We’re in week 4 of our series Storm: Learning to Anchor Our Hope.

This week we are looking at chapter 38 of Job and what anchors we have in the midst of heartbreaking storms. We’ll be talking about that question “why” and points of hope we can cling to.

This week’s 4th hope anchor may just be my favorite of this entire series.

If you listen in, feel free to join the conversation we have going on each week over here.

As always, the podcast is embedded on the front page of the site, on this post, as well as on iTunes. (If you are in a reader, you may need to click over for the embedded player to show up.)

Hello Ladies….can you believe we are in our 4th week already?  I so love this book.  Today we are discussing chapters 7 and 8.

I must admit that chapter 8 is one of my all time favorite chapters.   I could probably write a whole post on it…haha!

Let’s get this meeting started.

Chapter 7 ::  Disruptive Honesty

This chapter makes me think.  It makes me go back and read other stories of Jesus and see how He is very honest….but also goes about it in different ways.  That He can so soft for those who need soft and hard for those who need a firm hand.  John Eldredge tells us that “Jesus is going to tell you the truth in the best possible way for you to hear it.”

JE’s reminder that when we are reading these amazing stories,  “I am at this very moment watching love in action”  is such a big takeaway for me.  To read this disruptive honesty at times can be hard but to remember even that is love in action.

I must admit the JE steps on my toes about the not being honest because we don’t care enough.  I am too afraid to put myself out there because I have already worked it out that I will be rejected or they will get angry.

This chapter reminds me of something I have often heard, speak the truth in love.  This to me is the essential part of His disruptive honesty.  He loves and wants to rescue each of us and that means honesty…even when it is hard to hear.  And when it offends…it is  because of something within us…not the honesty.  Truth and reality are often avoided when it’s painful.

JE’s idea of open heart surgery is something I know of so well.  It has been my last year and half.  To work on seeking Him instead of myself.  To seek the truth of my life and not what I want it to be.  When is the last time you were still and ask God for the truth?

We have someone who knows us so intimately and sees our every secret, knows of our every sin, every word, every single thing within our heart and loves us regardless.  Do you understand this truth?  Do you believe this truth?

Truth is not like conviction.  Conviction might be a matter of person opinion, but truth is solid and immovable.  Christianity is not a set of convictions it is truth.  (page 79)

This is a big problem for some of us because sometimes His truth is harder to accept than our convictions.  And at times our convictions come from religious rules and not from Him.

JE’s reminder of John 1:17… both Truth and Grace come from Him.  I find such beauty in that.

The last line of this chapter is one of my favorites:

Sometimes those he reaches his hand to are so far out of the mainstream it is scandalizing. (page 80) 

Chapter 8 :: Scandalous Freedom

We see two of my most favorite encounters with Jesus in this chapter and they show a Jesus my heart is so drawn too.

First we see Jesus and the Leper.  He is not fearful to reach out and touch the leper.  He knows what He needs.  I find such beauty in this because Jesus doesn’t care that others see this man as unclean.  He just sees a man in need of love…and a human touch.  Jesus speaks and people are healed yet He takes the time to touch this man.  Mark 1:41 tells us Jesus was moved by compassion.  He knew one thing this man needed and it wasn’t a word but a touch and in His loving-kindness He touched Him.

Oh. My. Heart.

Jesus cares about the right things.  Not the politics but the people.

“The risks Jesus is willing to take with his reputation are simply stunning”.  (page 83)  What does this tell you about our Jesus that He went out of His way to love on this man?  How can you go about doing something today that is like this Jesus?

Religious rules are a downward spiral.  Justified legalism.  We all get caught up in it.  It is something I am working really hard to become less entangled with.  It’s harder than I thought…especially since it has been with the disapproval of some people in my life. Yet I cannot help that my heart wants Him and only Him.

Matthew 12:1-8 shows us an example of the disciples breaking a rule set forth by the religious institution.  Jesus defends them.  This is such a outlaw thing to do.  We see here there is a distinction in the laws of God and the law of man.

Jesus’ scandalous freedom is based on a deeper understanding of holiness, deeper than anything we know.

The story of the sinful woman in Luke 7 36-50 is my most favorite story in the whole Bible.  The woman gives Jesus all that she has.  She uses her hair and tears to wash His feet.  Her most expensive belonging to anoint Him with.  The man who invited Jesus is outraged.  He finds what she did wrong and you can tell He finds her beneath Him.  A sinner invited Him to dinner and a sinner anointed His head and washed His feet.  At the end we see the compassion, grace, and love that is Jesus.

The more you fall in love with Jesus and his genuine goodness the more you detest the false piety and shallow morality.  

He is the most remarkable man we will ever know.  He was not safe.  He broke rules.  He loved others extravagantly.  His scandalous freedom is beautiful.  He was free from religion.  Free from what others thought.  Free from false obligation. This was dangerous to the Pharisees.  

I want to be dangerous too.  

Do you?

 Now it’s your turn to share your thoughts. Join us in the community or the comments here!  

I’m still featuring quotes from the book Beautiful Outlaw every Monday for the next month.

This one comes from chapter 8 (which Christy will be discussing tomorrow here on the blog and in the community!)

Question: What do you imagine wild freedom born out of profound holiness looks like lived out?

Welcome to week 3 of our series Storm: Learning to Anchor Our Hope.

We are studying Jonah chapter 1 today and this is one of my favorite podcasts in this series! We are looking today at what happens when God sends a storm and just why He may be doing the same thing within our own lives. We’ll be looking at 4 anchors of hope within this chapter.

As always, the podcast is embedded on the front page of the site, below on this post, as well as on iTunes. (If you are in a reader, you may need to click over for the embedded player to show up.)

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the community this week/weekend. I’m going to open up a Storm Prayer thread so we can encourage one another. I hope you will check it out.

Welcome back to our book club discussion. Be honest, how many of you have read ahead? I can’t blame you! Once you get a taste of Jesus with all of His personality shining through, don’t you just want to spend every single second with Him?

This week we are discussing chapters 5 and 6 here on the blog as well as in the community. If you are reading along, I encourage you to check out the book club community thread and join in. So much goodness is being shared from the women reading along!

Alright, let’s get this thing going!

Chapter 5 – The Most Human Face of All

This chapter centers around the humanity of Jesus and the things John Eldredge writes about were nothing short of earth-shattering for me. As much as I hate to admit it, I think I really fell into the category of those who thought Jesus kind of pretended his way through his humanness. I mean He is the Son of God – was all of this really limiting for Him? Was he really hungry? Tired? Thirsty?

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Still God, but so human. It boggles the mind but it also opens the heart to a new relationship. One that feels understood. I’ve said before I read this book at a time when I so desperately needed to see Him as REAL – in the sense that He understood what it is like to be wrapped in human flesh, with human wants and desires and hopes. I needed to know it is possible to walk the hard stuff of obedience in the face of all that.

I needed to know my heart was heard and understood on a human level.

Eldredge writes, “Jesus was more human than humanity. His was the most human face of all. This is going to open up wonders for you.”

And it has!

So, for me, this chapter was freeing.

Would you say you’ve ever really sat back and thought about the full-on humanness of Jesus? What does it do to your heart, to wherever you are on this walk, to know He understands all the wants and needs and desires you’ve got going on inside your human flesh? Does it open to you a new side of your relationship with Him? 

Chapter 6-  Extravagant Generosity

I’m listening to the audiobook of Beautiful Outlaw as we read through together and I have to tell you, John Eldredge is quite the storyteller. I hope you’ve watched the Outlawcast or visted Beautiful Outlaw’s website to watch a few of the videos up.

So far this has been one of my favorite chapters to listen to John read. He says he is “thunderstruck by {Christ’s} abundant generosity strewn around” as he sits and stares at the waves rolling in along the beach. Can you relate? I grew up one mile from the beach. I was raised on sunshine and sand. So, the beach has always been a place of quiet and awe for me.  I can go there and feel God all around me.

I wonder, what is your place? Where do you go to take in the generosity of His creation? His majesty? His extravagance?

I love page 62 of this book. LOVE. It makes me feel gratitude deep in my bones and all throughout my heart. Because of things like this:

“What do we make of the gift of water? You can swim in it, but also float upon it. You can drink it and surf it. Droplets fall from the sky in staggering abundance, yet it also flows in streams and rivers. It makes one sound as a brook, another as a waterfall, and something else entirely together in the silence of snow. This extravagance is almost scandalous.”

Wow.

Scandalous extravagance. Overflowing generosity we find in Jesus. Eldredge points out Jesus’ miracles, his water into wine (908 bottles of wine!!), his interaction with the least of these. Always abundance with Him.

And then he asks, “What does sunshine tell us about the personality of Jesus? What does the gift of our senses tell us about Jesus?”

I wonder today, what does {whatever your heart personally responds to in creation or in life} tell you (and us) about the personality of Jesus?

Do. Share!

We’ll be really working through this together and sharing over in the book club community. We would love for you to join us. So much good stuff is happening over there each week. It’s become a book community of sharing and encouragement and thoughts.

We’d love to see you there!

This quote comes from Chapter 6: Extravagant Generosity. We’ll be discussing chapters 5 and 6 tomorrow in depth. For now, let’s kick our Monday Morning off with this…

Question: What do you find most beautiful about Him today?

For those of you following along with the Storm Series, here is a download that complements last week’s podcast. There is a small bit of homework involved – but a so worth it exercise!

My Hope is In

My friend Victoria who heads up Biblical Friendship (a site for women specifically ministering on the topic of friendship) has such a heart for women coming together in real relationships. She and her team are even hosting an intimate gathering this coming September with the mission of pursuing true friendship with all things fun. Check it out!

I’m not necessarily shy, I just do really well being alone. I get a sort of energy from it — just me and whatever I am doing. When I’m with other people, after a few hours, I’m ready to slip away and be by myself again to recharge.

Don’t get me wrong: I love my people and I love extroverts. So much so that I married the biggest one of all! It is just that while I will have fun at a party, I will want to leave before it is over. At my wedding, a few hours into the reception, I turned to my newly announced husband and said, “I feel like my face is going to fall off from all of the smiling. Is it the honeymoon yet?” To which he laughed and pulled me onto the dance floor for some YMCA.

I’m an introvert in an extrovert world.

{click here to continue reading…}

We are in week 2 of our series Storm: Learning to Anchor Our Hope. Today’s podcast looks at the false hopes we may be holding on to and just why they are dangerous.

We’re looking at 4 common false hopes and specifically tuning in to the words of Jesus in Matthew 7 – and His analogy of having a strong foundation during a storm.

You can listen in here on the main page of  the website, through the embedded play below, or on iTunes. 

I’ll also be asking follow up questions and having fun chats in the community we’ve started here.

]]> http://exemplifyonline.com/2012/05/03/storm-week-2-facing-false-hopes/feed/ 0 http://exemplifyonline.com/2012/05/01/beautiful-outlaw-book-club-meeting-2/ http://exemplifyonline.com/2012/05/01/beautiful-outlaw-book-club-meeting-2/#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 06:01:59 +0000 Christy http://exemplifyonline.com/?p=4040  

Hello Lovelies!

For the next few weeks Kristen and I will be switching off each week in sharing our thoughts (we will both be in the community though!) on the chapters we are reading.  We really wanted our main focus to be on the chapters we will be reading in May.  The next 10 chapters really focus in on the personality of Jesus and how He truly is.

Chapter 3

I must admit to being thrilled that I get to share my thoughts on this chapter it is one of my favorites. (Kristen’s MMM is from this chapter!)  The Playfulness of Jesus.  This chapter did so much for my heart.

The chapter begins with a great point by John Eldredge, You can learn a lot about an artist by the work they leave behind.  When we look at the art Jesus left behind we really get a glimpse into who He is.   What are do you see that He left behind?

One of my favorite things John Eldredge does is use his own personal stories.  The story of the chipmunks made me laugh and made me think.  Not only is God creative but He has also shown us His playfulness through nature.  Eldredge points out that if something in nature makes us laugh, for example the chipmunks, He did that.  Even better…. He laughs with us!

God is more playful than we are. (pg 20)  What a thought!  When we look, really look at the world, ourselves, and His Word we see His playfulness.

Orchestrated moments.   Moments of timing where you know without a doubt He had His hand in it.  I call them God moments.  I usually thought of orchestrated moments as  serious thing…. but after this chapter I see that God not only uses orchestrated moments to show us things but also to makes us laugh!

He created laughter.

Jesus laughs.

I must admit that one of my favorite take aways from this chapter is a image in my head of Jesus sitting with His friends and something funny happens and all the sudden there is a loud guffaw and the deep sound of belly laughter.  They look over…and there is Jesus laughing.  Oh what that image does to my heart.

Laughter is from God. (pg. 22)

We are meant to laugh to enjoy this life.  I have always said laughter is one of my favorite things but this chapter reminded me… it is one of His too!

I really could go on and on (Sarah and Abraham’s laughter, the meaning of Isaac…)

Laughter and God moments.  His timing shows us His humor and His playfulness with us.

What does the image of Jesus laughing do to your heart?  What does it say to you about who He is?

Share a recent orchestrated moment from Him that made you laugh. 

Chapter 4

Fierce means furiously eager, intense.

Intention means purpose.

Jesus at times has a furiously eager, intense purpose while on earth.  At times He is leisurely and playful but when the situation calls for it He is fiercely intentional.

He knows the pressure is on.  He is a hunted man (pg 32) and yet He continues with purpose to teach, travel, and heal.  He is very intentional about going about His Father’s business.

John Eldredge gives several examples of Jesus being very intense emotionally yet being very intentional with his actions.

The clearing of the temple.

The healing of the woman on the Sabbath.

The raising of Lazarus from dead.

Each time a different emotion drives him and yet his intentions remain the same.

We see His fierce intentions when something stirs Him deeply.  I am once again reminded that He is an emotional man with deep feelings of love and angry and compassion.

The scene at the temple is one some people have trouble grasping.  After reading this chapter about Jesus and his fierce intentions does this change the scene for you?  What do you see differently about it?

Are you fiercely intentional in your own life?  If so how and if not is this something you want to work toward?

Now it’s your turn to share your thoughts!  You can leave a comment (we do reply there) or even better join us in the community!  We had a great discussion last week!