A. W. TOZER
The
Man:
Aiden Wilson Tozer was born April 21, 1897, on a small farm among the spiny
ridges of Western Pennsylvania. Within a few short years, Tozer, as he preferred
to be called, would earn the reputation and title of a "20th-century prophet."
Able to express his thoughts in a simple but forceful manner, Tozer
combined the power of God and the power of words to nourish hungry souls, pierce
human hearts, and draw earthbound minds toward God.
When he was 15 years old, Tozer's family moved to Akron, Ohio. One
afternoon as he walked home from his job at Goodyear, he overheard a street
preacher say, "If you don't know how to be saved . . . just call on God." When
he got home, he climbed the narrow stairs to the attic where, heeding the
preacher's advice, Tozer was launched into a lifelong pursuit of God.
In 1919, without formal education, Tozer was called to pastor a small
storefront church in Nutter Fort, West Virginia. That humble beginning thrust
him and his new wife Ada Cecelia Pfautz, into a 44-year ministry with The
Christian and Missionary Alliance.
Thirty-one of those years were spent at Chicago's Southside Alliance
Church. The congregation, captivated by Tozer's preaching, grew from 80 to 800.
In 1950 Tozer was elected editor of the Alliance Weekly now called
Alliance Life. The circulation doubled almost immediately. In the first
editorial dated June 3, 1950, he set the tone: "It will cost something to walk
slow in the parade of the ages while excited men of time rush about confusing
motion with progress. But it will pay in the long run and the true Christian is
not much interested in anything short of that."
Tozer's forte was his prayer life which often found him walking the aisles
of a sanctuary or lying face down on the floor. He noted, "As a man prays, so is
he." To him the worship of God was paramount in his life and ministry. "His
preaching as well as his writings were but extensions of his prayer life,"
comments Tozer biographer James L. Snyder. An earlier biographer noted, "He
spent more time on his knees than at his desk."
Tozer's love for words also pervaded his family life. He quizzed his
children on what they read and made up bedtime stories for them. "The thing I
remember most about my father," reflects his daughter Rebecca, "was those
marvelous stories he would tell."
Son Wendell, one of six boys born before the arrival of Rebecca, remembers
that, "We all would rather be treated to the lilac switch by our mother than to
have a talking-to by our dad."
Tozer's final years of ministry were spent at Avenue Road Church in
Toronto, Canada. On May 12, 1963, his earthly pursuit of God ended when he died
of a heart attack at age 66. In a small cemetery in Akron, Ohio, his tombstone
bears this simple epitaph: "A Man of God."
Some wonder why Tozer's writings are as fresh today as when he was alive.
It is because, as one friend commented, "He left the superficial, the obvious
and the trivial for others to toss around. . . . [His] books reach deep into the
heart."
His humor, written and spoken, has been compared to that of Will
Rogers--honest and homespun. Congregations could one moment be swept by gales of
laughter and the next sit in a holy hush.
For almost 50 years, Tozer walked with God. Even though he is gone, he
continues to speak, ministering to those who are eager to experience God. As
someone put it, "This man makes you want to know and feel God."
The
Message:
"What God declares the believing heart
confesses without the need of further proof. Indeed, to seek proof is to admit
doubt, and to obtain proof is to render faith superfluous." The Knowledge of the Holy
"Without faith it is
impossible to please God, but not all faith pleases God."
Of God and Men
"The flaw in current evangelism
lies in its humanistic approach. It struggles to be supernaturalistic but never
quite makes it. It is frankly fascinated by the great, noisy, aggressive world
with its big names, its hero worship, its wealth and its garish pageantry. To
the millions of disappointed persons who have always yearned for worldly glory
but never attained to it, the modern evangel offers quick and easy short cut to
their heart’s desire. Peace of mind, happiness, prosperity, social acceptance,
publicity, success in sports, business, the entertainment field and perchance to
sit occasionally at the same banquet table with celebrity - all this on earth
and heaven at last. Certainly no insurance company can offer half as much."
Born After Midnight
"Real faith invariably produces holiness of heart and righteousness of life."
Man, The Dwelling Place of God
"To most people God
is an inference, not a reality." Pursuit
of God
"As one fairly familiar
with the contemporary religious scene, I say without hesitation that a part, a
very large part, of the activities carried on today in evangelical circles are
not only influenced by pragmatism but almost completely controlled by it.
Religious methodology is geared to it; it appears large in our youth meetings;
magazines and books constantly glorify it; conventions are dominated by it; and
the whole religious atmosphere is alive with it."
God Tells the Man Who Cares
"Often acts done in the spirit of religious irritation have consequences far
beyond anything we could have guessed. " Of God and Men
"Whence then does the true fear of God arise? From the knowledge of our own
sinfulness and a sense of he presence of God."
The Root of Righteousness
"What does holiness mean? Is it a
negative kind of piety...No, of course not! Holiness in the Bible means moral
wholeness - a positive quality which actually includes kindness, mercy, purity,
moral blamelessness and godliness. It is always to be thought of in a positive,
white intensity of degree."
I Call it Heresy
"Our Lord told His disciples that
love and obedience were organically united. The final test of love is
obedience." The Incredible Christian
"So today we have the astonishing spectacle of millions of dollars being poured
into the unholy job of providing earthly entertainment for the so-called sons of
heaven. Religious entertainment is in many places rapidly crowding out the
serious things of God. Many churches these days have become little more than
poor theatres where fifth-rate "produces" peddle their shoddy wares with the
full approval of evangelical leaders who can even quote a holy text in defense
of their delinquency. And hardly a man dares to raise his voice against it."
The Root of Righteousness
"The unattended garden
will soon be overrun with weeds; the heart that fails to cultivate truth and
root out error will shortly be a theological wilderness."
Man, The Dwelling Place of God
"Prayer will become
effective when we stop using it as a substitute for obedience."
Of God
and Men
"When we go to God with a request,
there are two conditions we must meet: [1] we must pray in the will of God, and
[2] we must be living lives pleasing to God."
Does God Always Answer Prayer
"Faith, as Paul saw it, was a
living, flaming thing leading to surrender and obedience to the commandments of
Christ."
Paths to Power
"...the religion of today is
not transforming the people; rather it is being transformed by people. It is not
raising the moral level of society; it is descending to society's own level and
congratulating itself that it has scored a victory because society is smilingly
accepting its surrender."
The Price of Neglect
"...we have salvation without righteousness and right
doctrine without right deeds."
Of God and Men
"The need for solitude and quietness was never so
great than it is today." Of
God and Men
"When the followers of
Jesus Christ lose their interest in heaven they will no longer be happy
Christians and when they are no longer happy Christians they cannot be a
powerful force in a sad and sinful world."
Who Put Jesus on the Cross
"The man that believes
will obey; failure to obey is convincing proof that there is no true faith
present. To attempt the impossible God must give faith or there will be none,
and He gives faith to the obedient heart only." Man the Dwelling Place of God
"In that presence [presence of God],
Isaiah found no place for joking or for clever cynicism or for human
familiarity. He found strangeness in God, that is, a presence unknown to the
sinful and worldly and self-sufficient human." Whatever
Happened to Worship?
"It is scarcely possible in most paces
to get anyone to attend a meeting where the only attraction is God." Man the Dwelling Place of God
Last Update:07/23/2010