the pursuit of God

In our men’s Bible study on Tuesday mornings we have started the book The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer.

On page 14 of my copy, Mr. Tozer says this:

This intercourse between God and the soul is known to us in conscious personal awareness. It is personal: it does not come through the body of believers, as such, but it is known to the individual, and to the body through the individuals which compose it.

Isn’t that an interesting concept? The pursuit of God is personal. Not corporate. Do you agree with that? why or why not? If you do agree, then why have church communities at all? If we aren’t striving for God corporately, then what is the point of being corporate?

Thankfully, the Bible gives us an answer. The point of the body of believers is to encourage, exhort and provoke one another into the pursuit of God. Hebrews 3:13, Hebrews 10:24-25, Galatians 6:1

Jesus even gives us a model procedure for confronting a brother who has wronged you in Matthew 18:15-20. What do we notice about this procedure? Look at it a minute:

15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed[a] in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

Do you see in this passage that Tozer was correct? The malefactor/tortfeasor/wrongdoer has three chances in this procedure to repent of his wrongdoing and return to the fold. His brothers have the explicit duty to confront him with his wrongdoing and the implied duty to forgive and accept him if he returns. But the bottom line choice about whether to repent and return rests with the wrongdoer.

The most Christian brothers and sisters can do for each other on the journey is love one another, pray for one another, encourage one another, exhort one another, confront one another when we go off track, spur/goad one another etc. Whether or not any particular individual is receptive to the encouragement/exhortation/confrontation/love/prayer/etc is up to that individual.

The ultimate decision about whether to pursue God or not is a solitary decision made by every particular individual every moment of every day. That intercourse is personal to each one of us and God.

thankfully, the choice is not up to us. Although we must make the choice, God’s grace gives us the power to pursue Him. John 1:11-13, John 6:44, John 6:65. II Corinthians 3:18 makes it clear that we “are being transformed” (passive voice, God doing the transformation) into His image with ever increasing glory. II Peter 1:3-8 says that His divine power has given us everything that we need for life and godliness, and that “for this reason” we must “make every effort” to supplement our faith with virtue etc.

We have to be able to see two lines at once in order to grasp the truth of scripture. God expects us to passionately pursue him with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. God gives us the very ability that we need to do this thing that goes against our natural man’s nature. God also insures that the process will be completed for the increase of his glory. See Ephesians 1:3-14, II Cor. 3:18 and Hebrews 12:5-11.