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?

I Think All Electronic Devices Hate Me Today: Galatians 5:13 Says...

So my car had a little bit of trouble making its way out of my apartment complex this morning. It took a bit to warm up (a la the cold). Regardless I made my way out on to 460 East with a really hurried red Tarus behind me who zoomed past me and and around me and slid down the exit ramp almost running off the road due to ice... yeah... wow...

I made it to the office and parked in a visitors spot out front so I could unload a large amount of items in my trunk that needed to come up to the office. I unloaded, I dragged my loot upstairs, I organized my office, talked to Jeremy for a bit, went back downstairs, got in my car to move it and it won't start... that's right. It won't start. I don't understand how if I was just driving it five minutes before it's now not starting...

I pulled out my cellphone to call Brian Claprood (a la recommendation Jeremy Rader) as Brian is pretty much the best in the office for knowing how to do something no one else knows how to do. I called him and talked to him for a bit about my situation and we're going to look at it this afternoon after the battery warms up. I took my TRBC tag out of my window and left my car in a visitors spot. Oh well. After I hung up with Brian my phone went dead. Like white screen of death no response on the keypad, completely dead.

I smacked it on my steering wheel twice and it started back up. The cellphone... not the car... though that would have been great...

So now I'm here in the office drinking my coffee, thinking through design options for a late March calendar and reading in Galatians 5 where the apostle Paul (the apostle formerly known as Saul) writes about the freedom we have in Christ. In verse 13 it reads like this:

¹³ My brothers and sisters, God called you to be free, but do not use your freedom as an excuse to do what pleases your sinful self. Serve each other with love.¹⁴ The whole law is made complete in this one command: "Love your neighbor as you love yourself."¹⁵ If you go on hurting each other and tearing each other apart, be careful, or you will completely destroy each other.

Verse 14 is actually a quotation of Leviticus 19:18 but, re

gardless this got me thinking. How often to I use my freedom in Christ as a get away card. Have I done things before... knowing they are wrong and justified it by saying "God will forgive me. He forgive

s all sin." While this statement is true in this context it's sickening. May I never use God's forgiveness as a crutch and cheapen the salvation I am given through the death of Christ Jesus on calvary.

I'm not sure how I went from electronics hating me to Galatians... oh well. Guess it's a picture of what my brain feels like this morning.

Blessings.

I also lost the Samaritan Gun for my Hellboy figure... I know it's geekish but, I'm pretty bummed it got lost on the transition between my home and the office.