A few days ago marked the 45th anniversary of one of the great ones. A.W. Tozer went to be with the Lord on May 12, 1963 - his headstone marked with the engraving 'A. W. Tozer - A Man of God'. Tozer is the author of many books, including the Christian classic, 'The Pursuit of God'. This book has had a profound impact in my life. Aside from the Bible, this is probably my most favorite book on my bookshelf. I've read it numerous times and it still speaks to me. I highly recommend it.Here are a few quotes from it that are worth reading over and over again:
It is a solemn thing, and no small scandal in the kingdom, to see God’s children starving while actually seated at the Father’s table. Page 8
Sound Biblical exposition is an imperative must in the Church of the Living God! Page 9
How tragic that we in this dark day have had our seeking done for us by our teachers. Page 16
The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart. Page 17
The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Page 19
Our woes began when God was forced out of His central shrine and things were allowed to enter. The roots of our hearts have grown down into things, and we dare not pull up one rootlet lest we die. Things have become necessary to us, a development never originally intended. God’s gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution. Page 22
The way to deeper knowledge of God is through the lonely valleys of soul poverty and abnegation of all things. The blessed ones who possess the kingdom are they who have repudiated every external thing and have rooted from their hearts all sense of possessing. These blessed poor are no longer slaves to the tyranny of things. They have broken the yoke of the oppressor; and this they have done not by fighting but by surrendering. Page 23
God wills that we should push on into His presence and live our whole lives there. This is to be known to us in conscious experience. It is more than a doctrine to be held; it is a life to be enjoyed every moment of every day. Page 34
The great of the kingdom have been those who loved God more than others did. Page 38
No one need to be poor, because if he chooses, he can have Jesus for his own property and possession. Page 39
Self is the opaque veil that hides the face of God from us. Page 43
Let us beware of tinkering with our inner life, hoping ourselves to rend the veil. God must do everything for us. Our part is to yield and trust. We must confess, forsake, repudiate the self-life and then reckon it crucified. Page 44
Why do the very 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. Page 49-50
If we cooperate with Him in loving obedience, God will manifest himself to us, and that manifestation will be the difference between a nominal Christian life and a life radiant with the light of His face. Page 60
It will require a determined heart and more than a little courage to wrench ourselves loose from the grip of our times and return to biblical ways. Page 66
Our thought habits are those of the scientist, not those of the worshiper. We are more likely to explain than adore. Page 74
It is important that we get still to wait on God. And it is best that we get alone, preferably with our Bible outspread before us. Page 76
If you would follow on to know the Lord, come at once to the open Bible expecting it to speak to you. Do not come with the notion that it is a thing that you may push around at your convenience. Page 78
Faith is the gaze of the soul upon a saving God. Page 83
The man seeking mercy looks straight at the God of mercy and never takes his eyes away from Him until He grants mercy. (Psalm 123:1-2) Page 83
While we are looking at God we do not see ourselves – blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. Page 85
As long as Christ sits on the mediatorial throne, every day is a good day and all days are days of salvation. Page 88
The cause of all our human miseries is a radical moral dislocation, an upset in our relation to God and to each other. Page 93
Much of our difficulty as seeking Christians stems from our unwillingness to take God as He is and adjust our lives accordingly. We insist upon trying to modify Him and bring Him nearer to our own image. Page 95
God being who and what He is, and we being who and what we are, the only thinkable relation between us is one of full Lordship on His part and complete submission on ours. We owe Him every honor that is in our power to give Him. Our everlasting grief lies in giving Him anything less. Page 96
"Be thou exalted" (Psalm 21:13) is the language of victorious spiritual experience. Let the seeking man reach a place where his life and his lips join to say continually, "Be thou exalted", and a thousand minor problems will be solved at once. His Christian life ceases to be the complicated thing it had been before and becomes the very essence of simplicity. Page 97
Pride, arrogance, resentfulness, evil imaginings, malice, greed are the sources of more human pain than all the diseases that ever afflicted mortal flesh. Page 104
The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort. Page 106
The rest He offers is the rest of meekness, the blessed relief which comes when we accept ourselves for what we are and cease to pretend. Page 109
Let us practice the fine art of making every work a priestly ministration. Let us believe that God is in all our simple deeds and learn to find Him there. Page 117
It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it. The motive is everything. Let a man sanctify the Lord God in his heart and he can thereafter do no common act. Page 120-121
If A.W. Tozer could speak to us today, he would tell us that his 'pursuit of God' was well worth the effort.
Mark
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