As I have said before in the past few posts, I have been reading Darin Hufford's book The God's Honest Truth.
Initially I was a bit put off by just the title. I have heard those words so many times from preachers who would say, "OK, here's the God's honest truth about....." and for almost all of those times we did not hear truth about God but only a spin on what the preacher wanted to get across on his own agenda.
But in reading and pondering this book, I can honestly say that I don't think there has been a book that I have read that contained as much of truth about God as this one. In so many ways it gave me a new lens in which to clearly focus on the character and love of Father. And I as I said in my last post, I am truly being changed.
Darin goes through the passage of 1 Corinthians 13 on love and expounds on each of the attributes of love. Now, I thought I knew about all there was to know about patience or kindness or envy, but I was sorely wrong. The reason I was wrong is because I took what I knew about my own patience, kindness and such and applied it to God. For instance, I am sometimes patient but only because I make myself be patient when I really want to be angry. But God is not like me. He is patient because He is Love and love understands and is not angry. Love has already died to Himself, therefore He does not have to try to be patient, He just is. This makes a HUGE difference in how I see how God views me. All of the other concepts were just as eye opening and earth shattering in how I previously viewed God in a warped and twisted way.
Here is a brief overview of the points that he covers in each chapter of his book. I hope it spurs you into reading it. Let me know what you think.
From page 347-348 (indentions are mine)
God is patient because He understands everything in your heart. He knows why you do what you do and He is never surprised or taken off guard.
God is kind and He desires to touch you in your heart. The heart is always His aim and He never misses.
God does not envy. He never desires to take for Himself what others have but He longs to give away all that He has and He is never tempted to take things back because He didn't get the attention.
God does not boast or brag about the highest truth about Him, but He willingly lowers Himself beneath you in order to lift you up.
God is not proud of the opinion that He doesn't need anyone. He desires relationship with you and He continuously makes Himself vulnerable for the purpose of making that possible.
God is not rude. He never leaves things unfinished or unspoken. He does not give the silent treatment or play hide and seek, but He makes everything about Himself known and keeps nothing hidden.
God is not self seeking. He is gratified and fulfilled when you are glorified. His eyes are always seeking the best for you and He is never worried about what He gets in return.
God is not easily angered or provoked to any mood other than love. He is not high maintenance and He never wants you to walk in fear of offending or hurting Him.
God keeps no record of wrongs because He refuses to call you by the name of your past. He doesn't hold things over you or against you. He continuously and eternally wipes your record clean so that He can clearly focus on your heart.
God does not delight in evil and He is not tempted by luring lies and fantasies. He does not desire romance because His heart desires the real you. He cannot be enticed with ideas that would benefit His kingdom at the expense of you.
God rejoices in the truth about you because it is so wonderful and meaningful to Him.
God always protects you from caving in in the midst of unbearable pressure and anguish. He provides a strength that holds you up through the storms of life and carries you to your very purpose, which is to be His child.
God always trusts you with His Heart doors open to you at all times; no exceptions.
God always hopes in you because he knows that He knows the end of your story.
God always perseveres and proves Himself to be what He claims to be. He stands through the storm and walks through the fire only to demonstrate the authenticity of His love for you.
God never fails, because he is driven by His very essence; Love. It is the part of Him that sees everything inside of you and knows every inner emotion, thought and feeling. His love for you soaks through every outward thing that stands in its way and saturates your spirit, soul and body forever.
6 comments:
Barb, Darin travels alot. You might want to visit his website and see if he is coming to a church near you. He is still too churchy for me, but you seem more mature about that than I am at the moment :)
I still haven't read past the first chapter when he said that he felt nothing could be further from God's heart than people leaving church (or something like that).... but that was my hang up :) and so I am still making due with Wayne's book He Loves me and the Transitions series.
Tyler Dawn,
I never saw that about leaving church. I know he eventually left the church he was at when he wrote the book. But please make it past that part. The rest is so worth it.
yeah, I'll probably check it out sometime after August 26, when the boys start school. :)
Great points, Barb. I agree with all except this:
"He does not give the silent treatment or play hide and seek, but He makes everything about Himself known and keeps nothing hidden."
God does indeed play hide-and-seek with us, but not to be cruel. He usually does it to increase our faith in him.
He does not make everything about himself known. He keeps plenty hidden. True, he's told us everything we *need* to know in order to trust him through salvation, but there is much more still hidden about God than he's revealed. There is an eternity of worship waiting for him, as millions of redeemed discover more and more about God.
Tyler Dawn, I just listened to Darin the other day and he actually left the IC a few years back. A lot of his stuff was recorded while still in the IC and his book certainly was written there. There is a different flavor to him now.
Don, I hesitated writing that very sentence but I was quoting his book. I think how he explains it was that Jesus came to be known and that is the heart of the Father. I know in my life though I have felt like God was indeed playing hide and seek - now I'm not so sure I just was not understanding His heart and just felt that way.
Yeah, I have read some of his blogs. Last one I read he was blaming the state of the church on the people in the pews who, like the Isrealites before them, demanded a king over them. I haven't been able to go back since. He still very much has a pastor mentality, and unless he really figures out that there is no us and them, that we all did it and that the "kings" are just as much to blame as the people in the pews, I won't go back. I just.. I don't know, this whole "free believers network" thing just makes me feel nauseated.
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