Book Review: From the Library of A.W. Tozer by James Stuart Bell

The complete title of this book is:  From the Library of A.W. Tozer, Selections from Writers who Influenced His Spiritual Journey.

The book is divided into 8 sections “each emphasizing a major theme from Tozer’s life and writings” including 1. Worship, 2. Prayer and Contemplation, 3. Exhortations and Prophetic Words, 4. The Holy Spirit, 5. Jesus Christ, 6. Practicing the Presence of God, 7.On Christian Doctrine, and 8. On Living the Christian Life.  Each thematic section has short selections from writers known to have influenced Tozer.

The book can be approached in several different ways.  You could choose to read one entry per day and ponder it with your daily devotions.  If you took this approach, you could either read the book in order or simply find something that interests you.  A different approach would be to read all of the selections from each chapter quickly over the course of several days or another idea would be to read several different selections as you find something that interests you.

I found many of the selections to be deep and intellectual as well as old in style — requiring careful thought just to process what the author was trying to say.  Therefore, I believe the book is best absorbed reading one or perhaps two selections at a time.  It is not the type of book you will want to breeze through just to say you finished it.

All that being said, I truly enjoyed most of the selections I have read from this book.  A few left me saying “what?” but for the most part they are inspiring me to a deeper Christian life or addressing specific Spiritual needs because it was no coincidence I was reading a specific selection on any given day.

Here is an example of a selection from Martin Luther that has given me much food for thought.

“It suffices that through God’s glory we have recognized the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.  No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day.  Do you think such an exalted Lamb paid merely a small price with a meager sacrifice for our sins?  Pray hard, for you are quite a sinner.” (p. 109 – Exhortations)

My Bottom Line: I am thankful to have this book on my shelf, and expect it will get much use as a daily devotional.  I think it would make an excellent springboard for spontaneous small group discussion.  Expect to take your time in order to absorb the meat of this book.

Disclaimer:  This book was provided for me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.  Here you have it.