Heaven's Muscle: Read an Excerpt

I knew that as a believer, and as a minister, I'd gotten good at straining theological gnats. Christ's "woe" always made me uncomfortable, like having itchy loose hairs inside your shirt. But another of Christ's curses against the Pharisees was even worse. That night in Cerro Pelado I could almost see Jesus superimposed against the blazing sky, his eyes fiery and angry as he pointed directly at me and shouted:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. You do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them. You hypocrites cross sea and land to make a single convert, and when you do you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves!

I was an atheist when I went on that medical mission trip to Panama. But being an atheist was better than being a Christian Pharisee who traveled the world to make converts but who taught those converts how to be children of hell.

***

This is a book about the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ. I know him now. This is the story of my journey from Bible-worshiper to unbeliever to partner of God. My story has helped people in the past, and I hope it will encourage you. I write this book for the glory of Jesus because I love

I'm a believer again. And I have two battle cries. The first is from the New Testament, from Second Timothy 1:7:

God has not given us a Spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-discipline!

The second is a prayer written by W.

H. H. Aitken:

Lord, take my lips and speak through them; take my mind and think through it; take my heart and set it on fire!

12/1/2014 5:00:00 AM
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