Friendship with God: An Uncommon Dialogue - Hardcover

Walsch, Donal Neale

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375410414 ISBN 13: 9780375410413

Verlag: Random House USA Inc, 1999

Inhaltsangabe

The first book in a new series by the multimillion-copy bestselling author of Conversations with God.

Neale Donald Walsch has changed the way millions of Americans think about God. His Conversations with God series, book 1, book 2, and book 3, have all been New York Times bestsellers- book 1 for over two years.

The essence of Neale Donald Walsch's message lies at the heart of faith- the sacred place in every person, where he stands alone with his God. Walsch urges each of us to forge our own unique relationship with God, a God who is everywhere and speaks to us in all we do. It is up to us to stop and listen. It is up to us to respond...to begin the conversation. And a conversation is the first step, just as in any relationship, in establishing trust, in building friendship, in creating communion.

In Friendship with God, Neale Donald Walsch shares the next part of his journey, and leads us to deepen and strengthen our own bonds with God. He honors our heart's desire: a closer connection, richer and fuller. A friendship with God.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Neale Donald Walsch is the author of the New York Times bestsellers: Conversations with God book 1, book 2, and book 3, as well as Meditations from Conversations with God book 1, and book 2, and the Conversations with God book 1 Guidebook. Walsch lectures and hosts workshops throughout the country, in addition to running his foundation, ReCreation. His books have been translated into twenty-two languages. He lives in Oregon.

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Friendship with God

An Uncommon DialogueBy Neale Donald Walsch

Random House Large Print Publishing

Copyright ©1999 Neale Donald Walsch
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0375410414

Introduction

Try telling someone that you've just had a conversation with God and see whathappens.

Never mind. I can tell you what happens.

Your whole life changes.

First, because you've had the conversation, second, because you've told someoneabout it.

To be fair, I should say that I did more than have a conversation. I've had asix-year dialogue. And I did more than "tell" someone. I kept a written recordof what was said and sent it to a publisher.

Things have been very interesting ever since. And a little surprising.

The first surprise was that the publisher actually read the material and evenmade it into a book. The second surprise was that people actually bought thebook, and even recommended it to their friends. The third surprise is that theirfriends recommended it to their friends, and even made it into a bestseller. Thefourth surprise is that it is now sold in twenty-seven countries. The fifthsurprise is that any of this was surprising, given who the coauthor was.

When God tells you He's going to do something, you can count on it. God alwaysgets Her way.

God told me, in the middle of what I thought was a private dialogue, that "thiswill one day become a book." I didn't believe Him. Of course, I haven't believedtwo-thirds of what God has been telling me since the day I was born. That's beenthe problem. Not just with me, but with the whole human race.

If we would just listen ...

The book that was published was called, unoriginally enough, Conversations withGod. Now you may not believe that I've had such a conversation, and I have noneed for you to believe it. It doesn't change the fact that I did. It simplymakes it easier, if you choose to do so, to dismiss out of hand what I was toldin that conversation?which some people have done. On the other hand, there havebeen many people who have not only agreed that such a conversation is possible,but have also made communicating with God a regular part of their own lives. Notjust one-way communicating, but communicating two ways. Those people havelearned to be careful about who is told of this, however. It turns out that whenpeople say they talk to God every day, they're called devout, but when peoplesay that God talks to them every day, they're called crazy.

In my case, that's perfectly okay. As I've said, I have no need for anyone tobelieve anything that I say. In fact, I'd rather that people listen to their ownhearts, find their own truths, seek their own counsel, access their own wisdom,and, if they wish, have their own conversations with God.

If something I say leads them to do that?causes them to question how they'vebeen living, and what they've believed in the past, brings them to a place oflarger exploration of their own experience, moves them to make a deepercommitment to their own truth?then the sharing of my experience will have beena pretty good idea.

I think this was the idea all along. In fact, I'm convinced of it. That's whyConversations with God became a bestseller, as did books 2 and 3, whichfollowed. And I think the book you are now reading has found its way into yourhands to once again cause you to wonder, to explore, and to search for your owntruth?but this time on an even larger topic: Is it possible to have more than aconversation with God? Is it possible that you can have an actual friendshipwith God?

This book says yes, and it tells you how. In God's own words. For in this book,happily, our dialogue continues, taking us to new places, and powerfullyreiterating some of what has been told to me earlier.

I am learning that this is how my conversations with God proceed. They arecircular, reviewing what has already been given, then dazzlingly spiraling intonew territory. This two-steps-forward, one-step-back approach allows me to keepin mind previously shared wisdom, planting it firmly in my consciousness inorder to form a solid basis for further understanding.

That is the process here. It is not without design. And while at first thisprocess is a bit frustrating, I have come to deeply appreciate its workings. Forby planting God's wisdom firmly into our consciousness, we affect ourconsciousness. We awaken it. We elevate it. And as we do so, we understand more;we come to remember more of Who We Really Are, and we begin to demonstrate that.

In these pages I am going to share a little about my past, and about how my lifehas changed since the publication of the Conversations with God trilogy. A lotof folks have asked me about all that, and that's understandable. They want toknow something about this person who says he's having casual chats with the OneUpstairs. Yet that's not why I'm including these anecdotes. Snippets of my"personal story" are part of this book not to satisfy people's curiosity, but toshow how my life demonstrates what it's like to have a friendship with God?andhow all of our lives demonstrate the same thing.

That's the message, of course. All of us have a friendship with God, whether weknow it or not.

I was one of those who didn't know. Nor did I know where that friendship couldtake me. That is the great surprise here; that is the wonder. Not so much thatwe can and do have a friendship with God, but what that friendship was designedto bring us?and where it can take us.

We are on a journey here. There is a purpose for this friendship we're beinginvited to develop, a reason for its being. Until recently, I did not know thereason. I was not remembering. Now that I am, I no longer fear God, and that haschanged my life.

On these pages (and in my life) I still ask plenty of questions. But now I alsoprovide answers. That's the difference here. That's the change. I am nowspeaking with God, not merely to God. I am walking alongside God, not simplyfollowing God.

It is my deepest wish that your life will be changed in the same way as mine;that you, too, with the help and guidance of this book, will develop a very realfriendship with God, and that as a result, you also will speak your word andlive your life with a new authority.

It is my hope that you will no longer be a seeker, but a bringer, of the Light.For what you bring is what you will find.

God, it seems, is not looking for followers so much as leaders. We can followGod, or we can lead others to God. The first course will change us, the secondcourse will change the world.

? Neale Donald Walsch
Ashland, Oregon
July 1999

Chapter One

I remember exactly when I decided I should be afraid of God. It was when He saidthat my mother was going to hell.

Okay, He didn't say it, exactly, but somebody said it on His behalf.

I was about six years old, and my mother, who considered herself somewhat of amystic, was "reading the cards" at our kitchen table for a friend. People cameto the house all the time to see what sort of divinations my mother couldextract from an ordinary deck of playing cards. She was good at it, they said,and word of her abilities quietly spread.

As Mom was reading the cards on this particular day, her sister paid a surprisevisit. I remember that my aunt was not very happy with the scene that sheencountered, when, knocking once, she came bursting in through the back screendoor. Mom acted as if she'd been caught red-handed doing something she wasn'tsupposed to be doing. She made an awkward introduction of her lady friend andgathered up the cards quickly, stuffing them into her apron pocket.

Nothing was said about it in...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Random House USA Inc
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1999
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0375410414
• ISBN 13: 9780375410413
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 464
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Purmerul LTD; https://strengholt.nl/en/; ; 22 Liuleburgaz Str., floor 4, app. 9; Plovdiv; Bulgarien