sentence: Just because God cannot tell us what He is, He very often tells us what He is like.
By these “like” figures He leads our faltering minds as close as they can come to that “light which no man can approach unto”Tim.
:.
Premise/plot: Meditations on the Trinity is a new devotional published by Moody featuring one hundred selections by A.
W. Tozer. The book is divided into four sections: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and God Three In One.
The devotional readings are excerpts from Tozer's sermons and/or books,
If you're unfamiliar with A, W. Tozer and his work, this Tozer quote serves as a great introduction:
"Are you contented with nominal Christianity If you are, Ive nothing for you.
Are you contented with popular Christianity that runs on the authority and popularity of big shots If you are, Ive nothing for you.
Are you content with elementary Christianity If you are, all Ive got for you is to exhort you earnestly to press on toward perfection.
But if youre not satisfied with nominal Christianity, popular Christianity, and the first beginnings of things and you want to know the Triune God for yourself, read on.
"
My thoughts: I would definitely recommend this one! I would especially recommend it to those new to A.
W. Tozer's works. I think it would make a very good first book, I personally have read a LOT of Tozer, Though there are still some books I don't own and thus haven't read just yet, The more I read Tozer, the more I love Tozer, I love his zeal and passion for the glory of the Lord, I love his reliance on the Bible, I love seeing someone so JOYFUL so PASSIONATE about the Word of God, Tozer was a man who loved God first and foremost, And because he loved God, because he treasured the Word of God, because God was his 'one thing' he fought to uphold truth no matter the cost.
Tozer was not afraid to speak up and speak out, If you are looking for a devotional, please let me recommend this one to you, For a devotional, it is very deep and coherent, By that I mean each of the four sections focuses on just one theme, The first is about the attributes of the Father, the second is about Jesus, etc, Every section in this book has so much to meditate on and learn,
The only thing that bothered me was the format, It was broken up into such small section each was only a couple of very short paragraphs or so each.
It was almost a book of quotes,
I received this as a free ARC from NetGalley, This book comes in a cardboard box, and the slick leather book cover means that the book keeps sliding out every time I start to lift the box.
This book is set up as a devotional withreadings, Each devotional ispages long, Each devotional had a verse, commentary, and a brief prayer, In each, the author focused on the character and nature of the Trinity or one of the persons of the Trinity.
I enjoyed these focused readings and the topic, Overall, I'd recommend this book to fans of the author,
I received a review copy of this book from the publisher through Amazon Vine, The early fathers in the church, in illustrating the trinity, pointed out that God the eternal Father is an infinite God, and that He is love.
The very nature of love is to give itself but the Father could not give His love fully to anyone not fully equal to Himself.
Thus we have the revelation of the Son who Is equal to the Father and of the eternal Father pouring out His love into the Son, who could contain it, because the Son is equal with the Father! Further those ancient wise men reasoned, if the Father were to pour out His love on the Son, a medium of communication equal both to the Father and to the Son would be required, and this was the Holy Ghost! So we have their concept of the Trinitythe ancient Father in the fullness of His love pouring Himself through the Holy Ghost.
Who is in being equal to Him, into the Son who in being equal to the Spirit and to the Father!
So much in the above statement! If you have trouble grasping with the concept of the trinity and the workings of the trinity, you will appreciate this text.
A study, a encouragement and a revelation of who God is, Who can fathom! It is only by the trinity that we can truly know God, It is only by the trinity we can do the work of the church and in our own hearts.
It is sad and unfortunate that teaching of the trinity is sparse if not nonexistent, however, it is plumb line of our walk and what we worship.
This is small sampling of Tozer's writing on the Trinity so it will not overwhelm a reader but cause a reader to thirst for more of God.
It gives knowledge and adoration of what God is doing and his glory,
The devotion is set up inparts, Each part focus on the trinity with the last part focus on how the trinity works together.
I highly recommend.
A Special Thank you to Moody Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.
How pleasantly this book surprised me! Tozer is very orthodox in his Christianity I most certainly am not, yet he is able to explain some of the more difficult and abstract theology of Christianity very clearly, coherently, and without condescension.
The Trinity is a doctrine that is accepted yet no one really understands, I thought perhaps this was a new phenomenon, but reading religious history, it is the one thing over millennia that comes back as too much nonsense for nonChristians and haunting the church in cyclical outbreaks of "heresy.
" Three is a universally important number in religion: Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva creation, preservation, destruction Heaven, mankind, earth dharmakaya,
samboghakaya, nirmanakaya past, present, future.
Groups of three are not objectionable archetypes in religion, It is obfuscatory statements and creeds and swearing loyalty to something the people advancing the theory can not explain.
In my formal religious education it was never explained to me, I certainly asked. As I have found usual, it was when I went to another tradition that things started making sense.
Studying and practicing Buddhism, one of many trinities is the "trikaya, " Kaya is Sanskrit for 'body, ' These kayas are the means that the enlightened state/buddhanature manifests, It was easier for me to see three 'bodies' of a singular essence than 'persons, ' A body can be alive or dead, whole or partial, many states in which it is a body.
A person is a combination of personality, social expectations, and a body, A body may be more than one 'person', It is much more difficult to spread a person over multiple bodies,
For as good as Tozer's presentation of the Trinity is, I still have my question: what, exactly, is a "person".