Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Who is A.W. Tozer

A.W. Tozer
[ My favorate work: Knowlege of the Holies.

A.W. Tozer was a preacher of the Word of God. Tozer believed that conformity to the Word of God is is always right, but obedience to religious leaders is good only if those leader prove themselves worthy to lead. Leadership in the church of Christ is a spiritual thing and should be soon understood by everyone. It takes more than a ballot to make a leader, but obedience to religious leaders is good only if those leaders prove themselves worthy to lead. Leadership in the church of Christ is a spiritual thing and should be so understood by everyone. It takes more then an election of ballots to make a leader… Tozer believed that if the church was to prosper spiritually it must have spiritual leadership, not leadership by majority vote. It is highly significant that when the apostle Paul found it necessary to ask for obedience amount the young churches he never appealed to them on the ground that he had been duly elected to office. He asserted his authority as an apostle appointed by the Head of the church. He held his position by right of sheerer spiritual ascendancy, the only earthly right that should be honored amount the children of the new creation.


Tozer once said “I guess my philosophy is this: Everything is wrong until God sets it right.”
This statement from Dr. A.W. Tozer perfectly summarizes what he believed and what he tried to do during his many years of ministry. The entire focus of A.W. Tozer’s preaching and writing was on God. He had no time for religious racketeers who were inventing new ways to promote their gimmicks and inflate their statistics. Like Thoreau, who he read and admired, Tozer marched to a different drummer; and for this reason, he was usually out of step with many of the people in his religious circle.

But it was this evangelical eccentricity that made us love him and appreciate him. He was not afraid to tell us what was wrong. Nor was he hesitant to tell us how God could make it right. If a sermon can be compared to light , then A.W. Tozar released a laser beam from the pulpit, a beam that penetrated your heart, seared your conscience, exposed sin, and left out crying, “ What must I do to be saved?” The answer was always the same: surrender to Christ; get to kow God personally; grow to become like Him.

Aiden Wilson Tozer was born in Newburg (then known s La Jose), Pennsylvania, on April 21, 1897. In 1912 the family moved from the farm to Akron, Ohio; and in 1915 he was converted to Christ. He immediately entered into a life of devotional intensity and personal witness. In 1919 he began pasturing the Alliance Church in Nutter Fort, West Virginia. He also pastured churches in Morgantown, West Virginia; Toledo, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; and in 1928 came to the Southside Alliance Church in Chicago. Here he ministered until November, 1959, when he became pastor of November, 1959, when he became pastor of the Avenue Road Church in Toronto. A sudden heart attach on May 12, 1963, ended that ministry and Tozer was ushered into Glory.

I am sure that Tozer reached more people through his writing than his preaching. Much of his writing was reflected in the preaching of pastors who fed their souls on his words. In May, 1950 he was named editor of the Alliance Weekly now The Alliance Witness, which was probably the only religious magazine purchased primarily for its editorials. I once heard Dr. Tozer at an Evangelical press Association conference taking to task editors who practiced what he called “super-market journalism – two columns of advertising and one aisle of reading material.” He was an exacting writer and was as hard on himself as he was on others.

What is there about A.W. Tozer’s writings that gets hold of us and will not let us go? Tozer did not enjoy the privilege of a university or seminary training, or even Bible School education for that matter; yet he has left us a shelf of books that will be mined for their spiritual wealth until the Lord returns.

For one thing A. W. Tozer wrote with conviction. He was not interested in tickling the ears of the shallow Athenian Christians who were looking for some new thing. Tozer re-dug the old wells and called us back to the old paths, and he passionately believed and practiced the truths that he taught. He once told a friend of mine, I have preached myself off of every Bible Conference platform in the country!” The popular crowds do not rush to hear a man who’s convictions make them uncomfortable. Tozer was a mystic, an evangelical mystic in an age that is pragmatic and materialistic. He still calls us to see that real world of the spiritual that lies beyond the physical world that so ensnares us. He begs us to please God and forget the crowd. He implores us to worship God that we might become more like Him. How desperately we need that message today!

A.W. Tozer had a gift of taking a spiritual truth and holding it up to the light so that, like a diamond, every facet was seen and admired. He was not lost in homiletical swamps; the wind of the Spirit blew and dead bones came to life. His essays are like fine cameos whose value is not determined by their size. His preaching was characterized by an intensity-spiritual intensity-that penetrated one’s heart and helped him to see God. Happy is the Christian who has a Tozer book handy when his soul is parched and he fells God is far away.

This leads to what I think to be the greatest contribution A.W. Tozer makes in his writings; he so excites you about truth that you forget Tozer and reach for your Bible. He himself often said that the best book is the one that makes you want to put it down and think for yourself. Never do I read Tozer without reaching for my notebook to jot down some truth that later can be developed into a message. Tozer is like a prism that gathers the light and then reveals its beauty.

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