Some other interesting quotes, which I ran out of time for on Thursday:
"The heart of man is like a musical instrument and may be played upon by the Holy Spirit, by an evil spirit or by the spirit of man himself. Religious emotions are very much the same, no matter who the player may be.... The nun who kneels 'breathless with adoration' before an image of the Virgin is having a genuine religious experience. She feels love, awe and reverence, all enjoyable emotions, as certainly as if she were adoring God. The mystical experiences of Hindus and Sufis cannot be brushed aside as mere pretense. Niether dare we dismiss the high religious flights of spiritists and other occultists as imagination. These may have and sometimes do have genuine encounters with something or someone beyond themselves. In the same manner Christians are sometimes led into emotional experiences that are beyond their power to comprehend....
The big test is, what has this done to my relationship to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ?"
I really like that one, from his book "Man: the Dwelling Place of God". And the chapter "Some Thoughts on Books and Reading" from the same book was also good. A short excerpt:
"The best book is not one that informs merely, but one that stirs the reader up to inform himself. The best writer is one that goes with us through the world of ideas like a friendly guide who walks beside us through the forest pointing out to us a hundred natural wonders we had not noticed before. So we learn from him to see for ourselves and soon we have no need for our guide. If he has done his work well we can go on alone and miss little as we go.
That writer does the most for us who brings to our attention thoughts that lay close to our minds waiting to be acknowledged as our own. Such a man acts as a midwife to assist at the birth of ideas that have been gestating long within our souls, but which without his help might not have been born at all....
Since what we read in a real sense enters the soul, it is vitally important that we read the best and nothing but the best.... Today we must practice sharp discipline in our reading habits. Every Christian should master the Bible, or at least spend hours and days and years trying. And always he should read his Bible, as George Muller said, 'with meditation'."
The nice thing about Tozer is that all his chapters, or the great majority of them, are short - about three or four pages of a small-print paperback. So you can read little pieces in between other things, like waiting to pick up my sister or something. And if your book's small enough it fits in your purse... :-)
Democracy in America, on the other hand.... that'll take me awhile to get through, even though I am reading the abridged version.
"The heart of man is like a musical instrument and may be played upon by the Holy Spirit, by an evil spirit or by the spirit of man himself. Religious emotions are very much the same, no matter who the player may be.... The nun who kneels 'breathless with adoration' before an image of the Virgin is having a genuine religious experience. She feels love, awe and reverence, all enjoyable emotions, as certainly as if she were adoring God. The mystical experiences of Hindus and Sufis cannot be brushed aside as mere pretense. Niether dare we dismiss the high religious flights of spiritists and other occultists as imagination. These may have and sometimes do have genuine encounters with something or someone beyond themselves. In the same manner Christians are sometimes led into emotional experiences that are beyond their power to comprehend....
The big test is, what has this done to my relationship to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ?"
I really like that one, from his book "Man: the Dwelling Place of God". And the chapter "Some Thoughts on Books and Reading" from the same book was also good. A short excerpt:
"The best book is not one that informs merely, but one that stirs the reader up to inform himself. The best writer is one that goes with us through the world of ideas like a friendly guide who walks beside us through the forest pointing out to us a hundred natural wonders we had not noticed before. So we learn from him to see for ourselves and soon we have no need for our guide. If he has done his work well we can go on alone and miss little as we go.
That writer does the most for us who brings to our attention thoughts that lay close to our minds waiting to be acknowledged as our own. Such a man acts as a midwife to assist at the birth of ideas that have been gestating long within our souls, but which without his help might not have been born at all....
Since what we read in a real sense enters the soul, it is vitally important that we read the best and nothing but the best.... Today we must practice sharp discipline in our reading habits. Every Christian should master the Bible, or at least spend hours and days and years trying. And always he should read his Bible, as George Muller said, 'with meditation'."
The nice thing about Tozer is that all his chapters, or the great majority of them, are short - about three or four pages of a small-print paperback. So you can read little pieces in between other things, like waiting to pick up my sister or something. And if your book's small enough it fits in your purse... :-)
Democracy in America, on the other hand.... that'll take me awhile to get through, even though I am reading the abridged version.
Comments