Sacrifice

The Cross of Christ – AW Tozer

Though the cross of Christ has been beautified by the poet and the artist, the avid seeker after God is likely to find it the same savage implement of destruction it was in the days of old. The way of the cross is still the pain-wracked path to spiritual power and fruitfulness. So do not seek to hide from it. Do not accept an easy way. Do not allow yourself to be patted to sleep in a comfortable church, void of power and barren of fruit. Do not paint the cross nor deck it with flowers. Take it for what it is, as it is, and you will find it the rugged way to death and life. Let it slay you utterly.

– AW Tozer –

Send The Fire – F. Tucker-Booth

To make my weak heart strong and brave,
Send the fire.
To live a dying world to save, send the fire.
Oh, see me on Thy altar lay
My life, my all, this very day;
To crown the offering now, I pray:
Send the fire!

– F. Tucker-Booth –

Jesus Cannot Be Understood Apart from the Cross – T. Austin-Sparks

It is of far-reaching importance and vital consequence to recognize that the Person of our Lord cannot really be known and understood apart from the Cross. It is equally of consequence to realize that the Cross is only really understood and adequately appreciated when the Person of Christ is discerned. These two work hand-in-hand and are mutually dependent.

– T. Austin-Sparks –

Don’t Draw Back Before The Sacrifice – François Colliard

If you could only know what one feels on finding oneself … where the least ray of the Gospel has not penetrated! If those friends who blame … could see from afar what we see, and feel what we feel, they would be the first to wonder that those redeemed by Christ should be so backward in devotion and know so little of the spirit of self-sacrifice. They would be ashamed of the hesitations that hinder us. … We must remember that it was not by interceding for the world in glory that Jesus saved it. He gave Himself. Our prayers for the evangelization of the world are but a bitter irony so long as we only give of our superfluity, and draw back before the sacrifice of ourselves.

– François Colliard –
from On the Threshold of Central Africa