Sensing God: Experiencing the Divine in Nature, Food, Music, and Beauty

By Joel Clarkson

Book Overview

Did God Give Us Our Senses So that We Could Enjoy Him More?
Sensing God is a discovery of Jesus in all of the sensory points embedded into each of us. It shows how the holiest acts in our daily lives are often the simplest: reveling in the beauty of nature; listening to our favorite music; eating a nourishing meal with family. These are potentially heartbeats of a living faith, and when we learn to recognize and respond to God's goodness in them, it draws us into redemptive participation with Him, the source of all beauty.

Joel Clarkson shares personal stories and paints vivid imagery so that we, too, can taste and see (and hear and touch and smell) that the Lord is good. In our exploration, we meet Jesus, who invites us to enjoy his presence and proclaim his visible, tangible, and touchable gospel. We physically experience the glory of our Creator and at the same time, we make that encounter a testimony to a broken world that is desperate for restoration. We are encouraged to get the good dirt of God's holy world under our nails.

Together, we will come into contact with the God who reaches out to us with His eternal truth through the goodness of beauty. Will you join the journey? Come and learn how to truly worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1641582081
• ISBN13: 9781641582087
• Release Date: January 2021
• Publisher: NavPress Publishing Group
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Refreshing 2021 Read

I think I've been longing for this book for years now without knowing. While Clarkson would probably say that I was not longing for this BOOK as much as I was longing for sensate worship of God, I believe that this book has emboldened me in the freedom of experiencing God through my senses. I'm a bullet point gal, so here's a list of reasons this book was amazing: - Clarkson pulls from SO MANY Christian traditions. From Catholic, to Orthodox, to Presbyterian, to Anglican, he has included such a diverse array of Christian thought. Not only does this make his ideas more widely appealing to Christians of all backgrounds, it strengthens his argument that worshipping God with our senses is an orthodox Christian practice and not simply a denominational preference. - It is BEAUTIFULLY written. Clarkson does not sacrifice content for fluffy adjectives. He writes compelling arguments and narratives while maintaining depth and beauty. - It is already changing the way I live. I take walks now just to look at the sky and listen to the birds. I don't feel the need to crowd every worship moment with a sermon or podcast on theology. I enjoy incense and candles. I have begun to recognize the holy necessity of fasting. The ideas in this book feel so rudimental, and yet they have been buried under the Western push for intellectualism over embodied practice. Read this book. It is moving and eloquent and sincere.