Tony Evans - Our God Is Awesome: Encountering the Greatness of Our God

Tony Evans

MOODY PUBLISHERS
CHICAGO

1994 by
ANTHONY T. EVANS

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

All Scripture quotations, unless indicated, are taken from the New American Standard Bible , 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, and 1977 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version.

The use of selected references from various versions of the Bible in this publication does not necessarily imply publisher endorsement of the versions in their entirety.

ISBN-10: 0-8024-4850-X
ISBN-13: 978-0-8024-4850-7

ISBN-13: 978-0-8024-8031-6(electronic)

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This book is gratefully dedicated to:

Rev. John McNeal, who taught me about
the holiness of God,

Dr. Howard Dial, who gave me a love for
the Word of God,

Dr. B. Sam Hart, who led me into
the service of God,

and my father,

Mr. Arthur S. Evans, who led me into a
relationship with God

Writing a book about God, His character and work, can make an author feel like our family feels when going on vacation: We know we're forgetting something, but we're not exactly sure what it is! Many authors would rather let the challenge pass.

My good friend and colleague in ministry, Dr. Tony Evans, has accepted the challenge. Dr. Evans is recognized in the evangelical church around the world for his unique gifts. The result of his gifts expressed in this work deserves a place at the top of your must read list.

Tony acknowledges up front that it's hard to know where to begin when your subject is God Himself. But as you read the book, you will agree with me that Tony started at the right place. I am struck by his clarity and strategic emphasis that knowing God is the foundation and motivation for everything else in the Christian life.

The pressing priority of pursuing the knowledge of God, in the sense of both intimate fellowship and correct information, is confirmed by the words of the apostle Paul, who pulled out the scrapbook of his personal pedigree and accomplishments, thumbed through it, and then told the Philippians: But whatever things were gain tome, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord (3:78).

This hunger marks Tony's life and ministry, and this commitment shines through on every page of Our God Is Awesome.

This is a passionate book, written by someone who believes that the knowledge of God's perfection and His ways is the most important study that could occupy our minds and hearts. If you've heard Tony on his nationwide radio program The Urban Alternative or in conference ministry, you know that he teaches God's Word with an irrepressible energy that stirs a response in one's soul.

Our response to the knowledge of God comes right to the front in Our God Is Awesome. That's one of the reasons this book is so valuable. Tony is not content to give us a mini-course in theology. Truth always demands a responseand Tony is at his best when he calls God's people to act on the truth they've learned. Each chapter concludes with very practical steps to help us do just that.

Thankfully, Dr. Evans doesn't pretend to explain everything about God. That would be an unending task. Instead, he reverently and thoroughly seeks to help us understand God better that we might love Him more.

It's a pleasure for me to recommend this book. In doing so, let me echo Tony's prayer for his readers, which is that by the time you finish this book, you will know a little bit more about our great God... and have a greater desire to enjoy, obey, and serve Him.

Dr. Joseph Stowell, President
Moody Bible Institute

Discoursing about the attributes of God can be a dull and listless enterprise. Especially if one pursues the task as a clinical examination of a supernal being (even the sound of this evokes drowsiness). In my many years of theological training, I have read countless theological works which sought to explain God by using words with more than three syllables or nine letters.

The doctrine of God is not presented in Scripture as a set of well-organized theological tenets unrelated to the realities of everyday life. God has determined to reveal His character in the contexts of peace and pain, joy and sorrow, grace and wrath, birth and death, love and hate, and countless other real life situations. We learn about God's law from a murderer named Moses. We learn about God's worship from an adulterer named David. We learn of God's sovereignty from a sufferer named Job. We learn about God's grace from a rebel named Peter. These and many others reflect the down-to-earth context in which God chose to reveal Himself to mankind. And just as these repentant people of old were used to communicate God's truth to men and women today, even so repentant men and women today can personally come to know the wonder of the awesome God of whom they spoke.

An academic study has its place and is helpful to the minister and student of the Bible, but it's hard to get to know God on such a formal and academic basis. It is somewhat like having a relationship with the postmaster general on the basis of one's ability to lick a stamp. Hardly a life-changing experience.

After all, this is the God who allowed His Son to die for our sake. Also, because of the close relationship we share with God via our adoption through Jesus Christ, He wants us to call Him Daddy. Paul says in Romans 8:15, For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out Abba! Father!' The word Abba is the Aramaic (the language spoken in first-century Palestine) equivalent of Daddy. It is certainly a term of respect, but it is also a term of endearment. Every child of God should get to know his or her heavenly Father.

When I decided to write this book, I wanted to present God in all the splendor and majesty that befits Him. The likelihood of realizing such a lofty goal is slim. However, I did not want my readers to think that God was on the outer edge of the universe, nor did I want to treat Him as though He belongs in a specimen jar. God will forever transcend the reasoning of man, but through Christ and through His Word, the Father has drawn near to us. This book celebrates God's self-revelatory grandeur, upclose and personal. It also seeks to address the appropriate response as we encounter our great God.

By knowing God, we can better understand how we are to live. How can a person imitate God when he or she does not understand what to imitate? We do not carry adjectives and descriptions to God hoping He will fit one of them. Rather, we go to God to find out what the adjectives mean. A study of the words power and authority is a vain pursuit without pursuing God for the true understanding. What is holiness apart from the holiness of God? How can we speak of omnipresence apart from God?