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Once again I get the privilege to review a book. This book was originally published as God’s Ultimate Passion but has been revamped into a very readable book. I really enjoyed the original so it was interesting to see the updated version.
The book is actually three volumes in one broken up into different themes. The first is the Bride of Christ which is a wonderful walk through creation and the relationship of Adam and Eve. Frank Viola brings out nuances that I believe many miss as they simply read though the narrative. Frank Viola points out how the original bride Eve is the prototype of another Bride, the Church.
Frank then begins the second section where the Homeless God is on a quest to make a new home for Himself. The narrative takes one from Genesis through Revelation where he shows God’s intention was to have a New Home in those who believe in Him through Jesus.
The Third Section brings us to The Family, or Body what we are becoming as believers in Jesus. God seeks to make each person who comes to Him in faith through Jesus a New Creation of His passion and expression of His Glory.
If you are in a book store and have a few minutes, I suggest reading the last bit which I think is one of the most important parts of the book, Frank Viola’s micro-biography. It is a short read yet in it one will find Frank Viola’s walk through various movements of the church and what he gained through them… and what he found was lacking in them. To me this gives the read understanding where Frank is coming from and in a sense where one will go as they read the book. It is a bit funny that I am saying to read the end of the book to get the rest of the book, yet if one does take the time I will guarantee they will be buying the book to see how Frank puts all this together.
On a personal note, I enjoyed that Frank quoted both Brian McLaren and Major Ian Thomas which was fascinating to see the two fit together as I have seen they do. This book was to me a wonderful read. In a sense I feel that where I am on my own journey is where many are going and Frank Viola is going. To me the core of both Brian McLaren and Major Ian Thomas as well as Frank Viola’s book is Grace. To gain more insight into the great and wonderful grace of God to me will aid anyone who believes in Jesus.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to dig deeper into who you are in Christ Jesus. This is one author I will be reading more from.
Once again I get the privilege to review a book. This book was originally published as God’s Ultimate Passion but has been revamped into a very readable book. I really enjoyed the original so it was interesting to see the updated version.
The book is actually three volumes in one broken up into different themes. The first is the Bride of Christ which is a wonderful walk through creation and the relationship of Adam and Eve. Frank Viola brings out nuances that I believe many miss as they simply read though the narrative. Frank Viola points out how the original bride Eve is the prototype of another Bride, the Church.
Frank then begins the second section where the Homeless God is on a quest to make a new home for Himself. The narrative takes one from Genesis through Revelation where he shows God’s intention was to have a New Home in those who believe in Him through Jesus.
The Third Section brings us to The Family, or Body what we are becoming as believers in Jesus. God seeks to make each person who comes to Him in faith through Jesus a New Creation of His passion and expression of His Glory.
If you are in a book store and have a few minutes, I suggest reading the last bit which I think is one of the most important parts of the book, Frank Viola’s micro-biography. It is a short read yet in it one will find Frank Viola’s walk through various movements of the church and what he gained through them… and what he found was lacking in them. To me this gives the read understanding where Frank is coming from and in a sense where one will go as they read the book. It is a bit funny that I am saying to read the end of the book to get the rest of the book, yet if one does take the time I will guarantee they will be buying the book to see how Frank puts all this together.
On a personal note, I enjoyed that Frank quoted both Brian McLaren and Major Ian Thomas which was fascinating to see the two fit together as I have seen they do. This book was to me a wonderful read. In a sense I feel that where I am on my own journey is where many are going and Frank Viola is going. To me the core of both Brian McLaren and Major Ian Thomas as well as Frank Viola’s book is Grace. To gain more insight into the great and wonderful grace of God to me will aid anyone who believes in Jesus.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to dig deeper into who you are in Christ Jesus. This is one author I will be reading more from.
EXCHANGED LIFEChristian living is not a method or technique; it is an entirely different, revolutionary principle of life. It is the principle of an exchanged life” not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20).
This is all part of our Gospel – it is not the Gospel plus! We must not get our terminology wrong. To divorce the behavior of the Christian from the Gospel is entirely false and is not true to the Word of God, yet all too often such is the characteristic of gospel preaching.
I would like to explore with you what is the true spiritual content of our Gospel not just heaven one day, but Christ right now! Christ in you, on the grounds of redemption this is the Gospel! To preach anything less than this must inevitably produce “Evan-jellyfish” folk with no spiritual vertebrae, whose faith docs not “behave!”
Do you remember what James says in his epistle? “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead” (chapter 2:26). The “spirit” there means breath, and a body without breath is dead. Stop breathing and folk will bury you! In other words, a living body breathes, and a living faith breathes, and a living faith breaths with divine action. A living faith breathes with the activity of Jesus Christ. That is why the Lord Jesus, in John 6:29, said, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.”
That is the work of God. It is your living faith in the adequacy of the One who is in you, which releases His divine action through you. It is the kind of activity that the Bible calls “good works,” as opposed to “dead works.”
“Good works” are those works that have their origin in Jesus Christ – – whose activity is released through your body, presented to Him as a living sacrifice by a faith that expresses total dependence, as opposed to the Adamic independence (Romans 12: 1,2).
It is only the life of the Lord Jesus — His activity, clothed with you and displayed through you, that ultimately will find the approval of God.
From: The Saving Life of Christ. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House. ©1961.
EXCHANGED LIFEChristian living is not a method or technique; it is an entirely different, revolutionary principle of life. It is the principle of an exchanged life” not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20).
This is all part of our Gospel – it is not the Gospel plus! We must not get our terminology wrong. To divorce the behavior of the Christian from the Gospel is entirely false and is not true to the Word of God, yet all too often such is the characteristic of gospel preaching.
I would like to explore with you what is the true spiritual content of our Gospel not just heaven one day, but Christ right now! Christ in you, on the grounds of redemption this is the Gospel! To preach anything less than this must inevitably produce “Evan-jellyfish” folk with no spiritual vertebrae, whose faith docs not “behave!”
Do you remember what James says in his epistle? “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead” (chapter 2:26). The “spirit” there means breath, and a body without breath is dead. Stop breathing and folk will bury you! In other words, a living body breathes, and a living faith breathes, and a living faith breaths with divine action. A living faith breathes with the activity of Jesus Christ. That is why the Lord Jesus, in John 6:29, said, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.”
That is the work of God. It is your living faith in the adequacy of the One who is in you, which releases His divine action through you. It is the kind of activity that the Bible calls “good works,” as opposed to “dead works.”
“Good works” are those works that have their origin in Jesus Christ – – whose activity is released through your body, presented to Him as a living sacrifice by a faith that expresses total dependence, as opposed to the Adamic independence (Romans 12: 1,2).
It is only the life of the Lord Jesus — His activity, clothed with you and displayed through you, that ultimately will find the approval of God.
From: The Saving Life of Christ. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House. ©1961.
I just found out that Maj Ian Thomas passed on to be with the Lord last August 1st… somehow I missed this.
I just found out that Maj Ian Thomas passed on to be with the Lord last August 1st… somehow I missed this.
emerging thought in Montana 
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