I’ve been a Christian for 51 years. I’ve been a pastor for 38 years. I guess that makes me “old” and somewhat experienced. In any case, I’ve seen more than I care to remember of human pain and predicaments. I’ve counseled rebellious teens and lonely senior citizens. I’ve spent hours with bitter wives and their passive husbands. I’ve cried with victims of sexual abuse and rejoiced with those set free from bondage. Their problems may be different. Some are men, others are women. Some are old, others young. But the one thing they share in common is the deeply felt need of the human soul to know and feel that God loves and enjoys them.
. . . Pain becomes bearable and tomorrow no longer terrifies when your soul is touched with the reality of God’s delight in you.
15 January 2013
Zephaniah 3:17
Sam Storms:
Wow, Dane. This seems, to me, to be the "half of the soul of the church" that is so often missing, and one I cannot embrace. And so it is a "gospel" I cannot embrace, a "gospel" that is disinterested in the heart, that God came to "save."
ReplyDeleteBut of those of hearts and minds being transformed in heart and mind and soul by connecting with God...diadems in the hands of God...this disconnect will not be so.