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AIDEN WILSON TOZER Famous Quote: "Sometimes I go to God and say “God if thou dost never answer another prayer while I live on this earth I will still worship Thee as long as I live and in the ages to come for what Thou hast done already." God’s already put me so far in debt that if I were to live one million millenniums I couldn't pay Him for what He’s done for me." Tozer’s book “The pursuit of God” perfectly describes the life of this great man of God. From the age of seventeen, when he committed his life to God, until his death, Tozer pursued God. His sole aim and purpose in life was to know God personally and he believed that all Christians should have the same desire. Being in God’s presence was Tozer’s passion. His sermons and books attest to the fact that he loved the presence of God and spent much time in prayer. It was said that he spent more time on his knees than at his desk. Tozer believed that a person’s prayer life determines the kind of person we are. According to him, “As a man prays so is he”. This 20th century prophet, as he is referred to, was born on a small farm in Western Pennsylvania. His family moved to Akron, Ohio when he was fifteen years old. About the age of twenty, he became the pastor of a small church in Nutter Fort, West Virginia and this was the beginning of his forty-four years in ministry. He spent thirty one years as pastor of Southside Alliance Church in Chicago. In 1910, he became the editor of a weekly paper called the Weekly Alliance and which later became known as the Alliance Life. Tozer was married and had seven children. Even though the family had little money in the early days of his ministry, he purposed to trust God for all their needs. He said “We are convinced that God can send money to His believing children – but it becomes a pretty cheap thing to get excited about the money and fail to give the glory to Him whom is the Giver!” He was not a man who cared much for material things. The family never owned a car and he preferred to travel in buses and on trains. He was a generous man and it was said that he signed away much of his royalties to those who were in need. Tozer’s books and sermons are captivating and thought provoking. The message of his books and sermons though simple, are rich and profound because they were birthed during his time in the presence of God. He was a prolific writer and wrote over forty books. The book for which he is best known is the “The Pursuit of God” which has sold over 1.5 million copies and translated into over twenty languages. According to one writer, “his writings are messages of concern. They expose the weaknesses of the church and denounce compromise. They warn and exhort. But they are messages of hope as well, for God is always there, ever faithful to restore and to fulfill His Word to those who hear and obey.” His sermons include, ‘Christ: Only one response will do’, ‘Riches without Sorrow’, ‘What must I believe to be a Christian’, ‘The Marks of a Christian’, ‘Four seasons of life’ and “The King and His coming Kingdom’. Tozer often used imageries in his sermons to get the message across to his listeners. One sermon in which he used this style beautifully is ‘Christ: Only one response will do’. It is worth describing how he did this. The text of the message is taken from Matthew 22:41-46. Tozer addresses the question that Jesus put to the Pharisees, “What think ye of Jesus Christ?” (Matthew 22:42). However, instead of looking at the question from a theological perspective he decided to look at it from a practical perspective and put the question this way “What is your response to Christ”? According to Tozer, there are five ways in which one can respond to this question. The first is a negative response i.e., not to respond at all. Tozer says there is no such thing as “no response". You are either for or against Jesus. You cannot be neutral. The second response is intellectual. According to Tozer, the people who fall into this category respond to Christ intellectually. They write books about Him and what He did and acknowledge that He was a great man. Jesus is of intellectual fascination to these people. The third response is sentimental. A lot of people are sentimental in their response to Jesus. They have an emotional fixation for Him. They are sentimentally attracted to Him and what He is about. They love Church music, poetry, etc. The fourth is a moral response. These are Church goers who believe in the Church and its high moral values. They recognize the moral superiority of Christ and his teachings but they will not go as far as to acknowledge Him as their Lord and Saviour. Tozer says none of these responses are redeeming responses. The fifth response is a spiritual response. This is the person who recognizes that he needs Jesus and gives up all his wicked ways and follows Him. To better explain this to his listeners, Tozer uses the imagery of a sinking ship and a life boat. The life boat is painted red and white and is a beautiful shape. The first man jumps out of the sinking ship to avoid drowning. He sees the life boat but shrugs and swims in the opposite direction. This is the first man, the indifferent one. The second man is an engineer. He sees the life boat but instead of swimming towards it, he begins to talk to himself about the beautiful shape of the boat. This is the one with the intellectual response. The third man is a poet, an artist. He sees the boat bouncing and floating on the green water as the waves rise and fall and is struck by the beauty of it. He is the sentimental one. The fourth one is struck with the heroism of those on the life boat and admires their work for humanity. He is the man with the moral response. But Tozer says all these men can perish in a few minutes in the cold icy water. However, there is the fifth man who yells and uses every trick that he knows to hurl himself in the direction of the life boat. He is the man with the spiritual response. He knows that if he is to be saved he must see his sin and admit it and turn away from it. He sees the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. He heard the invitation and responded to it. That man shall be saved.
The same question is put to us. What is our response to Him?. Are we indifferent? As Tozer said, we cannot be indifferent. We are either for Christ or against Him. Is our response an intellectual response, sentimental or moral response? Remember, only one response will do. Only the spiritual response to Christ will do. The Word of God says, ".....Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts." (Hebrew 4:7).
One thing that we learn from studying the life of great men and women of God like Tozer, is that God can use anyone. Tozer did not go to Bible School or seminary yet, his books and sermons have continued to touch generations after him. One writer said of Tozer, “I fear that we shall never see another Tozer. Men like him are not college bred but spirit taught.” May we be like Tozer and desire the presence of God, because it is in His presence that there is fullness of joy.
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