Review of "The Pursuit of God" by A.W. Tozer

I am always trying to find new authors that I enjoy reading. Recently I've discovered Timothy Keller, Kevin DeYoung, and Jonathan Edwards. Obviously, most people have heard of all of these authors before-- they come highly recommended. A.W. Tozer was an author that I was directed towards in pretty much every class I took at Moody Bible Institute. I finally caught up with one of his books and can honestly say that I'm ready to read anything this man has written.

What I liked: Tozer has such a heart for the Lord, it comes out in every line of this book. There is no question left to the reader about what Tozer's intentions were in writing this volume. I found myself challenged, impassioned, and encouraged time and time again.

Tozer writes beautifully. He has a way of stating basic principles of Scripture and Christian life in the most profoundly simplistic way. Nearly this entire book is quotable. He writing is clear, concise, stretching, and exciting. It was truly a pleasure to read. On a more formatting level, each chapter is short enough to easily read along with Scripture for daily devotions.

What I Didn't Like: The only problem I had with The Pursuit of God is some of Tozer's theology. This really doesn't get in the way of most of the message of the book. Simply, he mentions God's prevenient grace a couple of times in regards to the salvation process. Having moderate calvinistic leanings, I personally don't believe Scripture teaches prevenient grace; however, it was only mentioned a few times, and again did not distort or confuse the message of the book.

Favorite Quotations: 
- "Everything is made to center upon the initial act of 'accepting' Christ... and we are not expected thereafter to crave any further revelation of God to our souls. We have been snared in the coils of a spurious logic which insists that if we have found Him, we need no more seek Him."
- "We read our chapter, have our short devotions, and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar."
- "Religion has accepted the monstrous heresy that noise, size, activity and bluster make a man dear to God."
- "One  of the greatest hindrances to internal peace which the Christian encounters is the common habit of dividing our lives into two areas - the sacred and the secular."




Recommendation: I highly recommend this for all Christians. It is fairly accessible to all readers (there is a bit of Old English flare, but still quite comprehensible), and I believe any believer would be greatly challenged and encouraged by reading the heart of this great man of God.

Review of “God’s Lesser Glory: The Diminished God of Open Theism” by Bruce A. Ware

This is the second book in my personal series studying the Open Theism debate among Evangelicals. The first book I reviewed was by a well-known proponent of OTH (open theism) named John Sanders. To read my review of “The God Who Risks” click here. “God’s Lesser Glory” is written by Bruce Ware, a well-known conservative evangelical theologian, and senior associate dean at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Obviously, his views offer a critique of OTH stances.

What I Liked: Bruce Ware’s critiques of OTH seem to be spot-on from a purely biblical standpoint. This volume is formatted nicely offering the OTH stances on a topic, their perceived flaws of classical theism, and then Ware’s refutation based on Scripture. More than Sanders, Ware seems to desire a pure biblical conclusion above all else. His hermeneutic seems more consistent and thought-through, rather than seeking to prove his own point. His refutations analyze OTH arguments point-by-point, offering clear answers and asking questions open theologians need to answer.

Much like Sanders, Ware’s heart for God shines through each chapter. I believe God is truly the center of this debate above all else, not denominations, not church politics, and not schools of thought. This controversy is about God Himself as we perceive Him through His revelations in the Bible, and I do believe that both sides are desiring to know God better and make Him known more clearly. However, Ware makes a fantastic stand for orthodoxy and beautifully refutes the bulk of propositions made by open theists.

What I Didn’t Like: There is very little I did not enjoy about this book. At times, Ware’s confrontation of open theists brinks on becoming more of a personal attack than a debate on doctrine. However, I think he only toes this line and does not cross it.

Favorite Quotes: (also major points he makes against OTH)

• “The fact is that God cannot be subject to and limited by the libertarian free   choices of people of which he has no prior knowledge  and over which he has   regulative control, and still be able to know and ordain all the days of our lives.”
• “If God’s glory rests, ultimately, in His control of all that is, then it stands to reason that when God’s control is diminished and human control elevated, so too is His glory diminished- while human pretense to assume that glory is encouraged.”
• “Again, the truth of the matter simply is that, because God’s knowledge and wisdom is vastly superior to ours, we would be utter and absolute fools to want God to wait to ‘hear from us first’ before he decides what is best to do.”
• (this sums up the book well) “...the sobering truth here is that, by the openness view, neither we nor God know now whether in fact God will so win in the end. If God is at war, and if God has taken significant risks, then we must wait to see if God will win, and so wait to see if God is in fact glorious.”

Personal Takeaways: God is glorious. He is glorious because of his infinite wisdom and knowledge of all things past, present, and future (Isaiah 41-48; Deut 31:16-21; Ps 139; etc). I cannot make the views of OTH sync with this understanding of the glory of God. 

Who’s It For?: This book is fairly accessible for most readers. It gets technical in some of its theological language, but I believe is very understandable and straightforward. Anyone desiring a classical theism refutation of open theism would do themselves a great favor in reading this book. 

Review of "Churched: One Kids Journey Toward God Despite a Holy Mess" by Matthew Paul Turner

     Every once in a while I come across a book that diverges from theology, youth ministry, introspection, apologetics, or even fiction that interests me. Churched is one of those books. It describes a young man (author Matthew Paul Turner) growing up in a hyper-conservative southern baptist church. Despite all odds of being embittered against and rejecting the legalistic tendencies of his upbringing, Turner is able to see the beauty of the Gospel and continue in his faith and love for the Lord. This interested me immediately.

What I liked: Turner is a great story-teller. In each of his experiences, the reader can easily imagine all the little details he is describing to a "t." Also, this book jumps deeply into many of the ridiculous teachings that can come from a place of pride, envy, judging others, etc. Some of the examples from his real life are so preposterous they come across as simply unbelievable... in a good way. Turner calls things like they are. This book truly reveals the deception that lies in the hearts of others. It shows the dark side of the church. It angered me at times.

What I Didn't Like: First of all, I have this as an audiobook from christianaudio.com, as part of their reviewers program. Turner's voice wears on the listener. His tone is one of almost mocking the characters in his story as he tells them.
For all of the dark stories the author tells, he rarely mentions his journey with the Lord. He simply tells 15 chapters worth of stories about how crazy and pretty much ungodly his southern baptist church was growing up. Then suddenly in the last chapter he tells a story of his current church, a couple things he believes, and how he still loves Jesus despite his past. This is great, don't get me wrong, but we aren't allowed into that transformation at all. We don't see the process. It makes all his stories lack direction, purpose, and meaning.
This book would have been awesome if he had half the stories from his childhood, focused on the things he had to wrestle with because of those stories and how he was able to grow in his faith and maintain his love for Christ and passion for the Gospel. That is a book worth reading. This one seems to digress into cheap shots against people of his past and a total bashing of all fundamentalism with very little pay-off in the end.

Personal Takeaways: I was challenged in how I interact with my students as I read this book. One of the positive things this book establishes is that the mind of an adolescent is very pliable. The very tone in which I teach things, my motivation behind every talk I give, and my (potential) lack of focus on the Gospel can easily embitter my students later on in life. I must be careful to teach only what Scripture teaches and model only who Christ is. Nothing more. Nothing less. My ministry at TreeHouse cannot fall into any traps of legalism or berating others. This is not the Good News.

Who's It For?: If you are looking to get into the mind of ultra-conservative, fundamentalist, southern baptist churches (I'm speaking in probably too broad of terms here), this book could give you some insight. It is a quick and easy read, mainly being full of stories. I'd say it's accessible to all, but ultimately panders into name-calling and mocking far too often and fails to establish the story of what God is doing and has done in the heart of the author.