tozer, pursuit of god excerpts…
ch. 4 - apprehending God
“To most people God is an inference, not a reality. He is a deduction from evidence, which they consider adequate but He remains personally unknown to the individual.”
“For millions of Christians God is no more real than He is to the non-Christian.”
“But why do th every ransomed children of God themselves know so little of that habitual, conscious communion with God which Scripture offers? The answer is because of our chronic unbelief. Faith enables our spiritual sense to function. Where faith is defective the result will be inward insensibility and numbness toward spiritual things.”
“O God, quicken to life every power within me, that I may lay hold on eternal things. Open my eyes that I may see; give me acute spiritual perception; enable me ot taste Thee and know that Thou are good. Make heaven more real to me than any earthly thing has ever been. Amen.”
Ch. 5 - The Universal Presence
kind of obvious Christian Doctrine here, but really brought to life in the chapter in terms of how it effects how i think about me walking with God.
“These are truths believed by every instructed Christian. It remains for us to think on them and pray over them until they begin to glow within us.”
“Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.” Gen 28:16
“Jacob had never been for one small division of a moment outside the circle of that all-pervading Presence. But he knew it not. That was his trouble, and it is ours. Men do not know that God is here. What a difference it would make if they knew.”
“Always, everywhere God is present, and always He seeks to discover Himself to each one.”
“Our pursuit of God is successful just because He is forever seeking to manifest Himself to us.”
“It is for increasing degrees of awareness that we pray, for a more perfect consciousness of the divine Presence.”
[of all the great saints, despite their significant differences....]
“Without attempting anything like a profound analysis, I shall say simply that they had spiritual awareness and that they went on to cultivate it until it became the biggest thing in their lives. They differed from the average person in that when they felt the inward longing they did something about it. They acquired the lifelong habit of spiritual response.”
“Failure to see this is the cause of a very serious breakdown in modern evangelicalism. The idea of cultivation and exercise, so dear to the saints of old has now no place in our total religious picture. It is too slow, too common. We now demand glamour and fast-flowing action. A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals. We have been trying to apply machine-age methods to our relations with God. We read our chapter, have our short devotions and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told hbay a religious adventurer lately returned from afar.
The tragic results of this spirit are all about us: shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, the preponderance of the element of fun in gospel meetings, the glorification of men, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit. These and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and serious malady of the soul.”
the pursuit of God, tozer…
Some thoughts that stuck with me….
Preface:
“Orthodoxy, or right opinion, is, at best, a very slender part of religion. Though right tempers cannot subsist without right opinions, yet right opinions may subsist without right tempers. There may be a right opinion of God without either love or one right temper toward Him. Satan is a proof of this.”
- Wesley
1 - Following Hard After God
“The continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of New Testament religion.” p. 13
“If we would find God amid all the religious externals, we must first determine to find Him, and then proceed in the way of simplicity. Now, as always, God discovers Himself to “babes” and hides Himself in thick darkness from the wise and the prudent. We must simplify our approach to Him.” p. 17
2 - The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing
“There is within the human heart a tough, fibrous root of fallen life whose nature is to possess, always to possess. It covets things with a deep and fierce passion. The pronouns my and mine look innocent enough in print but their constant and universal use is significant. They express the real nature of the old Adamic man better than a thousand volumes of theology could do.” p. 22
“Let us never forget that a truth such as this cannot be learned by rote as one would learn the facts of physical science. They must be experienced before we can really know them. We must, in our hearts, live through Abraham’s harsh and bitter experiences if we would know the blessedness which follows them. The ancient curse will not go out painlessly; the tough, old miser within us will not lie down and die in obedience to our command. he must be torn out of our heart like a plant from the soil; he must be extracted in agony and blood like a tooth from the jaw.” p. 29
7 years ago…
one of our best friends beth buehler sent this my way last week, another fantastic encouragement….
What were you doing seven years ago today? Preparing for Y2K? Still celebrating that Michael Johnson captured the 400 M. world record? Anticipating one year later your first son would be born?
Continue reading ‘7 years ago…’
nice to get a little encouragement now and then…
no one likes people who toot their own horns right? it’s true. well i don’t want to come off as one of those, but i received an encouraging email the other day, which more reflects that God is at work here and wanted to share it with those that are interested. it’s nothing earth shattering but a nice encouragement from a former student who is now going to seminary…
Continue reading ‘nice to get a little encouragement now and then…’
