Wild at Heart | Week 11

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Week 11 | An Adventure to Live

Weather | 65° F | Humidity 97% | Wind: 0mph CALM

6 Pax concluded the book study at Adventure Park at 6:15 for the final week of Wild at Heart.  Thank you to all the HIM that posted, and thank you Ripken for the wake up call. This week concluded the Wild At Heart study. We are still throwing around ideas of what to cover next. The next semester starts on February 9th. If you have any ideas please let me know. Until then we are operating week-to-week.

The reading assignment was Chapter 11 – An Adventure to Live and Chapter 12 (Finish the Book).

We began by watching this video: Wild Life with John Eldredge – Part 4

Life is not a problem to be solved, it is an adventure to be lived.

Asking the Right Question

  • God speaks to John Eldredge through books: “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
  • Don’t ask the world what you should do with yourself.
  • John Eldredge chose to not take his “False Self” path in life and accept the comfortable career move. Instead John chose to follow God, into the unknown wilderness and trust him.

What Are You Waiting For?

  • What would have happened if Abraham, Moses, Paul chose to not take the risk?
  • Most men spend all the energy of their lives trying to eliminate risk, or squeezing it down to a more manageable size.
  • Men tend to seize upon some sort of worldly competence, and reject things that cannot be controlled.
  • Mark 8:36 (NIV) What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?
  • You sacrifice your soul and true power when you insist on controlling things.
  • Movie Never Cry Wolf | Engine cuts out, pilot climbs out gets it running, avoids crash.
  • The soul of a man is made for adventure.
  • The goal of Christian discipleship is the transformed heart; we move from a boy who needs the Law to the man who is able to live by the Spirit of the law.
  • Galatians 5:16, 23 (MSG) My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness…Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way.
  • To recover his heart’s desire, a man needs to get away from the noise and distraction of his daily life for some time with his soul.

Into the Unknown

  • The greatest obstacle to realizing our dreams is the false self’s hatred of mystery.
  • “Naturally, we are inclined to be so mathematical and calculating that we look upon uncertainty as a bad thing…Certainty is the mark of the common-sense life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, we do not know what a day may bring forth. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness; it should rather be an expression of breathless expectation.” — Oswald Chambers
  • There are no formulas with God, so naturally there are no formulas for the man who follows him.
    • Battle of Jericho – March around the city blowing trumpets, worked great. Never used again.
    • Gideon’s 300 men – Torches and water pots. Never used again.
    • Jesus never healed the blind the same way twice.
  • “Never make a principle out of your experience; let God be as original with other people as he is with you.”
  • We know how to attend church, how to be nice, but we don’t really know how to fight, and we’re going to have to learn as we go.

From Formula to Relationship

  • The Christian man is not irresponsible. Our false self demands a formula before he will engage.
  • The only way to live in this adventure is to have an ongoing intimate relationship with God.
  • John 15:15 (NIV) I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
  • “What are you teaching me here God?”
  • “What are you asking me to do…or let go of?”
  • “What in my heart are you speaking to?”

Chapter 12 – Writing the Next Chapter

  • Don’t ask yourself what the world needs.
  • What is the life you want to live?
  • What is God calling you to through the deep desires of your heart?
“The place where God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” — Frederick Buechner

Homework for 12/22 | Read The Christmas Story: Matthew 1-2 & Luke 1-2.

Ripken is leading a discussion of the Christmas Story on Saturday 12/22.

Thoughts for the week:

What must it have been like for Joseph and Mary to deliver their first born in such an environment? The Savior of the world entered this world in the humblest of ways.