"Is Everything Sad Going to Come Untrue?"

The above quote has nothing to do with this post..but isn't it lovely? In the "Lord of the Rings," Sam asks Gandolph this question. Of course, the answer is yes!!

So, back to this post! I just finished the above book..."The Attributes of God." Ahhhh, Tozer. He is rich and profound and leaves you with a taste of God, all the while realizing just how hungry you are for Him.

I have had such a passion to know God as He really is...in His truest form. My prayer for a long time has been that God would give me as much of Himself as I can handle...without falling over dead from the incomprehensibility of it all. I want to know Him...I want His presence desperately. His presence is the only thing that will satiate this deep hunger and thirst.

God showed me such marvelous things about Himself through the avenue of this book. Some of it flew right over my head, but the few things that I could grasp reoriented me into His perfect nature. I had the most fun with the concept of "omnipresence," being near to everyone and everything. I taught Cade and Eli this super huge word and did my humanly best to give them the concept of it. I told them he didn't have to "fly" or "run" or whatever God does in order to get from family's houses in Springdale, St. Louis, Conway, etc. He is everywhere...all at the same time. They thought this was cool. Trying to wrap my brain around it makes me crazy.

While studying the attribute of God's goodness, God was good to show me that I have been approaching Him in the wrong way. Due to heartbreak in the past year, I have resorted to approaching him not as a child would boldly approach her father, but as a beggar. I don't think this mindset has gotten me very far. The following passage hit me so hard, I had to write it here:

"He takes no pleasure in human tears. He came and wept that He might stop up forever the fountain of human tears. He came and bereaved His mother that He might heal all bereavement. He came and lost everything that He might heal the wounds that we have from losing things. And He wants us to take pleasure in Him. Let us put away our doubts and trust Him. God wants to please you. He is pleased when you are His child, when you're surrendered, when your will is His will and His will is yours, when you are not in rebellion and not seeking your own will. God loves to please His people."

Good stuff.

The attribute of holiness was entirely convicting. I realize that we don't often talk about His holiness because we can't quite understand it and it makes us feel like a wretch when we do try. Tozer says that, "If I haven't felt the sense of vileness by contrast with that sense of unapproachable and indescribable holiness, I wonder if I have ever been hit hard enough to really repent. And if I don't repent, I wonder if I can believe."

In his book, Tozer is heartbroken over the condition of the church. He says that it has "lost majesty, reverence and worship...lost a sense of the Presence and the ability to retreat within our own hearts and meet God in the garden." Guess what is crazy? He wrote this book prior to 1963!! What on earth would he say today?

This prayer is so fitting: "Oh, restore again, we cry, restore again to thy church her vision of Thee. Restore again to Thy church her sight of the great God. Show us Thy face, Thy lovely face, a permanent view of Majesty. We will not ask for a transient beam; we want a permanent sight of Thee in all Thy wonder."

Ahhhh. Just grab the book!