A. W. Tozer - The Best of A. W. Tozer Book One

The Best of A.W. Tozer
Book One

Compiled by Warren W. Wiersbe

1978, 2000 by Zur Ltd..

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Tozer, A. W., 1897-1963

The Best of A. W. Tozer Book One / A. W. Tozer.

ISBN: 978-1-60066-286-7

Contents

I guess my philosophy is this: Everything is wrong until God sets it right.

That statement from Dr. A. W. Tozer perfectly summarizes what he believed and what he tried to do during his years of ministry. The entire focus of his preaching and writing was on God. He had no time for religious hucksters who were inventing new ways to promote their wares and inflate their statistics. Like Thoreau, whom he read and admired, Tozer marched to a different drummer; and for this reason, he was usually out of step with many of the people in the religious parade.

But it was this evangelical eccentricity that made us love him and appreciate him. He was not afraid to tell us what was wrong. Nor was he hesitant to tell us how God could make it right. If a sermon can be compared to light, then A. W. Tozer released a laser beam from the pulpit, a beam that penetrated your heart, seared your conscience, exposed sin, and left you crying, What must I do to be saved? The answer was always the same: surrender to Christ; get to know God personally; grow to become like Him.

Aiden Wilson Tozer was born in Newburg (then known as La Jose), Pennsylvania, on April 21, 1897. In 1912 the family moved from the farm to Akron, Ohio; and in 1915 he was converted to Christ. He immediately entered into a life of devotional intensity and personal witness. In 1919 he began pastoring the Alliance Church in Nutter Fort, West Virginia. He also pastored churches in Morgantown, West Virginia; Toledo, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; and in 1928 came to the Southside Alliance Church in Chicago. Here he ministered until November, 1959, when he became pastor of the Avenue Road Church in Toronto. A sudden heart attack on May 12, 1963, ended that ministry and Tozer was ushered into Glory.

I am sure that Tozer reached more people through his writing than his preaching. Much of his writing was reflected in the preaching of pastors who fed their souls on his words. In May, 1950, he was named editor of The Alliance Weekly, now The Alliance Witness, which was probably the only religious magazine purchased primarily for its editorials. I once heard Dr. Tozer at an Evangelical Press Association conference taking to task editors who practiced what he called super-market journalismtwo columns of advertising and one aisle of reading material. He was an exacting writer and was as hard on himself as he was on others.

What is there about A. W. Tozers writings that gets hold of us and will not let us go? Tozer did not enjoy the privilege of a university or seminary training, or even a Bible School education for that matter; yet he has left us a shelf of books that will be mined for their spiritual wealth until the Lord returns.

For one thing, A. W. Tozer wrote with conviction. He was not interested in tickling the ears of the shallow Athenian Christians who were looking for some new thing. Tozer redug the old wells and called us back to the old paths, and he passionately believed and practiced the truths that he taught. He once told a friend of mine, I have preached myself off of every Bible Conference platform in the country! The popular crowds do not rush to hear a man whose convictions make them uncomfortable.

Tozer was a mystican evangelical mysticin an age that is pragmatic and materialistic. He still calls us to see that real world of the spiritual that lies beyond the physical world that so ensnares us. He begs us to please God and forget the crowd. He implores us to worship God that we might become more like Him. How desperately we need that message today!

A. W. Tozer had the gift of taking a spiritual truth and holding it up to the light so that, like a diamond, every facet was seen and admired. He was not lost in homiletical swamps; the wind of the Spirit blew and dead bones came to life. His essays are like fine cameos whose value is not determined by their size. His preaching was characterized by an intensityspiritual intensitythat penetrated ones heart and helped him to see God. Happy is the Christian who has a Tozer book handy when his soul is parched and he feels God is far away.

This leads to what I think is the greatest contribution A. W. Tozer makes in his writings: he so excites you about truth that you forget Tozer and reach for your Bible. He himself often said that the best book is the one that makes you want to put it down and think for yourself. Rarely do I read Tozer without reaching for my notebook to jot down some truth that later can be developed into a message. Tozer is like a prism that gathers the light and then reveals its beauty.

To select the best of A. W. Tozer is an impossible task. Best for whom? For what needs? As a pastor, I could select fifty essays that would challenge and bless the hearts of my brothers in the ministry, but Tozer is read by many people who are not pastors. As a writer, I could choose chapters from his books that reveal his skill with words; but most readers are not writers. Those of us who appreciate Tozers writings certainly have our favorites, but no two of us would agree.

From the Tozer books published by WingSpread Publishers, I have made selections on the basis of theme and development. Dr. Tozer often said the same things in different ways, and I have tried to choose major themes in their best expression. If one of your favorite essays is missing, perhaps you will be compensated by reading a new one that you have missed or forgotten.

If this book is your first introduction to A. W. Tozer, then permit me to suggest the best way to read these essays. Please read them slowly and meditatively, thinking as you read. Do not speed read these chapters. As you read, listen for what Tozer called the other Voice speaking truth through these brief messages. If a certain truth begins to burn in your soul, put the book down and let God instruct you by His Spirit. Wait quietly before Him and deep within your heart God will speak to you.

The best book is not one that informs merely, Tozer wrote in Man: The Dwelling Place of God, but one that stirs the reader up to inform himself.

I trust that this book, composed of what I think are the best of Tozers writings, will meet that standard. I think that it will. I pray that it will introduce a host of new readers to the writings of this man of God, and that those of us who have known him longer will appreciate him more.

Warren W. Wiersbe

The Moody Church

Chicago, Illinois

Following Hard After God

My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand, upholdeth me. Ps. 63:8

Christian theology teaches the doctrine of prevenient grace, which briefly stated means this, that before a man can seek God, God must first have sought the man.

Before a sinful man can think a right thought of God, there must have been a work of enlightenment done within him; imperfect it may be, but a true work nonetheless, and the secret cause of all desiring and seeking and praying which may follow.

We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit. No man can come to me, said our Lord, except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and it is by this very prevenient drawing that God takes from us every vestige of credit for the act of coming. The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after Him; and all the time we are pursuing Him we are already in His hand: Thy right hand upholdeth me.