Soul Poverty and the Abnegation of All Things

 

The Pursuit of God (Review)

I just finished another Christian Audio book.  This one was called The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. I first read this book back in 2004, and it has continued to play an influential role in my life since that first reading.

I just finished writing my review for the Christian Audio site and would like to quote that review here:

In searching for the words to write a proper review for this book, I continue to find that my vocabulary is coming up short.  My desire is to write a review that will point you to the purchase of this book, whether you buy the audio version or the print version it is a purchase that I highly recommend.

I read through this book several years ago, and find that it still holds a place of prominence in my thinking.  His words stirred in me a deeper passion for God and answered questions that I didn't even know that I was asking.  I hesitate writing this way at the risk of sounding over-dramatic, but it had a truly dramatic impact in my life.  Nearly every page of the book is filled with thoughts and ideas that deserve quoting and reveal the accumulated wisdom of this man.

In the preface of the book we hear how there is a scarcity of attributed quotes because this is a work of Tozer's years of study and accumulated knowledge.  In other words, there are ideas that he freely attributes to others, but because of the years of study he can't pinpoint where specific ideas came from.  It is also told that Tozer wrote this book while on his knees.  That position of prayer if felt throughout every page.

Over the last few days as I have listened to the audio version of this book, I have found that it has once again added fuel to the fire of my passions for God.  The voice talent for this book, Grover Gardner, read in such a way that I felt as if I was listening to Tozer himself narrating this book to me while he prayed through these words.

I would like to encourage to you consider purchasing this book.  Especially if you already own the print version, the audio version will bring things to the surface that you have never noticed before.

To go to Christian Audio to see the listing for this book, click here.  You can also go to amazon.com to purchase a print version of this book.  To see a few other posts that I have done regarding A.W. Tozer, click here.

Serious Malady of the Soul

I just started my next audio book from Christian Audio.  This one is The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer.  I read this book several years ago, I think that I even posted about it a few times on this blog.

Well, I was listening to it on the way home from school today and hear this wonderful tidbit:

The idea of cultivation and exercise, so dear to the saints of old, has now no place in our total religious picture. It is too slow, too common. We now demand glamour and fast flowing dramatic action. A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals. We have been trying to apply machineage methods to our relations with God. We read our :' chapter, have our short devotions and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar.

The tragic results of this spirit are all about us. Shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, the preponderance of the element of fun in gospel meetings, the glorification of men, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit: these and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and serious malady of the soul.

Now, he said this several years ago, and I think that it is even worse now.  I see it at work in me, but God is changing me in this area.  After a year of increasingly less TV and increasingly more Bible study and prayer, I am beginning to see its value.  Especially as I study those men of old, those men who have promoted and lived for the gospel.  I am reminded more and more that God made me for Himself, and to live a life cultivating and exercising myself in this deep relationship with God brings me closer and closer to my purpose in life and closer and closer to Him.

Update:  Just found the entire book online for free here.