Read “Fathered By God” by John Eldridge…here are some notes from my reading

Boyhood to Cowboy to Warrior to Lover to King to Sage…
Boyhood – a time of wonder and exploration. Above all else, it is the time of being the beloved son of your Father, the apple of your Father’s eye. Below the need for validation – the need to answer “do I have what it takes” – is the deeper need to be highly desired and prized – our need for a Father’s love.

The Cowboy stage comes next – sometime usually around 12 or 13 or so and lasting well into twenty-something. A notable shift begins to take place in the boy’s soul as he approaches his teens – longing for real adventure. And now THE Question of a man’s soul begins to present itself in nearly everything the boy-becoming-a-man does – Do I have what it takes?” the answer comes partly through adventure and partly through hard work.

Pastor Marcus Breechen said it this way and ties beautifully with this stage: You are coming home to a loving Father – not a Coach God!

The Warrior stage
a time it becomes so easy for the wounds of battle create a lost heart as a warrior.

The Lover Stage

The King Stage
The Heart Of A King. It is a matter of the heart, my brothers.
There are many offices a man might fulfill as a king – father of a household, manager of a department, pastor of a church, coach of a team, prime minister of a nation – but the heart required is the same. “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases” (Prov 21:1). The passage is often used to explain the sovereignty of God, in that he can do with a man whatever he well pleases. Certainly, God is that sovereign. But I don’t think that’s the spirit of this passage. God rarely forces a man to do something against his will, because he would far and above prefer that he didn’t have to, that the man wills to do the will of God. “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15). What God is after is a man so yielded to him, so completely surrendered, that his heart is easily moved by the Spirit of God to the purposes of God.

That kind of heart makes for a good king.

The Sage

Read the book!

Published October 16, 2012

Topics: Clarity of Faith | Connecting the Dots