I picked up a book I read in college to reread… its been calling my name! The Pursuit of God by AW Tozer. I wanted to share the bits that are challenging me… renewing my thirst and desire for pursuit… reminding me of the URGENCY to pursue!!

Hosea 6:3 “Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.”

“The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after Him.” It is such a paradox, you know? That God drawing, me drawing near business… Psalm 42:1 “As the deer panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.” and yet the whole time we are STILL in His hand. Pslam 63:8 “My soul followeth hard after Thee: Thy right hand upholdeth me.”

and some long quotes that are sticking hard with me: “The doctrine of justification by faith - a biblical truth, and a blessed relief from sterile legalism and unavailing self-effort - has in our time fallen into evil company and been interpreted by many in such a manner as actually to bar men from the knowledge of God. The whole transaction of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless… Christ may be “received” without creating any special love for Him in the soul of the receiver. The man is “saved”, but he is not hungry nor thirsty after God. In fact, he is specifically taught to be satisfied and is encouraged to be content with little… we have almost forgotten that God is a person, and as such, can be cultivated as any person can. It is inherent in personality to be able to know other personalitites, but full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter. It is only after long and loving mental intercourse that the full possibilities of both can be explored.”

and

“How tragic that we in these dark days have had our seeking done for us by our teachers. Everything is made to center upon the initial act of “accepting” Christ (a term, incidentall, which is not found in the Bible) and we are not expected thereafter to crave any further revelation of God to our souls. We have been snared in the coils of spurious logic which insists that if we have found Him, we need no more seek Him… it is taken for granted that no Bible-taught Christian ever believed otherwise. Thus the whole testimony of the worshiping, seeking, singing church on that subject is crisply set aside. The experiential heart-theology of a grand army of fragrant saints is rejected in favor of a smug interpretation of Scripture which would certainly have sounded strange to an Augustine, a Rutherford or a Brainerd.”

There are some though who “admit the force of the argument, and then turn away with tears to hunt some lonely place and pray, “O God, show me Thy glory.” They want to taste, to touch with their hearts, to see with their inner eyes the wonder that is God.

Jeremiah 29:13 “And ye shall see me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”

Hosea 10:12 “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till He come and rain righteousness upon you.”