BJ Hoff's GRACE NOTES

For Easter Weekend

"Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen." Luke 24:5

He is risen indeed.

Easter blessings to you and yours throughout these days of remembrance and celebration.

BJ

The Third Day

"He is not here, but has risen."

Luke 24:5

Secure the Tomb

" Next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, 'Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, "After three days I will rise." Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, "He has risen from the dead," and the last fraud will be worse than the first.' Pilate said to them, "You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can." So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard." 

Matthew: 27:62-66

The Ninth Hour

"And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?' which means, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'And some of the bystanders hearing it said, 'Behold, he is calling Elijah.' And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, 'Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.' And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing him saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said 'Truly this man was the Son of God!'"

Mark15:33-39

A. W. Tozer, A Twentieth-Century Prophet

Some have noticed and commented on how often I quote A. W. Tozer, especially in the "Words for Today" section of Grace Notes. I've been surprised at the number of readers who aren't familiar with the writings of Tozer, a man often called "a twentieth-century prophet."

Recently a reader asked for more information about him, so here's an abbreviated account. Aiden Wilson Tozer spent forty-four years in ministry with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, thirty-one of those years as pastor of the Southside Alliance Church in Chicago. He has been acknowledged as one of the greatest Christian writers of the century, a unique voice, an anointed preacher and teacher, an evangelical mystic. He had no use for the superficial, the easy answer, the shallow, plastic Christianity.

He did have a deep love for words and for writing. (He was the long-time editor of the Alliance Weekly, later called the Alliance Life.) He was fond of making up stories for his children. In fact, his daughter once commented that the thing she remembered most about her father was the "marvelous stories he would tell."

I'm not sure just how many books he wrote during his lifetime, but I've seen numbers between thirty and forty. Some are acknowledged as Christian classics--The Pursuit of God and The Knowledge of the Holy are two that belong in that category. His wisdom, his conviction, his discernment of truth, and his writings made him a legend even while he lived.

Tozer died in 1963, and yet this "twentieth-century prophet" might just as well have been writing about the contemporary church. He lived his life with a passion for God and a partnership with the Holy Spirit, and what he wrote still casts a light on the lives of all those who read his words today.

Some of his books: the above-mentioned The Pursuit of God and The Knowledge of the Holy; That Incredible Christian; Keys to the Deeper Life; The Divine Conquest; Of God and Men; Rust, Rot or Revival (Tozer and James L. Snyder); The Dwelling Place of God; The Mystical Spirituality of A. T. Tozer, a Twentieth-Century American Protestant by E. Lynn Harris; Whatever Happened to Worship. And others. Selections from his writings have also been compiled in books such as Renewed Day by Day, Books One and Two, compiled by Gerald B. Smith, and The Best of A. W. Tozer, compiled by Warren W. Wiersbe.

There are a number of excellent online resources where you can locate his writings free, even listen to Tozer himself from the pulpit, and purchase his books and recordings. Here are a few resources:

http://www.indwelt.com/books/Tozer/ 

http://www.cmalliance.org/devotions/tozer/tozer.jsp

http://www.sendrevival.com/pioneers/awtozer/

http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/a_w_tozer/

Why I read Tozer almost daily and so often quote from him has to do with what Dr. James Montgomery Boice said: "Tozer writes for the ages, calling God's people from the trite, superficial Christianity that is all too common today to a serious pursuit of God." And from Dr. J. I. Packer: "Tozer is one of the great Christian writers of this century...Reading him is like drinking at an oasis in the desert."

BJ