Earlier this year I had treated myself to the complete works of A.W.Tozer, and haven’t been disappointed yet. He has a remarkable style that just tells it like it is, plain and simple, but with a truth that cuts to our core. My kind of man, no beating around the bush or full of flowery statement, just puts it out there. I have a feeling that many of my posts here are going to be offshoots of his work, cause it’s sooooo good.
In Book Two of the first volume, chapter one, Tozer talks about joy. Real joy. Not the kind of joy that you have to ‘work up’ but a joy that explodes and resonates within your heart because of the Presence of the Lord. He also lists some characteristics that one should expect to find within a congregation, let me list a few of them here:
A Joyful people.
Useful and helpful to the race of men.
Those who have a leading ambition to be rid of their sin.
Those who want to know God and walk with Him.
Those who have learned to recognize the voice of the Shepherd
Those who are sensitive to His invisible Presence.
Ouch. Let me see, do I carry His joy around within me? Sometimes. Am I helpful to the race of men? Sometimes. Do I have a leading ambition to be rid of my sins? Sometimes. Do I want to know His voice, and walk with Him and know when He comes near? A lot of the times on that one.
Funny thing about our sins. Sometimes we know when we sin, but push it aside to deal with it later. Does ‘later’ ever come? When ‘later’ does come are we really repentant, with a broken and contrite spirit? Obviously not or we would have repented much sooner than we did. I would say that our hearts would be a bit stony and hard if that is our normal path to repentance. What would it be like to live a life with a driving ambition to be rid of our sins and to walk in a clean and pure way?
Sometimes it’s hard to know where the line is and where you’ve crossed it. If your diet consists of much of today’s media, you won’t easily recognize personal sin from a biblical world view. So then if you aren’t aware of your sin, how can you repent? You need to be in the word of God, or listen to sermons, messages, even today’s top Christian music is a great source of spiritual food. And, for those of us who know better – is a little ‘knee–time’ needed tonight?
We can do all sorts of things to try to feel happy; to ‘work up to joy’ as Tozer puts it. Lots of medications to cure our aches, pains and lumbago. A new Bible or new shoes or a new desk to read at. A new friend or new job is just the ticket – that should give me lots of joy. Lots of excuses to put off that joy, too busy, too tired, too poor, too full of responsibilities, I’ll get to it after this season is over. Funny how we never think of ridding ourselves of our sins at the cross. Guess it should be our first attempt at joy instead of the last, huh?
Join me tonight won’t you, in taking a good, deep, long look within at that heart of ours. Is it in need of a little cleansing? Maybe a lot of cleansing? Father God isn’t going anywhere and He has all the time in the world. He also has the solution to make things right and the grace and joy to replace our sins. Sounds like a good swap if you ask me.
