A.W. Tozer's The Pursuit of God

As God has been teaching our church the importance of being filled with the Holy Spirit, we are reminded that the greatest blessing offered to us in the gospel is to experience the presence of the Creator God. In his short, but profound book, The Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer writes, "To have found God and still pursue Him is the soul's paradox of love."

Tozer goes on to show that the sins of the "self-life" (self righteousness, self-sufficiency, etc) form a "close-woven veil" in our hearts that separate us from God. But at the cross that veil was torn. When we fix our gaze on Him alone, putting away all seeking after "God-and," He restores us to that fellowship in which our true happiness lies:

The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go, 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. Whatever he may lose he has actually lost nothing, for he now has it all in One, and he has it purely, legitimately and forever (20).

Tozer's writing is wonderfully readable, but full of glorious substance. His delight in God, the "creating personality," is contagious.

Copies of The Pursuit of God are available in the church bookstore for $3.00.

-Brad Hodges