What I’m Reading: All Things New

On April 3, 2019June 8, 2022 By CaitlynIn End Times, What I'm Reading2 Comments

(Full disclosure: I love to recommend resources to help you in your journey, and when I do I use Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase something through my links, I may receive a small commission. But if there’s a resource you want, I encourage you to get it wherever works best for you!)

This past Christmas, my family blessed me with a big stack of books I had put on my wishlist. (Yes, we do wishlists in my fam, and it’s great!) One I was especially excited about was All Things New by John Eldredge. If you’ve been reading Fragrance Arise for a while you know that I quote him every chance I get (like in Why The Beauty of Jesus is My Life Message) and recently reread and blogged about his book Epic. Few authors have impacted me more. Normally I wouldn’t blog about the same author two What I’m Reading posts in a row, but this one is fresh on my heart and I’m so excited to talk about it.

John Eldredge is probably– no, is definitely– my favorite contemporary nonfiction author. His perspective on the Story of God and the sacred romance of our relationship with Him has captivated my heart’s imagination and given beautifully potent imagery to the way I think about God. (Fun fact– John Eldredge’s book The Sacred Romance was a key inspiration for Ted Dekker’s portrayal of the “Great Romance” in the Circle series of novels. So I even owe my Dekker obsession to John Eldredge!)

All Things New is John’s newest book, and it draws its name from a verse toward the very end of the Bible:

“And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.'”
(Revelation 21:5)

It’s a portrait of the “happily ever after” at the end of the story of this age, after Jesus returns, when God restores everything that has been stolen and broken, and fully gives us every good and perfect gift to enjoy forever.

I have to admit– I was nervous to start this book. As excited as I was, I actually procrastinated several months after receiving it. The idea of the “restoration of all things” (as Acts 3:21 says it) in the Millennial Kingdom and beyond is not new to me, and ever since I started studying the end times about seven years ago, the hope of that final glorious restoration has been an anchor to my soul and a theological truth very near and dear to my heart.

However, I know that there are many different end time beliefs in the body of Christ, and I LOVE John Eldredge so much that I just really didn’t want to be disappointed. It took the encouragement of a friend whose judgment I have grown to trust for me to take the plunge… and holy crap, I’m so glad I did. (He actually barely touches specific beliefs about the return of Jesus. The tribulation isn’t mentioned once. I think people from across the eschatological spectrum would be blessed by this book and wouldn’t find much to argue with.)

What I love most about this book is that as much as it is richly biblical, it’s far more deeply emotional. None of the theology was new to me, but John’s way of drawing out the emotional implications moved me to tears more than once.

The book begins with John sharing very candidly about some heartbreaking losses he and his family experienced– a grandchild, a best friend. Amid the agony of that season, the need for a vibrant hope in a future restoration became desperately clear. We need more than the vague idea that “they’re in a better place” and someday we’ll be together again in some vague cloud of ethereal bliss. We need a “wild hope” (a phrase which both C. S. Lewis and John Eldredge are fond of) in a very REAL, tangible, concrete Restoration.

“The secret to your unhappiness and the answer to the agony of the earth are one and the same–we are longing for the kingdom of God. We are longing for the restoration of all things. That is the only hope strong enough, brilliant enough, glorious enough to overcome the heartache of this world.”
(John Eldredge, All Things New, p 17)

Isn’t this what we have been dreaming of? Most of us don’t have words for it, but whenever we experience those rare moments of pure joy, something in us longs for it to last forever. Even more, when we experience the terrible, ripping pain of loss, we cry out for “everything sad… to come untrue”, as Tolkein’s Samwise Gamgee put it. Deep in our gut, we know what we were made for. We feel the brokenness of the world and know that we were made for more. And we’re going to get it.

We must dare to imagine a very real, future, restored Kingdom on Earth.

What can we look forward to in the Restoration?

Our bodies will be resurrected and infused with glory. All pain and physical limitations will be gone. This hope especially has become central in the mythology of this generation– the heroes of Marvel and DC. The vampires of Twilight. We know deep to our core that our very bodies were made for more.

Earth will be made new, which is not to say that it will be destroyed and Earth 2.0 will take its place, but it will actually be made new— renewed, restored, made young and bright and innocent again. Earth, our Earth, not an ethereal swirly realm of heavenly fluff.

WE WILL LIVE IN RESURRECTED BODIES ON A RESTORED EARTH FOREVER.

This is a huge point which John develops carefully and biblically in chapter 2:

“This passage [Revelation 21] isn’t just about heaven, the Sweet By-and-By. John is shown the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven… the city of God comes to the earth. The dwelling of God, which has heretofore been heaven, comes to humans, who dwell on the earth. Notice also that God promises to make current things new–as opposed to making all ne wthings. If God were wiping away reality as we know it and ushering in a new reality, the phrase would have been ‘I am making all new things!’… Annihilation is not nearly as impressive as redemption.”
(John Eldredge, All Things New, p 25, 31)

The animal kingdom will be restored to rightful balance. The lion will lie down with the lamb and so much more! We will all be Steve Irwin, with even more perfect and fearless harmony between species.

We will be reunited with loved ones. My last memories of my grandma are of tiredness, illness, and forgetfulness. I can’t wait to see her in the renewed world– younger than I ever knew her, with perfect stamina and memory, no more mental blocks from childhood trauma, her beautiful operatic voice never breaking or tiring. She will want to show me her favorite places in Oregon, where she grew up, I’m sure– her favorite rivers where the deer will gather and eat out of our hands, her favorite bike trails and mountaintop views.

We will meet the heroes of renown (and also the unsung heroes) from generations of the family of God. My friend Hannah and I have made a plan to sit down with C. S. Lewis for coffee in the New Jerusalem just as soon as we get a chance. We will have all eternity for good old Jack, the father of Narnia, to become our best friend.

All relationships in Christ will be restored. The old friend who let hardness overtake them and won’t speak to me anymore… if reconciliation is not to be in this age, we WILL have it to the full in the next age. We will love each other perfectly forever. I actually think of this often… it frees my heart to smile and forgive, knowing that they will embrace me again one day, like it or not!

Jesus will fully vindicate us of every injustice. He will give us real, specific rewards that publicly make known how He felt about us in the hardest times, when we chose humility through pressure and pain. He will loudly tell our story the way He saw it, without distortion. No matter what people say about me now, a day of vindication is coming.

Hope: The Anchor of our Souls

If hope in the Restoration becomes a very real expectation in our hearts, it will change everything. Every loss seems more temporary and bearable. Every moment of joy isn’t fleeting, but just a down payment of future bliss. Every lost opportunity is nothing compared to the infinite opportunities in an eternal, renewed Kingdom.

One of the simplest stories from All Things New perhaps impacted me the most. John’s daughter-in-law Emilie had been looking forward to a backpacking trip with some old and dear friends. When the trip was canceled, she smiled and said confidently, “Never mind. I’ll see them at the Restoration.”

What a perspective of confident expectation! How silly are our “bucket lists” when we have all eternity to adventure, explore, and experience.

Maybe someday I will write another post developing some of these ideas directly from Scripture, but today I’m just sharing my imaginings and musings. For now, read All Things New (get it on Amazon), and if you like, check out my post on resurrected bodies called Easter: The Promise of Future Resurrection.

May we always set our hope on that Day.

“…that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.”
(Acts 3:20-21)

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What I’m Reading: Epic

On March 6, 2019February 19, 2022 By CaitlynIn What I'm Reading

“What if all the great stories that have ever moved you, brought you joy or tears–what if they are telling you something about the true Story into which you were born, the Epic into which you have been cast?”
Epic by John Eldredge, page 15

Continuing my What I’m Reading series, today I want to talk about one of my all-time favorites. There are few books on my shelf I’ve reread as many times as Epic by John Eldredge. I first read it in high school, and it has become one of the books I most love to recommend and give away. (Luckily, it’s super cheap on Amazon! You can stock up and pass them out like candy!) This small book feels like a tiny treasure, the secret story of the universe wrapped in poetry and movie references. It has captured my imagination and given me a framework for life, theology, and Story in so many ways.

The premise of Epic is two-fold: 1) all of history is a Story told by God, a sweeping epic of eternal proportions, and 2) this Story is reflected and illuminated by the stories we love.

From the time before time, the eternal fellowship of the Trinity before creation, to the roller coaster of humanity’s fall and redemption, to the future restoration of all things, our great “happily ever after”–the gospel is a story, a sweeping epic of love, loss, war, sacrifice, betrayal, romance, homecoming, and adventure. The trouble is that most of us don’t realize “what sort of tale we’ve fallen into”, to borrow a phrase from Samwise Gamgee, as John Eldredge does. Epic says that for most of us, life feels like a movie we’ve arrived to 45 minutes late. We feel a bit lost and confused. We missed the opening exposition and never saw the trailer. What is happening and what kind of story should I expect?

We need to know the Story.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God has planted eternity in the human heart. He’s given us an instinctive sense of the story of the ages, longings that point to the truth, and it comes out in the books we write and the movies we film. The Story of the ages is retelling itself in our stories.

Epic draws on familiar imagery from some of the most beloved stories of our culture, from The Lord of the Rings to Titanic, to paint a vivid and living picture in the reader’s mind. I love this approach because it brings the emotions of the gospel to life, which may be dull in us due to overfamiliarity or total unfamiliarity. We may not always weep over the gospel or feel the surging longing for Kingdom adventure, but we sure do for our favorite movies!

After the prologue sets up this premise of Story, the rest of the chapters go through Act One, Act Two, etc of the gospel, beginning with the fellowship of the Trinity in the time before time…

the devastating betrayal of the fall of Lucifer…

the breathtaking dawn of creation…

the war for the human soul and the victory of redemption…

and the future, final restoration of all things, our great and glorious “happily ever after” for all eternity.

This is the sort of tale we’ve fallen into, an Epic more brilliant and breathtaking than the greatest our imaginations have ever produced.

I can’t recommend Epic enough. It’s always super cheap on Amazon and about 100 pages… really, you have no excuse NOT to read this book!

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What I’m Reading: Gay Girl, Good God

On February 6, 2019February 19, 2022 By CaitlynIn What I'm Reading

I’ve been following Jackie Hill Perry on social media (Twitter, Instagram) for about a year and have fallen in love with her boldness, zeal for holiness, awe at the gospel, and all-consuming love for Jesus. She’s a rapper and spoken word artist (her album Crescendo came out last year and is straight FIRE) as well as an author and speaker.

Part of her testimony is that she used to identify as a lesbian and pursue same-sex relationships. I’ve heard pieces of her story before in various videos, and she has earned my respect enough that I was eager to pick up her first book, Gay Girl, Good God. (I actually put it on my Christmas list and then broke down and bought it on Kindle early!)

In addition to my respect for Jackie, I knew I needed to read this because I have LGBTQ-identifying friends, both those who call themselves Christian and those who do not, and I also have SSA (Same-Sex Attracted) Christian friends who love Jesus and are saying no to that aspect of their sexuality. Plus, I know that there will be a time when the issue becomes even more personal. When will a family member come out as gay? When will I find myself discipling a new believer wrestling with SSA or gender identity? I can’t avoid this. I need to be listening to the stories of those who have lived those experiences and come out making Jesus supreme over their temptations, with a fierce love for Him and a robust theology of gender, sexuality, and most importantly, the simple gospel. This book is all of that and more.

The first thing I was struck by is how dang poetic this book was. Clearly, Jackie’s wordsmithery and penchant for descriptors that captivate the imagination aren’t confined to performance poetry. 50 pages in, I texted a friend that it was probably the most the most poetic non-fiction book I had ever read. (The style reminded me a bit of Tosca Lee’s Havah, easily the most poetic fiction I have ever read.) I also loved the frequent quotations of C. S. Lewis. Never a bad choice.

“Who I was made more sense when I was with him. He was a different mirror. With him, I could see where I’d gotten things my mama didn’t own. I enjoyed every minute with this inconsistent relative I called ‘Daddy,’ until he started using words that I didn’t believe belonged to him, like, ‘I love you.’ That sentence was too big to fit in his mouth.”

Gay Girl, Good God by Jackie Hill Perry, chapter 4

Jackie is transparently honest about her history of hurt from men, her early discovery of her same-sex attraction, her love for her girlfriend, her surrender to God’s relentless pursuit, and the struggles and temptations she has faced on the journey of the renewal of her mind–aka, the same sanctification process we must all go through.

I especially loved the final chapter, “The Heterosexual Gospel”. It reminded me a lot of the thoughts in an article I wrote about a while ago. (What I’m Reading: “I Never Became Straight. Perhaps That Was Never God’s Goal.”)

“The ‘heterosexual gospel’ is one that encourages SSA men and women to come to Jesus so that they can be straight or that coming to Jesus ensures that they will be sexually attracted to the opposite sex…

“What could be implied from those who preach the ‘heterosexual gospel’ is that our sexuality is all that God cares about. I am convinced that this thinking has kept many SSA men and women from experiencing the beauty of true repentance…

“For the unbeliever that is SSA, God is not mainly calling them to be straight; He’s calling them to Himself. To know Christ, love Christ, serve Christ, honor Christ, and exalt Christ, forever.”

Gay Girl, Good God by Jackie Hill Perry, chapter 17

To me, this is not mostly a book about sexuality. It’s a story of transformation, not from gay to straight, but from enemy of God to lover of God. It’s a story of the goodness of God and the radical, jealous love of Jesus that envelops, consumes, and reworks everything for His glory. Jackie celebrates Jesus in every syllable and loves Him in every line.

“In my becoming Holy as He is, I would not be miraculously made into a woman that didn’t like women; I’d be made into a woman that loved God more than anything.”

Gay Girl, Good God by Jackie Hill Perry, chapter 8

As I read Gay Girl, Good God in the prayer room, I was swept up into the glory of what God has done in her life. In the afterward, Jackie said it was an act of worship to write this book, and it felt like an act of worship to read it.

You can pick up Gay Girl, Good God on Amazon.

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What I’m Reading: Filming God

On January 26, 2018April 6, 2023 By CaitlynIn What I'm Reading

Ever since Finger of God came out in 2007, I have loved Darren Wilson and Wanderlust Productions’ series of documentaries exploring the supernatural invading the natural. There are so many stories of crazy healings, words of knowledge, casting out demons… and the stuff that’s harder to explain, like gold dust randomly showing up. Every time I watch them, I’m filled with excitement and faith for what God can do, and how He uses ordinary people stepping out in faith to do it.

Discovering the book Filming God by Darren Wilson was a special delight for me. In it, Darren reflects on filming the first two films, Finger of God and Furious Love, including how he was called into this journey as a skeptic–an average Christian who loved Jesus but thought most of the supernatural experiences some Christians talk about was nonsense. After a dramatic encounter with an angel (yes, an actual angel), Darren tentatively began seeking out the supernatural and trying to capture God at work on film.

The timing of reading this book was perfect for me. As I step into leading the School of Supernatural Ministry at The Prayer Room, I’ve had to confront again all my old feelings of inadequacy and lack of faith regarding things like healing. As I read Darren’s story, this guy having these awesome experiences whom I’ve looked up to since I was 16, he was so transparent with his own struggles and I found I could relate to every word.

I find myself falling into the trap of sometimes wanting to protect God from Himself. I realize that I’m dealing with an invisible entity here, and no matter how much I have seen or experienced, it still stretches me to step out and pray for someone to be healed because deep down, I’m wondering if I’m just praying to my own imagination. I’ve prayed for people so often where nothing happened that when I’m faced with a situation of real need and desperation, I get nervous that once again I’m going to pray and nothing will happen, and this need and desperation in front of me is going to turn into bitterness and defeat. I don’t want to subject this person to that, so I will withdraw my own bold faith and fall back on the safer, “comfort this person” prayer.
I think this reasoning is birthed from my own stupid assertion that I really have anything to do with anything supernatural that is or is not happening. What I have begun to learn in my travels, though, is that in the end, it’s not really about me at all. Let me give you two stories to illustrate my point…

The above quote is from chapter 5, which was possibly the most relatable and encouraging chapter of the whole book for me. The entire chapter is offered as an excerpt on wpfilm.com, and I highly suggest you READ IT RIGHT NOW AT THIS LINK RIGHT HERE. Seriously.

The other part of this book I super appreciated was that Darren is NOT gullible or naive, recounting every bit of supernatural hearsay that comes his way. He is only including stories from sources he personally and thoroughly trusts. Many times, he witnessed the stories personally. Chapter 3 explores his decision to include the things like gold dust in the film, concluding that even though some is more than likely hype and overexcitement, at least some of it had to have been from God. The Author’s Note vouches for the humility and credibility of the people sharing these stories:

These are stories I have either witnessed firsthand or have heard from people I have grown to know and love and who are, in my opinion, credible witnesses. They have nothing to gain from telling me these stories; indeed, some have asked me to not include them in my films… Do people lie about the spiritual things that happen to them? Of course they do. Could some of these people be lying to me? I would be naive if I said no. But no one ever told me a story because they thought I might put it in a book. Many times the camera wasn’t even rolling. There is little motivation to lie… In the end, it is up to you to decide whether or not you believe them or me.

Reading this stirred me up to believe again that God is bigger than the box I’ve put Him in, He really does want to move through me, and it’s mostly not about me at all! It also stirred my hunger to ask God to do crazy things like this, to demonstrate His presence and His love by signs and wonders.

I encourage you to check out the book (Amazon has it on Kindle, or you can get it from Wanderlust directly) and the films. First, though, check out this scene from Finger of God!

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What I’m Reading: Jesus: The Seven Wonders of HIStory

On November 8, 2017April 6, 2023 By CaitlynIn What I'm Reading1 Comment

It’s been a few weeks, but I’m super excited to share another installment of What I’m Reading with you. The past couple weeks, I’ve been reading a book called Jesus: The Seven Wonders of HIStory by David Pawson. I kind of found it by accident – I was doing some research on Mary of Bethany, and I came across an old note I had written to myself that said “look up what David Pawson says about Jesus being crucified on Wednesday.” Most likely, one of my IHOPU teachers had referenced this theory and attributed it to Pawson (who I had already heard of and read books by for other classes), and some 3-5 years later I was finally making good on my intention to research it more.

In my googling, I quickly found this book and read several passages from it in the Amazon preview, but I liked it so much I quickly decided to drop the $7.99 to get it in Kindle and start reading it immediately. Not only did it provide several very helpful historical tidbits for my writing, but it was so refreshing to my heart to just read again about the meaning of the gospel.

David Pawson’s style reminds me of a combination of C. S. Lewis and John Piper (even if there are a few aspects of theology on which he would probably differ with both of those esteemed gentlemen). This particular book came about in a very interesting way – it was actually first taught as a ten-part series in a special seminar at IHOPKC (the totality of which was 15 sessions) in May 2011! The videos are still available online at IHOPKC.org, DavidPawson.org, and YouTube. I haven’t watched them yet, but I’d very much like to. (Maybe I’ll save the mp3s for my next road trip.) It was a special treat to realise that this book was developed from the transcript of a series taught to my own school and community in a room I’ve worshipped in hundreds of times. I even found my friend Erica’s name in the introduction being honoured as the lead transcriptionist!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BacRAf7HY_T/?taken-by=fragrancearise

All that aside, I was enormously blessed by reading this book. Pawson addresses seven theological realities of Jesus’ story (birth, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, return, judgment), explores them biblically, and captivates his audience with their implications. This book is richly theological but also enticingly conversational.

I’ll share one quote I read today in the chapter on Ascension that wasn’t fully a new thought, but I hadn’t ever heard it phrased quite like this before:

Never forget there is now – there was – a human being in charge of the universe. He had come down, adopted our human nature permanently, and went back to heaven as a man…there is now a man in the godhead. Jesus has taken our human nature into the godhead. God is different—he was not like this before but now in the godhead itself there is one person who is a human being like us and he will remain that human being forever. When he comes back you will see a human being; that is the Son of God, the eternal Son of God.

I love that Jesus is so, so real… I love that everything the Bible says about Him is true and has real, game-changing implications for my life and my relationship with Him. I’m so grateful for men like David Pawson who have spent decades learning and loving the Word of God and the person of Jesus and are gifted in catching others up with them in wide-eyed awe at who He is.

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What I’m Reading: Nazirite DNA

On October 11, 2017February 20, 2022 By CaitlynIn What I'm Reading1 Comment

About seven or eight years ago when I was a student at APU, I came across a little booklet someone had left to share in the student prayer chapel. It was Nazirite DNA by Lou Engle, and I read it over and over and copied my favourite quotes into my journal. That little 37-page book stirred a fire in me to be wholly abandoned to God.
A few months ago, I purchased a copy to add to The Prayer Room‘s library, because this message of consecration is sooooo crucial to the prayer movement and the forerunner ministry. I’ve been reading and loving it all over again.

In Numbers 6:1-21, immediately preceding the Aaronic blessing, the invitation was given for anyone in the community to consecrate themselves to the Lord as a Nazirite.

In the Old Testament, only men from the tribe of Levi could be priests. The whole nation was called to be a kingdom of priests, but only the Levites were given the special privilege of living out lives completely absorbed in the vocation of jealously guarding the purity and administration of the worship of God. However, in the Nazirite vow, God opened the door to anyone, male or female, from any tribe, who longed to be as radical in devotion and near to God as the priests were. The only qualification was to have a heart that intensely desired it…Nazirites spontaneously, joyfully, and willingly apropriated the priestly separation and and condition of life because of an inward working of the Spirit’s grace.
–Nazirite DNA, page 10

Nazirites took three key vows:

Abstain from wine and all grape-derived foods
Abstain from cutting their hair
Abstain from going near a dead body, even that of a family member

Lou Engle interprets these three vows in a modern context as being about 1) choosing to fast from certain permissible pleasures in pursuit of God as the greatest pleasure, 2) be willing to be radically and noticeably set apart from the culture, and 3) avoiding the defilement of anything that would lead to spiritual death.
God always responds to those who earnestly seek Him. Abandoned devotion to Him that chooses JESUS over everything else pulls on the strings of His heart and draws His presence close in a unique way. He moves dramatically in response to the cries of His people, and He’s shown us that a fasted lifestyle is a way to strengthen those cries.

In my own life, I know I so easily get sucked into the vortex of “lesser pleasures”–I love my Netflix and Nutella a little too much most days, and those things tend to dampen my hunger for God by making me believe I have all I need in the pleasures of this world. When I set myself apart from these things and focus all of my energy on seeking God, my hunger for Jesus comes roaring back to the surface.

It’s like I want to eat healthy but fill up on ice cream and potato chips every day. By the end of the day, I don’t really have an appetite for grilled chicken and veggies, even though I know they’re so much more satisfying. I have to actually make radical changes in my diet to enjoy my healthy food to the fullest and reap the benefit of it.

God changes history through people with a Nazirite-like consecration. He is looking for those who would be willing to be wholly set apart for Him–people to whom He can entrust the burdens of His heart and who will be in it for the long haul with Him until His dreams are fulfilled.

God, raise up a generation hungry for You above all else, who will forsake lesser pleasures in order to throw themselves into pursuit of You and partnership with Your dreams.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book for anyone desiring more of God, or desiring to desire more of God. If you’re local to The Prayer Room, you can stop by and borrow our copy to read in the prayer room, or you can get it on Amazon.

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LIVE Worship Video from The Prayer Room – "Beautiful"

On October 1, 2017January 6, 2019 By CaitlynIn Ministry Life

The past few months, there’s been a trend of worship leaders at The Prayer Room making a Facebook Live video as they play. I was super nervous at first, but I finally did a few myself. (If you’re my Facebook friend, feel free to look them up!) One day we hope to be able to stream all our prayer room hours on our website, but in the meantime, Facebook Live is a really fun way to share a glimpse into the atmosphere of prayer and worship we’re cultivating.

I’d like to share a video with you, but I need to tell you a little bit about it first.
This video has a special place in my heart because the song I’m playing, “Beautiful” by Sam Lane, was introduced to me by Ted Dekker. He used the chorus of it in his book Green, the fourth book released in the Circle Series. In this scene, the spiritual community called The Circle is ceremonially reenacting our “Great Wedding” with Elyon — God.

“Six maidens in white faced Thomas and Chelise on their knees and sang the Great Wedding’s song. Their sweet, yearning voices filled the valley as they cried the refrain in melodic unison, faces bright with an eager desperation.

“You are beautiful… so Beautiful… Beautiful… Beautiful…

“…And in many ways they were all perfectly beautiful as Elyon was beautiful. Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful.”

(Green, Ted Dekker, Thomas Nelson 2009)

Shortly before Green was released in 2009, I attended a Ted Dekker fan event near Nashville at which Ted went all out to bring us into the world of his stories. He gave us an exclusive cd which included the original recording of the song (you can find it on youtube) as well as a message from himself describing his heart for Green and this song. In Ted’s own words:

“I have to say that this song has always exemplified the heart of the Circle Series, of God’s creation calling out to Him, ‘You are beautiful,’ but also God, Elyon, saying to his creation ‘You are beautiful’–the Lover and the Beloved crying to each other, singing to each other, ‘You are beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.’ When I first heard this song many years ago, you know, it brought me to tears. It was an incredible touching experience, where I thought, ‘This is what it’s really all about.’ In the end, everything distills down to this moment, this song, a song like this. And I knew I had to write about it…

“Really, at the heart of this whole series is this song, ‘You are beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.’… think of the people on the edge of the lake singing this song to Elyon over and over and over again… It’s all about this yearning that we have to be reunited once again–on the lake, on the shores of the lake, in the bowels of the lake, deep in the lake–to go back and be with God, with Elyon (in this story), in the same way we once were. It’s an irresistible calling to us. My hope and prayer is that this song would work its way into your spirit.”

(Ted Dekker, The Gathering 2009 cd)

This is what it’s all about. This is actually my third time this week blogging about the beauty of Jesus, and I didn’t even plan it that way. The purpose of all existence is anchored in the beauty of Jesus. He is so deserving of all of our obsession and adoration, and this is our truest and deepest life’s calling–to sing this song to Him and to hear Him singing back to us. To love and to be loved.

In this recording, in between choruses of the song, I also started singing spontaneously some scriptural phrases from Song of Solomon and other passages about His beauty to us and our beauty to Him. Below you can listen to the song on Youtube (it’s unlisted, so you won’t find it if you try searching Youtube itself), and below that you can read the verses that I was singing from. (The song “Beautiful” in the video is only about the first 11 minutes, and the rest of the video segues into “Jesus, You’re Beautiful” by Jon Thurlow.)

“Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”
(Hosea 6:3)

“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”
(Zephaniah 3:17)

“Let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.”
(Song of Solomon 2:14)

“Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves.”
(Song of Solomon 1:15, also 4:1)

“Turn away your eyes from me, for they overwhelm me.”
(Song of Solomon 6:5)

“You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you… You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride; you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.”
(Song of Solomon 4:7, 9)

“You are fairer than the sons of men”
(Psalm 45:2 NKJV)

“My beloved is white and ruddy, chief among ten thousand.”
(Song of Solomon 5:10 NKJV)

“In that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious,”
(Isaiah 4:2)

“Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.”
(Psalm 29:2, also 69:9 NKJV)

“There is none holy like the Lord: for there is none besides you;”
(1 Samuel 2:2)

“…so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God.”
(Exodus 8:10)

“The LORD is my light and my salvation;”
(Psalm 27:1)

“even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.”
(Psalm 39:12)

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What I’m Reading: One King

On February 28, 2017February 20, 2022 By CaitlynIn What I'm Reading3 Comments

Last week, I started a series called What I’m Praying. This week, I’m starting a series called What I’m Reading to share with you some of the things that have caught my attention in the past few weeks. Also, it will help me actually read more. I was a mad voracious reader growing up, and I’d love to fall back into that rhythm. Plus, I don’t have textbooks anymore, so if I want to continue filling my mind with quality writing, I have to go find it and make time to actually read it.

Right now, I’m reading One King by Samuel Whitefield. I’m only four chapters in, because I’m trying to really process the material and track with it in my own Bible.

One King addresses questions of God’s promises for the people of Israel, and shows how those promises are directly related to the current and historical controversies over Israel. It explores why Israel has been the centre of such controversy and violence for millennia, and how the Church is to relate to ethnic and national Israel today. Most importantly, it shows how Jesus alone can bring the fulfillment of Israel’s destiny, and He will do this in fullness at His second coming when He rules from Jerusalem as King forever.

As soon as I started seeing this book promoted online, I knew I had to read it. I bought it on my visit to Kansas City last month, but only this past week have I started seriously diving into it. Samuel Whitefield was one of my favourite instructors at IHOPU, and he has a deep understanding, both academically and practically, of issues related to Israel.

one-king-3-promises — Genesis 12: land, descendants, nations.

Right now, I’m almost finished with Part I of the book, which is titled “The Basis of the Gospel–Abraham’s Promise”. Understanding God’s Genesis 12 covenant with Abraham and its three components is foundational to understanding the big picture of the entire Gospel. These three key promises are thus:

“1) Abraham will have descendents who will become a righteous nation, 2) those descendants will permanantly inherit a land, and 3) the nations will receive blessing and salvation through the process.”
(Samuel Whitefield, “One King,” p 12, emphasis mine)

These three promises are geniusly interwoven in such a way that they can each be fully fulfilled only when ALL are fully fulfilled, and only Jesus can make that happen. Naturally, Satan reeeeally doesn’t want that to happen. And thus, the stage is set for the greatest drama ever known: the saga of world redemption through the story of a chosen people and their Messiah.

If you’re interested in studying more about Israel, check out One King on Amazon. I also highly suggest Parts I & II of the “Covenant and Controversy” documentary series, which Samuel Whitefield contributed to. Both films are available to stream for free at covenantandcontrovery.com.

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