Aiden Wilson Tozer

[HeIsEnough]

The Pursuit of God

Introduction (http://www3.calvarychapel.com/library/Tozer-AW/PursuitOfGod/00i.htm)

Preface (http://www3.calvarychapel.com/library/Tozer-AW/PursuitOfGod/00p.htm)

Following Hard After God (http://www3.calvarychapel.com/library/Tozer-AW/PursuitOfGod/01.htm)

The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing (http://www3.calvarychapel.com/library/Tozer-AW/PursuitOfGod/02.htm)

Removing the Veil (http://www3.calvarychapel.com/library/Tozer-AW/PursuitOfGod/03.htm)

Apprehending God (http://www3.calvarychapel.com/library/Tozer-AW/PursuitOfGod/04.htm)

The Universal Presence (http://www3.calvarychapel.com/library/Tozer-AW/PursuitOfGod/05.htm)

The Speaking Voice (http://www3.calvarychapel.com/library/Tozer-AW/PursuitOfGod/06.htm)

The Gaze of the Soul (http://www3.calvarychapel.com/library/Tozer-AW/PursuitOfGod/07.htm)

Restoring the Creator-Creature Relation (http://www3.calvarychapel.com/library/Tozer-AW/PursuitOfGod/08.htm)

The Meekness and Rest (http://www3.calvarychapel.com/library/Tozer-AW/PursuitOfGod/09.htm)

The Sacrament of Living (http://www3.calvarychapel.com/library/Tozer-AW/PursuitOfGod/10.htm)

[HeIsEnough]

The Knowledge of the Holy
by A. W. Tozer


Preface (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_preface_koh.htm)

Why We Must Think Rightly About God (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_1_koh.htm)

God Incomprehensible (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_2__koh.htm)

A Divine Attribute: Something True About God (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_%adchapter_3_koh.htm)

The Holy Trinity (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_4_koh.htm)

The Self-existence Of God (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_5_koh.htm)

The Self-sufficiency Of God (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_6_koh.htm)

The Eternity Of God (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_7_koh.htm)

God's Infinitude (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_8_koh.htm)

The Immutability Of God (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_9_koh.htm)

The Divine Omniscience (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_10_koh.htm)

The Wisdom Of God (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_11_koh.htm)

The Omnipotence Of God (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_12_koh.htm)

The Divine Transcendence (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_13_koh.htm)

God's Omnipresence (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_14_koh.htm)

The Faithfulness Of God (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_15_koh.htm)

The Goodness Of God (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_16_koh.htm)

The Justice Of God (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_17_koh.htm)

The Mercy Of God (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_18_koh.htm)

The Grace Of God (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_19_koh.htm)

The Love Of God (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_20_koh.htm)

The Holiness Of God (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_21_koh.htm)

The Sovereignty Of God (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_22_koh.htm)

The Open Secret (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_23_koh.htm)

[HeIsEnough]

Tozer Devotional

Collective Writings from the Books of A.W. Tozer

Today's reading.
(http://www.cmalliance.org/devotions/tozer/tozer.jsp)

[HeIsEnough]

ARTIFICIALITY IS A DISEASE Of THE SOUL
A.W. Tozer




When I was a young lad and first beginning to observe the human scene, one thing that struck me forcibly was the artificiality of preachers. The world they inhabited was, it seemed to me, always once removed from reality.

I was not brought up in a Christian home and so was not accustomed to the conventional language of religion, and when I chanced occasionally to hear a sermon, I listened with an ear undulled by familiarity. How strange the preachers sounded to me, how artificial their tones and how unnatural their demeanor.

They were men, obviously, but they lacked the candor and downrightness I knew so well in other men. The bold, man-to-man approach was missing. They seemed to be afraid of something, though I could not tell what, for certainly the tame, patient, almost indifferent persons who listened to them did not seem a threat. They spoke so gingerly and apologetically that one got the impression that they would rather remain silent forever than to offend anyone. After listening to some of them now and again I knew the meaning of the French saying (though I did not hear it till many years later), "There are three sexes: men, women and preachers."

Now I am all for preachers and I do not expect them to be perfect, but I am all for downrightness too. I think it is highly improbably that anyone who speaks cautiously can speak effectively. His timidity will deactivate his effort and render it impotent. It is true that the church has suffered from pugnacious men, but she has suffered more from timid preachers who would rather be nice than right. The latter have done more harm if for no other reason than that there are so many more of them. I do not think, however, that we must make our choice between the two. It is altogether possible to have true love and courage at the same time.

Our theological schools may be at fault here. They strive to turn out preachers who will be all things to all men in a sense Paul never had in mind. They want their students to be cultured if it kills them and they begin by draining off all salt and leaving only a sweetness and light that appears to some of us to be neither sweet nor light. Everything natural is as far as possible refined away. All tang is eliminated from the speech, and all angularity carefully filed off the language. The young man is trained to gesture gracefully, smile faintly and sound scholarly. The direct language than men naturally use when speaking to each other is edited out and a vague, stilted jargon is substituted for it. The total result is artificiality and ineffectiveness.

But back to my own experience; it was by the mercy of God that I was later permitted to hear an evangelist who was completely human and paid his hearers the compliment of assuming they were human too. He knew what he wanted to say, and said it fearlessly; and the people knew what he meant and either took it or left it. Thank God a good number of them took it.

Every man who stands to proclaim the Word should speak with something of the bold authority of the Word itself. The Bible is the book of supreme love, but it is at the same time altogether frank and downright. Its writers are invariably honest and entirely sincere. A great sense of urgency is upon everything they write. They are deeply concerned with moral decisions. Protocol is of less interest to them than the glory of God and the welfare of people.

One is tempted to offer advice to the young preacher to prevent him from becoming a mere purveyor or artificial religious platitudes. One might urge him to study the best writers and speakers, to strive to be original, to look at and through things before speaking of them, to avoid cliches, to speak as men and in the language men speak; but this would be to miss the point entirely. Religious artificiality is not a technical thing but a deeply human and spiritual one. It is a disease of the soul and can only be healed by the Physician of souls.

To escape the snare of artificiality it is necessary that a man enjoy a satisfying personal experience with God. He must be totally committed to Christ and deeply anointed with the Holy Spirit. Further, he must be delivered from the fear of man. The focus of his attention must be God and not men. He must let everything dear to him ride out on each sermon. He must so preach as to jeopardize his future, his ministry, even life itself. He must make God responsible for the consequences and speak as one who will not have long to speak before he is called to judgment. Then the people will know they are hearing a voice instead of a mere echo.

[HeIsEnough]

WE ARE BECOMING WHAT WE LOVE!
A.W. Tozer



We are all in process of becoming. We have already moved from what we were to what we are, and we are now moving toward what we shall be. The perturbing though is not that we are becoming, but what we are becoming; not that we are moving, but toward what we are moving. Not only are we all in process of becoming; we are becoming what we love. We are to a large degree the sum of our loves and we will of moral necessity grow into the image of what we love most. Our loves changes, molds and transforms us.

What we love is therefore not a small matter to be lightly shrugged off; rather it is of present, critical and everlasting importance. It is prophetic of our future. It tells us what we shall be, and so predicts accurately our eternal destiny. Loving the wrong objects twists and deforms the life and makes it impossible for that life to image the Lord Jesus Christ. This furnishes in part a rational explanation for the first and greatest commandment: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." To become like God is and must be the supreme goal of all moral creatures. This is the reason for their existence, and apart from this reason there can be no excuse found for existence.

While perfect realization to the Divine image awaits the day of Christ's appearing, the work of restoration is now going on. There is a slow but steady transmutation of the base metal of human nature into the gold of Godlikeness effected by the faith-filled "gaze of the soul at the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (II Cor. 3:18) love? Oh, how such a simple word is so difficult for most to grasp! And then to "love God with all my being" Love is so unpredictable! Does it mean that I fall in love? No, the love we have for God is not the love of feeling, but the love of willing. We do not come to love God by a sudden emotional visitation.

Love for God results from repentance, amendment of life and a fixed determination to love Him. As God moves perfectly into the focus of our hearts our love for Him rises and sweeps everything else out of the way. We should set our hearts to love God supremely, however hard they may seem to be at the moment.

Now I would hasten to disclaim all sympathy with the popular Salvation-by-willpower cults. I am in radical disagreement with all forms of quasi-Christianity that depends upon the "latent power with us" or trust to "creative thinking" instead of the power of God. All these paper thin religious philosophies bread down at the same place - in the assumption that the stream of human nature can be made to run backward up over the falls. This it can never do.

"SALVATION IS OF THE LORD."

No we are here trying to establish that human nature is in a formative state whether you be a Christian or not. Men and women are being molded by their loves, shaped by their affections and powerfully transformed. In this unregenerate world of Adam this produces day-by-day tragedies of cosmic proportions. Think of the power that turned a pink cheeked boy into a Nero or a Himmler. And was Jezebel always the "cursed woman" whose head and hands the very dogs, with poetic justice, refused to eat? No once she dreamed with girlish delights, but soon she became interested in evil things, admired them and went on at least to love them. Thus Jezebel, like clay in the potter's hand was slowly turned into what she was. For His own children our heavenly Father has provided right moral objects for admiration and love.

The first is righteousness. Our Lord "loved righteousness and hated iniquity." (Hebrews 1:9) Here the pattern is fixed. To love is also to hate. The heart that is drawn to righteousness will be repulsed by iniquity in the same degree. The holiest man is the one who loves righteousness most and hates evil with the most perfect hatred.

The next is wisdom. So high do the OT writers place wisdom that sometimes we can scarcely distinguish the wisdom that comes from God from the wisdom that is God.

Another object for Christian love to fix upon is truth, and again we have difficulty separating the truth of God from God Himself. Christ said, "I am the Truth," and in so saying joined truth and the Deity in inseparable union. To love God is to love truth, and to love truth with steadfast ardor is to grow toward the image of truth and away from the lie and error. (Read Paul in Phil. 4:8)