Book Reviews,  Christianity

Tim Challies on John Eldredge’s New Book

Tim Challies is sharing excerpts from John Eldredge’s strange new book Beautiful Outlaw. What’s strange about it? It’s the stories Eldredge tells about the various ways God communicates with him through signs and visions. But these aren’t your run-of-the-mill charismatic expressions; they’re pretty weird. In one vision, Eldredge claims that Jesus was wearing a pirate hat. In one sign, Eldredge claims that God gave him a heart-shaped piece of manure to show how much He loved him. I’m not making this up.

You can go follow all of this at Tim Challies’ blog. I’ll print the first to excerpts below.

Excerpt 1:

I have had similar encounters with Jesus in healing prayer. Last year, as a wise old sage was praying with me through some of the painful memories of my life, I was immediately reminded of the time in middle school when my first girlfriend broke my heart. These wounds can linger for a lifetime if you let them—the first cut is the deepest, and all that. We asked Jesus to take me back to the memory. I saw us, the girl and me; it was that fateful summer day. We were in the living room, just as it happened. Then I saw Jesus enter the room. He was quite stern with her, and it surprised me. That mattered to you? I wondered. Very much, he said.

Then Jesus turned to me. I felt his love. I realized I could let the whole thing go. It was so healing. To understand that Jesus is angry about what happened to you is very, very important in understanding his personality but also in your relationship with him and for your healing. What I love about these encounters is that every time—every time—Jesus is so true to his real personality. Sometimes fierce, sometimes gentle, always generous, and often very playful.

My son was having a tough freshman year at college. So many students there are bound under the religious fog. It was a lonely fall, filled with misunderstanding. One afternoon, just after a classmate said something particularly hurtful to him, Blaine returned to his room and slumped onto his bed, about as low as a young man can get. He looked over to his desk, and “saw” Jesus sitting there, in his desk chair, a smile on his face. He was wearing a pirate hat. Then he disappeared. A whiff of the Emmaus road.

Excerpt 2:

I was going to call this book Jesus of a Thousand Hearts, because of the way he continually breaks into my life. He “speaks” to me through hearts. I’ll find stones in the shape of hearts in rivers where I’m fishing. I’ve seen them almost step-by-step up a mountainside when on a grueling climb. Praying in the morning I’ll look out the window and passing by will be a heart-shaped cloud. Dinner rolls, seashells, stains on my jeans. I’ve won the lottery when it comes to hearts from Jesus. But I am ashamed to admit that last summer, I grew a little impatient with them. I was going through a trying time and seeking God for the answer to many questions. Often, he would simply give me a heart in reply. I’d be walking down the sidewalk, and there in the cement see a heart-shaped hole, made by a bubble when they poured the sidewalk.

I actually grew a little dismissive of them. I didn’t want hearts—I wanted answers.

So, Jesus stopped giving these treasures of our friendship.

Last fall, while walking through an alpine meadow bow hunting, I was asking him, How come you don’t give me hearts anymore? I asked it in a pouting kind of way. At that moment something gray caught my eye. I looked down midstride, and there in the grass, about as big as a dinner plate, was a dried piece of cow manure—in the perfect shape of a heart.

If I didn’t know Jesus adores me, if I didn’t know he is playful, and if our relationship didn’t allow me to receive a playful tease, I might have misinterpreted the icon. But I loved it. It was both, Oh, so now you want a heart? and, I adore you still. A cow-pie heart. That is so Jesus. Wish I’d taken a photo of it—we could have put it on the cover of this book.

10 Comments

  • Kamilla

    Just when I begin to wonder who in the world would publish this dreck, I find that Eldredge has moved over to Faithwords – and is keeping comany there with Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer and Gloria Copeland.

    Figures.

    Kamilla

  • Charles Eldridge

    My reply used to be “No relationship to the Wild-at-Heart Eldredge. I spell mine Eldridge, not Eldredge.”

    Now it will be “No relationship to the pirate-hat-Jesus or manure-heart-Jesus Eldredge. I spell mine Eldridge, not Eldredge, and I am very skepical about Jesus dressing up like Jack Sparrow or giving poo as a present.”

  • John

    It wasn’t a cow…it was a bull.

    And does anyone else get offended by Eldredge’s touchy-feely Jesus? If I didn’t know Jesus adores me, if I didn’t know he is playful, and if our relationship didn’t allow me to receive a playful tease, I might have misinterpreted the icon.

    A poo-icon? I smell a marketing opportunity, pun intended. And Jesus is certainly playful – like the time he playfully took a whip of cords through the temple and adoringly teased the merchants with a good flogging.

    The truth is, I’m jealous. Eldredge gets to interpret cow-pies while bow hunting, and all Jesus gave me was a book. I’m such a girly-man.

  • Kamilla

    John,

    Just wait util the Unemployed Philosopher’s Guild gets a hold of it. They’ll be selling plasticene heart-shaped cow patties embossed with, “Jesus lurvs YOU”.

    Kamilla

  • Daniel

    Eldredge and I live in the same town, so now every time I see a heart I will think, “Is that one for me or for Eldredge?” How could I ever know? 😉

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