Out of the Embers  ## Metadata - Author: [[Bradley Jersak and Brian Zahnd]] | [[3. Resources/Authors/Bradley Jersak and Brian Zahnd|Bradley Jersak and Brian Zahnd]] - Full Title: Out of the Embers - Category: #books - Kindle: [Open in Kindle](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TXB4HKJ) - Document Tags: [[Faith]] ## Document Notes ## Highlights - Those of us who’ve undergone a traumatic deconstruction understand that we could not remain in the womb and hope to grow. But we also discovered that we could not stay in the birth canal of deconstruction and hope to live. We needed to emerge into a new space, however bright and cold, however big and scary—and however wonderful our first breath and shriek of freedom might be. ([Location 318](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=318)) - the great prophets of Judaism and Christianity interrogated every human construct of “God” as probably idolatrous, stripping away accretions that were actually impediments to experiencing God. ([Location 330](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=330)) - the wine didn’t obsess over its previous confinement to clay jars or pine to return to them. And, anyway, no one bursts the wineskins of our brittle constructs like Jesus—he (and the best deconstructionists) even lay bare the construct of deconstruction itself. ([Location 356](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=356)) - Deconstruction happens. It is inevitable. It is necessary. Again, it can be pure joy—the good news in most profound ways. It can also be pure sorrow—a cataclysmic collapse. Or the joy and sorrow can flow mingled down, like the water and blood from the Savior’s side. ([Location 565](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=565)) - We cannot and must not superimpose our unique experiences on others to minimize their stories of genuine spiritual abuse or to diminish the joy they feel after a prison break from religious bondage. ([Location 576](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=576)) - “be-leave-ers” are those who had to walk away (from what? you name it!) in order to find their way home. ([Location 771](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=771)) - The dust we carry is none other than attachments to our former way of being—the ways our resentments still keep us hooked to who we were and anyone or any group that reminds us of that old self. ([Location 895](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=895)) - The separating, the unraveling. Unbinding yourself from narratives that perpetuate bitterness. ([Location 917](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=917)) - “Trauma events can’t be undone. Trauma narratives can be rewritten. My past retold as my unfolding story of redemption.” ([Location 1053](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=1053)) - “Why not just go ahead and ask him? ‘Jesus, what gift would you give me in exchange for this pain?’ Then picture him, picture the pain, picture the gift, and say, ‘Yes, please.’ Then watch what he does.” ([Location 1067](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=1067)) - Why just read about liberation when you could be experiencing liberation? What if there’s a divine interruption scheduled right now—an exchange you’re due to make right now? To bestow on you “a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair” (Isa 61:3 NIV). And what if Jesus the Listener were to say to you, “Right now, this Scripture is to be fulfilled, this very day”? What if Jesus the Healer is urging you to stop picking your scabs and calling it “deconstruction”? What if he’s “impatient” to lay his wounded hand on your hurts and begin healing your wounds, bearing your sorrows, and gifting you with peace? ([Location 1123](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=1123)) - But there is another path: an ancient way, a trustworthy anchor, a deep faith, and a cruciform love. The souls who find and follow that path may yet find safe harbor. ([Location 1535](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=1535)) - If there are cracks in the foundation of one’s faith or culture or politics, it makes sense to dismantle the broken bits of the faulty floor, but how the foundation gets renewed deserves focused attention. ([Location 1543](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=1543)) - prophets remember the future! ([Location 1591](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=1591)) - God is beyond being and the ground of all being. ([Location 1809](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=1809)) - For all that we don’t know or can’t say about God, here’s some simple logic: Humanity is personal. God is the source of all that is personal. God cannot be less than we are. Therefore, God is personal or more than personal. ([Location 1825](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=1825)) - When you look at the effects of God in the world, I think the most remarkable effect is our personhood, our subjectivity. The fact that we are persons leads me—and I think has led a lot of theologians—to say, “That’s because God is a Person.” That’s where our personhood comes from. We’re the small case I am and he is the big case I AM.18 ([Location 1832](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=1832)) - What does the Orthodox church mean by “grace”? Lazar: Grace is the uncreated energies of God. Me: What are these “uncreated energies”? Are they like some force? Or emanations? Lazar: No. The uncreated energies—energeia—refer to the grace of the Holy Spirit. ([Location 1864](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=1864)) - Only God is uncreated. ([Location 1871](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=1871)) - the essence of God is transcendent and beyond knowing. But the energies of God describe our direct experience of God through the indwelling, transforming grace of the Holy Spirit. The energies are the grace of the Holy Spirit—not a “thing” or “force” that God sends, but God known directly by the Holy Spirit, transfiguring us from glory to glory into the image of Jesus Christ. ([Location 1873](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=1873)) - So again, we must de-construct every un-Christlike conception of “God” so that we don’t overlook the Real Deal when he draws near to us. ([Location 1901](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=1901)) - The Purgative Way: in this phase, the focus is breaking out of habitual vices, fostering habitual virtues, and learning to live the Jesus Way. We could say that, here, the light shines in the darkness, exposing and driving away that which is not love. ([Location 1949](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=1949)) - The Illuminative Way: in this phase, the focus is on growth, developing Christlike charity, and deepening in the life of prayer. Here, the light shines in our hearts, opening our eyes to new depths in contemplative prayer. ([Location 1951](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=1951)) - The Unitive Way: in this phase, surrender to the Father’s will leads to the union of our hearts with the Lord. We are in sync with Christ and flow with impulses of the Spirit. ([Location 1953](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=1953)) - The Dark Night of the Senses occurs as a crisis of faith at the culmination of the Purgative Way. A feeling of “affliction” may come over us, and we pass through this dark valley with no conscious sense of God’s love or presence. ([Location 1956](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=1956)) - Deconstruction can lead to a new sense of purpose and meaning, or it can lead to hopelessness and despair. ([Location 1982](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09TXB4HKJ&location=1982))