Bold Pastors

A.W. TozerI want to be this kind of pastor that A.W. Tozer describes! What about you, my dear pastor?

“The Church at this moment needs men, the right kind of men, bold men…. 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 prophets 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.” —A.W. Tozer

What stood out to you in this quote?

Links & Quotes

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Some good reading from today…

“Married women are notably safer than their unmarried peers, and girls raised in a home with their married father are markedly less likely to be abused or assaulted than children living without their own father.” See what else Eric Metaxas shares in Men Who Serve And Protect.

“A rejection, or in Scripture’s strong language, a crucifixion of the natural self is the passport to everlasting life. Nothing that has not died will be resurrected.” —C.S. Lewis

“If Bible Christianity is to survive the present world upheaval, we shall need to recapture the spirit of worship. We shall need to have a fresh revelation of the greatness of God and the beauty of Jesus. We shall need to put away our phobias and our prejudices against the deeper life and seek again to be filled with the Holy Spirit.” —A.W. Tozer

The state of California is going to pay abortion providers more money to kill babies. Guess where the funds are coming from? Yep, those doctors who are trying to save lives will be paid less! Bishop Jaime Soto speaks out.

Planned Parenthood wrote an open letter saying the word abortion is not mentioned in Scripture, so that somehow makes it okay to kill innocent lives. Pastor Garrett Kell has a wonderful, biblical response.

In a Family Talk interview with Ryan Dobson, here are some great quotes from Nick Vujicic: “Fear will disable you more than your physical limitations. … When we give God our broken pieces, he can turn our broken pieces into something beautiful. … You’re not important because of how many people know you; you’re important because you’re a child of God. … Don’t be a bystander, be on stand by. I will not allow a bully to bully others. I will not laugh at his jokes, I will not remain silent. I will stand up and say ‘Enough is enough.’”

“Our resources are the Christlikeness we win while immersed in battle. They are the lessons, the faith, the character we gain from warfare with the enemy.” —David Wilkerson

Worship Where You Are

Worship everywhereO God, we meditate on Your unfailing love as we worship in Your Temple. (Psalm 48:9)

“We can go to church and worship. But if we go to church and worship one day, it is not true worship unless it is followed by continuing worship in the days that follow.” (A.W. Tozer)

It’s easy to say, “O God, I worship You in church on Sunday,” but can I also say…

…I worship You in my office on Monday.

…I worship You in my basketball game on Tuesday.

…I worship You in my commute on Wednesday.

…I worship You in my dinner preparations on Thursday.

…I worship You in my house cleaning on Friday.

…I worship You in my golf game on Saturday.

Worship means making sure what I’m doing is pleasing to God, and glorifying God. It means I am doing my utmost for His highest. It means I am doing what I’m doing so that others see God in it, and are prompted to worship Him too.

Worship wherever you are today, and not just in your church building on Sunday. Let TRUE worship be seen all day, everyday, in everything.

Links & Quotes

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Some good reading from today…

“The reason God made man in His image was that he might appreciate God and admire and adore and worship; so that God might not be a picture, so to speak, hanging in a gallery with nobody looking at Him. He might not be a flower that no one could smell; He might not be a star that no one could see. God made somebody to smell that flower, the lily of the valley. He wanted someone to see that glorious image. He wanted someone to see the star, so He made us and in making us He made us to worship Him.” —A.W. Tozer

“Of course Heaven is leisure (‘there remaineth a rest for the people of God’): but I picture it pretty vigorous too as our best leisure really is. Man was created ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’ Whether that is best pictured as being in love, or like being one of an orchestra who are playing a great work with perfect success, or like surf bathing, or like endlessly exploring a wonderful country or endlessly reading a glorious story—who knows? Dante says Heaven ‘grew drunken with its universal laughter.’” —C.S. Lewis

Frank Viola shares 7 Reasons Why Christians Abandon The Faith.

Tim Dilena encourages pastors to preach and teach with Profound Common Sense.

More evidence that the Obama administration is covering up the tragedy in Benghazi.

“The Father loves you! It is at this point of understanding that multitudes of believers fail God. They are willing to be convicted of sin and failure, over and over again, but they will not allow the Holy Spirit to flood them with the love of the Father.” —David Wilkerson

Links & Quotes

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“I say that the greatest tragedy in the world today is that God has made man in His image and made him to worship Him, made him to play the harp of worship before the face of God day and night, but he has failed God and dropped the harp. It lies voiceless at his feet.” —A.W. Tozer

“Before you drink at a brook, it is well to know its source.” —Anonymous

Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim,
and publish abroad His wonderful name;
the name all-victorious of Jesus extol,
His kingdom is glorious and rules over all. …

Then let us adore and give Him His right,
all glory and power, all wisdom and might;
all honor and blessing with angels above,
and thanks never ceasing and infinite love. —Charles Wesley

Eric Metaxas gives us an updates on Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, sentenced to death in Sudan because of her Christian faith.

John Stonestreet with an important reminder about watching what we post online.

Links & Quotes

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Some interesting reading (and watching and listening) from the last couple of days.

Great D-Day history! You can listen to CBS Radio as they reported the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944.

Watching porn not only decreases brain size, but it also weakens the watcher’s ability to make good long-term decisions.

Parents: kids can download apps to hide pictures and videos on their electronic devices. Check out the latest news from uknowkids.com.

The Congressional Budget Office now reports that ObamaCare costs are so outrageous that it is impossible for them to calculate the total economic impact.

“It is delightful to worship God, but it is also a humbling thing; and the man who has not been humbled in the presence of God will never be a worshiper of God at all. He may be a church member who keeps the rules and obeys the discipline, and who tithes and goes to conference, but he’ll never be a worshiper unless he is deeply humbled. … There’s an awesomeness about God which is missing in our day altogether; there’s little sense of admiring awe in the Church of Christ these days.” —A.W. Tozer

[VIDEO] Clay Christensen on the importance of religious freedom to democracy.

“The most paralyzing thing we can do for our relationship is to define our spouse by their past, rather than by who they are in the present.” Read more from this post Top 10 Relationship Killers.

Fasting is beneficial spiritually and physically: Fasting can regenerate immune system.

Links & Quotes

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Some good reading from today.

John Stonestreet explains why pornography is wrong.

“We can preach the Gospel of Christ no further than we have experienced the power of it in our own hearts.” —George Whitefield

“I cannot blame him [George Washington] for having acted according to his ideas of duty in obeying the voice of his country. I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.” —Martha Washington

“All of the examples that we have in the Bible illustrate that glad and devoted and reverent worship is the normal employment of moral beings. Every glimpse that is given us of heaven and of God’s created beings is always a glimpse of worship and rejoicing and praise because God is who He is.” —A.W. Tozer

John Piper brilliantly confronts “gender non-conformists” in his post “Genitalia Are Not Destiny”—But Are They Design?

It’s tough to say which is worse: denying a victim’s humanity or acknowledging it and hurting them anyway.” Read more of Adam Peters’ post How Planned Parenthood Dehumanizes Its Prey.

For baseball fans (especially Detroit Tigers fans) check out the batters who hit the most home runs in Tiger Stadium.

Chilly Chilton uses a quote from C.S. Lewis to challenge us to Make Small Big.

Avoid “decision fatigue.” 5 Ways To Make Fewer Decisions.

Painting With Your Words

My dear fellow pastors, please heed this admonition from A.W. Tozer. Our responsibility of presenting the Good News of Jesus Christ must include mastery of the language in which we will be speaking. We must not be lax in this!

Tozer“For the very reason that God has committed His saving truth to the receptacle of human language, the man who preaches that truth should be more than ordinarily skillful in the use of language. It is necessary that every artist master his medium, every musician his instrument. For a man calling himself a concert pianist to appear before an audience with but a beginner’s acquaintance with the keyboard would be no more absurd than for a minister of the gospel to appear before his congregation without a thorough knowledge of the language in which he expects to preach.” —A.W. Tozer

Links & Quotes

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Some great reading from this weekend…

Are you a Christian? Then there’s something dreadfully wrong with you. You’re unthinking; you’re unscientific; you can’t see how badly Christianity botches morality. You represent a deeply defective culture that’s been getting all the most important things wrong for a hundred generations.” Read more from Tom Gilson in Skeptics Dehumanizing Christianity.

“No one can know truth except the one who obeys truth. You think you know truth. People memorize the Scriptures by the yard, but that is not a guarantee of knowing the truth. Truth is not a text. Truth is in the text, but it takes the text plus the Holy Spirit to bring truth to a human soul.” —A.W. Tozer

Important news for pregnant women: Take care of your teeth. “The results reinforce data suggesting a link between periodontal disease in the mother and the risk of preterm birth.” Read more in Bacteria Found In Healthy Placentas.

Many contemporary critics of the faith charge that Christianity is a barrier to progress. … But the overwhelming weight of good is undeniable—and indispensable to civilization.” Read more in The ABCs Of Christian Civilization.

[VIDEO] Rep. Trey Gowdy asks “Did the media ever pursue these big questions on Benghazi?”

“Biblical hope is not wishful thinking or an optimistic outlook; rather, it is a confident expectation based on the certainty of God’s Word that as He has anchored us in the past, so He will in the future.” —David Wilkerson

“You need to be aware of what others are doing, applaud their efforts, acknowledge their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, everybody wins.” —Jim Stovall

“The Bible was not given to replace the miraculous but to correct abuses.” —Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Links & Quotes

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Some good reading from today…

“I regret that more and more Christian believers are being drawn into a hazy, fuzzy kind of teaching that assures everyone who has ever ‘accepted Christ’ that he or she has nothing more to be concerned about. He is OK and he will always be OK because Christ will be returning before things get too tough. Then all of us will wear our crowns, and God will see that we have cities to rule over! If that concept is accurate, why did our Lord take the stern and unpopular position that Christian believers should be engaged in watching and praying?” —A.W. Tozer

Meriam Ibrahim has been sentenced to death in Sudan for the crime of (gasp!) being a Christian. Please read her story AND sign the petition.

[VIDEO] John Maxwell has a great reminder for us: “Nobody helps anybody when they can’t help themselves because they’re burned out.” Watch this 1-minute video.

A good reminder I heard from John Stonestreet: “The Gospel is an invitation not an ultimatum.

[VIDEO] A cool behind-the-scenes look at how ESPN is revamping their Sports Center studio.

“Adversity reveals genius and prosperity conceals it.” —Roger Staubach