Favorite Books to Reread…4

Whatever Happened to Worship?  A.W. Tozer

I first read this in college when I was leading worship for a fairly large weekly ministry.  There has been so much written on worship lately: Is it music?, what style is best?, who can lead worship?, how do you lead worship?  One of the issues with such questions is that they miss the point when it comes to worship.  The question that Tozer asks is Is our worship acceptable to God?  This book is a short but must read for all worship leaders, but even for those that long for a more intimate encounter with God.  While this is a far lesson known book of Tozer’s, it is a must read.

Favorite Quotes:

“Sometimes evangelical Christians seem to be fuzzy and uncertain about the nature of God and His purposes in creation and redemption. In such instances, the preachers are often to blame. There are still preachers and teachers who say that Christ died so we would not drink and not smoke and not to the theater.”

“God has never actually needed any of us—not one.”

“I would  rather worship God than do any other thing I know of in all this wide world.  I would not even attempt to tell you how many hymnbooks are piled up in my study. I cannot sing a lick, but that is nobody’s business.  God thinks I am an opera star!”

“A survey of church history will prove that it was those who were the yearning worshipers who also became the great workers.  Those great saints whose hymns we so tenderly sing were active in their faith to the point that we must wonder how the did it all.”

“There are too many weird ideas about God in our day and therefore there are all kinds of substitutes for true worship.”

“Today, it is not a question of whether we have Isaiah’s cleanness, but a question of whether we have his awareness.”

“That which I can explain will never bring me to the place of awe.  It can never fill me with astonishment or wonder or admiration.”