The Pursuit of God

God in Three Dimensions

Frank

Chapter 5 of A.W. Tozer’s The Pursuit of God is titled ‘The Universal Presence’. A difficult concept to grasp so I warmed us up last week by talking about his subjective presence- those times when you just know God is present working in your life, but there is no way to prove it. At times, even believers doubt what we see that God is doing in our lives. This week I am going to try and describe God’s objective omnipresence, a trait that we take as true even if we struggle to understand it and cannot physically perceive it. Warning, there is math involved.

In geometry I learned about conic sections- shapes that are formed by intersecting a cone with a plane. (I lost you already didn’t I?) Think of a flashlight. If you shine your light (pun intended) straight-on a flat wall, it forms the shape of a circle. If you shine it at a slight angle, the light forms an oval. And if you hold the light against the wall shining up it will form a parabola (think of the shape at the bottom inside of a cup). “God is light, in him is no darkness.” (1 John 1:5) If we think of Almighty God as a light that shines over all creation then the manifestations of the Trinity are that very same light shining in our lives at different angles.

Another way of thinking about it was put forward by athiest-turned-believer-slash-science-teacher, John Clayton, referring back to the late-nineteenth century allegory called Flatland. The original story described a world that existed in only two dimensions and how their world defined how they perceived things. Clayton takes the allegory one step further and asks what would happen if Flatland were to encounter a sphere. If that sphere were to visit Flatland, it would not appear as a sphere but first as a dot (a line tangent to-straight against- a circle forms a point, just as when a flat plane is tangent to a sphere). As the sphere moves across the plane of flatland the dot would become a circle that would grow until the sphere was halfway across and then the circle would shrink until it eventually became a dot and then it would disappear again. (Picture a bubble on the surface of your bathwater. The bubble, a sphere, forms a circle where it meets the water.) If you lived in Flatland this experience would look like a miracle. If you asked the dot or circle what it was and it answered “I’m a sphere” you would not be able to comprehend what that meant. No matter how it was described, a sphere has no meaning in a world of only two dimensions. (for a more thorough narrative, check out Clayton’s own description.)

To describe God’s omnipresence, think of the sphere as surrounding all creation just like the light in the first example. The fact is, we live in Flatland and have a limited understanding just due to our limited experience. We can consider God a like a light or like a sphere (or a mother hen, or a fortress, and on and on), but those descriptions are used only because they are easy for us to understand. You and I, this side of heaven, cannot fully understand all of God’s qualities. He is omnipresent- ever present- present everywhere. Describe it however you want, but the truth that God is right here, everywhere, is all that’s important.

(FYI, I won’t be able to respond to comments as I’m on vacation. That’s also why this post is a day late)
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.

Subjective Presence

Frank

It is hard enough to explain to someone why you believe in a God that cannot be seen or proven by science. So how do you explain his trait of omnipresence? If God cannot be seen, if his divine work in your life is a subjective experience, how can one explain or understand that God is everywhere at once; that god is literally with you? In The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer, the author tackles this very issue in chapter 5, “The Universal Presence”.

Here in this space, I want to address the subjective experience mentioned above. Please come back next week as I attempt to talk about his omnipresence.

Sunday’s lesson at church was about the wise and foolish builders and discussed in the context of marriage and family. We all have experiences with relationships built on shaky ground and of storms we were certain would crumble everything we’ve built, despite the best foundation. And we have also witnessed the aftermath of some storms in awe of what was still standing.

So I could only attribute it to the Holy Spirit when during the sermon my wife received a text from a friend who needed to talk. Not coincidentally, a major storm was flooding her marriage. This family began building upon the Solid Rock, but over time that foundation began to erode away. But this isn’t about them.

My wife listened and gave her input, and after roughly 60 minutes and probably 10 times that many tears, she hung up. As she was describing the situation, the conversation and her response and input I was moved when in tears she exclaimed, “God is alive!” We can put our trust in that eternal truth. All of our other idols, philosophies, and rationalizations are fleeting and cannot be relied upon when the storms of life hit. If there is no faith in a God who is right there with us through it all, where else can we turn?

That is subjective. But I cannot deny my faith that God is with me, present through all my storms. I have no such confidence in self-help, good intentions, or well wishes. Does that prove God exists? Of course not, at least not in a way that I can convince you. But it is enough evidence for me.

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 Real and the Unseen

Frank

Once upon a time I was a Cub Scout. I never had the patience to learn how to tie a necktie or earn many of the other badges, so I didn’t get very far. I don’t remember a whole lot other than the camping, popcorn sales, and pinewood derbies. But I do remember one time walking through town with my Pack with the assignment to look around and identify what was “created by God” versus what was “made by man”. The example I most remember was a telephone pole, made by man out of the wood created by God. We’d look at buildings and come to the same conclusion of stone and mortar forming man-made structures. And those would contrast with the grass of a lawn (planted by man, not natural habitat) or the river running through town.

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20)

A.W. Tozer writes in Chapter 4 of The Pursuit of God that “for millions of Christians… God is no more real than He is to the non-Christian.” (pg 37) He goes on to describe how human nature defines what is “real” by what we perceive through our five senses while dismissing what can be perceived spiritually as imaginary. Yet the tree, the river, the stone were not created by man and those things can be touched and seen. One could argue that science can explain the placement of a stone, the path of a river, and the home of a tree in opposition to the notion that what is unseen is the cause.

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)

But science can also explain the presence of an atom, a proton, a quark, a boson which cannot be seen. So are these scientific discoveries “real” in the same sense as a tree? The scientist argues that the effects of these unseen particles can be observed and measured. But at the same time can not a Christian make the same argument about the effects and influences of God working in and around their life? Of course the difference is objective versus subjective. But once upon a time the smallest particle was considered to be a grain of sand and there was no subjective argument. Then it was impossible to consider anything smaller than an electron. We should be careful to draw a line in the quark (see what I did there?) as definitive, as the final answer with nothing left to discover. We would be foolish to limit our definition of what is real to only that which we can see.

Consider the scriptures above: God’s invisible qualities… have clearly been seen… faith is… certain of what we do not see. How easily we dismiss the spiritual all around us just because we cannot see it. And as Tozer rightly notes, this arrogance prevents us from truly knowing God. Yet to know God, all we have to do is look around!

“For the Lord is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.”
(Psalm 95:3-5)

Do not close your eyes to what God has revealed through his creation. Do not close your ears to what God speaks to you through his Word. “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord!”

 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.

An Altar to Me

Frank

When Jesus died, the curtain separating the people from the Presence of God was torn, symbolizing that by the blood of Christ we could now enter into God’s presence without the need for intercessors or any further sacrifice. The blood-debt of our sins has been paid in full; the final sacrifice has been made. Yet A.W. Tozer writes that despite that “God wills that we should push into His Presence and live our whole life there,” (pg 26) we are content to remain outside the veil. Tozer asks, “why do we consent to abide all our days just outside the Holy of Holies and never enter at all to look upon God?” (pg 31) He concludes that there must be a veil inside of our own hearts that separates us from the divine presence of God.

So what is that veil? Is it things, or a lack of knowledge of God? I could go on and on and speculate, but something hit me as I was praying yesterday. In the Temple, before the curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place was an altar on which incense was burned as an act of perpetual worship. What hit me as I was praying was that it is this altar that is keeping me from entering in to God’s presence.

Perpetual worship is keeping me from intimacy with God. That doesn’t sound right, does it? The problem isn’t the worship, but to whom I am worshipping. I realized that I worship myself. This isn’t really any new revelation, but the perpetual nature of incense burning before the veil is what convicted me. It is not just that I worship myself- we all do at times- but that this worship is perpetual and all-consuming.

To whom do I turn when things are hard? Me. Who do I talk to during those quiet and still times in my mind? Myself. Who do I seek to satisfy? I. Me, myself, and I. My own holy trinity. I pay God lip service in prayer and I do lift up my voice in praise on Sunday mornings. I reflect on his word daily, but most of the time only to the extent of how I would teach about a particular passage. (I am even guilty of this on Sundays; listening to a sermon I think of the point I would make instead of the actual point being made) My worship is centered around me: what I want, what I think, what I like. And so I perpetually burn incense to myself.

In order to enter in to where God longs for me to be, I need to snuff out the incense and stop worshipping myself. With respect to our own veils that keep us from God Tozer writes, “In human experience that veil is made of living spiritual tissue… To tear it away is to injure us, to hurt us and make us bleed.” (pg 32)

I need to tear down the altar I have build to myself. I need to tear away my own veil that keeps me from God. This is going to hurt. I cannot do this alone. Praise be to God who sent his only Son to go ahead of me, shedding his blood for my sake. “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” (Hebrews 9:14)

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.

Knowing, Trusting, Entering

Frank

In the third chapter of A.W. Tozer’s The Pursuit of God, Tozer highlights a serious danger to our churches that is as true today as it was when it was first written in 1948: “The world is perishing for
lack of the knowledge of God and the Church is famishing for want of His Presence.” (pg 27) There is a lot to digest here with respect to what keeps us from entering into the presence of God, but that will have to wait until next week. Instead I want to suggest that one of the things that causes the latter (want of his Presence) is a consequence of the former (lack of the knowledge of God). How much do
we take for granted evangelical language like when we “came to know Christ” or sing songs like “I’ve got a friend in Jesus”? A relationship requires more than meeting someone a single time, and
deep relationships require knowing someone intimately.

And so I believe one of the biggest obstacles to authentic Christianity in our churches is this lack of intimate knowledge of who God is. Books have been written on this very issue with respect to the Son (The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancy for example), the Holy Spirit (Forgotten God by Francis Chan as one), or the Father (Praying the Names of God by Ann Spangler to round out the list from my personal bookshelf). But how many address the Triune God as not of singular characteristics of one of the three, but the perfection that comes from the whole? (And I believe Tozer recognized this when he later wrote The Knowledge of the Holy.) Ask yourself, when was the last time you heard a sermon on the very nature of God, or his majesty, or even of his infinite love and justice?

A couple paragraphs in this chapter stood out to me that I think need to be shared in their entirety:

Who is this within the veil who dwells in fiery manifestations? It is none other than God Himself, “One God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible,” and “One Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God; begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God; begotten not made; being of one substance with the Father,” and “the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified.” Yet this holy Trinity is One God, for “we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one: the glory equal and the majesty co-eternal.” So in part run the ancient creeds, and so the inspired Word declares. (pg 27)
What a broad world to roam in, what a sea to swim in is this God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is eternal, which means that he antedates time and is wholly independent of it. Time began in Him and will end in Him. To it He pays no tribute and from it He suffers no change. He is immutable, which means that He has never changed and can never change in any smallest measure. To change He would need to go from better to worse or from worse to better. He cannot do either, for being perfect He cannot become more perfect, and if He were to become less perfect He would be less than God. He is omniscient, which means that He knows in one free and effortless act all matter, all spirit, all relationships, all events. He has no past and He has no future. He is, and none of the limiting and qualifying terms used of creatures can apply to Him. Love and mercy and righteousness are His, and holiness so ineffable that no comparisons or figures will avail to express it. Only fire can give even a remote conception of it. In fire He appeared at the burning bush; in the pillar of fire He dwelt through all the long wilderness journey. The fire that glowed between the wings of the cherubim in the holy place was called the “shekinah,” the Presence, through the years of Israel’s glory, and when the Old had given place to the New, He came at Pentecost as a fiery flame and rested upon each disciple. (pg 28)

Is this the God you came to know when you accepted Jesus? Is this the God you know now this very moment? If so, are you living like you believe this? A couple things stand out- since God is eternal, time exists in Him not the other way around. And because of this, he has no past and no future and knows the result of all things.

I was just reading in Sheila Walsh’s God Loves Broken People about trusting in this aspect of God to carry us through our trials. We can plaster Romans 8 on a bumper sticker, but do we actually live as if it is true? Do we honestly, I mean honestly, believe that God works all things out for the good? As I type, New Orleans is flooding under yet another hurricane. That same hurricane, then as a tropical storm, pummeled Haiti with rain, ruining the makeshift tent cities and undoing much of the relief efforts there. Meanwhile political talking-heads jockey for position as voters concern themselves with
the economy, finding a job, and wondering how they are going to pay their bills. On whom is our faith based? We are surrounded by sickness, addiction and trauma that have ruined peoples’ very lives. Or has it?

Because we don’t really know God, it is hard to put our trust and faith in him. And because we struggle to trust him we allow all the circumstances above, and even inconsequential things like a tough day at the office or the kids fighting over a toy, to stand in our way of entering into His divine presence.

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 Tyranny of Things

Frank

I was going to go a different direction with this post, but re-reading the second chapter of A.W. Tozer’s The Pursuit of God this statement stood out to me: the tyranny of things.

In the context of the things of this world displacing God on the throne of our hearts, Tozer writes, “Our Lord referred to this tyranny of things when He said this to His disciples, ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it.'” (pg 18)

Of course these words of Jesus from Matthew 16 are familiar to us. Toby Mac even had a best-selling song from the following verse about gaining the world but losing your soul. But maybe we have become too familiar with this verse; so familiar that we miss just how radical Jesus’ teaching is. That’s why the word “tyranny” stood out to me. We know Jesus sets us free from sin, but he also sets us free from things.

How many times does Jesus call others to give something up? In the other example of Jesus talking about finding your life only to lose it in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is following up on the offensive statement, “anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:37) When Jesus called the first disciples, they gave up their careers (Luke 5). Other examples: the guest of honor must give up the seat at the head of the table (Luke 14), the rich young ruler must give up all his possessions (Matthew 19), the worshiper must give up their gift at the altar to be reconciled with others (Matthew 5), the sinner must even give up body parts! (also Matthew 5). Luke doesn’t mess around, quoting Jesus saying, “any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:33)

The life of following Jesus is one of ongoing sacrifice. I was meditating on this the other day in the context of Jesus ushering in his Kingdom. He calls us to a life of slavery where we give up all of our rights, all of our possessions, all of our dreams, all of our things, and submit to his Lordship within the walls of his eternal Kingdom where he provides everything we need. We even give up our citizenship and call heaven home.

So we are given two choices- a life where our things mean nothing, living in the Kingdom under the Lordship of Christ, or a life where we are under the reign of the tyrant of all our things. There is no middle ground. Tyranny or Lordship, things or Christ.

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.

Catching Squirrels

Frank

(Apologies for the late post. I wrote this on the plane yesterday but was more jet-lagged than usual last night and I’m just now waking back up)

How do you catch a squirrel? They say if you hide a nut behind a small hole the squirrel will reach in for the nut and get stuck. Its closed fist will be too large to pull back through the hole, but the squirrel is not smart enough to let go of the nut to get free.

We are a lot like that squirrel, and the world has figured out how to trap us. How easy is it to reach in to grab things, unwilling to let go for our own good? It starts young- right after learning dada and mama, the next words out of a young child’s mouth is usually mine or more. We put on diapers with popular cartoon characters, is if it makes any difference to the kid. And then the toys come- every birthday, every Christmas, and every excuse in between- Easter, Valentine’s Day, even a natural part of development like losing a tooth is followed by a visit from the tooth fairy, bringing money.

We are raised to want more and more. And it isn’t limited to children’s toys. The iPhone 4 isn’t good enough, you need the iPhone 5. Never mind that your old TV was a 36 standard-def, you need that 60 inch high-def plasma. Got in on the ground floor of HDTV? Upgrade your 720p to 3D. Meanwhile I type this on my iPad after reading the second chapter of A.W. Tozer’s Pursuit of God via my Kindle App.

I have a lot. If you’re reading this on a computer screen or a portable device, you have a lot too. So the hard question we need to ask ourselves, is if our hands are stuck in the hole? Recently my wife and I were looking at ways to trim our budget. I wrestled with the thought of giving up my iPhone and XM radio. I just couldn’t do it. Why? What am I going to miss out on? We’ve already had to implement a no-phone rule at dinner. I probably wouldn’t be losing anything, rather gaining otherwise wasted time.

Tozer writes, “Things have become necessary for us, a development never originally intended. God’s gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution.” (pg 18) He them goes on to remind us of the example of Abraham, who was asked by God to sacrifice- put to death- that what meant the most, his son Isaac. Instead of protesting, asking how he could live without, he obeyed. God spared his son and blessed Abraham for learning this hard lesson. Tozer continues, “the words “my” and “mine” never again had the same meaning to Abraham.” (pg 21)

“Mine” still means something to me. It’s amazing how much I can hold in one hand while it is so hard to pull it from the trap.

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.

Thirst

Frank

My mom is from the Southeast so we would regularly fly out over the summer to spend a week with her family. I remember nearly every trip getting migraine headaches that would lay me up in bed for a day. I would attribute it to the heat and the humidity, but then I took a trip to cooler climate and suffered the same malady. What was common was that I would feel this way the second day after flying, so I figured that maybe it was the recirculated air on-board, or the pressurization of the cabin. But I later learned it was dehydration. Spending 5-6 hours on a plane drinking nothing but free soda and no water has that effect. Since coming to that realization, I now will only drink water on-board and make sure to drink at least another liter of water every time I fly. And I haven’t had such a headache since.

“Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.”
(Psalm 1:1-3)

It is funny to look back and recognize that I physically felt ill just because I was thirsty. And because I was filling my body with junk disguised as refreshment, I didn’t recognize my need for pure water.

A.W. Tozer writes “Christ may be ‘received’ without creating any special love for Him in the soul of the receiver. The man is ‘saved’ but he is not hungry nor thirsty after God. In fact he is specifically taught to be satisfied and encouraged to be content with little.” (Pursuit of God, pg 12)

We are fooled into thinking we are spiritually satisfied by church attendance or religious participation. Meanwhile our souls ache inexplicably. We fail to recognize the thirst that God himself has placed in us. “The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after him.” (pg 9)

It would be easy to jump on my soapbox and compare religiosity to the nutritionally vapid soda from my personal experience. What is interesting is that nearly 70 years ago, Tozer observed the same thing. This is nothing new and whatever I write on some blog is unlikely to change that. Instead I need to look inwardly at my own thirst, and my own temptation to drink deeply from that which does not satisfy.

“My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” (Psalm 42:2)

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6)

In the Beatitude above it is in vogue to translate righteousness instead as justice and miss the point of personal sanctification. The Amplified Bible expands righteousness as “uprightness and right standing with God.” The Message Bible  talks of having a “good appetite for God.” The temptation, besides an outward focused “justice” is a works-oriented trying hard to do good definition of righteousness. I like the idea combining the two translations above as simply having an appetite to be with God.

My soul thirsts for God. I am hungry to be with Him. Where can I go to satisfy my appetite and be filled? My temptation is to look around and try and find some program, some activity, some quick-fix to my spiritual longing. Tozer addresses this too, “The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart.” (pg 15) Simply put, man created religion to satisfy the need to seek out God and his holiness. But it is man-made and can never satisfy. So for every failed method there is an improved program. For every campaign that falls short there is a new marketing program. For every book read and put down there is another best-seller to take its place.

I cannot be satisfied by what the world, even the religious world, offers. Only God himself can satisfy my soul. Only God, God alone. And so I begin this book in The Pursuit of 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.