ISBN: 1600660541

A W Tozer is an interesting person and I would encourage anyone picking up this book to do a little research on the man before reading.  In The Pursuit of God Tozer explores what it means to build a personal and meaningful relationship with God.  With flowing prose he explores not just what it means to have this relationship but why we should have it and how we can get there.  In just a hundred pages he covers more ground than you might expect.

Premise

The premise of the book is found in the Preface.  Here Tozer says:

"There is today no lack of Bible teachers to set forth correctly the principles of the doctrines of Christ, but too many of these seem satisfied to teach the fundamentals oft he faith year after year, strangely unaware that there is in their ministry no manifest Presence, nor anything unusual in their personal lives."

There are a great number of Christians content to go through the motions of religion and call that a "Christian Life" but Tozer would have none of that.  Instead he points out the arrogance of such a position and calls on Christians and Christian leaders alike to revisit their notion of what it means to have a relationship with God.

Pursuing Even After the Catch

One of the great paradoxes of the Christian life is why anyone would want to try to live the Christian life in the first place.  After all, if God has already saved me, what is the point of trying to live a good Christian life?  The Apostle Paul addressed this question this way, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?"

Some Christians answer this with Lordship salvation (or those who are honest just call it works salvation) and say that until you make Jesus your Lord, you really aren't saved.  Thus the pursuit of making Him your Lord is a lifetime goal.

For those of us who take Scripture literally, we find that salvation is by grace through faith alone.  Therefore some Christians believe that a lifestyle of licensiousness is called for since there is nothing left after Grace.

Tozer addresses the problem this way: "To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul's paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too-easily- satisfied religionist, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart."

In other words, once you have found God, there is still pursuit.  It is not to "have" God that you pursue Him, or even that He should have you.  Rather it is that you should experience God.

Regarding Christian leaders, Tozer puts it this way: "Between the scribe who has read and the prophet who has seen there is a difference as wide as the sea. We are today overrun with orthodox scribes, but the prophets, where are they? The hard voice of the scribe sounds over evangelicalism, but the Church waits for the tender voice of the saint who has penetrated the veil and has gazed with inward eye upon the Wonder that is God. And yet, thus to penetrate, to push in sensitive living experience into the holy Presence, is a privilege open to every child of God."

Selflessness

A common theme throughout the book is the notion of letting go of self.  Tozer seemed to believe that the greatess issue facing the whole of Christianity was selfishness.

In his chapter on possessing nothing, Tozer points out an interesting phenomenon with Abraham.  He says that after Abraham proved himself willing to give up his son, he still had all of his earthly goods and he even still had his son.  The difference after the experience was that he no longer possessed those things.  In other words God still allowed him to have the use of all the things in his life but he longer cared for them as he had before. 

Tozer surmises that until a Christian comes to the point of possessing nothing, the Christian life is all but useless to him or her. 

In the chapter on meekness, Tozer delineates the burdens of pride, artificiality and pretense.  These burdens cause a great number of other problems in our lives and in letting go of them and resting in God's promise of an easy and light burden, we can take advantage of His meekness. 

Conclusion

There were a great number of stirring phrases, statements and paragraphs in this book.  So much so that I ordered a hard cover copy of the book immediately after finishing the audio recording I was listening to.  I recommend this book to any Christian seeking a better understanding of the Christian life.