A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

I finished The Pursuit of God this morning. I read several chapters over as I went. It has been quite a while since I read a deeply devotional book. Today's devotions seem somehow shallow. Anyway, Tozer wrote back in the 1940s, and his writings are thought provoking. I want to share some parts I enjoyed. It will probably take a few days to do so... What does the Divine Imminence mean in direct Christian experience? It means simply that God is here. Wherever we are, God is here. There is no place, there can be no place, where He is not. Ten million intelligences standing at as many points in space and separated by incomprehensible distances can each one say with equal truth, God is here. No point is any nearer to God than any other point. It is exactly as near to God from any place as it is from any other place. No one is in mere distance further from or any nearer to God than any other person..... If God is present at every point in space, if we cannot go where he is not, why then has not that Presence become the one universally celebrated fact of the world? The patriarch, Jacob, in the "waste howling wilderness" (Deut 32:10) gave the answer to that question. He saw a vision of God, and cried out in wonder, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not" (Gen 28:16). Jacob had never been for one small division of a moment outside the circle of that all-pervading Presence. But he knew it not. That was his trouble, and it is ours. Men do not know that God is here. What a difference it would make if they knew. The Presence and the manifestation of the Presence are not the same. There can be the one without the other. God is here when we are wholly unaware of it.He is manifest only when and as we are aware of His Presence. On our part, there must be surrender to the Spirit of God, for His work is to show us the Father and Son. If we cooperate with Him in loving obedience, God will manifest Himself to us, and that manifestation will be the difference between a nominal Christian life and a life radiant with the light of His face. ---------- I know God is everywhere, but to hear it in this way was refreshing. It was also refreshing to hear that God is here even when we don't admit it. Certainly I admit the fact of God's presence, but I don't always dwell in His Presence. I just need to recognize Him more often. I am enjoying my morning time with God. I feel more at peace with my day. Try it for yourself.