Good morning, are you ready?
Grab your favorite drink and let’s get ready to be encouraged.
As I said in my first post – I am going to pull many quotes and/or thoughts that are direct quotes from the book, Captivating by John & Stasi Eldredge. Each week will be one chapter, and I will post the page number where that quote comes from. All quotes are from the same page until a new page number is noted. Unless I made a typo, these are all direct quotes. None of these are my words, simply a list for you.
As I’ve stated before, my hope is you will be curious and intrigued to the point of checking this book out for yourself.
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Captivating ~ Chapter 2
What Eve Alone Can Tell
* (page 21) The desire of a woman’s heart and the realities of a woman’s life seem an ocean apart.
* Oh, we long for romance and an irreplaceable role in a great story; we long for beauty. But that’s not the life we have. The result is a sense of shame.
* (page 22) Rather than asking, “What should a woman do – what is her role?” it would be far more helpful to ask, “What is a woman – what is her design?” and, Why did God place Woman in our midst?”
The Crown of Creation
* (page 25) She is the crescendo, the final, astonishing work of God. Woman. In one last flourish creation comes to a finish not with Adam, but with Eve. She is the Master’s finishing touch.
What Does Eve Speak To Us
* (page 26) ..You’ll discover that God is relational to his core, that he has a heart for romance. Second, that he longs to share adventures with us – adventures you cannot accomplish without him. And finally, that God has a beauty to unveil. A beauty that is captivating and powerfully redemptive.
Romance & Relationships: The Answer to Loneliness
* (page 27) This is so second nature, so assumed among women, that it goes unnoticed by them. They care more about relationships than just about anything else.
* Most women define themselves in terms of their relationships, and the quality they deem those relationships to have.
God’s Heart For Relationship
* (page 28) The vast desire and capacity a woman has for intimate relationships tells us of God’s vast desire and capacity for intimate relationships.
* In fact, this may be the most important thing we ever learn about God – that He yearns for relationship with us.
An Adventure To Share
* (page 31) When God creates Eve, he calls her an ezer kenegdo….Alter is getting close when he translates it “sustainer beside him.” The word ezer is used only twenty other places in the entire Old Testament. And in every other instance the person being described is God himself, when you need him to come through for you desperately.
* (page 33) That longing in the heart of a woman to share life together as a great adventure – that comes straight from the heart of God, who also longs for this. He does not want to be an option in our lives. He does not want to be an appendage, a tagalong. Neither does any woman. God is essential. He wants us to need him – desperately.
Beauty to Unveil
* (page 34) Beauty is essential to God. No – that’s not putting it strongly enough. Beauty is the essence of God.
* Nature is not primarily functional. It is primarily beautiful.
* (page 36) God gave Eve a beautiful form and a beautiful spirit. She expresses beauty in both. Better, she expresses beauty simply in who she is. Like God, it is her essence.
* Adam is captured best in motion, doing something. His essence is strength in action. That is what he speaks to the world. He bears the image of God, who is a warrior.
Why Beauty Matters
* Beauty is powerful. It may be the most powerful thing on earth. It is dangerous. (page 37)
* Beauty speaks.
* Beauty also invites. (page 38)
* Beauty nourishes. It is a kind of food our souls crave. (page 39)
* Beauty comforts. There is something profoundly healing about it.
* Beauty inspires.
* Beauty is transcendent. It is our immediate experience of the eternal. (page 40)
* Beauty is, without question, the most essential and the most misunderstood of all of God’s qualities – of all the feminine qualities too.
* (page 41) A woman knows, down in her soul, that she longs to bring beauty to the world…This is not just culture, or the need to “get a man.” This is in her heart, part of her design.
But Why A Beauty To Unveil
* She {woman} yearns to be known and that takes time and intimacy.
* (page 42) Every woman has a beauty to unveil.
* Because she bears the image of God….beauty is an essence that is given to every woman at her creation.
In Closing
It is very important for you to pause just now and ask yourself, What did I hear them say?
What we said was, first, that Eve is the crown of creation.
There is something uniquely magnificent and powerful about a woman.
We tried to reveal the immeasurable dignity,
the holiness of your feminine heart by showing that it is God who longs for Romance;
it is God who longs to be our ezer; it is God who reveals beauty as essential to life.
You are the image bearer of this God.
That is why you long for those things too.
There is a radiance hidden in your heart that
the world desperately needs.
(page 42)
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How about you? What did you think of the idea that “Nature is not primarily functional. It is primarily beautiful.”?
I would really like for you to join into this “book study” via comments. But please don’t forget the “rules” of this discussion:
- First of all – in order to have a discussion, you will have to post what you think. Otherwise this will be just me posting interesting thoughts & quotes meaningful to me. I know I have read many blogs without ever posting. I understand, really I do. I have had reason to not want to be “found” by those I’d rather not be sharing intimate parts of my life with. If this is a concern for you, please – email me privately and I will post your comment without identifying information.
- Secondly, I would imagine just as with anything, we are not all the same. We have come from different circumstances, life experiences, and have different reasons for reading/participating in blogs. It may be as simple as this book doesn’t touch you in the way it touched me, or might someone else. Let’s all remember to be friendly to each other, extend kindness and be gracious to each other.
- I don’t want to give the impression this is the only way it is, that it is the end all-be all on everything woman. I’m truly just sharing a book I have found helpful to me in hopes of encouraging you.
Disclaimer: I have not been compensated for anything in this post.
