Experiencing the Presence of God - AW Tozer
Compiled and edited by James L Snyder.
Elise and I found this book in a second-hand store in Motueka a few months ago. At the time, what caught my eye was that it was written by AW Tozer, a Christian author who has written some very well-known and challenging books, including The Pursuit of God. After buying it, I noticed that this book was a collection of sermons that Tozer did based on the book of Hebrews - very timely, as I am currently preaching my way through that book.
Tozer was a preacher who was not afraid to voice the unpopular opinion when it meant being faithful to God, and this is a huge part of Experiencing the Presence. Despite having died in 1963, much of what Tozer says still resonates with the way the world, and indeed the Christian Church, operates today, remaining pointed and challenging. For example, Tozer states: "The present generation of Christians has suffered what I call the lost concept of Majesty. This has come about by a slow decline, manifesting itself in our depreciation of ourselves. Those who hold a low value of man have a correspondingly low value of God. After all, God created man in His own image. When we cease to understand the majestic nature of man, we cease to appreciate the majesty of God." (page 22). Considering how the Western world particularly seems to be struggling with low self-worth and a desperate search for identity, Tozer's words resonate still.
The main theme of the book is, of course, on what it means to experience God's presence, and how one could seek to do so on an ongoing basis. Tozer argues that the main ingredient necessary is putting Christ first in our lives, through trusting in His saving power and obeying His Word. "Trust is on one side of the coin, and obey is on the other. But the Church has taken a fine saw and has split them, saying, "You don't have to obey. Just believe." Everything is "believe." You cannot divide that coin. You cannot separate it; if you do, it is no good." (page 62). Obedience to God, Tozer argues, will also mean learning to deny the pull of the world: "I do not think I can say too many times that the world is too much in us...It must be understood most emphatically that the world around us is in conflict with the Word within us." (page 205).
This is a challenging and thought-provoking book, and one I will be coming back to as I seek to further my own walk with God. It will also be one that I reference as I continue to preach through Hebrews, even though the book is less 'verse-by-verse' in its break-down of the Scriptures than the way I am preaching.
Worth a read.
Completed 1 October 2022.
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