BridgeCast: November 24, 2015 (tBC015)
Links from today’s podcast:
- Vance Havner – Messages on Revival
- Revive Us Again – William Mackay
Posts Tagged with Vance Havner
Imitate Their Faith
I’m sure I’ve not read every sermon that the late Vance Havner preached, but over the past several years I’ve read as many as I could get my hands on.
Just recently I’ve reread some that have reminded me of how helpful it has been to read this preacher from the past. Very similar to the impact A.W. Tozer has had on me, Havner has left a lasting mark on my soul. Here are a few statements that speak volumes of our day today.
Here are simply two statements I’ve reread recently…
“We are a generation of cheap Christians going to heaven as inexpensively as possible; religious hobos and spiritual deadbeats living on milk instead of meat, crusts of bread instead of manna, as though we were on a cut-rate excursion.”
“God would not have us merely “take a stand,” He would have us walk. Too many have taken a stand and are still standing; for years they have made no progress.”
I read statements like this from preachers of old and my jaw if found dropped and the look of shock is on me that I just read this from a dead man. With the kind of accuracy I start looking to see if maybe I missed something and he’s still living. The impact of a changeless God lays on every generation with striking accuracy.
Known in Heaven and Hell
Audio Podcast:
When I first read Vance Havner’s Testimony from his later years I was stopped in my tracks when he began to speak about true converts and their faithful living. He said they accepted their heritage of being ‘shipwrecked on God and stranded on Omnipotence.’ It wasn’t until this morning that I finally found this statement by Tozer on ‘The Uses of Suffering’ that I was able to better grasp what Havner was saying.
There is another kind of suffering, known only to the Christian: it is voluntary suffering deliberately and knowingly incurred for the sake of Christ. Such is a luxury, a treasure of fabulous value, a source of riches beyond the power of the mind to conceive. And it is rare as well as precious, for there are few in this decadent age who will of their own choice go down into this dark mine looking for jewels. But of our own choice it must be, for there is no other way to get down. God will not force us into this kind of suffering. He will not lay this cross upon us nor embarrass us with riches we do not want. Such riches are reserved for those who apply to serve in the legion unto death, who volunteer to suffer for Christ’s sake and who follow up their application with lives that challenge the devil and invite the fury of Hell. Such as these have said good-by to the world’s toys; they have chosen to suffer affliction with the people of God: They have accepted toil and suffering as their earthly portion. The marks of the cross are upon them and they are known in Heaven and Hell.
But where are they today? Has this breed of Christian died out of the earth? Have the saints of God joined the mad scramble for security? Has the cross become no more than a symbol, a bloodless and sterile relic of nobler times? Are we now afraid to suffer and unwilling to die? I hope not, but I wonder. And only God has the answer.
A.W. Tozer (the Radical Cross, Chapter 15, page 63)
“For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE.” Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” 1 Cor 1:17-25 (NASB)