An Open Heart not a Cynical Mind

Here's another one of those quotes found in my
'Blue Book'. Whether they're spoken by characters
from his books or by himself, I don't know. But I
like the way Henry Ward Beecher explained why
some of us do not enjoy God's goodness and mercy:

"There is dew in one flower and not in another,
because one opens its cup and takes it in,
while the other closes itself, and the dewdrops
run off. God rains His goodness and mercy as
widespread as the dew, and if we lack them, it
is because we will not open our hearts to receive
them."

Besides the closed heart, there is also the cynical mind:

"The cynic is one who never sees a good quality
in a man and never fails to see a bad one.
He is the human owl, vigilant in darkness and
blind to light, mousing for vermin, and never
seeing the noble game.
The cynic puts all human actions into two
classes - openly bad and secretly bad."


Actually sounds witty and funny, especially the last
line.

God is Awake

This is a poem or short quote that I have always
liked. It's by Victor Hugo. Don't know whether
there's a proper title to it. Great wisdom and
encouragement in it.

"Have courage for the great sorrows of life
and patience for the small ones;
And when you have laboriously accomplished
your daily task,
Go to sleep in peace.
God is awake."

An exhortation that is worth being reminded of.
That's why I think I should have it in my list.

Why I Like to Quote

Why are most of my postings, if not all,
just quoted stuffs? Well, another quote
to answer the question:

"In reading authors, when you find bright
passages that strike your mind and which,
perhaps, you may have reason to think on,
at other season,
be not contented with the sight but take
them down in black and white;
such a respect is wisely shown as makes
another's sense one's own." - Byron-

That's the reason why. I had this on the
first page of my 'blue book'. Now having
this idea of going through the book and
posting in this blog or saving them in my
thumbdrive those I still like after all these
years.

No Right To Ask

Went through my 'blue' book where I wrote down
articles and jokes which I liked through the years.

Here's one quote the source of which I do not know.

"We have no right to ask
when sorrow comes,
'Why did this happen to me?'
unless we ask the same question
for every joy that comes our way."

"She's Been Safe Ever Since"

Well, the children are growing up day by day and
the things they want to do and the places they want
to go can make you ' die a thousand deaths'. Just
last weekend, for example, girl went for her diving
test at Dayang. This coming weekend, midnight,
she'll be flying off to join Eleanor and Charmaine at
Cebu for a 3 week holiday. Just a 3-girl 'back-pack'
holiday which includes scuba diving, etc.

Well, it's time to hear from Tozer again:

"In our home, we had six sons in twelve years.
Then time went one, and we figured we'd settle
for those six boys. We wanted a girl, but it was
not much use.

Then when our youngest son, Stanley, was nine
years old, along came a girl! Our only girl.

Oh, brother, was she sweet and dear to me. I
was forty-two years old, and I needed a girl
terribly bad, for those 'roughhouse gorilla' ran
the place ragged. Old, smelly gym shoes were
everywhere.

I needed something, and God sent her along.
About that same time, I had to go through a
spiritual experience. That spiritual experience
led me to surrender in a manner I hadn't known
before, and all involved our Becky.

Rebecca Mae, we called her, and we shortened
her name to Becky. She had brown, curly hair;
it was so curly that you couldn't find a straight
one! She was as pretty as a picture, and in spite
of that, they said she looked like me!

She was gentle and feminine. I would go and see
her little feminine things hanging up, you know.
I could have jumped over a building with delight
just to see her little clothes hanging up - tiny,
baby girl clothes.

I loved her more than I knew, and I had to go
to God to die to that, and I did. I gave her up.
I gave Becky up, and I gave her up so completely
that if the Lord had taken her home, I wouldn't
have complained.

I testified to that one time, and of all people, a
missionary came to me and said, 'Mr. Tozer, I'd
be afraid to testify like that. Aren't you afraid?'

I said, 'No, sister, I'm not afraid for this reason.
I have put Becky in the hands that have the nail
prints in them. I put her in the hands that loved
her enough to die, and love never does wrong to
its object. She's safe now, and she was never safe
before. As long as I held her so close, that she was
my darling and my sweetheart, and a part of me,
she wasn't safe, but when I died to her, and turned
her over to those nail-pierced hands, she's been
safe ever since."

Wasn't that such a heart-warming sharing?

Always Picking Up Whatever They Can

"If I were to ask tonight, 'How many of you
want to come down here and receive some-
thing,' I'm sure there would be a great number
who would come, because God's children are
always picking up whatever they can.

They go to one camp meeting and another,
getting blessed here and getting blessed
there, and picking up something here.
Always getting something, but never getting
rid of anything. Our difficulty is right there.
We want to receive before we have emptied
ourselves. You can't fill a full vessel. You
have to empty it first.

Friends, you'll never know the Lord very
well until you have died to your property
and yourself and your future, and all the
little things you hold dear."

And Tozer went on to share his own experience;
of how he had to go to God to die to his adoration
of his only daughter. A very heart-warming
sharing that showed his soft side. Maybe my
next posting will be on that.

Battles Are Lost Before They Are Fought

This quote is not unfamiliar but I like the way Tozer
expounded it so graphically through this illustration.
There were other biblical examples but I like this one:

"They say that a fighting man leaves his
victory in the nightclub.

While I've never seen a fight and I don't
attend them, they do illustrate this truth.
They illustrate the fact that for a man to
be in fighting form, he must take care
of himself.

And when a man gains world acclaim and
becomes popular, he finds himself going
to the nightclubs and drinking and staying
up all night and loafing through the day.

Then comes the time to fight again and,
although he tries desperately to get ready
through what they call training, the
nightclubs have taken too much out of him.
So he goes into the ring and collapses in the
fifth round and people say, "How can it be
that this mighty fighter should go down
to disgrace before a man who wasn't
supposed to be good?"

The answer is that he lost the fight before
he went into the ring, not when they counted
him out there on the floor, face down and
unconscious, but as he drank wine and stayed
up and danced half the night away.
He left his victory in the nightclub."

In the same way that battles are lost before they are
fought, battles are also won before they are fought.
And how to do that? Tozer's recommendation:
prepare by prayer.

"...never let a day creep up on you. Never let
Thursday upset you because you didn't pray
Wednesday. And never let Tuesday get you
down because you were careless on Monday.
Never let 3.00 in the afternoon floor you
because you didn't pray at 7.00 in the morning.
See that you are prayed up all the time."

Watch and Pray

Most of us are most happy when we are
most troubled-free; when things are
all right - no sickness in the house;
no debts uncleared; no quarrels or
misunderstandings with spouse,kids
relatives,friends or neighbors; no
problems in our work-place....

Then we let go and forget to watch
and pray..... we forget the basics
which is:

" As long as sin and the devil and
disease and death are abroad in the
land like a virus, or a contagious
disease things are never all right."

Those are words from Tozer. Another
reason he gave that it is an illusion
to think that things are alright is
because we're "not living in a healthy
or wholesome world - a helpful world,
a world that is geared to keep you
spiritually healthy."

In fact, it is quite the contrary.

Didn't our Lord Jesus Himself warn
the disciples that in this world
there would be tribulation? That
since the world hated Him, it would
also hate His disciples for the
"slave is not greater than his
master" (John 15:18-20)?

So when Satan leaves us for a while,
and things appear all right - don't
drop your guard and neglect to pray.

Never believe and act as if things
are all right. Tozer said:

"Never trust the devil and say,
'Things are all right; the devil's
business is overdone and I won't
pray today.

"Never become overconfident for
the very reason our Lord stated:
our flesh is weak."

"Never underestimate the power
of prayer. And remember that
without it, you cannot win.
With it, you cannot lose."

But Tozer is quick to add the
conditions - that it's true
prayer, that your life is in
harmony with your prayer.

Tozer reminded us of our Lord's
example of anticipatory prayer.
Here is an extract from his
sermon:

"Watch and pray," said Jesus,
and He wasn't talking poetry.
Watch and pray, said Jesus, and
He practiced it and won because
He did. He caught the spinning
world that sin had thrown out
of gear, caught it in the web
of His own love and redeemed it
with the shedding of His own
blood.

"He did this because He readied
himself for that awful and
glorious event by prayer the
night before, by prayer in the
mountains at other times, and
by prayer all through the years
of His boyhood."

So, never act as if things are
all right, just because they
appear to be so....and then
drop our guard and forget to
pray.

It Doesn't Mean a Thing In All the World

Today's reading is a continuation from Sermon 5 ,
"He Must Increase".

"Do you know that men and women can sacrifice
and still promote themselves?

Many a young fellow who is determined to be a
great engineer, or a great physicist, or a great
politician is living on crumbs, saving his money,
wearing the old suit, and sacrificing like a saint
in order to fulfill his heart's ambition to be a great
physicist, or a great engineer, or a great politician.

The fact that you're sacrificing doesn't
mean a thing in all the world.

Some of you young preachers say, 'Well, brother
Tozer, you can't say that I'm not little. Nobody
ever heard of me, and I'm in a little place where
I'm living on practically nothing.'

But if you could get a bigger place, you would
take it. You are hoping that by serving that
apprenticeship to poverty, you will finally
bounceinto the limelight, and everybody will
say, 'Behold he cometh' and you will be big.

Now, let's watch that, because it's perfectly
possible to put forth a whole lot of sacrifice,
to wear ourselves out and injure our health,
with nothing higherbefore our vision than
the promotion of our own interests.

But John said, 'I get smaller and smaller.' He had
no interest in promoting himself."

"Are you promoting self or promoting Christ" in
your service?

Jealousy - Disguised

Have moved on to Sermon 5, "He Must Increase".

"Now I might turn aside here long enough to
say that one of the most wicked things in the
world is religious jealousy, because it is sin
going into the holy place.

Sin that sins outside is bad enough, but sin
that enters the holy sanctuary, and is jealous
of what the Holy Ghost is doing is exceedingly
wicked. It is like fighting over the crown that
belongs to our Lord.

The unanswerable questions, questions that
cannot and have never been satisfactorily
answered, are these. If God is doing a work,
why should I be jealous? And if God is not
doing a work, why should I be jealous?

No, there isn't any excuse for religious jealousy
among God's people, but it was certainly evident
among the disciples.

They disputed over baptism. It appeared to be
a sincere question, but it was inspired by other
motives, hidden motives - rivalry and bad feeling.

They were disguised as a doctrinal problem.

But John, wise, old John, lifted their question
to its proper level.

He said, 'Your problem is not baptism. Your
problem is not practice. It is not modes of
baptism, how much water to use, or under what
circumstances it should be used. You're jealous.
Your problem is your personal relationship to
God. That's your problem. ....."

Too Shrewd to be Uniform

As Tozer in his sermon on "Prepare by Prayer" put it,

"Satan's attacks are rarely anticipated, because Satan
is too shrewd to be uniform. If Satan established a
pattern of attack, we'd soon catch on to his pattern.

The devil doesn't come in always the same way.
Everyone of us could figure him out if he did.
But he'll come at you today like a wild bull of Beijing.
And tomorrow he'll be as soft as Ferdinand.
And the next day he won't bother you at all.
Then he'll fight you three days in a row, and then
let you alone for three weeks.
Remember, it was said of Jesus, after the three
temptations, that Satan left him for a season.
Why? To get the Lord drop His guard, of course.

The devil fights like a boxer. He pitches in like
a skilled pitcher. He uses strategy.

Do you think the devil isn't as smart as Dizzy Dean
or Billy Pierce? Do you think the devil doesn't know
that the way to win over a Christian is to fool by
irregularity? Never attack him twice in the same
way on the same day. He keeps coming in from one
side one time and another side another time like a
pitcher does.

Never trust the devil. Never imagine that he's smiling.
Never look at a picture of him by Dore or somebody,
and say, 'Ah, he's not a bad-looking devil.'

Never trust the devil. Always anticipate any possible
attack by watching and praying, because the spirit,
though it is willing, must deal with the flesh, which is
terribly weak.

And so, by prayer and watching and waiting on God,
you can be ready for his arrival when he does come.
And you can win.

Not on the day he arrives, but the day before he arrives."

A good reminder for the day.

Pushing God Into a Corner

Often times we "push God into a
corner" when we pray.

How do we do that? Well, according
to Tozer, we push God into a corner
when we use God.

Tozer gave a few examples.

We use God:
"as an escape from hell"

"to help us when the baby's sick"

"as a lifeboat"

"as a ladder out of a burning building"

But how can praying for salvation be a
case of using God, you may protest.

And aren't we supposed to ask God for
help in dire situations? If we can't,
then what is the use of praying? Further
more, didn't God ask us to go to Him
for help, "casting our anxieties before
Him because He cares for us"?

The thing about pushing God into a
corner is that once we get what we want
from God, "we go our way." We have no
more use for God.

We ignore Him. We don't make a point
to continue our fellowship with Him.

We would rather talk to friends but
not to Him in prayers. Why pray when
there is nothing pressing to ask God
for? No problem that we need His help?

In other words, we are using God.

Well, hear it straight from Tozer:

"You have to get away from the idea
that God exists to help you run your
business or fly your airplane.

"God isn't simply a water boy bringing
you water while you have fun. God isn't
simply a redcap carrying your suitcase
and serving you.

"God is God. He made Heaven and Earth
and holds the world in His hand and
measures the dust of the earth in the
balance and the sky; He spreads out
like a mantle.

The great God Almighty is not your
servant; you're His servant."

"He's your Father and you're His
child. "He sitteth in heaven and
you're on Earth."

"The angels veil their faces before
the God who cannot lie."

How easy it is to slip into all
these snares:

Wanting a cut of God's glory when
we serve.

Serving without prayer.

Praying without faith in God.

Pushing God into a corner when we
pray.

Thank God He hasn't given up on
us! At least I hope not.

Ps.103:8 says:
"The Lord is compassionate and
gracious,slow to anger, abounding
in love.

He does not treat us as our sins
deserve or repay us according to
our iniquities (v9)

As a father has compassion on his
children, so the Lord has compassion
on those who fear him (v10)

For he knows how we are formed.
He remembers that we are dust.(v14)

May we fear God and remember that
we are but dust.

In remembering that, we will not
arrogate ourselves a place where
we think we can use the almighty
God and get away with it.

May God be gracious and merciful
to help us.

Unanswered Prayers

We have been touching on importance of "in
everything by prayer" in our service for God.

But how should we pray?

As Tozer put it in his dry wit, there can be
"a great deal of praying being done that doesn't
amount to anything."

This sort of praying, in his words, can have
"a very injurious effect" upon the church.
It is "detrimental to solid spiritual growth."

Members get discouraged and filled with un-
belief, they stop praying and start to believe
that the whole thing is unreal.

"Having no prayers answered - having prayers
sent up to Heaven that come back empty - is
like sending an army out without weapons. It
is like setting a pianist without fingers down
to a piano..."

The missing piece, according to Tozer, is
faith defined as "confidence in God"; not faith
in faith which is the spiritual fad of the day.
There is a lot of preaching on that subject.

Going back to the Bible which says, "This is the
confidence we have in Him", Tozer reminds us that
"There is the origin and source and foundation
and resting place for all our faith."

"Faith does not rest upon promises. Faith rests
upon character. Faith rests upon the One who
made the promise."

Take the example of Abraham. Abraham "staggered
not at the promises of God through unbelief, but
waxed strong in faith, giving glory to God."

"So," Tozer pointed out, "the glory went to God,
not the promise."

"Faith always rests upon the character of God."

If that being the case, then we should start by
knowing God better.That is why Tozer was lamenting,
"Why aren't we telling our evangelical people once
more, 'You must get to know God?"

Most times,we start with the exercise of praying,
then we add in faith if they are not answered,
but hardly do we return to first base - knowing
God better so we know what He wants us to pray
for.

"And if we ask anything according to His will,
He heareth us: And if we know that He hear us,
whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the
petitions that we desired of him." (1John 5:14 )

HEY, I DID IT!

What did I do this evening? I have managed to insert Lola's photo in my blog, all by myself! I have also changed the template again and and added an image to the header. Also changed my title blog to "Look Unto the Hills" instead of Rainbow in the Sky".

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!