I started a new book the other day by Mark Batterson, entitled, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day.  A unique title no doubt.  I have loved the book so far.  It was recommended to me by two of my friends.  After only three chapters, I know why.  

At one point in the book, Batterson cites one of my all-time favorite quotes.  It comes from Chapter 1 of A.W. Tozer’s The Knowledge of the Holy. As far as books on God’s attributes go, I wouldn’t put Tozer’s at the top.  But as far as Chapter Ones in books go, Tozer’s is by far at the top of my list!  In my opinion, his preface and first chapter are worth whatever price you pay for the book.

Anyhow, I couldn’t help but use Batterson’s citing of Tozer as an excuse to use Tozer’s words to get back into blogging.  Who am I kidding?  If I had been blogging twice a day for the last two years, I would have posted his words.  In fact, I would venture to guess that this is not the last time you will see Tozer’s words on this blog.  But without further adieu, Tozer writes,

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.  

The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God.  Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.  

For this reason the gravest question before the Church (or for any particular individual I might add) is always God Himself, an the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.  We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.  This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Chruch.  Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech.  She can never esape the self-disclosure of her witness concerning God.

Where we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question, ‘What comes into your mind when you think about God?’ we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that man.  Were we able to know exactly what our most influential religious leaders think of God today, we might be able with some precision to foretell where the Church will stand tomorrow.