Book Notes

I don’t want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit.  I want people to look at my life and know that I couldn’t be doing this by my own power.  I want to live in such a way that I am desperate for Him to come through.  That if He doesn’t come through, I am screwed. From my perspective, the Holy Spirit is tragically neglected and, for all practical purposes, forgotten.  While no evangelical would deny His existence, I’m willing to bet there are millions of churchgoers across America who cannot confidently say they have experienced His presence [...]

Experience the Loving Leadership of Jesus The ultimate issue in the universe is leadership.  Who you follow and what directs your life, is the single most important thing about you. Grace, we must learn, is opposed to earning, not effort. As many of us know, struggling to change outward habit without changing the heart is a formula for frustration.  It’s time to go back to the development of the inner life, to the heart attitudes at the deepest level of our beings.  Discipleship must be applied to the inside of us—to the self, the ego, the ambitions, the passions, the [...]

The pursuit of holiness must be anchored in God’s grace otherwise it is doomed to failure. To some, the pursuit of holiness sounds like legalism and manmade rules.  To others, an emphasis on grace seems to open the door to irresponsible sinful behavior based on the notion that God’s unconditional love means we are free to sin as we please.  Grace and the personal discipline required to pursue holiness, however are not opposed to one another.  In fact, they go hand in hand.  An understanding of how grace and personal, vigorous effort work together is essential for a lifelong pursuit [...]

It is important that we not measure our spiritual health by the people around us, who are pretty much just like us. What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. Tozer On the average day, we live caught up in ourselves.  On the average day, we don’t consider God very much.  On the average day, we forget that our life truly is a vapor. Too much of the good life ends up being toxic, deforming us spiritually.  David Goetz Has your relationship with God actually changed the way you live?  Do [...]

4 Postures we have in relating to God; Life from God, Life over God, Life under God, Life for God, Life with God To begin we must understand how the life with God posture differs from the other four. Life under, over, from and for God each seeks to use God to achieve some other goal. God is seen as a means to an end. Life from God (a genie to grant us our desires) Uses God to supply our material desires.  Primarily concerned with scarcity—not having enough.  Places self with its desires at the core.  People in this category [...]

Walk into most churches in America, have a look around, and ask yourself this question: What is a Christian man?  Don’t listen to what is said; look at what you find there.  There is no doubt about it.  You’d have to admit a Christian man is…bored.  Really Nice Guys.  We don’t smoke, drink, or swear; that’s what makes us men…dutiful. If you had permission to do what you really want to do, what would you do?  Don’t ask how; that will cut your desire off at the knees.  How is never the right question; how is a faithless question.  It [...]

To a significant degree, your emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual well-being, as well as the health and stability of your relationships with others, will be determined by your gratitude quotient. I have learned that in every circumstance that comes my way, I can choose to respond in one of two ways; I can whine or I can worship.  And I can’t worship without giving thanks.  It just isn’t possible. A grateful man or woman will be a breath of fresh air in a world contaminated by bitterness and discontentment. It would surprise me to think that you woke up this [...]

Will power will never succeed in dealing with the deeply ingrained habits of sin.  As long as we think we can save ourselves by our own will power, we will make the evil in us stronger than ever. Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself.  Leo Tolstoy Our adversary majors in 3 things: noise, hurry and crowds. What happens in meditation is that we create the emotional and spiritual space which allows Christ to construct an inner sanctuary in the heart. Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us.  In prayer, real prayer, we [...]

On a deeper level, I believe many of us are hungry and thirsty for a faith based on sacrifice instead of on self-absorption and simplistic denial.  We don’t want to become Christians in order to become an improved man or woman, but an entirely new man or woman—people who live with a different outlook on life, who find joy while others pursue happiness, who find meaning in what others see as something to simply be overcome or cured, who want to drink deeply of life—with its mountains and valleys, twists and turns—rather than to “rise above it”. Ultimately, spiritual maturity [...]