One Does Not Simply Skim Over Tozer

And for that I thank Boromir -- or more precisely his creator, J.R.R. Tolkien from The Lord of the Rings. For my purposes today though, I refer to a book I recently read that I've circled, asterisked, and otherwise written notes to myself to come back later to read. And it took me a while to read, such was a point that Warren W. Wiersbe who compiled and introduced fifty-two chapters of Tozer's various books in The Best of A.W. Tozer (ISBN 0875091806) made, and I expect will take me longer to filter through my microbe of a brain. I'm not being flippant. Because my prayer life is good, but not great. My life of grace is good, but not great. And so on ... anyway, I'd heard so much about fellow believers in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord finding such encouragement in the writings and teachings of this Midwest American 20th century pastor that when I saw a good deal on this book it had to be read. By me, and I'll share a few nuggets, for they need to be shared they are that good!

Every advance made by mankind made in any field began as an idea to which nothing for the time corresponded. The mind of the inventor simply took bits of familiar ideas and made out of them something which was not only wholly unfamiliar but which up to that time was altogether nonexistent. Thus we "create" things and by so doing prove ourselves to have been made in the image of the Creator.

(from Tozer's Born After Midnight)

And great! But we all have the potential for that. Martha came back from the paper route this morning and we are both thankful that we've put in our one-month notice on it. This morning at the last house on our route Martha slipped in the driveway (not due to ice, snow and ice seem pretty much gone and the sun's shining outside -- now KEEP THINKING SPRING) and scraped her right thumb with a bloody blister and scraped her hand and bruised her left thigh. It's the thumb and the blister that most disconcerts her, for she had to sign off on her league bowling tonight and there's only two Thursdays after this before the season ends. I've asked her to cut back on having so many activities she has outside of the house away from us, even though I understand without some outside activities -- without some hanging out with other adults, I admit this for me too -- we'll be angry all the time! Including with each other.

The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after Him; and all the time we are pursuing Him we are already in His hand: "Thy right hand upholdeth me."

(from Tozer's The Pursuit of God)

"History has not been kind to Jefferson Davis." I have to agree with the beginning of the back-cover blurb for Embattled Rebel: Jefferson Davis as Commander in Chief by James M. McPherson (ISBN 9781594204975), and for that matter most of the text which deals with the former Secretary of War -- the pre-World War II Secretary of Defense, and for this I have to agree with Heinlein regarding winning wars -- and Mexican War veteran who you could say got the Presidency of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War thrust on him, and he had to accept it. Never mind what Lincoln had to deal with, Davis barely had time to sit down in his office, for if he wasn't dictating memoranda which could have been left to subordinates he was out "in the field" or giving speeches or working from a sickbed. After the Civil War ended, Davis who originally didn't support secession ended up for decades the man most likely to be hung from a sour apple tree. But that never came.

Power lies in the union of things similar and the division of things dissimilar. Maybe what we need in religious circles today is not more union but some wise and courageous division. Everyone desires peace but it could be that revival will follow the sword.

(from Tozer's God Tells The Man Who Cares) 

And after World War I, Berlin went underground. Wait a second, I'm confusing reality with the world of Milo M. Hastings' City of Endless Night (ISBN 9781843915058), a 1920 novel that was a precursor to Brave New World and 1984 -- and that in the book jacket caught my attention -- where an American scientist in the middle 22nd century finds himself trapped "behind enemy lines" in this vast underground city, a megalopolis of three hundred million people (that is not a typo) where the lives of his people are strictly controlled and regimented under the House of Hohenzollern who have made themselves "God's Anointed". The people there do not see natural light, hence the title. And while this isn't, or maybe the previous two works I mentioned have inured me to, quite the dismal yet engaging work, it's an interesting read, particularly since it came on the heels of a costly and world-changing conflict. A darker L. Frank Baum, in both his occupation and his writing. 

It really could be, that revival will follow the sword.

David