Tozer Devotional
 
Collective Writings from the Books of A.W. Tozer
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
We Travel an Appointed Way
Chapter #26
Beware Respect of Persons
 

Remembering the Forgotten
Gospel churches which mostly begin with the lowly are usually not content till they attain some degree of wealth and social acceptance. Then they gradually fall into classes, determined largely by the wealth and education of the members. The individuals that comprise the top layer of these various classes go on to become pillars of the religious society and are soon entrenched in places of leadership and influence. It is then that their great temptation comes upon them, the temptation to cater to their own class and to neglect the poor and the ignorant that make up the swarming population around them. They soon become hardened to every appeal of the Holy Spirit toward meekness and humility. Their homes are spotless, their clothes the most expensive, their friends the most exclusive. Apart from some tremendous moral upheaval, they are beyond help. And yet they may be among the most vocal exponents of Bible Christianity and heavy givers to the cause of the church.
Let us not become indignant at this blunt portrayal of facts. Let us rather humble ourselves to serve God's poor. Let us seek to be like Jesus in our devotion to the forgotten of the earth who have nothing to recommend them but their poverty and their heart-hunger and their tears.
 
Prayer
O Lord, may I welcome with open arms all who are Your people, even when they are quite different from me.
Scripture
I charge you, in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, to keep these instructions without partiality, and to do nothing out of favoritism.
—First Timothy 5:21
Thought
Are we receiving those who are different than we? In his He Sent Leanness David Head includes these prayers prayed in the heart when saying something else with the mouth: 'Bless all foreigners, but don't let them come to live next door. Bless all natives in foreign parts and keep them there.'