Following Hard After God

Some of the highlights from The Pursuit of God, by A.W. Tozer (Chapter 1: Following Hard After God)

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

We pursue God because, and only because, he has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit.

The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after him.

God is always previous.

[The following quote is with regard to the church of today... which was 1948 when Tozer wrote this. How much more true today] Faith may now be exercised without a jar to the moral life and without embarrassment to the Adamic ego. Christ may be “received” without creating any special love for him in the soul of the receiver. The man is “saved,” but he is not hungry nor thirsty after God.

We have almost forgotten that God is a person and, as such, can be cultivated as any person can. …but full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter. It is only after a long and loving mental intercourse that the full possibilities of both can be explored.

The moment the Spirit has quickened us to life in regeneration our whole being senses its kinship to God and leaps up in joyous recognition. That is the heavenly birth without which we cannot see the kingdom of God. It is, however, not an end but an inception, for now begins the glorious pursuit, the heart’s happy exploration of the infinite riches of the Godhead.

To have found God and still to pursue him is the soul’s paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too easily satisfied religionists, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart.

Complacency is a deady foe of all spiritual growth.

[In his day... and in ours]… are programs, methods, organizations and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart.

When religion has said its last word, there is little that we need other than God himself. The evil habit of seeking God-and effectively prevents us from finding God in full revelation.

Click here to read the prayer that goes with this chapter. It is truly beautiful.

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Growing in Prayer

featuring Bill Kynes at the C.S. Lewis Institute

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Spiritual Life Checkup

Over the years I’ve shared a variety of spiritual life checkups. They have been very helpful to the folks I serve… and certainly to me.

This is one that I’ve printed before and shared it with some of the classes I teach at church. It’s a good resource to use as you think about your spiritual health as well as what areas you would like to work on in the new year. I highly recommend taking a look at it and thinking through it. I hope you find it useful. Here’s the introduction to it…

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.  All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.”  Matthew 22:37-40

Each year many of us will go through a physical check-up, perhaps do a financial check up at year’s end or at tax time, and perhaps do a performance review at our workplace.   But how often do we take time to review our spiritual life?

Those who are saved by grace are called to grow in grace (2 Pet. 3.18).  As disciples of Jesus, we are to live a life of love – love for God and love for our neighbor, in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Too often, in the busyness of our day-to-day lives, we let other priorities crowd out the two highest priorities Jesus gave us.   The following questions are designed to help you examine your spiritual life over the past year and to prayerfully seek God’s help in areas where you desire to grow in the New Year.

Click here to read or download the whole checkup.

Blessings,
Dale

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A Year with C.S. Lewis

Join me in 2013 for a year’s journey of drawing closer to God, as well as learning more about our Christian faith, through the life and writings of C.S. Lewis, one of the most popular and influential Christian thinkers of the 20^th century.

My goals for this focus are, first of all, to help acquaint you with the person and works of and about C.S. Lewis. Secondly, I pray that your view of God and the Christian life will grow richer and larger and livelier. Thirdly, my deepest hope is that you will take what you learn and put it into practice as well as share it with others.

There are two ways to spend this year with C.S. Lewis.

1. You can think of this as, “Pastor Dale’s Book Club,” and simply read each month’s assigned book on your own. This will be an independent study of sorts. No checking-in required. Think of the assigned booklist as a helpful suggestion to aid your reading of C.S. Lewis.

OR…

2. You can think of this as a low-key directed study. By that I mean, if you so desire, you are more than welcome to set up times to meet with me to discuss each month’s book, what you’ve learned, questions you may have, etc. The last thing I want to do is add stress to your life, therefore, you are free to meet with me every other week, every other month, or not at all (or any other schedule that you can think of). The choice (and schedule) is up to you!

We begin our literary journey on January 1, 2013. You can check out the reading list below to see what interests you. Read a few of them… or read them all. Whatever you decide to do, I know you’ll be blessed by reading the books of and about this great man. More importantly, you’ll be even more blessed as you grow closer to the God of this great man.

Grace and Truth,
Dale

Reading List

• January – The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis by Alan Jacobs (Biography)
• February – Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life by C.S. Lewis 
• March – A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
• March – Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
• April – The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
• May – The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
• June – Seeking the Secret Place: The Spiritual Formation of C.S. Lewis by Lyle Dorsett
• July – Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer by C.S. Lewis
• August – The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis
• September – Between Heaven & Hell: A Dialogue Somewhere Beyond Death with John F. Kennedy, C.S. Lewis & Aldous Huxley by Peter Kreeft
• October – Not A Tame Lion by Bruce L. Edwards
• November – The Soul of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by Gene Veith
• December – The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

The books can be purchased online at Christianbook.com or Amazon.

Locally, I’m certain that Barnes and Noble or Lifeway Christian Store can order the books for you if they do not have them in stock.

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God’s Purpose for Your Marriage

A little over a year ago, our church’s men’s discipleship groups studied a video curriculum by Gary Thomas called, Sacred Marriage. It is a series that’s for husbands and wives to both be a part of, but I thought it would still be useful to study it with just the men. It was fantastic. The study is based on the book by the same name. I have recently begun reading the book and, like the video series, it’s great.

One of the things that struck me as I watched the video, discussed it with our men, and have now been reminded of as I read through the book, is how Thomas focuses on the foundation (you could say, the theology) of marriage and what God’s ultimate purpose is in marriage. The book is not, as he puts it, a three, seven, or ten-step program for a better, happier marriage. Instead, he does some of the hard work of looking at God’s real purpose of marriage… which is to make us holy… not necessarily happy. That’s a hard message to sell… especially in the era of romantic comedies and the Hallmark and Lifetime television channels.

In the first chapter of the book Thomas puts it this way…

…there’s a deeper question that needs to be addressed beyond how we can “improve” our marriage: What if God didn’t design marriage to be “easier”? What if God had an end in mind that went beyond our happiness, our comfort, and our desire to be infatuated and happy as if the world were a perfect place?

What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?

As Thomas will go on to say in the chapter, holiness and happiness aren’t necessarily contradictory, but a person’s happiness becomes illusory if they think a.) that it’s the sole purpose of the marriage, and b.) that their spouse is the one in whom they will find such ultimate purpose.

The real intention of the book, for Thomas, is to show his readers that marriage, in the same way as abstinence for celibates and isolation for hermits, is a context for spiritual growth. He writes that marriage can become the means by which we can “grow in our service, obedience, character, pursuit, and love of God.”

If I might put it in Wesleyan terminology, marriage is a means of grace by which we draw closer to God and conform more to the likeness of Christ. That’s not a bad deal.

I’ve only just begun the book, so I’m certain there is plenty ahead that will challenge, guide and encourage me. I’ll keep you posted on what I learn. Pray that my wonderful wife might see “in action” what I’m learning from the book as well.

Grace and Truth,
Dale

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The Root of the Righteous

A man shall not be established by wickedness: but the root of the righteous shall not be moved. (Proverbs 12:3)

I love A.W. Tozer, my brother in the Fellowship of the Burning Heart… though he’s often hard to read because of how convicted I usually feel afterward. One of the best collections of his is entitled, The Root of the Righteous. It is well worth getting and reading… and then reading again. By the way, it was first published in 1955. (That fact will explain why he’s often called a modern-day prophet.)

Here are a few quotes from the first chapter, also entitled, The Root of the Righteous…

One marked difference between the faith of our fathers as conceived by the fathers and the same faith as understood and lived by their children is that the fathers were concerned with the root of the matter, while their present-day descendents seem concerned only with the fruit.

Our fathers looked well to the root of the tree and were willing to wait with patience for the fruit to appear.

[Impatient Christians today] imitate their fruit without accepting their theology or inconveniencing ourselves too greatly by adopting their all-or-nothing attitude toward religion.

The bough that breaks off from the tree in a storm may bloom briefly and give to the unthinking passerby the impression that it is a healthy and fruitful branch, but its tender blossoms will soon perish and the bough itself wither and die. There is no lasting life apart from the root.

Much that passes for Christianity today is the brief, bright effort of the severed branch to bring forth its fruit in its season. But the deep laws of life are against it. Preoccupation with appearances and a corresponding neglect of the out-of-sight root of true spiritual life are prophetic signs which go unheeded.

A church that is soundly rooted cannot be destroyed, but nothing can save a church whose root is dried up. No stimulation, no advertising campaigns, no gifts of money and no beautiful edifice can bring back life to the rootless tree.

In every generation the number of the righteous is small. Be sure you’re among them.

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How to Turn Curses into Blessings

Nehemiah 13:2 – “Our God, however, turned the curse into a blessing.”

What the devil and the world mean for evil, God can use for good. He is a Romans 8:28-kind-of-God. He can turn curses, ill-will, and hate-filled words, thoughts and actions aimed at us into blessings. But to be honored in such a way, we must honor him (1 Samuel 2:30).

The priests in Malachi 1 and 2 did not honor God in such a way. Thus, God vividly reminded these “spokesmen and ministers of his” that blessings can also be turned into curses. In Malachi 2:1-2, God declares…

“And now this admonition is for you, O priests. If you do not listen, and if you do not ‘I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not set your heart to honor me.’”

A covenantal relationship involves God’s promises of blessings and curses. To even be offered a covenantal relationship with Almighty God is an expression of grace.

Why, then, do we dishonor God? Why do we show contempt for his blessings? Why wouldn’t we want to experience all that he has to offer those who honor him?

Lord, I’m a fool. Forgive me for not honoring you with everything I say, do and think. Enable me, by the power of your Spirit, to honor you in every sphere of my life and with all that I am. Amen.

Grace and Truth,
Dale

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