booknotes - god is closer than you think

John Ortberg.

- Finding God is often like the Waldo books. You gotta keep looking. Sometimes it's hard. I know he's there, but sometimes it seems like he isn't.

- You're going to shower/work/drive/watchTV anyway, why not do it with Jesus?

- Don't add a bunch of things to your life, thinking that's what you need to get closer to God. Instead, involve God in the things you're already doing.

- Morning Prayer: 1)Acknowledge God for who He is, 2)Express concerns/fears about the day, 3)Invite God into the day.

- God's Grace = Ocean Waves. He keeps making them. He's a wave machine.

- CIHU (Can I Help You) Prayer. Ask God to give you opportunities to be inolved in others' lives.

- Dust of the Rabbi. If I live "at the feet" of my rabbi/mentor/leader, it's defined as working under him. I am so close to my rabbi in that situation that when he walks the dust from his feet end up on me.

- Mary & Martha. This is not a personality story. Martha isn't chastised because she works too hard. And Mary isn't praised for being a lazy ass. Martha was DISTRACTED with other things while Jesus desired meeting with her.

- God's Silence does not equal Absence. Purposeful silence can say "I'm not going to make this decision for you."

- Resistors & Conductors. Resistors are not open to be used. They stop the flow. Conductors are open to let energy flow through them. Be a conductor. "The Gulf stream will pass through a straw if the straw aligns itself with the gulf stream."

- God loves pizzazz: He delights in the beauty of his least strategic creatures (e.g. Hippos)

- The Hedge. I'm currently in temporary housing (my body) with a backyard (my world) and a hedge. Jesus traveled across the hedge to bring some of "up there" "down here."

"...thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."