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Hindrances on the Pathway to God's Presence (Part 5)

This is a continuation from a devotional (Hebrews 2:1-4) in A.W. Tozer's, "Experiencing the Presence of God."  This final section is more detail on the curses of our contemporary culture.

Letting Truth Leak from our Heart
How do we neglect this great salvation offered to us by the Lord?  No one would turn and wander off quickly from such a great gift.  It happens as we slowly drift away.  We get the truth in our heart, we are on fire for God when we get saved, but then our hearts begin to leak.  And slowly that truth and excitement fades, we begin to drift.  How many new year's resolutions are starting to fade now?  We use the turning of the calendar, the new year as a fresh start with a strong desire to better ourselves in some way, but that desire to improve fades.  This happens in our Christian walk too.  We hear a powerful sermon, or attend a revival or camp meeting and walk out of there wanting to do nothing but follow God first.  Then slowly that fire fades and those spiritual desires evaporate.

Focusing on spiritual matters is more difficult than focusing on earthly things.  God didn't spend any money on commercials during the super bowl because the spirit doesn't have advertisements.  It's not knocking on your door, it's patiently waiting for you to call on Him.  Jesus didn't run around crying out loudly, he was calm and quiet.  People came to him seeking the truth because that's how good His good news is.  It's sort of like a business that does not do any advertising, their product is that good that people cannot help but go out and tell others about it. 

In order for us to focus on our spiritual life, we must resolve to do so, and we've got to mean it.  God meant it when he gave us the law.  Christ meant it when he died and rose again.  The Holy Spirit means it when he speaks to our hearts.

We allow ourselves to get too caught up in the TV media, social media, and society in general today and allow slow leaks from our heart to get us off track.  A.W. Tozer said this, "Society is in a conspiracy to make us all bad; not too bad, because if we get too bad, we become a problem for the police.  But not too good, for if we get too good, we are fanatical, so they say.  So society wants to keep us nice, trimmed down, going to church, supporting boys' clubs and girls' clubs and hospitals.  Certainly those things are all right.  The general society wants to keep us just good enough to not be a problem to the police but bad enough to not bother their conscience."

"For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?" - Hebrews 2:2-3a

God has given us a great gift.  Shouldn't we give him our best to bring glory to him in return.

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