Fully Alive

Notes 

p14
men and women who were born as male or female, part of a divine plan that brings with it the joyful sense of purpose that God wants you to know in all your relationships, even the difficult ones.

p43
neqebah means punctured; bored through
neqebah refers to something that has been opened and can now be entered.
Neqebah suggests relational femininity is a two-way street. It includes an openess to receive and a willingness to give.


p62-63
Observation 4: Peter offers Sarah to women as an example of the beauty of submission.
The man of faith made his move, I suspect three months later. The woman of imperishable beauty opened herself to receive her husband's God -honoring movement. Sarah submitted to God's purpose, as a woman fully alive in her femininity. And Peter says, "Wives, be like Sarah."

p92
Do we really believe we're being spiritually formed if we experience the presence of Jesus without being empowered to relate like Jesus?

Come to me Matt 11:28
Jesus issued an open invitation to people who He knew would not respond. How did it make Him feel?

p110
But I want more than warm acceptance when I show myself. I want to hear truth that has the power to transform me, to set me free from fear.

p118
In the mystical quietness of spiritual retreats complete with lectio divina and contemplative prayer, and in the excitement of world-changing activism through political campaigns and working for social justice, something is often missing, something important. A passionate focus on personal spirituality, feeling God's presence, and social spirituality, changing the world through evangelism and social action, too often leaves little room for serious interest in relational spirituality.

Hours before Calvary, Jesus prayed that His followers would relate well, revealing to the wolrd what divine community looks like (John 17:20-26). Days after Calvary, He told us to "make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt 28:19). Our power to make the difference in our world that God is interested in depends onn how His world-changing disciples get along with each other. The order matters: relate well in order to serve well.

p165
C.S. Lewis, who worried that the more he knew God the less he might like Him. I hear Hosea and Paul and James telling us that deep joy emerges only in deep sorrow, that real femininity and masculinity develop in the tragic existence of felt futility and owned failures, of significant relational pain.

p182
The main thing we learn from a serious attempt to practice the Christian virtues is that we fail. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.

p186
Jesus made it clear: the way to life is knowing God (John 17:3)

p202
Never ask for God's wisdom lightly. Seeing things as they are in God's way of thinking can be difficult to handle.

p211
I am beginning to enjoy the fruit of confession in a new way. More frequently and with greater intensity I now experience the reality of emptiness and brokenness, at a depth I have not before known, and I seem to be embracing this reality more willingly, even gratefully, without a fight, and with results I have long been waiting for.

Fully Alive by Dr. Larry Crabb ISBN 978-0-8010-1592-2