Forgotten God

This fall in my women's Bible study we are going to go through Acts.  I'm seriously SO excited.  I love Acts- there is so much good stuff in that book.  It's going to be awesome.

In preparation for leading a Bible study, Lina, recommended we read Forgotten God by Francis Chan, and I just finished it.  There are a couple things I really liked about this book:

1. He encourages you to reexamine your past thoughts toward the "Holy Spirit."  We've all had many different encounters with the Holy Spirit.  I probably came from a church that was like "Oh yeah... the  Holy Spirit.  We should probably talk about that more."  Whereas others have come from a pretty charasmatic background.  Either way, he encourages you to start out reading the book with an open mind, even being open to the possibility that your view of the Holy Spirit could be wrong.
2. It's biblical.  He doesn't bring up anything new from the Bible that I hadn't heard, but he does use the Bible to talk about the Spirit.  The Spirit is a "He," not an "it."  Chan doesn't just talk about feelings, he talks about truth.
3.  It was super easy to read.  In the world that Dan and I are in right now, it is SO refreshing to read a simple, straight to the point book.
4. He's inspiring.  Chan stirred up passion in me to imagine how my life could be so different if I listened to the Holy Spirit more and let Him work in my life.  Here's a couple good passages I liked:

"I want to consistently live with an awareness of His strength.  I want to be different today from what I was yesterday as the fruit of the Spirit becomes more manifest in my life."

"No matter what your personality, it is a spiritual discipline to be still, to listen, and to cut out the distraction of our world.  When we practice this stillness, this waiting and being, it is then that we can experience deep intimacy and relationship with the Holy Spirit."

"The reality is that I am indwelt by the Holy Spirit and because of this reality, stress and tiredness and impatience don't have to define my day."

I put up another one here.

Now tell me if after reading that you don't want to go and pick up this book?