Hey Everyone,
Hope you're week is going well. Just wanted to touch base with you and see if you've started reading the Preface and Chapter 1 of The Pursuit of God. Have you started reading yet?
While I found the first chapter a little tough to get through, there were several lines that really left an impression on me. Here are my 2 favorite:
#1 - "Within the fold of conservative Christianity there are to be found increasing numbers of persons whose religious lives are marked by a growing hunger after God Himself. ....They are athirst for God, and they will not be satisfied till they have drunk deep at the Fountain of Living Water." (p.7)
That statement describes the journey I have been on over the last few years. In fact, it reminds me of a verse that I have often prayed - Psalm 42:2 "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can i go and meet with God?" Tozer later refers to it on p. 12. Don't you want to experience more of God? I want to learn how to daily live in the presence of God. I want to experience the presence of God in my life, my marriage and family, and in our church here at Genesis!
#2 - "God is a person, and in the deep of His mighty nature, He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires and suffers as any other person may." (p.13)
The reality that Jesus is a real person and that I can relate to him, the Father and Holy Spirit, much the same way I can relate to my wife or a close friend has really changed my conversations with the Lord. In fact, a daily request I'm trying to pray more and more is this - "Lord, help me to see what you see, think what you think and feel what you feel about fill in the blank." I want to know what He thinks about my wife, how He feels about my wife. I want to know what His dreams are for our family and what His plans are for our church. Thinking of God in terms of a person has greatly impacted my relationship with Him!
So, those are a couple of impressions I was left with. What about you? What are 2 lines in the Preface or Chapter 1 that left an impression on you?
Praying for you!
Kevin
6 comments:
Would love for you to share here or email me 2 of your favorite lines from the preface or Ch 1.
I too initially struggled with this section, but ended up with some good stuff from it.
I hi-lited the same quote about God being a person. I really like Tozer's description.
I also hi-lited "He waits to be wanted. Too bad that with many of us He waits so long, so very long, in vain." (I'm using the iBook and it's on p.13) I felt the conviction of that statement. How many times have I left him waiting while I rushed off to something I needed, or wanted, to do instead.
One more to share, "The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One...if he must see them go (ordinary treasures), one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the Source of all things he has in One all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight." (iBook p.16) That's the goal.
Susie Casey
Can't' sight the page numbers, but it's all there...just in the preface and chapter one...
radiant wonder!
desire God above all;
manifest presence;
something unusual in my personal life;
God Himself to nourish my soul;
delight in His presence;
taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself..in the center of my heart;
And above all, find my heart whispering to the God who hears, "I WANT THAT"
Susie - oh that one line was crushing - "He waits to be wanted" wow! That reminds me of a quote from Richard Foster - I'll share it in my next email/post!
I know I sent this in an email but I like the idea of capturing these comments online also.
1) God is a Person and He desires an intimate individual relationship with us –
“It is inherent in personality to be able to know other personalities, but full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter. It is only after long and loving mental intercourse that the full possibilities of both can be explored.” (p. 11 in my version)
“He communicates with us through the avenues of our minds, our wills and our emotions. The continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of the New Testament religion” (p. 11 in my version)
Wow! God wants to know me personally! What an amazing truth from God! It drives me to want to know Him deeper and to be committed to my relationship with Him. Like it says in Proverbs 2:1-5 I want to continue to pursue Him and pray for wisdom, insight, and understanding so that my life is a living sacrifice for Him.
2) Religion, Church, Legalism can all get in the way of our individual relationship with God
“The whole transaction of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless…. 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.” (p. 10 in my version)
“How tragic that we in this dark day have had our seeking done for us by our teachers. Everything is made to center upon the initial act of ‘accepting’ Christ (a term, incidentally, which is not found in the Bible) and we are not expected thereafter to crave any further revelation of God to our souls. We have been snared in the coils of a spurious logic which insists that if we have found Him we need no more seek Him.” (p. 12 in my version)
This is something that God has put heavy on my heart over the last couple years. When Katie and I were in Haiti we were away from “our church” and “our small group” and “our high school students". After a couple months I realized that without those things I didn’t fully understand my identity with God. These things had defined my relationship with God. Without those things and out of my comfort zone it hit me that if I didn’t begin to seek God individually and pour into our relationship than I have nothing. I realized that I had let church become a crutch for me. My weekly spiritual highlight was Sunday morning unless, “the sermon just didn’t hit me” or “didn’t like the songs” or “speaker was all over the place”.
In hindsight, the worst part about my view of church and God was that I was content with my relationship with God and my understanding of church. If God had not challenged me I may have stopped there. My entire life I had been taught that if I was at church every Sunday and served in the church and participated in a small group and read my Bible and prayed to God than I should be happy. I had heard other people talk about being passionate toward God and desiring a deeper relationship with Him but I had yet to experience what that meant on my own.
So obviously I have become passionate about this and my desire to pursue God has never been more real and personal to me. Church for me now is another opportunity in my week to set aside time to worship the Lord God Almighty and to share in a community of other believers and encourage each other in our own individual pursuit of God. Sundays are great but what drives me now is my daily time with the Lord because for the first time it is real and personal and is not connected with a program or an organization or an activity, it is just me and God.
“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.” (p. 13 in my version)
Brandon Hutchens
My heart is filled with excitement and expectation for this study. There is A LOT to Tozer's writings I find...and I am reading slowly but it is packed with treasures of truth.
I have been thinking of a few things. I love the sentence in Chapter one when Tozer says "We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to that pursuit" then he quotes John 6:44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him". How is it that the Father draws us to Him? I believe it is by His Spirit..His Holy Spirit that reveals who God is for us, what HE is like, what He desires for us to be, revealing the HEART of the Father towards us. That is the beginning of the pursuit. And I think Tozer outlines that pretty well.
In the very beginning in Genesis 1:2 it says that "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Some translations say " the Spirit of God hovered over" I believe just as His spirit brought forth life on the Earth at creation He does so also today in our lives...wooing us to Himself, hovering over us bringing forth THE LIFE He so desires us to have in Christ Jesus. Our spirits become "ALIVE" to His presence, to the revelation of the amazing love of the Father. And it is our "yes" to His Spirit that gives Him full permission to come and invade our lives. Even if the "yes" is "lord, I want to want to desire you more"...that is yes enough!
Praying as well for each desiring more of God!
Lydia
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