Take Courage

Insight from A. W. Tozer

My wife and I recently visited my father in-law. I took my laptop and a phone line so I could get online. I thought I could just plug a phone line into my computer and get online. My wife explained to me that it doesn’t work that way. We didn’t take a router and my father in-law isn’t online. Funny how we get used to something and forget what we had to learn to get so used to it that we take it for granted. Do you think we Christians ever take sound doctrine for granted? Do you think we believers ever take the Holy Spirit for granted?

Years ago when I first went to seminary I had a theology professor who constantly reminded us, “If your theology is not practical it is not Biblical. Biblical theology is practical.” He told us he had a professor who taught that to his students also. As the years have gone by and fads come and go, I still believe that Biblical theology is practical theology.

In writing about the Holy Spirit, A.W. Tozer put it a different way in The Divine Conquest, on page 65. “Our formal creed is sound; the breakdown is in our working creed. This is not a trifling distinction. A doctrine has practical value only as far as it is prominent in our thoughts and makes a difference in our lives. By this test the doctrine of the Holy Spirit as held by evangelical Christianity today has almost no practical value at all. In most churches the Spirit is quite entirely overlooked. Whether He is present or absent makes no real difference to anyone. ….Our neglect of the doctrine of the blessed Third Person has had and is having serious consequences. For doctrine is dynamite.”

The copyright on that book is 1950. Do you agree with Tozer or not? Do we have a better appreciation and understanding of sound doctrine in our churches today? In our personal lives do we spend any time studying doctrine? Do you know what you believe and can you communicate with Scripture what you believe? Then does your behavior communicate in a positive way what you believe? Is it any wonder why Christians and churches are Biblically illiterate and unhealthy?

To borrow Tozer’s idea, if doctrine is dynamite do we have enough sound doctrine to blow our noses? What do you believe about the Bible? What about the Trinity? Do you know enough about salvation to stake your eternal life on it? Do you have a plan to continually study doctrine? Reading Tozer has encouraged me to study doctrine both for myself and my listeners. I want to know God and His Word better tomorrow than I do today. I want to live in obedience to Him and His Word too. How about you?

Much GRACE and peace to you,

Bill (a fellow-laborer)

Romans 15:13; Psalm 138:1-3