Furious Pursuit II

I've been going through Tim King & Frank Martin's book Furious Pursuit. It is an unbelievable book.

Brian McLaren says this about the book, "If you're sick and tired of spiritual to-do lists, religious shoulds and oughts, and the self-hatred that comes from feeling unacceptable, you'll find in Furious Pursuit better news of a better story. Tim King and Frank Martin have given us powerful truth, well-told."

The Bible talks about personal transformation in the context of thought patterns & ruts (Romans 12:2). How many of us need a change of thinking as it relates to God? How many of us need to hear His story retold? I do & this book is doing it for me.

Here's a lengthy quote worth thinking on:

If you and I are hard-wired to be in relationship with God, created by Love and for Love, then doesn't that relationship need nurturing? If our identity is wrapped up in God, then how do we open ourselves to the identity that God wrote for us? How do we allow it to transform us?

This is not your ordinary shift in relational dynamics. It's an about-face, a 180-degree turn, a reversal of everything we've been taught about our responsibility toward God. His Story not only compels us to see God in a different light; it exhorts us to live in a different state of mind, to relate to God differently, love him differently, and allow him to love us differently.

And that demands a life dedicated to drawing near to God, but not in order to get him to draw near to us--he has already done that. And not in an effort to please him--he's already pleased with us. And definitely not as a means of activating his love toward us--he already loves us. We draw near to God in order to allow his love to transform us and compel us to cast our eyes higher. He wants to engage us in the divine Courtship that is already underway. (From Furious Pursuit, page 72)

Imagine living life confident that God is near you, God is pleased with you, and God loves you no matter what. How would that thinking change your living?

It's a rut worth getting stuck in!