Velvet Elvis

I sometimes wonder what I would/could be reading if I was not in graduate school with only two weeks left. Well, I'm in the midst of finishing two big papers and I couldn't put this book down until it was done. I've read probably less than ten books in my life that I actually had a hard time putting down because they were so incredible. Here are half of them:

1) Ragamuffin Gospel - Brennan Manning
2) Wild at Heart - John Eldridge
3) Next Door Savior - Max Lucado
4) Blue Like Jazz - Donald Miller
5) Velvet Elvis - Rob Bell

Over time when you purposefully try to live the way of Jesus, you start noticing something deeper going on. You begin realizing the reason this is the best way to live is that it is rooted in profound truths about how the world is. You find yourself living more and more in tune with ultimate reality. You are more and more in sync with how the universe is at its deepest levels.

Jesus' intention was, and is, to call people to live in tune with reality. He said at one point that if you had seen him, you had "seen the Father". He claimed to be showing us what God is like. In his compassion, peace, truth telling, and generosity, he was showing us God.

And God is the ultimate reality. There is nothing more beyond God.

From Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith.