A Profound Vision of What the Church Can Be...

Becoming a True Spiritual Community formerly known as The Safest Place on Earth by Larry Crabb is a book I 'happened' along at the 'store' and couldn't pass by. I did not read this book in 1999 when it came out under the first title....totally different place then, yep, for sure.

Today, He is speaking through this book to me. Expect some quotes as I journey on.

"Even when a few of us gather together to relate, do we somehow manage to keep our souls to ourselves, never really meeting, neither giving nor receiving what is most wanted?"

Crabb says that he, "wants us to talk with each other, not merely to make conversation, but to make a difference, to be caught up in another sphere, the world of the Spirit, where first things are first and second things are second."

"I think that's what the writer to the Hebrews had in mind. He told us to never stop getting together with other Christians. And, when we do get together, to say and do things that stir a flame into a fire, to arouse the life God's Spirit has placed within us so we can go on through dark nights or pleasant mornings with our eyes fixed on unseen reality."

"In real community people know each other; they relate in ways only God's Spirit makes possible."

"Churches are rarely communities.".......

Interesting thoughts from an 8 year old book. Leaving off here with this..."They know that God gives them His Spirit and works miracles both in them and among them, not because they cleverly make it happen, but because they revel in their dependence and learn to hear the Spirit's voice (see Galatians 3:5)."

Sounds familiar...almost like the gate that is seldom found.