Surprised by Tozer #1 of 5:

Let your speech be seasoned with salt.

(Colossians 4:6)

This morning, by the fire pit, I read Life in the Spirit by A.W. Tozer. Last week, a friend gave it to me and ask if I would read it so that we could discuss it together. The book is a compilation of Sunday evening messages by Tozer delivered in 1952 while pastoring Southside Alliance Church in Chicago (1929-59). In the preface, Tozer apologizes: “The fact that these [chapters] were originally spoken messages accounts for their racy style…” “Racy”? Tozer? That’s a surprise.

Tozer doesn’t bother to clarify what he means by “racy style”. He just lets it be. I’m guessing, it’s more like “speech seasoned with salt” as the Apostle encourages (Col 4:6). Maybe “racy,” compared to a formal Sunday morning service. You wouldn’t know about Sunday evening services. That’s how I grew up. After Sunday school and Morning Worship came halftime; and then back to church for the second half with Youth Group and Evening service. But, in the evening, things were different—less formal, even fun. The congregation loosened up. Apparently even Tozer loosened up.

In 1962, after graduating from High School, my father allowed Tony, Gary and I to drive his Volkswagen bug across country, before the Interstate, to Chicago where we attended a National Youth Conference. There was a caveat however, we had to promise dad that we would attend the 7:00AM morning devotionals led by A.W. Tozer. We kept our promise and every morning woke early to hear Tozer. Two things stick in my memory: 1) the sound of Tozer’s voice—unpretentious and real; and 2) that he talked to us about God—as if he knew God and found God immensely interesting.

That’s the voice I heard during my morning fire pit read. Here’s how he begins: “I don’t hope to tell you very much that is new; I only hope to set the table for you, arranging the dishes a little better and a little more attractively so that you will be tempted to partake. …What I want to do is to tell you the old things, but while I am doing it, to encourage your heart to make them yours” (p. 7). I wouldn’t call that “racy”, but it certainly is “seasoned with salt”.