Forgotten God

I read Francis Chan's book Crazy Love earlier this year and enjoyed it immensely. So I was excited to see Chan had written a book on the Holy Spirit and subtitled it "Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit." The book is really divided into three parts. The first deals with how the theology of the Holy Spirit has been neglected and abused. The second deals with who the Holy Spirit is and what His role is in our lives. The third is a challenge to overcome the obstacles in our lives so that the Holy Spirit can lead us.

The book is a good primer on the theology of the Holy Spirit as well as challenging call to yield to the His leading in our lives. If you liked Crazy Love, I think you'll enjoy Forgotten God.

Here are some of the quotes from the book that caught my attention.

• The Spirit is more obviously active in places where people are desperate for Him, humbled before Him, and not distracted by their pursuit of wealth or comfort.
• We are not all we were made to be when everything in our lives and churches can be explained apart from the work and presence of the Spirit of God.
• The truth is that the Spirit of the living God is guaranteed to ask you to go somewhere or do something you wouldn't normally want or choose to do.
• The Holy Spirit does not seek to hurt us, but He does seek to make us Christlike, and this can be painful.
• A sure sign of the Holy Spirit's working is that Christ is magnified, not people.
• It is true that God may have called you to be exactly where you are. But it's absolutely vital to grasp that He didn't call you there so you could settle in and live out your life in comfort and superficial peace.
• Nowhere in Scripture do I see a "balanced life with a little bit of God added in" as an ideal for us to emulate. Yet when I look at our churches, this is exactly what I see: a lot of people who have added Jesus to their lives.
• It is impossible to live in the power of the Spirit and sin at the same time.
• I don't want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit.
• What disturbs me most is when we're not really bothered that God living in us has not made much of a noticeable difference.

-- Peace, Jamie