"TEARS OF JOY-AMEN!"

By A. W. Tozer
 

He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.
                                                                   - Luke 3:16

  We need not be afraid of a genuine visitation of the
Spirit of God!

  Blaise Pascal, the famed 17th-century French scientist
and philosopher, experienced in his lifetime a personal,
overwhelming encounter with God that changed his life.
Those who attended him at his death found a worn,
creased paper in his clothing,  close  to his heart;
apparently a reminder of what he had felt and sensed in
God's very presence.

  In Pascal's own hand it read:

     From about half-past ten at night, to about half after
     midnight-fire!  0 God of Abraham, God of Isaac,
     God of Jacob-not the God of philosophers or the
     wise.  The God of Jesus Christ who can be known
     only in the ways of the Gospel. Security.  Feeling.
     Peace.  Joy.  Tears of joy-Amen!

  Were these the expressions of a fanatic, an extremist?
No; it was the ecstatic utterance of a yielded man during
two awesome hours in the presence of God.

  The astonished Pascal could only describe the visitation
in one word-"Fire!"
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Yours in Christ,
Paul N. F.