by Vance Havner
“Who am I?” I AM THAT I AM. Exodus 3:11, 14
On “the backside of the desert” Moses came to “the mountain of God.” When God called him to his mighty task Moses was first taken up with his own insufficiency – “Who am I?” But God made it clear that what mattered was not what Moses was but who God is: “I Am That I Am.”
Jeremiah had the same fear as Moses: “I am but a child.” God corrected him: “Say not, I am a child…I am with thee to deliver thee.” “Who is sufficient for these things?” asked Paul, and then he moved on to declare, “Our sufficiency is of God.”
Moses started with “Who am I?” but soon asked God, “Who are you?” It is well for a man to know his own inadequacy, but woe unto him if he stop there. Let him move on to meet God and find Him sufficient.
It is not a matter of who I am but of who He is.
by Vance Havner
by Vance Havner
Except ye eat of the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. John 6:53
Many dear people have a lovely doctrine or theory of the victorious life or the indwelling Christ or the Spirit-filled life, and they try to live on their theory, but thy do not feed on Christ. They are like a man trying to live on a cook book instead of food, chewing on a seed catalogue instead of on vegetables. They may be very orthodox Bible students, but they do not chew and digest the words which are spirit and life.
It is tragic to go through our days making Christ the subject of our study but not the sustenance of our souls. It is not the Word hid in the head but in the heart that keeps from sin. To appropriate Christ Himself, the Bread of Life, is to live by faith and grow. You can starve reading books on bread. You can search the Scriptures and not come to Him for life.
by Vance Havner
by Vance Havner
He was a burning and a shining light. John 5:35
So spake our Lord of John the Baptist. The Forerunner had both heat and light. It is a combination not always found in one personality. Some saints have heat aplenty, but they need light, wisdom, guidance. Some have light, but it is cold; there is no fire, no warmth. Someone has said, “Youth has fire without light and age has light without fire.”
It is hard to tell which has done most harm, hotheaded ignorance or cold-hearted knowledge. The wild street preacher, screaming and tearing his hair, needs to burn less and shine more. The cold, intellectual preacher in stiff Sunday-morning formalism needs to shine less and burn more.
John the Baptist burned and shone. “Stir up the gift of God…” “Let your light so shine…” Give us more witnesses with both heat and light!
by Vance Havner
by Vance Havner
The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. 1 Corinthians 1:18
It was foolishness to the world then and it still is. Religion is very popular today and some are misled by that fact. A scared and desperate generation, having tried all else, is considering religion. But they do not want the preaching of the cross. Jesus the Example and Teacher maybe, Christianity as a lovely philosophy, but not a crucified Saviour. That is still “foolishness” to this age and ever will be.
And to most church members the counterpart of Christ’s death for our sin, our death with Him and resurrection to walk with Him in newness of life, is just as unpopular. Call upon the average congregation to live out Romans 6, with its “reckon,” “yield,” and “obey,” and you will hear few “amens.”
The preaching of the cross in its meaning for sinner and saint is still “foolishness” to sinners and distasteful to not a few saints.
by Vance Havner
by Vance Havner
There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass. Joshua 21:45
In recounting the goodness of God to Israel, Joshua tells us that the Lord gave them the Promised Land Just as He had said He would. Joshua repeats it in an address to the people (23:14). Solomon said it in like fashion years later (I Kings. 8:56).
If you will survey the path already trod you will say so too. “There hath failed not ought of any good thing God has spoken…all came to pass.” If it hasn’t, it will. He which hath begun a good work in us will finish it. He will perfect that which concerneth us.
It ought to fill our hearts with thanksgiving, our eyes with tears and our lips with praise, for “the goodness of God leadeth to repentance.”
“There failed not ought…” But how we have failed Him!
by Vance Havner
by Vance Havner
Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. John 12:24
This was a momentous occasion. Some Greeks wanted to see Jesus. Philip and Andrew reported it to the Master. There is no record that He received these Greeks. Maybe they came out of curiosity, anxious to hear a great teacher or see Him perform a miracle. Anyway, Jesus made it clear that His was the way of death and a cross, not earthly popularity, and that we must die to live.
Today we are in danger of being misled by some Greeks who would see Jesus. Many would be glad to have the joy and peace that He gives, would copy Him as a teacher and leader. But they do not want the cross. They resent Calvary, nor do they want to deny self, take up their cross, and lose their lives to find them. Jesus receives no Greeks except by the way which was, and is, to them “foolishness.”
by Vance Havner
by Vance Havner
These things have I spoke unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. John 15:11
The joy of the Lord is not the natural exuberance of youth. It is not ordinary human enthusiasm. It is not the exhilaration caused by favorable happenings and circumstances. It is not the emotion whipped up by high-pressure hilarity. All these may have their place, but the joy Jesus gives is different. It outlasts youth. It is more than human, it is Divine. It is present, no matter what happens. It is not worked up, it comes down. It comes from a man of Sorrows acquainted with grief. It lasts, it remains. And it is full, not partial.
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by Vance Havner
