Monday, August 27, 2018

Book Summary - God's Pursuit of Man by A.W. Tozer


Publishing Information:

ISBN: 978-1-60066-795-4
Copyright: 1950, renewed 1978 by Lowell Tozer
Previously published under the titles The Divine Conquest and The Pursuit of Man and is a sequel to The Pursuit of God.
141 pages

Chapter 1. The Eternal Continuum
Key Verses:
Joshua 1:5 – “As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.”
Habakkuk 1:12 – “Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One?”
John 1: 1-3 – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

Key Quotes:
“God is the great Antecedent.” This is regrettably an ignored truth.
“Neglected Christian truths can only be revitalized when by prayer and long meditation we isolate them from the mass of hazy ideas with which our minds are filled and hold them steadily and determinedly in the focus of the mind’s attention.”

“We cannot think rightly of God until we begin to think of Him as always being there, and there first.”

“In my creature impatience I am often caused to wish that there was some way to bring modern Christians into a deeper spiritual life painlessly by short, easy lessons; but such wishes are vain. No shortcut exists. The man who would know God must give time to Him.”

“Whatever else it embraces, true Christian experience must always include a genuine encounter with God. Without this, religion is but a shadow, a reflection of reality, a cheap copy of an original once enjoyed by someone else of whom we have heard.”

“We habitually stand in our now and look back by faith to see the past filled with God. We look forward and see Him inhabiting our future; but our now is uninhabited except for ourselves. Thus we are guilty of a kind of temporary atheism which leaves us alone in the universe while, for the time, God is not. We talk of Him much and loudly, but we secretly think of Him as being absent…”

“With God Abram’s day and this day are the same. By one single impulse of life He created all days and all times, so that the life of the first day and the life of the remotest future day are united in Him.”

“In saving men God is but doing again (or rather continuing to do) the same creative work as at the beginning of the world. To Him each ransomed soul is a world wherein He performs again His pleasant work as of old.”

Chapter 2. In Word, or in Power
Key Verses:
1 Thessalonians 1:5 – For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost.
 2 Corinthians 5:17 – If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
Revelation 3:1 – I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou lives, and art dead.

Key Quotes:
“the true quality of faith is almost universally missed, namely, its moral quality. It is more than mere confidence in the veracity of a statement made in Holy Writ. It is a highly moral thing and of a spiritual essence. It invariably effects radical transformation in the life of the one who exercises it. It shifts the inward gaze from self to God. It introduces its possessor into the life of heaven upon earth.”

“For sin’s human captives God never intends anything less than full deliverance. The Christian message rightly understood means this: The God who by the word of the gospel proclaims men free, by the power of the gospel actually makes them free. To accept less than this is to know the gospel in word only, without its power.”

“With this desire to please men so deeply implanted within us how can we uproot it and shift our life-drive from pleasing men to pleasing God? Well, no one can do it alone, nor can he do it with the help of others, nor by education nor by training nor by any other method known under the sun. What is required is a reversal of nature and this reversal must be a supernatural act. That act the Spirit performs through the power of the gospel when it is received in living faith…The way it works in experience is something like this: The believing man is overwhelmed suddenly by a powerful feeling that only God matters; soon this works itself out into his mental life and conditions all his judgments and all his values.

Chapter 3. The Mystery of the Call
Key Verses:
1 Corinthians 1: 1-2 – “Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, …. to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…
1 Corinthians 15:47 – “The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.”
John 3:6 – “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

Key Quotes:
“The little word called as used here…is like a door opening into another world, and when we enter we shall find ourselves in another world indeed. For the new world into which we pass is the world of God’s sovereign will where the will of man cannot come, or if it comes, it is as a dependent and a servant, never as a lord.”

“…in their pride men assert their will and claim ownership of the earth. Well, for a time it is true that this is man’s world. God is admitted only by man’s sufferance. He is treated as visiting royalty in a democratic country. Everyone takes His name upon his lips and (especially at certain seasons) He is feted and celebrated and hymned. But behind all this flattery men hold firmly to their right of self-determination. As long as man is allowed to play host he will honor God with his attention, but always He must remain a guest and never seek to be Lord. Man will have it understood that this is his world;”

“There is another and worse evil which springs from this basic failure to grasp the radical difference between the natures of two worlds. It is the habit of languidly “accepting” salvation as if it were a small matter and one wholly in our hands. Mean are exhorted to think things over and “decide” for Christ, and in some places one day each year is set aside as “Decision Day,”at which time people are expected to condescend to grant Christ the right to save them, a right which they have obviously refused Him up to that time. Christ is thus made to stand again before men’s judgment seat; …. Has not God by such words as these taken out of our hands the ultimate choice?
            ‘It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing….No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him …. No man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father….(John 6:63, 44, 65)’. “

 “Salvation is from our side a choice, from the divine side it is a seizing upon, an apprehending, a conquest of the Most High God. Our “accepting” and “willing” are reactions rather than actions. The right of determination must always remain with God.”

“God has indeed lent to every man the power to lock his heart and stalk away darkly into his self-chosen night, as He has lent to every man the ability to respond to His overtures of grace, but while the “no” choice may be ours, the “yes” choice is always God’s. He is the Author of our faith as He must be its Finisher.”

Chapter 4. Victory Through Defeat
Key Verses:
Genesis 32:28 – “And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
Galatians 6:14 – “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
Key Quotes:
“The experiences of men who walked with God in olden times agree to teach that the Lord cannot fully bless a man until He has first conquered him.”

The story of Jacob wrestling with God is described…”It was only after he had gone down to humiliating defeat that he began to feel the joy of release from his own evil strength, the delight of God’s conquest over him. Then he cried aloud for the blessing and refused to let go till it came. …Now he became another man, the stubborn and self-willed rebel was turned into a meek and dignified friend of God. He had prevailed indeed, but through weakness, not through strength. Only the conquered can know true blessedness…We are created beings, and as such are derived, not self-existent. Not to us has it been given to have life in ourselves. For life we are wholly and continually dependent upon God, the Source and Fountain of life. Only by full dependence upon Him are the hidden potentialities of our natures realized. Apart from this we are but half-men, malformed and unbeautiful members of a noble race once made to wear the image of its Creator.”

”The strength of our flesh is an ever-present danger to our souls.”

Chapter 5. The Forgotten One
Key Verses:
John 14:26 – “The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost.”
Key Quotes:
“In religion more than in any other field of human experience a sharp distinction must always be made between knowing about and knowing… A man can die of starvation knowing all about bread, and a man can remain spiritually dead while knowing all the historic facts of Christianity. “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent’ (John 17:3)

“How shall we think of the Spirit? The Bible and Christian theology agree to teach that He is a Person, endowed with every quality of personality, such as emotion, intellect and will. He knows, He wills, He loves; He feels affection, antipathy and compassion, He thinks, sees, hears and speaks and performs any act of which personality is capable.”

“He can invade the human heart and make room for Himself without expelling anything essentially human. The integrity of the human personality remains unimpaired. Only moral evil is forced to withdraw.”

“When we insert the iron in the fire we achieve the penetration of the iron and we have not only the iron in the fire but the fire in the iron as well. They are two distinct substances, but they have co-mingled and interpenetrated to a point where the two have become one. In some such manner does the Holy Spirit penetrate our spirits. In the whole experience we remain our very selves. There is no destruction of substance. Each remains a separate being as before; the difference is that now the Spirit penetrates and fills our personalities and we are experientially one with God.”

“To the reverent question, “What is God like?” a proper answer will always be, “He is like Christ.” For Christ is God, and the Man who walked among men in Palestine was God acting like Himself in the familiar situation where His incarnation placed Him. To the question, “What is the Spirit like?” the answer must always be, “He is like Christ.” For the Spirit is the essence of the Father and the Son. As they are, so is He. As we feel toward Christ and toward our Father who art in heaven, so should we feel toward the Spirit of the Father and the Son.”

Chapter 6. The Illumination of the Spirit
Key Verses:
John 3:27 – “A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.”
Key Quotes:
“There is a kind of truth which can never be grasped by the intellect, for the intellect exists for the apprehension of ideas, and this truth consists not in ideas but in life. Divine truth is of the nature of spirit and for that reason can be received only by spiritual revelation.”

“Through the light of nature man’s moral reason may be enlightened, but the deeper mysteries of God remain hidden to him until he has received illumination from above.

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

“A man can receive nothing.” That is the burden of the Bible. Whatever men may think of human reason God takes a low view of it. “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” (1 Corinthians 1:20).

“For a man of God to understand revealed truth requires an act of God equal to the original act which inspired the text.”

Chapter 7. The Spirit as Power
Key Verses:
Acts 1:8 – “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.”
Key Quotes:
“Ye shall receive power.” By those words our Lord raised the expectation of His disciples and taught them to look forward to the coming of a supernatural potency into their natures from a source outside of themselves. It was to be something previously unknown to them, but suddenly to come upon them from another world. It was to be nothing less than God Himself entering into them with the purpose of ultimately reproducing His own likeness within them.”

“Christianity takes for granted the absence of any self-help and offers a power which is nothing less than the power of God. This power is to come upon powerless men as a gentle but resistless invasion from another world, bringing a moral potency infinitely beyond anything that might be stirred up from within”.

“Where adequate power is present almost any means will suffice, but where the power is absent not all the means in the world can secure the desired end. The Spirit of God may use a song, a sermon, a good deed, a text or the mystery and majesty of nature, but always the final work will be done by the pressure of the in-living Spirit upon the human heart.”

“We may be sure of one thing, that for our deep trouble there is no cure apart from a visitation, yes, an invasion of power from above. Only the Spirit Himself can show us what is wrong with us and only the Spirit can prescribe the cure.“


Chapter 8. The Holy Spirit as Fire
Key Verses:
Acts 2:3 – “And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.”
Key Quotes:

“Only God knows God in any final meaning of the word, “know.”

“Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:11).

“…if we could conceive of His greatness, He would be less than the human mind which could form the conception….one speaks of Him as light; this is an account of part of His creation, not of Himself. It does not express what He is. Or suppose one speaks of Him as power. This too sets forth in words His attribute of might, rather than His being. Or suppose one speaks of Him as majesty. Once again, we have a declaration of the honor which is His own, rather than of Him in Himself….To sum up…, every possible statement that can be made about God expresses some possession or virtue of God, rather than God Himself. What words or thoughts are worthy Him, who is above all language and all thought?” Novatian (c. 250 A.D.)

“Just because God cannot tell us what He is He very often tells us what He is like. By these “like” figures He leads our faltering minds as close as they can come to that “light which no man can approach unto””.

“…judging from the Scriptures one would gather that His favorite similitude is fire. In one place the Spirit speaks expressly, “For our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29)

“…As a fire He spoke to Moses from the burning bush; in the fire He dwelt above the camp of Israel…; as fire He dwelt between the wings of the cherubim in the Holy of Holies; to Ezekiel He revealed Himself as a strange brightness of “a fire infolding itself” (Ezekiel 1:4)

“With the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost the same imagery was continued. “And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them” (Acts 2:3)…The God who had appeared to them as fire throughout all their long history was now dwelling in them as fire. He had moved from without to the interior of their lives…This was Deity giving Himself to ransomed men. The flame was the seal of a new union. They were now men and women of the Fire.”

“Whoever would be filled and indwelt by the Spirit should first judge his life for any hidden iniquities; he should courageously expel from his heart everything which is out of accord with the character of God as revealed by the Holy Scriptures.”

“The true Christian ideal is not to be happy but to be holy. The holy heart alone can be the habitation of the Holy Ghost. “

“Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. (James 4:8-9)

“The blight of the Pharisee’s heart in olden times was doctrine without love. With the teachings of the Pharisees Christ had little quarrel, but with the pharisaic spirit He carried on unceasing warfare to the end. It was religion that put Christ on the cross, religion without the indwelling Spirit. It is no use to deny that Christ was crucified by persons who would today be called fundamentalists. This should prove most disquieting if not downright distressing to us who pride ourselves on our orthodoxy. An unblessed soul filled with the letter of truth may actually be worse off than a pagan kneeling before a fetish.

Chapter 9. Why the World Cannot Receive
Key Verses:
John 14:17 – The Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive.
2 Corinthians 13:5 – Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
Romans 8:9 – But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
James 4:4 – Ye adulterers and adulteresses. Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Key Quotes:

“The gulf between the true Christian and the world is as great as that which separated the rich man and Lazarus. And furthermore it is the same gulf, that is, it is the gulf that divides the world of ransomed from the world of fallen men.”

“…men do not become Christians by associating with church people…..they become Christians only by invasion of their nature by the Spirit of God in the new birth.”

“The difficulty we modern Christians face is not misunderstanding the Bible, but persuading our untamed hearts to accept its plain instructions.”

“When faith becomes obedience then it is true faith indeed.”

Chapter 10. The Spirit-filled Life

Key Verses:
Ephesians 5:18 – Be filled with the Spirit.
Key Quotes:

“I want here boldly to assert that it is my happy belief that every Christian can have a copious outpouring of the Holy Spirit in a measure far beyond that received at conversion, and I might also say, far beyond that enjoyed by the rank and file of orthodox believers today. It is important that we get this straight, for until doubts are removed faith is impossible. God will not surprise a doubting heart with an effusion of the Holy Spirit, nor will He fill anyone who has doctrinal questions about the possibility of being filled.”

”Before a man can be filled with the Spirit he must be sure he wants to be. And let this be taken seriously. Many Christians want to be filled, but their desire is a vague romantic kind of thing hardly worthy to be called desire. They have almost no knowledge of what it will cost them to realize it.”

“Before we can be filled with the Spirit the desire to be filled must be all-consuming.”



Monday, July 30, 2018

Psalm 57 - v. 5 - "Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth."
and repeated in v. 11.
v. 9 and 10 - "I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. 10. For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies."

These are wonderful verses of praise and adoration to God. David interspersed these praises in the midst of being hunted down by Saul. He was holed up in a cave that Saul entered, and was pleading for help and mercy from God. Right in the middle of his dire circumstances, he extols God for his mercy, as though the rescue had already taken place. This is a man of great faith, because God had already proven faithful to David.

And God has already proven faithful to me. I must remember to praise and thank Him at all times, in confidence of His proven ability to deliver me from every circumstance.

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Luke 6:45 You Are What You Say.

Luke 6:45b ".. for out of the abundance of heart his mouth speaks." We heard people say "You are what you eat." This verse tells me we are what we say. My words reveal my heart. The things I say and how I say them expose and unveil the condition and attitudes of my heart. I must be more careful about what I say and how I say it. The Bible says the words speak loud enough by themselves.  It is out of the overflow of the heart that the mouth speaks. It's the tongue that sets the body on fire. It's not what goes into a man that makes him unclean but what comes out of him. Therefore it's the heart issue. My heart must be right to speak right. Father God, transform my heart so that I can speak the words of love and truth.

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Jonah 2:2 A Second Chance

Jonah 2:2 "I called out of my distress to the LORD, And He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice." Jonah a fugitive prophet, fled from God's call to preach to Nineveh, and was swallowed up by a great fish. God gave him and each one of us a second chance. Oh the heights—and the depths—God goes to in rescuing us from our disobedience with His redeeming love!
Jesus' death on the cross rescued us from our sins.
Dear God, how we need Your rescue today!

Monday, May 21, 2018

Romans 15:13 Abounding in Hope

Romans 15:13 "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope."

Romans 15:13 is a wonderful prayer that Paul wants every believer to experience. Yet very few of believers can legitimately claim to be filled with all joy and peace in believing and abounding in hope. A common factor among those who are depressed is that they lack hope. Discouraged people and those who are apathetic about life also lack hope. A medical report says depression will be the second largest killer after heart disease by 2020. There is a solution. The God of hope wants us to be filled with all joy and peace in believing, so that we will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

1. The source of this abundant hope is in the God of hope. God is the source or giver of hope. He is also the object of our hope. Biblical hope is certain because it rests on God's promises. So if we are lacking hope, we know where to find it: Seek the God who is the source of all true hope and put our hope in Christ as our Savior and Lord.

2. The foundation for this abundant hope is to be filled with all joy and peace. Paul does not pray that we will have just a little bit of joy and peace trickling into our life now and then. Rather, he prays that the God of hope will fill us with all joy and peace so that we will abound in hope. Paul wants our “jugs” of joy and peace to be overflowing so that we are continually abounding in hope in God. Let's ask God to fill us to the brim with His joy and peace and hope. The biblical joy is an inner delight in God and His sure promises that gives us comfort and contentment in every trial. It comes from knowing that our sovereign God will work all things, including tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword, together for our good because we love Him and are called according to His purpose. (Rom. 8:28) Biblical peace comes from taking all of our anxieties to God in thankful prayer (Phil. 4:6-7)

3. The human means of this abundant hope is to keep believing in God and His Word. Romans 10:17 says faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of God. To have and increase in abundant hope, I must believe and keep on believing in God and His Word.

4. The divine means of this abundant hope is the power of the Holy Spirit. 
God the Father is the God of hope. The object of our hope is Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. The power for joy, peace and abundant hope comes from the Holy Spirit. The Spirit's power is the resurrection power that gives new life to dead sinners. The Hope Spirit opens our minds so that we can understand the truths of God's Word. The Hope Spirit is the power that produces His holiness in us as we walk in dependence on Him. It is the Holy Spirit who produces in us His fruit of joy and peace as we trust in Him, so that we abound in hope.

Saturday, May 12, 2018

Hebrews 10:22-25 Stir up to Love and Good Works

Hebrews 10:22-25a "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering,  for He who promised is faithful.  And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together." Sometimes we struggle with the feeling of being alone. God did not intend for us to walk alone. He made us for community. He put us in a community of love and encouragement. Believers need one another for support and care. I learned three exhortations from this passage: 1. Worship - Let us draw near. 2. Perseverance  - Let us hold fast. 3. Fellowship- Let us consider one another. Father God, help us come worship you in the Spirit and in truth. (John 4:24). Help us hold fast our faith and encourage one another to love and to do good deeds and look forward to Christ's return.

Friday, May 11, 2018

Psam 3 Preserving with Peace

Another Friday again! Without God, our life is hard, day after day,  week after week, year after year. It reminds me of Genesis 3:19 "By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food." But this morning Psalm 3 refreshes my soul. King David wrote, "1. Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! 2. Many are saying of my soul, 'There is no salvation for him in God.' 3. But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory,  and the lifter of my head. 4. I cried aloud to the Lord and he answered me from his holy hill. 5. I lay down and sleep; I woke again,  for the Lord sustained me. 6. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.  7. Arise, O Lord! Save me, my God! 8. Salvation belongs to the Lord." King David fled from Absalom, his son who wanted to kill him and take the kingdom.  Though David lamented his painful situation (Psalm 3:1-2), he trusted God's protection and expected Him to answer his prayers (vv 3-4). The king didn't lose sleep  worrying or fearing what could happen, because he trusted God to sustain and save him. We may be tempted to give up or wish to escape when we are weary and cannot see the end of our current battle. But, like David, we can learn to trust that God will hold us up and help us rest in His constant and loving presence. Dear God, thank you for preserving us and sustaining us with your power and peace.