A.W.Tozer: Longing for the heart of God

A little over twenty years ago I re-opened the door to Christ’s Kingdom and with great zeal ran in. Since I belong to the personality type we call “thinkers”, I proceeded to devour any and all books I could find written about Christian Theology, systematics, and the fundamentals. One of the many volumes I read during this time was The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. Only in the last couple of years I rediscovered the small paperback buried behind my collection of commentaries, books on Christian history, text books from seminary study, etc. Upon rereading Tozer’s gem I realized that I had my first time through only highlighted his comments on Theological terms- head stuff; I totally missed what was a treasury poured out from Tozer’s heart. What profound insights he shares about the institutional maladies of Evangelicalism in the mid 20th century, and the hope for the Church today. Following are excerpts from his preface written June 16, 1948:

“In this hour of all but universal darkness one cheering gleam appears: within the fold of conservative Chris­tianity there are to be found increasing numbers of per­sons whose religious lives are marked by a growing hunger after God Himself. They are eager for spiritual realities and will not be put off with words, nor will they be content with correct "interpretations" of truth. They are athirst for God, and they will not be satisfied till they have drunk deep at the Fountain of Living Water.

This is the only real harbinger of revival which I have been able to detect anywhere on the religious horizon. It may be the cloud the size of a man's hand for which a few saints here and there have been looking. It can result in a resurrection of life for many souls and a re­capture of that radiant wonder which should accom­pany faith in Christ, that wonder which has all but fled the Church of God in our day.

But this hunger must be recognized by our religious leaders. Current evangelicalism has (to change the figure) laid the altar and divided the sacrifice into parts, but now seems satisfied to count the stones and rear­range the pieces with never a care that there is not a sign of fire upon the top of lofty Carmel. But God be thanked that there are a few who care. They are those who, while they love the altar and delight in the sacri­fice, are yet unable to reconcile themselves to the con­tinued absence of fire. They desire God above all. They are athirst to taste for themselves the "piercing sweet­ness" of the love of Christ about Whom all the holy prophets did write and the psalmists did sing.

There is today no lack of Bible teachers to set forth correctly the principles of the doctrines of Christ, but too many of these seem satisfied to teach the funda­mentals of the faith year after year, strangely unaware that there is in their ministry no manifest Presence, nor anything unusual in their personal lives. They min­ister constantly to believers who feel within their breasts a longing which their teaching simply does not satisfy.

I trust I speak in charity, but the lack in our pulpits is real. Milton's terrible sentence applies to our day as accurately as it did to his: “The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed.” It is a solemn thing, and no small scandal in the Kingdom, to see God's children starving while actually seated at the Father's table. The truth of Wesley's words is established before our eyes: "Ortho­doxy, or right opinion, is, at best, a very slender part of religion… There may be a right opinion of God without either love or one right temper toward Him. Satan is a proof of this."

Thanks to our splendid Bible societies and to other effective agencies for the dissemination of the Word, there are today many millions of people who hold "right opinions," probably more than ever before in the history of the Church. Yet I wonder if there was ever a time when true spiritual worship was at a lower ebb. To great sections of the Church the art of worship has been lost entirely, and in its place has come that strange and foreign thing called the "program." This word has been borrowed from the stage and applied with sad wisdom to the type of public service which now passes for wor­ship among us.

Sound Bible exposition is an imperative must in the Church of the Living God. Without it no church can be a New Testament church in any strict meaning of that term. But exposition may be carried on in such a way as to leave the hearers devoid of any true spiritual nourishment whatever. For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an inti­mate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts…”

This is the "Gospel of the Gut".
Blessings,
Gary Parkinson

to Editor re: Mystical Theology and Contemplative Prayer

Editor, Lighthouse Trails:
What is your basis for making the statement that such people as Larry Crabb and Brennan Manning have compromised the Scriptures with their "contemplative" prayer and "Mystical" theology? I suggest you attempt to interpret John’s Gospel and 1John through other lenses than those clouded by the historical/critical method and our evangelical obsession with having to intellectually defend the Divinity of Christ. Consider this- John's Theology in his writings was developed over a minimum of two generations more experience of living in a socially and politically hostile world than any of the other New Testament authors. Does this make John's writing more important than say Paul or Mark? No, but it complements the other authors and adds an element of "living” the Gospel that the other first generation authors did not experience. John and his community of followers had 40+ more years to develop the theological concepts of the believer's "unity" with God, "abiding" in God, and the Divine dwelling in the heart- in the “gut” of man. This is the “mystery” in John’s writings. One can intimately know God; one can know the unconditional love of God; one can know that he/she is the beloved.

I also suggest you research the lives of some of these men you are publicly criticizing. As John experienced many more years of living a Kingdom life than the other New Testament authors, I suggest that Crabb and Manning have done the same in comparison to yours. Their Theology is not just the product of seminary study in apologetics or systematics, but of living in Christ, abiding in Christ, and in the face of extreme trials and hardships knowing that they are the beloved of the Creator of the Universe.

My old business partner always used to say that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Jesus said "he who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." Check the fruit of these men's lives- are they building the Kingdom? Have thousands of people's lives been radically changed through the writings, counseling, and sacrifice of these men and I am sure many more who you are bashing? For your sake and the sake of others reading your stuff, check the fruit of your work. Are you building the Kingdom of God, or dividing it? Miraslov Volf once appropriately wrote: “Christian communities that should be the ‘salt’ of the culture are often as insipid as everything around them…What we should turn away from seems clear; it is captivity to our own culture, coupled so often with blind self righteousness.”

The Gospel is not about being right; it’s not about being an authority; it’s not about being exclusive. The Gospel is about the heart; it’s about loving others “because (in spite of ourselves) He loved us first.”

Blessings,
Gary Parkinson