer, that's the approach and
attitude we should have and we have to pray
like that.

But for most of us, it's tough to be a John
the Baptist. Work so hard and let someone
take the credit?

Perhaps that's why true revival won't take
place.

The fervor and zeal cease when no credit is
given.The 'movement' dissipates even before
it can stir up a revival.

Or when praise and applause are given,very
soon these leaders have their 'little
kingdoms'within the the church and there is
more divisions than spiritual revivalamongst
the members.

It is still the glory of the self that is
being promoted, not the glory of the Most High
God. So how can true revival take place?

Revival or not, the reminder is relevant as
we serve God - be careful that as we do so,
we are not asking for a cut of God's glory.

A Restoration of a Vision

For revival to take place, Tozer in his
sermon called for churches to a restoration
of a vision of the Most High God highest in
our prayer list. I quote:

"We need the glory of God again.And the
returning of the glory of God to the Church."

According to Tozer, this restoration of the
glory of God must come first even before the
work of evangelism, the salvation of man.
Why?

Because, Tozer continued, "Christianity never
begins with man.It begins with God,and then it
looks around for man."

That is true because Genesis' account begins
with God and how God created the world, etc.
And man was last to be created!

Humanism, on the other hand begins with man,
and as Tozer asserted, " after a while it
looks around for God."

And Tozer claimed that "evangelicals have
backslidden until they are into humanism
with a biblical veneer."

Churches have gotten to the stage of being
too preoccupied, hung up with "what man thinks,
what man says, what we want to do for man."

What is so wrong with that,one might ask?

Well, according to Tozer, If the glory of God
doesn't always come first,but man and his needs
come first,even the saving of their souls, it is
"to cheat God out of His glory and not get souls
saved anyhow." It is just making "proselytes who
aren't Christians but are something else."

Wow! Very strong conclusion, right?

But his main point is valid:a church functions
to honor God and worship Him as He ought to be
worshipped. 'Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!"

And souls are saved in order to bring them back
to God, to honor God as God. If they are not
saved for that purpose, then what are they 'saved'
for? To use God as 'Santa Claus'?

So Tozer's point is valid. Amen!