The Pursuit of God by Tozer - Reflections (3)

“Current evangelicalism has…laid the altar and divided the sacrifice into parts, but now seems satisfied to count the stones and rearrange the pieces with never a care that there is not a sign of fire upon the top of lofty Carmel.” (pp. 8 – 9).

“There is today no lack of Bible teachers to set forth correctly the principles of the doctrines of Christ, but too many of these seem satisfied to teach the fundamentals of the faith year after year, strangely unaware that there is in their ministry no manifest Presence, nor anything unusual in their personal lives. They minister constantly to believers who feel within their breasts a longing which their teaching simply does not satisfy." (page 9).

While Tozer will develop the above statements, I am quoting them for their directness – with more to come. The first excerpt draws from 1 Kings 17:20 – 40, the confrontation of Elijah with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. 

“So with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD…Then he arranged the wood and cut the ox in pieces and laid it on the wood…Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.”

Paul tells Timothy that Timothy is to “rightly divide” or “accurately handle” the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15). This is more than an academic exercise, it is more than an expository verse-by-verse (stone-by-stone) exegesis that can be taught to anyone with basic intellectual skills, for Paul makes it clear that his message was “in demonstration of the Spirit and power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:4 – 5).  He further states, “The kingdom of God does not consist in word but in power” (1 Corinthians 4:20). Building an altar, arranging wood, and even killing and laying out an ox, is a sterile exercise without the fire and power of the Living God.

“For our Gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction…” (1 Thessalonians 1:5).  

Is our preaching and teaching essentially an exercise in rearranging stones in different combinations week after week? Do we offer an ox one week, a lamb another, a goat another, a heifer another…all without fire? 

What would we do if fire actually came from God? What would we do if the Holy Spirit replicated His manifestations of Acts? It might be the cause of some embarrassment.

Would we say, “O…hello God…we didn’t expect you”?

Tozer writes of those who “seem satisfied to teach the fundamentals of the faith year after year.”

I think this is one of the scandals of the professing church, we have good - hearted men and women who have attended church all of their lives and they know no more today than they did 70 years ago. In fact, it is likely that some had a deeper faith as trusting children than as senior adults whose hearts have been dulled by being fed the fundamentals year after year, fundamentals which have become rote and dry and without Divine relationship. 

This reminds me of people I’ve known in the workplace.  You can have two twenty – year employees in the same company; one has twenty years of experience, the other has one year of experience repeated twenty times. When the latter is confronted with this reality, he will either say, “O my, I didn’t realize this, teach me please, I want to learn.” Or he will be offended and quit. The same is true of folks in the professing church, including pastors. One difference between the workplace and church, is that in the church we are seldom confronted with our lack of depth, with the great chasm between our lives and the wonderful relationship to which God calls us. 

Perhaps, as we explore The Pursuit of God, we’ll gain some understanding of why these things are, and what we can do to change, how we can pray, how we can believe, how we can obey, how we can encourage one another. Of course this must all be by the grace of God, by the enabling of the Holy Spirit. 

I wonder if we really know how much God our Father loves us. For sure I don’t think we have an inkling of what it means to be the sons and daughters of the Living God, the sisters and brothers of Jesus Christ. This is a critical element of the Gospel, and yet we don’t know it, we don’t teach it – so how can we live it? 

God so loved the world, that He not only gave His Only Begotten Son, but that He births us as His sons and daughters in the Only Begotten Son – in Christ we are all begotten, the Son with an eternal uppercase “B”; Jesus’ many sisters and brothers with the Holy Spirit (in thist sense, with another Upper Case “B”).

Tozer writes that there are “believers who feel within their breasts a longing which their teaching [that of the Bible teachers] simply does not satisfy.”

Do you think this is true today? 

I don’t think it is true in the United States. I think those who attend church are typically satiated with programs, music, “how to” teachings, rearranging the stones and the sacrifices, with what amounts to group therapy, and with knowledge devoid of power. 

I seldom hear any professing Christian yearn for more of Jesus, just as I seldom hear professing Christians speak of Jesus, either of learning about Him or of living in friendship with Him. We seem to be satisfied where we are. O for sure we want church growth, we may want more programs, we may want more of this or that – but the only real question is whether we want more of Jesus. 

Do you hear folks talking about the Person of Jesus Christ and their relationship with Him? Do you hear folks desiring more of Jesus? Do you see people sharing Jesus with others? 

On the other hand, it is surely possible that many do desire Jesus, but they are accepting “Christian” substitutes, it may be that we have come to the point where we don’t know any better, surely a challenge for both pastors and congregations. 

Well, again, perhaps as we travel with Tozer our vision will improve, perhaps we will see Jesus as never before. 

Do I desire Jesus today?

Do you?