December 4. AW Tozer. The main thing about Tozer was that he was obsessed with the holiness and the goodness and the glory of God. And he wanted everyone to know that awesome Being.
Although Tozer was self-taught—he wrote more than forty books, and two of them are Christian classics. He never attended seminary, but he pastored for forty-four years. He lived a simple, non-materialistic life, never owned a car, and had six sons and a daughter. He believed the church was headed the wrong way and in danger of compromising with the world, and he was never shy about it, but spoke up every chance he got.
For thirteen years, Tozer was also a magazine editor. In his first editorial he wrote: “It will cost something to walk slow in the parade of the ages, while excited men of time rush about—confusing motion with progress. But it will pay in the long run, and the true Christian is not much interested in anything short of that.”
Find the courage to speak; God will bring the power to change.
When seventeen-year-old Tozer wasn’t making a living selling “candy, peanuts, and books on the Vicksburg and Pacific Railroad or hand-cutting rubber for Goodyear,” he spent his days with his head buried in any book, dreaming of wild adventures. Although he regularly attended church with his family, he was unaware of his need for salvation—until a neighbor dared to ask him what no one had ever asked him before.
Tozer told the story: “We had a neighbor by the name of Holman. I do not know his first name or initials. I had heard that he was a Christian, but he never talked to me about Christ. Then one day, I was walking up the street with this friendly neighbor. Suddenly, he put his hand on my shoulder. ‘You know,’ he said, ‘I have been wondering if you are a Christian, if you are converted. I just wanted the chance to talk it over with you.’”
Tozer replied politely, “No, Mr. Holman, I am not converted, but I thank you for saying this to me. I am going to give it some serious thought.” Tozer then bid Mr. Holman goodbye and went about his business, outwardly unchanged by the conversation.
A few days later, when walking home from work, Tozer was shocked to see a German man shouting on a street corner in a thick, almost incomprehensible accent. Being a curious boy, Tozer ambled over to listen carefully.
This strange man was a street preacher, and what he said next hit Tozer harder than a hammer to the chest: “If you don’t know how to be saved, just call on God, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner,’ and God will hear you.”
For the first time in his life, a preacher’s words burned on Tozer’s heart, and not only that, “They troubled him. They awakened within him a gnawing hunger for God.”
He went straight to the attic and after much anguish of heart, he surrendered his life to God. And that afternoon in 1915, Tozer became a new man in Christ Jesus. He became a man whose pursuit of God would never end.
Neither Tozer’s neighbor nor the street preacher could have imagined the profound impact their words had made on the boy, or how their kindness and courage had changed him. Nor could they have perceived that his books, In Pursuit of God and Delighting in God would be read by millions of people.
“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit” (Proverbs 18:21 NIV).
Is there someone in your life who needs to hear the life-changing news of Jesus? Take a minute today to ask the Lord for courage to share with them. Your words may change them forever.
Find the courage to speak; God will bring the power to change.
Snyder, James, L. The Life of A.W. Tozer: In Pursuit of God. Bloomington, Minnesota: Bethany House Publishers, 2009.
Hobson, John. On the Trail of A. W. Tozer: A Biography. Frome, Somerset, UK: John Hobson, 2015.
Story read by Daniel Carpenter