I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post this or not... and I know that I'm brand spankin' new here, so I hope I'm not offending anyone with this.
I came to Christ in 2001. I was 31. Times were hard and I turned to Him as a hope to some relief from the forces I didn't seem I could escape. And He did speak to me through my spiritual leaders; He helped me. He gave me peace.
However, following doctrine for the sake of dogma, and the messages that fell away from me; missing the mark left me empty, or worse, feeling that I was somehow outside the family of the faith that I'd come to accept as my own. How was I to find my salvation when I didn't feel that I belonged and that God was not interested in speaking to me?
In time, I fell away. As the scriptures say, I was the seed who grew wildly, then wilted away.
But God has a funny way of drawing us back in. For whatever reason, Lake Pointe had been calling to me; it was some inescapable siren song. It was everpresent, and in the course of a week I had made plans to lock me in to the next service, and being such a big church, I thought they might have a website. They did. What I discovered really got my attention...
Man Church. It was the first thing I found on the site. It captivated me. And in my strange new excitement, I mentioned it to a Mormon friend who I work with. He brought a book to me, and that book changed my life, and has enlightened me and shown me how I, as a man, communicate with God. It has been my salvation; it has renewed my faith and charged my soul. With this, I have led my family back into faith, headlong.
I would hope that this book might help others as well; it speaks to what we were, what we are, how we got to be what we are, and what we need to focus on to be the men we were meant to be. This book is called Wild at Heart (and its follow-on book Way of the Wild Heart) by John Eldridge.
I'm also currently reading a book co-written by John and his wife Stasi called Captivating, which does for women what Wild at Heart did for men. It has given me great insight into the longing and struggles of women, and worse, how I have failed my wife without even knowing it.
It is a beautiful journey, though fraught with sometimes painful self-analysis. It is the story of an outdoorsman who has a true love for his God, Jesus Christ.
I would invite any and all of you to read this, and if anyone might be interested, to work through these pages to become better men.
God Bless!
I came to Christ in 2001. I was 31. Times were hard and I turned to Him as a hope to some relief from the forces I didn't seem I could escape. And He did speak to me through my spiritual leaders; He helped me. He gave me peace.
However, following doctrine for the sake of dogma, and the messages that fell away from me; missing the mark left me empty, or worse, feeling that I was somehow outside the family of the faith that I'd come to accept as my own. How was I to find my salvation when I didn't feel that I belonged and that God was not interested in speaking to me?
In time, I fell away. As the scriptures say, I was the seed who grew wildly, then wilted away.
But God has a funny way of drawing us back in. For whatever reason, Lake Pointe had been calling to me; it was some inescapable siren song. It was everpresent, and in the course of a week I had made plans to lock me in to the next service, and being such a big church, I thought they might have a website. They did. What I discovered really got my attention...
Man Church. It was the first thing I found on the site. It captivated me. And in my strange new excitement, I mentioned it to a Mormon friend who I work with. He brought a book to me, and that book changed my life, and has enlightened me and shown me how I, as a man, communicate with God. It has been my salvation; it has renewed my faith and charged my soul. With this, I have led my family back into faith, headlong.
I would hope that this book might help others as well; it speaks to what we were, what we are, how we got to be what we are, and what we need to focus on to be the men we were meant to be. This book is called Wild at Heart (and its follow-on book Way of the Wild Heart) by John Eldridge.
I'm also currently reading a book co-written by John and his wife Stasi called Captivating, which does for women what Wild at Heart did for men. It has given me great insight into the longing and struggles of women, and worse, how I have failed my wife without even knowing it.
It is a beautiful journey, though fraught with sometimes painful self-analysis. It is the story of an outdoorsman who has a true love for his God, Jesus Christ.
I would invite any and all of you to read this, and if anyone might be interested, to work through these pages to become better men.
God Bless!
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