The biggest thing that jumped out from the Preface and Chapter 1 was God! But also the fact that I MUST have a big God if I want to have big fulfillment, big impact, and a big life. I don’t make God big. He is big. But if I treat him as little I will live a little life. I love the story about Robert Dick Wilson.
One of the students of Princeton Theological Seminary professor Robert Dick Wilson had been invited to preach in Miller Chapel 12 years after his graduation. Dr. Wilson came and sat near the front. When chapel ended, the old professor came up to his former student, cocked his head to one side in his characteristic way, extended his hand, and said, “I’m glad that you’re a big-godder. When my boys come back, I come to see if they’re big-godders or little-godders. Then I know what their ministry will be.”
His former student asked him to explain. Wilson replied, “Well, some men have a little God, and they’re always in trouble with Him. He can’t do any miracles. He can’t take care of the inspiration and transmission of the Scripture to us. He doesn’t intervene on behalf of His people. Then, there are those who have a great God. He speaks and it is done. He commands and it stands fast. He knows how to show Himself strong on behalf of them that fear Him. You have a great God; and He’ll bless your ministry.” He paused a moment, smiled, said, “God bless you,” and turned and walked out. (John Huffman in Who’s in Charge Here?)
I want to be a big godder. How about ya’ll?
I want to be a big Godder, too.
A.W. Tozer is one of my favorite authors. I have read several of his books. This is probably my fourth time through the Knowledge of the Holy, but this will likely be my most thorough reading of it. Can there be a more important subject for us than God Himself? Tozer prefaces his work by saying that the messenger of Christ must have be able to speak to his generation. This is something that we strive for at Crew to be relevant to this time that we are in. Yet Tozer’s words published in 1961 still speak to us today. The Church has lost her sense of the majesty of God. The Church seems to have lost its primary purposes of worshiping God and making disciples of Christ. How often do we sit in silence and meditate on God and His character? How often do we do something radical by the world’s standards just because it is what the Bible says we should do? Pondering the truths of God is a worthwhile endeavor. A right view of God will affect the way that we live. I look forward to journeying through this book. May God enlighten me once again to who He really is.
Chapter 1
“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us,” says Tozer. So what comes to mind when I think, “God”? These thoughts are important. Accurate theology is necessary if I am to correctly live for God. How can I fully understand what He expects of me if I do not know Him as He really is? Do I see Him as high and lifted up, holy, all-powerful, all-knowing, completely wise, and loving? Or do I entertain thoughts of God that are lower? Is He big enough to handle the problems of the world and loving enough to care about even my problems? Answers to these questions will affect the way I live. Also, in a broader sense, how the Church answers these questions will affect how she functions in this world. “The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of God.” So as Josh pointed out, we need to be “Big Godders” at Crew. But individually, you and I must strive to know God well and correctly if we are to live for God.
Lord, show me where my views and opinions of you are inaccurate and help me to correct them so that I can live in a way that truly honors you.
Josh and Jason have some great things to say what more can I add about this first chapter? I’m sure I can find something…
A.W. Tozer said “Thought and speech are God’s gifts to creatures made in His image; these are intimately associated with Him and impossible apart from Him.” So many times when I hear it said that we are created in His image I think of how we look. We have two arms, two legs, a head and so on. To be able to think and speak because we are like God, I guess I’ve never realized that.
What we think is important, especially what and how we think about God. A.W.T says, “Only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about God.” I’ve been going through some self-probing about who I am and how I think about myself in my small group. I’m learning things about me that I never knew, and its exciting. Now to be doing a “gut check” (as my high school football coach used to say) about how I think about God, now thats exciting.
God is big. A.W.T. said, “All the problems of heaven and earth, though they were to confront us together and at once, would be nothing compared with the overwhelming problem of God: That He is; What He is like; and what we as moral beings must do about Him.”
God, I want to think of you rightly. What I think of you is the foundation of my whole Christian belief. I want you to be the biggest thing in my life, I want to think of you as holy and allmighty. Because of your bigness and greatness I want to love, obey, and worship you perfectly. I know I cant do these things perfectly but I don’t want that to stop me from trying, and for my failures I know that the grace shown to me because of Christ’s sacrifice will be more than enough for them.
God is a mystery.
It’s our nature to want to solve that mystery. To have an explanation.
We have a problem, then, because God’s mysterious ways can’t always be explained or solved. As a result, we usually re-arrange the character, and being of God, to make sense of who He is.
Tozer makes mention that this way of thinking is idolatry: “The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him.”
It’s a heavy accusation, but a true one. God is bigger than us. We won’t fully understand Him, and to try and bring Him to our level is a dangerous and sinful attitude.
We might compare ourselves to a cockroach from God’s perspective. The difference being that while we would crush such a filthy insect, God chooses to pick us up and love us as one of His own children. Amazing, and completely mysterious.
“Were we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question, ‘What comes into your mind when you think about God?’ we might be able to predict with certainty the spiritual future of that man.” A.W. Tozer
As I begin this book, I am struck by the low position I have given my God. As Tozer discusses, I have essentially relegated God to “friend” status with no greater thought given to the majesty, the sovereignty, and the altogether holiness of God. I hope I can begin to appreciate the true nature of my King – the creator of the universe and ALL that exists. When you take a moment to reflect on God’s true nature, it really is incomprehensible.
I am excited about the prospect of struggling through this book but a little intimidated, too. Tozer is a tough read. While the book is not particularly long, you could spend all day trying to fully wrap your mind around a short paragraph. And so, my prayer is that God would speak to me as I read, that He would give me knowledge and discernment as He tries to communicate with me. I pray that he can create in me a more accurate depiction of what He is like. In fact, I pray this for all of our leaders and for the church itself. Maybe then God will establish for us and through us a bright spiritual future!
I hope it’s OK to comment. I just wanted to say that I appreciate the post and the comments and wanted to make a comment myself. Our view of God is unbelievably important (for us), and at the same time unimportant (by that I mean of course that our view of him doesn’t change him, he is who he is and always has been). I am thankful that we love and serve the true and living God of the Bible, the one who does not need our advice. I am thankful that he is not worried over outcomes like I am, that he isn’t pensive and fretting, that he does not sit up on the edge of his chair to see if things turn out the way he wishes it. I am glad that he is not learning, not getting smarter, not growing like I am (hopefully). I am glad that he is who he has always been, the one words are inadequate to describe. I am glad that he is the Author of salvation and we are his thankful, loved, and blessed beneficiaries. It seems to me that one of the errors of our age is for us to overemphasize God’s immanence and underemphasize his transcendence. This can be easily seen in our worship where “God as my girlfriend” worship music emphasize how close God is, while we neglect and often fail to acknowledge that part of his character that makes him beyond our easy, selfish, accommodating grasp. I know we are eager to put things “on the bottom shelf” where people can understand, but sometimes we just need to learn. God doesn’t fit on the bottom shelf (or most of our “top shelves” either). He is the infinite and unknowable, but somehow knowable God. Our culture certainly overemphasizes one side of that pendulum and I am glad to see men who appreciate and are aware of that. Spurgeon said it well; “God’s goodness without his sovereignty does not completely set forth his nature.” Reality is Relevant.
Keep up the great posting. I have enjoyed it. And may The Eternal King bless your church.