Orphan Slave Son
Ben Pasley's latest book explores in depth the spiritual worldviews of orphanhood, slavery, and sonship.
Find it Amazon.com, or buy it from Ben's site, Enter The Worship Circle. The ebook is coming soon.
The first two conditions affect everyone on the planet because of human brokenness and displacement. The third is the eternal reality of those who have received the love of the Father through Christ Jesus. The spirit of sonship is the position we receive in Christ but it is not an automatic transformation from the old ways of thinking or acting. Even after being transformed into the likeness of Christ in the eyes of the Father we still, as believers, have the opportunity to view things through the lens of slavery, or act out with the beliefs of an orphan. This book contains a thorough look at these three worldviews and how we can conquer everything that does not agree with our new positions as sons in the kingdom. Robin Pasley's book "The Healing Path" is an excellent companion book as it focuses on personal healing and a workbook style journey into this process of maturing as sons.
Here is an excerpt from the book:
"RECEIVING SONSHIP
We know our agreements with the basic principles of the world must end. Our slave-soul’s need to work, work, work for absolution must end. Our wandering as lost orphans must come to an end. The only way to see the ending of these things is not in warring against them to defeat them head on, rather it is by turning our attention to the privilege and favor of sonship. Sonship will displace the other broken self-views with such powerful force that they shatter and scatter into the wake behind our new lives moving forward in Christ. The obvious challenge is that we will never accomplish our way into sonship, or achieve our way to daughterhood. We cannot satisfy a contract or form a more perfect community to gain ground with our Father. Sonship is truly a gift that only a father can give.
Well, then, what we are left with is terrifying.
In order to overcome the spirits of slavery and orphanhood we are going to have to receive a gift of pure, undeserved love from God. He is going to give us sonship, and we are going to have to humble ourselves and learn to receive it. He is going to visit our orphanage and pick us out, and we are just going to have to accept that this is really our day and we are really going to have a home ... and that we did nothing to make that happen.
Jesus came to prove that receiving and believing were, indeed our only hope. He came to introduce sonship in person, and then offered to share it with us. He invited us to be born again into his family, but first demonstrated in his own miraculous birth that we would have to follow him in like kind. We are to be born of both water and the spirit, both naturally and supernaturally.
When we receive Christ and believe in the miracle that he is for us, then there is nothing that can separate us from the lavish love of the Father because we have been born again as his sons. Romans 8 is a beautiful chapter on this subject and Romans 8:39 says that nothing “in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Our proximity to God and our position in his heart is no longer in question when we receive Christ; what is in question is our ability to believe that the miracle is really true. We have tremendous problems simply living into what is true about us now that we are in Christ. The fact that the complete miracle of our new life in God is believing and receiving is really quite difficult for all of us. It would seem so much more natural if we could fight for it, earn it, or pay for the opportunity ... but we can’t. All there is left for us in this grand exchange is to hold out our hands and receive. This work of humbly receiving can be so hard for us. We have been at the work of helping God out for so long it feels wrong to put down our tools, but we will never come into who we were meant to be as long as we continue to accommodate
these lies that obligate us to earn his love. Jesus knew this would be the hardest part of “working out our salvation” (Phil 2:12) when he said “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force” (Matt 11:12). The war we must wage is simple. We must war against any instinct that keeps us from receiving God’s great, overwhelming, completely perfect love for us as a free gift.
While reading this book did you discover slavery and orphanhood in your own heart? Did you find places where you have left the safety of sonship to return to the elemental things that have soothed your soul in the past? Have you fallen into the trap of using self-measurements to give you the feeling of being OK. Do you sometimes entertain the basic principles of this world that tell you that you must work to win the love of your Father? I know I do. Well, these are simply the signs showing we all have difficulty walking in the reality of our sonship.
It is time to overcome what is nothing more than old habits.
Sonship is ours and has been since we received Christ. It is now time to walk in it."
Find it Amazon.com, or buy it from Ben's site, Enter The Worship Circle. The ebook is coming soon.
Back To Basics
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Co-authored by Ben Pasley and Tim Thornton this book's lead author is Doug Roberts who has been Ben's pastor for a decade. The book was developed as a part of the Blue Renaissance Publishing enterprise and the helpful folks at Bookshooter.org. Find the audiopodcast of the entire conversation here.
This book is part storytelling narrative, part honest teaching, and part untempered, spontaneous conversation between three friends on the basics of living in the kingdom of God. In May of 2009 Doug Roberts, Ben Pasley , and Tim F. Thornton took an old beat up RV into the mountains near Woodland Park, Colorado and for three days did little more than fish, eat, and record conversations on foundational truths. These beautiful pictures of kingdom life become even more potent when we witness them shared between three generations of spiritual lineage--from fathers to sons.
Here are some notes from Doug's pen:
For some time people have asked me if I had teaching tapes on the
foundations. I think this is the season that the Father has release me
to write this book. There are 8 chapters in my book all dealing with
what I believe to be foundation that people need to stand and stay the
course in these days. Here is a look at the 8 foundation that will be
in my book.
1. God's Love
If you are not grounded in knowing that the Father loves you no
matter what, then the devil will always question you about the Fathers
love for you. It affects not only you loving the Father, but loving
yourself and others.
2. Walking in Forgiveness.
Lay aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you, don't give the
devil an opportunity, Let bitterness and wrath, and anger, clamor,
slander are put away from you along with malice, forgiving each other
as God in Christ also forgave you.
3. Exercising Faith.
Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to
God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek
Him.
4. Knowing the Holy Spirit.
I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He
may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world
cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know
Him because He abides with you and in you and will teach you all things
and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
5. Being in Christ.
Once you have believed in Christ for salvation, then you need to
learn how to be in Christ so you can do the works that the Father has
prepared beforehand that we would walk in Christ.
6. Practicing Righteousness.
Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.
7. Rejoicing in Suffering.
I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In
the world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the
world.
8. Ruling Your Soul.
I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.
TOM and the Goldfish Bowl
Available at the Worship Circle webstore!
You can listen to each chapter of the audiobook for free here! Find the Complete Audio Book at iTunes!
Back of the book copy:
Why does Jesus only mention Church twice in all the Bible?
What is the difference between a father and a manager?
Is the institutional Church really headed for extinction?
Just what is the Kingdom of God?
Why do we say “your church” and “my church” if there is only one Church?
This fascinating book combines fictional allegory and hard hitting insights on the Kingdom of God, the Church, and the institutions of modern Christian culture—the traditions of men. Anyone struggling to reconcile their love for Jesus with modern Christian culture and all its conflicted systems will jump up and down on the hood of their car after reading this book. It is entertaining and enlightening!
The Churchthink Series
Written with the apostle, prophet, pastor, teacher, and evangelist in mind—the entire Churchthink series is focused on equipping leadership. Ben Pasley is well known for the creation of the Enter The Worship Circle worship albums, but is fast becoming a resonant voice among the thought-architects and practitioners of organic Church family. The author presently resides at 8,500 feet above sea level in Colorado with his family, wood shop, and fly fishing gear.
Foreword by Jack Taylor
I love allegory for several reasons. It is, as in this remarkable work, often couched in fiction.
Allegory approaches through the back door when the front door is shut and sometimes locked, and by dressing up controversial truth in acceptable garb allegory may find the reader open to areas of discussion that otherwise would be avoided. In allegory one may speak hard truths so disguised as to cause the observer to lay aside defensiveness and be open to truths heretofore refused. This is just such an allegory, and just such a book.
We are good at picking up a book, reading a few chapter headings, observing the brief biography of the author, looking at the names of the endorsers, seeking for a few theological buzzwords and making a decision to lay it down because it violates some “lightly held” religious tradition. EITHER THIS BOOK WILL DEFY SUCH AN EXERCISE OR BREAK IT UP IN THE MIDST OF THE PROCESS.
Allegory can be entirely fictional and lacking in purpose or it may revolve around a truth so mighty, so indispensable to our lives, so indescribable that it sends the reader on a life-altering saga. There is no doubt in my mind that TOM and the Goldfish Bowl is the latter.
Never has the Christian world been offered so much information on the Kingdom of God and, while it is welcome, it can be overwhelming if not confusing. This work will emerge, in my opinion, among the most clarifying offerings on the delicate discussion of the Church, the Kingdom of God and the traditions of men. To the open and searching heart it will encourage us to believe that it is all right to lighten up and, with tongue in cheek, have an honest and “ouchy” look at our funny, religious selves.
Ben Pasley is a binary genius (look it up), funny, loose and loaded with good sense. Is there such a word as trinary or quadrinary? If so, that too may describe Ben.
Thanks Ben, for a novel, pertinent, and a fetching trip into a field of truth that not only challenges our practice of faith, but also helps our sense of humor as we consider our sometimes laughable religious positions. You have moved us to be 
daring dreamers of approaching seasons when we will abandon sad and senseless traditions and take up the banners of praise and worship. Because you have helped us see him as he is, we can more excitedly worship, walk and serve him as we ought.
I feel somewhat guilty about having detained you from the excitement of what’s ahead in this welcome and exciting work. But humor me, I’ve enjoyed looking it over. Now, for goodness sake get on with it!
Jack Taylor, President
Dimensions Ministries
Melbourne, Florida
November 10, 2009
Enter The Worship Circle
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Purchase Link at Enter The Worship Circle
Originally published by Relevant Books, Blue Renaissance Publishing now makes this book available in paperback. Ebooks are on the way.
Review excerpted from RealMagazine.com (January 26, 2002 by Kevin D. Hendricks):
In a time when worship has become a marketing concept, Ben Pasley pens a personal and deeply spiritual portrait of what it really means to come before the God of all creation in worship. This is not your pastor's book on worship, and it wouldn't be surprising if more than a few stuffy fundamentalists were put off by Enter the Worship Circle.
It's a book for a spiritually enlightened age, an audience that's tired of dusty religion and lifeless tradition. It's a book for the non-Christian that's curious. It's written in a sensitive way (seeker sensitive, if you like the buzz words), so much so that Jesus isn't mentioned until half way through the book, and Bible passages are often referenced as "an ancient saying." There's even a description of the crucifixion that avoids using the word "cross" and thus becomes incredibly new and original. The narrative also alternates between seven different points of view, all exploring worship from different angles. The result is easy to read, refreshing, and perfect for this multi-tasking digital age.
Pasley explores what worship really means, taking it beyond a Sunday morning sing-a-long, and the latest craze of worship CDs chockfull of repetitive praise choruses. Worshipping God is something that can happen outside a church and without any hip worship leader, and Pasley takes the reader on a journey to discover that kind of worship.
This is the kind of book more Christians should be writing, the kind of book that could be incredibly successful if it gets into the right hands. And in this case, success is not defined by best seller lists or the spawning of the latest Jabez craze (although with two CDs already out you have to wonder if Enter the Worship Circle is creating its own independent hype). Instead, success is defined in terms of lives changed by encounters with the Creator. This is the kind of book that could change lives one dog-eared copy at a time, as it's passed from searching soul to searching soul (and unfortunately for Relevant Books and Ben Pasley, it won't make anybody rich in the process--something the Christian publishing industry needs).
This book is a journey, and it should serve as a valuable guide to others' on their journey to God. Read it for a new perspective, or simply as a refresher.
Purchase Link at Amazon
Purchase Link at Enter The Worship Circle