Anywho, I think this is more important than my birthday was anyway, so I just want to take a sec to plug something that I am so excited about and I think will have a huge impact in a lot of peoples lives.
When I lived in Charlotte, I went to Elevation Church. I still listen to their podcasts regularly and am so PUMPED for their pastor Steven Furtik's book, Sun Stand Still. I'm pretty sure you should read it. And you should probably also check out his blog and maybe even his wife's blog because she's pretty cool.
Here's a little excerpt his publisher released:
A THEOLOGY OF AUDACITY
This book is not a Snuggie.
The words on these pages will not go down like Ambien.
I’m not writing to calm or coddle you.
With God’s help, I intend to incite a riot in your mind.Trip your breakers and turn out the lights in your favorite hiding places: insecurity and fear. Then flip the switch back on so that God’s truth can illuminate the divine destiny thatmay have been lying dormant inside you for years. In short, I’m out to activate your audacious faith. To inspire you to ask God for the impossible. And in the process, to reconnect you with your God-sized purpose and potential.
You could think of this book as a one-volume theology of audacity. You probably don’t have one of those yet, but it’s essential. In fact, if you ever encounter a theology that doesn’t directly connect the greatness of God with your potential to do great things on his behalf, it’s not biblical theology. File it under Heresy.
I’ll take that further: if you’re not daring to believe God for the impossible, you’re sleeping through some of the best parts of your Christian life.
And further still: if the size of your vision for your life isn’t intimidating to you, there’s a good chance it’s insulting to God.
Audacious faith is the raw material that authentic Christianityis made of. It’s the stuff that triggers ordinarily level-headed people like you and me to start living with unusual boldness. When you live this way, your eyes will be opened to see your day-to-day life in vivid color. Your spiritual growth will accelerate at a supernatural pace.
If you’re like most Christians, audacity is not a word you use to describe your faith. Audacity, my dictionary says, makes regular people behave with “boldness or daring, especially with confident disregard for personal comfort [or] conventional thought.” And, if you think about it, confident disregard for the status quo is the essence of the gospel. It describes the radical path Christ’s life took on earth. It goes to the heart of what it means to live by faith.
Of course, every believer in Jesus has a measure of faith—it’s the prerequisite to salvation. But after that, if we’re honest, we think of faith primarily in terms of a spiritual thought or a comfortable feeling.We hope it’s enough to get us to heaven when we die. But in the meantime, it’s barely enough to keep us praying, giving, and going to the eleven o’clock service.
Let me ask you: does the brand of faith you live by produce the kinds of results in your life that you read about in the biblical stories of men and women of faith?
Chances are, not even close.
For most of us, this disparity is hard to live with. The chasm we see between our mundane spiritual experiences and the overcoming faith we read about in the accounts of biblical heroes is downright discouraging. It can create a heavy weight of condemnation and a sense of failure in our hearts. We can begin to feel like maybe our faith isn’t the real thing. Some believers I’ve known have gotten so tired of faking faith that they have just given up altogether.
POSTTRAUMATIC FAITH DISORDER
I’ll admit that faith is a sore subject for millions. It’s been abused, mishandled, distorted, and ultimately disfigured. Sometimes it seems like there’s a custom-tailored faith for everyone:
If the Galatians 2:20 kind of faith—“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”—is too clunky for you, trade it in. Exchange it for an easier, no-money-down model.
If trusting in the miracle-working power of Jesus is too out there for your modern mind, play it safe. Don’t ever ask God to provide for you supernaturally. Don’t dare to ask for physical healing or anything else that would put God on the spot. Because what if he doesn’t come through?
A lot of Christians I know stagger through life in a daze. Suffering from posttraumatic faith disorder, they hunker down in the basement, open a can of Beanie Weenees, and wait for the end of the world.
Am I reading your mail? If so, you’re probably stuck in spiritual survival mode. You’ve settled for spiritual mediocrity. You’re not trying to be a hypocrite. It’s just that so far the faith thing hasn’t, well, worked for you.
But we can’t let abuses and misunderstandings hold us back. God has no plan B. The Bible throws down the gauntlet in Hebrews 11:6:
Without faith it is impossible to please God.
It doesn’t get any plainer than that. Faith isn’t just a Get Out of Hell Free card. It’s the most vital building block of your relationship with God. And it’s the only real foundation worth establishing your life on.
We can’t abandon the life-changing promise of full-frontal faith because some have dealt with the topic recklessly and unbiblically. It would be a shame for us to let bad experiences or past disappointments keep us bound, poor, and blind to what God wants to do in our lives.
We’ve got to find a better way.
THERE IS A BETTER WAY
You’re about to discover what happens when you dare to believe God for the impossible, ask God for the impossible—then act in audacious faith for his glory.
You’re about to discover that faith is not a drug to sedate you through a life you hate; it’s a force to transport you to another realm of reality.
There is a better way—a higher calling to fulfillment and significance that God deeply desires for your job, your marriage, your parenting, your finances, and your impact on this world.
That kind of life may be a long way off from where you live and breathe right now. And it may take a little convincing before you believe this kind of life is even an option for you.
Maybe it will help if I introduce you to a man who experienced firsthand what happens when you live with audacity, believing God for the impossible. You’re already a lot more like him than you think.
This book is not a Snuggie.
The words on these pages will not go down like Ambien.
I’m not writing to calm or coddle you.
With God’s help, I intend to incite a riot in your mind.Trip your breakers and turn out the lights in your favorite hiding places: insecurity and fear. Then flip the switch back on so that God’s truth can illuminate the divine destiny thatmay have been lying dormant inside you for years. In short, I’m out to activate your audacious faith. To inspire you to ask God for the impossible. And in the process, to reconnect you with your God-sized purpose and potential.
You could think of this book as a one-volume theology of audacity. You probably don’t have one of those yet, but it’s essential. In fact, if you ever encounter a theology that doesn’t directly connect the greatness of God with your potential to do great things on his behalf, it’s not biblical theology. File it under Heresy.
I’ll take that further: if you’re not daring to believe God for the impossible, you’re sleeping through some of the best parts of your Christian life.
And further still: if the size of your vision for your life isn’t intimidating to you, there’s a good chance it’s insulting to God.
Audacious faith is the raw material that authentic Christianityis made of. It’s the stuff that triggers ordinarily level-headed people like you and me to start living with unusual boldness. When you live this way, your eyes will be opened to see your day-to-day life in vivid color. Your spiritual growth will accelerate at a supernatural pace.
If you’re like most Christians, audacity is not a word you use to describe your faith. Audacity, my dictionary says, makes regular people behave with “boldness or daring, especially with confident disregard for personal comfort [or] conventional thought.” And, if you think about it, confident disregard for the status quo is the essence of the gospel. It describes the radical path Christ’s life took on earth. It goes to the heart of what it means to live by faith.
Of course, every believer in Jesus has a measure of faith—it’s the prerequisite to salvation. But after that, if we’re honest, we think of faith primarily in terms of a spiritual thought or a comfortable feeling.We hope it’s enough to get us to heaven when we die. But in the meantime, it’s barely enough to keep us praying, giving, and going to the eleven o’clock service.
Let me ask you: does the brand of faith you live by produce the kinds of results in your life that you read about in the biblical stories of men and women of faith?
Chances are, not even close.
For most of us, this disparity is hard to live with. The chasm we see between our mundane spiritual experiences and the overcoming faith we read about in the accounts of biblical heroes is downright discouraging. It can create a heavy weight of condemnation and a sense of failure in our hearts. We can begin to feel like maybe our faith isn’t the real thing. Some believers I’ve known have gotten so tired of faking faith that they have just given up altogether.
POSTTRAUMATIC FAITH DISORDER
I’ll admit that faith is a sore subject for millions. It’s been abused, mishandled, distorted, and ultimately disfigured. Sometimes it seems like there’s a custom-tailored faith for everyone:
If the Galatians 2:20 kind of faith—“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”—is too clunky for you, trade it in. Exchange it for an easier, no-money-down model.
If trusting in the miracle-working power of Jesus is too out there for your modern mind, play it safe. Don’t ever ask God to provide for you supernaturally. Don’t dare to ask for physical healing or anything else that would put God on the spot. Because what if he doesn’t come through?
A lot of Christians I know stagger through life in a daze. Suffering from posttraumatic faith disorder, they hunker down in the basement, open a can of Beanie Weenees, and wait for the end of the world.
Am I reading your mail? If so, you’re probably stuck in spiritual survival mode. You’ve settled for spiritual mediocrity. You’re not trying to be a hypocrite. It’s just that so far the faith thing hasn’t, well, worked for you.
But we can’t let abuses and misunderstandings hold us back. God has no plan B. The Bible throws down the gauntlet in Hebrews 11:6:
Without faith it is impossible to please God.
It doesn’t get any plainer than that. Faith isn’t just a Get Out of Hell Free card. It’s the most vital building block of your relationship with God. And it’s the only real foundation worth establishing your life on.
We can’t abandon the life-changing promise of full-frontal faith because some have dealt with the topic recklessly and unbiblically. It would be a shame for us to let bad experiences or past disappointments keep us bound, poor, and blind to what God wants to do in our lives.
We’ve got to find a better way.
THERE IS A BETTER WAY
You’re about to discover what happens when you dare to believe God for the impossible, ask God for the impossible—then act in audacious faith for his glory.
You’re about to discover that faith is not a drug to sedate you through a life you hate; it’s a force to transport you to another realm of reality.
There is a better way—a higher calling to fulfillment and significance that God deeply desires for your job, your marriage, your parenting, your finances, and your impact on this world.
That kind of life may be a long way off from where you live and breathe right now. And it may take a little convincing before you believe this kind of life is even an option for you.
Maybe it will help if I introduce you to a man who experienced firsthand what happens when you live with audacity, believing God for the impossible. You’re already a lot more like him than you think.
YESSSS!!!! READ IT! If you're broke, I'll even buy you a copy.
