The Good and Beautiful GOD
As part of the follow-up/debriefing of our mission trips this summer, members of the SSC received one “deep, loving and transformative” book entitled “The Good and Beautiful GOD. It’s still early days, but if the first chapter of this book provides any indication of what’s to come then I am at least momentarily excited! Admittedly, I am not much of a reader (or writer for that matter) but so far this book has grasped my attention….props to the author(s).
Just a few bits from the opening pages:
“A lot of people want to change but many of them do not believe it is possible. After years of trying and failing, they lead a Christian life of quiet desperation, longing for change and yet certain it will never happen. So they sit in their pews each week, sighing silently, resigned to their fate….I have come to believe that the problem is not that we do not want to change, nor is the problem that we are not trying to change. The problem is that we are not training. We have never been taught a reliable pattern of transformation.” (and thus the book begins)
“Change occurs only because of the work of the Holy Spirit….We change not by mustering up willpower but by changing the way we think, which will also involve changing our actions and our social environment. We change indirectly, through the process of indirection.”
“But I have changed. I know who I am, and I know where I am. I am a person in whom Christ dwells, and I live in the kingdom of a God who loves me and is caring for me.”
To really get a proper feel for the book its obviously best read in context, in its entirety. Check it out!
That is all,
Chris H.
