I’ve never exactly been a huge reader but I have been reading a lot more lately than usual. I figured that I would share a few of the books with you. To make things a bit clearer, I will keep my thoughts in black while changing words from the book to BLUE. I will start with a good book called “The Sacred Romance” by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge. However, to be honest, while this is a good book, I have some others that I can’t wait to share with you more.
The Sacred Romance is based on the idea that we are created to be a part of a bigger story than ourselves. This story includes a wild romance and relentless pursuit of our heart by a dynamic lover that we call God. It is based on the premise that He is the author and perfecter of our hearts and that He desires an intimacy that goes beyond our imagination. However, like any lover, He won’t force Himself on us or force us to return our delight in Him the way He delights in us.
Without further ado, I will share some of the passages from the book…
Our souls speak not in the naked facts of mathematics or the abstract propositions of systematic theology; they speak the images and emotions of story…
The Enlightenment dismissed the idea that there is an Author but tried to hang on to the idea that we could still have a larger story, life could still make sense, and everything was headed in a good direction…but once we rid ourselves of the Author, it didn’t take long to lose the larger story.
…the Spirit has come to empower us to continue the invasion of the kingdom, which is primarily about freeing the hearts of others to live in the love of God.
So long as we imagine that it is we who have to look for God, we must often lose heart. But it is the other way about; He is looking for us. And so we can afford to recognize that very often we are not looking for God; far from it, we are in full flight from him, in high rebellion against him. And He knows that and has taken it into account. He has followed us into our own darkness; there where we thought finally to escape him, we run straight into his arms. So, we do not have to erect a false piety for ourselves, to give us the hope of salvation. Our hope is in his determination to save us, and he will not give in.
When we feel that life is finally up to us it becomes suffocating…It frees our souls to have something going on before us that involves us, had us in mind, yet doesn’t depend on us or culminate in us, but invites us up into something larger.
You cannot have intimacy out of a false self. There is no escaping your identity. You will not live beyond how you see yourself; not for long. If “failure” is the part youre playing, you will fail. The performers will perform, the seductive will seduce, the victims will be victimized, the nobodies will fade away and the somebodies will do whatever it is that made them feel like somebody…
(Also, the victors will be victorious…which is sweet if you know which side wins 🙂 )
The reason we enjoy fairy tales–more than enjoy them–the reason we identify with them in some deep part of us is because they rest on two great truths: The hero really has a heart of gold and the beloved really possesses hidden beauty…the heroines and heroes capture our heart because we see long before they do their hidden beauty, courage and greatness…
(on discussing the enemies tactics…) he replaces the love affair with a religious system of do’s and dont’s that parch our hearts and replaces our worship and communion services with entertainment. Our experience of life deteriorates from the passion of a grand love affair…to an endless series of chores and errands, a busyness that separates us from God, each other, and even our own thirstiness.
God’s intention, on the other hand, is to use spiritual warfare to draw us into deeper communion with himself. Satan’s device is to isolate us and wear us out obsessing about what he has done and what he will do next.
…the issue becomes more about our resolve to trust God’s goodness than obsessing about the enemy’s cloak-and-dagger warfare.
It is the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most human beings live only for the gratification of it. (Aristotle)
We usually think of the middle years of the Christian life as a time of acquiring better habits and their accompanying virtues…discipline imposed from the outside eventually defeats when it is not matched by desire from within…there comes a place on our spiritual journey where renewed religious activity is of no use whatsoever
Part of us would rather return to Scripture memorization, or Bible study, or service-anything that would save us from the unknowns of walking with God.
Living spiritually requires something more than just not sinning or doing good works In order to live in the kingdom of heaven, you must abide in me. Your identity is in me…
so…if we are to abide in Him and He has given us a Holy Spirit that is supposed to be our comfort…how come He usually isn’t? What then do I make as my comfort? What do you make as your comfort? Well, this is what the authors’ comfort was…My “comforter” my abiding place, was cynicism and rebellion. From this abiding place, I would feel free to use some soul cocaine- a violence video with maybe a little sexual titillation thrown in, perhaps having a little more alcohol with a meal than I might normally drink- things that would allow me to feel better for just a little while..I had always thought of these things as just bad habits. I began to see that they were much more; they were spiritual abiding places that were my comforters and friends in a very spiritual way; literally other lovers.
Our longing for heaven whispers to us in our disappointments and screams through our agony. “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy,” C.S. Lewis wrote, “the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”
The crisis of hope that afflicts the church today is a crisis of imagination…
If our pictures of heaven are to move us, they must be moving pictures. So go ahead-dream a little. Use your imagination…”No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”…we cannot out dream God.
We do not want merely to see beauty…we want something else which can hardly be put into words- to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it inot ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.
The fact that most Christians have a gut sense that earth is more exciting that heaven points to the deceptive powers of the enemy and our own failure of imagination.
When the going gets rough, ought is not enough to keep you going…
You may recall the movie Chariots of Fire, which tells the story of two Olympic runners: Eric Liddell and Charles Abrams…Abrams runs because he is driven; he runs in order to prove something. He is a cheerless man whose whole life is motivated by ought, by duty, by the law. Liddell runs because he can’t help it.”When I run, I feel Gods pleasure.” He knows a freedom of heart that Abrams can only watch from a distance…Abrams says, “He runs like a wild animal- he unnerves me.”
Do you run like a wild animal or is your life much more calculated? Do you feel His pleasure in life? Do you live more out of duty and ought? Do you see the bigger part of beauty that you are a part of, or does this world look somewhat drab with a monotonous heaven to look forward to? Do you view God as a stoic figure watching and waiting while the sinful desires of this world prey on the weak and lonely? Is there an urge in your heart that just might be something more? Those of you have known this love…have you kept it’s zest or have you put it into a formula…is your love wild???Is it passionate? If so, teach us who are beginning to be awaken to it…those of us who are starting to yearn for it…Seek us out and pour into us…There is a generation that is restless looking for a wild romance to be a part of and if they aren’t awaken to it, they’ll try to stuff their desires with lesser lovers…
