Excerpts from "Beautiful Outlaw" By: John Eldredge
What if we could experience everything we've seen about Jesus in this book? What if it were available? Why, then, don't people talk more about this? Where are the encounters with this magnificent Jesus? Permit me to attempt an answer with a parable.
One day a man decided to board himself up inside his house. He sealed off the doors, the windows, even the chimney. He left only one opening - the kitchen window - through which anyone who wished to speak to him was forced to speak. Fortunately, there were people that still wished to speak to him, so they called on the man at his kitchen window.
Over the years this fellow came to the conclusion that the world was such a place in which people only speak to one another through kitchen windows. He wrote a book in which he argued that human discourse cannot and does not take place in any other way than through kitchen windows.
The Kitchen Window School was founded shortly after his death.
Our experience of Jesus is limited most often by the limits we put on him! A painful truth, but also a hopeful one. Perhaps we can take down some of those barriers.
Most of the limits we put on Jesus happen unconsciously. Some times we place the limits intentionally. And of course a trainload is dumped on us by our context (in which case the parable could begin, "One day a man was boarded up inside his house by his past," or "by the leaders of his religious community"). But I'm not looking to fix blame. I'm trying to help us find Jesus. As I said at the beginning of the book, though Jesus has been vandalized by both religion and the world, He is still alive and very much Himself. He's still the same beautiful outlaw, with the same personality - though it does require removing some debris nowadays to know Him as He truly is.
Step one to a deeper experience with Jesus is knowing what to look for. That's why we have been looking at His personality, setting Him free from the religious marshmallow. If you can hang on to this, an entire new world will open up for you. This is a Jesus you can actually love because this is who He is.
Step two invloves removing some of the debris that has been piled in the way, so that we can begin to experience Him, share our lives with Him. For example, if you believe, for whatever reason, that "Jesus doesn't speak to me," it's going to be hard to hear Him speaking to you. Or believe it actually was Him when He does. For the very same reasons, if you hold in your heart that "Jesus doesn't really love me," then it will be awfully hard to experience the love of Jesus. Are you following me?
It is a stunning realization: You will find Jesus pretty much as you expect.
Not because He is exactly as you expect him to be, but because He would be known by you, and you have insisted He act only within the boundaries you've set. You've insisted He call at the kitchen window. Jesus will accept those terms of engagement for a while - like a loving parent will do with their teenager - because He wants relationship with you. He'll suffer these limits for years. This explains why one denomination experiences Christ one way, and another denomination experiences Him differantly. And why both are missing massive portions of His personality. They created rules, outside of which they forbid Him to act.
Peter tried this at the Last Supper, when he farbade Jesus to wash his feet. Friends, you don't want to be telling Jesus what He can and can't do. So, the best place to begin and one of the most powerful things you could ever pray is this:
I renounce every limit I have ever placed on Jesus. I renounce every limit I have placed on Him in my life. I break all limitations, renounce them, revoke them. Jesus, forgive me for restraining you in my life. I give you full permission to be yourself with me. I ask you for you - for the real you.
For more on this amazing book go to www.ransomedheart.com or visit the exclusive Beautiful Outlaw website where you can watch a trailer for the book, download small group video's and user guide for free at www.beautifuloutlaw.com
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