Week 1: Preface — The Hunger That Heralds Revival

1.Tozer opens by describing "increasing numbers of persons whose religious lives are marked by a growing hunger after God Himself." He calls this hunger "the only real harbinger of revival" he can detect. What does it say about the state of the church that genuine hunger for God — not programs or activity — is singled out as the most hopeful sign of life?

2.Tozer uses the image of the altar on Mount Carmel: the stones are laid, the sacrifice is divided, but there is no fire. What does "fire" represent in this metaphor, and where do you see the "no fire" problem showing up in churches or Christian communities you know?

3.He quotes John Wesley: "Orthodoxy, or right opinion, is, at best, a very slender part of religion. There may be a right opinion of God without either love or one right temper toward Him. Satan is a proof of this." How does this quote challenge common assumptions about what it means to be a "good Christian"?

4.Tozer grieves that "the art of worship has been lost entirely, and in its place has come that strange and foreign thing called the 'program.'" What is the difference between a program and worship? Have you experienced genuine worship? How would you describe it?

5.Tozer says the Bible "is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God." Is there a danger in treating Bible study as the destination rather than the road? How have you experienced the Bible as a means of actually meeting God, not just learning about Him?

6.He closes humbly: "if my fire is not large it is yet real, and there may be those who can light their candle at its flame." What does this kind of humility from an author do to your posture as a reader? How might it shape the way you approach the rest of the book?

7.Tozer's whole Preface is animated by an ache — a grief that God's people are spiritually starving. On a scale of honest self-reflection: how hungry for God are *you* right now? What would change in your daily life if that hunger intensified?