The Pursuit of God (A.W. Tozer)

from an email August 12, 2005

As I promised last week some time I did get time to summarize and type up some quotes from A.W. Tozer’s “The Pursuit of God” and I also while in Tanzania found some sweet quotes in the “Knowing Jesus Personally” evangelical magazine we handed out. Keep pursuing him!

The Pursuit of God ~ A.W. Tozer

Tozer entered the ministry without either high school or college training. A.W. Tozer came to Christ at the age of 17, after hearing a lay preacher speaking at a street meeting in Akron, Ohio. (pg 3)

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. (pg 9)

We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit. (pg 11)

To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love. (pg 14)

Our gifts and talents should also be turned over to Him. They should be recognized for what they are, God’s loan to us, and should never be considered in any sense our own. (pg 28)

“Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” ~ Westminster Shorter Catechism (pg 32)

Our pursuit of God is successful just because He is forever seeking to manifest Himself to us. (pg 61)

We have been trying to apply machine-age 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. (pg 65)

The whole Bible supports this idea. God is speaking. Not God spoke, but God is speaking. He is, by His nature, continuously articulate. He fills the world with His speaking voice. (pg 69)

Even those persons who have never heard of the Bible have still been preached to with sufficient clarity to remove every excuse from their hearts forever. (pg 72)

It is important that we get still to wait on God. And it is best that we get alone, preferably with our Bible outspread before us. (pg 76)

We are right when, and only when, we stand in a right position relative to God, and we are wrong so far and so long as we stand in any other position. (pg 95)

We must of necessity be servant to someone, either to God or to sin. The sinner prides himself on his independence, completely overlooking the fact that he is the weak slave of the sins that rule his members. (pg 98)

His words are the essence of truth. He is not offering an opinion; Jesus never uttered opinions. He never guessed; He knew, and He knows. (pg 104)

Knowing Jesus Personally Magazine

“Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed, and Napolean; without science and learning, He shed more light on things human and divine than all the philosophers and scholars combined” ~ Philip Schaff

“I am an historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.” ~ H.G. Wells

“No other ancient book has anything like such early and plentiful testimony to its text and no unbiased scholar would deny that the text that has come down to us is substantially sound.” ~ Sir Fredick Kenyon (keeper of ancient manuscripts and director of the British Museum, after a lifetime of study of ancient documents)

“As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene... No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.” ~ Albert Einstein