New Book: ‘Secret of Contentment’
Thanks to all the friends who have reviewed and contributed thoughts to this new book. It is about to be published – next 3-4 weeks. Here are some comments and an introduction to the book:
“Could not put it down. Thanks for reminding me of how God sees me and how effortless His favour and grace actually is – how much He admires me just because He wants to and not because I impress Him with my weak efforts. The pages are filled with the liberating good news of His love that runs contrary to the bad news of self-effort that is so often dished up in the name of good news. In a religious world of dos and don’ts, it is good to know that it’s not about what we do that’s attractive to our heavenly Father – He is already infatuated with us.” Deon Stevens
“What a joy to read this my brother. Beholding the truth as in a mirror is the mystery of Christ and our own true identity revealed in Him. I have no doubt that the Lord has birthed within you a wonderful revelation of Himself that He will continue expand upon you. I believe this message will be a blessing to the Church, opening up her eyes to the unseen majesty of the glorified Man in heaven, who alone is the unveiling of her true humanity. There are many things I could comment upon, in particular I loved the truth revealed by the ‘bottled at source’ anology – its imagery is beautiful. Also what you said about Paul’s revelation in Galatians, not pointing to him as the source but seeking to bring us to the undiluted Christ as the source, is a very discerning point. In fact I think this is the gift that you have given to the Body Of Christ, to bring her back to the source and origin of her birth and true identity which I believe is the very foundation that Christ seeks to build her upon. I pray that the Lord continues to unfold to you and all who read this, the riches of His grace towards us in Christ.” Roddy Young
Introduction:
Young lions lie down in complete satisfaction after feasting on their prey. Despite their great strength, they have no greater ambition than satisfying their most basic natural cravings. Most animals are content with little more than food, but man has an appetite that seems insatiable. Mankind has a consciousness of value that drives us to explore every avenue, to push every limit, to tunnel through mountains, to build habitations in space, to invent a microscope like the Large Hadron Collider that is 27km long, to peer into the smallest detail of matter, in search of information … meaning … something that satisfies beyond mere survival.
Despite technological advances and the comforts of a modern age, man’s appetite and search for contentment has not been diminished. We travel more, we eat more, we have more gadgets and comforts, and the worlds information is at our fingertips. To pay for it all we work longer hours, live more complicated and demanding lives, but do these things bring us any closer to the secret of contentment?
In approximately 60 AD, a man under house arrest, bound by chains to a Roman soldier, wrote the following: “I have learned the secret of contentment, whatever my circumstances.” In another letter he wrote: “As you read you will understand my insight into the mystery of Christ.”
It is this secret, this mystery that we explore in this book.
Table of Contents:
Introduction 4
Perspective 6
Apprehended 18
You, Time & Eternity 32
The Motivation before Creation 40
The Journey Begins 48
The Crescendo 56
One Man’s Achievement 68
The Secret of Contentment 76
Living out of Fullness 84
I’ll publish a sample chapter ‘The Crescendo’ later this week. If you want to be notified of any development, tick the ‘subscribe to this post’ option at the bottom of this post. I’ll add comments to this post as things develop. Hopefully we’ll have a few copies at the weekend function, August 7-9.
In His Grip
Andre Rabe
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What an honour and privilage to discover God’s unconditional love for humanity in the face of Jesus Christ as a mirror reflection of our lives.
The other day I was meditating on 1 Cor 15 and it is awesome to discover the same context of what Paul discovered in the resurrected Christ. He starts and says that moreover he declares the gospel that he preaches, that means now and always then in verse 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you – unless you believed in vain. What he is saying if you look up the word saved it means delivered and the word fast in the Greek means in memory and retain. So what he is saying if you take hold of this word which is the finished work of the cross you will be delivered if you keep it in memory, is that not awesome.
He carries on and explains the word he preaches that Christ died for our sins that He was buried and rose again on the third day and was seen by various individuals but then in verse 8 he says he was also seen by me. Now if you look up the word seen it is the word Optanamai Optomai which means to gaze to see clearly, behold, perceive, see something remarkable with wide open eyes.
That is how Paul saw Christ as the revealed resurrected Christ sitting at the right hand of the Father having done a total an complete work for humanity.
Must say as I read the first piece you wrote on your new book it talks of the innocence and love of the Father for humanity, what an awesome Gospel and cannot wait to read your book!!!!!!
Hi Chris,
Beautiful thoughts. We become what we behold. Seeing Him clearly and constantly is the key to transforming our experience, our lives in every way. And He is as available to us today as He was to Paul or Peter or John! They wrote, not to inform us of some historic event, but to awaken our memory to something that happened to us: the truth of our beginning and our salvation; the reality of our inclusion in Him.