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?

The Pursuit of God by Tozer - Reflections (10)

 

 

“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. The shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of our worship, and that servile imitation of the world which marks our promotional methods all testify that we, in this day, know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at all” (pp. 17 – 18).

 

“If we would find God amid all the religious externals, we must first determine to find Him, and then proceed in the way of simplicity…We must simplify our approach to Him” (page 18).

 

As I pondered the above, it occurred to me that programs program us. We have become programmed to program, and now we have come to the point where AI is taking this beyond the comprehension of most of us. Now those who programmed are being programmed. Tozer writes, “The evil habit of seeking God and effectively prevents us from finding God in full revelation. In the and lies our great woe” (page 18).

 

Jesus is no longer enough for professing Christians, Jesus is no longer enough for the church, Jesus is no longer enough for our congregations.

 

Tozer writes of the simplicity of Christ being rare in his time. Paul writes, “I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3). What would Tozer say about our time? Is the simplicity of Christ rare, or is it virtually nonexistent?

 

Of course, it is hard to argue with success, and if some churches are growing and others are closing, well, that’s just the way it is. If the social sciences work better than the Holy Spirit, if marketing is more fruitful than the Holy Spirit and the Word, if we are meeting the needs of the people, then even if they don’t really know Jesus Christ, that is just the way it is. We can’t have unrealistic Biblical expectations these days, bills need to be paid, organizations must be sustained, the world is changing and we need to change with it. We may say that our message hasn’t changed, but do we really believe that?

 

In the previous reflection there was a quote from page 16 that included, “How tragic that we in this dark day have had our seeking done for us by our teachers.” I’m not sure what Tozer meant when he wrote this, but I do want to say that we are all products of a system from which we cannot very well extricate ourselves, even if we want to. I think this was probably true when Tozer wrote The Pursuit of God, and I am sure it is truer today after 77 years.

 

When we do have pastors and teachers and leaders and professors who understand, in some measure, that we are captives in Babylon, there is usually little that they can do to help us – for we have been programmed to want programs, we have been addicted to what Tozer terms “nervous activities,” and our servile adoption of the world’s promotional methods has far exceeded anything that Tozer dealt with a generation ago.  Jesus is no longer enough for us, gathering together in His Name and Nature is no longer enough.

 

Tozer saw a hunger for God in his time, I don’t see that today. I see people satiated with programs, with Gnosticism (a perpetual looking inward instead of beholding Jesus), with entertainment that is termed “worship,” with a view of justification that, as Tozer says, actually keeps us from God, with humanistic approaches to the Bible – many cloaked in what is supposed to be a “high view” of Scripture, with a rejection of the Cross of Christ as the way of life...well…I could go on. The seeds which Tozer saw being planted, the plants coming up from the earth that Tozer discerned, have now had a generation to grow – what would Tozer say today?

 

What would Tozer say to our capitulation to economic, political, social, and nationalistic agendas? What would he say to our prostitution to these spirits which are not the Holy Spirit of God, which are not the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Jesus is not really enough, is He? It must always be, as Tozer writes, God and.

 

What shall we do?

 

Let us seek Jesus, let us pursue God.

 

“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; but the LORD will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you” (Isaiah 60:1 – 2).

 

I do believe these words of God through Isaiah with all of my heart, and I deeply believe the trajectory we see in Romans Chapter 8 of the manifestation of the sons and daughters of God…otherwise, why would I continue on this pilgrimage? Am I not looking for that City (Hebrews 11)? Must we not follow the Lamb wherever He goes (Revelation 14:1 – 5)?

 

Yet, perhaps even Tozer contributed to the problems he saw. Perhaps we all do. I know I have been part of the problem more than once – I thought I was doing what I could and should for the people I was serving, but as I look back I would most certainly do some things differently…trusting Christ (I hope!) more than making things happen (Psalm 127).

 

I think Tozer does miss the mark on page 14 when he downplays the importance of the body of believers in our communion with God – for we need one another in our pursuing God, in our knowing God, in our growing in Christ. Our pursuit of God is personal, but it is also communal. Yes, there most certainly are private elements to our koinonia with the Trinity, but we do not have a privatized communion – that would hardly be the Nature of the Trinity! I will even say that our vision of the Body of Christ (Ephesians 4:11 – 16) ought to motivate us to obedience and faithfulness and our pursuit of God. Yes, I want to know God for me, but I also want to know God so that others may know Him in Jesus Christ – I cannot separate the two.

 

(The first full paragraph on page 14, that begins with, “This intercourse between God and the soul…” is, I think, the weakest paragraph in this chapter; it is exceptionally problematic. It betrays a parochial view of the Body of Christ, rather than a view that embraces the many streams of the Church which contribute to our heritage. This is all I’ll say about this because it is not central to Tozer’s theme, it is a tangent that perhaps should have been omitted in the final draft.)

 

When Tozer writes that, “We must simplify our approach to Him,” we need only ask, “Where is Jesus?”

 

Where is Jesus in this Bible passage?

 

Where is Jesus in this sermon or teaching?

 

Where is Jesus in this curriculum?

 

Where is Jesus in our congregation?

 

Where is Jesus in marriage and family?

 

Where is Jesus in my soul, my heart, my mind?

 

Is my friendship with Jesus growing and deepening daily?

 

Is Jesus my Way of Life?

 

Tozer concludes Chapter One on a challenging and positive note, we’ll explore that in our next reflection, the Lord willing.

 

The Pursuit of God by Tozer - Reflections (9)

 

 

“God is a person, and in the deep of His mighty nature He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires, and suffers as any other person may.  In making Himself known to us He stays by the familiar pattern of personality. He communicates with us through the avenues of our minds, our wills and our emotions. The continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of New Testament religion” (pp. 13 – 14).

 

When I was a lad in Christ I learned Psalm 103:7, “He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel.” It is one thing to know about God, it is another thing to know Him. It is one thing to know what He does, it is another thing to know who He is. Jesus says that eternal life consists in knowing the Father and the Son (John 17:3).

 

As much as we attempt to justify Martha, Jesus is clear that “only one thing is necessary” (Luke 10:42), “Mary has chosen,” what are we choosing? Are we choosing to know Him?

 

Paul’s desire, after years of knowing and serving Jesus, was to know Him yet more, “That I may know Him” (Philippians 3:10).

 

On page 15 Tozer writes, “Moses used the fact that he knew God as an argument for knowing Him better.”

 

In the beginning quote above, Tozer tells us that God reveals Himself to us through the “familiar pattern of personality.” We see this throughout the Old and New Testaments, we see this in His relationship with Abraham, Moses, and David; we especially see this in the Incarnation. Jesus revealed Himself while on earth, and He continues to reveal Himself, as He said to Paul, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:5). Paul would spend the rest of his life learning to know Jesus.

 

While to be sure, the personality of God is with an upper case “P,” transcendent and engulfing us, He is also intimate and personal, for He is our dear Father. He invites us into a relationship in which we can “fully know as we are fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

 

When Tozer writes about God’s mighty Nature, that God thinks and wills and enjoys and feels and loves and desires and suffers, do we relate to this? What do we know of our God in these areas? Are we sharing in His Nature in these things? Are we knowing Him in His desires and sufferings? Do we know God in His joys?

 

“The continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought” with God is what we are called to experience every day of our lives, it is to live in the Trinity and to know the Trinity living within us – as individuals and as His People, the Body of Christ. This is why John could write that to know him and his fellow Christians was to know the Father and Jesus Christ (1 John 1:3) – this is how intimate our koinonia with God is, this is what it is to know God. In the Person of God we discover our own person, we truly begin to discover who we are…for it is only in Him that we sense who we are.

 

“How tragic that we in this dark day have had our seeking done for us by our teachers. Everything is made to center upon the initial act of “accepting” Christ (a term, incidentally, which is not found in the Bible) and we are not expected thereafter to crave any further revelation of God to our souls” (page 16).

 

We’ll return to this in our next post, the Lord willing, because Tozer has more to say that may help us understand his perspective. As I’ve said before, I think we are pretty much all the prisoners of a system that is self-perpetuating separation from God in Christ even though we claim a high view of Scripture and often insist on doctrinal preciseness and various “distinctives” and even though we know how to orchestrate a good Sunday morning experience – across the theological spectrum.

 

Perhaps what we have developed is a “readers theatre” in which we show up, are given scripts, enact the play and then go home. We even have choirs, as did the ancient Greeks.

 

We are more likely to talk about our favorite author or teacher than we are to speak of Jesus, who ought to be our true Author and Teacher to the point where we share the fruit of our relationship with Him with others, both within and without the Church.

 

Vickie and I have always had vegetable gardens, and we have often worked with others who have had vegetable gardens. In every instance that I can recall, working with folks who have vegetable gardens means that there will be vegetables in the office for folks to take home – people that grow and harvest produce tend to share their produce with others. We have always done this, others we have worked with have done this.

 

Why don’t Christians do this? Why don’t Christians share with their fellow believers the richness of their relationship with Jesus Christ? Why don’t they share Jesus with others? Why aren’t people bringing squash and tomatoes and okra and string beans and lettuce and cucumbers, all of various varieties, to church on Sunday, in their conversations during the week, to their jobs, to their schools, to their civic and recreational activities?

 

Another thing about gardeners, they talk to each other about their experiences, about their successes and failures, they exchange knowledge and experience as a way of life – why don’t professing Christians do this? I have known folks who have sat in pews next to each other for decades and have never shared the life of Christ together, never shared about their experience with Jesus, never prayed together, never shared joys and sorrows, never shared insights from Scripture.

 

This is, frankly, nuts…just plain nuts…yet we not only perpetuate it, we think the notion that something may be amiss is dangerous.

 

We can’t share about Someone whom we don’t know. We can’t share about a Land that we’ve never lived in. To know someone as a child is not the same as knowing that person as an adult. To serve as a child or adolescent or young adult in a family business is not the same as serving with a parent in the ownership of the family business (see Galatians 3:23 – 4:11). I have known many good folks who have been attending church for decades, but I have met few adults who have been attending church for decades.

 

As so Tozer can argue that our view of justification by faith has been made a barrier to our relationship with God…exquisitely tragic…and, I think, tragically true.

 

All we need do to test Tozer’s point is to ask others when we gather, “What have you brought from your garden of relationship with Christ to share today?”

 

Shall we try it?

 

Shall we share?