Thursday, May 23, 2013

Book Review: God's Power For Your Life

God's Power For Your Life: How the Holy Spirit Transforms You Through God's Word. A.W. Tozer. Edited by James L. Snyder. 2013. 224 pages.

I've been anticipating the release of God's Power For Your Life since Christmas! I love, love, love A.W. Tozer. And I'm so happy and so thankful that James L. Snyder is working to publish more of Tozer's works! New Tozer releases makes me HAPPY.

If you LOVE the Bible, if you TREASURE the Bible, then this A.W. Tozer book is for you. Of course, the message of this one is for ALL believers regardless of whether they "treasure" the Bible as they should or not. The message is relevant for every believer; it's not just for those that love and adore the Bible.

The chapters include: "God's Unique Thing: The Bible," "The Challenge to God's Authority," "The Rightful Place of the Living Word," "The Firm Foundation of the Living Word," "The Authority of God Rests on the Bible," "Taking the Word of God Seriously," "Dealing with the Great Spiritual Deception," "The Never-Ending Battle for the Mind," "When Facing the Lethal Lie," "God's Faithful Rebuke to His Covenant People," "Dealing with the Assault to God's Power," "The Effect of God's Word in a Person's Life," "The Christian's Ladder of Spiritual Power," "The Potency of God's Word Toward His People," "The Word of Life," "The Mystery of God's Strange Silence," "The Power of the Holy Spirit on the Word of God," "Most Sure of His Promise," and "An Open Invitation."

While this book is about the Bible--the Word of God, it is just as much about the HOLY SPIRIT and the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. I LOVE reading books on the Spirit! I do. This book had some incredible moments. I learned so much!

Favorite quotes:
How many of us really know what it means to come into the presence of God and linger there? The purpose of this book is to encourage believers to seek God as He desires to be sought. 
Salvation is not just about going to heaven. Certainly our destination is heaven, but our salvation has afforded us a relationship with God that is personal and intimate right now.
God's Word is both our terror and our hope; it both kills and makes alive. If we engage it in faith, humility, and obedience, it gives life, cleanses, feeds, and defends. If we close it in unbelief or ignore it or resist it, it will accuse us before the God who gave it. It is the living Word of God, coming like a fierce man of war with great power, and you and I dare not resist it, and we dare not argue it down. 
When asked to come and give a series of 10 lectures in defense of the Bible, C.H. Spurgeon wired back, "I won't come, the Bible needs no defense. Turn it loose and like a lion it will defend itself." I, too, believe that we do not need anybody defending the Word of God. We only need to preach it. 
How we define sin says a great deal about our understanding of, and commitment to, the Word of God.
This generation of Christians needs to understand that numbers do not make anything true. You can get a vast number of people to believe something, but if it was an error before they believed it, it is still an error after they have been convinced.
I believe the time is coming when evangelical Christians will not be able to take our Christianity as casually as we do now. The time is coming when we may have to stand up and be counted for the genuine thing. 
Every person is absolutely essential to the plan of God. 
Sometimes we are wont to take what God has done and make excuses. "Oh yes," someone might explain, "God said that, but He really didn't mean it that way." Then comes a long explanation of what that person thinks God really meant. If you have to explain it, you do not believe it. By faith, we can accept from God what we may not understand. That is the dynamic of faith. 
We must accept the Bible on its own terms and not make exceptions for someone who does not quite agree with everything in the Bible.
I solemnly vow before God Almighty that every day of my life, I will take the Bible as the most serious thing and adjust my life to its teachings.
Apart from Jesus, men stumble in the shadow of their own rebellion.
I must say right here that God never negotiates with men. Jesus Christ's death on the cross put an end to any kind of negotiations. It is now Christ or nothing. It is now God's Word in its entirety or nothing. 
The human heart does not take the naked truth at its face value. It always craves truth plus some additive that will make it more palatable. In our eagerness to reach men and women for Christ, we have sought to make truth palatable for the natural man. Not wanting to offend anybody, nor to appear judgmental, we try to make Bible truth fit the culture around us. 
Another lie that seems to continue unabated is that there is no hell. The people who are convinced that there is no hell are often the same ones who congratulate Jesus for being such a great teacher. Something is wrong here. Jesus, more than anyone else in Scripture, taught that there is a hell. It is inconsistent to call Him a good teacher and yet not believe that what He taught was true. 
Another lie that goes quite unchallenged is that God is too kind to punish. This brings into question God's laws. What are they for? Will God ignore His own laws? What is the purpose of God establishing laws? This lie suggests that God will put aside laws that He created from the foundation of the world and let people do as they please without any consequences. 
Baptizing a goat will not make him a sheep.
The key to overcoming the lies of the enemy is not simply knowing about the Bible; it is knowing the living Word, which is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. 
The power of the Word of God is to show me where I am wrong. It does not stop there, however; it also works to revolutionize and convert me into the image of Christ... It convinces, persuades, and breaks down all resistance to the will of God. It is a power that goes beyond mere words--and it is a power that words cannot stand up against.
The power of worship is to create reverence... You will know that it is the power of God when Jesus Christ is exalted above all other things.
I pledge before Thee that I will not sing a song I am not willing to live. 
Truth is always very sweet at first. When we sing truth, it is very sweet. When we read it, it is very sweet. But when it takes over--when it begins to control us and determine our lives, and becomes to us a reflex, a second nature, a mastery impulse--then it becomes as bitter as gall to the carnal nature, because truth has consequences. 
The people of God ought to be people who have chewed the book, swallowed the book, digested the book, and absorbed the book until it has colored them and given them the right complexion... God's people are called to be heroic. They are called to ingest and work through even the difficult truths contained in God's Word.
The Lord has called us to be a spiritual people, a godly people, a committed people, a worshiping people, a people for His own possession, a peculiar people. Are we willing to allow His Word to make us into all those things?
What a joy it is to begin to know God as He desires to be known! I do not want the world to define God for me. I do not even want religion to define God for me. I want the Holy Spirit to reveal God to me through the exceedingly great and precious promises He has given to me... God's voice is embodied in His promises.
"I stand alone on the Word of God," is the most important truth that we can know.
A heretic is someone who selects the passages that he wants to believe... There is nothing right about someone who acts as if significant passages of Scripture did not exist.
© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

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