20. Knowledge of the Holy

Knowledge of the Holy. A.W. Tozer. 1961/1978. HarperCollins. 128 pages. [Source: Book I Bought]

First sentence from chapter one: What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God. For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church. Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, justas her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech. She can never escape the self-disclosure of her witness concerning God.

I have read A.W. Tozer's Knowledge of the Holy four times now, I believe. I reviewed it in 2012, 2014, 2017, and 2021. It is one of my all-time favorite books to read and reread. 

Can a book be both theological and devotional? It's a tricky combination to pull off, I think. But A.W. Tozer's classic Knowledge of the Holy is one of the best examples I've ever read. It is both theological--of substance and depth--and devotional--written with the pure intent to make your heart love and love greatly your Lord and Savior. Why learn more about God? So you can love him more, so you can worship him in spirit and truth. Tozer is urging readers to meditate on God, to meditate on God's glory--his majesty. He's saying DELIGHT IN GOD.  

It is a short book that I'd recommend to just about anyone. It is a book EVERY Christian needs to consider picking up. Even if you're not typically a reader of theology.

Knowledge of the Holy is very reader-friendly. Each chapter is short--just three or four pages, which is why I think it would be a great choice for a devotional. The content has weight to it--it is a book ABOUT God how could it be anything else? Yet. At the same time, it is written in a style that is simple and straight-forward.  

 

Why read A.W. Tozer's The Knowledge of the Holy?

Because…"It is impossible to keep our moral practices sound and our inward attitudes right while our idea of God is erroneous or inadequate. If we would bring back spiritual power to our lives, we must begin to think of God more nearly as He is."

Because…"What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us."

Because…"Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous. The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true."

Because... "If we insist upon trying to imagine Him, we end with an idol, made not with hands but with thoughts; and an idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand."

Because…"We can never know who or what we are till we know at least something of what God is."

Because…"It is not a cheerful thought that millions of us who live in a land of Bibles, who belong to churches and labor to promote the Christian religion, may yet pass our whole life on this earth without once having thought or tried to think seriously about the being of God."

Technically, all those reasons are reasons to read the Good Book, the Word of God, Holy Scriptures. But I think the Holy Spirit can and will use Tozer's words--long after he's dead--to inspire new generations to seek God.

Favorite quotes:

It is impossible to keep our moral practices sound and our inward attitudes right while our idea of God is erroneous or inadequate. If we would bring back spiritual power to our lives, we must begin to think of God more nearly as He is.

Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech. She can never escape the self-disclosure of her witness concerning God.

That our idea of God correspond as nearly as possible to the true being of God is of immense importance to us. Compared with our actual thoughts about Him, our creedal statements are of little consequence. Our real idea of God may lie buried under the rubbish of conventional religious notions and may require an intelligent and vigorous search before it is finally unearthed and exposed for what it is. Only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about God.

Low views of God destroy the gospel for all who hold them.

The idolatrous heart assumes that God is other than He is - in itself a monstrous sin - and substitutes for the true God one made after its own likeness. Always this God will conform to the image of the one who created it and will be base or pure, cruel or kind, according to the moral state of the mind from which it emerges.

A god begotten in the shadows of a fallen heart will quite naturally be no true likeness of the true God.

The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. It begins in the mind and may be present where no overt act of worship has taken place.

The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true.

If we insist upon trying to imagine Him, we end with an idol, made not with hands but with thoughts; and an idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand.

The study of the attributes of God, far from being dull and heavy, may for the enlightened Christian be a sweet and absorbing spiritual exercise. To the soul that is athirst for God, nothing could be more delightful.

An attribute of God is whatever God has in any way revealed as being true of Himself.

An attribute, as we can know it, is a mental concept, an intellectual response to God's self-revelation. It is an answer to a question, the reply God makes to our interrogation concerning himself.

The doctrine of the divine unity means not only that there is but one God; it means also that God is simple, uncomplex, one with Himself. He need not suspend one to exercise another, for in Him all His attributes are one. All of God does all that God does; He does not divide himself to perform a work, but works in the total unity of His being.

The divine attributes are what we know to be true of God. He does not possess them as qualities; they are how God is as He reveals Himself to His creatures. Love, for instance, is not something God has and which may grow or diminish or cease to be. His love is the way God is, and when He loves He is simply being Himself.

To meditate on the three Persons of the Godhead is to walk in thought through the garden eastward in Eden and to tread on holy ground.

Because we are the handiwork of God, it follows that all our problems and their solutions are theological.

The fact of God is necessary to the fact of man. Think God away and man has no ground of existence.

Sin has many manifestations but its essence is one. A moral being, created to worship before the throne of God, sits on the throne of his own selfhood and from that elevated position declares, "I AM." That is sin in its concentrated essence; yet because it is natural it appears to be good. It is only when in the gospel the soul is brought before the face of the Most Holy One without the protective shield of ignorance that the frightful moral incongruity is brought home to the conscience. In the language of evangelism the man who is thus confronted by the fiery presence of Almighty God is said to be under conviction.

The Christian religion has to do with God and man, but its focal point is God, not man. Man's only claim to importance is that he was created in the divine image; in himself he is nothing.

Unbelief is actually perverted faith, for it puts its trust not in the living God but in dying men.

For every man it must be Christ or eternal tragedy. 

Abounding sin is the terror of the world, but abounding grace is the hope of mankind.

The Christian witness through the centuries has been that "God so loved the world . . ."; it remains for us to see that love in the light of God's infinitude. His love is measureless. It is more: it is boundless. It has no bounds because it is not a thing but a facet of the essential nature of God. His love is something He is, and because He is infinite that love can enfold the whole created world in itself and have room for ten thousand times ten thousand worlds beside.

God cannot change for the better. Since He is perfectly holy, He has never been less holy than He is now and can never be holier than He is and has always been. Neither can God change for the worse. Any deterioration within the unspeakably holy nature of God is impossible. Indeed I believe it impossible even to think of such a thing, for the moment we attempt to do so, the object about which we are thinking is no longer God but something else and someone less than He.

In God no change is possible; in men change is impossible to escape. 

God never changes moods or cools off in His affections or loses enthusiasm. His attitude toward sin is now the same as it was when He drove out the sinful man from the eastward garden, and His attitude toward the sinner the same as when He stretched forth His hands and cried, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

God will not compromise and He need not be coaxed. He cannot be persuaded to alter His Word nor talked into answering selfish prayer. In all our efforts to find God, to please Him, to commune with Him, we should remember that all change must be on our part. "I am the Lord, I change not."

We can hold a correct view of truth only by daring to believe everything God has said about Himself.

We do God more honor by believing what He has said about Himself and having the courage to come boldly to the throne of grace than by hiding in self-conscious humility among the trees of the garden.

Hell is a place of no pleasure because there is no love there. Heaven is full of music because it is the place where the pleasures of holy love abound. Earth is the place where the pleasures of love are mixed with pain, for sin is here, and hate and ill will. In such a world as ours love must sometimes suffer, as Christ suffered in giving Himself for His own.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

95. Hebrews 8-13 (Thru the Bible #52)

Hebrews 8-13 (Thru the Bible #52) J. Vernon McGee. 1978. 168 pages. [Source: Bought]

First sentence: The Epistle to the Hebrews is of such importance that I rank it beside the Epistle to the Romans (which is excelled by no other book).

I am reading the Bible in 2020 using the daily M'Cheyne (Robert Murray M'Cheyne) plan. I thought it would add a layer of substance to in addition to the four chapters a day, to also read commentaries for those chapters. For that I am using Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible. But the plan goes through the New Testament (and Psalms, I believe) twice. So now that I've finished Henry's commentary for the New Testament, I am tackling the New Testament commentary section of J. Vernon McGee's series.

This is not my first time reading J. Vernon McGee. I've read probably twenty or so of his commentaries. Most recently Psalm 42-89. 

When I started reading Hebrews, I didn't realize that it would be split into two commentaries instead of one! So I didn't make a note of individual chapters. So there's a small chance that the quotes will go beyond chapter 7 of Hebrews--though I *think* I might be familiar enough with chapter 7 to recognize the transition.

ETA: I was NOT able to after all! I imagine that it's a blurry mess between separating what is in the two separate commentaries of Hebrews. But long story short, read BOTH commentaries yourself. 

I really am LOVING McGee. This has been the best idea--to correspond my Bible reading with commentary reading.

Quotes: 

• Our dogmatism comes from this Book. That is the reason the writer to the Hebrews said in Hebrews 10:39, “But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” There are only two ways to go. Either you are going backwards, or you are going to go forwards.
• You can believe a whole lot of foolish things, but God doesn’t want you to do that. He wants your faith to rest upon the Word of God.
• If you learn to trust God when the sun is shining, it is easier to trust Him on the day when there are dark and lowering clouds in the sky and you are in one of life’s storms.
• My friend, I say this very candidly, the most important thing you can do is to witness to your own family—not by everlastingly giving them the gospel, but by living it before them and letting them see that you have a reality in your life.
• Walking by faith will cause all of us to recognize that as children of God we are just pilgrims and strangers down here on this earth.
• Faith looks out yonder to the future. And the child of God today is looking to the future.
• I would say that one of the greatest dangers in the Christian life is the peril of just remaining stationary, of doing nothing.
• When someone becomes lost in the extreme cold of the far north there is grave danger of freezing to death. The first step in that process is to fall asleep. You have to fight sleep, and you must keep moving or you will freeze to death. In a spiritual sense, the danger is the same for us as believers. We have to force ourselves to stay awake and keep moving forward in our relationship with Christ. Otherwise we will just fall asleep.
• Christ is the way to God, and along the way the Christian as a soldier is to stand firm, as a believer is to walk, but as an athlete, he is to run the race.
• We also hear people say, “Give your heart to Jesus.” Well, my friend, what do you think He wants with that dirty, old heart? Read the list of things He said come out of the heart (see Matt. 15:19). They are the dirtiest things that I know. He didn’t ask you to give your heart to Him. He says, “I want to give you a new heart and a new life.”
• We need today the conviction of sin, to know that we are sinners. We have made salvation a very jolly affair. An evangelistic crusade today is just too ducky; it’s so sweet, and it’s so lovely. I don’t see people come weeping under conviction of sin.
• Don’t think you can play fast and loose with God and get by with it.
• “Brotherly love” should be translated as brother love. The writer of this epistle is writing primarily to Hebrews, but what he has to say has application to us. Both Jew and Gentile have been brought into one body, the body of believers. The cement, the Elmer’s glue, that holds us together is brother love—not brotherly love, but brother love. We are not to love like brothers, but we are to love because we are brothers.
• When He has given us new hearts and washed us white as snow, we are brothers, we are in the family of God, and we are to love one another.
• “Jesus Christ.” There is no accident in the Word of God; that is, no word is ever used carelessly. Jesus is the name which links Him with mankind. It identifies Him as the most wonderful person in this world. Christ is a title which speaks of His messianic mission to this earth—He is God manifest in the flesh. “Jesus Christ”—how marvelously these two are meshed together here. He is Jesus Christ, and He is the same.
• Jesus Christ is the same, but we need to understand how He is the same. He is the same in His character, in His person, and in His attributes, but He is not the same in place or in performance.
• Right now He is up yonder, but some day He will come as the King to the earth to establish His kingdom. He has not yet called His church out of the world, but some day He will do that. You see, Jesus is not the same in place and performance, but He is the same in His attributes.
• Today, your sorrow is His sorrow, and your joy is His joy.
• In everything but our sins, and our evil natures, He is one with us. He grew in stature and in grace. He labored, and wept, and prayed, and loved. He was tempted in all points as we are—sin apart.
• Today my one ambition is to know Him and to get out His Word—I cannot think of anything better to do.
• Nothing in the world is going to build you up but the Word of God. The Word of God will build you up if it brings you to the person of Christ, and only the Holy Spirit can take the things of Christ and make them real unto you.
• For years while I was in the ministry I heard it said: “Come to the banquet. We are going to have some marvelous Christian fellowship.” No, you’re not, my friend. You are just going there for a good time and to fill your little tummy. The only place you can have real Christian fellowship (koinōnia) is around the Word of God. It is the Word of God which brings you to the person of Christ and enables you to see Him in all His glory.
• When Christ died it was for the fact that you and I are sinners. Not only do we commit sin, we are sinners by nature, and He took our sins on Himself that He might give us a new nature.
• Many people today are wrapped up in “churchianity,” thinking that because they are members of a church they are saved. They need to get away from ritual and religion and come to Christ.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

94. Hebrews 1-7

Hebrews 1-7 (Thru the Bible #51) J. Vernon McGee. 1978/1996. 152 pages. [Source: Bought]

First sentence: The Epistle to the Hebrews is of such importance that I rank it beside the Epistle to the Romans (which is excelled by no other book).

I am reading the Bible in 2020 using the daily M'Cheyne (Robert Murray M'Cheyne) plan. I thought it would add a layer of substance to in addition to the four chapters a day, to also read commentaries for those chapters. For that I am using Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible. But the plan goes through the New Testament (and Psalms, I believe) twice. So now that I've finished Henry's commentary for the New Testament, I am tackling the New Testament commentary section of J. Vernon McGee's series.

This is not my first time reading J. Vernon McGee. I've read probably twenty or so of his commentaries. Most recently Psalm 42-89. 

When I started reading Hebrews, I didn't realize that it would be split into two commentaries instead of one! So I didn't make a note of individual chapters. So there's a small chance that the quotes will go beyond chapter 7 of Hebrews--though I *think* I might be familiar enough with chapter 7 to recognize the transition.

I really am LOVING McGee. This has been the best idea--to correspond my Bible reading with commentary reading.

Quotes: 

• To read it is to breathe the atmosphere of heaven itself. To study it is to partake of strong spiritual meat. To abide in its teachings is to be led from immaturity to maturity in the knowledge of Christian truth and of Christ Himself. It is to “go on unto perfection.”
• Although I cannot be dogmatic about the authorship of Hebrews, I can say very dogmatically that we are dealing with the Word of God—that which the Spirit of God has given to us.
• My friend, if the created universe is not saying something to you about a Creator, there is something radically wrong with your thinking.
• We say that the Lord Jesus Christ is the revelation of God because He is God. He is not just the printed material; He is the steel engraving of God because He is the exact copy, the image of God.
• The Lord Jesus Christ provided the cleansing for our sins. This, by the way, is the only purgatory mentioned in the Bible. He went through it for you and me; there is no purgatory for anyone who trusts Christ because He purged our sins. He has paid the penalty for them. The one who comes to Christ receives a full redemption and complete forgiveness of sins.
• Prayer is not to persuade God to do something that He didn’t intend to do; prayer is to get you and me in line with the program of God.
• And Christ is at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession for us. We can obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
• I don’t think we have guardian angels. Some people say, “Oh, but we need to have a guardian angel.” Let me ask you a question: “Are you a child of God?” If you are, you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, who is the third Person of the Godhead. What could a guardian angel do for you that He couldn’t do for you?
• My friend, we have to do with a living Savior! Let’s just push the angels aside because we don’t have to go to God through angels.
• The Psalms have more to say about Christ than they have to say about any other person. It is a H-I-M book—it was the hymn book of the temple, but it is all about Him; it is praise to Him. You have a more complete picture of Christ in the Psalms than you have in the Gospels.
• Oh, that we might be conscious of the fact that there is a living Christ at God’s right hand at this very moment! He is more real than I am, because when you read these words, there is no telling where I will be.
• I have a representative in heaven; I have someone there who represents me. I don’t know about you, but I get the feeling that in my state capital and in my national capital those who are elected to represent me are not representing me at all. They are all out for themselves and their own little pet programs, and it doesn’t make much difference to them what happens to the public. The only time they are interested in me is when I vote, and then I become the darling of the politicians. Then you and I are the intelligent public who cannot go wrong, provided we vote for them!
• There are many ways that seem right to men. In California you can hear about as many ways as you want to hear. If you are looking for a religion, you will find one in California. If you don’t find one that you like, you can start one, and I will guarantee that you will find some followers who will go along with you. There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end are the ways of death. How shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation? What do you do to be lost? Nothing. You can be lost by neglect.
• If you could convince me that God has decided to remain aloof from man, and all He did for this lost world was to pitch the Bible down here, and as He sits in heaven, He looks down on man and says, “It’s too bad you are in such a mess; here is a Book, and I hope you can work your way out,” then I am prepared to turn my back upon Him. But that is not what God did. He came down to earth and took upon Himself our humanity. Because He suffered and died upon the cross, I am prepared to trust in Him. I am prepared to love Him because of what He has done for me and all lost mankind. 
• Anyone today who attempts to eliminate the Lord Jesus from the prophets, therefore, is contradicting the interpretation that the Holy Spirit has given in the New Testament.
• The Lord Jesus came to earth and took on a human body. He is able to sympathize with you and me. I don’t care who you are or where you are, He knows you and He understands you—not just because He is God, but because He became a man. He knows exactly what you and I are going through today.
• Christ made a mercy seat for you and me to come to. And, my friend, what we need is mercy. God has a great deal of it available to us because Jesus made a mercy seat, and you can go there and get all you need. I don’t know about you, but I need a whole lot of it, and after I have used up a great deal of it, there is still plenty of it for you today.
• Someone sent me John Wycliffe’s Golden Rule of Interpretation. John Wycliffe lived from 1324 to 1380, and although that was a long time ago, I think his Golden Rule is still gold; it is not tarnished at all. Listen to his Golden Rule: It shall greatly help thee to understand Scripture if thou mark not only what is spoken or written, but of whom and to whom, with what words, at what time, where, and to what intent, under what circumstances, considering what goeth before and what followeth.
• The Sermon on the Mount, apart from the redemption we have in Christ, has made more hypocrites in the church than anything else. Folk today teach the ethic and say we are to keep the commandments of the Sermon on the Mount! My friend, only through the redemption in Christ can we even approach that standard.
• How many Christians today, how many church members really study the Word of God? The Book of Hebrews is going to tell us that the Word of God is quick and powerful.
• There are certain things that you and I would do well to fear—“Let us therefore fear.” I wish there were more concern among believers today about ignorance of the Word of God. There are very few believers who are afraid of their ignorance of the Scriptures.
• You and I live in a mean, wicked world. This world is not a friend of grace; it is not the friend of believers. Many of us have not discovered that yet.
• “The word of God.” There are some expositors who consider the “word” here not to be the written Word, but the living Word who is the Lord Jesus Christ. However, in Scripture the written Word is called the living Word. I believe the reference here is primarily to the written Word of God. As the written Word reveals Christ—it is a frame that reveals the living Christ—the reference here could be to both the written and living Word. Quick is “living.” The Word of God is living. “Powerful”—the Greek word is energes, meaning “energizing.” The Word of God is living, and it energizes. “Sharper than any two-edged sword.” I had a professor in seminary who said to a group of us young preachers: “Remember when you preach the Word of God that it is quick and sharp, but it is a two-edged sword. It will cut toward the congregation, but the other side is going to cut toward you. Therefore, don’t preach anything that you are not preaching to yourself.” I have found many times in my ministry that I am preaching to myself. The sermon might not have been for anybody else, but it was for me.
• The greatest discipline a preacher can have is to go through the Bible book by book with his congregation. That is a discipline which even if it does not help the congregation, it will surely help the preacher.
• The Word of God was written over a period of fifteen hundred years, by about forty-five different authors, some of whom had never heard of the others. Yet they are all in agreement. They all present the same great story. They all present a glorious salvation. May I say to you, no man is in a position to sit in judgment on such a remarkable book.
• Nor can any man sit in judgment on the Bible, my friend. You really don’t know enough to sit in judgment on this Book. This Book surely sits in judgment on us. It is sin that keeps men from Christ today. It is not intellectual problems of the head, but it is problems in the heart which keep men from God.
• The Word of God gets down and deals with the nitty-gritty of our hearts. It gets down and meets us right where the rubber meets the road, right down where you and I live and move and have our being.
• “Eternal salvation”—the only kind of salvation He offers is eternal. If you can lose it tomorrow, then, my friend, it is not eternal. It is some other kind of salvation. But He offers only eternal salvation.
• It is not a question of your ability to hold on to Him; it is His ability to hold on to you. He says here with the infinite wisdom and full authority of the Godhead that He can hold us and that they who trust Him shall never perish. The question is: Is your hope fixed in God who is all-powerful, or in a god who may suffer defeat?
• It is a serious thing to have accepted Christ as Savior and then to live in sin, to nullify what you do by being a spiritual baby, never growing up, doing nothing in the world but building a big pile of wood, hay, and stubble. Oh, how careful we should be about our Christian lives. And we cannot live the Christian life in our own strength. We need to recognize that Christ is the vine. If we have any life, it has come from Him, and if there is any fruit in our lives, it comes from Him.
• “He ever liveth.” It says, first of all, that Christ is not dead, but He is living. Right at this very moment He is alive. We emphasize the death and resurrection of Christ, but we ought to go beyond that. We have to do with a living Christ. We know Him no longer after the flesh. We know Him today as our Great High Priest at God’s right hand. He died down here to save us, but He lives up there to keep us saved. “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him.” He is able to keep on saying you. “To the uttermost” means all the way through. He is able to save us completely and perfectly.
• He is also “separate from sinners.” He is like us, yet unlike us. He could mix and mingle with sinners, and they didn’t feel uncomfortable in His presence, but He was not one of them. His enemies accused Him of associating with publicans and sinners. He sure did, yet He wasn’t one of them. He was separate from sinners.
• Let’s sit at Jesus’ feet. Let Him be a reality in our lives. When you left the house this morning, did you take Him with you? Were you conscious of His presence? He is in heaven serving you, friend! Christ is your intercessor.
• Isn’t Jesus real to you today? Quit being a little baby that has to be burped all the time. Grow up! Come into the presence of the living Savior.
• Oh, may God take the veil from our eyes, and may He make Jesus Christ—in all of His power, and in all of His salvation, and in all of His love, and in all of His care for you—a true reality!
• If the death of Christ over nineteen hundred years ago was not adequate, then nothing is adequate. God is not going to do something else to redeem us.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

91. 1 and 2 Timothy / Titus / Philemon

1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon. (Thru the Bible #50) J. Vernon McGee. 1978. 192 pages. [Source: Bought]

First sentence: The First Epistle to Timothy introduces us to a new set of epistles which were written by Paul.

I am reading the Bible in 2020 using the daily M'Cheyne (Robert Murray M'Cheyne) plan. I thought it would add a layer of substance to in addition to the four chapters a day, to also read commentaries for those chapters. For that I am using Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible. But the plan goes through the New Testament (and Psalms, I believe) twice. So now that I've finished Henry's commentary for the New Testament, I am tackling the New Testament commentary section of J. Vernon McGee's series.

This is not my first time reading J. Vernon McGee. I've read probably twenty or so of his commentaries. Most recently 1 and 2 Thessalonians.

This was a super-timely read. Of course, since McGee's books are saturated with Scripture, and Scripture is always timely and relevant, that doesn't come as a big surprise. But it's good to know that the Word can and does GROUND you. McGee offers plenty of wisdom and insight in this commentary of FOUR books of the Bible. He covers each chapter though perhaps not each and every single verse. 

Quotes from 1 Timothy

• He is our faith when we look backwards; He is love when we look around us today; and He is our hope as we look ahead. But it is hope, actually, all the way through our lives, and that hope is anchored in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
• When you and I come to God, we don’t want justice, for we would be condemned. What we want and need from God is mercy. And God has provided mercy for all His creatures. God is rich in mercy, but when He saves you, He saves you by His grace.
• There are three things that should be manifest in the church. The first is faith—faith in God and in His Word. The second is love. Love is not something you simply mouth all the time. Love is an active concern for others, which means you won’t gossip about them or in any way bring harm to them.
• Paul says that Christians are to pray for public officials, and I take it that he meant that the prayers were to be made in the church. To bring this up-to-date, he is saying the Democrats ought to pray for the Republicans, and the Republicans ought to pray for the Democrats. Many years ago a famous chaplain of the Senate was asked by a visitor, “Do you pray for the senators?” He replied, “No, I look at the senators, and then I pray for the country!” That is exactly what Paul says we need to do.
• If you are a Republican and a Democrat is in office, pray for him. If you are a Democrat and a Republican is in office, pray for him.
• You may ask, “Yes, but are we to pray when the government is a corrupt one?” Paul is saying we are to pray even if it’s a corrupt government. We are to pray for whoever is in power. Remember that the man who was in power in Rome when Paul wrote was bloody Nero, yet he says we are to pray for kings, whoever they are.
• Any government is better than no government. Some people may question that, but an evil, corrupt government, if it really governs, is better than anarchy.
• I believe that we are actually going to see the persecution of Christians in this country in the future. I do not mean the persecution of church members—the liberal church is so compromised today that they will go along with whatever comes along. I am saying that genuine believers in Christ may encounter persecution.
• It is not important for you and me to get a certain man elected to office. I have never in my ministry recommended a candidate for office. I am not called to do that, and I don’t believe any minister is. I am to pray for our leaders regardless of who they are in order that the gospel can go out. I want a man in office who is going to make it possible for the Word of God to continue to be given to the lost. This should be our concern and our prayer.
• Well, my friend, today we have a Mediator—the Lord Jesus Christ has come. He has one hand in the hand of Deity because He is God. He is able to save to the uttermost because He is God, and He has paid the price for our salvation. He is a Mediator because He has also become man. He can hold my hand; He understands me. He understands you; you can go to Him, and He is not going to be upset with you. He will not lose His temper or strike you or hurt you in any way.
• Don’t ever say that woman brought sin into the world, unless you are prepared to add that woman also brought the Savior into the world. My friend, no man provided a Savior: a woman did.
• What the Bible calls sin is still sin. Human nature is still human nature. The spiritual qualifications which the Bible lays down for church officers must still hold good today if the church is to represent the Lord Jesus Christ here on this earth.
• Today Christ is at God’s right hand. At this very moment, my friend, He is there. Have you talked to Him today? Have you told Him that you love Him, and have you thanked Him for all He has done? How wonderful He is!
• A departure suggests not only that you have a point to which you are going, but also a point from which you have come. Those who apostatize are ones who have professed at one time to hold to the faith, but now they have departed from it. The apostasy comes within the organized church among those who profess to the faith and then depart from it.
• My friend, if you do have the truth it will make you humble, because the first thing you will find out is how little you know.
• There are those today, however, who know very little about the Word of God, but they speak as if they were authorities.
• “Nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine”—this is how the believer is to grow in the Word of God.
• The Prodigal Son lost a great deal by going to the far country, and any Christian who lives a careless life rather than a godly life will find that even in eternity he will pay for it.
• If you stand for Jesus Christ today it will cost you something. There is no question about that.
• God have mercy on the minister who is not giving out the Word of God! That is a frightful sin. It would be better to be a gangster than to be a man who is supposed to give out the Word of God and fails to do so.
• If we exalt a young Christian to the position of a teacher before he is thoroughly grounded in the Word, the theology he teaches is apt to be weird theology.
• The church ought to be a place of instruction where the Word of God is taught and men and women are built up in the faith. Instead, today we often develop what I call Alka-Seltzer Christians and Alka-Seltzer churches—it’s all fizz, foam, and froth, a lot of emotion, and a lot of talk about love, love, love. It is important that love be displayed in a church, but it needs to be anchored in the Word of God.
• “Lay hold on eternal life.” Let me ask you a question: If you were arrested for being a Christian and were brought into court, would there be enough evidence to convict you? This is what Paul is talking about. “Lay hold on eternal life”—make it clear by your life that you are a child of God.

From 2 Timothy

• Man is in such a state that he cannot be saved by perfect obedience—because he cannot render it. Neither can he be saved by imperfect obedience—because God will not accept it.
• Liberal preaching, instead of presenting the grace of God to sinful man, goes out in three different directions. From some liberal pulpits we hear what is really popular psychology. It majors in topics such as this: “How to Overcome” or “How to Think Creatively” or “How to Think Affirmatively or Positively.” It says that we’re on the way upward and onward forever!
• A second type of liberal preaching involves ethics. It preaches a nice little sweet gospel—a sermonette preached by a preacherette to Christianettes. The message goes something like this: “Good is better than evil because it’s nicer and gets you into less trouble.” The picture of the average liberal church is that of a mild-mannered man standing before a group of mild-mannered people, urging them to be more mild-mannered! There’s nothing quite as insipid as that.
• Then there’s a third type of liberal preaching which is called the social gospel. They preach better race relations, pacifism, social justice, and the Christian social order. It is Christian socialism pure and simple.
• God is merciful when He does not give us what we deserve; that is, judgment and condemnation. Paul needed a great deal of mercy, and we do too. Fortunately, God is rich in mercy toward us.
• I have labeled this chapter, “Afflictions of the gospel” because there is a feeling today that the Christian life is a life that ought to be very easy, nice and sweet, bright and breezy. A great many of us think that we have an indulgent heavenly Father who is just going to put us on a bed of roses, remove every stone out of our pathway, and not let anything serious happen to us.
• There is something wrong if you become too popular as a Christian. I am afraid that many Christians are thinking like a little boy in Sunday school whose teacher asked, “Johnny, which of the parables do you like best?” The little fellow answered, “The one where everybody loafs and fishes.”
• “Who hath abolished death” is literally since He has made of none effect death. Death means something altogether different to the child of God—Christ made it of no effect. 
• “He is able to keep that which I have committed.” It is a great comfort to know that all we are and all we have is in His hands.
• “Sound words”—the words of Scripture are inspired. I believe in the verbal plenary inspiration of the Word of God and do not think that any other viewpoint is satisfactory, and certainly it does not satisfy the demands of Scripture.
• “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” I love this—“be strong in grace.” My friend, if you think that you can grit your teeth and go out and live the Christian life on your own, you’re in for a great disappointment. If you feel that you can follow a few little rules or some clever gimmicks to make you a mature Christian, then you have fallen into a subtle trap of legalism.
• The child of God is to recognize that he is a soldier. And we are to recognize that the Christian life is not a playground; it is a battlefield. It is a battlefield where battles are being won, and where battles are being lost also. There is a real spiritual battle going on.
• Forget the gimmickry today that condenses Christianity into a little course or a few rules and regulations. God gave us sixty-six books, and each one of them is very important. It takes the composite picture to give us the mind and the Word of God. We are to study the whole Bible. An athlete can’t cut the corner of a racetrack. Neither can a baseball player run by second base without touching it; he has to touch all the bases to score. A child of God has to do that, too.
• My feeling is that the Word of God has to be sown, and I take the position that the total Word has to be sown before there can be a harvest.
• “Rightly dividing the word of truth” means to handle rightly the Word of God. To rightly divide the Word the Christian is to be a skilled workman like an artisan. The student of the Word must understand that the Word of God is one great bundle of truth and that it has certain right divisions. The Bible is built according to a certain law and structure, which must be observed and obeyed as you go through the Word of God. You can’t just lift out a verse here and a verse there and choose to ignore a passage here and a passage there. It is so easy to do this, but the Bible is not that kind of Book. This is the reason I maintain that the Bible is to be taught in its entirety.
• We are, I believe, moving into the last days of the church. My reason for saying this is that the things mentioned in these verses have appeared today. If you look back in the history of the church, you could certainly find some of these things in evidence, but I don’t think you could ever find a period in which all of them are so manifested as they are today.
• An article by a newspaper correspondent who had covered Washington, D.C., for many years, noted that the one thing which has characterized Washington for the past twenty years is that those who are in position want the reporters to praise them. In fact, they insist upon it. That is not confined to Washington.
• To be complimented, you have to compliment. So the teachers compliment their congregations and their boards of officers. They don’t tell the people that they are sinners and need a Savior; they tell them how wonderful they are. It is interesting that the love of self characterizes our contemporary society. Probably there has never been a time when it has been so common.
• The only antidote against a world of apostasy is the Word of God. The only resource and recourse for the child of God is the Word of God.
• Paul tells Timothy to continue in the things he had learned. He had learned the Holy Scriptures because his grandmother and mother were Jewish women and had seen to it that Timothy grew up on the Word of God.
• “Which are able to make thee wise unto salvation.” What kind of salvation is he talking about? After all, Timothy was already saved. Well, salvation occurs in three tenses. There is the past tense: I have been saved from sin. The present tense is: I am being saved from sin. The third tense is future: I shall be saved from sin.
• It is my contention that the constant study of the Word of God is the only help that any of us has. It is able to make us “wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” And I think it makes us wise in knowing how to live down here.
• When Paul says “all scripture,” he means all of it, from Genesis to Revelation. Somebody will say, “But don’t you know that Revelation hadn’t been written at the time 2 Timothy was written?” Yes, I know that. But the important thing to know is that Revelation became Scripture, so it is covered by this word all.
• The word inspiration means “God breathed.” The writers of Scripture were not just pens that the Lord picked up and wrote with. The marvel is that God used these men’s personalities, expressed things in their own thought patterns, yet got through exactly what He wanted to say. Through these men God has given us His Word.
• He has nothing more to say to us today. If He spoke out of heaven today, He wouldn’t add anything to what He has already said.
• “Is profitable for doctrine.” Scripture is good “for doctrine,” that is, for teaching. That’s why we teach it. It is good “for reproof,” which means conviction.
• Studying the Bible should bring conviction to us. In fact, that is the way you can test whether the Word of God is moving in your life. If you read this Book like any other book, then the Spirit of God is not moving in your life. But if it convicts you, then you know the Holy Spirit is at work within you.
• All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and all of it is to be used in order to meet your needs.
• We have seen that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God—it is God breathed. It says what God wants said, and it has said everything He wants to say. For this reason it meets the needs of the human heart.
• When it gets into your life it does something that no other Book can do because it is the very Word of God.
• “Preach the word” means to proclaim the Word, to give it out, to herald it. This phrase is sort of a rallying cry, a motto that people respond to. You remember that we had such a thing during World War II: “Remember Pearl Harbor.” Back in the Spanish-American War, it was “Remember the Maine.” This is our rallying cry today: “Preach the Word.”
• If someone wakes you up at two o’clock in the morning you ought to be able to give out the Word of God.
• Here is another subtle point: Paul does not say to preach from the Word. He does not say to lift a verse from the Bible and then weave a sermon around it. Someone has well said that a text is a pretext that’s taken out of its context. We are not to preach about the Word of God or from the Word of God, but preach the Word of God itself!

From Titus

• Tell me what you think of Jesus Christ; tell me what you believe about His death on the cross and what it means to you; tell me what you believe about His resurrection and what it means to you; tell me whether you believe the Bible to be the Word of God. With this information I think I can deduce whether you are a child of God or not.
• Truth will lead to godliness, and if it doesn’t lead to godliness, it is not truth, my friend.
• The grace of God has appeared, and, therefore, God extends mercy to us today. I don’t know about you, but I use up a whole lot of the mercy of God. I am grateful that He is good to me and does not deal with me according to my orneriness and disobedience. He has simply been good to me.
• The church must teach sound doctrine or it is not a church.
• I believe that the individual Christian is free to go into politics, but I do not believe that the church should go into politics.
• We need individuals who will enter into government and take social action, but the church as an organization is not called upon to go into politics.
• Because Christ died for us and paid the penalty for our sins, God is prepared to extend mercy to us; it is according to His mercy that He saved us. And He is rich in mercy, which means He has plenty of it. Whoever you are, He can save you today because Christ died for you. He paid the penalty and makes over to you His righteousness! Have you noticed that in everything God does there is a surplus? He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.
• We are to defend the faith, Paul says, but we are not to do it by argument or debate. That does no good; that never led anyone to the Lord. You may whip a man down intellectually by your arguments, but that does not touch his heart and win him for Christ.
• I am not interested in being joined with anyone who has views that are in opposition to the Word of God. God tells us here to be separate from heretics. Just let them alone; reject them.

From Philemon

• We can hear Christ agreeing to take our place and to have all our sin imputed to Him. He took our place in death, but He gives us His place in life. Behind Paul’s plea is Christ’s plea to the Father on behalf of the sinner who trusts Christ as the Savior. That sinner is received on the same standing that Christ is received. In other words, the saved sinner has as much right in heaven as Christ has, for he has His right to be there. We are accepted in the beloved (see Eph. 1:6).

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: The Knowledge of the Holy

Knowledge of the Holy. A.W. Tozer. 1961/1978. HarperCollins. 128 pages. [Source: Book I Bought]

From the preface: True religion confronts earth with heaven and brings eternity to bear upon time.

From chapter one: What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. 

Why read A.W. Tozer's The Knowledge of the Holy?

Because…"It is impossible to keep our moral practices sound and our inward attitudes right while our idea of God is erroneous or inadequate. If we would bring back spiritual power to our lives, we must begin to think of God more nearly as He is."

Because…"What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us."

Because…"Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous. The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true."

Because... "If we insist upon trying to imagine Him, we end with an idol, made not with hands but with thoughts; and an idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand."

Because…"We can never know who or what we are till we know at least something of what God is."

Because…"It is not a cheerful thought that millions of us who live in a land of Bibles, who belong to churches and labor to promote the Christian religion, may yet pass our whole life on this earth without once having thought or tried to think seriously about the being of God."

Technically, all those reasons are reasons to read the Good Book, the Word of God, Holy Scriptures. But I think the Holy Spirit can and will use Tozer's words--long after he's dead--to inspire new generations to seek God.

The Knowledge of the Holy is a theological-devotional book about the attributes of God. You may not be used to theology crossing over into devotions, but this Tozer quote sums up how this is so.

The study of the attributes of God, far from being dull and heavy, may for the enlightened Christian be a sweet and absorbing spiritual exercise. To the soul that is athirst for God, nothing could be more delightful.

What is an attribute?

• An attribute of God is whatever God has in any way revealed as being true of Himself.
• An attribute, as we can know it, is a mental concept, an intellectual response to God's self-revelation. It is an answer to a question, the reply God makes to our interrogation concerning himself.
• What is God like? What kind of God is He? How may we expect Him to act toward us and toward all created things? Such questions are not merely academic. They touch the far-in reaches of the human spirit, and their answers affect life and character and destiny.
• Between His attributes no contradiction can exist.
• The divine attributes are what we know to be true of God. He does not possess them as qualities; they are how God is as He reveals Himself to His creatures. Love, for instance, is not something God has and which may grow or diminish or cease to be. His love is the way God is, and when He loves He is simply being Himself.

I recommend Knowledge of the Holy to every believer--no matter their age, gender, or denomination. You may or may not agree with every single sentence Tozer ever spoke--ever wrote--but what you will find is someone who challenges you to think, to consider, to grow. Tozer rarely leaves readers the same. 

 

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: The Pursuit of Holiness

The Pursuit of Holiness. Jerry Bridges. 1978. NavPress. 160 pages. [Source: Bought]

Is Jerry Bridges' The Pursuit of Holiness one of the best, best books I've read on holiness? Perhaps. Probably. Especially if you make a distinction between God's holiness and our sanctification. (R.C. Sproul has a great book on the holiness of God.) How good was it? So good it was uncomfortable. As in it was a convicting, reality check.  So good it was thought-provoking. So good that I think I'll need to reread it a few times so that I can absorb and digest all the insights into Christian living. So good that I'd love to read it WITH someone and discuss it.

Table of Contents:

• Holiness is For You Romans 6:14
• The Holiness of God 1 Peter 1:15-16
• Holiness is Not an Option Hebrews 12:14
• The Holiness of Christ 2 Corinthians 5:21
• A Change of Kingdoms Romans 6:6-7
• The Battle for Holiness by Romans 7:21
• Help in the Daily Battle Romans 6:11
• Obedience--Not Victory Romans 8:13
• Putting Sin to Death Colossians 3:5
• The Place of Personal Discipline 1 Timothy 4:7
• Holiness in Body 1 Corinthians 9:27
• Holiness in Spirit 2 Corinthians 7:1
• Holiness and Our Wills Philippians 2:13
• Habits of Holiness Romans 6:19
• Holiness and Faith Hebrews 11:8
• Holiness in an Unholy World John 17:15
• The Joy of Holiness Romans 14:17

Premise of the book: God has made it possible for us to walk in holiness. But He has given to us the responsibility of doing the walking; He does not do that for us. (p. 14) True salvation brings with it a desire to be made holy. (p. 38)

What is holiness? To be holy is to be morally blameless. It is to be separated from sin, and, therefore consecrated to God. The word signifies "separation to God, and the conduct befitting those so separated. (p. 19) Holiness is nothing less than conforming to the character of God. (p. 26)

What is the difference between obedience and victory? Obedience is oriented toward God; victory is oriented toward self. (p. 21)

Does God hate sin? Because God is holy, He hates sin. Hate is such a strong word we dislike using it. Yet when it comes to God's attitude toward sin, only a strong word such as hate conveys an adequate depth of meaning. We become so accustomed to our sins we sometimes laps into a state of peaceful coexistence with them, but God never ceased to hate them. (p. 32)

Are some sins more acceptable than other sins? We cannot categorize sin if we are to live a life of holiness. God will not let us get away with that kind of attitude. (p. 23) God hates sin wherever He finds it, in saint and sinner alike. He does not hate sin in one person and overlook it in another. (p. 33)

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: Hosea and Joel

Hosea and Joel. J. Vernon McGee. 1978/1996. Thomas Nelson. 180 pages. [Source: Bought]

I have enjoyed reading a handful of J. Vernon McGee's Thru the Bible commentaries. Primarily I enjoy them because they are not overly scholarly, his writing style is casual, conversational, very reader-friendly. In fact, you can hardly go a few pages without him calling the reader--MY FRIEND.

The series focus in on the basics. The goal is on what you can take away from reading a particular book, chapter, or verse. It is by reading his commentaries that readers get to know McGee's theology: his thoughts on current issues, his conclusions on how we should live, etc. For example, in Hosea, McGee shares his thoughts on marriage, family, and "the home." And in Joel, McGee shares his thoughts on end-times prophecy.

Who was J. Vernon McGee? He was a minister with a radio show. Yes, was; he is among the "cloud of witnesses." He lived 1904-1988. On his radio show, he preached THRU THE BIBLE, giving attention to each book of the Bible, each chapter of the Bible. His programs still air on Christian radio, and, are available online as well in various places. The radio show covers the Bible--Genesis through Revelation--in five years. You can download individual books of the Bible.

Are his messages still relevant? I say YES. Any preach who holds onto absolute truth, holds fiercely to absolute truth, will always be relevant. That being said, do I believe 100% with each and every sentence he ever wrote or ever spoke. I wouldn't go that far. I don't know that I'd say that about *any* Christian minister or writer.

Favorite quotes from his commentary on Hosea:

Oh, my friend, what a picture this is of our Savior. He created us and we belong to Him.

Then we were guilty of going from Him and giving our love, our affection, our time, to the things of the world. And while we were yet sinners, He came down to this earth and bought us in our ugly condition that He might make us His legitimate children. What love!

My friend, it is not enough to be correct in your doctrine and be active in your service for Christ. These are important and have their place, but the essential thing is love. Have you left your first love? Do you love him today?

My friend, when you turn your back on the one who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, you are not only doing something bad, you are not merely turning away in unbelief, you are committing the greatest sin of all. You are turning away from a God who loves you and died for you. There is no other sin equal to that.

I wish the pulpit today were a little stronger than it is. We all are trying to be very nice and, as a result, we sometimes do not speak as strongly as the Word of God does.

Those who teach that God is through with Israel either spiritualize or discount a great deal of the Old Testament. If you can strip the Old Testament of its literal meaning, that gives you liberty to do the same to the New Testament. Do you want to rob the Epistle of Romans and even John 3:16 of their literal meaning? You cannot do that with the New Testament, and I don't believe you can do it with the Old Testament either.

The greatest sin in all the world is to forget God.

Do you know that you and I are redeemed? The picture here is not very pretty--that is the reason it is not being preached more today. We hear a great deal in conservative circles about dedication, about commitment, and about turning your life over to the Lord. But, my friend, the first thing you need to do is to come as a sinner to God--He has to redeem you. Just as Hosea bought this harlot, that is the way God redeemed us. Until you and I see that, we can know nothing of real commitment to God.

Gomer wasn't worth it, and we are not worth the redemption price which was paid for us...He had to shed His blood; He had to suffer and die that you and I might be redeemed. Why? Because we were lost sinners, sold under sin.

And until we have come to God for salvation, you and I are dead in trespasses and sins. We have no life to commit to Him. Until the sin issue is settled--until we are born again and have received a new nature--we can do nothing that is pleasing to God.

IF a so-called church has a man in the pulpit who denies the Word of God, denies the deity of Christ, and denies that He died for sinners, it is not a church. It is a brothel--a spiritual brothel.

The message of chapter 4 is that Israel is guilty of lawlessness, immorality, ignorance of God's Word, and idolatry...I believe that you could interchange these same sins of Israel with the sins of our own nation.

My friend, if you are a Christian, the minute you get away from the Word of God, you are doomed to failure in the Christian life.

God says you do not get by with sin. He is judging sin, and He will continue to judge sin, my friend.

Today many are saying, "Out with religion," and I say, fine, let's sweep it out the book door, and let's invite Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, to come in.

In other words, the priests in refusing to give the people the Water of Life and the Bread of Life were actually committing murder. To be honest with you, I think that a minister who stands in the pulpit and does not give out the Word of God is guilty just as it is stated right here. I did not think that up--it is the Word of God which says that.

The most important business the church has is to get out the Word of God.

Love is not the basis of salvation, but it is the motive of salvation.

My friend, God has no other way to save you except by the death of Christ. You may think you have two or three different ways to save yourself, but God has but one way.

Favorite quotes from his commentary on Joel:

The Day of the Lord is a technical expression in Scripture which is fraught with meaning. It includes the millennial kingdom which will come at the second coming of Christ, but Joel is going to make it very clear to us that it begins with the Great Tribulation Period, the time of great trouble. If you want to set a boundary or parenthesis at the end of the Day of the Lord, it would be the end of the Millennium when the Lord Jesus puts down all unrighteousness and establishes His eternal kingdom here upon the earth.

To summarize, there is 1) man's day, the day in which we are living now; 2) the Day of the Lord Jesus Christ, when He will take the church out of this world; then 3) the Day of the Lord beginning with the Great Tribulation Period.

My friend, the only way we can come to Him is to come as sinners wanting to turn from our sins. If you have been turning from God and now will turn to God, all you have to do is call upon Him and He will save you.

God is glorified when He judges sin just as much as He is when He saves a sinner. That is hard for us to believe; it is a bitter pill for man to swallow. God is holy, and a holy, righteous God is going to judge.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: Best of A.W. Tozer

Best of A.W. Tozer (#1) A.W. Tozer. Compiled by Warren Wiersbe. 1978/2007. 251 pages. [Source: Bought]

I would definitely consider myself a fan of A.W. Tozer. I've read dozens of his books at this point. But there are still so many books I haven't read yet. The Best of A.W. Tozer is a compilation of his 'best' work by Warren Wiersbe. It begins with an introduction by Wiersbe that shares with readers WHY they should read Tozer, and, what makes him special. He says it well, I must admit.

The book is composed of excerpts, chapters, from Tozer's books. It includes three chapters from The Pursuit of God. It includes seven chapters from Born After Midnight. It includes nine chapters from God Tells the Man Who Cares. It includes six chapters from That Incredible Christian. It includes six chapters from The Root of the Righteous. It includes seven chapters from Of God and Men. It includes nine chapters from Man: The Dwelling Place of God. It includes one chapter from How To Be Filled With the Holy Spirit. It includes one chapter from Worship: The Missing Jewel of the Evangelical Church. It includes one chapter from Who Put Jesus on the Cross. It includes one chapter from Paths to Power. It includes one chapter from Let My People Go.

If you're looking for a broad introduction to Tozer, two resources come to mind. One is the Pursuit of God, NIV Tozer Bible. This Bible features TONS of Tozer quotes. Some long. Some short. The other is this book which features entire chapters from a handful of Tozer books. The chapters were chosen with a mind to give variety: cover a WIDE range of topics on the Christian life.

If you're looking for a narrower introduction to Tozer, the best resources would probably be either THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY or THE ROOT OF THE RIGHTEOUS. Those two books are probably my favorites. I've read each book multiple times.

From the introduction:

He was not afraid to tell us what was wrong. Nor was he hesitant to tell us how God could make it right. ~ Warren Wiersbe speaking of A.W. Tozer

He begs us to please God and forget the crowd. He implores us to worship God that we might become more like Him. How desperately we need that message today! ~ Warren Wiersbe

He so excites you about truth that you forget Tozer and reach for your Bible. ~ Warren Wiersbe

I would quote from the book. But. I think I would end up WANTING to quote something from each and every chapter. That's not realistic. Just know that this book is GOOD.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible