If you are a mom – take some of your spare time (ha! spare time – what is that?) and read this book. I’ll be sending a link for the official review I did for another site, but just wanted to post this quote.
This is going down as a very engaging, life-changing book. It is that good. I’ve always loved the grace impetus that Elyse Fitzpatrick has in her writing – and this one is no different.
Here are my thoughts on the last two chapters.
One of the most hope-full sentences in the entire book is found in chapter 9 – “No matter how you’ve sinned or been sinned against – your identity is that of a beloved, pure bride.” Often in this world, we are categorized by our sin. Think of all the “self-help programs” or even in our churches when people know you have committed a sin – that’s what our minds shift to when we see that person in the hall or in Sunday School. Not so. This should not be. We should look at other Blood-bought Christians as Christ would – through His blood.
“We are truly alive. We are free and no longer enslaved to sin or the law.” (183) If this is true in our standing in front of a holy God – can it ever be true in the local church? How can we love each other even though we see their sin – they see our sin – how do we display Christ to ourselves and others?
“What would your life look like if you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that you were loved and that there was nothing you could do to spoil that reality?” Oh what glorious truth! How can we again live this out in the local church – in our small groups, in our play dates with other mommies, or in our ministry teams?
“I am free to serve my neighbor because I don’t need to demand to be loved – I have already been fully loved in Christ. I am free to serve my neighbor because I don’t need to be respected – Jesus knows exactly who I am.” – How much of our lives are lived in front of others, so others will see us, so that we can look good and climb ladders or get pats on the backs? This is not how the Christian life should be lived. We are who we are in Christ. Let us live there – in that reality – not keeping score or a list of things we have done. Good book on this topic: When People are Big and God is Small – by Ed Welch.
“Idolatry is crushed beneath true worship.” Oh how true. If we are focused on the gospel, sin will grow so faint (idolatry is sin).
One of my favorite genres of books is biographical. Here’s why:
1. It makes me know I’m not alone.
2. It helps you know other people.
3. It spurs you on to do things bigger than yourself.
4. It encourages you in the journey.
I’ve been reading Eat Live Run for about 6 years now. I knew Jenna, the author, was from my neck of the woods and then moved to an area with a great job (winery work) in an area I have wanted to visit and spend more time in. I loved her recipes and she was into running and yoga.
So, I finally saw this book at my local library and devoured it in one day. (Disclaimer: my boys napped a lot those hours because we were all feeling sickly).
I loved it. That’s all I can say. And I look forward to making the recipes. It makes me understand her blogs much more. Her style of writing is very personal and like you are sitting with her, having a cup of coffee, or sipping a glass of wine.
Thank you Jenna for writing your adventure – and you are about to embark on a new adventure in motherhood to a little boy.
I think I love this book more and more – the further I get in it. Thank you Elyse!
“The glorious incarnation that we’ve been considering means that we will never be alone, never separated from God.” (155) This is such amazing truth. When our sin separates us from others: family, friends, spouses – know that because of the grace and the cross of Jesus – we can never again be separated from the One who saved us.
Ephesians 5: we had this passage preached in our wedding by our pastor Andy Davis. It was an amazing sermon. You would think I would know it by now – but each time I read it something else amazes me by it. Here is what stood out to me in this reading. Listen to how it starts: Christ loved the church. Do we live by love or by law? Do we live by grace or by “do this”?
There is a song by the Gettys “Beneath the Cross of Jesus” (that may or may not be the title)… and one of my favorite lyrics: “how great the joy before us to be his perfect bride.” Every time I’ve heard that song and especially that line I think, man, I want to live a more holy life, more according to the Word of God. How erroneous of my thoughts to start there.
I have to start where this passage in Ephesians 5 starts: Christ loved the church. It is Christ’s love that makes me His perfect Bride – not my good works.
“We are Christ’s trophy wife now.” (160). I’m by no means a trophy wife to Eric. I’m not a size 6. I’m not the perfect mother for our boys. I burn food sometimes. There is dust everywhere in our home. But, the joy to know is that Christ has made me HIS trophy wife – by the blood – and is continually sanctifying me!
This was a packed chapter. What did you get out of it?
“Vaster still are the riches of God.” (Chandler)
Are you looking at a way to encourage your understanding of old, famous truths of the God of the universe? Are you interested in learning more about the God you serve? Are you wondering what this Christian thing is that people around you are talking about? Are you wondering how the gospel looks when it is plugged into the local church and in the society at large?
Matt Chandler, lead pastor of the Village Church out of Texas, wrote a book called the Explicit Gospel. When I started reading it, I thought it would be ______. It wasn’t. It was somthing totally different.
Chandler looks at the basic tenants of the gospel. If you think you don’t need this book because you read scholars and dead authors, think again. If you think you don’t need this book because you already know everything Chandler is going to say, think again. Just pick it up. Reading what you already know is sometimes a good thing. Chandler hits on main topics that have been in the news or on the mainstream conservative blogs the past few years. He does make you think. This is what his sermons do for you too. As in all things – take everything ANYONE says and put it against the TRUTHS of Scripture. What I do like about the Explicit Gospel is that there is so much Scripture in it!
Chandler ends the book by talking about the dangers of knowing the gospel. You know – knowing the gospel but not really experiencing the God of the Gospel. We, as Christians, can not just know the Gospel and be able to spout it off – we have to dwell in it, take a bath in it, marinate in it – whatever word you want to use to SATURATE yourself in this good news.
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Here is where she gets into the main point of her book – our position in Christ is one of the most IMPORTANT truths we have to believe as Christians. If we don’t believe this – than our hope is not in the Gospel.
1. God bought us back from our bondage to sin (pg 138) He created us to be in a relationship with Him. Yes we chose and freely choose every day to seek and find comfort in sin rather than seeking Christ. I’ve been focusing on freedom in my life in Christ lately. That focus has led me to think about slavery. Why would a slave, who was freed, return to a harsh master? When there is a joyous Master waiting, why would that slave willingly return to Bondage. Is it because of fear of failure, is it to only stick with what you’ve known. Oh, but the joys of the Father are so much better than the narrow slave relationship and the shackles on your wrist.
2. Every sin that we have ever or will ever commit has already been paid for, not because of our good works or resolution to do better but because we were in Christ when he died in payment for our sin. (pg 139). No matter what sin we ever commit – if we trust and hope and ground ourselves in Christ and his finished work on the cross – that sin is paid for. It doesn’t make it any less heinous of a sin – or less hurtful to God – but it is paid for. Jesus Paid it All – is true – ALL! All is a great term. It is a comforting word. Let’s believe it! Don’t live in shame and don’t keep sinning.
3. I think this statement needs to be preached to every single woman in all of our lives: churched, unchurched, saved, lost, etc. Read this: Believe it. Preach it. Allow the hope to sink in! “We now stand before God alive, not dead, cleansed, not vile, whole, not shattered, and welcomed, not sent away. We stand in complete righteousness and holiness no longer dead in our trespasses but completely and eternally alive in him.” (pg 140) How can we lead ourselves and the ladies we minister to to believe this and walk in this truth?
4. We have been given Christ’s perfect record of always having obeyed, and second, we have been given a new heart, a heart like his, one that desires to obey out of love. (pg 143). If we tell ourselves or tell others that we obey out of law – than we are leading them astray. The only thing the law does, or legalism, is to prove that we are sinners. We will fail. And mostly likely we will live in that failure and continue the cycle of trying and failing, trying and failing.
This is a pivotal chapter in how we counsel our own souls and how we counsel other women. We can’t let them believe the lies that the enemy tells them – that they have to be perfect – that we have to be perfect. We will never measure up. But – we have and serve and love and our loved by one who measured up perfectly. Let’s always tell our women that truth!
