From Heaven - A.W. Tozer
From Heaven: A 28-day Advent Devotional with excerpts from
the works of A.W. Tozer, is one of the strangest devotionals I have ever
encountered (though I haven't looked at or read many). Strange in a good way though. When I think of devotionals, I think of
generally light portions of readings per day, with a verse of Scripture that is
contemplated at a high level and that is then meant to be applied to oneself in
an extremely personal way. Tozer's
devotional, like any devotional, has a small reading for any given day, but the
content of the reading is anything but small and goes much further than
provoking one to mere introspection, it provokes one to contemplate the true
awesomeness of our God and His love and grace.
There are things in
this devotional that I was delightfully surprised to see in a Christmas
devotional (or any devotional for that matter), like, "Put the emphasis where the Bible
puts it, on the Christ at the right hand of God, not on the babe in the
manger." And, "Among the harmful abuses of
the Christmas season in America is the substitution of Santa Clause for Christ
as the chief object of popular interest, especially among the children. The morality of Mother Goose stories and
fairy tales has been questioned by serious -minded Christian parents, but my
opinion is that these are relatively harmless because they are told as fiction
and the child is fully aware that they are imaginary. With Santa Claus it is not so. The child is taught falsehood as sober truth
and is thus grossly deceived during the most sensitive and formative period of
his life."
This devotional will
get you into the true Christmas spirit (and I'm not saying this
sarcastically). You will contemplate
with awe the fact that God sent Christ to come at all, "What would be the logical mission upon which God would send His Son
to the world? We know what our nature is
and we know that God knows all about us and He is sending His Son to face
us…..Our own hearts-sin and darkness and deception and moral disease- tell us
what His mission should be. The sin we
cannot deny tells us that He might have come to judge the world!" You
will dwell upon the wonder of the work of God in salvation in sending His own
Son to save us, and that this Son is God Himself in the flesh, come to bring us
His righteousness and come not just to dwell among His people for a short time,
but Who dwells IN His people. You will
also contemplate Christ's second coming and be shocked that you do not long for
it as you ought, "Another reason for the
absence of real yearning for Christ's return is that Christians are so
comfortable in this world that they have little desire to leave it……….We want
to reserve the hope of heaven as a kind of insurance against the day of death,
but as long as, we are healthy and comfortable, why change a familiar good for
something about which we actually know very little?... Again, in these times religion has become
jolly good fun right here in this present world, and what's the hurry about
heaven anyway? Christianity, contrary
to what some had thought is another and higher form of entertainment. Christ has done all the suffering. He has shed all the tears and carried all
the crosses; we have but to enjoy the benefits of His heartbreak in the form of
religious pleasures modeled after the world but carried on in the name of
Jesus. So say the same people who claim
to believe in Christ's second coming."
All in all, though
there were a few statements I did not agree with (like the parts where Tozer
describes God's love for us as COMPELLING Him to do certain things rather than
God being in complete control of His own love), but for the most part I really liked
this devotional, and highly recommend it.
As I mentioned earlier, it will get you into the true Christmas spirit!
Many thanks to MoodyPublishers for sending me a free review copy of this book (My
review did not have to be favorable)
One of the places where you may purchase this book is at the Christian Book Distributors website
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