Lead Like Christ: Reflecting the Qualities and Character of Christ In Your Ministry (Audiobook, 2021) by A.W. Tozer, Book Review

I like to think of A.W. Tozer (many have called him a modern-day prophet) as a very bold and manly writer. We need more men of God like him. I'm not comfortable calling a living person a "man of God" anymore because the last time I said that to the late Ravi Zacharias, I was frustrated and ashamed of myself after the exposè. Of course, it's not wrong (if due respect) to call someone a man or woman of God, it is safer for the soul and faith, in my opinion, to reserve that title or honor to the long-gone, time-proven, faithful Christ followers such as A.W. Tozer. Although he passed away in 1963, his influence - writings and Christian living - is critical today. My first encounter with Tozer was through his classic book, The Knowledge of the Holy and also a biography by James L. Snyder entitled A.W. Tozer: In Pursuit of God. I have some issues with Tozer's mysticism but his love for God and His Word surpassed my judgment and is remained central in his life and writings.

Lead Like Christ edited by James Synder for modern readers is a compilation of Tozer's sermons on the Epistle of Paul to Titus which particularly focus on spiritual leadership. If you're looking for a management-side or practical method of leadership, this book is not for you. For that, as I see the importance of knowing how to lead, I would recommend other books. But if you, as Tozer puts it, have "an incurable hunger and thirst for the deep things of God" you will be blessed by this book. His insights on the Scripture, particularly the Letter to Titus, are admirable. His thoughts on the impact of spiritual warfare, the urgent need for sound doctrine, the call of servanthood, the three words he uses to describe Titus (integrity, discretion, and enthusiasm), and more are skillfully articulate to connect to the topic of spiritual leadership. He gives examples of Paul, other apostles and prophets, his contemporaries, and chiefly the Master, our Lord Jesus Christ.

There were times when I have to pause and reflect on what he said and consider my own walk with God and the people I try to lead. As Paul said to another of his mentee, Timothy, "Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching" (1 Timothy 4:16), that is, teach "accords with sound doctrine" (Titus 2:1). We need more leaders today. But not the worldly kind of leaders. We need Christ-centered leaders that can turn the world upside down with silent obedience and loud character that bring glory to "our great God and Savior Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13). This is a high calling, Holy Spirit, help us! Amen.

#ServeToLead #LeadersAreReaders #LeadLikeChrist #AWTozer #LetsMakeReadingCoolAgain

To read other articles on reading and book reviews, CLICK HERE
All things media: https://linktr.ee/LEGASI.tv 

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Be Street Smart AND Book Smart #1Book1Week March 2021

 

"I want to do what you do," said a well-meaning student to me. So, I asked, "What is your growth plan?" In less than 5 seconds he replied, "What is a growth plan?" Well, some people are gifted with intelligent minds; some with rich parents; some with astoundingly high levels of ignorance (pitiful but bless their hearts!); and some - me or you, if you too - are average people but have the determination to grow in whatever talents or skills or gifts and mind that God given to them. I use to say: "If you're not beautiful or handsome or good-looking, which is an advantage in an image-driven world today, at least, be smart."

People nowadays want us to choose between Book Smart vs. Street Smart. They said, "Street smart is better than book smart." Or in the religious circle, "Experiential Christianity is superior to intellectual Christianity." To me, it sounds pious but I think it's an anti-intellectual facade. Why not strive to be both Book Smart AND Street Smart? The Webster's Unabridged Dictionary defines wisdom as “knowledge, and the capacity to make due use of it.” How to gains "knowledge"? Study, and - my purpose of this post - read books! That's Book Smart. How to "make due use of it"? Well, by practicing and applying (based on your contexts) what you have learned or/and read! That's Street Smart. If you combine both, by Webster's definitions, that's wisdom.

Let us come back to a personal growth plan. Do you have it? If not, don't be discouraged. Start smart, start today  To my young friend, you cannot do what I do today not because you cannot do it but because you have to do it from the start. There is no shortcut to growth. In your plan, don't forget to include these four areas: 1) Intellectual, 2) Physical, 3) Spiritual, and 4) Financial. Try it for a year and be practical. As for intellectual growth, you know what I would say, right? One of them is to READ BOOKS! Be Book Smart!  

#ServeToLead #LeadersAreReaders #GrowingLeaders #LetsMakeReadingCoolAgain #BeBookSmartAndStreetSmart #PersonalGrowthPlan

FB Page: https://facebook.com/LEGASI.tv/                     
Podcast: https://anchor.fm/LEGASI.tv/              
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LEGASItv/ 

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Total Commitment to Christ: What Is It? (Updated Edition, 2020) by A.W. Tozer, Book Review

 Total Commitment to Christ: What Is It? (Updated Edition, 2020) by A.W. Tozer

When I was having a crisis of faith a few years ago, I pressure myself to make one of the most important decisions in my life: If Jesus Christ and Christianity are false, I must leave everything that I believe and quit as a full-time worker (with my skills and talents, I can fairly earn more money!); but if He is truly God, Lord, and Saviour, then, I must give up everything, commit and follow Him and preach the Word for the rest of my earthly life (with humility, I will be His joyful-slave). I read lots of books on Christianity, against Christianity, other religions, atheism and - the Bible - and pray with even little faith that I have at that time and sometimes with zero feelings. To cut the story short, after about 4-6 months (I'm not sure exactly when the doubt appears) of struggling, the living God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, increases my faith even more than before. Somehow, without God-speaks-to-me-audibly, the joy of knowing Christ is flooding in my heart as I read the Gospel of Matthew. There and then, with no moon-splitting miracle but perhaps what I perceived as the work of the Holy Spirit's illumination and assurance, only by grace, I returned home to Him. In fact, He already runs toward me and is ready to embrace me. While I was "still a long way off, [The Father] saw [me] and was filled with compassion for [me]; he ran to [me], threw his arms around [me] and kissed [me]" (Luke 15:20, bracket mine]. I was lost and now was found. So, when I saw the title of this book on YouTube - Total Commitment to Christ - I immediately found and read the ebook and listened to the audiobook. This book (or booklet, to be exact) is a good reminder of why I'm called to commit and follow Christ until today. I recommend this book to you, for, what's the use of being a nominal, passionless and powerless Christian? We are either cold or hot, no in-between! A.W. Tozer, who is called a 20th-century prophet (not the kind of OT or NT prophet, but his writings were deemed as 'prophetic.' I think we should avoid the charismatic idea of a prophet altogether): "Christ is preeminent. He is above all things, underneath all things, outside of all things, and inside of all things. As the old bishop said, 'He is above all things, but not pushed up; He is beneath all things, holding it all up; He is outside all things, embracing it all; and He is inside all things, filling it all.' Our relation to Him is all that really matters. A true Christian faith is an attachment – a devotion – to the person of Christ. The attachment of the individual person to Jesus Christ is intellectual, volitional, exclusive, and irrevocable." Are you committed to Christ? Take up your cross and follow Him (Matthew 16:24) #ServeToLead #PreachTheWord #LeadersAreReaders #GrowingLeaders #LetsMakeReadingCoolAgain

FB Page: https://facebook.com/LEGASI.tv/            

Podcast: https://anchor.fm/LEGASI.tv/            

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LEGASItv/

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Worship the Lord in the Midst of Your Responsibilities on Monday

"Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord! Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore! From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised!" (Psalms 113:1-3, ESV) #ServeToLead #PreachTheWord #WorshipOnMonday

FB Page: https://facebook.com/LEGASI.tv/            

Podcast: https://anchor.fm/LEGASI.tv/            

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LEGASItv/

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Seven (7) Areas of Self-Examination by A.W. Tozer

 

A.W. Tozer, the author of The Pursuit of God (recommended book), pinpointed seven (7) areas of self-examination that readily reveal the priorities of our lives:

1) What we want most
2) What we think about most
3) How we use our money
4) What we do with our leisure time
5) The company (people) we enjoy
6) Whom and what we admire
7) What we laugh at

Please check your priorities ✔✖🛐😊 #ServeToLead #GrowingLeader #PrioritiesCheckList

FB Page: https://facebook.com/LEGASI.tv/                 
Podcast: https://anchor.fm/LEGASI.tv/             
YouTube: http://bit.ly/LEGASItv

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Angelus' Quote: Jesus IS the Only Way

 

An Indian told a missionary that he believed in Jesus Christ and meant to give Him his love someday. A native helper turned to him and said,

"If you and I were walking through the jungle and came face to face with a tiger if I placed myself in front of you and said, 'Run, brother, for your life!' would you love me?"

"Yes, surely."

"When, someday?"

The native saw the power of the friend's argument and said, "I will give myself to Him now."

What is your tiger? Near-death experience? Cancer? The meaningless of life? The burden of sins? Your time is short, and only in this life, you have the opportunity to come to Him. Not someday, but NOW. Jesus with a clear and simple term said: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6) ⚡📖🙏 #ServeToLead #TheOnlyWay #YourTimeIsShort

FB Page: https://facebook.com/LEGASI.tv/              
Podcast: https://anchor.fm/LEGASI.tv/           
YouTube: http://bit.ly/LEGASItv

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Angelus' Quote: When You Fear God

When I read the Scripture, the phrase "the fear of the Lord" occurs over and over again. In the Old Testament alone, there are more than 300 references that speak of the fear of the Lord. What is the fear of God? It means, simply put, reverential trust and respect and hatred of evil.

A.W. Tozer, in his classic book Whatever Happened to Worship, explains it better: "The fear of God is... astonishing reverence. I believe that the reverential fear of God mixed with love and fascination and astonishment and admiration and devotion is the most enjoyable state and the most satisfying emotion the human soul can know." Do you fear God? 😇👂🙌 #ServeToLead #GrowingLeader

FB Page: https://facebook.com/LEGASI.tv/

Podcast: https://anchor.fm/LEGASI.tv/

IG: https://instagram.com/legasi.tv/

YouTube: http://bit.ly/LEGASItv

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

There Is No Substitute for Theology

Taken from A. W. Tozer’s That Incredible Christian (1964) page 80-82: “We being what we are and all things else being what they are, the most important and profitable study any of us can engage in is without question the study of theology. That theology probably receives less attention than any other subject tells us nothing about its importance or lack of it. It indicates rather that men are still hiding from the presence of God among the trees of the garden and feel acutely uncomfortable when the matter of their relation to God is brought up. They sense their deep alienation from God and only manage to live at peace with themselves by forgetting that they are not at peace with God.

If there were no God things would be quite otherwise with us. Were there no one to whom we must finally render up account, at least one big load would be gone from our minds. We would only need to live within the law, not too hard a task in most countries, and there would be nothing to fear. But if God indeed created the earth and placed man upon it in a state of moral probation, then the heavy obligation lies upon us to learn the will of God and do it.

It has always seemed to me completely inconsistent that existentialism should deny the existence of God and then proceed to use the language of theism to persuade men to live right. The French writer, Jean-Paul Sartre, for instance, states frankly that he represents atheistic existentialism. “If God does not exist,” he says, “we find no values or commands to turn to which legitimize our conduct. So in the bright realm of values, we have no excuse behind us, nor justification before us. We are all alone, with no excuses.” Yet in the next paragraph he states bluntly, “Man is responsible for his passion,” and further on, “A coward is responsible for his cowardice.” And such considerations as these, he says, fill the existentialist with “anguish, forlornness and despair.”

It seems to me that such reasoning must assume the truth of everything it seeks to deny. If there were no God there could be no such word as “responsible.” No criminal need fear a judge who does not exist; nor would he need to worry about breaking a law that had not been passed. It is the knowledge that the law and the judge do in fact exist that strikes fear to the lawbreaker’s heart. There is someone to whom he is accountable; otherwise the concept of responsibility could have no meaning. It is precisely because God is, and because man is made in His image and is accountable to Him, that theology is so critically important. Christian revelation alone has the answer to life’s unanswered questions about God and human destiny. To let these authoritative answers lie neglected while we search everywhere else for answers and find none is, it seems to me, nothing less than folly…

The present neglect of the inspired Scriptures by civilized man is a shame and a scandal; for those same Scriptures tell him all he wants to know, or should want to know, about God, his own soul and human destiny. It is ironic that men will spend vast amounts both of time and of money in an effort to uncover the secrets of their past when their own future is all that should really matter to them… Whatever keeps me from the Bible is my enemy, however harmless it may appear to be. Whatever engages my attention when I should be meditating on God and things eternal does injury to my soul. Let the cares of life crowd out the Scriptures from my mind and I have suffered loss where I can least afford it. Let me accept anything else instead of the Scriptures and I have been cheated and robbed to my eternal confusion.

The secret of life is theological and the key to heaven as well. We learn with difficulty, forget easily and suffer many distractions. Therefore we should set our hearts to study theology. We should preach it from our pulpits, sing it in our hymns, teach it to our children and make it the subject of conversation when we meet with Christian friends.”

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Let People See Jesus through Us

Healing touch: Mother Teresa and Sisters with patients at a mobile leprosy clinic in Kolkata

I like what I read from Mother Teresa, she writes:

“Once, someone asked me, ‘Why do you go abroad? Don’t you have enough poor in India?’ So I answered, ‘I think Jesus told us to go and preach to all the nations.’ That is why we go all over the world to preach his love and compassion.

When our Sisters were in Ceylon, a minister of state once told me something very surprising. He said, ‘You know, Mother, I love Jesus Christ but I hate Christians.’ So I asked him how that could be. He answered, ‘Because Christians do not give us Christ; they do not live their Christian lives to the full.’ Mahatma Gandhi said something very similar, ‘If Christians were to live their Christian lives to the full, there would not be one Hindu left in India.’ Isn’t it very true? This love of Christ should urge us to spend ourselves without ceasing.

A Mohammedan Mulvi was standing with Father Gabric and looking at a Sister bandaging the wound of a leper with so much love. She didn’t say anything, but she did something. He turned to Father and said, ‘All these years I believed that Jesus was a prophet, but today I know He is God because He has given so much love into the hands of this Sister.’ Even today, that Sister does not know that her action brought Jesus into the life of that man.”

The light, O Jesus, will be all from you – none of it will be mine.

It will be you shining on others through me.

Shine through me and be so in me

that every soul I come in contact with may feel your presence in my soul.

Let them look up and see Jesus.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

A.W. Tozer on The Fear of the Lord

“The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life…” (Proverbs 14:27, ESV)

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,

and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight” (Proverbs 9:10, ESV).

“The fear of God is… astonished reverence. I believe that the reverential fear of God mixed with love and fascination and astonishment and admiration and devotion is the most enjoyable state and the most satisfying emotion the human soul can know.” (A.W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship)



In his quite difficult to read (for me) but profound book, Knowledge of the Holy, A.W. Tozer writes about the fear of God:



Isaiah cried out 'Woe is me!'
He fear God. He saw the Holy One,
he realized his sinfulness.



“In olden days men of faith were said to ‘walk in the fear of God’ and to ‘serve the Lord with fear’. However intimate their communion with God, however bold their prayers, at the base of their religious life was the conception of God as awesome and dreadful. This idea of God transcendent runs through the whole Bible and gives color and tone to the character of the saints. This fear of God was more than a natural apprehension of danger; it was a nonrational dread, an acute feeling of personal insufficiency in the presence of God the Almighty.

Wherever God appeared to men in Bible times the results were the same – an overwhelming sense of terror and dismay, a wrenching sensation of sinfulness and guilt. When God spoke, Abraham stretched himself upon the ground to listen. When Moses saw the Lord in the burning bush, he hid his face in fear to look upon God. Isaiah’s vision of God wrung from him the cry, ‘Woe is me!’ Daniel’s encounter with God was probably the most dreadful and wonderful of them all.

Conversely, the self-assurance of modern Christians, the basic levity present in so many of our religious gatherings, the shocking disrespect shown for the Person of God, are evidence enough of deep blindness of heart. Many call themselves by the name of Christ, talk much about God, and pray to Him sometimes, but evidently do not know who He is. ‘The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life,’ but this healing fear is today hardly found among Christian men.”

[Quote from A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (New York: Harper & Row, 1961), Page 78]

Walk in the fear of God

Serve the Lord with fear

Do you fear God?

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.