Showing posts with label true or false. Show all posts
Showing posts with label true or false. Show all posts

Friday, September 1, 2023

True or False with Tozer


It's been years since I last played True or False with A.W. Tozer. These are statements that are usually bold, full of zeal, and potentially controversial. 



True or False. The most important aspect of the Christian life is prayer…Every Christian is defined by their prayer life, and if we are not living in prayer, we are not experiencing the life God has for us.



True or False. If I cannot accomplish something through prayer, then it cannot be done by God’s grace.



True or False. The closer we get to God, the farther away we are from the world.



True or False. From God’s perspective, true prayer can never mingle with the world, and the key to this is a complete separation between the world around me and my prayer experience.



True or False. Prayer is discovering the presence of God in a way we did not know before. We cannot truly pray without experiencing God.



True or False. If I am walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, I am going to offend just about everybody I meet. The reason for this offense is that people have turned their backs on God, which, unfortunately is even happening in churches today.


True or False. We have allowed the world, particularly, Hollywood, to define Christianity and Christ.


True or False. We glorify God by putting our faith in God, not the promises. Faith rests upon the character of God alone.


True or False. We need to anticipate a spiritual battle every day.


© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Thursday, March 21, 2019

True or False with John Calvin

From book one, "The Knowledge of God the Creator"

True or false. We can never really seek him in earnest until we begin to despair of ourselves. 

True or false. Man never arrives at true self-knowledge before he has looked into the face of God and then come away to look at himself. Men are never really convinced of their own insignificance until they contrast themselves with God's majesty.True or false.

True or false. Until people feel that they owe everything to God, that they are protected by his fatherly care and that he is the Author of all their blessings, so that nothing should be sought apart from him, they will never submit to him voluntarily. Unless they put their complete happiness in his hands, they will never truly have their lives under his control. 
True or false. The pious mind does not create its own god, but looks only to the one true God. Nor does it imagine any trait it likes for him, but is happy to have him as the character which he reveals, always on guard against disobeying his Law and wandering arrogantly from the right way. 
True or false. The pious mind holds on to God as the avenger of sin as much as the rewarder of good, because he realizes that both are part of his glory: he reserves punishment for one and eternal life for the other. 
True or false. This is pure and true religion: it is confidence in God coupled with genuine fear. This fear comprises willing reverence and true worship as God has commanded. 
True or false. Vanity and pride are always present when men seek for God...so they do not think of God in his true character, but imagine him to be like their own random ideas. 
True or false. No religion is genuine that is not in accordance with truth.
True or false. Those whose inclinations oppose God's justice, fervently wish that his tribunal for the punishment of sin could be overthrown. In feeling like this, they are fighting God, because justice is one of his essential attributes. 
True or false. Hypocrites try, in various twisted ways, to make a show of being near God when they are in fact running away from him. 
True or false. Scripture crystallizes ideas about God which had been very confused, scatters the darkness and shows us the true God clearly. 
True or false. It is impossible for anyone to gain an atom of sound doctrine without being a disciple of Scripture. We take the first step towards true knowledge when we reverently take hold of the testimony God has graciously given about himself. 
True or false. If we sincerely long for true awareness of God we must look in God's Word where his character is described accurately and vividly. If we turn away from this, however fast we move, we shall never reach our goal because we are off course. 
True or false. These words will not be given acknowledgment in the hearts of men, until they are sealed by the inner witness of the Spirit. 
True or false. The Lord has intertwined the truth of his Word and his Spirit in such a way that we respect the Word when the Spirit illuminates it, enabling us to see God's face, and we welcome the Spirit with no risk of error, when we recognize him in his Word. These are the facts. God did not put his Word in front of men to make a sudden splash, intending to get rid of it the moment the Spirit arrived. He employed the same Spirit by whom He had given the Word, to complete his work by effectively confirming the Word. 
True or false. The work of the intellect is to make distinction between good and bad, and the function of the will is to choose and follow what the intellect says is good, rejecting what is bad.
True or false. Without reference to God's Providence we cannot understand the full force of what is meant by his being the Creator, however much we may seem to understand it with our minds and confess it with our mouths. 
True or false. The believers' comfort in trouble is that everything they endure is ordained and commanded by God and that they are in his hands. 
True or false. Everything is controlled by God's secret purpose, and nothing can happen except by his knowledge and will. 
True or false. When our lives are in turmoil so that we cannot think straight, we should still believe that God, in the pure light of his justice and wisdom, keeps our problems under his control and finds the right solution. 


© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

True and False with Tozer


  1. True or false. We can admire without worshiping but we cannot worship without admiring, because worship is admiration carried to infinitude. In the same way, we can honor what we do not worship, but we cannot worship the one we do not honor. 
  2. True or false. We can love without worshiping but we cannot worship without loving. 
  3. True or false. We use divine language in such a common way that when we try to rise to the exalted and divine level we find ourselves using words that do not express anything. 
  4. True or false. We are saved to worship God. All that Christ has done for us in the past and all that He is doing now leads to this one end. That is why we were born and that is why we are born again from above. That is why we were created and that is why we have been recreated. 
  5. True or false. True worship of God must be a constant and consistent attitude or state of mind within the believer. 
  6. True or false. We can't worship these days because we do not have a high enough opinion of God. God has been reduced, modified, edited, changed, and amended until He is not the God Isaiah saw high and lifted up but something else. 
  7. True or false. Worship originates with God and comes back to us and is reflected from us, as a mirror. 
  8. True or false. A heretic is not a man who denies all of the truth, he's just a very persnickety man who picks out what he likes and rejects the rest. Heresy means I take what I like and I reject what I don't like. 
  9. True or false. Whatever keeps me from the Bible is my enemy, however harmless it may appear to be. Whatever engages my attention when I should be meditating on God and things eternal does injury to my soul. Let the cares of life crowd out the Scriptures from my mind and I have suffered loss where I can least afford it. Let me accept anything else instead of Scriptures and I have been cheated and robbed to my eternal confusion. 
  10. True or false. A true fear of God is a beautiful thing, for it is worship, it is love, it is veneration. It is a high moral happiness because God is. 
  11. True or false. The man who has met God is not looking for something--he has found it; he is not searching for light--upon him the Light has already shined. 
  12. True or false. There are millions who cannot live without amusement; life without some form of entertainment for them is simply intolerable. 
  13. True or false. We have simplified until Christianity amounts to this: God is love; Jesus died for you; believe, accept, be jolly, have fun and tell others. And away we go--that is the Christianity of our day. 
  14. True or false. The cross stands high above the opinions of men and to that cross all opinions must come at last for judgment. 
  15. True or false. The church that can't worship must be entertained.
  16. True or false. The devil is busy brainwashing us and conditioning us little by little and feeding his ideas into the church. The counsel of the ungodly comes and as the ideas of the ungodly enter the Church the ideas of God go out. As the the counsel of the ungodly comes in, the counsel of God goes out. 
  17. True or false. In our day, the churches are trying to offer such a blend and such a compromise between heaven and hell. Some pastors feel that this is the way to get along with people and to improve the church's public relations. 
  18. True or false.  Christ calls men to carry a cross; we call them to have fun in His name. He calls them to forsake the world; we assure them that if they but accept Jesus the world is their oyster. He calls them to suffer; we call them to enjoy all the bourgeois comforts modern civilization affords...He calls them to holiness; we call them to a cheap and tawdry happiness that would have been rejected with scorn by the least of the Stoic philosophers. 



© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Friday, September 21, 2018

True or False with Tozer

TRUE OR FALSE
One important point many fail to understand is that the Bible was never meant to replace God; rather, it was meant to lead us into the heart of God. Too many Christians stop with the text and never go on to experience the presence of God. The Crucified Life
TRUE OR FALSE
Probably there is no greater offense in all of Christendom than speed-reading the Bible. The Bible must be read slowly and meditatively, allowing the Spirit of God to open up our understanding. The Crucified Life
TRUE OR FALSE
One problem some have is to believe that if they read it in the Bible, they have already experienced it. It is one thing to read about the new birth in the Bible and quite another thing to be born from above by the Spirit of the living God. The Crucified Life
TRUE OR FALSE
The difficulty we modern Christians face is not misunderstanding the Bible, but persuading our untamed hearts to accept its plain instructions. The Pursuit of Man
TRUE OR FALSE
It takes all of the Bible to make all of the Bible. When we splinter the Bible, pulling out a single brushstroke, we lose what it is all about. Alive in the Spirit
TRUE OR FALSE
It is impossible to separate the Old Testament from the New Testament. It takes the whole Bible to make the Word of God. Delighting in God
TRUE OR FALSE
Some Christians read the Bible only to find some proof text to use in their witnessing, which is more arguing than witnessing. Experiencing the Presence of God
TRUE OR FALSE
The Bible is the bestselling book of all time, and yet it is the most misunderstood and undervalued book in all the world. The mission of the Word of God is to find us, identify us and the times in which we live, and show us what is wrong with us as well as what is right with us. God’s Power for Your Life
TRUE OR FALSE
A heretic is someone who selects the passages that he wants to believe. If you go through your Bible, selecting passages that please you and disregarding those that don’t, you could be in the class of a heretic. It’s not that you believe false doctrine, but you are not giving attention to the whole Word of God. It is a bit like living all the time on cake. Cake is not necessarily bad, but you have to have some other things to balance out your diet. The same thing goes with the Bible. God’s Power for Your Life
TRUE OR FALSE
When a truth has been revealed in the Bible, our business is to find out what that truth is and then in all of our teaching conform to that truth. Not edit it or change it, but let it stand just as it is. Living as a Christian
TRUE OR FALSE
God is not the way we say He is, God is the way the Bible says He is. My Daily Pursuit
TRUE OR FALSE
Where the Bible is clear, we need to be clear and dogmatic. Where the Bible is not as clear, we need to be careful that we are not adding or taking away from the Scriptures. The Bible is not to divide us, but enable us to focus on Jesus Christ, the man of prophecy. Preparing for Jesus’ Return
TRUE OR FALSE
It is essential that we learn how to read the Scriptures, to meditate upon the Scriptures, and to discipline ourselves in memorizing Scripture. It is absolutely essential that the Bible have top priority in our thought life. Nothing else should surpass the Scriptures. Everything we do should have roots in the Scripture. Our morning sessions with God over the Scriptures should set forth the pattern and temperament of our daily walk that day. We truly have not read the Bible until we have seen Jesus Christ. Preparing for Jesus’ Return
TRUE OR FALSE
 We need to cultivate a healthy skepticism toward everything that cannot be supported by the plain teaching of the Bible. Belief is faith only when it has God’s revealed truth for its object; beyond that, it may be fully as injurious as unbelief itself. The Alliance Weekly/Witness, 1950
TRUE OR FALSE
Money invested in Bibles is money well spent. Time spent in reading the Bible is not likely to be time wasted. The Bible is the supreme gift for friends and loved ones. Words spoken in favor of the Bible are good words, and if they should fall upon the right ears, might prove to be “apples of gold in settings of silver” (Proverbs 25:11). The Alliance Weekly/Witness, 1950
TRUE OR FALSE
Of all the books in the world, the one most quoted, most misunderstood, and most misapplied is the Bible. The Alliance Weekly/Witness, 1952
TRUE OR FALSE
For the child of God, the Bible is the book of all books, to be reverenced, loved, pored over endlessly, and feasted upon as living bread and manna for the soul. It is the first best book, the only indispensable book. To ignore it or neglect it is to doom our minds to error and our hearts to starvation. The Alliance Weekly/Witness, 1953
TRUE OR FALSE
Whatever keeps me from the Bible is my enemy, however harmless it may appear to be. The Alliance Weekly/Witness, 1961
TRUE OR FALSE
The Bible was written in tears, and to tears it will yield its best treasures. God has nothing to say to the frivolous man. The Alliance Weekly/Witness, 1961
TRUE OR FALSE
It is not how many Bibles are sold that counts, or even how many people read them; what matters is how many actually believe what they read and surrender themselves in faith to live by the truth. Short of this, the Bible can have no real value for any of us. The Alliance Weekly/Witness, 1962
TRUE OR FALSE
All God wanted to say He has said in the Scriptures. Beyond that we show the greatest wisdom simply to remain still before Him and whisper, “Even so, Father.” The Alliance Weekly/Witness, 1951
TRUE OR FALSE
Let the cares of life crowd out the Scriptures from my mind and I have suffered loss where I can least afford it. Let me accept anything else instead of the Scriptures and I have been cheated and robbed to my eternal confusion. The Alliance Weekly/Witness, 1961
TRUE OR FALSE
Some imagine that Christianity is a playground. They are wrong. It is not a playground; it is a battleground. A Disruptive Faith
TRUE OR FALSE
In every Christian’s heart there is a cross and a throne, and the Christian is on the throne till he puts himself on the cross; if he refuses the cross, he remains on the throne. The Alliance Weekly/Witness, 1951
TRUE OR FALSE
It appears that too many Christians want to enjoy the thrill of feeling right but are not willing to endure the inconvenience of living right. The Alliance Weekly/Witness, 1955
TRUE OR FALSE
What is desperately needed in the church today are men and women who are so obsessed with God that only God matters. Voice of a Prophet
TRUE OR FALSE
Words are like little pitchers, and each one is labeled. It is the business of the devil to pour out the true meaning of each little pitcher and pour in some other meaning. Experiencing the Presence of God
TRUE OR FALSE
All worship should begin with the Bible. This divine road map will lead us to God. It has been a neat trick of the devil to confuse us with a variety of translations. The Christian community is divided by which translation is the right one. The Purpose of Man
TRUE OR FALSE
Satan has no fear of the light as long as he can keep his victims sightless. The Alliance Weekly/Witness, 1958
TRUE OR FALSE
A doctrine has practical value only as far as it is prominent in our thoughts and makes a difference in our lives. The Pursuit of Man
TRUE OR FALSE
If you take only one verse and make that to be supreme, and crowd out everything else, you can teach any crazy kind of doctrine in the world. Living as a Christian
TRUE OR FALSE
Any doctrine that makes the world your friend is not your friend. And any doctrine that makes it easy for you to hobnob with the world and the world’s ways and accept the world’s values, and do the way the world does, is not of God. Reclaiming Christianity
TRUE OR FALSE
If we are to gaze into the face of God, we must look beyond our present circumstances. We must rest in the faithfulness of God and that all these things before us will work together for good. This is the faith that rises above all else and never stops short of a full gaze into the face of God. This is the place of our destined fellowship with God. Authentic faith rests fully in that gaze of the soul. A Disruptive Faith
TRUE OR FALSE
Faith does not rest upon promises. Faith rests upon character. Faith rests upon the One who made the promise. Fellowship of the Burning Heart
TRUE OR FALSE
Faith is the vitamin that makes all we take from the Bible digestible and makes us able to receive it and assimilate it. If we do not have faith, we cannot get anything. If we allow the gloomy voice of unbelief to whisper to us that God will bless some other time but not now, some other place but not here, some other people but not us, we might as well turn off the lights, because nobody will get anywhere. Rut, Rot or Revival
TRUE OR FALSE
True faith requires that we believe everything God has said about himself, but also that we believe everything He has said about us. The Alliance Weekly/Witness, 1958
TRUE OR FALSE
Faith in faith has displaced faith in God in too many places. The Alliance Weekly/Witness, 1960
TRUE OR FALSE
The importance of reading the Bible is not reading, but fellowship with the Author. The proper reading of the Bible must be in the same Spirit that authored it. The Purpose of Man
TRUE OR FALSE
The problem is that we define grace from our standpoint. We believe the grace of God is that He tolerates sin because He loves us so much. That is the price of His love for us. This, however, is far from what the Bible teaches. God’s grace is not something that we can use to manipulate God into some corner and get Him to do something we want Him to do against His will. God cannot be manipulated. Delighting in God
TRUE OR FALSE
No one ever yet knew the true grace of God who had not first known the fear of God. The Alliance Weekly/Witness, 1954
TRUE OR FALSE
We will never get anywhere unless the Holy Spirit has the authority to convict us so that He might bring us into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. Alive in the Spirit
TRUE OR FALSE
If I am going to know that the Bible is the Word of God, it will only come from the work of the Holy Spirit in my life. The Holy Spirit opens up the Word, reveals to me and illuminates to me the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the living Word. Alive in the Spirit
TRUE OR FALSE
No joys are valid, no delights legitimate, where sin is allowed to live in life or conduct. The Pursuit of Man
TRUE OR FALSE
Nothing bothers the devil more than a Christian delighting in God’s presence. Fellowship of the Burning Heart
TRUE OR FALSE
It is the business of the Word of God not only to tell me when I am right but also to point out what I am doing wrong. Growth cannot take place unless there is judgment on those things in my life that are wrong. God’s Power for Your Life
TRUE OR FALSE
The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God, and the church is famishing for want of His Presence. The instant cure of most of our religious ills would be to enter the Presence in spiritual experience, to become suddenly aware that we are in God and that God is in us. The Pursuit of God
TRUE OR FALSE
God’s love for mankind is a hurt—a wound of the heart. Man’s treachery has deeply wounded Him, but He is caught in the sweet and painful meshes of His own love. He is impaled, so to speak, on the point of His own great love for mankind. A Disruptive Faith
TRUE OR FALSE
“God so loved the world,” not because the world was lovable but because God is love. Christ did not die for us that God might love us; He died for us because God already loved us from everlasting. Love is not the result of redemption, it is the cause of it. The Alliance Weekly/Witness, 1952
TRUE OR FALSE
The cross did not make the mercy of God any more merciful, or the quality of that mercy any more perfect, or the amount of that mercy any greater. Neither does the intercession of Christ make Him more merciful. Delighting in God
TRUE OR FALSE
You will never know some truths until you have suffered either in your heart or in your body or both. And some mysteries you will never understand until you have carried the cross and fallen under it. So we might as well brace ourselves for suffering. A Disruptive Faith
TRUE OR FALSE
Our perception of God is what really establishes the parameters, if you please, of our prayer life. We need to understand that prayer is not a meritorious act. We do not earn anything because of it. We pray because God hears, and God hears us because of Jesus. Because of Him, God the Father has a good heart toward His people. Delighting in God
TRUE OR FALSE
God’s promises reveal everything we need to know about God—and more important, everything God wants us to be. God’s Power for Your Life
TRUE OR FALSE
Redemption is wrought by God and not by man. There is not any place in the head of a man or in the fingers of a man, however skilled or brilliant, for redemptive plans or purposes. Experiencing the Presence of God
TRUE OR FALSE
The fall was a work wrought by man alone, but redemption was a work wrought by God alone. Experiencing the Presence of God
TRUE OR FALSE
God makes salvation conditional upon our response to a message, and that message is the message of the cross—the message of redemption of a dying and risen Lord, and our faith in God’s declaration of intention, something God declares He plans to do, and will do, if we believe. We must have faith in that and make a response to it. Fellowship of the Burning Heart
TRUE OR FALSE
Any religion that ignores the truth that man is fallen and separated from God is a sham religion. Experiencing the Presence of God
TRUE OR FALSE
Nobody can repent until he knows the depths of his own sin, and nobody can know the depths of his own sin unless the Holy Spirit shows him. Nobody can repent properly until the Holy Spirit shows him, and the person outside of Christ cannot understand this divine communion. Alive in the Spirit
TRUE OR FALSE
The reason we do not have more repentance is that we repent for what we do instead of for what we are. The repentance for what you do may go deep, but the repentance for what you are goes deeper. Voice of a Prophet
TRUE OR FALSE
The pain associated with the sacrifice of the old self is nothing compared to the joy of experiencing that afflatus from on high coming down and penetrating every aspect of our life. The Crucified Life
TRUE OR FALSE
Our salvation is no better than our perception of Christ. If that perception is flawed, our salvation is also flawed. Delighting in God
TRUE OR FALSE
God makes salvation conditional upon our response to a message. That message is the message of the cross—the message of redemption of a dying and risen Lord, and our faith in God’s declaration of intention, a thing that God declares He plans to do, and will do, if we believe. Fellowship of the Burning Heart
TRUE OR FALSE
The glory of God always comes at the sacrifice of self. The Crucified Life
TRUE OR FALSE
It is a wonderful moment in the life of any man when he gets sick and weary of self. The Wisdom of God
TRUE OR FALSE
What eating is to the body, believing is to the soul. And He Dwelt Among Us
TRUE OR FALSE
Jesus is the cure, and only the Holy Spirit can apply this remedy to restore a person’s life and chase away the darkness of the soul forever. God’s Power for Your Life
TRUE OR FALSE
All theology begins with God and ends with God, or it is not true biblical theology. Delighting in God
TRUE OR FALSE
Any wrong idea of God is bound to give us a wrong idea of ourselves. We can know ourselves only as we know God. If our theology is false, our anthropology must be false. The Dangers of a Shallow Faith
TRUE OR FALSE
When it comes to the worship of God, we must be quite careful that we are not basing it on partial truth, but on the entire revealed truth such as can be found in the Bible. The Purpose of Man
TRUE OR FALSE
No worship is wholly pleasing to God until there is nothing in us that is displeasing to God. The Purpose of Man



© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Monday, July 23, 2018

True or False with the Puritans #4 (Matthew Henry)

True or False with Matthew Henry
From his commentary on Genesis, chapters 21 and 22.

True or False. God is always punctual according to his timing. Though his promised mercies do not come at the time we set, they will certainly come at the time he sets, and that is the best time.

True or False. Whatever is the source of our joy, God must be acknowledged as its author, unless it is the laughter of the fool (Ecc 7:6).

True or False. God’s favors to his covenant-people are those that exceed both their own and others’ thoughts and expectations.

True or False. God tested him, not to draw him to sin, but to discover his graces, how strong they were, that they might be found to praise, and glory, and honor (1Pe 1:7).

True or False. The best evidence of our fearing God is our being willing to serve and honor him with what is dearest to us.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Friday, May 18, 2018

True or False with the Puritans #3 (Matthew Henry)

True or False with Matthew Henry
From his commentary on Genesis, chapters 11-20

TRUE OR FALSE If God loves us and has mercy in store for us, he will not allow us to take up our rest anywhere short of Canaan, but will graciously repeat his calls, till the good work that he has begun is truly carried out and our souls rest only in God.

TRUE OR FALSE The world and all our enjoyments in it must be looked on with a holy indifference; we must no longer look on it as our country or home, but where we are staying for a while, and must accordingly sit loose to it, be independent of it, live above it, and make sure that it does not hold our deepest affection.

TRUE OR FALSE  Jesus Christ is the great blessing of the world, the greatest blessing that the world has ever known. He is a family blessing, by him salvation is brought to the house (Lk 19:9).

TRUE OR FALSE We must continue our journey, going on from strength to strength, as having not yet reached our goal.

TRUE OR FALSE What God has to show is infinitely better and more desirable than anything that the world has to offer to our view.

TRUE OR FALSE We ought to be ready, whenever it is in the power of our hands, to help and relieve those that are in distress.

TRUE OR FALSE Though we must never complain about God, we may still complain to him, and it is some ease to a burdened spirit to open up to a faithful and compassionate friend:

TRUE OR FALSE If Christ is ours, heaven is also ours.

TRUE OR FALSE What God has promised is as certain as if it were already done; and so it is said, whoever believes hath everlasting life (Jn 3:36), for all that believe will as surely go to heaven as if they were there already.

TRUE OR FALSE When passion is on the throne, reason has been thrown outdoors and is neither heard nor spoken. Those who are most loud and forward in appealing to God are not always in the right.

TRUE OR FALSE Tears speak as well as prayers.

TRUE OR FALSE What God is himself, that he will be to his people: his wisdom is theirs, to guide and counsel them; his power is theirs, to protect and support them; his goodness is theirs, to provide for and comfort them.

TRUE OR FALSE God graciously comes to those in whom he has first raised an expectation of him.

TRUE OR FALSE Religion does not destroy, but improve, good manners, and teaches us to honor all people.

TRUE OR FALSE Fellowship with God is maintained by the word and by prayer. In the word, God speaks to us; in prayer we speak to him.

TRUE OR FALSE God’s word does us good when it provides us with matter for prayer and stirs us to it.

TRUE OR FALSE Though sin is to be hated, sinners are to be pitied and prayed for. God does not delight in their death, and we should not desire, but pray for deliverance from, the day of destruction.

TRUE OR FALSE We must direct our prayer as we send a letter and then look up to wait for a reply. We must direct our prayer as an arrow and then look up to see whether it reaches its mark (Ps 5:3).

TRUE OR FALSE If we have entered on a wrong course of action through ignorance, this does not excuse our knowingly persisting in it (Lev 5:3-5).

TRUE OR FALSE The prayers of good people may be a kindness to great people and ought to be valued.



© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

True or False with Richard Sibbes #3

TRUE OR FALSE. If we would have faith ready to die by, we must exercise it well in living by it, and then it will no more fail us than the good things we lay hold on by it, until it hath brought us into heaven, where that office of it is laid aside.

TRUE OR FALSE. Our care must be to know our work, and then to do it; and so to do it as if it were unto God, with conscience of moderate diligence; for over-doing and over-working anything comes either from ostentation or distrust in God. Let us do our work, and leave God to do his own. Diligence and trust in him is only ours, the rest of the burden is his. Trust God and be doing, and let him alone with the rest. He stands upon his credit so much, that it shall appear we have not trusted him in vain, even when we see no appearance of doing any good.

TRUE OR FALSE. A heavenly soul is never satisfied, until it be as near God as is attainable. And the nearer a creature comes to God, the more it is emptied of itself, and all self-aims. Our happiness is more in him, than in ourselves.

TRUE OR FALSE. A sound-hearted Christian hath always a God to go to, a promise to go to, former experience to go to, besides some present experiences of God’s goodness which he enjoys. For the present he is a child of God, a member of Christ, an heir of heaven. He dwells in the love of God in the cross as well as out of it. Ho may be cast out of his happy condition in the world, but never out of God’s favour. If God’s children have cause to praise God in their worst condition, what difference is there betwixt their best estate and their worst?

TRUE OR FALSE. Our life is nothing but as it were a web woven with interminglings of wants and favours, crosses and!blessings, standings and fallings, combat and victory, therefore there should be a perpetual intercourse of praying and praising in our hearts.

TRUE OR FALSE. We ought not only to give thanks, but to be thankful, to meditate and study the praises of God. Our whole life should be nothing else but a continual blessing of his holy name, endeavouring to bring in all we have, and to lay it out for God and his people, to see where he hath any receivers.

TRUE OR FALSE. We live not to live. Our life is not the end of itself, but the praise of the giver. God hath joined his glory and our happiness together. It is fit that we should refer all that is good to his glory, that hath joined his glory to our best good, in being glorified in our salvation.

TRUE OR FALSE. What makes heaven but the presence of God? and what makes hell but the absence of God? Let God be in any condition, though never so ill, yet it is comfortable; and usually we find more of God in trouble than when we are out of trouble. The comforts of religion never come till others fail.

TRUE OR FALSE. It is our chief wisdom to know him, our holiness to love him, our happiness to enjoy him. There is in him to be had whatsoever can truly make us happy. We go to our treasure and our portion in all our wants; we live by it and value ourselves by it.

TRUE OR FALSE. God in his own time, which is best for thee, will be the salvation of thy countenance; he will compass thee about with songs of deliverance, and make it appear at last that he hath care of thee.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Sunday, February 25, 2018

True or False with Richard Sibbes #2

TRUE OR FALSE. There is no condition but therein we may exercise some grace, and honour God in some measure.

TRUE OR FALSE. Men are not damned because they cannot do better, but because they will do no better; if there were no will, there would be no hell.

TRUE OR FALSE. Many out of a misconceit think that corruption is greatest when they feel it most, whereas indeed, the less we see it and lament it, the more it is. The more we see and grieve for pride, which is an immediate issue of our corrupted nature, the less it is, because we see it by a contrary grace; the more sight the more hatred, the more hatred of sin, the more love of grace, and the more love the more life, which the more lively it is, the more it is sensible of the contrary. Upon every discovery and conflict corruption loses some ground, and grace gains upon it.

TRUE OR FALSE. This imagination of ours is become the seat of vanity, and thereupon of vexation to us, because it apprehends a greater happiness in outward good things than there is, and a greater misery in outward evil things than indeed there is; and when experience shews us that there is not that good in those things which we imagine to be, but, contrarily, we find much evil in them which we never expected, hereupon the soul cannot but be troubled.

TRUE OR FALSE. It mars all in religion when we go about heavenly things with earthly affections, and seek not Christ in Christ, but the world.

TRUE OR FALSE. A good Christian begins his repentance where his sin begins, in his thoughts, which are the next issue of his heart.

TRUE OR FALSE. We cannot have too much care upon what we fix our thoughts.

TRUE OR FALSE. It is not so much the having of grace, as grace in exercise, that preserves the soul.

TRUE OR FALSE. And it is good to renew our resolutions again and again: for every new resolution brings the soul closer to God, and gets further in him, and brings fresh strength from him; which, if we neglect, our corruption joining with outward hindrances will carry us further and further backward, and this will double, yea multiply our trouble and grief to recover ourselves again.

TRUE OR FALSE. Trust or confidence is nothing else but the strength of hope. If the thing hoped for be deferred, then of necessity it enforces waiting, and waiting is nothing else but hope and trust lengthened.

TRUE OR FALSE. God only is the fit object of trust. He hath all the properties of that which should be trusted on. A man can be in no condition wherein God is at a loss and cannot help him. If comforts be wanting, he can create comforts, not only out of nothing, but out of discomforts.

TRUE OR FALSE. Only they that know God will trust in him; not that knowledge alone is sufficient, but because the sweetness of God’s love is let into the soul thereby, which draweth the whole soul to him. We are bidden to trust perfectly in God; therefore, seeing we have a God so full of perfection to trust in, we should labour to trust perfectly in him.

TRUE OR FALSE. He knows our souls best, and our souls know him best, in adversity.

TRUE OR FALSE. Sin makes us afraid of that which should be our greatest comfort; it puts a sting into every other evil. Upon the seizing of any evil, either of body, soul, or condition, the guilty soul is embittered and enraged; for from that which it feels, it fore-speaks to itself worse to come, it interprets all that befalls as the messengers of an angry God, sent in displeasure to take revenge upon it.

TRUE OR FALSE. When men will know us least, God will know us most. He knows our souls in adversity, and knows them so as to support and comfort them, and that from the spring-head of comfort, whereby the sweetest comforts are fetched.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Thursday, February 22, 2018

True or False with Richard Sibbes #1

TRUE OR FALSE. True peace arises from knowing the worst first, and then our freedom from it. It is a miserable peace that riseth from ignorance of evil. It is Christ’s manner to trouble our souls first, and then to come with healing in his wings.

TRUE OR FALSE. Religion indeed brings crosses with it, but then it brings comforts above those crosses.

TRUE OR FALSE. We are prone to cast down ourselves, we are accessory to our own trouble, and weave the web of our own sorrow, and hamper ourselves in the cords of our own twining. God neither loves nor wills that we should be too much cast down. He was troubled himself that we should not be troubled. The ground, therefore, of our disquiet is chiefly from ourselves, though Satan will have a hand in it.

TRUE OR FALSE. Grief is like lead to the soul, heavy and cold; it sinks downwards, and carries the soul with it.

TRUE OR FALSE. We must not only be ready to give an account of our faith, upon what grounds we believe; but of all our actions, upon what grounds we do what we do; and of our passions, upon what grounds we are passionate; as in a well-governed state, uproar and sedition is never stirred, but account must be given.

TRUE OR FALSE. Satan could not deceive us, unless we deceived ourselves first, and are willingly deceived.

TRUE OR FALSE. First or last, self-denial and victory over ourselves is absolutely necessary; otherwise faith, which is a grace that requireth self-denial, will never be brought into the soul, and bear rule there.

TRUE OR FALSE. God hath made the soul for a communion with himself, which communion is especially placed in the affections, which are the springs of all spiritual worship. Then the affections are well ordered, when we are fit to have communion with God, to love, joy, trust, to delight in him above all things.

TRUE OR FALSE. Affections are as it were the wind of the soul, and then the soul is carried as it should be, when it is neither so becalmed that it moves not when it should, nor yet tossed with tempests to move disorderly; when it is so well balanced that it is neither lift up nor cast down too much, but keepeth a steady course. Our affections must not rise to become unruly passions, for then as a river that overfloweth the banks, they carry much slime and soil with them.

TRUE OR FALSE. Those that love too much will always grieve too much. It is the greatness of our affections which causeth the sharpness of our afflictions.

TRUE OR FALSE. He that is much in heaven in his thoughts is free from being tossed with tempests here below.

TRUE OR FALSE. If we can not prevent wicked thoughts, yet we may deny them lodging in our hearts. It is our giving willing entertainment to sinful motions that increaseth guilt, and hindereth our peace. It is that which moveth God to give us up to a further degree of evil affections. Therefore what we are afraid to do before men, we should be afraid to think before God.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Friday, February 16, 2018

True or False with Steven Lawson

TRUE OR FALSE. The rejection of the truth is where sin began, and it continues to this day. Whenever the truth of God is suppressed, it always leads to believing a lie.

TRUE OR FALSE. The supreme sin today, it seems, is not the committing of moral wickedness. Rather, it is making an exclusive claim of absolute truth. The unpardonable sin in this generation is to affirm moral absolutes. The abomination of the hour is to assert that the Bible is the authoritative standard of truth and to maintain that all that is contrary to the truth is a lie. Such is an anathema in the truth-rejecting world of the twenty-first century.

TRUE OR FALSE. No one can possess true faith in Jesus Christ and yet not believe the Bible itself. To abandon the Bible is to abandon God.

TRUE OR FALSE. Christianity is not a cause to join or a code to follow, but a Christ to follow.

TRUE OR FALSE.  The true gospel is always offensive to the world.

TRUE OR FALSE. God has not stuttered or muttered in His Word. Neither has He edited His own truth. On the contrary, He has affirmed, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isa. 40:8). Yet this is the precise point at which Satan launches his attack. He tempts people to doubt the veracity of the Word of God.

TRUE OR FALSE. As worshipers, we are to give to God every part of our bodies. Nothing must be held back. We are to give Him our minds, including our thoughts, beliefs, dreams, and ambitions. We are to give Him our eyes—what we see, look upon, and focus upon. We are to give Him our ears—what we hear and listen to throughout the day. We are to give Him our mouths—what we say and what we teach. We are to give Him our hands—what we do and what we lay hold of. We are to give Him our feet—where we go and what we pursue. This is God’s design for all believers. This is not reserved for the so-called spiritual elites, but for every true believer.

TRUE OR FALSE. Either we are influencing the world, or the world is influencing us. Either the world is the mission field or we are the mission field. The devil never sleeps. The forces of hell are aggressive, and we are subject to the relentless temptations, snares, and schemes of the evil one.

TRUE OR FALSE. The battle for the Christian mind is the battle for the Christian life.

TRUE OR FALSE. Understand this—salvation is by grace, and judgment is by works. Each sinner will be strictly judged by the Lord Jesus Christ according to what he did.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Friday, February 9, 2018

True or False with A.W. Tozer

TRUE OR FALSE. The heart is adept at emotional tricks and is entirely capable of falling in love with imaginary objects or romantic religious ideas.

TRUE OR FALSE. Christ has become a project to be promoted or a cause to be served instead of a Lord to be obeyed. Thousands of mistaken persons seek to do for Christ whatever their fancy suggests should be done, and in whatever way they think best. The result is an army of men who run without being sent and speak without being commanded.

TRUE OR FALSE. Millions go through life unaffected by the presence of God in His world.

TRUE OR FALSE. It takes a work of God in a man to sour him on the world and to turn him against himself; yet until this has happened to him he is psychologically unable to repent and believe.

TRUE OR FALSE. Jesus was not in the business of offering human advice that people could take or leave as they wished. Instead, He always spoke with absolute, final authority.

TRUE OR FALSE. I do not believe it for one minute, for there are not a dozen “rights.” There is only one “right.” There is but one Jesus and one God and one Bible. He said what He meant. He meant what He said. He is the Eternal Word, and we must listen to Him if our discipleship is to be genuine and consistent.

TRUE OR FALSE. As Christian disciples, we should be whatever we are wherever we are. Like diamonds. A diamond does not adjust; it is always a diamond. Just so, Christians ought always to be Christians. We are not Christians if we have to wait for the right atmosphere to practice our religion.

TRUE OR FALSE. The person who wants to die a Christian must live a Christian. The person who wants the Advocate above to be a shelter for him or her in that hour must allow Him to be a shelter right now!

TRUE OR FALSE. Some teachers have tried to enshroud Jesus in a pink fog of sentimentality. But there is really no excuse for misunderstanding Him. He drew the line as taut as a violin string. He said, “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad” (Matthew 12:30). “But he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18).

TRUE OR FALSE. Truth is not a text. Truth is in the text, but it takes the text plus the Holy Spirit to bring truth to a human soul. A person can memorize a text, but the truth must come from the Holy Spirit through the text.

TRUE OR FALSE. The only solution that will loose us from our sins is the blood of Jesus Christ. He loved us and freed us—washed us—from our sins in His own blood.

TRUE OR FALSE.  Receiving Christ savingly is an act of the total personality. It is an act of the mind and of the will and of the affections. It is thus not only an act of the total personality, it is an aggressive act of the total personality.

TRUE OR FALSE. Our thoughts are the decorations inside the sanctuary where we live. If our thoughts are purified by the blood of Christ, we are living in a clean room, no matter if we are wearing overalls covered with grease. Our thoughts largely decide the mood and weather and climate within our beings, and God considers our thoughts as part of us. They should be thoughts of peace, thoughts of pity and mercy and kindness, thoughts of charity, thoughts of God and the Son of God—these are pure things, good things and high things. Therefore, if we would cultivate the Spirit’s acquaintance, we must have the control of our thoughts. Our mind ought not to be a wilderness in which every kind of unclean thought makes its own way

TRUE OR FALSE. God’s highest purpose in the redemption of sinful humanity was based in His hope that we would allow Him to reproduce the likeness of Jesus Christ in our once-sinful lives!

TRUE OR FALSE. How many Christians are there who pray every Sunday in church, “Thy kingdom come! Thy will be done!” without ever realizing the spiritual implications of such intercession? What are we praying for? Should we edit that prayer so that it becomes a confrontation: “My kingdom go, Lord; let Thy kingdom come!”

TRUE OR FALSE. A strange thing under the sun is crossless Christianity. The cross of Christendom is a no-cross, an ecclesiastical symbol. The cross of Christ is a place of death. Let each one be careful which cross he carries.

TRUE OR FALSE. We cannot love honesty without hating dishonesty. We cannot love purity without hating impurity. We cannot love truth without hating lying and deceitfulness. If we belong to Jesus Christ, we must hate evil even as He hated evil in every form. The ability of Jesus Christ to hate that which was against God and to love that which was full of God was the force that made Him able to receive the anointing—the oil of gladness—in complete measure.

TRUE OR FALSE. Who has ever given us the right or the privilege to look into the Bible and say, “I am willing to consider this matter and if I like it, I will buy it”—using the language of the day. There is something basically wrong with our Christianity and our spirituality if we can carelessly presume that if we do not like a biblical doctrine and choose not to “buy” it, there is no harm done.

TRUE OR FALSE. We settle for words in religion because deeds are too costly. It is easier to pray, “Lord, help me to carry my cross daily” than to pick up the cross and carry it; but since the mere request for help to do something we do not actually intend to do has a certain degree of religious comfort, we are content with repetition of the words.

TRUE OR FALSE. It has become popular to preach a painless Christianity and automatic saintliness. It has become a part of our “instant” culture. “Just pour a little water on it, stir mildly, pick up a gospel tract, and you are on your Christian way.” Lo, we are told, this is Bible Christianity. It is nothing of the sort!

TRUE OR FALSE. The things that are closest to our hearts are the things we talk about, and if God is close to your heart, you will talk about Him!

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Monday, January 22, 2018

True or False With the Victorians #1 (J.C. Ryle)

TRUE OR FALSE The moment we depart from "God's written Word," in considering eternity and the future state of man, we are likely to fall into error.

TRUE OR FALSE The noblest thoughts about God which we have a right to hold are the thoughts which He has been pleased to reveal to us in His "written Word."

TRUE OR FALSE We are all going towards a world where everything is eternal. Whatever there is beyond the tomb, when the last trumpet has sounded, and the dead are raised, will be endless, everlasting, and eternal.

TRUE OR FALSE The future happiness of those who are saved is eternal.

TRUE OR FALSE The future misery of those who are finally lost is eternal.

TRUE OR FALSE If the joy of the believer is forever, the sorrow of the unbeliever is also forever. If Heaven is eternal, so likewise is hell.

TRUE OR FALSE If a man may escape eternal punishment at last, without faith in the blood of Christ or sanctification of the Spirit, sin is no longer an infinite evil, and there was no need for Christ making an atonement.

TRUE OR FALSE Every blow struck at the eternity of punishment is an equally heavy blow at the eternity of reward. Every attack on the duration of hell is also an attack on the duration of heaven.

TRUE OR FALSE Unrepented sin is an eternal evil, and can never cease to be sin; and He with whom we have to do is an eternal God.

TRUE OR FALSE  We are constantly sowing seeds which will spring up and bear fruit, every day and hour in our lives. There are eternal consequences resulting from all our thoughts and words and actions, of which we take far too little account.

TRUE OR FALSE Heaven is a prepared place. Those who shall dwell there are all of one character. The entrance into it is only by one door.

TRUE OR FALSE There is such a place as heaven. No truth is more certain in the whole of Scripture than this--there remains a rest for the people of God. This earth is not our rest--it cannot be--there breathes not a man or woman who ever found it so.

TRUE OR FALSE Repentance, faith, and holiness; this is a character against which the gates shall never be closed.

TRUE OR FALSE God is the light, the food, the air of heaven. It is an eternal sabbath. To serve God is heaven's employment; to talk with God is heaven's occupation.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Monday, January 15, 2018

True or False with the Puritans #2 (Matthew Henry)

True or False with Matthew Henry

TRUE OR FALSE. The human race is not its own maker, therefore we must not be our own master; but the Author of our being must be the director of our activities and the center of them.

TRUE OR FALSE. That there was a day on which God created the first man. He was not from eternity, but of yesterday.

TRUE OR FALSE. That God made people in his own likeness, righteous and holy, and therefore, undoubtedly, happy.

TRUE OR FALSE. To walk with God is to set God always before us, and to act as those that are always under his eye. It is to live a life of fellowship with God both in worship of him and wisdom in our dealings with others. It is to make God’s word our rule and his glory our aim in all our actions. It is to obey his will, to agree with his intentions, and to be workers together with him.

TRUE OR FALSE. The bad will sooner lead astray the good than the good reform the bad.

TRUE OR FALSE. All the sins of sinners are known to God the Judge.

TRUE OR FALSE.  God was grieved that he had made human beings; but we never find him grieving that he redeemed human beings.

TRUE OR FALSE. We mock God in saying that we are sorry for our sin, and that it grieves us to the heart, if we then continue to indulge in it.

TRUE OR FALSE.  None are destroyed by the justice of God except those who hate to be reformed by the grace of God.

TRUE OR FALSE. If you take away conscience and the fear of God, human beings become animals and devils to one another. Sin fills the earth with violence, and so turns the world into a wilderness, into a battlefield.

TRUE OR FALSE. We must prepare to meet the Lord in his judgments on earth, especially prepare to meet him at death and in the judgment of the great day, build on Christ the Rock (Mt 7:24), and go into Christ the ark.

TRUE OR FALSE. The longer we live in this world, the more we see of its miseries and calamities.

TRUE OR FALSE. It is our great duty in obedience to the Gospel call to come by a living faith in Christ into that way of salvation which God has provided for poor sinners. When Noah came into the ark, he left his own house and land. In the same way, we must leave our own righteousness and our worldly possessions, whenever they compete with Christ.

TRUE OR FALSE. Those who come into the ark themselves should bring as many as they can in with them, by good teaching, by persuasion, and by a good example. There is room enough in Christ for all who come.

TRUE OR FALSE. The waters which broke down everything else supported the ark. The more the waters rose, so the higher the ark was lifted up toward heaven. We can learn from this that sanctified afflictions lift us spiritually.

TRUE OR FALSE. God’s time of showing his mercy is certainly the best time. This will be when the mercy is ripe for us and we are ready for it.

TRUE OR FALSE. Serving God with the little we have is the way to make it more; and we must never think that what God is honored with is wasted.

TRUE OR FALSE. God sets the whole earth before all human beings, tells them it is all their own, while it remains, to them and their heirs. Though it is not a paradise, but instead a wilderness, it is still better than we deserve. Blessed be God that it is not hell.

TRUE OR FALSE. That God is a good Master, and provides, not only that we may live, but that we may live comfortably, in his service; not only for our necessity, but also for our delight.

TRUE OR FALSE. Our lives are not so much our own that we may leave them at our own pleasure, but they are God’s.

TRUE OR FALSE. The thicker the cloud, the brighter the rainbow in the clouds. In the same way, just as sufferings come to us in abundance, God showers his encouragement and comfort upon us all the more (2Co 1:5)

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Monday, January 8, 2018

True or False with the Puritans #1

True or False with Matthew Henry

TRUE OR FALSE. Our duty as Christians is always to keep heaven in our sight and the earth under our feet.

TRUE OR FALSE. God is not only the author of everything living, but the fountain of life and spring of every change. Dead matter would remain dead if he did not bring it alive. And this makes us believe that it is possible for God to raise the dead.

TRUE OR FALSE. What God requires of us he himself works in us, or it is not done. He that commands faith, holiness, and love creates them in us by the power of his grace alongside his word.

TRUE OR FALSE.  The One who made the soul is alone able to make it new.

TRUE OR FALSE. It adds much to the comfort of any situation if we have clearly seen God going before us and putting us into it.

TRUE OR FALSE.  None of us was sent into the world to be lazy. The One who made these souls and bodies has given us something to work with; the One who made us living wants us to labor, to serve him and our society, and to work out our salvation. It is the will of God that each one of us should have something to do in this world.

TRUE OR FALSE. Those that would not eat the forbidden fruit must not go near the forbidden tree.

TRUE OR FALSE. Satan teaches people first to doubt and then to deny; he makes them skeptics first, and so gradually makes them atheists.

TRUE OR FALSE. Our first parents, who knew so much, did not know this—that they knew enough.

TRUE OR FALSE. Satan may tempt, but he cannot force; he may persuade us to throw ourselves down, but he cannot throw us down (Mt 4:6).

TRUE OR FALSE. The way of sin is downhill; we cannot stop ourselves when we want to.

TRUE OR FALSE. Although God knows all our sins, yet he wants to know them from us, and requires from us a simple confession of them; not so that he may be informed, but that we may be humbled.

TRUE OR FALSE. Sin deceives us, and, by deceiving, cheats us. It is by the deceitfulness of sin that the heart is hardened.

TRUE OR FALSE. No sooner was the wound given than the remedy was provided and revealed.

TRUE OR FALSE. Sin brought sorrow into the world; if we had known no guilt, we would have known no grief.

TRUE OR FALSE. Our aim in all acts of religion is God’s acceptance: we do well if we reach this, and we worship in vain if we miss it (2Co 5:9).

TRUE OR FALSE. So close are sin and punishment that the same word in Hebrew signifies both. If sin is harbored in the house, the curse waits at the door, like a bailiff ready to arrest sinners whenever they look out.

TRUE OR FALSE. Adam’s eating the forbidden fruit seemed just a little sin, but it opened the door to the greatest.

TRUE OR FALSE. Those that reject God cannot find rest anywhere else.

I have found reading Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible to be profitable. These quotes are from his commentary covering Genesis 1-4. I find each quote that I've selected is worth pondering and meditating on.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Saturday, June 24, 2017

True or False with Tozer (Knowledge of the Holy edition)

My last game of True or False with Tozer was in December 2016.

1. True OR False: To know God is at once the easiest and the most difficult thing in the world.
2. True OR False: God does not love populations, He loves people. He loves not masses, but men. He loves us all with a mighty love that has no beginning and can have no end.
3. True OR False: We do God more honor by believing what He has said about Himself and having the courage to come boldly to the throne of grace than by hiding in self-conscious humility among the trees of the garden.
4. True OR False: For our souls' sake we must learn to understand the Scriptures.
5. True OR False: We can never know the enormity of our sin, neither is it necessary that we should. What we can know is that "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound."
6. True OR False: Both the Old and the New Testaments proclaim the mercy of God, but the Old has more than four times as much to say about it as the New.
7. True OR False: We can hold a correct view of truth only by daring to believe everything God has said about Himself.
8. True OR False: Nothing that God has ever said about Himself will be modified; nothing the inspired prophets and apostles have said about Him will be rescinded. In God no change is possible; in men change is impossible to escape.
9. True OR False:  For every man it must be Christ or eternal tragedy.
10. True OR False: Sin has many manifestations but its essence is one. A moral being, created to worship before the throne of God, sits on the throne of his own selfhood and from that elevated position declares, "I AM." That is sin in its concentrated essence; yet because it is natural it appears to be good.
11. True OR False: We can never know who or what we are till we know at least something of what God is.
12. True OR False: A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well.
© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Sunday, March 5, 2017

True or False with Tozer

My last game of True or False with Tozer was in December 2016. Today I'm sharing ONE quote from the Tozer Bible.
Theoretically the seed, being the Word of God, should produce the same kind of fruit regardless of the spiritual condition of those who scatter it; but it does not work that way. The identical message preached to the heathen by men of differing degrees of godliness will produce different kinds of converts and result in a quality of Christianity varying according to the purity and the power of those who preach it.
Christianity will always reproduce itself after its kind. A worldly minded, unspiritual church, when she crosses the ocean to give her witness to people of other tongues and other cultures, is sure to bring forth on other shores a Christianity much like her own.
Not the naked Word only but the character of the witness determines the quality of the convert. The church can do no more than transplant herself. What she is in one land she will be in another. A crab apple does not become a Grimes Golden by being carried from one county to another. God has written His law deep into all life; everything must bring forth after its kind. ~ A.W. Tozer, Of God and Men
Normally, I don't voice my own opinion on if a quote is true or false. But with this mess of a quote, I can't NOT say something. To be fair, this is a quote lifted from a book and placed side by side with Matthew 13. Perhaps Tozer later went on to add something to further clarify what he meant. Or maybe he had more in mind another portion of Scripture. Perhaps Matthew 7:15-20.

If Tozer did have in mind Matthew 13:1-8 when he made this statement, then he's reading into Scripture what he wants to see. He has a passionate point to make: that the modern church isn't holding true and fast to the gospel of Jesus Christ and therefore churches worldwide are weak and puny and miss the mark. But starting with that view point and trying to make Matthew 13 say that is all kinds of wrong.
“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” Matthew 13:18-23
It seems Tozer's statement is out of line with Scripture. The farmer--the sower--is Christ himself. The seed being sown is the very word of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ. In some ways, Christ is both the sower and the seed. Say the gospel--the true gospel--is proclaimed by a minister. His job is done if he was faithful to the purity of the Word. Whether the converts be few or many, regardless of IF there were any converts after a message. HE was faithful to the Word, and the Word will be faithful to him. If the minister is NOT faithful to the word, if the minister adds to the Word, or, if the minister subtracts to the Word, then that is another story altogether. Teachers, preachers will be held responsible for the message that they've taught and proclaimed. They are to carefully guard and protect the gospel. To hold fast to the gospel NO MATTER what is going on around them.

If a "minister" a "preacher" a "speaker" proclaims a FALSE gospel, a HALF gospel, a gospel of their own making, then, of course the "converts" of such a gospel will be far from fruitful and faithful. They will prove by their lives that they have never been reborn. But this false, half-true, man-created gospel is proclaimed it is not actually the SEED that is being sown.

The SEED can bear results regardless of who sows it--if and only if--the Seed is the WORD OF GOD. It doesn't matter how charismatic or uncharismatic the sower is. It isn't the style of the minister or the personality of the minister that gets the job done. It is the HOLY SPIRIT.
Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:6-11
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Romans 10:14-15
All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” John 6:37-40
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. John 6:44-47
 The Bible teaches that it is by grace and grace alone that we are saved. That we "receive" the seed into the "soil" of our hearts. It is by grace and grace alone that the seed takes root and grows, grows and bears fruit. It is not by the power or worth or quality of the human preacher. It is not by the power, worth, or quality of the listener. If you're saved and your neighbor isn't--it isn't because you're better, smarter, wiser, kinder, lovelier, worthier. The only thing we contribute is SIN and REBELLION. Left on our own, we're all rocky soil.
It is not right when we regard ourselves as responsible for securing converts, and look to our own enterprise and techniques to accomplish what only God can accomplish. To do that is to intrude ourselves into the office of the Holy Ghost, and to exalt ourselves as the agents of the new birth. ~ J.I. Packer
Now, I agree with Tozer that the staying true to the message--the Word of God--is essential. That preachers need to be careful to uphold the truth of the gospel, of the Word. That they need to cling to the truth of the Word no matter what. The gospel is something that you absolutely do not compromise on. If he'd said, "STOP SOWING A SEED OF YOUR OWN MAKING. STOP PUTTING ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING BEFORE THE WORD OF GOD. STOP TRYING TO ENTERTAIN YOUR CONGREGATION WITH WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR." Then I'd have applauded. But instead he seems to be saying, the seed is the same, but, the sower is different. The rocky soil didn't respond because of the sower. The thorny soil didn't respond because of the sower. If the sower isn't righteous and godly, then the seed he's throwing is useless.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Saturday, December 3, 2016

True or False with A.W. Tozer

My last game of True or False with A.W. Tozer was in September. Today's quotes come from Alive in the Spirit.

True or False: "Our society is obsessed with entertainment, and this has come into the church of Jesus Christ."

True or False: "Worship and entertainment are opposites and cannot be mixed. It is either one or the other."

True or False: "No subject could be more crucial to the church today than the Holy Spirit."

True or False: "No matter how much I know about God, there is much more I do not know."

True or False: "We must do more than just believe the truth; we must allow the truth to transform us radically into new creatures in Christ."

True or False: "God does not choose us for who we are, or how qualified we are, but rather for who He is and what He is permitted to do through our lives."

True or False: "Nobody is a challenge for the Holy Spirit. It is not my imperfections that challenge the Holy Spirit, because He is perfect and works according to His perfections."

True or False: "The focus of everything God does is His people."

True or False: "Each generation believes they have the right perspective on spiritual things and are convinced they know better than their forefathers."

True or False: "We have become a culture of Christians trying to do God’s work apart from the enduement of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We acknowledge Him in our creeds but rarely in our work and in our lives."

True or False: "We need to know from where we have come, we need to know our heritage, and we need to know the message that has come down to us from the days of the apostles. That message has not changed."

True or False: "You cannot be an evangelical Christian without believing in the Trinity."

True or False: "The Holy Spirit can communicate with you, He can love you, and He can be grieved and quenched when you ignore Him."

True or False: "Many Christians are so busy reading Christian fiction they never get around to reading the creeds written by the church fathers."

True or false: "Nobody can deceive the Holy Ghost."

True or false: "When we deal with God, we must deal with Him on His terms, not ours. When we come into a church setting, we must leave behind us our will and our intentions."

True or false: "Worship is never about the person worshiping, but rather the Person we are worshiping."

True or false: "Christians should be the happiest people in the world, and should not have to look anywhere but in the Bible and to God above for satisfaction and joy."

True or false: "Any Bible doctrine not rooted in the Lord Jesus Christ is not understood correctly."

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Thursday, September 15, 2016

True or False with A.W. Tozer

It's been over a year since my last game of True or False with A.W. Tozer. Today's questions come from The Voice of A Prophet

1. True or False:
Christianity is not a commercial commodity or product.
2. True or False:
There seems to be no condemnation element in the church anymore. Conviction has lost its place, and nobody is calling the church to repentance. There is nothing to repent for anymore. We are God’s happy, happy little children, dancing our way into heaven. What a pathetic description. 

3. True or False:
It is not the messenger; it is the message that needs to be proclaimed. The most significant thing about the prophet is the message he conveys, and that message had better be rooted in the heart of God.
4. True or False
The church is being flooded with books that are adversely affecting a whole generation of Christians.
5. True or false
There is no virtue in always condemning yourself, because the Word of God shows us what is right in us as well as what is wrong.
6. True or false
Every move of God in an individual heart begins with a deep sense of discontent. God cannot help anyone who does not first have a deep discontentment with himself.
7. True or False
No battle is ever won on the day it is fought.
8. True or false
All real dangers are spiritual dangers, and there is not any other kind. 
9. True or false
If we go down in complete surrender, we take a shortcut to victory. If we stand up and fight for ourselves, we take a shortcut to defeat.
10. True or false
What is desperately needed in the church today are men and women who are so obsessed with God that only God matters.
11. True or false
Today we have fixed up Christianity so that we go around telling people how easy it is. We gather people together and say, “You’ve got it all wrong. Jesus is not going to lay any burdens on you. He is going to take them off. He is not going to let you get into trouble; He is going to pull you out of trouble. Serving the Lord is the easiest, smoothest, slickest thing in all the world. You can have a wonderful time and just be happy, happy, happy, and then go to heaven.” Many people believe in this contorted position of being a Christian. If we had the courage of Elijah, we would tell them, “If you will follow Jesus, you will have His enemies; if you follow Jesus, you will have His troubles; if you follow Jesus, you will have His rejection; if you follow Jesus, they will think the same of you as they did of Him, and what they thought of Him can be seen on a hill outside Jerusalem. They took Him out and nailed Him on the cross.”
12. True or false
We moderns know everything but ourselves. We do not know ourselves because we cannot get quiet enough. The trouble with us is that we cannot get quiet enough to wait on God. We have the idea that if we are not talking, something’s wrong. Somebody has to be talking all the time. Someone has to be making a rattling noise of some sort. 
13. True or false
To the average person today, God is just an idea, nothing more.
14. True or false
It would be morally and psychologically impossible for God to prepare the way of the Lord. We are to prepare the way of the Lord. If God Himself got out of His chariot and built the way, it would be to violate His own nature and the nature of man. Man himself must prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. The way of the Lord is not smooth, and God cannot move in as He wants to move in. If we are to see the glory of the Lord revealed, we are going to have to prepare a way for the Lord.
15. True or false
You can learn more from a man who fails than from a man who succeeds if the failure brings him to surrender to God.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Sunday, June 28, 2015

True or False with A.W. Tozer

It's time for another round of TRUE OR FALSE featuring the quotes of A.W. Tozer. Two things you should know.

First, all of the quotes are about entertainment and society.

Second, all of the quotes originally date from 1950 to 1955.

So the original audience is several decades past, but, are the quotes still relevant or perhaps more relevant than ever? Does he go too far in his condemnation? Is there any truth in what he says? And what can we take away from his words of warning, if anything?

1) True or False:
A German philosopher many years ago said something to the effect that the more a man has in his own heart the less he will require from the outside; excessive need for support from without is proof of the bankruptcy of the inner man. If this is true (and I believe it is), then the present inordinate attachment is evidence that the inner life of modern man is in serious decline. The average man has no central core of moral assurance, no spring within his own breast, no inner strength to place him above the need for repeated psychological shots to give him the courage to go on living. He has become a parasite on the world, drawing his life from his environment, unable to live a day apart from the stimulation which society affords him.
2) True or False:
For there are millions who cannot live without amusement; life without some form of entertainment for them is simply intolerable; they look forward to the blessed relief afforded by professional entertainers and other forms of psychological narcotics as a dope addict looks to his daily shot of heroin. Without them they could not summon the courage to face existence.
3) True or False:
The all-out devotion to entertainment as a major activity for which and by which men live is definitely something else again. The abuse of a harmless thing is the essence of sin. The growth of the amusement phase of human life to such fantastic proportions is a portent, a threat to the souls of modern man. It has been built into a multimillion dollar racket with greater power over human minds and human character than any other educational influence on earth.
4) True or False:
For centuries the Church stood solidly against every form of worldly entertainment, recognizing it for what it was--a device for wasting time, a refuge from the disturbing voice of conscience, a scheme to divert attention from moral accountability. For this she got herself abused roundly by the sons of this world. But of late she has become tired of the abuse and has gotten over the struggle. She appears to have decided that if she cannot conquer the great god Entertainment she may as well join forces with him and make what use she can of his powers. So today we have the astonishing spectacle of millions of dollars being poured into the unholy job of providing earthly entertainment for the so-called sons of heaven. Religious entertainment is in many places rapidly crowding out the serious things of God.  
 5) True or False:
"Gospel" boogie singing now furnishes for many persons the only religious joy they know. Others wipe their eyes tenderly over "gospel" movies, and a countless number of amusements flourish everywhere, paid for by the consecrated tithes of persons who ought to know better. For multitudes of professed Christians today the Holy Spirit is not a necessity. They have learned to cheer their hearts and warm their hands at other fires. And scores of publishers and various grades of "producers" are waxing fat on their delinquency.
These quotes come from several chapters within The Root of the Righteous. Can you see why some of these caught my attention?! Was Tozer being too harsh? Were his observations true then? Are his observations true now? Tozer makes very little--if any--distinction between worldly entertainment and Christian entertainment. He condemns both as dangerous--if consumed recklessly, thoughtlessly. And he seems even more angry at the idea of Christian entertainment. I have no clue as to what "Christian entertainment" was in the 1950s. So I'm not sure if his statements were fair then or not. But is there any truth in his assessment that we can use to evaluate Christian entertainment now?

I invite your comments and insight!

I'll work my way backwards. Tozer was concerned--if concerned is the right word--that the Holy Spirit was being replaced by Christian entertainment. That Christians were getting worked up--"moved" emotionally--not by the Spirit but by the entertaining music. That the joy of the Spirit was being replaced by the emotional joy or thrill of a song. Is there some truth in this? I don't want there to be any truth in this honestly. But is there some danger present? Could worship in churches be leaning more towards entertainment than actual worship? If there is some truth in this--is it the music's fault? Or is more a matter of people misusing it? Consider also Christian music in general--outside the church. Is your only "dose" of God for the day coming from Christian music? Is Christian music the only place you're getting "fed" truth and theology? I could see how if it's your only source, that could be problematic, in need of correction. But should the misuse of it by some lead to general condemnation of all? I say no. But I think discernment is important. Also balance.

It is easier for me to be in agreement with the fourth statement: Religious entertainment is in many places rapidly crowding out the serious things of God. I do think that in some cases entertainment and the need to "bring them in" and "keep them in" outweighs the need to consistently, accurately proclaim the whole truth of God. Not every single church in every single denomination, of course. But I do agree the focus should be on God--and his glory--and not on entertainment and pleasing ourselves.

The third statement I think definitely has some truth--as painful as it is. No one particularly wants to admit that "the abuse of a harmless thing is the essence of sin." But how we spend our time does effect us: spiritually, emotionally, physically, mentally. God is with us. Always. That is a blessed privilege. Are we wasting our time and filling it with things that can never satisfy us? Tozer also wrote: "Some things may be neglected with but little loss to the spiritual life, but to neglect communion with God is to hurt ourselves where we cannot afford it. God will respond to our efforts to know Him. The Bible tells us how; it is altogether a matter of how much determination we bring to the holy task."

The first and second statements are harsh in tone. But harsh or not, is there a bit of truth there? How dependent are we on entertainment? on technology? on social media?  on having something to entertain and amuse us all the time? something to fill all our moments? Do we want to avoid being alone with our thoughts? Do we avoid the serious and the real and always seek escape? How can we focus on the serious things of God if we are always trapped in the trivial moments?


© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible