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Today’s Spurgeon

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on April 19, 2026| Leave a Comment »

“Behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.” Matthew 27:51

No mean miracle was wrought in the rending of so strong and thick a veil; but it was not intended merely as a display of power—many lessons were herein taught us. The old law of ordinances was put away, and like a worn-out vesture, rent and laid aside. When Jesus died, the sacrifices were all finished, because all fulfilled in him, and therefore the place of their presentation was marked with an evident token of decay. That rent also revealed all the hidden things of the old dispensation: the mercy-seat could now be seen, and the glory of God gleamed forth above it. By the death of our Lord Jesus we have a clear revelation of God, for he was “not as Moses, who put a veil over his face.” Life and immortality are now brought to light, and things which have been hidden since the foundation of the world are manifest in him. The annual ceremony of atonement was thus abolished. The atoning blood which was once every year sprinkled within the veil, was now offered once for all by the great High Priest, and therefore the place of the symbolical rite was broken up. No blood of bullocks or of lambs is needed now, for Jesus has entered within the veil with his own blood. Hence access to God is now permitted, and is the privilege of every believer in Christ Jesus. There is no small space laid open through which we may peer at the mercy-seat, but the rent reaches from the top to the bottom. We may come with boldness to the throne of the heavenly grace. Shall we err if we say that the opening of the Holy of Holies in this marvellous manner by our Lord’s expiring cry was the type of the opening of the gates of paradise to all the saints by virtue of the Passion? Our bleeding Lord hath the key of heaven; he openeth and no man shutteth; let us enter in with him into the heavenly places, and sit with him there till our common enemies shall be made his footstool.

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Experts and Idiots

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on April 18, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Acts 4:13 “Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and “untrained” men, they were marveling and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus”. The Greek word for “untrained” is “ἰδιώτης” (idiōtēs), which originally referred to a private individual or layperson, contrasting with someone in a public or official role. Over time, it evolved to imply a lack of education or skill, leading to its modern connotation of “idiot” as a foolish person. In Jesus’ day, the ruling class was made up of the educated upper class, the priests, scribes, lawyers, Pharisees, Sadducees, etc. These were the learned and the educated, in contrast to Peter and John.

So, in Acts 4:5 we have Peter and John, unlearned men, being used by the Holy Spirit. They were brought before “the rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family”. This ruling class was amazed at Peter and John, some translations say they “marveled” at them. Can you imagine the indignation they had for Peter and John? These lower class men? But the Lord had just used them to heal the lame beggar, and their speech and knowledge had been “quickened” by the Holy Spirit. They realized that Peter and John had been with Jesus.

There is much to say about all of this, but I want to hit home that fact that there is a huge difference between these learned rulers and the unlearned disciples. The power of the Holy Spirit surpasses the highest education, it surpasses your status in life. A W Tozer has a chapter in one of his books entitled “Bible Taught or Spirit Taught” that speaks about this. Click this link to read it.

The Apostle Paul had been part of this ruling class of Jews. When the Lord appeared to him and he received the Holy Spirit, he was never the same. We are told in Philippians 3 that Paul counted “all things as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus”. He walked away from the ruling class; the Spirit had given him something better! So in God’s kingdom, if we come to Jesus, it doesn’t matter our education or status in society. The Spirit is given to all! People can know that we “have been with Jesus”.

On a side note- Over the years, we have helped create a “ruling “class of preachers, ministers and prophets that have captured the attention of the modern church. We have elevated the teachers that have PhD’s, the so called prophets that have written many books or have a huge internet following, ministers that are getting rich off the gospel, convincing us that God has blessed them because they supposedly have some anointing from the Lord. Their ministries are viewed as successful by worldly standards, we forget that unlearned men, like Peter and John, can have an anointing that surpasses the status and so called success of the Christian world. Some of them have fallen into sin and have been exposed. We have seen some of the most educated leaders and apologists be exposed in recent years. People that we have elevated to a high status because of their knowledge and training. They may have started in the Spirit, but now they have a hard time being honest or accountable, they resort to lies and covering up their sin. Their ministries have become so large, that protecting that ministry takes priority, to the point that these leaders cease to walk by the Spirit. It ought not to be so!

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Bible Taught or Spirit Taught?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on April 14, 2026| Leave a Comment »

A great chapter by A W Tozer in The Root of the Righteous.

It may shock some readers to suggest that there is a difference between being Bible taught and being Spirit taught. Nevertheless it is so.

It is altogether possible to be instructed in the rudiments of the faith and still have no real understanding of the whole thing. And it is possible to go on to become expert in Bible doctrine and not have spiritual illumination, with the result that a veil remains over the mind, preventing it from apprehending the truth in its spiritual essence.

Most of us are acquainted with churches that teach the Bible to their children from their tenderest years, give them long instruction in the catechism, drill them further in pastor’s classes and still never produce in them a living Christianity nor a virile godliness. Their members show no evidence of having passed from death unto life. None of the earmarks of salvation so plainly indicated in the Scriptures are found among them.

Their religious lives are correct and reasonably moral, but wholly mechanical and altogether lacking in radiance. They wear their faith as persons in mourning once wore black armbands to show their love and respect for the departed.

Such persons cannot be dismissed as hypocrites. Many of them are pathetically serious about it all. They are simply blind. From lack of the vital Spirit they are forced to get along with the outward shell of faith, while all the time their deep hearts are starving for spiritual reality and they do not know what is wrong with them.

This difference between the religion of creed and the religion of the Spirit is well set forth by the saintly Thomas in a tender little prayer to his Lord:

The children of Israel in time past said unto Moses, “Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” Not so, Lord, not so, I beseech Thee; but rather with the prophet Samuel I humbly and earnestly entreat, “Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth.” Let not Moses speak unto me, nor any of the prophets, but rather do Thou speak, O Lord GOD, the inspirer, enlightener of all the prophets; for Thou alone without them canst perfectly instruct me, but they without Thee can profit nothing. They indeed may utter words, but they cannot give the Spirit. Most beautifully do they speak, but if Thou be silent, they inflame not the heart. They teach the letter, but Thou openest the sense; they bring forth mysteries, but Thou unlockest the heart…. They cry aloud with words, but Thou impartest understanding to the hearing.

It would be hard to wrap it up better than that. The same thing has been said variously by others; however, the most familiar saying probably is, “The Scriptures, to be understood, must be read with the same Spirit that originally inspired them.” No one denies this, but even such a statement will go over the heads of those who hear it unless the Holy Spirit inflames the heart.

The charge often made against us by liberals, that we are “bibliolaters,” is probably not true in the same sense as meant by our detractors; but candor and self-analysis will force us to admit that there is often too much truth in their charge. Among religious persons of unquestioned orthodoxy there is sometimes found a dull dependence upon the letter of the text without the faintest understanding of its spirit. That truth is in its essence spiritual must constantly be kept before our minds if we would know the truth indeed. Jesus Christ is Himself the Truth, and He cannot be confined to mere words even though, as we ardently believe, He has Himself inspired the words. That which is spiritual cannot be shut in by ink or fenced in by type and paper. The best a book can do is give us the letter of truth. If we ever receive more than this, it must be by the Holy Spirit who gives it.

The great need of the hour among persons spiritually hungry is twofold: first, to know the Scriptures, apart from which no saving truth will be vouchsafed by our Lord; the second, to be enlightened by the Spirit, apart from whom the Scriptures will not be understood.

—The Root of the Righteous, A W Tozer

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The Agony of Death

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on April 13, 2026| Leave a Comment »

There are many who believe that there is no life after death. That once you die, you remain in death’s grip, meaning there is nothing more. Many base their lives on that belief and live their entire lives with no hope, living only to please themselves. This is not new to our culture, even Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:32 says “If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die”. That is the agony of death, that once we die there is nothing more. Death would keep us forever, and that is hopeless. It is in hopelessness that people decide to live only for themselves, to “eat and drink, for tomorrow we die”. Philippians 3:18 tells us, “For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.”

We who follow Jesus, follow someone who actually defeated death. We are told in Acts 2:24 “But God raised Him from the dead, releasing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep Him in its grip” BSB. God released Jesus from the agony of death. Because of the power of God, it was impossible for the grip of death to hold Him. Jesus also had the power to raise Lazarus from the dead! Jesus defeated death! Life after death!

Is that not a wonderful hope? That we too will be raised from the grip of death! There may still be sorrow in dying, being separated from loved ones, but that agony of death that we will go thru will not hold its grip on us! We will be raised to Heaven and there will be a new earth! There is life after death. We will be with loved ones again! We will be with Jesus. Philippians 3:20 tells us, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself”.  All things, life and death, are subject to Him. Let us live with Heaven in mind! We are a part of the Kingdom of Heaven.

2 Corinthians 5:4 “While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life”. NLT

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The Spirit Quickeneth

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on March 27, 2026| 1 Comment »

I have always loved the KJV version of John 6:63, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth!”. It might be because my first Bible was a KJV (King James Version), after a while I switched to the NASB (New American Standard Bible). The NASB says “it is the Spirit that gives life”. The Greek word there means “To make that which was dead to live, cause to live, quicken”.

If left to ourselves, we could try to figure out what that means. But we do have examples in the Bible to help us. The first one is in Matthew 16 when Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do men say that I am?”. Peter was the one who said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!”. Jesus commends Peter and tells him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven”. It was the Spirit that quickened Peter!

How long had Peter walked with Jesus before he had received this divine revelation? This for him was a foretaste of what was going to happen to him on the day of Pentecost. This revelation by the Spirit had not happened to any of the other disciples. Peter along with the other disciples would still abandon Jesus at the crucifixion. Peter himself would deny the Lord three times. But that did not mean that Peter did not still love the Lord. What a trial it was for them.

What changed at Pentecost? Peter and the disciples were completely “quickened”, they were made alive by what Jesus had promised. In John 14:16 Jesus told the disciples “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you”. What a difference! When Peter preached at Pentecost, he is a different person, he is a Spiritual man, quickened and helped by the Spirit. It says that three thousand were saved and baptized and filled with the Spirit. That promised Helper, the “Spirit of Truth” is still available to us today through Christ. Oh how we need help to walk the Christian life!

In John 7, Jesus tells us, “If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified”. At Pentecost, the Spirit became available to the disciples and to us!! The Helper that Jesus promised to send came!!

Think about it, Jesus tells us we can receive the Spirit, the Helper, and have “living water flowing out of our innermost being”! We will receive spiritual blessings, or communications of divine grace, in so great an abundance, that we shall not only be refreshed and comforted and helped ourselves, but we shall be instrumental in refreshing and comforting and helping others. Is that not why the Spiritual gifts are given, for the common good? It is not just for our own blessing; it is to flow from our innermost being to others as the Spirit leads.

If we can be reminded of this and ask the Lord to continually be a Help to us, would there be more outpouring not only on ourselves but outward to others? I encourage you to seek the Lord more concerning this, and to meditate more on His Word. Deepen your relationship with the Lord, “for out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water”.

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The Wrong Question

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on March 14, 2026| Leave a Comment »

In Acts 1, we find Jesus giving final instructions to the disciples before His ascension into Heaven. They are still not quite understanding what is going to transpire when the Holy Spirit comes upon them. They are still thinking in worldly terms. In Acts 1:6-8 it says- “So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

It is interesting that they asked this question. It was the wrong question! It was not answered by Jesus. Did they not remember that earlier in His Ministry, Jesus had predicted the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple (Matt 24)? Did they not remember that? They saw His glory and power, and naturally thought about the restoration of the kingdom to Israel. They still had a natural mindset. Jesus did not answer them, and He did not remind them of what He had prophesied against Jerusalem. About 40 years later, the destruction that He had predicted came to Jerusalem. In 70 AD, Titus, the future Roman emperor, worked his way thru Israel, destroying city after city, and eventually destroying all of Israel and the temple.

After Jesus had ascended to heaven and before the siege of Jerusalem, the church age began. God used the Apostles mightily during those years. Heb 2:4 “And God confirmed the message by giving signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit whenever He chose”. The Gospel went out to Jews and Greeks, to ALL the nations! Never before had this happened! The kingdom of God had come!!!!

When they had asked Him if He was going to restore the kingdom to Israel, He told them that it was not for them to know the times or the seasons. Jesus’ teaching had been all about the Kingdom of God having come to earth, about the circumcised in heart, Jews and gentiles!! The true Israel. The promises of God are for those who are children of the promise– it is the work of the sovereign God, creating children out of what no human being can do. By faith in Jesus, all people can be reckoned as part of the Kingdom of God. I don’t think the disciples understood this till after Pentecost. But God used them to fulfill the great mandate, that all the nations would hear the Gospel message and the message of the Kingdom of God. Their understanding was opened when they received the Holy Spirit. Their mind was no longer set on natural things, but on Spiritual things. What a difference! What a Kingdom!

May we all have our hearts and minds set on the Kingdom of God!!

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Soul Power vs Spirit Power

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on March 9, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The Latent Power of the Soul- Preface- Watchman Nee

“When in 1924 I first called the attention of God’s children to the dividing of spirit and soul, many well-disposed brethren thought of it as merely a dispute over words having no great significance. What they failed to see was that our conflict is not concerned with word but with that which lies behind. The spirit and the soul are two totally different organs: one belongs to God, while the other belongs to man. By whatever names one may call them, they are completely distinct in substance. The peril of the believer is to confuse the spirit for the soul and the soul for the spirit, and so be deceived into accepting, the counterfeit of’ evil spirits to the unsettling of’ God’s work.

This series of articles had originally been intended to be written immediately following the completion (in 1928) of The Spiritual Man. But because of physical weakness and the heavy burden of other service, I was only able to have them published in last year’s issues of Revival magazine. In response to the request of its readers, I now put forth this booklet.

The greatest advantage in knowing the difference between spirit and soul is in perceiving the latent power of the soul and in understanding its falsification of the power of the Holy Spirit. Such knowledge is not theoretical but practical in helping people to walk in God’s way.

Just last night I was reading what F. B. Meyer once said in a meeting shortly before his earthly departure. Here is a section of it: “This is an amazing fact that never has there been so much spiritualism outside the church of Christ as is found today . . . Is it not factual that in the lower part of our human nature the stimulation of the soul is quite prevailing? Nowadays the atmosphere is so charged with the commotion of all kinds of counterfeit that the Lord seems to be calling the church to come to a higher ground.”* Today’s situation is perilous. May we “prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thess. 5.21).” Amen.

Watchman Nee March 8, 1933

The insight that Watchman Nee had in 1924 is amazing. And it is amazing how relevant that insight is for today. This information is not new, we are told about it in both the New Testament and the Old Testament. I will only share one scripture from each Testament, since serious study and meditation are encouraged.

Hebrew 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart”. That really is the matter of the whole thing, isn’t it? Being able to judge the intentions of the heart? Since so much of what we see today has the soul as it’s source and not the Spirit. How can we sort it all out? Whenever you see hype in the church, is that not usually created by the soul? When there is a sweet presence of the Lord in our midst, you can always tell that it is “different”, is is “holy”, something that is “other”. It is “holy, set apart”.

In the Old Testament, Ezekiel 22:26 “Her priests have done violence to My law and have profaned My holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the profane, and they have not taught the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they hide their eyes from My sabbaths, and I am profaned among them”.

The Lord has always made a distinction between what is “holy” and what is “profane”, between what is of the “soul” and what is of the “Spirit”. It is safe to say that the Spirit is holy and set apart, and the soul is profane, unholy or as some translations put it, they are “common”. That is the distinction.

We all want God in our midst, to see Him move on our behalf. But we must learn to discern between what is of the “soul’ and what is of the “Spirit”. How do we do that? Well, we ask God to help us! We hold all things up to the light of the scriptures. We press in to the study of God’s Word. Knowing the scriptures is of vital importance. We must learn to walk by the Spirit in all things.

Free book download- The Latent Power of the Soul by Watchman Nee at

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B95KIam9hXiDdExvYW1PaXZJZzA/edit?resourcekey=0-DIWboCRxh-iO8_M-T3hr_A

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What is in Our Heart?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on February 10, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Deuteronomy 8:2-3 “And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. And He humbled you and let you be hungry and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD”.

It would be a hard lesson to learn in our modern convenient culture, that God would actually allow you to go hungry. That He would actually test you to see what was in your heart. What form could that testing take in our modern world? Would there be anything off the table so to speak? There is some mystery in understanding how God works in our lives, Paul tells us in Romans 8:28 that “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose”. Does that mean all things? What will He allow in our lives in this fallen world?

One of the worst things that I can think of, that God used for good, was Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. It doesn’t get any worse than that. Who has been tested at a greater level than Jesus? Who has been abused more? Especially considering His perfect, sinless life? I do not minimize anyone’s trials or abuse. Or anyone’s severe testing! Like Jesus, we must have our own Gethsemane. We must have our own “wrestling with God” in order to find His peace with the way He has allowed things in our lives.

When we read in Genesis of Joseph and the trials that he went thru, we get a glimpse of how God can work in our lives. It shows the providence and sovereignty of God. In relation to Joseph, we read in Psalm 105:19 “Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him”. Joseph was tested and came through that test. I encourage you to read the story of Joseph.

Even Paul was given a thorn in the flesh to keep him humble, God would not heal him. Can we handle that God would not heal him? In 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 Paul tells us, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, yet our inner self is being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison. So, we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal”. When God tests us, it produces “an eternal weight of glory” that is beyond comparison.

John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

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Confident Assertions

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on February 2, 2026| Leave a Comment »

We live in an age of the church, where there are all kinds of speculations about the end times. There are speculations about who is prophetic and who is apostolic. There are speculations about Israel, a new temple, and red heifers. The writing of books regarding those speculations are endless. The number of podcasts and youtube videos of everyone’s thoughts on these issues is staggering. And everyone’s thoughts are mixed with some level of partial truth.

The thing that is scary is that many people are not grounded in the Word, and are easily swayed by speculative teaching. We are told in Ephesians that there is a fullness and maturity in Christ that we need to attain to, “attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming”.

1 Timothy 1:5-7 “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from a sincere faith. Some people have strayed from these things and have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions”.

Confident assertions!!! Confident assertions are presented as something that is true. Someone might say that “God showed me this” when they are making these assertions. It might be a book, it might be a video, it might be a podcast, it might be on CBN or the Victory Channel and it might come from the pulpit on Sunday morning.

All these assertions are mixed with some level of truth, maybe even a some scripture reference. And a lot of it is pleasing to our ear. We must grow to maturity in Christ, to the fullness of Christ. We must have the mind of Christ; we must judge all things by the scriptures.

Millions of prophetic websites, teaching videos and books are a very poor replacement for the scriptures. They are not enough! They will not give you the depth that meditation on the scriptures will give you. If we fail to know the scriptures, and to know God, we will be swayed by every wind of doctrine that comes our way.

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Such Wise Men Are Too Rare

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on December 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »

By A W Tozer

Not much is known about the wise men who came out of the East in search of the newborn King of the Jews, but everything that is known is good. They were “wise men” indeed and checked well on every count.

As far as we know, these men did not have the advantage of a written revelation as did the Jews. They only felt after God in hope that they might find Him, and by His infinite goodness they did find Him. By the dim light of nature, aided perhaps by a tradition borrowed from the Jews, they learned that a Redeemer-King was to come out of Israel and their hearts conceived a great longing to worship Him and to lay some gift at His feet.

Imperfect and sketchy as their faith must have been, God honored it and whispered to them the wondrous news of the approaching Advent. That they were not mere ivory-tower religious dreamers is proved by the fact that they immediately set out to make the long journey, determined to follow the star till it led them to the Savior. Theirs is a good example, and their story a noble and heartening one to meditate upon in this day of universal religious lethargy.

So rich is this story, so replete with lofty and elevating details, that it has been read and told for 20 centuries without exhausting its treasures or dulling the shining luster that surrounds it. Each hearer finds in it something new and fresh each time it is told. But to me at this approaching Christmas season the story of the wise men says two things and says them loudly.

One is that a longing soul with scanty theological knowledge is in a better position to meet God than a self-satisfied soul, however deeply instructed in the Scriptures.

The wise men were Gentiles, “being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.” Yet they saw the star and left all to make the long, dangerous journey to lay worthy gifts at the feet of Jesus. They acted on small knowledge and found the Messiah. That is to their everlasting credit.

On the other hand there were in those days chief priests, high priests, scribes, lawyers, rulers of the synagogues—all keen-eyed students of the Scriptures and experts in the Law and the Prophets; yet as far as we know not one of them had any spiritual awareness that the great day of Israel’s visitation had come. They could tell the wise men instantly what the prophets had written about the birthplace of the King, but their knowledge was formal merely. They themselves were blind to its real meaning. Gentiles had to come and rouse them from their strange stupor, if indeed they were ever aroused, for there is little evidence to show that they understood the wise men or knew what all the excitement was about.

The second message the story brings is that the wise men came to Jesus not to gain something from Him but to give something to Him.

This circumstance is so unusual as to be almost incredible. We must shake our heads to dispel the clouds from our minds and wait a moment to let our thoughts clear before we can grasp such an idea. It is all so contrary to everything we have been hearing all our lives. Imagine coming to Christ with any other motive than to gain something from Him!

This one act stands almost alone in the life of our Lord. Almost, I say, but not quite, for Mary later broke the alabaster box and poured the precious ointment on His head, and after His crucifixion the two Marys came to look for Him; asking nothing, expecting nothing, but impelled by a selfless love they came to bear His body away. Beyond this there is little evidence of anything as pure and lofty as the worship offered by the wise men. Possibly there was more than we know, and charity would dictate that we at least hope that there was.

One thing that makes the act of unselfish worship appear so beautiful is that it is so rare. Apparently the people of Jesus’ day thought of Him as a source of help merely, and it is the “merely” that makes the whole thing questionable. A source of help He was indeed, a fountain in the desert, a star to guide the mariner, bread for the hungry, health for the afflicted and everything that fallen and sinful man can need. Yes, He is our helper, but not our helper merely. He is our Lord and our God as well, and infinitely worthy of our ardent, poured-out love and devotion altogether apart from anything He may do for us.

While Christ walked on earth many came to Him, and the motives that brought them were almost as many as they who came. They sought to make Him a king for political gain; they sought preferment for personal ends, as the brothers James and John. They came for healing, for deliverance, for help for themselves, their children and their friends. Among these motives, if some were questionable, others were good and legitimate, but none was wholly free from selfishness of a sort.

Once a leper came to Jesus. In his great distress he could think of only one thing—getting rid of his repulsive sores and becoming a well man again. He came because he wanted something, and the Lord understood and gave it to him. His motive was not the highest, but it was acceptable. Later he came back with a heart full of gratitude and fell on his face to worship Jesus. The first pleased the Lord, no doubt, but the second pleased Him more—The Price of Neglect, A W Tozer chapter 39

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