Today’s post comes courtesy of my friend Ben Dubow, who blogs over at www.faithautopsy.com.  In one of his latest posts, he referenced A.W. Tozer’s Five Spiritual Vows.  Tozer was a 20th century Christian & Missionary Alliance preacher and author who died in 1963, and whose words are incredibly challenging.  You can read Tozer’s whole discourse at http://www.neve-family.com/books/tozer/FiveVows.html; Ben’s well-done summary is below:

5 VOWS FOR SPIRITUAL STRENGTH:

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Today’s post is written by guest blogger Eddie Mui. Eddie lives in South Windsor with his wife, Fabiola, and young children Joshua & Sarah. He’s the one often playing the funny looking drum-like instrument (it’s called a cajon) on Sundays, and will be leading worship this Sunday.

“A Mighty God, A Mighty Savior”

“The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17, NIV)

Imagining or believing that God is all-powerful and mighty isn’t necessarily a hard thing to do. If He was even deserving of being called God with a capital “G”, one would expect that He would be. Otherwise, would He really be God?

Indeed, it’s not a foreign concept that God or a god would be endowed with extraordinary power, might, and authority. Greek and Roman mythology espoused many gods with certain power and authority over various elements of nature and the universe. Zeus was the most powerful and leader of all of gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus. Mythology attributes them with respective authority over mankind, the sun, the sea, over war, love and beauty, over Hades and death, etc. To each, they had their jurisdiction, but Zeus was all-powerful above them all.

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I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you (Psalm 119:11)Way back in January of 2008, many of us began a two year journey through the Bible.  I started the Bible in Two Years reading campaign because I believe that spending regular time in God’s Word is the best way to put ourselves in a place to know Him and be transformed by Him.  My hope was to create a campaign that would help people find both discipline and community in their Bible reading.  In order to achieve that, Matt LaCroix, our web guy, and I created a website (http://newlife-glastonbury.org/bibleplan/) where the day’s reading would be posted every day and could be sent automatically every morning to one’s email inbox.  There was also a discussion component on the site, where anyone could post their thoughts on the day’s reading.  Finally, I set aside one Sunday morning every two months where I would preach a shorter sermon based on something in the readings from the previous two months, we would end the service early, and then break up into small groups in order to discuss a pertinent question or two and check in with each other for the purpose of accountability. Sounds great in theory, of course, but discipline is difficult for a reason! Read more »

Last week I reference an article in The Hartford Courant and asked the question of why we shouldn’t all just be spiritual people while keeping our distance from organized religion.  After all, with the options available to us today, it is possible to listen to your favorite preacher, worship band, and even to financially support your favorite cause, all from the comfort of your own home, without having to worry about the messiness of relating to other people.  Thank you to all who shared your thoughts on the blog or on my Facebook page.  Here are my thoughts on the matter:

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