1. Paradise Lost

2. On Earth there are some beautiful places that intrigues us that there is a place in the future, prepared for us by God….
Called Paradise.
Look at some of the spectacular things found on our Earthly Paradises.

3. Largest flower found in tropical environments

4. Wofflia (Smallest flower) also found in Paradise Tropics

5. The Corpse Flower Grown in the TROPICAL PARADISE

6. Question: What was Paradise originally like?
Was it even more beautiful than the Paradise Tropics we find here?

7. What did we lose?

8. “We are the sons and daughters of God, even more we are pursued by the love of God himself.”

9. The Sacred Romance of God
Write down all that you recall of your future hope. The things that God has promised for your eternity.

10. In light of these things, is there enough strength, courage and energy to live our lives out victoriously for the Lord? Why or why not?

11. But something is amiss…
The presence of the “other voice” that whispers in our ear, in “minor and condemning tones.
It’s a “key that dilutes even erases the truth John (in Revelation) has portrayed so well.

12. What effect upon your personal walk
What effect upon your personal walk? Which of these two is more apt to depict how you feel about life’s Sacred Romance.

13. Have you ever noticed the sound of this “familiar voice and how it seems to correspond to “words and accusations we have heard from our peers, parents or enemies of our youth?” (99)

14. But what is the Source of the persistent accusations in our head and heart?
Is this the voice that has had the last word during life’s unknowns and disappointments?

15. Have you believed this to be God’s voice?
If so, what impact has it made upon your life as a believer?

16. Identifying the “great antagonist, the great villain” of our Sacred Romance story is crucial, for then we realize all other “villains are only a shadow of him.”
(pg.101) I Pet. 5:8

17. What important facts do we NEED to know about the enemy of our souls
What important facts do we NEED to know about the enemy of our souls? How can this help us live more joyously in a Fallen world of uncertainty?

18. Have you ever wondered what is this fight we have come into the middle of is about? This fight between Satan and God? (Read ) in SR; an excerpt from Miltons’s “Paradise Lost.”

19. Have you ever considered this to be a vicious plot of Satan to “wound God as deeply as possible by stealing the love of His beloved through seduction?” (104).
That is was actually a “warfare for our hearts’ devotion?” (106).

20. “The one purpose of his heart is the destruction of all that God loves

21. Respond to this idea.
Eldredge suggests that it isn’t individual sins that Satan is tempting us to commit, but rather “his grand tactic in separating us from our heart is to sneak in as the Storyteller through the fears and wounds we have received from life’s Arrows. (108)

22. His purpose is to make God appear to be our enemy.

23. To look like this….

24. Is that true???? Is that what the voice has caused us to believe?
How and why?
Who are we to
Believe?