Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah and welcome back for some sober sabbath reflection.

I am sure you all know, or have heard of, or have read the works of, A.W.Tozer. He's a great personal hero and a mine of inspiration, as I know he is to so many. He had good theological judgment by and large, not least of which is he didn't fall for the mumbo-jumbo of Calvinism. People like that tend to be grounded in reality, possess good hearts and are finely tuned into Yahweh.

I do have one serious complaint against A.W.Tozer, though, and that is he died aged 66. I don't like that, and I don't like it for selfish reasons, because I prefer people who die a lot older because I myself am only one year away from that particular score. Quite frankkly I do not feel I have accomplished the tiniest fraction of what that great preacher did for Christ. It's a quiet reminder that none of us can take for granted the years we have hitherto enjoyed. We need to make them count for more.

The second thing I wanted to do today is to potentially warn you against people like myself, specifically, academics and theologians. Not that there's anything wrong with academics or theologians, because we need them, but sometimes they can get in the way, and they are by no means indispensible when it comes to preaching the basic message of salvation in Christ. Tozer once said:

"People, not ideas, should get first attention from the preacher. Yet we find many talented men who are cold toward people but fervent in their love for ideas. Terrible as it may be, it is yet true that one may spend a lifetime propagating religious ideas with little or no love for men back of it all" [1].

That did not mean Tozer scorned education. Far from it. Indeed, he insisted that "a preacher must be as educated as he possibly can" [2]. Nevertheless, it is never worth burning yourself out just for knowledge. If you're going to burn yourself out for anything (if burn yourself out you must) then do so for Christ, and for Christ alone. Perhaps that's why he only lived 66 years?

My home for many years was the cloistered environment of Oxford. In the end I was glad to get away from it, because it can get stifling, though it was not by choice that I finally left. In the end I just had to get out, I couldn't bare living there any longer than I had to. It was too painful with the family I had built being destroyed.

I can truthfully say one of the happiest, as well as the most challenging and exasperating, years of my life were as a pastor supervising several small congregations in Norway. In congregations you meet all kinds of people to be sure. Well educated pastors can get very frustrated with those who have little knowledge but who draw oversimplified and often dangerous doctrinal conclusions. I know why Tozer thought teaching was so important. But at the same time ordinary folks can get very frustrated with well-educated people because they can sometimes get lost in their heads and become very boring indeed. I know, sometimes I see people sighing or going to sleep when I preach and then I know I have missed the mark. I have stopped preaching and started teaching instead, or worse, hopped over to textbook mode.

But you don't have to be well educated to be a pain-in-the-neck and a menace both to yourself and others. Tozer said (and I think he probably had Calvinists in mind here, which I find very amusing):

"Some people spend all their time on a kind of doctrinal trapeze and never come down long enough to learn how to walk with God (Elohim). Out our way, they swing by their toes on the flying bar of divine sovereignty, turn a double summersault, catch hold of the eternal decrees and come up bowing to the mystery of predestination. It may be good exercise (though I suspect a little strenuous for the average heart), but I have not noticed it makes them any holier or more Christ-like. The wise words of Thomas à Kempis should not be forgotten: 'It is better to feel compunction than to know the definition thereof'" [3].

Which brings me back to the joy and frustration of people. There are no comfortable corners in the Kingdom. We're all at war with something or someone so long as we live in this mortal flesh, and if you're going to deal with people - which is what we're all about, really - then you're going to have to handle wars, big ones and small ones. Of course there are good times - wonderful times, joyful times, peaceful times, and all the good things we associate with Yah'shua (Jesus) and His Besorah (Gospel) - but if you want these, as you should, you have to be prepared, and willing, to encounter and deal with the good, the bad, and the ugly. You won't escape either once you get behind some church walls! If that doesn't burn you out then other things will, not least all the theological and philosophical acrobatics which will be your lot if you choose to shun people and turn your life into something abstract and unreal (like Calvinism, which is a kind of theological Minecraft). There are plenty of aids for that these days. Just turn on your computer or smart phone and you'll be in that world in a trice.

Another thing we need to be careful of is not to get over-anxious about getting enough of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit), the favourite pre-occupation of charismatics especially, but not only them. We all feel deficient in the Ruach (Spirit) at times. But crusading for, working people up for (which amount to generating no more than psychic energy), fasting for or pursuing the Ruach (Spirit) can take us down as slippery a path as getting pre-occupied with the brain. Reuben A.Torrey once said:

"We do not need to worry about getting more of the Holy Spirit (Ruach haQodesh), but see to it that He gets more of us. We can have all of Him if He can get all of us" [4]

Tozer lived before the personal computer revolution. Computers and other electronic devices are a fact of life that we can't do without yet we still need to remember the importance of moderating our use of them, as with anything else, and especially lawful things which may at first appear innocuous or harmless to us but which can soon all too easily become idolatrous if we're not careful, transporting our minds into imaginary realms and away from real people and from real communion with Elohim (God). Even back then Tozer said "we know too many things" [5]. And we do. Only we have lost basic social skills in the process. The generations alive today have to be amongst the most immature and ill-equipped for life this planet has ever known. Financial and societal collapse will devastate a generation wholly unprepared to fend for itself. They know tons of facts but don't know much about life because they have become too atomised - separated from reality, separated from meaningful, mature relationships with other people, and separated from Elohim (God) because of their inordinate love of self. It's why so many people are lost and confused like never before. They don't even know why they are because they don't even know how to ask basic questions about existence.

We have got to get radically refocussed on Christ. Tozer said:

"The prophets (nevi'im) and reformers of the past were men of few but mighty convictions. Their very narrowness secured high compression and gave added power to their lives" [6].

I miss that compression and I envy those who yet have it. Don't disperse it to the winds by vegetating in your mind, heart, bosy and spirit. What's the way to compression? Death to self - to egotism, as Tozer intimated:

"If we would but quickly surrender to the will of God (Elohim), we would the sooner begin to enjoy His blessings" [7].

I am tired - very, very tired - and I am accutely conscious of my years now, so I treasure what's left even more. Tozer inspires me. There's none of the pretentious nonsense of those who think that faith in certain doctrines is what saves a soul when in truth it's faith in Christ alone, and His infinite grace, that does the work of salvation, once we've made the real choice. I've done some pastoring but mostly I have been teaching, especially the last years. I suspect I probably know more than enough and I am sure many of you already think I've taught far too much. I know I do.

Some divine counsel to end, we may. The 32nd Psalm says:

"Yahweh says, 'I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you...So rejoice in Yahweh and be glad, all you who will obey Him! Shout for joy, all you whose hearts are pure!" (Ps.32:8,11, NLT)

One of my cactus plants is in bloom in winter-time. The white flowers are out even now with the snow outside. I want to join it, spiritually-speaking. That means we have to hurry up and decide to actually die to self and not merely theologise and wax eloquent about it. Do you want to? If so, let's give ourself over to Messiah now with a view to receiving fresh guidance and be willing to submit to it. And while we do, let us rejoice and be glad in Him. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] James L.Snyder, The Life of A.W.Tozer - In Pursuit of God (Bethany House, Mimmeapolis, Minnesota: 2009), p.111
[2] Ibid., p.2
[3] Ibid., p.160
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid., p.73
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid., p.64

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