Rating: 
Summary: A Life-Altering Read...
Review: I am a very immature Christian and am seeking to be more intimate with God and to understand more of who He is. This book was the answer for me. I never understood just how much God loves us. I never understood that a love of such magnitude could exist. Not only does this book guide us to tap into that love and discard our "false selves", but it does so in such an entertaining and emotional way. Curtis and Eldredge use popular movies, songs, poetry, life experiences to vividly and creatively illustrate concepts that are hard to imagine. If this book could hold my attention, it can hold anyone's attention. I'm currently reading this book for the second time.
Rating:
Summary: God's Passion
Review: The Sacred Romance is a journey of love. This book is crucial to any Christian struggling through their faith. It truly is a stream to any dry heart. I highly recommend this "love letter from God" , especially to those long-time believers who have (in our service and striving ) forgotten the wildness of our God.It captures the essence of a follower of Christ-total passion and wild abandonment to the Lover of our hearts. In memoirs,poetry excerpts,and personal examples from their lives,John Eldredge and Brent Curtis make you passengers on their journey of recapturing their First Love. This book is among the best I've ever read- you will never look at life the same way!
Rating:
Summary: Captivating
Review: This book has captivated my heart. The authors put into words what I have been experiencing my entire life. It has helped me fall even more in love with God, who is good and can be trusted.
Rating:
Summary: What are you longing for?
Review: When I read this book, I found myself just consuming it. To me, it seemed that this book revealed what it is in each of us that craves more, that wants more out of life. Everyone wants something, but everyone who gets what they think they want always find that it falls short. This book explains that craving as our desire for God that many people don't recognize. I am also a big movie buff. This book used several movie examples which I thought was wonderful. So many people see movies as too secular to find God in them, whereas these authors seemed to see that many movies draw from that same hunger we have for God. Read this book if you find yourself longing for something more.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Principals bad Theology
Review: "If there's anything necessary to your eternal happiness but God, you're not the kind of Christian that you ought to be. For only God is the true rest." A.W. Tozer, Attributes of God, (c) 1997, pg. 30"The issues I have with this book is not so much the principals, but the ideas and examples used to back up some of these principals. "Listen to you heart" is their plea - but to whom?? and I thought it was unwise to follow you heart???
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9
They later state, "it is God speaking to us in our heart".
But they never say who this is for. See Romans 8:9 and Col 1:27 Though this book covers some issues of the heart, it does so in a manner that leaves any serious Bible Student with more questions than answers because it puts forth ideas with little or no biblical backing. This book is both unclear and poorly written.
"Pursuit of God" by A.W. Tozer is a much better on the true issues of the heart, between the creator and humanity.
Rating:
Summary: The Great Romance
Review: This book is absolutely magnificent. It puts into words many thoughts I have had my entire life. It awakens the passion within the human soul.
Rating:
Summary: Change your heart
Review: This book is amazing. The authors poetic writing style captures the essence of what our relationship with God should be. I recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: A cup of cool water on a hot day!
Review: The Sacred Romance was such a refreshing read. Perhaps it was just the timing in which I read the book, but I would recommend it to everyone. Here's why: The opening chapter of the book (The Lost Life of the Heart) spoke to me very strongly - it made my heart pound. I have never had a book do that to me before. I was the one the authors wrote about in the first chapter. It describes what happens when we come to a point of being burned out in our spiritual life - or perhaps is it better to say overwhelmed by the weight of everything around us. It is so easy to be distracted into focusing on our own little stories. The authors guide the reader to remember that God is up to something big. He is working out in history His own big story. Each of our lives is a little story within that big story. However, so many people get caught up in their own little story, that they forget that God has a role for them in His big story. This causes us to lose heart along the way. Our problems overwhelm us when we forget God's big story. Okay, but why is this book so good at reminding us of that? The authors paint the picture of a wild God - the Lover of our souls who pursues us restlessly. They look thoroughly at both the Old Testament and the New Testament. But, this book isn't preachy. The authors go beyond Scripture, while staying Scriptural. They look at Literature and Cinema, old and new. What is this longing presented to us throughout history - why all the stories of the lost love pursued by her lover? Because, deep down inside, we all want to be loved and pursued. The authors show us that the Bible presents us with the story of the Lover of our souls pursuing us. God longs to meet our deepest needs. The authors claim that the intimacy God desires to share with us is "an intimacy much more sensuous, much more exotic than sex itself" (p. 161). Ask yourself what the following names have to do with God. Forrest Gump, A River Runs Through It, When Harry Met Sally, Robert Frost, Soren Kierkegaard, The Hobbit, Cinderella, Alice In Wonderland, Henry V, Pilgrim's Progress, and Helen of Troy. These, and more, are used to teach us what God wants from us. Chapter 12 (Coming Home) was worth the price of the book. I have only one negative comment. I was frustrated by the incomplete bibliography. Hey, it's the scholar in me. I loved this book so much that I bought a copy for every Sunday School teacher that teaches under my ministry. This is the best book on the overall message of the Bible that I have ever read. I believe everyone, not only Christians, should read this book. I believe it will help non-Christians see what Christians believe, even if the non-Christians don't agree with our beliefs. It will be worth your time and money!
Rating: 
Summary: Okay, But Definitely NOT Outstanding
Review: I must admit that the hype surrounding this book may have raised my expectations too high. Curtis and Eldridge provide a new perspective here on a human being's need for a love relationship with God. While containing many references to the Scriptures, the basic themes within the book are elaborations on Biblical truth rather than expositions of Biblical truth. In other words, this volume is built AROUND the Bible rather than UPON the Bible. The fresh, vivid nature of this work may motivate some readers to open their hearts to a more intimate walk with Jesus Christ. After reading Eldredge's third volume in this series, "Wild at Heart" and being favorably impressed, I was disappointed in the quality of this initial undertaking. A far better book on the same subject is A.W. Tozer's "The Pursuit of God."
Rating:
Summary: By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us.
Review: God has really used this book to spark desire in my heart for himself. That is no small thing for a woman raised in the church, with an eye for sound doctrine. I had come to the point of knowing all the right things to do and the discipline needed to get them done. When I read this book for the first time my heart just cried with desire to walk and talk wtih this God so full of love. It really brought the Old Testament to life for me as well. Before I never saw love, just holiness and sometimes punishment. But now I can see how God has always been pursuing hearts. I don't really understand why anyone would feel this book dismisses the sovereign holiness of God. The Bible so wonderfully tells us He is both holy and he is the lover of my soul. We don't have to chose one or the other. I believe God has used the creative pen of these men to remind us of the passion of the cross.
| 
