Hello Becky,
I have been up since 5:30 this morning and I am of a clear mind and already on my second cup of coffee. I do have a lot of thoughts flowing through my mind having been studying numerous passages of scripture and having read a lot of AW Tozer and also of John Piper.
You may remember that the late Dr. Kempton while president of ABWE sometime during the early 1990’s recommended to all his missionaries the books written by A.W. Tozer. Well, right now I have on my desk 8 of them. All in paper back and most of them well underlined. As you are well aware, Dr. Kempton was a very passionate servant of God and one who impacted many lives including my own. Someone once cornered me while in New Jersey and made this statement: “Dan, there is something I just don’t quite understand about you, and your family. Everyone seems to be so “passionate” in what they believe. He happened to be the leader of the young people at Southwood Baptist Church in New Jersey. Something of this passion may be inherited in some way. I will not go down that rabbit trail right now. However, I will say this about my dad, your grandfather. George Doty Richner was a very passionate man. He, along with your grandmother Cornelia, raised 10 children in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. I was told just recently by someone who knew my dad that George was always on a “mission”. He was passionate about getting out the gospel but not always in a “quiet way” at the Honesdale High School and that sometimes got him into trouble. I heard from someone that “our fathers” among other things, pass down to their children the “worst” of propensities. Not sure where I am going with that one so just relax.
In chapter 21 of AW Tozer’s book entitled Born after Midnight he writes a chapter entitled “Only a few things matter”. It is a must read. I highly recommend this chapter. I will quote just a few things he said. “What really matters after all? My personal relation to God matters. That takes priority over everything else”. Then a few paragraphs later and at the end of the chapter he states the following: “A few other things matter to be sure, but they begin there, go out from there and return there again. They are that we trust Christ completely, carry our cross daily, love God and our fellow men, walk in the light as God gives us to understand it; that we love mercy, and walk uprightly; that we fulfill our commission as ambassadors of Christ among men; that we grow in grace and in the knowledge of God and come at last to our end like a ripe shock of corn at harvest time.”
Having written this and having looked back a bit to history of your dad, your grandfather George , and even Dr. Kempton ---all of whom were very passionate, I am always trying to find the basics as to what to look for that really matters to keep our passion directed properly. God was so very concerned with the nation of Israel so in Deut. 17 he gives some very important rules to follow for the kings who would one day rule and lead and guide the nation. Both David and Solomon were passionate men. David was not a perfect man but was a man after God’s own heart and we would certainly place him among the noble. Solomon on the other hand was a man of great intellect, who flew above the radar yet was a colossal failure. God is passionate about the “church” as well and you and I are part of that and my prayer is that we both spend the rest of our lives on “ the few things that matter”.
I will close with this: Tozer’s very next chapter is one that I am finding challenging for the title is “The value of a sanctified imagination”. All this to say, the butterflies will no doubt have to keep flying around for a while longer before Rev. Dad brings the plane down to a landing—safe or not too safe. Love you daughter.
Dad
He Who Began
1 year ago
1 comment:
I wish I knew Grandpa George better, Dad. The only thing I remember about him is that he always used to give Randy and I prune juice.
I like Tozer. Most of the time. I think what you quoted is very good. What I understand him to mean by all of that, and how that manifests itself in my life may look very different from how you see it, but I'm ok with that.
And I definitely believe in such a thing as a sanctified imagination. The only thing I'm not sure we think of along the same lines about is what it means for me to be passionate. I used to be very driven before I became much more centered. Pain and loss have a way of curing us of certain propensities, even the ones that are passed down. :-)
If I am passionate, I hope what that looks like is to live out in fullness who God made me to be, for His purposes and His glory. These days I tend to be driven more by courage than anything else.
I read something really beautiful by Brennan Manning the other day. He said this, "...we are called, to listen attentively to God's first word to us. This word is the gift of ourselves to ourselves--our existence, our nature, our personal history, our uniqueness, our identity. All that we have and are is one of the unique and never to be repeated ways God has chosen to express himself in space and time. Each of us, made in his image and likenes, is yet another promise he has made to the universe that he will continue to love it and care for it.
With endurance and perseverance we must wait for God to make clear what he wants to say through us. Such waiting involves patience and attention, as well as the courage to let yourself be spoken. This courage comes only through faith in God, who utters no false word."
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