A Disruptive Faith: Expect God to Interrupt Your Life (2024)

Overview

The word “faith” is common these days, but placing one’s faith in God is a weighty action, uncommonly fraught with consequence and, by his design, inconvenience. Faith in God is reassuring and comforting only insofar as believers trust Him—and that depth of trust is the mark of a mature Christian who has allowed faith to intrude on his life and shift his gaze away from his own aims, needs and desires. This is nothing if not a painful and disturbing process.

A Disruptive Faith is A. W. Tozer’s never-before-published teaching on what he termed “faith that perturbs”—faith that contradicts the unbelieving man and threatens the complacency of the Christian. The renowned pastor and teacher insists in these pages that genuine faith breeds dissatisfaction with this life, by God’s design; it weans us from this temporary life and prepares us for the life to come. Readers will learn to be content with this faith-inspired discontent and to experience a fresh hope for eternity with God.

The Logos Bible Software edition of this volume is designed to encourage and stimulate your study and understanding of Scripture. Biblical passages link directly to your English translations and original-language texts, and important theological concepts link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. In addition, you can perform powerful searches by topic and find what other authors, scholars, and theologians have to say about the Word of God.

Key Features

• Introduces the concept of “faith as a perturbing thing”
• Explains the benefit of disruptive faith
• Discusses challenges, goals, and ideals associated with living a life of complete faith

Contents

• The Genesis of Our Christian Faith
• The Confirmation of Our Faith
• Faith Beholds the Face of God
• Our Faith Rests in His Labors
• Faith Leads toward Spiritual Perfection
• Faith Rises Above the Twists and Turns of Life
• Faithful in Truth and Love
• Faith Is a Journey for the Heart
• The Unsettling Nature of Faith
• Faith Produces Spiritual Heroes
• The Challenge to Our Faith
• What to Do When Faith Flags
• The Ultimate Goal of Our Faith
• The Holy Nature of Our Faith
• The Hidden Life of Faith

Product Details

• Title: A Disruptive Faith: Expect God to Interrupt Your Life
• Author: A. W. Tozer
• Editor: James L. Snyder
• Publisher: Regal
• Publication Date: 2011
• Pages: 192

About A. W. Tozer

A. W. Tozer (1897–1963) was born on a small farm in what is now Newburg, Pennsylvania. His family moved to Akron, Ohio, when he was just a young boy. At age 17, Tozer heard a street preacher, responded to the calling of Christ, and began his lifelong pursuit of God. After becoming an active witness of Jesus as a lay preacher, he joined The Christian and Missionary Alliance and was soon serving as the pastor of West Virginia’s Alliance Church. In 1928, he transferred to the Southside Alliance Church in Chicago, and his ministry continued there for 31 years. During that time, he preached on the Moody Bible Institute’s radio station. In the 1940s, Tozer was invited to speak at Wheaton College, and seldom a year passed after World War II that he didn‘t preach in the college’s Pierce Chapel. In 1950 he became the editor of The Alliance Life magazine and served in that capacity until his death.

Self-taught, with no formal Bible training, Tozer has been called a twentieth-century prophet within his own lifetime. Through years of diligent study and constant prayer, he sought the mind of God. A master craftsman in the use of the English language, he was able to write in a simple, cogent style the principles of truth he had learned. For Tozer, “there was no substitute for knowing God firsthand.” He wrote many of his books with one idea in mind—that his reader would achieve the heart’s true goal in God and maintain that relationship with Him.

About James L. Snyder

James L. Snyder is the pastor of the Family of God Fellowship in Ocala, Florida, a Christian and Missionary Alliance church (1973–present). He is recognized as an authority on the life and ministry of A. W. Tozer, and has written a number of books as well as numerous essays in Christian periodicals about Tozer. He has a weekly radio ministry, writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column carried by 35 newspapers, as well as over a dozen monthly magazines, both online and print.

Top Highlights

“When a man defends himself, he has only his self for his defense. But the man who allows God to be his defense has all of the resources of heaven at his disposal.” (Page 186)

“Genuine faith, Tozer believed, leads to a disquietude that begins to wean us from this life and prepares us for the life to come.” (Page 7)

“he was devoted to meditating on the Word of God until he could hear it speak God’s truths to his heart.” (Page 5)

“A basic truth of the Bible is that the source of most evil is a low opinion of God.” (Page 40)

“He has done rightly. It is necessary to my moral health that I rise in the morning and know that however things come out, it will be all right. Either it will be good and favorable to me or it will be unfavorable. If good and favorable to me, then it will be by the grace of God. If unfavorable to me, it will be the discipline of God upon me. So either way, it will be all right.” (Page 38)