Take Courage

What Men Live By

Insight from A. W. Tozer

Human life has its central core where lie the things men live by. These things are constant. They change not from age to age, but are the same among all races throughout the world always.

Life also has its marginal zones where lie the things that are relatively unimportant. These change from generation to generation and vary from people to people.

It is at the central core that men are one, and it is on the marginal zones that they differ from each other. Yet the marginal thins divide the peoples of the world radically and seriously. Most of the enmities of the earth have arisen from differences that did not matter basically; but because the people could not distinguish things men live by from things they live with these enmities arose between them, and often le dot persecutions, murders and bloody wars.

Were men everywhere to ignore the things that matter little or not at all and give serious attention to the few really important things, most of the walls that divided men would be thrown down at once and a world of endless sufferings ended.

What does matter after all? What are the great facts that are good all the time everywhere among all men? What are the axiomatic truths upon which all human life may rest with confidence? Fortunately they are not many. Here are the chief ones:

1.      Only God is great

2.      Only God is wise

3.      Apart from God nothing matters

4.      Only what we do in God will remain to us at last

5.      Human sin is real

6.      With God there is forgiveness

7.      Only what God protects is safe

–         Taken from Man: The Dwelling Place of God, by A. W. Tozer. Christian Publications, Inc. 1966. Pages 115-118.

You will need to get a copy of this book to fill in what I left out of this excerpt. Do those seven chief facts mean anything to us as Christians today? Lasting transformational change will not come from starting a new political action group no matter how many Christians join with non-Christians to do it. There was way too much religion mixed with politics for me. But I will write more on that later. For now think about what Tozer has to say and remember it was written sometime in the 1950’s.

Stay faithful and hopeful,

Bill (a fellow-laborer)

Romans 15:13; Matthew 7:15-29