"Anything short of complete devotion to Christ is inadequate and must end in futility and loss." – A. W. Tozer
True No Cross, No Christianity There is no receiving Christ without the Cross, no embracing Christianity without surrender, and no knowing God without full obedience. In a world where Christianity has been diluted into a painless, cost-free decision, A. W. Tozer brings us back to the radical essence of following Jesus. True discipleship requires a revolutionary attachment to Christ—marked by sacrifice, obedience, and unwavering devotion.
Restoring the Meaning of Discipleship In True Embracing the Call to Follow Jesus to Calvary with Faith, Sacrifice, and Devotion, Tozer confronts the watered-down substitutes for faith that have infiltrated modern Christianity. He declares that being a Christian is not optional for those who claim to follow Christ—discipleship is not a choice; it is the only way.
A Call to Intimacy with God The purpose of redemption is to restore humanity’s closeness with God, and every believer’s goal must be an increasingly intimate relationship with Him. Tozer challenges Christians to rise above earthly distractions, to fix their eyes on the heavenly future promised by Christ’s return, and to live in a way that pleases their Savior and Lord.
Living with Heavenly Purpose We must recapture the hope of His coming, a hope that inspires and elevates our lives beyond the temporal. With God as our refuge and strength, Tozer urges us to live boldly and intentionally, reflecting the true meaning of discipleship and glorifying God in all we do.
Aiden Wilson Tozer was an American evangelical pastor, speaker, writer, and editor. After coming to Christ at the age of seventeen, Tozer found his way into the Christian & Missionary Alliance denomination where he served for over forty years. In 1950, he was appointed by the denomination's General Council to be the editor of "The Alliance Witness" (now "Alliance Life").
Born into poverty in western Pennsylvania in 1897, Tozer died in May 1963 a self-educated man who had taught himself what he missed in high school and college due to his home situation. Though he wrote many books, two of them, "The Pursuit of God" and "The Knowledge of the Holy" are widely considered to be classics.
A.W. Tozer and his wife, Ada Cecelia Pfautz, had seven children, six boys and one girl.
In all honesty, I was getting perturbed while reading closer to the end of this book. The reason is because it seems that Christianity today is divided by two opposing doctrines of Salvation. The true Gospel or Good News is that Salvation can only be had by Grace through Faith in Jesus Christ alone. Plus nothing, minus nothing. But you have another Gospel that is called, these days, Lordship Salvation which means you have to be obedient to keep your Salvation and it seems to sneak works within Grace. Tozer, in this work, is expressing that our Salvation is by Grace alone and then after you are saved, the reasonable response is to obey God and serve Him by following His Son. A lot of confusion on this topic simply because you have Christians trying to mix verses for Salvation and verses for Service after one is saved and this just creates confusion. In this work, Tozer is trying to get people to understand that being a Christian is not a walk in the park but rather a life that grows and matures as God chastises and disciplines us but at the same time have Peace through Christ alone regardless of circumstances. A very complex theology but Tozer is great at getting us to get into our own Bibles and search for ourselves with a lot of prayer.
I read Tozer A LOT. But this little book just made my spirit soar with every new sentence. Most do not know what true discipleship really is. Tozer, in typical fashion, brings it down to a level that will encourage, motivate and yes, cause you to repent. This is a book you’ll read over and over again.
The Book gave more understanding about the journey of being disciple and the true meaning of being disciple; discipleship cause for discipline, correction and rebuke when necessary. A lot of people are receiving salvation but not continuing the process of being disciple!
This excerpt from the book encapsulates what you’ll learn from the book:
“God’s loving motive is to bring us into total harmony with Himself so that moral power and holy usefulness become ours in this world and in the world to come.”
I'm not trying to be overly harsh in my assessment, I just want to be realistic. You end up realising this is a collection of things written by Tozer. Now, everything he writes is fairly good. Tozer was a faithful believer. This book is a collection of Tozer's writings on how Christians today fail to understand and pursue discipleship. It helps define discipleship from false Christianity.
The problem is that the content does not really help explain how discipleship should be pursued. I found myself rushing the end of the book and becoming increasingly annoyed from the lack of positive teaching. It's all well and good to say how we've gone wrong, but there's very little in the way of actual help here.
The people likely to start reading this book are those who sincerely want to pursue discipleship faithfully, but this is written for a lukewarm or a simply ignorant Christian who really needs a strong exhortation or rebuke. So unless that's you, look elsewhere for practical teaching.