The Pursuit of God by Tozer - Reflections (11)

 

 

“We need not fear that in seeking God only we may narrow our lives or restrict the motions of our expanding hearts. The opposite is true. We can well afford to make God our All, to concentrate, to sacrifice the many [things, whether religious or otherwise] for the One” (page 18).

 

“The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go, one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the Source of all things he has in One all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. Whatever he may lose he has actually lost nothing, for he now has it all in One, and he has it purely, legitimately and forever” (pp. 19 – 20).

 

In Tozer’s time, there were men and women still preaching and teaching Jesus, I am not sure about our own time. I’m not saying there are none, but I am saying that they are harder to find. As Tozer pointed out, we seem to be seeking Jesus and, God and, the Holy Spirit and. God alone is not enough. We are such products of this thinking and practice, we have grown up in it, that we don’t know what we don’t know, we don’t know what it is to seek Jesus and only Jesus.

 

We are so embedded in this way of life, that to threaten it is to threaten our existence, our identity, our movements, our organizations, the core of our beings – it is to suggest that we have brought idols into the Temple, and since the idols are our livelihood – our religious and emotional and psychological and financial currency - what shall we do?

 

We think that if we make Jesus our only desire that we will have nothing, yet Tozer tells us that we will have all things. What do we believe? Do we believe this is possible?

 

Is it worth the risk to try? To try only Jesus?

 

Let’s remind ourselves that we are not speaking of bad things, but of good things, of moral things, of ethical things. Yes, they can be self-centered things, and at their core I suppose they are; but there could be worse things…or could there?

 

Let’s also recall Tozer’s warning that the Bible is not an end in itself but a means by which we may know God intimately. We can know the Bible and not know God.

 

Let’s remember, that we are talking about knowing God as a Person, as a person knows a person; progressively, revealingly, deeply; so that we know and sense His desires, His joys, His sorrows, His love, His holiness, His justice, His mercy, His grace, His very Personhood, and character. Are we seeing the face of God?

 

Are we making Jesus Christ our All in all? Are we pursuing Him with all that we have and all that we are?

 

“The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One…Having the Source of all things he has in One all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. Whatever he may lose he has actually lost nothing, for he now has it all in One.”

 

Perhaps we could ask, “What music are we playing?” What is the keynote of our message, our demeanor, our practice, our gatherings, our conversation throughout the week, our lives at work, at school, at play, in the civic arena, in entertainment, with our neighbors?

 

I cannot, I must not, depart from Mark 8:34 – 38, Jesus calls me to deny myself, to lose my life, to take up my cross, and to follow Him…always and forever Him. My heart is to be wedded to Him; not to a tradition, a group of doctrinal distinctives, a way of worship or music or preaching or experience or economic or political agenda or exegesis or self – help or sociology; I am to be wedded to Jesus with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength – He is to be the total source of my life, forever and always.

 

In Jesus Christ are “hidden ALL the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). I am to be always “Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of my faith” (Hebrews 12:2).

 

While Mark 8:34 – 38 has been a foundational passage for me since my early weeks as a Christian, there have been others, one is Psalm 73:25 and another 1 Corinthians 1:30 – 31.

 

There are, I think, two types of Christians, those who know and live by Psalm 73:25 and those who don’t. (Yes, there are other passages that express the same sentiment, such as John 6:68. What similar passages do you know? Not “know” intellectually, but “know” as your way of life?)

 

“Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth” (Psalm 73:25).

 

This verse, this declaration, this cry of the heart, was a core theme in my early Christian reading, for the people I read, Andrew Murray, A. W. Tozer, Oswald Chambers, Watchman Nee, and others, desired Jesus and only Jesus. Later writers continued that pursuit of God, they added to the theme of “seeing only Jesus” (Matthew 17:8).

 

To be sure I have had my seasons of “Jesus and,” to be sure I have had seasons of sin; but Psalm 73:25 and its companions has pulled me back to Jesus, I have never outrun its cords (by God’s mercy!) The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin – this is a promise to the Christian, to the child of God (1 John 1:5 – 2:2). I know what it is to eat swine’s food, and I know what it is to return to the Father’s House and fall into His embrace.

 

Nothing can take the place of God’s embrace in Jesus Christ.

 

“But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord’” (1 Corinthians 1:30 – 31).

 

This is, I suppose, the sum of all true Christian theology, and without it there is no true north. If you have graduated from seminary and do not know this, get your money back. If you have been “attending” church and do not know this, ask your pastor why you do not know it.

 

I was taught this by my friend George Will when I was a lad, a dumb lad, a stupid lad, a self-centered lad. I heard this from George when I was 16 years old, and I continued to hear it from him until I was into my 60s, in which season he went into the Presence of Jesus. George was teaching me all that I ever really needed to know, and I was too dumb for much of my life to realize it.

 

Let us not glory is our doctrinal distinctives, in our traditions, in our worldviews, in our spiritual experiences, in our insights into social dynamics, in our nationalism, in our methods of worship, in our attendance numbers (nor be discouraged by them), in our exegetical methods…let us glory in Jesus and only in Jesus.

 

Why O why do we insist on exchanging our glory in Jesus for oxen that eat grass, why do we reject our identity in Him and His inheritance in us? (Psalm 106:19 – 21).

 

Is Jesus our treasure? For where our treasure is, there our hearts will be also (Matthew 6:21).

 

Is Jesus our All in all?

 

Is He mine?

 

Is He yours?

 

Will Psalm 73:25 and 1 Corinthians 1:30 – 31 become your way of life?  

 

Will you pursue God today?