Excerpts from " Agape Road"

Posted: 2011-12-07 22:11:26 by: Bob Mumford

Excerpts from Agape Road (Journey to Intimacy with the Father) by Bob Mumford

Additional comments by David Nelson       (12-7-11)

(Please note, this book was not “easy reading” for me. For me it was kind of complicated and lengthy but I did get some good insights from it and wanted to pass them on to you).    

Pgs. 19, 20 God wants three things from us (according to Bob Mumford)

 1-He wants to see our face (not a mask). Will we show our real face to Him with no mask on? Really, do we want to show our real personality to anyone? God wants the real us face to face with Himself.

2-He desires to spend time with us communing together. We must learn what this means and how to do it. God will show us. 

3-God desires our unshared love. We are to love Him with all our heart and all our strength and all our desire. He is jealous to have our love. We are not to love the world or other things that keep us away from Him.

Pg. 49 Here are some descriptions of Agape love that God wants to instill in us.

Love for a neighbor is love for those who are strange, irritating and different than us. Love values fellowship very highly because it seeks fellowship only (not other rewards). Love expects nothing, because it has already (we have received from God completely), we have reached the goal with God. Love does not intend to do but has already done without thought. Love does not have to ask because it already knows (what to do). Love does not have to fight because it is already the victor. Eros love (not the God kind) keeps on wanting more things and rewards, but Agape love keeps on giving (and never fails or stops). (This is a paraphrase of a writing by Karl Barth)

Pgs. 53, 54 In love between a husband and wife, does the husband just want sex to be happy? Does the wife just want financial security to be happy? Agape love loves the other unconditionally each seeking first the other’s highest interest. Do I marry you because I love you or for what you will do for me or get from me? This difference in love can be very subtle at times, and God also will test us to see what kind of love we have for Him. Do you love God for what He does for you or do you love who He is, for who He is in Himself? Do you love Him alone?

Pg. 59 Selfish “love” is to do something for a reward or to be reciprocated. Unselfish (Agape) love is doing something to benefit someone else, even if we do not get rewarded, recognized, or paid back. Only God is pleased and that is all that matters to us.

Pgs. 87, 88 Here is one way God looks at you as an individual.

God gave you value when you were still a sinner and you didn’t know Him. If you are thinking what a failure your life is, consider that God loved you and wanted you while you were still in a “sorry state.” The goals God has for you are much more awesome and beautiful than you know. When you think low of yourself it is evident that you do not grasp the kind of relationship God the Father wants to have with you. People have failed you, you have failed yourself, the Church may have failed you but God as a Father has not done so (and will not). Tell God how disappointed you are in yourself. And ask Him to help you give your life over to Him more than you have.

 Pgs. 197-199 The protecting, nourishing, and watering of the Eternal Seed.

The Kingdom of God is like seeds put into soil (in a field). (Mark 4:26-29) How they sprout and grow we don’t know. We put seeds in the soil and crops come forth from the soil. An Eternal Seed has been put in us by God, we who have been born again, and it produces what God intends, but we don’t know how it all comes to be, we don’t know all the details. Our responsibility is to protect the Seed in us, to get water, to nourish and care for the “plant” that is coming up. In some the Eternal Seed will bring forth 30, 60, or 100 fold (fruit or more seed).

Paul says one plants, another waters but God causes the growth. (I Cor. 3:6-9) Those who plant and those who water are nothing (they will get their reward) but it is God who gives the increase (and brings forth His desired results). So the Seed must mature in us, and God sends us various trials and experiences to conform us to the image of His Son. “All things” work together for good (all things that happen to us) for those who love God and who are called to His purposes. (Rom. 8:28)

Pg. 208 If we really know that His Agape love toward us will never fail, then the pressures of time factors lose some of their demand.

 To hurry God is to find fault with God. We must know that the fully grown chicken is still in the egg, and the fully mature flower or fruit is still in the seed. So to, we must have faith in God’s seed in us and in others, no matter how long we may be delayed in our struggles. The gifts in us and all that God wants us to be will come forth if His seed is in us, if we value and shelter it, if we get some water and some nourishment, it will grow into what God wants. How, we don’t fully understand.

Pg. 226 The Christian life will always be somewhat of a mystery. We won’t always know why certain events happen. What we do know is that God is able to use all things for His purposes to mold our lives. We can say, “Lord, I don’t know what you are doing, but I know who you are.”

Pg. 237 And so, “I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which I also was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:12b) That (what God has planned for you to be) will be different for each person.

Pgs. 192, 193 Let me end with this poem authored by George MacDonald. Please take a little time to think about what each line means.

O Christ, who didst appear in Judah land,

Thence by the cross go back to God’s right hand,

Plain history, and things our sense beyond,

In thee together come and correspond:

How rulest thou from the undiscovered bourn

The world-wise world that laughs thee still to scorn?

Please, Lord, let thy disciple understand.

 

‘Tis heart on heart thou rulest. Thou art the same

At God’s right hand as here exposed to shame,

And therefore workest now as thou didst then—

Feeding the faint divine in humble men.

Through all thy realms from thee goes out heart-power,

Working the holy, satisfying hour,

When all shall love, and all be loved again.

 

From thine, as then, the healing virtue goes

Into our hearts—that is the Father’s plan

From heart to heart it sinks, it steals, it flows,

From these that know thee still infecting those.

Here is my heart—from thine, Lord, fill it up,

That I may offer it as the holy cup

Of thy communion to my every man.