Disclaimer: About This Blog

THIS BLOG IS: my personal journey of how I am rethinking some of my spiritual beliefs.
THIS BLOG IS NOT: intended to point fingers at people who I think are wrong.
I do not believe the final judgement will be based on how many correct answers we get on a theology exam. I believe many people throughout history have had genuine relationships with God, despite holding questionable beliefs and practices. I make no claim to having it all figured out or being your judge. If we end up disagreeing over these topics I pray we can find a way to demonstrate grace.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Graham Cooke part 2



Part 1 of this video here.

"Everything always comes back to the nature of God, always. What is God like for me, what is my experience with Him, what am I enjoying about Him and that's where your passion comes from, and you should live in your passion about God... you know... it's supposed to be a joy, a pleasure, and a delight to be with God, because He has a joy, a pleasure, delight with being with us."

"Whatever God wants from us He intends to give us. So if He wants us to be faithful, He's gonna be faithful, because He is the model, He's the example. And in fact it takes God to love God. Only God can love God. So what does that mean? It means that for me to love God properly I have to be loved wonderfully by Him. So the chief role of a Christian therefore I think is to allow themselves to be wonderfully loved. So when God touches you, who He is comes into you, sets you free and that's what you manifest."

"I am so passionate about church, I think church is such a brilliant idea. But you know the problem is we've taken God's whole idea of church and we've made it in our own image... we've put it in a box... you know this is what church is. The only time God put himself in a box He said you touch this thing and I'll kill you. But the whole idea of God is for freedom that Christ has set us free."

"So church really should be a community of dream seeking permission giving people. The best leaders are leaders who can facilitate the growth and the development, not only of the individual, but the corporate. So they are permission giving, they don't mind if people make mistakes because sometimes when you do something for the first time you learn how not to do it. So they're real fathers, but they're dream givers. The Pharisees are the dream thieves of their day. They stole peoples dreams."

"One of the discrepancies in Evangelicalism, speaking as an Evangelical, is that we have put the great commission ahead of the first commandment. The first commandment is love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That is the real role of the church in the earth. The great commission actually is the second commandment. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. And so our prime role in the world is to know God, love God, encounter God, and then be part of the release of that understanding and that experience into the world."

"... it is His deep joy in you that captures your heart. And you realize that, for me it was... OMG, He's the happiest person I've ever met, and also He's the kindest person I know, and you get totally awestruck by the nature of God, and what He's like... and then it's like my hearts swept, it's not like you can't go back... you can't find your way back"

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