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Caussin in Lent: Jesus flies from scepters and runs towards the Cross Fr. Nicolas Caussin, S.I., confessor to Louis XIII exiled by Cardinal Richelieu and heavily criticized by many Jansenists, is well-known as the author of "La Cour Sainte" ("The Holy Court"). In his "Entretiens" ("Entertainments") for Lent, some of his sermons for the Season are presented in a devotional format: an examination of the traditional scriptural readings for the day in the Roman Rite followed by the aspirations of the soul thirsty for Christ. He is our main inspiration for seasonal posts this Lent. ________________________________________ "When, therefore, Jesus had...

I received this message from Literature Ministries International... FOR EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON...For LMI's "Insight for Leaders" that ten year season is ending with the December 31st devo. The new publisher of Tozer's writings has withdrawn permission for our use after that date. We're grateful for the years we've had, and for the tens of thousands of you on six continents who benefited from them. You can purchase "Tozer on Christian Leadership" (the book version of our devos) from Amazon.com. Therefore, I will be discontinuing the Tozer devotionals. I'm sorry to see them go, as Tozer has given me...

Every year, millions of Christians embark upon the task of reading their Bible with the hope that they will read the entire book before the year ends. It's a task I attempt to undertake every year, and I must admit that often times I find myself bunching up a few books around the end of the year to accomplish my task. Now there are many schedules put out every January by various Christian Churches and organizations that will guide you in accomplishing such an endeavor. I am sure those who attend church regularly will find that their Church offers...

Trials and Pain: Not Yet "Due Time" But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. --Job 23:10 God has said He will exalt you in due time, but remember, He is referring to His time and not yours! Some of you are actually in a fiery furnace right now. You are in a special kind of spiritual testing. The pastor may not know it and others may not know it, but you have been praying and asking the Lord: "Why don't you get me out of this?" In God's...

Trials and Pain: The Back Side of the Desert Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. --Exodus 3:1 We should quickly review here the kinds of preparation Moses had gone through for his leadership role under God. Reared in Pharaoh's palace, he had been educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He had the prerequisites for almost any kind of career. In our day a man with his qualifications would be sought for...

Trials and Pain: The Necessity of Wounds Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word....It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes. --Psalm 119:67,71 It is amazing to me! There are people within the ranks of Christianity who have been taught and who believe that Christ will shield His followers from wounds of every kind. If the truth were known, the saints of God in every age were only effective after they had been wounded. They experienced the humbling wounds that brought contrition, compassion and a yearning...

Trials and Pain: The Sharp Blade of the Plow Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rains righteousness on you. --Hosea 10:12 The fallow field is smug, contented, protected from the shock of the plow and the agitation of the harrow.... But it is paying a terrible price for its tranquility: Never does it see the miracle of growth; never does it feel the motions of mounting life nor see the wonders of bursting seed nor the beauty of ripening grain. Fruit it...

Trials and Pain: Forced to Our Knees And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. --2 Corinthians 12:7 The experiences of men who walked with God in olden times agree to teach that the Lord cannot fully bless a man until He has first conquered him. The degree of blessing enjoyed by any man will correspond exactly with the completeness of God's victory over him.... We might well pray for God to...

Trials and Pain: It Works! ...Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. --2 Corinthians 12:9-10 Ten thousand enemies cannot stop a Christian, cannot even slow him down, if he meets them in an attitude of complete trust in God. They will become to him like the atmosphere that resists the airplane, but which because the plane's designer knew how to take advantage...

Trials and Pain: The Labor of Self-love For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. --Galatians 1:10 The labor of self-love is a heavy one indeed. Think for yourself whether much of your sorrow has not arisen from someone speaking slightingly of you. As long as you set yourself up as a little god to which you must be loyal there will be those who will delight to offer affront to your idol. How then can you hope to...

Trials and Pain: Criticism and Abuse But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts. --1 Thessalonians 2:4 "Let not thy peace depend on the tongues of men," said the wise old Christian mystic, Thomas a Kempis; "for whether they judge well or ill, thou art not on that account other than thyself." One of the first things a Christian should get used to is abuse.... To do nothing is to get abused for laziness, and to do anything is to...

Trials and Pain: Faultfinders But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. --2 Corinthians 4:7-9 Nowhere else in the entire New Testament is the humanity of the great apostle [Paul] seen so clearly as when he staggers under the cruel attacks of the anti-Paul bloc in the Corinthian church. His sufferings are there the most poignant and nearest to the sufferings...

Trials and Pain: Piles of Ashes Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. --Hebrews 12:11 If God has singled you out to be a special object of His grace you may expect Him to honor you with stricter discipline and greater suffering than less favored ones are called upon to endure.... If God sets out to make you an unusual Christian He is not likely to be as gentle as He is usually pictured by the popular teachers....

Trials and Pain: The Dark Night of the Soul How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? --Psalm 13:1 Some of you know something of that which has been called "the dark night of the soul." Some of you have spiritual desire and deep longing for victory but it seems to you that your efforts to go on with God have only brought you more bumps and more testings and more discouragement. You are tempted to ask, "How long can this go on?"... Yes, there is a dark night of...

Spiritual Warfare and Sin: The Cleansed Conscience Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. --Hebrews 10:22 What a relief to find the writer to the Hebrews encouraging us to "draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience" (Hebrews 10:22). A sprinkled conscience-surely this is a gracious thing for men and women in the world to know! One of the most relieving, enriching, wholesome,...

Spiritual Warfare and Sin: What Past? I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins. --Isaiah 43:25 One of the old German devotional philosophers took the position that God loves to forgive big sins more than He does little sins because the bigger the sin, the more glory accrues to Him for his forgiveness. I remember the writer went on to say that not only does God forgive sins and enjoy doing it, but as soon as He has forgiven them, He forgets them and trusts the person...

Spiritual Warfare and Sin: Grace and Forgiveness And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. --1 Corinthians 6:11 I do not know all of the Savior's reasons for choosing the woman at the well. I know that His revelation of Himself to her constituted an everlasting rebuke to human self-righteousness. I know that every smug woman who walks down the street in pride and status ought to be ashamed of herself. I know that every self-righteous...

Spiritual Warfare and Sin: Resentment Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled. --Hebrews 12:15 In the course of scores of conferences and hundreds of conversations I have many times heard people say, "I resent that." But I repeat: I have never heard the words used by a victorious man. Resentment simply cannot dwell in a loving heart. Before resentfulness can enter, love must take its flight and bitterness take over. The bitter soul will compile a list of slights at which...

Spiritual Warfare and Sin: He Lost His Temper Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls. --Proverbs 25:28 Some people have a temper. We blame it on our Irish grandfather or on something else; but it's a plague spot. I remember a man who had a very high spiritual testimony and became a leading pastor in his denomination. One night at a board meeting, he lost his temper like a mule driver and after that, nobody believed in him. One time, a man I thought was a fine Christian had a new...

Spiritual Warfare and Sin: Self-sins I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. --Galatians 2:20 To be specific, the self-sins are self-righteousness, self-pity, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-admiration, self-love and a host of others like them. They dwell too deep within us and are too much a part of our natures to come to our attention till the light of God is focused upon them....

Spiritual Warfare and Sin: Dispositional Sins Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. --Ephesians 4:31 Dispositional sins are fully as injurious to the Christian cause as the more overt acts of wickedness. These sins are as many as the various facets of human nature. Just so there may be no misunderstanding let us list a few of them: Sensitiveness, irritability, churlishness, faultfinding, peevishness, temper, resentfulness, cruelty, uncharitable attitudes; and of course there are many more. These kill the spirit of the church and slow down any progress which the gospel...

Spiritual Warfare and Sin: Fight or Die For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. --1 John 2:16-17 Someday the church can relax her guard, call her watchmen down from the wall and live in safety and peace; but not yet, not yet.... The healthiest man has enough lethal bacteria in him to kill him within twenty-four...

Spiritual Warfare and Sin: Preparation Is Vital Moreover David said, "The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." --1 Samuel 17:37 The whole Bible and all past history unite to teach that battles are always won before the armies take the field. The critical moment for any army is not the day it engages the foe in actual combat; it is the day before or the month before or the year before.... Preparation is vital. The rule is, prepare or...

Spiritual Warfare and Sin: The Cost of Quitting For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. --Hebrews 12:3-4 If Satan opposes the new convert he opposes still more bitterly the Christian who is pressing on toward a higher life in Christ. The Spirit-filled life is not, as many suppose, a life of peace and quiet pleasure. It is likely to be something quite the opposite. Viewed one way it is a pilgrimage through a robber-infested forest; viewed another,...

Spiritual Warfare and Sin: Throw Off Hindrances Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.... --Hebrews 12:1-2 Is Satan giving you a hard time in your life of faith-in the Christian race you are running? Expect it if you are a believing child of God! Satan hates your God. He hates Jesus Christ. He hates your faith....

Spiritual Warfare and Sin: Satan's Strategy Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. --Ephesians 6:13 Now I do not think that Satan much cares to destroy us Christians physically. The soldier dead in battle who died performing some deed of heroism is not a great loss to the army but may rather be an object of pride to his country. On the other hand the soldier who cannot or will not fight but runs away at the sound of the first enemy...

Spiritual Warfare and Sin: Irreconcilable Hostility For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. --Ephesians 6:12 In the early days, when Christianity exercised a dominant influence over American thinking, men and women conceived the world to be a battleground. Our fathers believed in sin and the devil and hell as constituting one force, and they believed in God and righteousness and heaven as the other. By their very nature, these forces were opposed to each other...

None But the Hungry Heart #1 None But the Hungry Heart is a devotional study. There are twelve sections each containing thirty-one daily portions. The following three factors have been considered in arriving at this form of presentation: 1. A spiritually hungry heart is the requisite for entering into the growth truths of identification with Christ. 2. Prayerful study on the part of the believer is the means by which the Holy Spirit ministers these truths. 3. The concentration of the Christ-life truths in brief daily studies facilitates their assimilation. The authors quoted have been carefully selected; however, this does...

Failure and Success: Crowds at Any Price O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge-by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith.... --1 Timothy 6:20-21 The crowds-at-any-price mania has taken a firm grip on American Christianity and is the motivating power back of a shockingly high percentage of all religious activity. Men and churches compete for the attention of the paying multitudes who are brought in by means of any currently popular gadget or gimmick ostensibly to have their souls saved, but, if the...

Failure and Success: Greatness Has Its Price You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. --2 Timothy 2:3-4 The laws of success operate also in the higher field of the soul-- spiritual greatness has its price. Eminence in the things of the Spirit demands a devotion to these things more complete than most of us are willing to give. But the law cannot be escaped. If we would be holy we know...

Failure and Success: Our Dowry of Everlastingness As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children's children. --Psalm 103:15-17 We who follow Christ are men and women of eternity. We must put no confidence in the passing scenes of the disappearing world. We must resist every attempt of Satan to palm off upon us...

Failure and Success: True Greatness Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave. --Matthew 20:26-27 The essence of His teaching is that true greatness lies in character, not in ability or position. Men in their blindness had always thought that superior talents made a man great, and so the vast majority believe today. To be endowed with unusual abilities in the field of art or literature or music or statecraft, for instance, is thought...

Failure and Success: True Service ...not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ. -Colossians 3:22-24 Any serious-minded Christian may at some time find himself wondering whether the service he is giving to God is the best it could be. He may even have times of doubting, and fear that his toil is fruitless and his life empty.... The church has marked out...

Failure and Success: The Small and the Great ...Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." --1 Peter 5:5 Some time ago we heard a short address by a young preacher during which he quoted the following, "If you are too big for a little place, you are too little for a big place." It is an odd rule of the kingdom of God that when we try to get big, we always get smaller by the moment. God is jealous of His...

Failure and Success: The Scramble for Popularity Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. --Matthew 5:11-12 Popular Judaism slew the prophets and crucified Christ. Popular Christianity killed the Reformers, jailed the Quakers and drove John Wesley into the streets. When it comes to religion, the crowds are always wrong. At any time there are a few who see, and the rest are blinded. To...

Failure and Success: Stop Tinkering Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, 'Have I also here seen Him who sees me?' --Genesis 16:13 Faith is the least self-regarding of the virtues. It is by its very nature scarcely conscious of its own existence. Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the Object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. While we are looking at God we do not see ourselves--blessed riddance. The man who has...

Failure and Success: No Past At All! Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. --2 Corinthians 5:17 In our churches we often sing, "Arise, my soul, shake off thy guilty fears." But nothing happens and we keep our fears. Why do we claim on one hand that our sins are gone and on the other act just as though they are not gone? Brethren, we have been declared "Not Guilty!" by the highest court in all the universe. Still there are honest Christians, earnestly seeking...

Failure and Success: Tune the Strings Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. --1 Timothy 4:14-15 I have been forced to admit that one of the things hardest for me to understand and try to reconcile is the complete aimlessness of so many Christians' lives.... Probably the worst part of this situation among us is the fact that so many of our Christian brothers...

Failure and Success: The School of Failure As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. --Psalm 103:13-14 For some of us last year was one in which we did not acquit ourselves very nobly as Christians, considering the infinite power available to us through the indwelling Spirit. But through the goodness of God we may go to school to our failures. The man of illuminated mind will learn from his mistakes, yes even from his sins. If his heart is trusting and penitent,...

Revival: No Limit to What God Could Do But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here too." --Acts 17:6 There is no limit to what God could do in our world if we would dare to surrender before Him with a commitment like this: "Oh God, I hereby give myself to You. I give my family. I give my business. I give all I possess. Take all of it, Lord-and take me! I give myself in...

Revival: A Revival of Repentance If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. --2 Chronicles 7:14 I have little fear that any nation or combination of nations could bring down the United States and Canada by military action from without. But this I do fear-we sin and sin and do nothing about it. There is so little sense of the need of repentance-so little burden for the will of...

Revival: The Fire Falls And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, "These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: 'I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.'" --Revelation 3:1-2 For a long time I have believed that truth, to be understood, must be lived; that Bible doctrine is wholly ineffective until it has been digested and assimilated by the total life.... We must be willing to obey if we would know the true inner meaning of the teachings of Christ and...

Revival: Doing the Will of God By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. --1 John 5:2-3 We urgently need a new kind of reformation throughout our Christian churches--a reformation that will cause us not only to accept the will of God but to actively seek it and adore it!... The reformation we need now can best be described in terms of spiritual perfection-which reduced to its simplest form is no...

Revival: More Than Talk and Prayer Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. --Joshua 1:7 It will take more than talk and prayer to bring revival. There must be a return to the Lord in practice before our prayers will be heard in heaven. We dare not continue to trouble God's way if we want Him to bless ours.... If we are foolish enough...

Revival: Don't Substitute Praying for Obeying So Samuel said: "Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams." --1 Samuel 15:22 Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late-and how little revival has resulted? Considering the volume of prayer that is ascending these days, rivers of revival should be flowing in blessing throughout the land. That no such results are in evidence should not discourage us; rather it should...

Revival: Oneness of Mind Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! --Psalm 133:1 God always works where His people meet His conditions, but only when and as they do. Any spiritual visitation will be limited or extensive, depending how well and how widely conditions are met. The first condition is oneness of mind among the persons who are seeking the visitation.... Historically, revivals have been mainly the achieving of a oneness of mind among a number of Christian believers. In the second chapter of Acts it is recorded that they were "all...

Revival: The Urgency of God's Will Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, "Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?" And I said to him, "Sir, you know." So he said to me, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. --Revelation 7:13-14 If we are serious about our Christian witness, the day may be near when we may be persecuted-even killed-for our faith. We should be stirred, as John was stirred, as we witness...

Revival: Poured-out Devotion Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such men in esteem; because for the work of Christ he came close to death, not regarding his life, to supply what was lacking in your service toward me. --Philippians 2:29-30 That many Christians in our day are lukewarm and somnolent will not be denied by anyone with an anointed eye, but the cure is not to stir them up to a frenzy of activity. That would be but to take them out of one error and into another. What we need is a zealous hunger...

Revival: Meet God Alone First But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. --Matthew 6:6 Nothing can prevent the spiritual rejuvenation of the soul that insists upon having it. Though that solitary man must live and walk among persons religiously dead, he may experience the great transformation as certainly and as quickly as if he were in the most spiritual church in the world. The man that will have God's best...

Revival: To the Individual Only For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. --2 Corinthians 5:10 No church is any better or worse than the individual Christians who compose it.... One consequence of our failure to see clearly the true nature of revival is that we wait for years for some supernatural manifestation that never comes, overlooking completely our own individual place in the desired awakening. Whatever God may do for a church must be done...