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 "Sometimes it's hard to pay attention to our own desires isn't it? We start believing that God only wants us to do the things we don't want to do. But God also speaks through the deep desires and longings of our hearts. God invites us to pay attention to the things that bring us life and joy."  ~Sensible Shoes

"The whole outlook of mankind might be changed if we could all believe that we dwell under a friendly sky and that the God of heaven, thought exalted in power and majesty, is eager to be friends with us." ~AW Tozer

a tragic waste of truth

"And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not;

I will lead them in paths that they have not known:

I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. 

These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them."

Isaiah 42:16

"To believe actively that our Heavenly Father constantly spreads around us providential circumstances that work for our present good and our everlasting well-being brings to the soul a veritable benediction. Most of us go through life praying a little, planning a little, jockeying for position, hoping but never being quite certain of anything, and always secretly afraid that we will miss the way. This is a tragic waste of truth and never gives rest to the heart.

There is a better way. It is to repudiate our own wisdom and take instead, the infinite wisdom of God. Our insistence upon seeing ahead is natural enough, but it is a real hindrance to our spiritual progress. God has charged Himself with full responsibility for our eternal happiness and stands ready to take over the management of our lives the moment we turn in faith to Him." ~A.W. Tozer

familiar tones

"The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word." 1 Samuel 3:19-21 (NIV)

"Lord teach me to listen. The times are noisy and my ears are weary with the thousand raucous sounds which continuously assault them. Give me the spirit of the boy Samuel when he said to Thee, 'Speak, for thy servant heareth." Let me hear Thee speaking in my heart. Let me get used to the sound of Thy Voice, that its tones may be familiar when the sounds of earth die away and the only sound will be the music of Thy speaking Voice. Amen." ~from The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer

the nature of love

"It is of the nature of love that it cannot lie quiescent. It is active, creative and benign. 'God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.' 'God so love the world, that He gave His only begotten Son...'

So it must be where love is; love must ever give to its own, whatever the cost...

The love of God is one of the great realities of the universe, a pillar upon which the hope of the world rests. But it is a personal, intimate thing too. God does not love populations, He loves people. He loves not masses, but men. He loves us all with a mighty love that has no beginning and can have no end." ~from The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer

favored

"With the goodness of God to desire our highest welfare, the wisdom of God to plan it, and the power of God to achieve it, what do we lack? Surely we are the most favored of all creatures." ~A.W. Tozer

wondrous strength

"In this world where men forget us, change their attitude toward us as their private interests dictate, and revise their opinion of us for the slightest cause, is it not a source of wondrous strength to know that the God with whom we have to do, changes not? That His attitude toward us now is the same as it was in eternity past and will be in eternity to come?

What peace it brings to the Christian's heart to realize that our Heavenly Father never differs from Himself. In coming to Him at any time, we need not wonder whether we shall find Him in a receptive mood....Today, this moment, He feels toward His creatures, toward the sick, the fallen, the sinful, exactly as He did when He sent His Son into the world to die for us." ~A.W. Tozer

we are the church

"When viewed from the perspective of eternity, the most critical need of this hour may well be that the Church should be brought back from her long Babylonian captivity and the name of God be glorified in her again as of old. Yet we must not think of the Church as an anonymous body, a mystical religious abstraction. We Christians are the Church and whatever we do is what the Church is doing. The matter, therefore, is for each of us a personal one. Any forward step in the Church must begin with the individual." ~A.W. Tozer

incomprehensible

"Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever." ~I Timothy 1:17

Today as I spent time thinking about God...I wrestled with the tension of trying to understand Him and yet having no point of reference with which to do that. So, I picked up my 'go to' book, "Knowledge of the Holy" by A.W. Tozer. Every time I read this little wisp of a book, I feel that I inch a little closer to a more true impression of God...if that is something that can ever be grasped.

"When we try to imagine what God is like, we must of necessity use that which in not God as the raw materials for our minds to work on; hence whatever we visualize God to be, He is not, for we have constructed our image out of that which He has made, and what He has made is not God. If we insist upon trying to imagine Him, we end with an idol, made not with hands, but with thoughts; and an idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand."

Immortal, invisible,
God only wise,
In light inaccessible
hid from our eyes,
Most blessèd, most glorious,
the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious,
Thy great Name we praise.


Unresting, unhasting,
and silent as light,
Nor wanting, nor wasting,
Thou rulest in might;
Thy justice, like mountains,
high soaring above
Thy clouds, which are fountains
of goodness and love.


To all, life Thou givest,
to both great and small;
In all life Thou livest,
the true life of all;
We blossom and flourish
as leaves on the tree,
And wither and perish--
but naught changeth Thee.


Great Father of glory,
pure Father of light,
Thine angels adore Thee,
all veiling their sight;
All praise we would render;
O help us to see
'Tis only the splendor
of light hideth Thee.

Take a moment to stop and listen to a rendition of this hymn by Scott Wesley Brown.
  Immortal, Invisible (God Only Wise)

sweetly bound

"It is a strange and beautiful eccentricity of the free God that He has allowed His heart to be emotionally identified with men. Self-sufficient as He is, He wants our love and will not be satisfied till He gets it. Free as He is, He has let His heart be bound to us forever." ~A.W. Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy

"For our soul is so specially loved of Him that is highest, that it overpasseth the knowing of all creatures; that is to say, there is no creature that is made that may know how much and how sweetly and how tenderly our Maker loveth us. And therefore we may with grace and His help stand in spiritual beholding, with everlasting marvel of this high, overpassing, inestimable Love that Almighty God hath to us of His Goodness." ~Julian of Norwich

mercy 2 me

www.zachfryphotography.com

"Holy Father, Thy wisdom excites our admiration. Thy power fills us with fear, Thy omnipresence turns every spot of earth into holy ground, but how shall we thank Thee enough for Thy mercy which comes down to the lowest part of our need to give us beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and for the spirit of heaviness, a garment of praise? We bless and magnify Thy mercy, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."  

~AW Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy

strange and beautiful eccentricity

"It is a strange and beautiful eccentricity of the free God that He has allowed His heart to be emotionally identified with men. Self-sufficient as He is, He wants our love and will not be satisfied till He gets it. Free as He is, He has let His heart be bound to us forever. 'Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loves us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.' says Julian of Norwich, 'that it over-passeth the knowing of all creatures: that is to say, there is no creature that is made that may know how much and how sweetly and how tenderly our Maker loveth us. And therefore we may with grace and His help, stand in spiritual beholding, with everlasting marvel of this high, overpassing, inestimable Love that Almighty God hath to us of His Goodness."

~from Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer

rehearsal

"Life is a short and fevered rehearsal for a concert we cannot stay to give. Just when we appear to have attained some proficiency, we are forced to lay our instruments down. There is simply not time enough to think, to become, to perform what the constitution of our natures indicates we are capable of."

~A.W. Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy

the tension

"The greatness of God arouses fear within us, but His goodness encourages us not to be afraid of Him. To fear and not be afraid--that is the paradox of faith."

~A.W. Tozer

something true

"O Majesty unspeakable, my soul desires to behold Thee. I cry to Thee from the dust.

Yet when I inquire after thy name, it is secret. Thou art hidden in the light which no man can approach unto. What Thou art cannot be thought or uttered, for Thy glory is ineffable.

Still, prophet and psalmist, apostle and saint have encouraged me to believe that I may in some measure know Thee. Therefore, I pray, whatever of Thyself Thou hast been pleased to disclose, help me to search out as treasure more precious than rubies or the merchandise of fine gold: for with Thee shall I live when the stars of the twilight are no more and the heavens have vanished away and only Thou remainest. Amen."

~From Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer