Just started reading John Eldredge: Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive and am immediately captivated.
Messages received so far include:
- we are in a war zone, not just occasionally when things go bad for us, but the basic circumstance of our existence is that we live in the midst of the war between evil and good,
- and we can't escape the war because we are a primary target - we are made in the image of God and loved by God, so evil is out to get us in any and every possible way,
- the basic message of the Bible is about this war,
- things are not what they seem, especially when our only view is the controlled structured view of rationality - true myths are a way of telling about the bigger, deeper truths of eternal reality
- we need to get beyond the cross and grasp the reality of the Resurrection.
It is through the Resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit that God implants a new heart in us.
I am just getting into the gripping part. The revelation of the consequences of God coming to dwell in our hearts (Ephesians 3:17).
"Of course, none of this can happen for us until we give our lives back to God. We cannot know the joy or the life or the freedom of heart I've described here until we surrender our lives to Jesus and surrender them totally. Renouncing all the ways we have turned from God in our hearts, we forsake the idols we have worshipped and given our hearts over to. We turn, and give ourselves body, soul, and spirit back to God, asking him to cleanse our hearts and make them new. And he does. He gives us a new heart. And he comes to dwell there, in our hearts.
"'If we believed that ... we could do anything. We would follow him anywhere!'"
And so I have this image of the saint as a mirror of the suicide bomber. Just as the suicide bomber can move undetected with his bomb into the crowd which is his target, so can the saint with God dwelling in his heart. The bomber comes to sow death, destruction and anarchy. The saint comes to declare the Kingdom of God, to bring healing, love and compassion.
If we really believe the living God is dwelling in our hearts, we could go anywhere, do anything for Him. Are we ready to go? Do we know we are at war? Have got our weapons ready? Can we hear God? Do we know what to do?
References
Waking the Dead, John Eldredge
Ransomed Heart Ministries
