I just finished maybe the greatest book I have ever read... Blue Like Jazz. I love the author, Donald Miller, and pray that maybe one day I will be lucky enough to meet him. On the cover it states the book is 'nonreligious thoughts on Christian spirituality' and I love the explanation. I love the way the book flows. I love the thought patterns presented. Some of the things I took away from the book are:
Wasting time - this is why the devil tries so hard to get Christians to be religious. If he can sink a man's mind into habit, he will prevent his heart from engaging God. Pg 13
I am the problem. Pg 20
God is not here to worship me, to mold himself into something that will help me fulfill my level of comfort. My problem is not that God is not fulfilling, my problem is that I am spoiled. Pg 92
The trouble with deep belief is that it costs something, it carries responsibility and if I believe these things I actually have to do something about them. Pg 107
Passion about nothing is like pouring gasoline in a car with no wheels. It isn't going to lead anybody anywhere. Pg 110
What I believe is not what I say I believe; what I believe is what I do. Pg 110
A person who thinks of himself unlovable cannot be in a relationship with God because he can't accept who God is; a Being that is love. We learn that we are lovable or unlovable from other people. That's why God tells us so many times to love each other. Pg 146-147
"I think it would be easier to trust God if I had extra money to trust him with." "That would not be faith, then, would it?" pg 196
It comforts me to think that if we are created beings, the thing that created us would have to be greater than us, so much greater, in fact, that we would not be able to understand it. It would have to be greater than the facts if our reality, and so it would seem to us, looking out from within our reality, that it would contradict reason. But reason itself would suggest it would have to be greater than reality, or it would not be reasonable. Pg 201
The problem with Christian culture is we think of love as a commodity. We use it like money. Pg 218
Instead of withholding love to change someone, pour it on lavishly. Nobody will listen to you unless the sense that you like them. Pg 220
Pray often that God will give you the strength and dignity to receive love. Pg 226
And so I have come to understand that strength, inner strength, comes from receiving love as much as it comes from giving it. I think apart from the idea that I am a sinner and God forgives me, this is the greatest lesson I have ever learned. When you get it, it changes you. My friend Julie from Seattle told me that the main prayer she prays for her husband is that he will be able to receive love. And this is the prayer I pay for all my friends because it is the key to happiness. God's love will never change us if we don't accept it. Pg 232
Amazing. My little quotes don't do it justice. I suggest reading it if you haven't done so already.
Do it immediately.
1 comment:
WOW!what great thoughts, Kristie! Gives me lots to think about today.
Love, Grandma E
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