Wide Open Spaces – Beyond Paint By Numbers Christianity by Jim Palmer – Thomas Nelson Publishers, Inc. –

After just finishing Christopher Hitchens book, Why God is Not Great – How Religion Poisons Everything, I was somehow unaware how desperately I needed a spiritual shower to refresh and restore my soul. It was during my journey through your Wide Open Spaces that the heavens opened up and His sustenance rained down upon me. To Jim Palmer, “Thank you so very much!!!

As I read Wide Open Spaces, I found myself recalling my childhood experience of wading into the ocean, progressively further from shore. At a certain point, the breakers begin to wash over me — it’s uniquely, experientially refreshing. Yet, there are several seconds before the next set of waves is upon me. This respite gives one the opportunity to ponder and absorb the invigoration and wonder of it all. Today, as an adult, this experience still has the ability to transform me into experiencing childlike wonder — one who cannot fathom the thought of ever getting out of the water — of producing all sorts of questions, curiosities, thanks and hopes. It’s magical. My prayer (and my hope) is that this book will have the same effect on you — producing a childlike wonder for experiencing God in new ways — that will endure for a lifetime. Soak in this book. Thank you Jim!

It is a rare achievement for any artist to follow their first work – one that remains as highly acclaimed as Divine Nobodies, with a follow-on work that is unequivocally better than the first. Jim Palmer has done it with Wide Open Spaces.

The reading of Wide Open Spaces is not optional. It’s mandatory if you are one who desires to know God and be love in our world today. This book is an epic contribution to the way ahead. It is an indelible blessing.

The implications of Wide Open Spaces are clear for the spiritual sojourner and the possibilities for a way of life for those who deeply desire something more in how they experience God on a day-to-day basis:

a. Many feel trapped and confined within the belief systems that they have inadvertently adopted as knowing God. As Jim points out, this is an unfortunate reality that can and must be overcome. This book will speak freedom to those who are currently living within the confines of this deception.
b. Safe harbors become stagnant waters for marine life. The results of a relationship with Christ based solely upon a dependence upon right beliefs is a relationship with belief systems, not God, according to Palmer. The resultant stagnation for the human species is the same as it is for marine life, confined to similar environs.
c. Today, followers of Jesus require voices, like Jim Palmer’s, to lead us beyond the man-made breakwaters to the blessing of living in the Wide Open Spaces, exploring the endless possibilities for sustenance and transformation on the open seas of faith.
d. Perhaps, it is here, in these waters, where mankind may come to know God and be love.

This book will definitely facilitate “dialogue” — my sense it that it will be most intense from the pulpits of the “people of the steeple” (my term, not Jim’s). Palmer challenges us to rethink the implications of our penchant with possessing “right beliefs about God,” and the obvious Us vs. them, win-lose behavior this creates. Maybe “God wants love to be our belief system?”(p.7). Maybe that’s what God really is anyway.

I adored some of the following excerpts penned by Jim:

As Jim states (p. xi), “I am writing for the person who desires to know God as a person, not a program.”

“But what if God is bigger than a belief system? What if God is bigger than self, than family, bigger than tribe, bigger than nation, and even bigger than any set of doctrines we try to wrap around him. Whereas religion sometimes brings out the worst in people, could the vision of a bigger God cause us to place higher value on expanding our circles of care and working toward a more peaceful world?” ( p. 2).

“There isn’t a lockbox at the center of the universe containing a divine computer program with doctrinal code.” (p. 3)

“God is not a belief system of truth propositions; he is a living spiritual reality within us. Two thousand years later, this is still the secret to knowing God.” (p. 11).

“We want to figure God out in our head, while God wants us to feel him in our heart.” (p. 20. ).

“God provides plenty of opportunity to be the church in the midst of doing ordinary life together with others.” (p. 33).

“The more I’ve been digging around in church history, the more I’ve seen that the true history of the church often takes its course through the generations of those who were despised by organized Christendom.” (p. 38).

“Too often religion becomes so preoccupied with self preservation that its adherents lose touch with their spiritual identity as the hands and feet of God in the world.” (p. 94).

“The value of a person to God is not determined by what percentage of his or her theology is correct.” (p. 98).

“Religion normally assumes their answers are the right and doesn’t take too kindly to people opening topics for further investigation.” (p.164).

“If you’re willing to be curious about God like a child, you’ll find that he is much bigger than what a grownup mind is capable of conceiving. I’ve learned not to limit God to “the box” of my current set of beliefs because there always seems to be something new and more just outside the lines of my present understanding. If you’re open to the wonder of God, you won’t be disappointed.” (p. 175).

“Have people heard the “gospel” repeatedly and become weary of it — you know, weary of unconditional love and peace? Or has the gospel been replaced by a Christianity devoid of true love, joy and peace, and now focused on preserving outworn structures, traditions and the status-quo?” (p. 187).

“Virtually every significant thing God has ever done to birth his kingdom has been contrary to human logic and has come through the least likely people.” (p.188).

“Be love.” (p. 195).

Jim Palmer is a master story teller and evidences the depth and breadth of his skills in this book. Reading a work by Palmer is like listening to a friend seated next to you. An extraordinary, breakwater busting achievement for Mr. Palmer. May the waves of His blessings wash over us through this work.