Soul Passion: The Intentional Life

Dr Ramesh Richard teaches Spirit Life and is the head of the Pastoral Ministries department of Dallas Theological Seminary. He hails from India, and every New Year's Day he preaches to literally millions of Third World sinners the gospel of Jesus Christ. But before there was Rick Warren and the 'Purpose Driven Life,' Richard wrote the Intentional Life Trilogy of which Soul Passion is the first. It is an easy to read book and can, in fact, be read in two sittings or one if you can really concentrate. Richard proposes that we live what he calls an 'intentional life,' a life where we plan and execute that plan to the glory of God. He correctly observes that most of us - all of us at some points in time - live a life without intent or purpose. He also notes that the primary characteristic of those who succeed at suicide is having no purpose to one's life. Richard argues both for purpose and pursuit of holiness in Christ. This book will bless your life.

What do you love enough to die for?That's the question professor and philosopher Ramesh Richard asks in his latest book, SOUL PASSION. The first installment in The Intentional Life Trilogy, SOUL PASSION encourages the Christian reader to restructure his or her personal existence from aimless, random living to what Richard calls "intentional" living. The author envisions Christians who eschew mediocre, unexamined lives and consciously seek to do God's will. And the first step is identifying one's passion."Passion and intentionality are verbal and existential synonyms. Nobody follows passion unintentionally, or it wouldn't be passion. The first constituent of the intentional life, of the supreme purpose, is passion, for one chooses the ultimate object of his love. People choose what they are willing to live and die for, suffer and sacrifice for ... True passion considers the cost but still pursues the object passionately. That kind of passion launches intentional living with core love permeating every part of life. Your passion gives you convictions about what is ultra-important to you, the criteria by which all of life is driven, gains energy, and continues."This passion is the foundation of the metaphorical building that is an intentional life and Richard goes on to describe its components, encourage its wise development, and offer reminders to nurture it. As in Scripture, Richard emphasizes that it is Christ who should be our foundation --- our true passion.The author's insights are at their most keen when they expose our tendency to mistake activity for purpose, motion for intentionality. His lengthy introduction systematically attempts to create purpose apart from Christ, and he spends a great deal of time describing what an intentional life is not before delving into what an intentional life is."Systematic" is an apt description of SOUL PASSION. While Richard offers many illustrations of his ideas, the book's outline is in clear view and can at times feel like a primer for a fill-in-the-blank exam. The author, an internationally known professor and doctor of philosophy, has obviously tried to write in an accessible manner, but there are inadvertent flexes of his academic muscle reflected in his systematic format and some vocabulary (nomenclature, ontological, etc.). The tradeoff is a more comprehensive look at the philosophical and biblical understanding of different approaches to life than most books in the genre offer.These characteristics of the book may be strengths or weaknesses depending on the proclivities of the individual reader, but they do little to obscure what is a fundamentally sound approach to building a personal foundation for the Christian life. The final two books in The Intentional Life Trilogy, SOUL MISSION (due out in February) and SOUL VISION, promise to continue Richard's "life as a building" metaphor and provide guidance for developing a thriving ground floor (mission) and defining the superstructure (vision).So, what

I got the "Soul Passion" as a gift and was ready to put it in the pile of "to be read" books. I had a spare moment so I read the first page...and then I couldn't put it down. After ten pages, I stopped to get a yellow highlighter and started over. Ramesh's work is now on the short list of books that I will read every year. God blessed his labor as he wrote this life changing book.