Beautiful Outlaw Review
What a powerful and wonderful insight into Jesus, Beautiful Outlaw provides. I loved reading this book and it formed the basis of a sermon (or exhortation) that I gave a couple of years ago. It is one of the few sermons I have given where I had people hugging me in tears of joy. I am not a hugger, just so you know!
Consider reading this article for more about the name we have taken on in joining Jesus.
Beautiful Outlaw: Experiencing the Playful, Disruptive, Extravagant Personality of Jesus
Author: John Eldredge
Genre: Religious
First Take: I really liked this book
When did I read it? Sept 2018
Details:
For Christians who think of the Lord only in terms of his mission and the enormous responsibility that he bore, this book is going to challenge you enormously. I gave a presentation based on this book in a pretty relaxed place and found that I had never had so many positive comments on a presentation and even there, there were apparently people who struggled with some aspects of what I presented.
On the other hand, read this quote and tell me you aren’t blown away!
“We need Jesus like we need oxygen. Like we need water. Like the branch needs the vine. Jesus is not merely a figure for devotions. He is the missing essence of your existence. Whether we know it or not, we are desperate for Jesus.”
But there are quotes like this too:
“He is the playfulness of creation, scandal and utter goodness, the generosity of the ocean and the ferocity of a thunderstorm; he is cunning as a snake and gentle as a whisper; the gladness of sunshine and the humility of a thirty-mile walk by foot on a dirt road.”
The book challenges us to see Jesus as a Man first and foremost as well as the Son of God. We are called to know God and Jesus who He sent. Unless you see a three dimensional Jesus, you cannot claim to know him.
This book for me, really shows Jesus as a three dimensional, human and humorous and passionate person who just happened to be the Son of the Creator of the Universe.
Again, like most of John’s books, we are not getting deep and rigorous scholarship, we are getting something based on scholarship but instead challenging us to look again and in a different light at our Lord and Master.