Thursday, March 09, 2006

Whatever Happened to Worship

I just began Tozer's Whatever Happened to Worship. It is a selection of his sermons from when he was in Toronto. He was intending to write a book on worship, so was preaching sermons along those lines to get ready. Before he could write the book, he died. So, they have collected a selection of 10 of these sermons and put them in book form. This is from page 14, the title of the sermon is "Worship in the Christian Church:"

"...nowadays there is a deadly, automatic quality about getting saved. It bothers me greatly.

"I say an 'automatic' quality: 'Put a nickel's worth of faith in the slot, pull down the lever and take out the little card of salvation. Tuck it in your wallet and off you go."

"After that the man or woman can say, 'Yes, I'm saved.'

"How does he or she know?

"'I put the nickel in. I accepted Jesus and I signed the card.'

"Very good, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with signing a card. It can be a very helpful thing so we can know who made an inquiry.

"But really, my brother or sister, we are brought to God and to faith and to salvation that we might worship and adore Him. We do not come to God that we might be automatic Christians, cookie-cutter Christians, Christians stamped out with a die.

"God has provided His salvation that we might be, individually and personally, vibrant children of God, loving God with all our hearts and worshiping Him, in the beauty of holiness."

<idle musing>
I love Tozer, he is my favorite 20th century "popular" Christian author. He never leaves you in doubt where you stand. If you have never read any Tozer, I would recommend you start with The Pursuit of God, especially the first and last chapters. You would never know he wrote over 40 years ago, it sounds just as applicable today.
</idle musing>

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