Aiden Wilson Tozer was a legend in his own lifetime, yet he is virtually unknown by today’s generation of students. This is more than unfortunate. Viewed by his contemporaries as a preacher and writer with a prophetic edge, Tozer had a powerful effect on people. When he spoke, they listened; when he wrote, they read. Leonard Ravenhill writes that Dr. Tozer “had an intimacy with God beyond any other man I have ever met.” Speaking of Tozer’s spiritual girth, Louis King, former president of The Christian and Missionary Alliance, writes: “He belonged to the spiritual aristocracy. His sense of God was so awesome it called forth a consummate reverence and adoration. Every day his one great exercise was the practice of the presence of God. Jesus Christ, to him, was a daily wonder, a recurring astonishment, a continual amazement of love and grace. This was not contrived but a natural and ever-present reality.”
Personally, Tozer discipled me through his writings. Growing up with spiritual influences but without a spiritual mentor left a noticeable void in me, but Tozer’s writing helped fill it to overflowing. Few authors slice as deeply or accurately as Tozer. He has no desire to impress, but inevitably leaves an enduring impression on all who read him. As stated so well in the Talmud: “The righteous need no tombstones; their words are their monuments” (Persahim, 119a).
The following are a few brief selections from Tozer’s books and sermons, offered as a “whetting of the appetite,” with the hope that the reader will choose to move beyond the appetizer to the main course. You will find daily readings from Tozer at the following website: http://www.cmalliance.org/devotions/tozer/tozer.jsp. You will find lengthier selections at the following: http://lmi.gospelcom.net/tozer.php3. All of his books are available from Christian Publications, the official publishing house of The Christian and Missionary Alliance (http://www.christianpublications.com/).
“To the absence of the spirit may be traced that vague sense of unreality which almost everywhere invests religion in our times. In the average church service the most real thing is the shadowy unreality of everything. The worshipper sits in a state of suspended mentation; a kind of dreamy numbness creeps upon him; he hears words but they do not register, he cannot relate them to anything on his own life-level. He is conscious of having entered a kind of half-world; his mind surrenders itself to a more or less pleasant mood which passes with the benediction leaving no trace behind. It does not affect anything in his everyday life. He is aware of no power, no Presence, no spiritual reality. There is simply nothing in his experience corresponding to the things which he heard from the pulpit or sang in the hymns.” (The Divine Conquest, 1950, p. 90).
“God made us for Himself: that is the only explanation that satisfies the heart of a thinking man, whatever his wild reason may say.” (The Pursuit of God, 1984, p. 33)
“When the habit of inwardly gazing Godward becomes fixed within us we shall be ushered onto a new level of spiritual life more in keeping with the promises of God and the mood of the New Testament. The Triune God will be our dwelling place even while our feet walk the low road of simple duty here among men.” (The Pursuit of God, 1984, p. 97)
“It is amazing to me! There are people within the ranks of Christianity who have been taught and who believe that Christ will shield his followers from wounds of every kind. If the truth were known, the saints of God in every age were only effective after they have been wounded. They experienced the humbling wounds that brought contrition, compassion and a yearning for the knowledge of God. I could only wish that more among the followers of Christ knew what some of the early saints meant when they spoke of being wounded by the Holy Spirit.” (Men Who Met God, 1986, p. 59).
“The old cross slew men; the new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned; the new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh; the new cross encourages it. The old cross brought tears and blood; the new cross brings laughter. The flesh, smiling and confident, preaches and sings about the cross; before the cross it bows and toward that cross it points with carefully staged histrionics—but upon that cross it will not die, and the reproach of that cross it stubbornly refuses to bear.” (The Divine Conquest, 1950, p. 59)
“God made us for Himself: that is the only explanation that satisfies the heart of a thinking man, whatever his wild reason may say.” (The Pursuit of God, 1984, p. 33)
“When the habit of inwardly gazing Godward becomes fixed within us we shall be ushered onto a new level of spiritual life more in keeping with the promises of God and the mood of the New Testament. The Triune God will be our dwelling place even while our feet walk the low road of simple duty here among men.” (The Pursuit of God, 1984, p. 97)
“It is amazing to me! There are people within the ranks of Christianity who have been taught and who believe that Christ will shield his followers from wounds of every kind. If the truth were known, the saints of God in every age were only effective after they have been wounded. They experienced the humbling wounds that brought contrition, compassion and a yearning for the knowledge of God. I could only wish that more among the followers of Christ knew what some of the early saints meant when they spoke of being wounded by the Holy Spirit.” (Men Who Met God, 1986, p. 59).
“The old cross slew men; the new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned; the new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh; the new cross encourages it. The old cross brought tears and blood; the new cross brings laughter. The flesh, smiling and confident, preaches and sings about the cross; before the cross it bows and toward that cross it points with carefully staged histrionics—but upon that cross it will not die, and the reproach of that cross it stubbornly refuses to bear.” (The Divine Conquest, 1950, p. 59)
No comments:
Post a Comment