"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.
     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.