Earlier this month, I reviewed A.W. Tozer's The Attributes of God. Ten "attributes" were discussed including God's goodness, God's justice, God's mercy, God's grace, God's infinitude, and God's omnipresence. What is an attribute? "An attribute of God is something we can know about God. It is knowing what kind of God God is" (17).
But that was just the beginning. Tozer's sermons were collected into a second volume. In this volume, Tozer explores:
- God's Self-Existence
- God's Transcendence
- God's Eternalness
- God's Omnipotence
- God's Immutability
- God's Omniscience
- God's Wisdom
- God's Sovereignty
- God's Faithfulness
- God's Love
Each chapter begins with Scripture. Each chapter closes with prayer. These are contemplative, devotional readings. Tozer never lets readers forget that it is KNOWING GOD and not KNOWING ABOUT God that truly matters. His enthusiasm is contagious. His approach is passionate and demanding. He invites readers into theology. He encourages them to take God seriously, to take God at his word, to earnestly and passionately seek GOD for themselves.
Tozer died in 1963. Yet Tozer's messages remain relevant. In fact, they might be even more timely today than when they were first preached. For example, "I don't suppose there is ever a time in the history of the world when we needed a restored knowledge of God more than we need it now" (5) If you haven't read Tozer yet, you don't know what your missing.
Favorite quotes:
We wonder why we don't have faith; the answer is, faith is confidence in the character of God and if we don't know what kind of God God is, we can't have faith. (5)
God is always nearer than you may imagine Him to be. God is so near that your thoughts are not as near as God; your breath is not as near as God; your very soul is not as near to you as God is. And yet because He is God, His uncreated Being is so far above us that no thought can conceive it nor words express it. (34)
When you meet God, you get over the dangers and fears of this world. But the fear, the dread that is God, is not a sense of danger. It's a sense of being in the presence of someone very awful, very wonderful, transcendent and highly lifted up. It's a creature consciousness. (44)
Whatever God felt about anything, He still feels. Whatever He thought about anyone, He still thinks. Whatever He approved, He still approves. Whatever He condemned, He still condemns. Today we have what they call the relativity of morals. But remember this God never changes. Holiness and righteousness are conformity to the will of God. And the will of God never changes for moral creatures. (99, 100)
I recommend to you Jesus Christ, the unchanging One. I recommend to you God's answer to your questions, God's solution to your problems, God's life for your dying soul, God's cleansing for your sin-cursed spirit, God's rest for your restless mind, and God's resurrection for your dying body. For advocate above, I recommend Him to you. You will find Him to be all He ever was--the very same Jesus. (104)
Wisdom is the ability to see the end from the beginning, to see everything in proper relation and in full focus. It is to judge in view of final and ultimate ends and to work toward those ends with flawless precision. (130)
Why don't you start reading your Bible with the thought that God meant exactly what He said there? (172)
We talk about love, but God proved His love. The save love that created us is the love that redeemed us and now keeps us. (194)
Heaven will not be heaven to the man who does not have the love of God in his heart. (196)© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible
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