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One of the struggles for men, wanting to deepen their relationship with God is our struggle with dualistic thinking. By that I mean, men see their relationship with God more as “God and me” rather then “God in me.” The “God and me” frame of reference tends to place God outside of ourselves, separated from our real life. We see our…
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Devotions from Gary Thomas’ book Pure Pleasure As Christians we need to embrace and celebrate true, godly pleasure, lest we become susceptible to soul-destroying substitutes. If we feel all pleasure is wrong, then we squeeze all the joy out of life and end up squeezing part of God out of life too. We close ourselves…
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Devotions from Gary Thomas’ book Pure Pleasure Our need is to live IN the pleasure instead of living For the pleasure. When we live In the pleasure, we take time to savor it; that moment becomes sacred. When we live For the pleasure, we often get so tied up with the expectations, fear, anxiety, and…
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Devotions from GaryThomas book, Pure Pleasure Peter Kreetf said “I agree that pleasure as such is good, but not that all pleasant things are good.” In James 4 it says that friendship with the world is hatred toward God. And if we choose to be a friend of the world we become an enemy of…
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Devotions from Gary Thomas’s book Pure Pleasure Francis Fenelon said, ”What do we need?…..Not to neglect our own needs while devoting ourselves to those of others, and not to neglect the needs of others while being engrossed in our own.” If we live our life out of obligation, neglecting our need for rest and recreation,…
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From time to time I receive comments on the word “wildman.” Some of the responses are very interesting. The wives of men who come to “wildman” Saturdays wonder just what goes on in our time together. My response is, “If they are better husbands at meeting your emotions needs, then it must be good.” Others are…
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Devotions from Gary Thomas’ book Pure Pleasure There is no doubt how important praying, serving, giving, meditating etc is. But they are not the only pleasures, for God accepts more than “religious activities”. We must give ourselves permission to sip a cup of coffee, watch a football game without feeling as if God has to…
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Devotions based on the book Pure Pleasure by Gary Thomas “Contempt for pleasure, so far from arguing superior spirituality, is actually ….the sin of pride. Pleasure divinely designed to raise our sense of God’s goodness, deepen our gratitude to Him, and strengthens our hope of richer pleasures to come in the next world. “ J.…
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Devotions from Gary Thomas’ book Pure Pleasure Dr. Houston said “For Christians who live closely with God, life is like a festival.” In fact if we live in a spirit of gloom it denies the effectiveness of Jesus sacrifice on the cross. He set us free and our freedom needs to be realized and celebrated.…
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Devotions from Gary Thomas’ Pure Pleasure Do we really know what it means to live in the love of God and to believe He delights in us? Julian of Norwich said,” He makes us love all that He loves, for His love’s sake, and makes us take pleasure in Him and all His works. God…