- This is part of a series on the theme of character. -

Think about the people you know and admire. Do you know any wise parents, mothers and fathers who demonstrate sound judgment in how they conduct their lives and raise their children? Do you know any grandparents who know when to cheer and when to rebuke, when to be tender and when to use force? Have you ever had a teacher who knew when to give advice and when to just listen, when to instruct and when to let life’s consequences be the teacher? Now try to put a value on those wise insights. How much are they worth?

We all esteem people who possess wisdom in their inward character. If we admire these quality people, how much more should we value the perfection of the living God from whom all wisdom, patience and discernment is derived?

When Moses asked God to reveal his glory to him, the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence” (Exodus 33:18-19). God had to shield Moses from the fullness of his glory by covering him in the cleft of a rock, and as he passed in front of Moses, God accompanied this awesome display by proclaiming the perfection of his own character:

And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”

Exodus 34:6-7

• Learning to value the perfection of the living God from whom all wisdom, patience and discernment is derived.

Follow: http://twitter.com/kennethboa
Connect on Facebook: Kenneth Boa

- This is part of a series that has been adapted from my study of A. W. Tozer’s spiritual classic, The Pursuit of God. -

Tozer confesses: “I have one fear: that I may convince the mind before God can win the heart. For this God-above-all position is one not easy to take. The mind may approve it while not having the consent of the will to put into effect.” That is, it is possible for your mind to go along with a decision for which your heart is not quite ready. Tozer well understood human tendencies when he wrote, “While the imagination races ahead to honor God, the will may lag behind and the man must make the decision before the heart can know any real satisfaction. God wants the whole person and he will not rest until he gets us in entirety. No part of man will do.”

Your Prayer

Tozer concludes chapter 8 of The Pursuit of God with the following words: “God will unveil his glory before his servant’s eyes, and he will place all his treasures at the disposal of such a one, for he knows that his honor is safe in such consecrated hands.”

Are you ready for God to consecrate the hands of your heart? If so, he’s willing to entrust to those hands his greatest treasures. This prayer is a good place to start:

“O God, be thou exalted over my possessions. Nothing of earth’s treasures shall seem dear unto me if only thou art glorified in my life. Be thou exalted over my friendships. I am determined that thou shalt be above all, though I must stand deserted and alone in the midst of the earth. Be thou exalted above my comforts. Though it mean the loss of bodily comforts and the carrying of heavy crosses, I shall keep my vow made this day before thee. Be thou exalted over my reputation. Make me ambitious to please thee even if as a result I must sink into obscurity and my name be forgotten as a dream. Rise, O Lord, into thy proper place of honor, above my ambitions, above my likes and dislikes, above my family, my health and even my life itself. Let me sink that thou mayest rise above.

Ride forth upon me as thou didst into Jerusalem mounted upon the humble little beast, a colt, the foal of an ass and let me hear the children cry to thee, ‘Hosanna in the highest.’” Amen.

• “I have one fear: that I may convince the mind before God can win the heart.”

Follow: http://twitter.com/kennethboa
Connect on Facebook: Kenneth Boa

- This is part of a series that has been adapted from my study of A. W. Tozer’s spiritual classic, The Pursuit of God. -

The audience to whom you play presents a defining moment in the life of every Christian. For either you choose to honor him above all else and thereby press on toward Christlikeness, or you choose the plaudits of others over God and stall out in your Christian walk. You have to ask yourself yet again, “Which audience are you performing for?” It cannot be both God and somebody else, for it is impossible to simultaneously please God and impress people. The temptation will be to choose the downhill path, for it’s easy and both sides are lined with adoring crowds cheering you on. But intimacy with God does not lie at the bottom of the hill. It lies at the top. And it can only be reached by taking the uphill trail, the one Jesus took to the cross and then to glory.

Touching the Void is the title of a recent film about two young climbers. Joe Simpson and Simon Yates set out to climb the west face of the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985, a feat that had previously been attempted but never achieved. With an extra man looking after base camp, Joe and Simon decided to climb alpine style – in one long push over several days.

Statistics show that 80 percent of the deaths and injuries in climbing occur on the descent rather than the ascent. Their decent was added to that 80 percent. They reached the peak with few problems, but on the way down Joe fell and broke his leg. Despite the hopelessness of the situation, the two continued the descent with Simon slowly lowering Joe down on a rope for 300 meters, then descending to join him and repeating the process. At one point Joe is lowered over a vertical abyss, with nothing below and no ability to climb back up. Simon is forced to make an agonizing decision – to cut the rope, so that both of them don’t die. Joe fell into a crevice covered in deep snow. Simon, assuming he’s dead, continued on down. However, Joe had survived the fall by landing on a ledge within the crevice.

The rest of the film tells the story of how Simon discovers that Joe is still alive and so lowers himself into the crevice, with no apparent way to climb out. In a last ditch effort Simon descends further into the crevice, hoping to somehow find a way out. He does. Eventually he makes it back to the original camp, enlists the help of others, and rescues his friend. It is quite an amazing story with a miraculous outcome.

Yet, what struck me most about the story was that in the face of certain death, neither man once appealed to God for help. In the book by the same title, Joe describes his early exposure to the Catholic faith tradition and his rejection of it. In time, he became hostile to God, considering him to be totally irrelevant to his life. He had willfully become a person beyond the point of no return, a man with a heart that had been hardened toward God.

This story serves as a cautionary tale for our spiritual journey. For even as God’s children we can willfully harden our hearts. And while this does not place our eternal salvation at risk, it does place our earthly lives and our eternal rewards at risk. I urge you to choose to humble yourself, exalt God, and thereby strengthen your heart, while you still have the opportunity. Resist the temptation to go the other way by exalting yourself and hardening your heart. We can only lift God up in our hearts by bowing them down in humble submission.

• Even as God’s children we can willfully harden our hearts.

Follow: http://twitter.com/kennethboa
Connect on Facebook: Kenneth Boa

I recently completed another reading of Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy, this time using The Atlas of Middle-Earth and The Journeys of Frodo as supplements. There are many wonderful passages, and I created a document with some of my favorites which I share with you in this post.

Great Quotes from Tolkien’s LOTR

They came back with viols as big as themselves, and with Thorin’s harp wrapped in a green cloth. It was a beautiful golden harp, and when Thorin struck it the music began all at once, so sudden and sweet that Bilbo forgot everything else, and was swept away into dark lands under strange moons, far over The Water and very far from his hobbit-hole under The Hill. – The Hobbit, chapter 1

As they sang the hobbit felt the love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by magic moving through him, a fierce and a jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves. Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick. – The Hobbit, chapter 1

The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say.

- The Fellowship of the Ring, I, 1

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.

“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” – The Fellowship of the Ring, I, 2

“Behind that there was something else at work, beyond any design of the Ring-maker. I can put it no plainer than by saying that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its maker. In which case you also were meant to have it. And that may be an encouraging thought.” – The Fellowship of the Ring, I, 2

“Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy: not to strike without need.”

….

“Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many—yours not least.” – The Fellowship of the Ring, I, 2

“I wish I had never seen the Ring! Why did it come to me? Why was I chosen?”

“Such questions cannot be answered,” said Gandalf. “You may be sure that it was not for any merit that others do not possess: not for power or wisdom, at any rate. But you have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.” – The Fellowship of the Ring, I, 2

Pippin afterwards recalled little of either food or drink, for his mind was filled with the light upon the elf-faces, and the sound of voices so various and so beautiful that he felt in a waking dream. But he remembered that there was bread, surpassing the savour of a fair white loaf to one who is starving; and fruits sweet as wildberries and richer than the tended fruits of gardens; he drained a cup that was filled with a fragrant draught, cool as a clear fountain, golden as a summer afternoon. – The Fellowship of the Ring, I, 3

After they had eaten, Goldberry sang many songs for them, songs that began merrily in the hills and fell softly down into silence; and in the silences they saw in their minds pools and waters wider than any they had known, and looking into them they saw the sky below them and the stars like jewels in the depths. – The Fellowship of the Ring, I, 7

And here in Rivendell there live still some of his chief foes: the Elven-wise, lords of the Eldar from beyond the furthest seas. They do not fear the Ringwraiths, for those who have dwelt in the Blessed Realm live at once in both worlds, and against both the Seen and the Unseen they have great power. – The Fellowship of the Ring, II, 1

Almost it seemed that the words took shape, and visions of far lands and bright things that he had never yet imagined opened out before him; and the firelit hall became like a golden mist above seas of foam that sighed upon the margins of the world. Then the enchantment became more dreamlike, until he felt that an endless river of swelling gold and silver was flowing over him, too multitudinous for its pattern to be comprehended; it became part of the throbbing air about him, and it drenched and drowned him. Swiftly he sank under its shining weight into a deep realm of sleep. – The Fellowship of the Ring, II, 1

For a while the hobbits continued to talk and think of the past journey and of the perils that lay ahead; but such was the virtue of the land of Rivendell that soon all fear and anxiety was lifted from their minds. The future, good or ill, was not forgotten, but ceased to have any power over the present. Health and hope grew strong in them, and they were content with each good day as it came, taking pleasure in every meal, and in every word and song. – The Fellowship of the Ring, II, 3

She seemed no longer perilous or terrible, nor filled with hidden power. Already she seemed to him, as by men of later days Elves still at times are seen: present and yet remote, a living vision of that which has already been left far behind by the flowing streams of Time. – The Fellowship of the Ring, II, 8

Legolas stirred in his boat. “Ney, time does not tarry ever,” he said; “but change and growth is not in all things and places alike. For the Elves the world moves, and it moves both very swift and very slow. Swift, because they themselves change little, and all else fleets by: it is a grief to them. Slow, because they do not count the running years, not for themselves. The passing seasons are but ripples ever repeated in the long long stream. Yet beneath the Sun all things must wear to an end at last.” – The Fellowship of the Ring, II, 9

He heard himself crying out: Never, never! Or was it: Verily I come, I come to you? He could not tell. Then as a flash from some other point of power there came to his mind another thought: Take it off! Take it off! Fool, take it off! Take off the Ring!

The two powers strove in him. For a moment, perfectly balanced between their piercing points, he writhed, tormented. Suddenly he was aware of himself again. Frodo, neither the Voice nor the Eye: free to choose, and with one remaining instant in which to do so. He took the Ring off his finger. He was kneeling in clear sunlight before the high seat. A black shadow seemed to pass like an arm above him; it missed Amon Hen and groped out west, and faded. Then all the sky was clean and blue and birds sang in every tree. – The Fellowship of the Ring, II, 10

Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves and another among Men. It is a man’s part to discern them, as much in the Golden Wood as in his own house. – The Two Towers, III, 2

Out of the shadows the hobbits peeped, gazing back down the slope: little furtive figures that in the dim light looked like elf-children in the deeps of time peering out of the Wild Wood in wonder at their first Dawn. – The Two Towers, III, 3

One felt as if there was an enormous well behind them, filled up with ages of memory and long, slow, steady thinking; but their surface was sparkling with the present: like sun shimmering on the outer leaves of a vast tree, or on the ripples of a very deep lake. – The Two Towers, III, 4

“For myself,” said Faramir, “I would see the White Tree in flower again in the courts of the kings, and the Silver Crown return, and Minas Tirith in peace: Minas Anor again as of old, full of light, high and fair, beautiful as a queen among other queens: not a mistress of many slaves, nay, not even a kind mistress of willing slaves. War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend: the city of the Men of Númenor; and I would have her loved for her memory, her ancientry, her beauty, and her present wisdom. Not feared, save as men may fear the dignity of a man, old and wise.” – The Two Towers, IV, 5

If ever beyond hope you return to the lands of the living and we re-tell our tales, sitting by a wall in the sun, laughing at old grief, you shall tell me then. Until that time, or some other time beyond the vision of the Seeing-stones of Númenor, farewell! – The Two Towers, IV, 6

“… we shouldn’t be here at all, if we’d known more about it before we started. But I suppose it’s often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually—their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, and they didn’t. And if they had, we shouldn’t know, because they’d have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on—and not all to a good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same—like old Mr. Bilbo. But those aren’t always the best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in! I wonder what sort of a tale we’ve fallen into? … Beren now, he never thought he was going to get that Silmaril from the Iron Crown in Thangorodrim, and yet he did, and that was a worse place and a blacker danger than ours. But that’s a long tale, of course, and goes on past the happiness and into grief and beyond it—and the Silmaril went on and came to Eärendil. And why, sir, I never thought of that before! We’ve got—you’ve got some of the light of it in that star-gless that the Lady gave you! Why, to think of it, we’re in the same tale still! It’s going on. Don’t the great tales never end? – The Two Towers, IV, 8

Gollum looked at them. A strange expression passed over his lean hungry face. The gleam faded from his eyes, and they went dim and grey, old and tired. A spasm of pain seemed to twist him, and he turned away, peering back up towards the pass, shaking his head, as if engaged in some interior debate. Then he came back, and slowly putting out a trembling hand, very cautiously he touched Frodo’s knee—but almost the touch was a caress. For a fleeting moment, could one of the sleepers have seen him, they would have thought that they beheld an old weary hobbit, shrunken by the years that had carried him far beyond his time, beyond friends and kin, and the fields and streams of youth, an old starved pitiable thing. – The Two Towers, IV, 8

They walked as it were in a black vapour wrought of veritable darkness itself that, as it was breathed, brought blindness not only to the eyes but to the mind, so that even the memory of colours and of forms and of any light faded out of thought. Night always had been, and always would be, and night was all. – The Two Towers, IV, 9

Then there will be need of valour without renown, for none shall remember the deeds that are done in the last defence of your homes. Yet the deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised. – The Return of the King, V, 2

Yet suddenly for Faramir his heart was strangely moved with a feeling that he had not known before. Here was one with an air of high nobility such as Aragorn at times revealed, less high perhaps, yet also less incalculable and remote: one of the Kings of Men born into a later time, but touched with the wisdom and sadness of the Elder Race. – The Return of the King, V, 4

Then taking two leaves, he laid them on his hands and breathed on them, and then he crushed them, and straightway a living freshness filled the room, as if the air itself awoke and tingled, sparkling with joy. And then he cast the leaves into the bowls of steaming water that were brought to him, and at once all hearts were lightened. For the fragrance that came to each was like a memory of dewy mornings of unshadowed sun in some land of which the fair world in Spring is itself but a fleeting memory. – The Return of the King, V, 8

… whether Aragorn had indeed some forgotten power of Westernesse, or whether it was but his words of the Lady Éowyn that wrought on them, as the sweet influence of the herb stole about the chamber it seemed to those who stood by that a keen wind blew through the window, and it bore no scent, but was an air wholly fresh and clean and young, as if it had not before been brethed by any living thing and came new-made from snowy mountains high beneath a dome of stars, or from shores of silver far away washed by seas of foam. – The Return of the King, V, 8

Other evils there are that may come; for Sauron is himself but a servant or emissary. Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule. – The Return of the King, V, 9

There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach. – The Return of the King, VI, 2

But for him, Sam, I could not have destroyed the Ring. The Quest would have been in vain, even at the bitter end. So let us forgive him! For the Quest is achieved, and now all is over. I am glad you are here with me. Here at the end of all things, Sam. – The Return of the King, VI, 3

“Is everything sad going to come untrue? What’s happened to the world?”

“A great Shadow has departed,” said Gandalf, and then he laughed, and the sound was like music, or like water in a parched land; and as he listened the thought came to Sam that he had not heard laughter, the pure sound of merriment, for days upon days without count. It fell upon his ears like the echo of all the joys he had ever known. But he himself burst into tears. Then, as a sweet rain will pass down a wind of spring and the sun will shine out the clearer, his tears ceased, and his laughter welled up, and laughing he sprang from his bed. – The Return of the King, VI, 4

And all the host laughed and wept, and in the midst of their merriment and tears the clear voice of the minstrel rose like silver and gold, and all men were hushed. And he sang to them, now in the Elven-tongue, now in the speech of the West, until their hearts, wounded with sweet words, overflowed, and their joy was like swords, and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight flow together and tears are the very wine of blessedness. – The Return of the King, VI, 4

But when Aragorn arose all that beheld him gazed in silence, for it seemed to them that he was revealed to them now for the first time. Tall as the sea-kings of old, he stood above all that were near; ancient of days he seemed and yet in the flower of manhood; and wisdom sat upon his brow, and strength and healing were in his hands, and a light was about him. – The Return of the King, VI, 5

“No, Sam!” said Frodo. “Do not kill him even now. For he has not hurt me. And in any case I do not wish him to be slain in this evil mood. He was great once, of a noble kind that we should not dare to raise our hands against. He is fallen, and his cure is beyond us; but I would spare him, in the hope that he may find it.”

Saruman rose to his feet, and stared at Frodo. There was a strange look in his eyes of mingled wonder and respect and hatred. “You have grown, Halfling,” he said. “Yes, you have grown very much. You are wise, and cruel. You have robbed my revenge of sweetness, and now I must go hence in bitterness, in debt to your mercy. I hate it and you! Well, I go and I will trouble you no more. But do not expect me to wish you health and long life. You will have neither. But that is not my doing. I merely foretell.” – The Return of the King, VI, 8

… the ship went out into the High Sea and passed on into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise. – The Return of the King, VI, 9

- This is part of a series that has been adapted from my study of A. W. Tozer’s spiritual classic, The Pursuit of God. -

Look at the lives of people who chose to honor him. Notice how God winks at their weaknesses and overlooks their failures. Notice how he lavishes his grace and blessings upon servants who exalted him. Consider men such as Abraham, Jacob, David, Daniel, and Elijah. These were certainly not perfect men. In fact, in many ways they were people with feet of clay, just like us. Yet, in spite of their weaknesses and failures, they were men characterized by having hearts that exalted God above all else. Or as Tozer puts it, “Not perfection, but holy intention made the difference.” And that’s the key.

Only in our Lord Christ was this principle lived out in holy intention and simple perfection. In his manhood he never sought his own honor, only the honor of the One who sent Him. In John 8:54 Jesus says, “If I honor myself, it is nothing; it is my Father who honors me. I honor him and because of that he will honor me.” The Pharisees struggled mightily with this truth because they couldn’t conceive of a person who would honor God at their own expense. And it was this failure that ultimately led to their disavowal of Jesus.

In John 5:39-44, Jesus was talking to the Pharisees, and says, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that testify about me.” Here Jesus confronts them with their hypocrisy. They claim to be diligently searching the Word of God for eternal life, but miss the main point: only in Jesus can eternal life be found. So, Jesus continues, “You are unwilling to come to me, that you may have life.” The critical element is their willingness. Either they really are searching for eternal life and are therefore willing to come to him, or they are not really looking for it and are therefore unwilling to come to him. Finally Jesus concludes,

“I do not receive glory from men; but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. I have come in my Father’s name and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another, and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?”

Commenting on this passage, I believe Tozer is correct when he tells us that “. . . the desire for honor among men makes belief impossible.” How true that is. I’ve seen this throughout all human disciplines, but especially in academia. I’ve seen graduate students who, at one time, showed interest in spiritual matters before entering an academic career. But because they wanted to be viewed favorably by their scholarly peers, they began to compromise their integrity in order to fit in with the prevailing worldview. Others went so far as to alter their core beliefs so that they better matched their behavior. The price of having the respect of your peers may well be the death of your convictions. Your beliefs are shaped by the audience to whom you play.

• The desire for honor among men makes belief impossible.

Follow: http://twitter.com/kennethboa
Connect on Facebook: Kenneth Boa

- This is part of a series that has been adapted from my study of A. W. Tozer’s spiritual classic, The Pursuit of God. -

Ironically, if it is true freedom you seek, you must voluntarily return home. As Tozer so eloquently puts it, “God was our original habitat and our hearts cannot but feel at home when they enter again that ancient and beautiful abode.” For any freedom sought apart from God will surely condemn you to a life of bondage. If you take the world’s system and invert it, you have a pretty good snapshot of what life in the Spirit is all about. For as Jesus said in John 12:26: “If any man serve me, him will my Father honor.” The one who stoops to serve is the one God lifts up in honor.

Or consider the words of God to Eli in 1 Samuel 2:30: “Them that honor me, I will honor.” God is reminding Eli, the high priest of Israel, of the basic covenant between God and man – you honor me; I’ll honor you. But he was also warning Eli that the obverse is true: you dishonor me; I’ll dishonor you. This warning was given because Eli had failed to discipline his two sons who were also priests. Their behavior did not honor God. They stole from the temple offerings. They defiled the temple sacrifices. Yet Eli refused to discipline them and so the young Samuel is sent to announce the consequences of that failure.

Judgment comes in the form of what Tozer calls the “Law of Reciprocal Honor.” This universal law has been secretly working all along. And God’s wrath falls swiftly. Eli’s two sons and the other disobedient priests die in battle. Hophni’s wife dies in childbirth. Israel flees from her enemies. The Philistines capture the ark of God. And Eli falls backward and breaks his neck. All of this tragedy is from one man’s failure to honor God.

• The one who stoops to serve is the one God lifts up in honor.

Follow: http://twitter.com/kennethboa
Connect on Facebook: Kenneth Boa

The re-formation of a person is really the result of habituation. Remember, “Sow a thought, reap an act; sow an act, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.” What Tozer is saying is that our external choices are the product of our internal priorities. That which our heart exalts will be that which our behavior exhibits.

Tozer says,

“’Be thou exalted’ (Psalm 21:13) is the language of victorious spiritual experience. It is the key that unlocks the door to great treasures of grace. It is central in the life of God in the soul. Let the seeking man reach a place where life and lips join to say continually, ‘Be thou exalted,’ and a thousand minor problems will be solved at once,”

He’s not being simplistic. To say “Be thou exalted” with your whole being – your heart, your soul, your strength, and your mind – is a major challenge. If one really desires it to be so, God enthusiastically provides the grace required. Little by little your choices for self-denial here, your acts of being other-focused there, and your decisions to exalt God everywhere, all begin to add up and produce a robust faith. And what happens to you if you’re blown off course by an adverse wind? Tozer answers, “[We] will surely return again as by a secret bent of the soul.“

“Let no one imagine that he will lose anything of human dignity by this voluntary sell-out of his all to his God,” writes Tozer. You will not degrade yourself. Actually you will be honored and elevated to your rightful place in the image of your Creator. In fact, it is our deepest disgrace to usurp of the place of God. And correspondingly, it is our deepest honor to enthrone him over all that our heart holds dear.

However, some may say, “But I’m reluctant to surrender my will to him. How do I know I can trust Him?” Well, the truth is that, in the words of the Bob Dylan song, “It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re going to serve somebody.” Jesus said, “He who sins is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). In the final analysis, you will either serve a heavy- handed and hard taskmaster or you will serve the Master of the universe who offers you a light burden and an easy yoke.

• Personal reformation is the result of habituation.

Follow: http://twitter.com/kennethboa
Connect on Facebook: Kenneth Boa

This is part of a series that has been adapted from my study of A. W. Tozer’s spiritual classic, The Pursuit of God.

As with everything in our Christian pilgrimage, sacrificing ourselves and exalting God above all else is an ongoing process. Each and every day we have a choice to make: whether to surrender self and exalt the Lord, or to exalt self and surrender our fellowship with our Lord. It is the challenge of Romans 12:1, where we are called to bring a living sacrifice and lay it all on the altar — all that we are, all that we have, all that we know of ourselves to all that we know of God.

As Tozer reminds us, “The moment we make up our minds that we are going on with this determination to exalt God over all, we step out of the world’s parade.” That decision becomes the great tipping point where we tip away from conformity to the world’s mold and tip toward transformation into God’s perfect will.

Tozer says,

“Millions call themselves by his name, it is true, and pay some token respect to him, but a simple test will show how little he is really honored among them. Let the average man be put to the proof on the question of who or what is above, and his true position will be exposed. Let him be forced into making a choice between God and money, between God and men, between God and personal ambition, God and self, God and human love, and God will take second place every time. Those other things will be exalted above. However the man may protest, the proof is in the choices he makes day after day throughout his life.”

• This day you have a choice to make: whether to surrender self and exalt the Lord, or to exalt self and surrender fellowship with the Lord.

Follow: http://twitter.com/kennethboa
Connect on Facebook: Kenneth Boa

This is another installment in a series that has been adapted from my 11-part CD teaching series on A. W. Tozer’s spiritual classic, The Pursuit of God.

“There must be somewhere,” says Tozer, “a fixed center against which everything else is measured, where the law of relativity does not enter and we can say ‘IS’ and make no allowances. Such a center is God.” When Moses asked God what name he wanted to be called by, God replied, “I AM THAT I AM,” signaling that he is the unchanging and only center of everything that has been created. And therefore everything and everyone must be measured against him, the one eternally fixed point.

If we use ourselves as the fixed center against which everything else is measured, then we only become aware of the infinite distance between us and God. But when we elevate God as the fixed center from which everything else is measured, we become aware of the intimate relationship that can exist between God and us. We are able to regain our moral and spiritual bearings as we navigate life. We must be willing, as Tozer says, “. . . to take God as he is and adjust our lives accordingly.” Yet many of us insist upon doing the opposite by accepting ourselves as we are and then adjusting our view of God accordingly, even re-creating him in our own image. Or to paraphrase Larry Crabb, “Most of us prefer the better life of God’s blessings to the better hope of God’s presence.”

“So,” Tozer implores, “let us begin with God. Back of all, above all, before all is God; first in sequential order, above in rank and station, exalted in dignity and honor.” By giving him his proper place, we discover that we exist by his good pleasure and not by our own efforts. We discover that all we are and have is derived from his gracious hand. Now with him guiding us, our pursuit of God results in bringing our total personhood into conformity with the Person of Jesus Christ.

• “Most of us prefer the better life of God’s blessings to the better hope of God’s presence.” – Larry Crabb

Follow: http://twitter.com/kennethboa
Connect on Facebook: Kenneth Boa

This is another installment in a series that has been adapted from my 11-part CD teaching series on A. W. Tozer’s spiritual classic, The Pursuit of God.

A Christian is one who accepts the terms of the created order: God is the Maker, we are the creatures; God is the Redeemer, we are the redeemed; God is the Almighty, we are totally dependent upon him. If we reject these terms, we will attempt to elevate ourselves as gods and create “God” according to our image.

A.W. Tozer introduces this chapter with just such a reminder: “It is true that order in nature depends upon right relationships; to achieve harmony each thing must be in its proper position relative to each other thing.” Just as there is a proper sequence and order in the natural world, so too there is in the relational world. But something has happened to the natural order – something is wrong. We see everywhere we go. We hear it in every person we know. We feel it in every moment we breathe. What is it?

Tozer answers, “. . . the cause of all our human miseries is a radical moral dislocation, an upset in our relation to God and to each other.” This radical change can be seen in the Genesis 3 account. We first observe it in the relationship between God and the two people he had created for fellowship. They went from a “Thy will be done” stance to a “My will be done” stance. Everything began to fall apart from there, so that the dislocation in Genesis remains with us to this day. For example, we see the “My will be done” stance in our prayers. They often degenerate into childish attempts to persuade or manipulate God into doing our will, rather than an ordained means by which he transforms us into the “My will be done” kind of children.

What we need is a restoration of the Creator-creature relation; it is the only means to maturing our salvation. However, this change is not a judicial change merely, but an experiential change, one that affects our whole nature. The judicial change has to do with what God has already accomplished on our behalf, a change that has been brought about by the work of Christ. However, that change must continue to extend to every part of our being so that we are completely brought back into relationship with God through Christ. It is there that we are free to experience life as part of God’s family and as children of light.

• What is the nature of our radical moral dislocation?

Follow: http://twitter.com/kennethboa
Connect on Facebook: Kenneth Boa