This month marks the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Aiden Wilson Tozer, prolific author and popular preacher. Though lacking a formal education beyond grade school, A. W. Tozer in 1919 began a lifelong pastoral ministry in the Christian and Missionary Alliance and was regarded by many as a prophet for his time. He was the author of more than 40 books, many derived from his sermons. Among the best known are The Pursuit of God and The Knowledge of the Holy. Selections from his writings are presented in this special collection in his honor.
God wants us God wants us to worship Him. He doesn’t need us, for He couldn’t be a self-sufficient God and need anything or anybody, but He wants us. When Adam sinned it was not he who cried, “God, where art Thou?” It was God who cried, “Adam, where art thou?”
—Worship: The Missing Jewel*
Light is not sight Religious instruction, however sound, is not enough by itself. It brings light, but it cannot impart sight. The assumption that light and sight are synonymous has brought spiritual tragedy to millions. The Pharisees looked straight at the Light of the World for three years, but not one ray of light reached their inner beings. Light is not enough. The inward operation of the Holy Spirit is necessary to saving faith. The gospel is light but only the Spirit can give sight.
—Born After Midnight*
Shepherd or Lord? The gradual disappearance of the idea and feeling of majesty from the Church is a sign and a portent. Our God has now become our servant to wait on our will. “The Lord is my shepherd,” we say, instead of “The Lord is my shepherd,” and the difference is as wide as the world.
—Born After Midnight*
The God-absorbed life We are called to an everlasting preoccupation with God.
—That Incredible Christian*
The world’s worst waste A man by his sin may waste himself, which is to waste that which on earth is most like God. This is man’s greatest tragedy, God’s heaviest grief.
—The Root of the Righteous*
Theologian for the damned The devil is a better theologian than any of us and is a devil still.
—Man: The Dwelling Place of God*
The real spiritual life True spirituality manifests itself in certain dominant desires.
1. First is the desire to be holy rather than happy.
2. A man may be considered spiritual when he wants to see the honor of God advanced through his life even if it means that he himself must suffer temporary dishonor or loss.
3. The spiritual man wants to carry his cross.
4. Again, a Christian is spiritual when he sees everything from God’s viewpoint.
5. Another desire of the spiritual man is to die right rather than to live wrong.
6. The desire to see others advance at his expense.
7. The spiritual man habitually makes eternity-judgments instead of time-judgments.
—That Incredible Christian*
Hearers only Among the plastic saints of our times Jesus has to do all the dying and all we want is to hear another sermon about His dying.
—”Three Faithful Wounds” pamphlet*
A stolen throne Sin has many manifestations but its essence is one. A moral being, created to worship before the throne of God, sits on the throne of his own selfhood and from that elevated position declares, “I AM.” That is sin in its concentrated essence; yet because it is natural it appears to be good. “What shall we do?” (Acts 2:37) is the deep heart cry of every man who suddenly realizes that he is a usurper and sits on a stolen throne.
—The Knowledge of the Holy
* Published by Christian Publications Inc., Camp Hill, Pennsylvania
Published by Harper Collins, New York, New York
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