The truly spiritual man - A. W. Tozer

The truly spiritual man is indeed something of an oddity. He lives not for himself but to promote the interests of Another...He finds few who care to talk about that which is the supreme object of his interest, so he is often silent and preoccupied in the midst of noisy religious shoptalk. For this he earns the reputation of being dull and over-serious, so he is avoided and the gulf between him and society widens. - A.W. Tozer

I’m sure many can relate to this statement. It made me realize, once again, how grateful I am to Greg and all of you. Thank you all for your time, patience, and insight.

God bless

TJ

I really appreciate and to some degree identify with this quotation, as I expect many regulars here do. But whenever I read something of this sort, it always raises a question in my heart. It seems to me that men have always struggled with this, but Jesus never did. At least, I have never noticed this was a difficulty for him. Somehow, there he was, in the midst of the feasts, in the midst of the weddings, in the midst of lunch at a Pharisee's house, and we see him neither silent and alone, nor condemning and correcting the topics of conversation. Whether harlots, tax-collectors, or Pharisees, Jesus was meeting them right in the world they were living in. He didn't expect to bring them up without first coming down a bit, as it were, to meet them. Always without compromise or worldliness, of course. And so, I have not been able to conclude anything other than that the increasing separation is not all the fault of one party, but a truly spiritual person can always bridge the gap and bring a conversation around to God in such a way that the topic will either be embraced or rejected.

but a truly spiritual person can always bridge the gap and bring a conversation around to God in such a way that the topic will either be embraced or rejected.

Indeed, and the topic will almost invariably be rejected. This fosters the sense of lonliness and peculiarity that Tozer alludes to. Be honest with yourself - with how many people can you discuss the deep and holy and trancendental things of God? I, for one, can totally identify with this Tozer quote. And I propose that Jesus wasn't the "life of the party" as some think; inwardly, He was the grief-stricken Man of Sorrows; He had no one on earth to confide in but His Father in heaven.

[i]"I have many things to tell you, but ye cannot bear to hear them."[/i] Jesus was always around crowds because He was sent to seek and save the lost sheep of Israel. But when the day was spent, He retired often alone to pray and commune with His Father in solitude. He would often spend the whole nights on a mountain, praying, while His disciples slept.

How would you like to know the very hour of your death? The very day and time you were to die, and that despite all the thronging of the crowds, on that day you would be utterly [i]alone and rejected and forsaken[/i]? Don't you think something like this brought sorrow to His heart despite the transient multitudes? No one could possibly understand what went on behind the curtain of Jesus' heart during those hours. Even the close circle of his disciples were completely oblivious to the ramnifications of His bodily demise.

Whether harlots, tax-collectors, or Pharisees, Jesus was meeting them right in the world they were living in.

But thank God He didn't stay there! Jesus never stays in one spot very long. He's always passing through, and it's our decision to get up and follow or to stay behind and perish. And since we proport to follow Jesus, we also never stay in one spot very long. We shake the dust off our sandals, get up and leave. I have found that Jesus Christ - that is, the [i]true[/i] Jesus Christ of holiness and self-denial - is not popular at all. And since He is so ardently hated in this world, so am I. This brings to me, at times, a spirit of insufferable solitude, and I yearn for other brothers and sisters of likemindedness to share and glean from the glories of our Awesome Father. I suppose this is why I am so drawn to this website. You would be very hard-pressed to find such a diverse and yet genuinely precious body of believers anywhere. I feel as though when the world and organized christendom deprives me of true fellowship, I can always expect to find blazing coals on the altar of someone's heart in these forums.

I bless God for that.

Brother Paul

Dear Paul,

Hardly could I summarize better or agree more earnestly;

But thank God He didn't stay there! Jesus never stays in one spot very long. He's always passing through, and it's our decision to get up and follow or to stay behind and perish. And since we proport to follow Jesus, we also never stay in one spot very long. We shake the dust off our sandals, get up and leave. I have found that Jesus Christ - that is, the true Jesus Christ of holiness and self-denial - is not popular at all. And since He is so ardently hated in this world, so am I. This brings to me, at times, a spirit of insufferable solitude, and I yearn for other brothers and sisters of likemindedness to share and glean from the glories of our Awesome Father. I suppose this is why I am so drawn to this website. You would be very hard-pressed to find such a diverse and yet genuinely precious body of believers anywhere. I feel as though when the world and organized christendom deprives me of true fellowship, I can always expect to find blazing coals on the altar of someone's heart in these forums.

I bless God for that.

It is taking some force to even respond at the moment. Don't feel like writing at all, weary of opinion (mine), slightly discouraged by sight and sound, circumstances around me presently ... [i]nothings changing[/i] the paradoxical 'fact' in real time and knowing far better, still an opportunity for the devil or his minions to aggravate and harass this all out of proportion. Stranger still was the earlier mention elsewhere of a precious saint, in a far away land, writing so timely and exacting as to leave me in an astonished heap of bewilderment ... It was such a beautiful rebuke and searing penetration especially since it came without even this measured intention. Was so blown away by it that I have yet to even truly been able to respond.

And yet for all that, a repentance of the unbelief as it is, and a reversing of discouragement towards encouragement for a moment or so longer ... Still ...

And I propose that Jesus wasn't the "life of the party" as some think; inwardly, He was the grief-stricken Man of Sorrows; He had no one on earth to confide in but His Father in heaven.

Inwardly indeed.

2Co 4:10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

Have in the past couched it as "crying on the inside", it never truly ceases. It is many things. This condition of ours, this 'body of death' and longing as Paul put it;

2Co 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2Co 5:2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
2Co 5:3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
2Co 5:4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

It is the 'seeing' things that allude our ability to do anything about; Changing hearts and minds. The backslidden and the lost, that very temptation of;

2Pe 3:4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, [b]all things continue as they were[/b] from the beginning of the creation.

The slow change, [i]my[/i] slow change to live up to what I already grasp let alone that which I don't ... Ah, it's too easy to give in to discouragement, there's no fight in it.
:-( (That's as close to a wry smile as I could find here). But heartbreak and weariness even rejection unspoken from those close to you that you love, just the smallest part of the Lords own;

Mat 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

Since this is all disjointed anyway, happened upon this verse as well;

Jer 13:27 I have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, and thine abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be?

To turn away from the woeful introspection here, being that I am so disinterested in writing ... :-? Of the many incredible things the Lord exemplified was that He was always who He was wherever He was. Never having to measure out everything like we tend to do, qualifying and defending and over explaining. He stated things and penetrated all things, pressing questions past those asked or directed at Him. He knew all men and [i]knows[/i] all men.

I have found that Jesus Christ - that is, the true Jesus Christ of holiness and self-denial - is not popular at all. And since He is so ardently hated in this world, so am I.

Paradoxically, as the Man of Sorrows also;

Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Certainly had joy expressed elsewhere as well. The things that brought great joy to His heart always stagger me. "Great is thy faith!" "And He marveled", certainly [i]faith[/i], true grasping and undeniable, never giving up faith ... faith that drew [i]power[/i] from Him by just touching His garment or in a word "Only [i]say[/i] the
word, and my servant shall be healed".

1Th 2:19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?

Rambling here. Paul, brother, thank you for this. If it wasn't for the saints here ... I shudder to think just where I might have ended up. There is just so much more going on in and through all this ... I just know it deep down inside. The imagination can only touch the outskirts of it and from time to time some voice from outside comes in as example; [url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?viewmode=flat&order=0&topic_id=2378&forum=16&post_id=&refresh=Go]Email Encouragements![/url] That just solidifies that. This is all way bigger than any single one of us knows.

Just to say I definitely agree. Nothing in the intended meaning of my post disagrees with your post, as you so accurately picked up on my use of the word "rejection". My only point was that a person may be rejected legitimately, because of truth and the Lord, or not legitimately, which would be for any other reason. It is too easy to assume that if we are rejected it is always "because of the Lord". We should take rejection to the Lord and ask if there are any faults, sins, or hypocrisy (anything of self and not Christ) that are behind the rejection. And that was my only point.

But just to clarify, your post was an excellent clarification of the truth of true rejection because of Jesus Christ. Every faithful Christian will experience this.