Getting Under My Skin...Again

Here he goes again. The prophet (in the truest sense of the word) from a recent generation, A. W. Tozer, has a way of making Christians uncomfortable. If I didn't believe he had a legitimate point, I could get downright angry with him. If the shoes fits, let's wear it, even if the little stones hurt our feet.

Here's the latest entry from Literature Ministries International and their Insight for Leaders e-mail devotional/challenge:


A. W. Tozer

Evangelism: Man-centered Christianity

"Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty; for all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and You are exalted as head over all." -1 Chronicles 29:11

Christianity today is man-centered, not God-centered. God is made to wait patiently, even respectfully, on the whims of men. The image of God currently popular is that of a distracted Father, struggling in heartbroken desperation to get people to accept a Saviour of whom they feel no need and in whom they have very little interest.

To persuade these self-sufficient souls to respond to His generous offers God will do almost anything, even using salesmanship methods and talking down to them in the chummiest way imaginable.

This view of things is, of course, a kind of religious romanticism which, while it often uses flattering and sometimes embarrassing terms in praise of God, manages nevertheless to make man the star of the show.

taken from Man: The Dwelling Place of God, p. 27