The Furious Longing Of God | Pt.1

Galatians 2:20 (NCV) - I was put to death on the cross with Christ, and I do not live anymore - it is Christ who lives in me. I still live in my body, but I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself to save me.

"In a fascinating footnote to that verse, the Jerusalem Bible adds: "The living acts of a Christian become somehow the acts of Christ!" (Brennan Manning, The Furious Longing Of God, 2009, 31.)

If you hadn't guessed it, I'm reading through the book The Furious Longing Of God by Brennan Manning. I got it through a viral blogging site and it's my first book I've received from them that I've been able to read here recently and beginning blogging on. I would have to say that so far this book is leaving me very refreshed. It's not telling me things I didn't know or unlocking some new spiritual truth but, it's refreshing some things in my heart and in my mind I haven't thought on in quite a while. It's good to be reminded of God's love for me. Of how He longs to know me and be with me. He longs to have such a relationship with me that I am completely replaced and that my actions reflect Him completely.

One of the things I have enjoyed the most about this book is the questions at the end of each chapter. Sometimes chapter questions are simply to have the reader review what He's read. Here Brennan lays out questions that cause you to dive deeper into what you've just been reading. In the chapter on FURY, the first question particularly started digging deep into my heart: "There is the "you" that people see and then there is the "rest of you". Take some time and craft a picture of the "rest of you". This could be a drawing, in words, even a song. Just remember that the chances are good it will be full of paradox and contradictions."

I was immediately reminded after reading through that question of a song by Switchfoot in which singer Jon Foreman croons "This is your life are you who you want to be? This is your life is it everything you dreamed that it could be when the world was younger and you had everything to lose."

There is the YOU that people see then there is the REST OF YOU. What do you look like? Are YOU who YOU want to be?