John Eldredge
I need to recommend a brother. I do this with only one reservation....I've only met him thru his writings.....but my heart tells me that no one can be this real and not be real. Did I just say that.? Maybe that will be one of my "Quotables" as in able to quote! My friend Darryl encouraged me to have a separate page of quotables on m y blog!~ "No one can be this real and not be real" :)
He has been a very prolific writer......lots of books.... and I enjoy his stuff.....he is not what one would describe as religious...which, by the by, is what makes people real! His book Waking the Dead is what the Lord used to open my eyes to several things. If you missed those postings, I was on a real roll about that back in December starting on December 19 and every day till Christmas. You can see from those musings how the Lord changed things in me through this book.
There have been several others......really good stuff.....you guys out there reading this posting, get his book Captivating and give it to your wife......make sure you read it first!
The one I have been waiting for though, is his latest one that came in just the other day. So far, it has been everything, I had thought it would be. I have gotten all the way up to page 25 now! It is going to be slow going. I'll let you know how I liked the rest of it when I'm done....sometime next year. :)
Last night I said to the Lord, "You didn't give me anything to write a posting about today. Did you want me to say anything?" He told me to read the next few pages in John's book and that I would have plenty to write about....I did...and I had plenty to write about last night. Then He woke me at 3am and downloaded another 3, maybe 4 that He wants me to write......besides this one to really press you to look at John's writings.
The title is Walking with God. I have been been walking with Him for the last 40 of my almost 73 years. It went up a zillion notches after my Epiphany at the Fence. Then a bunchamore a little over 2 years ago when I read Waking the Dead. Now I am excited about the challenges I expect out of each section of what look like John's Musings to me.....
There are things he says where I think I'm listening to myself....we are really on the same page.....yet we are so different, it blows me away. He is big time outdoors, fishing, hunting, getting into the mountains and hillsides and faraways., camping (as in little tents or not in little tents) :) I mean like big-time.... Our son Jonathan asks his mother regularly if she is going to be able to get Dad out of Morrisville this year....how about a shopping trip with you to Burlington (45 minutes)!
My idea of relaxing is not to climb mountains or fish (do I have stories about fishing!).... my idea is some small hills at Copley Country Club smashing little hard white balls and chasing them....those hills are ok and are only when (I was going to say if ) I hit a bad shot..... but it is mostly/partly flat if you stay in the middle and I like that.
We both have some theater background, so we see things in that dramatic visualizing way and try to paint pictures vividly so people have a better chance to see what we are trying to communicate. We are both motivators with goals that seem clearly the same....to challenge others to have the same intimate personal walk with God that we are experiencing and present every man complete in Christ.
John seems to have a great doorway into the existing Church structures. I do not have that. Although he pulls no punches in proclaiming truth, he says it with more qualifications than I do and is not as liable to offend the religious folks as I am. And that is a good thing because they offend easily.... I am thinking that the differences have much to do with our religious upbringings, as we are all products of the institutions we were raised in....it clouds our thoughts, shapes us and the words we use.....we speak a different language from the rest of the world....Christianese is a language that the world does not speak or understand, it is our own private language with so many different dialects and accents....... some of which are unintelligible and make no sense at all to the folks outside our little circles....yet we continue to speak it to the world as if they knew exactly what we are talking about (and expect to reach them?).
I need to wrap this up. The language thing is just one of the ways we are not real. I said when I started.......John is real. And remember...... (you can even quote me)......."No one can be this real and not be real"
:)
He has been a very prolific writer......lots of books.... and I enjoy his stuff.....he is not what one would describe as religious...which, by the by, is what makes people real! His book Waking the Dead is what the Lord used to open my eyes to several things. If you missed those postings, I was on a real roll about that back in December starting on December 19 and every day till Christmas. You can see from those musings how the Lord changed things in me through this book.
There have been several others......really good stuff.....you guys out there reading this posting, get his book Captivating and give it to your wife......make sure you read it first!
The one I have been waiting for though, is his latest one that came in just the other day. So far, it has been everything, I had thought it would be. I have gotten all the way up to page 25 now! It is going to be slow going. I'll let you know how I liked the rest of it when I'm done....sometime next year. :)
Last night I said to the Lord, "You didn't give me anything to write a posting about today. Did you want me to say anything?" He told me to read the next few pages in John's book and that I would have plenty to write about....I did...and I had plenty to write about last night. Then He woke me at 3am and downloaded another 3, maybe 4 that He wants me to write......besides this one to really press you to look at John's writings.
The title is Walking with God. I have been been walking with Him for the last 40 of my almost 73 years. It went up a zillion notches after my Epiphany at the Fence. Then a bunchamore a little over 2 years ago when I read Waking the Dead. Now I am excited about the challenges I expect out of each section of what look like John's Musings to me.....
There are things he says where I think I'm listening to myself....we are really on the same page.....yet we are so different, it blows me away. He is big time outdoors, fishing, hunting, getting into the mountains and hillsides and faraways., camping (as in little tents or not in little tents) :) I mean like big-time.... Our son Jonathan asks his mother regularly if she is going to be able to get Dad out of Morrisville this year....how about a shopping trip with you to Burlington (45 minutes)!
My idea of relaxing is not to climb mountains or fish (do I have stories about fishing!).... my idea is some small hills at Copley Country Club smashing little hard white balls and chasing them....those hills are ok and are only when (I was going to say if ) I hit a bad shot..... but it is mostly/partly flat if you stay in the middle and I like that.
We both have some theater background, so we see things in that dramatic visualizing way and try to paint pictures vividly so people have a better chance to see what we are trying to communicate. We are both motivators with goals that seem clearly the same....to challenge others to have the same intimate personal walk with God that we are experiencing and present every man complete in Christ.
John seems to have a great doorway into the existing Church structures. I do not have that. Although he pulls no punches in proclaiming truth, he says it with more qualifications than I do and is not as liable to offend the religious folks as I am. And that is a good thing because they offend easily.... I am thinking that the differences have much to do with our religious upbringings, as we are all products of the institutions we were raised in....it clouds our thoughts, shapes us and the words we use.....we speak a different language from the rest of the world....Christianese is a language that the world does not speak or understand, it is our own private language with so many different dialects and accents....... some of which are unintelligible and make no sense at all to the folks outside our little circles....yet we continue to speak it to the world as if they knew exactly what we are talking about (and expect to reach them?).
I need to wrap this up. The language thing is just one of the ways we are not real. I said when I started.......John is real. And remember...... (you can even quote me)......."No one can be this real and not be real"
:)
