* Recognize That God Is With You.

The Kingdom Is Not An Exclusive, Well-trimmed Suburb With Snobbish Rules About Who Can Live There. No, It Is For A Larger, Homelier, Less Self-conscious Caste Of People Who Understand They Are Sinners Because They Have Experienced The Yaw And Pitch Of Moral Struggle.

The Engaged Mind, Illuminated By Truth, Awakens Awareness; The Engaged Heart, Affected By Love, Awakens Passion. May I Say Once More - This Essential Energy Of The Soul Is Not An Ecstatic Trance, High Emotion Or A Sanguine Stance Toward Life: It Is A Fierce Longing For God, An Unyielding Resolve To Live In And Out Of Our Belovedness. - Pg. 152

The Deeper We Grow In The Spirit Of Jesus Christ, The Poorer We Become - The More We Realize That Everything In Life Is A Gift. The Tenor Of Our Lives Becomes One Of Humble And Joyful Thanksgiving. Awareness Of Our Poverty And Ineptitude Causes Us To Rejoice In The Gift Of Being Called Out Of Darkness Into Wondrous Light And Translated Into The Kingdom Of God's Beloved Son.

The Sorrow Of God Lies In Our Fear Of Him, Our Fear Of Life, And Our Fear Of Ourselves. He Anguishes Over Our Self-absorption And Self-sufficiency... God's Sorrow Lies In Our Refusal To Approach Him When We Sinned And Failed.

To Ignore, Repress, Or Dismiss Our Feelings Is To Fail To Listen To The Stirrings Of The Spirit Within Our Emotional Life. Jesus Listened. In John's Gospel We Are Told That Jesus Was Moved With The Deepest Emotions (11:33)... The Gospel Portrait Of The Beloved Child Of Abba Is That Of A Man Exquisitely Attuned To His Emotions And Uninhibited In Expressing Them. The Son Of Man Did Not Scorn Of Reject Feelings As Fickle And Unreliable. They Were Sensitive Antennae To Which He Listened Carefully And Through Which He Perceived The Will Of His Father For Congruent Speech And Action.