Book Review: Glorious Mess

Glorious Mess by Mike Howerton is a great reminder that we aren’t supposed to have it all figured out.  We don’t have to live up to the crazy expectations of this world.  God has created us and has a purpose and a plan for our lives.  Perhaps we would all be a lot better off if we just took some time to wallow around in the glorious mess so that we can gain some perspective on what God has in mind for us.  If you really want your life to count for something that is going to outlast you and matter for all of eternity, this book is a great addition to your though process.

I highlighted several things while reading and have posted them below…

  • Do you view your imperfections as a canvas for God’s glory?
  • God loves both the reluctant prophet and the repentant people.
  • God has a plan for us, even in the midst of our mess, to showcase his glory.
  • We are imperfect. His love is unending.
  • I wonder if the heave and mess of life itself is the medium God uses to speak to us. I wonder if he uses the mess we’re in and the mess we cause to bring his kingdom come.
  • God calls his people to participate in his plans.
  • His Call Will Not Go against His Word or His Character.
  • Frederick Buechner wrote, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
  • “My heart has heard you say, ‘Come and talk with me.’ And my heart responds, ‘Lord, I am coming’” (Ps. 27:8).
  • You must try to flee the bonds of normalcy in order to quiet your mind.
  • Take an inventory. Take a look at all of the weapons God has stored in your arsenal. Then you’ll better understand how he calls you to use them.
  • “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think” (Eph. 3:20).
  • The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” And the Lord said to Samuel: “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle.” (1 Sam. 3:10–11 NIV)
  • He desires great increase in your impact.
  • When your plans trump God’s plans, you’re running.
  • If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. (James 4:17 NIV)
  • Brilliant pastor and theologian A. W. Tozer writes, “Millions of professed believers talk as if God were real and act as if He were not. Our actual position is always to be discovered by the way we act, not by the way we talk.”
  • When it is vertically healthy, it affects all of your horizontal movements.
  • God doesn’t call you because he wants to steal your life. He pursues you for his purposes because he wants to bring you life!
  • Great people don’t know how to quit.
  • Godliness is perfecting the art of the early surrender.
  • Jonah kept running and running because the pain of doing what God told him to do seemed worse than the pain of running. But then one day he ended up in the belly of the beast.
  • Holiness is hard work. It’s a choice to make the same decision that Jesus made when he was tempted. It’s a choice to lean into God’s Word. It’s a choice to draw near to God the Father. And it’s a choice to allow him to transform your thinking.
  • Whatever the adventure with God brings will be infinitely better than the plans Jonah had without him.
  • In a catastrophe, people are aware of their need for rescue.
  • I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life. (Deut. 30:19–20 NIV)
  • We can be both winsome to others and faithful to God. But our chief concern should be our standing with God.
  • “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Phil. 2:4 ESV).
  • When church works, it looks something like this: revealing a grace so vast none can fully exclude themselves from it; a discipleship so rigorous none can fully include themselves in it; a love so close, so overwhelming, so mysterious none can begin to explain it, save that Jesus is present here, enticing a spiritually starving, junk food generation to his banqueting table.

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