The Pursuit of God

The Five Spiritual Senses

Frank

In the busyness of the Christmas season, I’ll be reposting some of my favorite posts and scaling back my original content. Leading up to New Year’s I’ll be posting a best-of 2012. This post may not have been my favorite, but it was my favorite to write. It was from our discussion on AW Tozer’s book, The Pursuit of God. For more of the discussion, follow the links or the labels at the end of the post.

In the third chapter of The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer, the author observes, “We apprehend the physical world by exercising the faculties given us for the purpose, and we possess spiritual faculties by means of which we can know God and the spiritual world if we will obey the Spirit’s urge and begin to use them.” (pg 38) Last week I wrote about how it is our habit to only consider that to be real what we can perceive with our five physical senses. Meanwhile there is a spiritual reality that we can only perceive with the spiritual senses God has given us. Yet Tozer writes, “The soul has eyes with which to see and ears with which to hear. Feeble they may be from long disuse, but by the life-giving touch of Christ alive now and capable of sharpest sight and most sensitive hearing.” (pg 42, emphasis added)

It is these reflections that got my wheels turning. What are the spiritual analogues to our physical senses of seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and feeling? I could find scriptures that tie each of these senses to to spiritual truths: “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” “All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory places.” “My sheep hear my voice.” “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” are four that Tozer explicitly points to for example (pg 38). But I don’t think that gets us any closer to discovering these spiritual senses for they still appeal to a physical reaction. Instead, I think we need to look at why God gave us these senses in the first place in order to discern why our spiritual senses are so critical to knowing God.

Sight

Why do dogs see in black and white? Why do the eyes of cats look like mirrors in the dark? How can an eagle soaring high in the sky spot an animal hundreds of feet below on the ground? Scientific explanation of rods and cones aside, God gave the sense of sight in order to find and hunt food. Spiritually speaking, replace food with that which nourishes the soul and we can begin to understand the scripture above requiring a pure heart in order to “see” God.

How often do we read from the Word of God and say “I’ve never seen that before!” or as we are going through trial how God is showing us something new? We seek to do God’s will. So our spiritual eyes are only strengthened through viewing of God’s word, revealing His will, directing our eyes to the Son. “Fix [y]our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:2)

Sound

Our ears augment our sight to give us a full sense of our surroundings. We can look around and see images, but sound brings them to life. Wind rustling through the trees, Water bubbling down a brook. This is true when considering spiritual sight as well. Hearing the word brings to life what we see. We cannot have faith without hearing the Word. (Romans 10:17)

But spiritual hearing is more than just listening to the Word. In the physical world, our sense of hearing calls to attention what we cannot always see. A predator hiding in the bushes. An alarm coming over a speaker. So hearing also alerts us to danger. “Do not merely listen to the word… do what it says.” (James 1:22) If seeing leads us to will of God, then listening guides us away from the dangers of sin. The voice of the Shepherd leads the sheep away from harm towards safe pasture.

Taste

How often, when you take communion, do you actually think and meditate on the taste of the bread, matzo, or wafer? Probably only when it doesn’t taste good! Jesus described himself as the bread of life. (John 6:48) So what does Jesus taste like? If that sounds a little bit morbid, let me rephrase: what does Jesus’ life taste like?

The flavor of communion bread appeals to our physical senses. But again, we need to look at the purpose of our sense of taste. We can taste sweet, salt, and bitter. Jesus calls us to be salt to the world that is worthless if we do not have flavor. (Matthew 5:13) We are warned against bitter roots growing in our hearts. (Hebrews 12:15) Wisdom is sweet to the soul. (Proverbs 24:14. Also God’s decrees and God’s words). So taste indicates to us the nature of what we’re ingesting. Does it enhance flavor (salt), will it make you ill (bitter), or is it pleasurable (sweet)? But taste can also deceive; a poisonous berry may taste sweet. So we cannot rely on taste alone. “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” (Isaiah 5:20)

Smell

Our sense of smell is closely linked with taste. Plug your nose to choke down that spoonful of cough medicine. Just as hearing enhances our sight, smell adds to the flavor of which we consume. Step outside in the summer and you can tell if someone is grilling hamburgers. The shape of the wine glass is such that you can smell the wine right before taking a sip. But in the spiritual sense it is not what we consume where smell is important, but our own stench that can be perceived by God. When Noah offered a burnt offering after stepping foot on dry land, God was pleased by the smell. (Genesis 8:21) In place of a sacrificial animal, we offer ourselves as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1) who may smell like death, but are actually the aroma of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:14-16).

And also like hearing, there is a second purpose to our sense of smell. In nature animals use smell to identify not only food, but also their mates. Some animals release pheromones to attract and there are scents distinct in every animal that are related specifically to attraction. Just skim Song of Songs to see how many references there are to smell and fragrance. We cover ourselves in perfume, cologne, aftershave, or body lotions all in the name of attractiveness. In the New Testament, the Church is described as Christ’s bride. Again, our sacrifice is a fragrant offering attractive to Jesus. And applying 2 Corinthians above, our smell is not only important to please our groom, but also to attract unbelievers into the Church.

Touch

Our physical sense of feeling can give us pleasure or pain. I’ve already talked about pleasure in the sense of attraction and smell, and I think in nature the sense of pain is more important to God’s general design. Being able to sense pain is critical to life. Consider the leper, who is unable to feel in their extremities, sometimes rubbing their noses completely off or losing fingers because they cannot feel what they are touching. We know not to put our hand in the fire because we feel the pain from the heat. Pain actually protects.

Spiritually, this sense of pain is just as critical to the health of our soul. The consequences of sin hurt our hearts with regret and shame. Meanwhile the gospel of Jesus cuts the heart (Acts 2:37) . If we feel pain because our hand is in the fire, we act and pull it from the flame. The same should be true when we feel spiritual pain. However just like the leper suffers even more harm because of numbness, we risk eternal suffering if our hearts are allowed to become numb. “Having lost all sensitivity, [Gentiles] have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.” (Ephesians 4:19) Feel the pain, pull yourself out of the fire before it is too late!

Ok, a couple of hours later writing this and my wheels are still turning. I think there is a lot more to be said on this subject, and hopefully this gives you a starting point for further study. In the meantime, consider these senses and how we need to hone them for our spiritual health and to fully know God.

Not to us, O Lord, not to us
but to your name be the glory,
because of your love and faithfulness.

Why do the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
Our God is in heaven;
he does whatever pleases him.
But their idols are silver and gold,
made by the hands of men.
They have mouths, but cannot speak,
eyes, but they cannot see;
they have ears, but cannot hear,
noses, but they cannot smell;
they have hands, but cannot feel,
feet, but they cannot walk;
nor can they utter a sound with their throats.
Those who make them will be like them,
and so will all who trust in them.

O house of Israel, trust in the Lord—
 he is their help and shield.
O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord—
he is their help and shield.
You who fear him, trust in the Lord—
he is their help and shield.

The Lord remembers us and will bless us:
He will bless the house of Israel,
he will bless the house of Aaron,
he will bless those who fear the Lord—
small and great alike.

May the Lord make you increase,
both you and your children.
May you be blessed by the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

The highest heavens belong to the Lord,
but the earth he has given to man.
It is not the dead who praise the Lord,
those who go down to silence;
it is we who extol the Lord,
both now and forevermore.

Praise the Lord
(Psalm 115)

This blog is part of a book club reading The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. Please join the discussion here and at our hosts, Jason Stasyszen and Sarah Salter. Need a copy of the book? You can get it for free on Kindle.

The Conclusion of the Matter

Frank

I’m not a very good closer. Whenever I write reports for work I always get stuck at the conclusion. Even my blog posts will often ramble on for one or two paragraphs too many because I don’t know how to finish my thoughts. I can’t even imagine trying to conclude and summarize the themes of a book.

This is the last week we’re discussing A.W. Tozer’s The Pursuit of God and concluding with his chapter, The Sacrament of Living. It is a lofty goal to even begin to describe the holiness of God and then to follow up with practical application to pursue that holiness in our own unique spiritual walks. So I have to admit I was expecting this last chapter to summarize the rest of the book and leave me, the reader, with marching orders to go forward in my own pursuit of God.

Just looking at the chapter titles, you can tell Tozer is building his case: Following Hard After God, The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing, Removing the Veil, Apprehending God, The Universal Presence, The Speaking Voice, The Gaze of the Soul, Restoring the Creator-creature Relation, Meekness and Rest, and finally The Sacrament of Living.

I often state that Romans 12 gives most comprehensive description of Christian living in the Bible- talking about sanctification, humility, applying our spiritual gifts, generosity, and forgiveness. But that chapter doesn’t just come out of nowhere. It begins “Therefore…” The lifestyle Paul describes in Romans 12 requires Romans chapters 1-11. “Therefore, in view of God’s mercy…” There it is, our Christianity needs to be motivated by God’s character and what he has done on our behalf. “Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Romans 12:1) Paul could have stopped there.

So how does Tozer conclude his premise of the pursuit of God? What does he write after his “therefore”?

“the sacramental quality of every day living.” (pg 90)

Like I said, I was expecting some lofty conclusion, some kind of new wisdom that I could apply to my own spirituality. Yet I should not have been surprised that Tozer came to the same conclusion as Paul (and Solomon for that matter): that our lives, our everyday lives, should be lived for the glory of God. That is how you pursue God, by seeking to glorify him in all things no matter how big or small, how routine or extraordinary, how mundane or exciting. A fitting end for this blog as well, whose overall theme is that of living out our faith in the day-to-day.

“We must practice living to the glory of God, actually and determinedly.” (pg 87)

Tozer closes with this prayer:


Lord, I would trust thee completely; I would be altogether Thine; I would exalt Thee above all. I desire that I may feel no sense of possessing anything outside of Thee. I want constantly to be aware of Thy overshadowing Presence and to hear Thy speaking Voice. I long to live in restful sincerity of heart. I want to live so fully in the Spirit that all my thought may be as sweet incense ascending to Thee and every act of my life may be an act of worship. Therefore I pray in the words of Thy great servant of old, ‘I beseech Thee so far to cleanse the intent of mine heart with the unspeakable gift of Thy grace, that I may perfectly love Thee and worthily praise Thee.’ And all this I confidently believe Thou wilt grant me through the merits of Jesus Christ Thy Son. Amen.

This blog is part of a book club reading The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. Please join the discussion here and at our hosts, Jason Stasyszen and Sarah Salter. Need a copy of the book? You can get it for free on Kindle.

The Glory of God in Secular Work

Frank

“Nor will that old serpent the devil take all this lying down. He will be there in the cab or at the desk or in the field to remind the Christian that he giving the better part of his day to the things of this world and allotting to his religious duties only a trifling portion of his time.” -A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

Do you ever feel like you’re wasting your time? Do you sit at your desk at work watching the clock tick by until you can call it a day and go home? Do you ever go home with the weight of the world on your shoulders wondering if it is all worth it?

I calculated not too long ago that I’ve spent more than 20,000 hours at my job and have commuted 200,000 miles in the past ten years at my job. Meanwhile, at best I’ve spent 3650 hours in prayer and 1040 hours sitting in church.

We can read about missionary heroes, or bold preachers, or successful authors and then ask ourselves, “why can’t I do that?” Then we look at our jobs and the responsibilities of life and answer back, “oh yeah, that’s why.”

But that is only Satan talking. God created this world and called it good. Before the fall, Adam and Eve tended to the garden- worked, if you will- together with God. And it was a good thing. After the fall, God promised that mankind would toil in labor- yet God’s creation and God’s design is still good.

My evangelist here once preached (paraphrasing), “of course work is hard- it’s called work! If it was easy and pleasant they’d call it something else. Like, I don’t know, Disneyland!”

Work is hard. It is tedious. It is toil. But that does not mean it is not good. And the best part is, we don’t have to work alone.

A friend of mine related it to apple orchards: if you allow an apple tree to grow up all on its own, it will bear fruit but it will likely be sour. But when you take the branches of another tree, even for another kind of apple, and graft it in with the tree then the fruit will be sweet. This is an example of God and man working together to gain a better result. God’s creation plus man’s innovation leads to the delicious fruit I pack in my lunch bag.

Maybe you view your work as too secular, that there’s no way for you and God to work together in that environment. Going back to the illustration of sweet fruit, you can exhibit the fruits of the spirit in your workplace: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Of course, you cannot bear those fruits without the Holy Spirit- so there are the two of you working together.

“Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)

This isn’t impossible. Don’t listen to Satan’s lies trying to convince you that your labor is in vain. Smile. Be generous. Work honestly. Pray. And your work will be a fragrant offering to God.

This blog is part of a book club reading The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. Please join the discussion here and at our hosts, Jason Stasyszen and Sarah Salter. Need a copy of the book? You can get it for free on Kindle.

The Burden of Worth

Frank

I keep all my books. I’m know it drives my wife crazy as the bookshelves overflow and every other nook and cranny is filled. But I like being able to go back and reference what I’ve read. Often circumstances, mood, or even just a different attention span will bring new insights to light.

So it was with this chapter of The Pursuit of God by A.W, Tozer. Had I reviewed it any other day, at any other time, this post would likely be completely different. You see yesterday I had a rough day at work. And as I was struggling to identify just what it was that put me into my funk I read:

“Think for yourself whether much of your sorrow has not arisen from someone speaking slightingly of you. As long as you set yourself up as a little god to which you must be loyal there will be those who will delight to offer affront to your idol. How then can you hope to have inward peace? The heart’s fierce effort to protect itself from every slight, to shield its touchy honor from the bad opinion of a friend and enemy, will never let the mid have rest. Continue this fight through the years and the burden will become intolerable.” (pg 79, emphasis added)

Looking back, I realize that I have taken some circumstances at work, that really have nothing at all to do with me, personally. And this is a burden I’ve been carrying for far too long. I’ve let the atmosphere of funding cuts, budget slashes, and future uncertainty cloud my heart with insecurity. I’ve allowed what others think, or at least what I think others think, to define my worth.

My wife and I were talking about this not too long ago: the difference between value and worth. If you put something up for bid on ebay, that something is worth whatever someone else is willing to pay for it. But if you hold a reserve, it has a different value to you. Another way to look at it is if you have a precious jewel. It may be worth millions if you were to sell it. But it is more valuable to you so you do not. Worth depends on another’s opinion, but value is inherent to what it is. So when it comes to insecurities, we allow others to define our worth and forget our intrinsic value. Ironically, as we were talking, I was concerned with my wife’s self-esteem, and completely missed the opportunity to take this lesson for myself.

Tozer puts it this way: “He rests perfectly content to allow God to place His own values. He will be patient to wait for the day when everything will get its own price tag and real worth will come into its own.” (pg 80) The “he” Tozer describes is him who understands what it means to be “meek” by allowing Jesus to take on his burdens and that his value is as a new creation in Christ.

I like this description best: “He knows well that the world will never see him as God sees him and he has stopped caring.” (pg 80)

I will finish this week at work. Then the month. And soon the year. In that time I will come to terms with the fact that no one is out to get me. Prayerfully, my heart will lower its defenses and allow Jesus to define my value- not my job, not my successes (and failures), not my coworkers or colleagues. I pray that I will come to grips that the world will never see me as God sees me, and pray that I will stop caring. That simple quote may be the most important thing I’ve read in a long time.

This blog is part of a book club reading The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. Please join the discussion here and at our hosts, Jason Stasyszen and Sarah Salter. Need a copy of the book? You can get it for free on Kindle.

Jesus the Philosopher

Frank

That Jesus, he’s such a nice guy!

He sure taught a lot of wise things.

Jesus was a great teacher and philosopher, the world would be a better place if we lived out what he taught.

Do any of these sound familiar? I’ve heard those responses, or variations thereof, countless times when talking about the deity of Jesus Christ. My favorite is when someone responds that we should follow his teachings, like to love your neighbor or to turn the other cheek, but that doesn’t mean he’s the Son of God. My response is usually to turn it right back on them- do you love your neighbor? How about your enemies? Do you really turn your cheek when someone is mean to you?

It is easy to pick and choose favorite one-liners from Jesus’ teachings and turn those into a philosophy of how we should live. But no matter how many may say so, few really do. Even among the ranks of Christians are few who can honestly say they are living out every one of Jesus’ commands. I haven’t sold everything I have and then gave it all to the poor, have you? If we take out the hard teachings (eat Jesus’ flesh?) we are usually left with something that looks an awful lot like the Sermon on the Mount.

I guess if we cling to something from the life of Jesus, it might as well be this, right? But even these instructions are hard to keep (cut off my hand?). So Jesus’ teachings are usually boiled down even further to the Beatitudes. Even before I took the Bible seriously, I could recite every one of these. But to live them out? A.W. Tozer writes in A Pursuit of God:

“In the world of men we find nothing approaching the virtues of which Jesus spoke in the opening words of the famous Sermon on the Mount. Instead of poverty of spirit we find the rankest kind of pride; instead of mourners we find pleasure seekers; instead of meekness, arrogance; instead of hunger after righteousness we hear men saying, ‘I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing’; instead of mercy we find cruelty; instead of purity of heart, corrupt imaginings; instead of rejoicing in mistreatment we find them fighting back with every weapon at their command.” (pgs 77-78)

Let’s check our attitudes against the beatitudes: poor in spirit, mourning, meek, hunger and thirst for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, persecuted because of righteousness. If I were to measure myself against these I could confidently lay claim to two; on my best days. I’m not going to go into detail defining each of these and writing up a mini-sermon supporting it. Instead I encourage you to check your heart. Do Jesus’ descriptions of a blessed heart match yours, or do you more closely resemble what Tozer describes above?

Do not be discouraged by your conclusion. Instead be inspired by the rewards, the blessings, Jesus promises: the kingdom of heaven, receive comfort, inherit the earth, be filled, be shown mercy, see God, and be called sons of God.

Now can a mere philosopher promise such blessings or can these only come from the Son of God himself?

This blog is part of a book club reading The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. Please join the discussion here and at our hosts, Jason Stasyszen and Sarah Salter. Need a copy of the book? You can get it for free on Kindle.

God the Politician

Frank

When I was in high school I wrote a paper in my psychology class about if you apply Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Jungian psychology that religion is tied to the subconscious, then the logical conclusion is that man invented the notion of God. (In hindsight, even in high school I was a religious studies nerd.) Recent studies have gone a step further detailing how certain chemical reactions in our brains give us a sense of pleasure during worship and even create the so-called “light” that many have described seeing on their deathbeds. Even physics has its “god particle”.

This only reveals the truth that throughout history we have been trying to mold God into a person that we can accept. (Maybe that was the wisdom behind God the Father sending his son Jesus?) When we see injustice we cry out to God that it isn’t fair. But unfair to whom? When we find a difficult passage of scripture that is counter to ever-evolving cultural norms, we dance around it saying “God didn’t really mean that.” A.W. Tozer writes in The Pursuit of God, “Much of our difficulty as seeking Christians stems from our unwillingness to take God as He is and adjust our lives accordingly. We insist upon trying to modify Him and to bring Him nearer to our own image.” (pg 71)

It is like a politician who will vacillate on issues at the whim of public sentiment or to capture a certain demographic. I remember President Clinton being criticized for “waffling” and the jokes about how he’d take a poll before making a decision on what to have for dinner. What many found unacceptable just a few years ago is now considered common practice. We the people, are a fickle bunch. Are we surprised that we approach God the same way?

Tozer writes later, “The whole course of the life is upset by failure to put God where He belongs. We exalt ourselves instead of God and the curse follows.” (pg 76) When we fail to let God be who He is, we essentially put ourselves- our desires, our priorities, our definitions of right and wrong- above Him. We call Jesus “Lord” but only because we get something out of it. But only when we exalt God above all else, even ourselves, can we truly find peace with Him. Without doing so we will constantly struggle against God’s way because we want to get our way.

God’s truths are eternal. Our morals are the signs of the times and are ever shifting through history.

In the end, the only thing that really matters is whose Truth do you trust?

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
(Hebrews 13:8)

This blog is part of a book club reading The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. Please join the discussion here and at our hosts, Jason Stasyszen and Sarah Salter. Need a copy of the book? You can get it for free on Kindle.

Dislocated

Frank

Even though I grew up in ski country, I have only been skiing once. Not only was I not very good, but during one of my many falls I dislocated my thumb. That may not sound like a big deal but it still affects me from time to time nearly twenty years later. When I played summer-league softball in college, every hit shot pain up through my arm as the impact of ball on bat pushed back just enough on the joint of my thumb. While playing a game of pickup basketball after I graduated, I went to the ground after a loose ball and couldn’t put weight on my hand to push myself back up. These days when I do yard work, I have to take breaks from shoveling or hacking away at wood because that tender area between my thumb and my hand hurts just too much.

That thought stuck in my mind as I read chapter VIII of A.W. Tozer’s The Pursuit of God, “Restoring the Creator-creature Relation”. Right at the beginning of the chapter Tozer writes, “the cause of all our human miseries is a radical moral dislocation, and upset in our relation to God and to each other.” (pg 70) Dislocation. The word made it so clear, so obvious. And subconsciously caused my thumb to ache.

God designed the perfect relationship: tending to the Garden of Eden together with his creation. But ever since The Fall, mankind has been dislocated from that perfect alignment. Just as my thumb hurts when conditions are just right, discomforts in this world remind us of our fallen state. The common question is why does God allow bad things to happen? The answer, based on this observation, is to remind us of our condition.

I can put my hand in a brace, isolate it from movement, take pain killers to dull aches and pains, or even just keep my hand in my pocket and never take it out, but none of those things change the fact that it is forever injured. In the same way we can dress ourselves up with religion, practice all the spiritual disciplines, lock ourselves away in a monastery to guard us from the world, but those are just physical means to medicate a spiritual injury. So long as we are in this world, our flesh will oppose a right relationship with God. So long as we are exposed to this world and its ideals, our mind cannot fully comprehend our position with God. But our hearts, guided by the Holy Spirit by the grace of Jesus Christ can desire to be adjoined with our Creator. And that is enough to bring comfort to our terminal injury.

This blog is part of a book club reading The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. Please join the discussion here and at our hosts, Jason Stasyszen and Sarah Salter. Need a copy of the book? You can get it for free on Kindle.

Eyes Without a Face

Frank

In ‘The Pursuit of God’, A.W. Tozer defines faith as “the gaze of a soul upon a saving God.” (pg 63) And notes that since this gaze is “but the raising of the inward eyes… then it follows that it is one of the easiest things possible to do.” (pg 67) He encourages us that when we “lift our inward eyes to gaze upon God we are sure to meet friendly eyes gazing back at us,” referring to God (pg 65).

But…

When Isaiah received a vision from God his response was, “Woe to me, I am ruined… my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” (Isaiah 6:5) John, when seeing the full glory of Jesus on his throne fell “as though dead.” I wrote before about Elijah finding God in the whisper. When he heard that sound, he “pulled his cloak over his face” before going out to meet the Lord. After Moses met with God to establish his Law, his face glowed because of God’s glory; so much so that he had to wear a veil to cover it. And Jacob named the place he wrestled with God Peniel because “I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” (Genesis 32:30)

Gazing upon the Lord casually is dangerous. I don’t think Tozer’s description of it being “easy” is the same as being casual. However, I think we need to keep these lessons from the Bible in mind when in faith we seek God’s face.

The face of God in the Bible is also a sign of favor. Frequently the prophets warned Israel that God would “turn his face against” them. The Psalmist would cry, “do not hide your face from me” when in anguish and would often “seek [God’s] face” for comfort.

“My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’
Your face, Lord, I will seek.
Do not hide your face from me,
do not turn your servant away in anger;
you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
O God my Savior.”
Psalm 27:8-9

So no, when the eyes of our heart seek out God we do not just see “friendly eyes” looking back at us, we see the full glory of God’s face. Yet because of Jesus, we do not need to tremble with fear or hide our face behind a veil. “But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away… And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:16-18)

Because of Jesus, we receive God’s favor and comfort knowing he will never turn his face away in anger. We can see him face to face and not only live, but live a new life.

“Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)

This blog is part of a book club reading The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. Please join the discussion here and at our hosts, Jason Stasyszen and Sarah Salter. Need a copy of the book? You can get it for free on Kindle.

Faith And Humility

Frank

“Almost all who preach or write on the subject of faith have much the same things to say concerning it. They tell us that it is believing a promise, that it is taking God at His word, that it is reckoning the Bible to be true and stepping out upon it. The rest of the book or sermon is usually taken up with stories of persons who have had their prayers answered as a result of their faith. These answers are mostly direct gifts of a practical and temporal nature such as health, money, physical protection or success in business. Or if the teacher is of a philosophic turn of mind he may take another course and lose us in a welter of metaphysics or snow us under with psychological jargon as he defines and re-defines, paring the slender hair of faith thinner and thinner till it disappears in gossamer shavings at last. When he is finished we get up disappointed and go out `by that same door where in we went.’ Surely there must be something better than this.” (A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God)

As a blogger it is tempting to come up with some long-winded reflection and explanation of faith. As a left-brained engi-nerd I could try and approach the subject with logic. Either effort would fall short in explaining the unexplainable.

So how should we define faith? Even Tozer admits that the Bible really only defines faith in action, not in essence. So that is probably the best place to start- faith in action.

The first three steps of AA can be summed up as I can’t, God can, Let him. To overcome addiction or even psychological trauma requires a certain amount of self-awareness. The challenge is distinguishing between self-centeredness and self-awareness. They are not the same thing. Self-centeredness seeks to satisfy itself. Self-awareness on the other hand, is a humble admittance that it cannot satisfy itself. And it takes a leap of faith to jump from the former to the latter.

“Faith is not in itself a meritorious act; the merit is in the One toward Whom it is directed. Faith is a redirecting of our sight, a getting out of the focus of our own vision and getting God into focus. Sin has twisted our vision inward and made it self-regarding. Unbelief has put self where God should be, and is perilously close to the sin of Lucifer who said, `I will set my throne above the throne of God.’ Faith looks out instead of in and the whole life falls into line.” (ibid)

Once one becomes self-aware, it becomes clear that it is ourselves that get it the way of focusing on Christ as the source of our faith, of our hope, of our love. True recovery cannot happen until this truth is accepted. In the secular world, that faith could be in the therapist, or some “higher power” but so long as that faith is accompanied with the humility to get ourselves out of the way, recovery will be successful.

Tozer links faith with sight, citing the Biblical link of Moses to Jesus. I’m not disagreeing, but I think faith without humility is also impossible. It takes faith, just as it takes humility, to admit that I cannot fill-in-the-blank, but God can. It takes faith, just as it takes humility, to get out of the way and let him.

In our recovery group, we had someone come in who was smoking multiple packs of cigarettes a day. He was trying the patch, but it wasn’t working. We pointed out that it was the same problem, just a different delivery. The patch weans you off the physical addiction, but isn’t God more powerful than withdrawals? He said he couldn’t quit cold turkey. We told him he had to. As we went around and around each other we finally said, “if you believe God can overcome this, then he will. Just pray to him.” So he did. He had one more cigarette later that night and then he was done. Humility couldn’t do it alone. Humility is what brought him to our group to begin with. Faith could not do it alone, or he could have quit any time. It was the combination of the two that had success.

Do you need faith to overcome some trial in your life right now? Add a dose of humility and see what God can do. It doesn’t have to be addiction for this to hold true: You can’t, God can, Let him.

This blog is part of a book club reading The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. Please join the discussion here and at our hosts, Jason Stasyszen and Sarah Salter. Need a copy of the book? You can get it for free on Kindle.

The Powerful Voice

Frank

In Glynn Young’s generous introduction to the folks involved in our weekly book discussion (yes, I’ve been away that long), he points to my short bio on Blogger that mentions I’m a comic book nerd. To stay true to form, I’m going to use a comic book reference to introduce this week’s discussion on God’s Voice.

In the Marvel Universe (Marvel Comics publishes Spider-Man, X-Men, and the blockbuster Avengers) one of the most powerful characters is the Inhuman named Black Bolt. His “power” is that his voice creates shockwaves that can level a city. It is so powerful that he undergoes strict meditation to ensure that he not only doesn’t speak, but that he makes no audible sound whatsoever. I was always fascinated by this character because he was so mysterious while also being feared by the other heroes for being so powerful.

The Bible talks about how powerful our voice can be. While we cannot literally cause physical damage with our words, we can do significant harm emotionally and psychologically. We cannot speak things into existence like God at creation, but we can bark orders to build massive structures and machines. “Through the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is destroyed.” (Proverbs 11:11) And this is inherent in our nature, being created in God’s image. “God is not silent, has never been silent. It is the nature of God to speak,” writes A.W. Tozer in the sixth chapter of the Pursuit of God, ‘The Speaking Voice’. (pg 59)

And like the comic book character, God’s voice is powerful- enough so to speak the world into existence. His voice is so powerful that he is even present in a whisper. In 1 Kings 19 we read about Elijah fleeing and seeking comfort from God. Here we read about God appearing not as a great, thunderous storm, but rather as a gentle whisper.

I said above “we read”. I even said it twice. Personally, I am always looking for that booming voice from heaven; so much so that my ears are often deaf to the whisper that God is speaking through his Word.

I know that God speaks through his Word. It is an accepted fact that I too easily take for granted. Yet I know from personal experience that sometimes the whispers that are easy to ignore become shouts that demand response. I have been going to church all my life, but one Sunday while in college the Scriptures spoke to me as they never had before, sending me on a journey I am continuing to this day. Do I hear that same voice, at the same volume, every time I open the Bible? I only wish this was so! But I will never hear God’s voice if I don’t even open my Bible to listen.

“The Bible is the written word of God, and because it is written it is confined and limited by the necessities of ink and paper and leather. The Voice of God, however, is alive and free as the sovereign God is free…

God did not write a book and send it by messenger to be read at a distance by unaided minds. He spoke a Book and lives in his spoken words, constantly speaking His words and causing the power of them to persist across the years.” (Tozer, pgs 53-54)

“The word of God is living and active…”
(Hebrews 4:12)


God is ever-speaking through his word. Sometimes we hear it, sometimes we don’t. Regardless, God’s voice is powerful enough to change the world with just a whisper.

This blog is part of a book club reading The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. Please join the discussion here and at our hosts, Jason Stasyszen and Sarah Salter. Need a copy of the book? You can get it for free on Kindle.