"There are those who would trouble you because you can't get all steamed up about material things. A friend of mine was quite irked because I just can't get all excited and steamed up about earthly things. I can't possibly do it. I can't possibly stand off and strike an attitude of awe at a Buick or a Cadillac or something else. I can't. The houses they're building that are supposed to be so magnificent, I can't get excited about them. When you have seen the house of city that has foundations who builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10), you can't get excited about any house any man in this world ever built. You can't get excited about it. Abraham saw the city that had foundations whose builder and maker was God and he wouldn't build a house after that. He said "I will never try to imitate. I will live in a tent until I get my house up there." It was so beautiful.
I want to tell you that it costs to know Jesus Christ like that. It costs, and most people won't pay the price for it at all. That's why most Christians are common. They have for Christ's sake surrendered evil things - that is, things that are injurious and things that are unclean and grossly sinful; but they are unwillng to surrender "good things". Everywhere in fundamentalism we have given up the grossly sinful things. We have all agreed on what those grossly sinful things are. But this is the mark of a common Christian and the man who has never gone beyond that is a mediocre Christian. Paul surrendered the good along with the bad. He said, 'Not only the things that are bad have I given up; but what things were gain to me those I counted loss. I have given up even that because I've seen something so much better. It is that which was with the Father. It is that Source, that Fountain from which flows all wisdom and beauty and truth and immortality. So for the sake of 'That,' I have given it all up.' Paul knew the human heart was idolatrous and would worship anything it posessed. Anything that you get your hand on you will worship. Paul never allowed those things to touch his heart. Any external treasure that touches your heart is a curse."
-A.W. Tozer
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