Elementary  ## Metadata - Author: [[Ben Pasley and Angie West]] | [[3. Resources/Authors/Ben Pasley and Angie West|Ben Pasley and Angie West]] - Full Title: Elementary - Category: #books - Kindle: [Open in Kindle](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PCOEEF6) - Document Tags: [[Faith]] ## Document Notes ## Highlights - In his Kingdom, relational intimacy is the norm, people always honor one another, weak people are never overlooked, and he always has a hand of friendship resting on our shoulders. ([Location 41](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=41)) - What Jesus requires of us to enter his Kingdom puts us all on the same level. ([Location 48](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=48)) - To receive the simplicity of Jesus’ invitation to follow him requires each of us to have a teachable, childlike heart. ([Location 54](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=54)) - His invitation is for us to come away from loneliness and tiredness, because he has a better place for us that is full of friendship and strength! ([Location 94](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=94)) - The journey toward our friendship with God will not require us to run in order to catch up with him, because he will walk beside us. ([Location 95](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=95)) - We must dig down past the complexity and noise of this world and find the simple, valuable things to build our lives on. ([Location 108](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=108)) - “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. ([Location 257](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=257)) - “So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship” ([Location 488](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=488)) - We can’t think our way to heaven. ([Location 491](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=491)) - That’s right, it is an impossibility for those who have been born of God to continue practicing earthly thinking and earthly works, because we have been changed from the inside out and transported into the heavenly realms! ([Location 547](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=547)) - Following Christ is not complicated. However, when the practice of our spiritual lives gets distracted from the simplicity of following Christ, then it will become complex and confusing. ([Location 650](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=650)) - There are all kinds of voices, noises, proposals, and facts swirling all around us, all vying for our attention. They can make our lives complicated. ([Location 652](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=652)) - Remember, the opposite of faith is not believing there is no God, it is not knowing if we can trust the God we believe in. ([Location 674](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=674)) - When we are not sure of God’s heart, then we usually change the object of our faith to an earthly source. ([Location 675](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=675)) - He can be perfectly trusted because he loves us so perfectly. ([Location 686](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=686)) - God will, even before we ask him to, act in love toward us. ([Location 707](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=707)) - He has shown us that only an invasion of love from an eternal world can ever conquer the troubles we have gotten ourselves into. ([Location 713](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=713)) - We will have to choose to trust God’s heart because we believe that his heart is always, always good for us, and that he is always acting in love toward us—without exception. ([Location 715](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=715)) - Untested faith, in other words, is just wishful thinking—and that is not how we follow Christ. ([Location 728](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=728)) - Faith has to be tested so we can prove that something exists between ourselves and God. ([Location 761](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=761)) - So, then, faith is learning that God is always good, that God is always acting in love toward us, and that our trust in him will always be tested. ([Location 777](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=777)) - Our decision to trust him will allow us to discover a God who can transform the word vulnerability into something beautiful. ([Location 814](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=814)) - So receiving the milk of God’s word is the process of learning to agree with God at all times, not just to memorize passages of Scripture that we never put into practice. ([Location 836](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=836)) - The Bible is not our messiah, nor is it the fourth member of the Trinity. ([Location 891](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=891)) - Fire is a purifying catalyst, and so we can add this picture to our understanding of being baptized. ([Location 1039](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=1039)) - The Holy Spirit is Holy God, and the fire of our baptism with Christ creates a purified place in us for the Presence of God to live. ([Location 1040](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=1040)) - The Holy Spirit comes in our lives so we won’t be alone, so we won’t think and live like orphans; so that we can understand right from wrong, and be wise in Kingdom things. ([Location 1113](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00PCOEEF6&location=1113)) ## Related by Author - [[3. Resources/Readwise/Books/Orphan Slave Son|Orphan Slave Son]]