TOZER l "Refusing to be Conformed" l Reclaiming Christianity l Bible Teaching University l School of the Bible l Night School

Morning and Evening with A.W. Tozer

Devotional for March 3

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Tozer in the Morning
Refusing to be Conformed to the Pattern of This World

Men are impressed with the message of the Church just as far and as long as she is different from themselves. 

When she seeks to be like them they no longer respect her. They believe (and rightly) that she is playing false to herself and to them. The moral jar that results when an indoctrinated son of Adam meets a son of heaven is one of the most wholesome things that can happen to both of them. 

And contrary to common opinion, men are more inclined to follow the way of Christ when they are compelled to make a radical alteration in their lives than they are when the way is made easy for them. 

The human heart senses its need to be changed, and when religion appears offering life without such change, it is not taken seriously by thinking men. 

The superficial, the insincere, may embrace such a low-powered brand of religion, but the seeking heart must reject it as false and unreal. 

All conformity to the world is a negation of our Christian character and a surrender of our heavenly position.

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Tozer in the Evening
Marked by Christly Fragrance

I also long in the tender mercies of Christ that among us there may be the following: . . . 7. 

A presence of Christ that is as the fragrance of myrrh and aloes. When you become accustomed to the smell of His garments you will be spoiled for anything less. If we never smell the myrrh and aloes out of the ivory palaces, we may go along a lifetime and not miss it. 

But one beautiful whiff of the fragrance of these garments and we will never be satisfied with anything less. When my wife and I were first married we attended a church of The Christian and Missionary Alliance in Akron, Ohio. 

There was something on that church, a sense of the fragrance of God. The great Dr. Gerow preached there in those days. 

The church had some sweet Christian brethren, some wonderful men and women of God, and there was a fragrance on that place. 

I have never forgotten it. I was between 19,21 for the three years I spent in that church, and I do not remember getting help from others of my age. 

But how I remember getting help that is with me to this day from the older saints whose garments were fragrant with the myrrh, aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces!

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TOZER l "On Becoming More Lovable" l Reclaiming Christianity l Bible Teaching University l School of the Bible l Night School

Morning and Evening with A.W. Tozer

Devotional for March 2

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Tozer in the Morning

On Becoming More Lovable

God desires that all men should become Christlike, for in so doing they present larger and more perfect objects for the reception of His outpoured love. 

Conformity to the nature of Christ on the part of a redeemed man restores the image of God in the soul and thus makes it possible for God to lavish on the soul without restraint all the boundless love of which He is the original fountain. It is hard for a sinful man to believe that God loves Him. 

His own accusing conscience tells him it could not be so. He knows that he is an enemy of God and alienated in his mind through wicked works, and he sees in himself a thousand moral discrepancies that unfit him for the just enjoyment of so pure a love. 

Yet the whole Bible proclaims the love of God for sinful men. We must believe in His love because He declares it and avail ourselves of the sanctifying grace of Christ in order to receive and enjoy that love to the full.

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Tozer in the Evening
THE WONDER OF REDEMPTION

My brethren in the Christian faith, stand with me in defense of this basic doctrine: The living God did not degrade Himself in the Incarnation. 

When the Word was made flesh, there was no compromise on God's part! It is plain in the ancient Athanasian Creed that the early church fathers were cautious at this point of doctrine. 

They would not allow us to believe that God, in the Incarnation, became flesh by a coming down of the Deity into flesh, but rather by the taking of mankind into God. That is the wonder of redemption! In the past, the mythical gods of the nations were not strangers to compromise. 

But the holy God who is God, our heavenly Father, could never compromise Himself! He remained ever God and everything else remained not God. 

That gulf still existed even after Jesus Christ had become man and dwelt among us. 

This much, then, we can know about the acts of God-He will never back out of His bargain. This amazing union of man with God is effected unto perpetuity!

Copyright Statement
This material is considered in the public domain.