The very real men of Ransomed Heart have touched me deeply over the last year. I've shared a little bit about that here. Just this week they've released a new product, The Utter Relief of Holiness. You'll want to get it. Here is what best-selling author John Eldredge has to say about this new release:
“Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, God had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. (Ephesians 1:3-4, The Message)
God wants us to be happy. Really. But he knows that in order for us to be truly happy, we have to be whole. Another word for that is holy. We have to be restored.
Think of it this way – think of how you feel when you really screw things up. The look on your son’s face as you yell at him. The distance that’s grown between you, even though you apologized. For the hundredth time. How it tears you up inside to indulge in romantic fantasies about someone else’s spouse. You want that but you don’t want that, you wish you could but you really don’t, and why is this going on inside? The guilt you feel when you lie straight-faced to a friend. And they find out. The hours you’ve wasted harboring resentment. The embarrassment of your addictions. You know what plagues you.
Now, what would it be like to never, ever do it again? To not even struggle with it. What would your life be like if you were free of all that haunts you? O, the joy, the utter relief it would be to be transformed. That in itself would be more happiness than most of us ever experience. And – as if that’s not enough – it would free us to live the life God has for us to live.
Whole and holy. The two go hand in hand. O, how important this is. You can’t find the holiness you want without deep wholeness. And you can’t find the wholeness you want without deep holiness. You can’t simply tell the meth addict to quit. She does need to quit, but she is going to need profound healing to be able to quit. She can’t simply tell the raging man to stop losing his temper. He would love to stop. He’d give anything to stop. He doesn’t know how. He doesn’t know all the forces within him that swell up and overwhelm him with anger. Telling him to stop it is like telling him to hold back the sea.
This month we release one of the best and most important teaching series we’ve ever done here. It’s called The Utter Relief of Holiness, and I think it will really help you to understand the process by which God makes us whole and holy through his love. And then, knowing that, we can cooperate with what he is up to in our lives. For he is always up to our transformation. And for that I am very thankful. Utterly relieved.
