Redeeming Love / Chapters 23-27

Okay...so....life sometimes happens in the middle of all we are trying to accomplish on a day to day basis....and our plans for this or that must take a backseat.

Hence the recent silence in regards to the Book Club.

Sorry.  Back on track.

A few thoughts....

This story has really touched Galilee.  Like really.  I love that!

Like really love it. 

Jemima has a good question...If the Lord warns us against being unequally yoked...why did He tell Michael Hosea to marry Angel?  We would love to hear your thoughts.

Mama had worked to keep Alex Stafford's love alive.  Angel wondered now if it hadn't been those very efforts that served to drive him away.  Mama had been so hungry for his love. 

1.  Scripture tells us that the Lord is jealous for us.  Have you ever been the object of someone's focus...so much so that you feel as if they are placing you before the Lord?  If so...describe some of what that made you feel.

Have you ever put someone on the throne of your heart?

How could she, of all the women, be so loved by a man like this?  Oh God, if you are there listening, why did you do this to him? 

2.  Have you ever felt so low about yourself that you have wondered why the Lord is putting others through the ordeal of sticking by you? 

Angel only saw Michael and worshiped him. 

* Thought on this...too much pressure.  No human can stand being worshiped.  Maybe for a while they can...but ultimately being on the throne will cause disdain.  No?  Even when people appear to enjoy being worshiped...do you think they really do?

3.  Michael and Miriam!!!!!  I do not remember it ever occurring to me that the way they interact  is dangerously inappropriate.    Whoa!  Private walks together and Angel is not brought in on what's being discussed!!!!  Discuss.

Read Chapters 28-32  March 28th

 

Redeeming Love - Chapters 18-22

"I don't plan on preaching at you, but I don't plan on giving up what I believe, either.  Not to make you comfortable.  Not for anything."

*1  Have you ever been in a situation where someone asks you to compromise your faith to make them more comfortable?  

*2  Have you ever been the one asking?

"Actually,  I fled.  I was fifteen, and she was more of a temptation than I could handle."  

*3  Michael knew being near the slave girl offered to him by his father was too much for him to handle.  He was aware of his weakness.  Take a moment to think about this.  Do any of your own weaknesses come to mind?  Situations you know would be difficult to navigate due to your weaknesses?  What snare might catch you?

Angel touched the smooth pink cheek-and suddenly she saw Duke's enraged face swimming before her eyes.

Then rain started again, and with it came her old ghosts. 

*We have no idea what battles people are fighting behind the scenes.  In their inner lives.  Just a thought.

At every turn, the girl undermined Angel's determination to remain aloof.  

*4  Have you ever had a Miriam in your life?  If so...describe some of the feelings you felt while she/he/ pursued you.

*5 Have you ever been a Miriam to someone who was trying to run and hide?  

Angel was disturbed that hey would go to so much work on her behalf.  The less they did, the less she would owe."

Expecting others to work for you and this ^...both rooted in pride.  Just a thought.


 Right from the first, Duke had bought her a wardrobe full of frilly frocks and white lace pinafores and filled her dresser drawers with satin ribbons and bows.  Most of her clothes had been made in Paris.

*6  Isn't that just like the enemy of our souls...to make beautiful things ugly?  To distort things.  Can you relate?  Has something lovely been soiled for you?  Do you believe the Lord can renew that?  Set it right?

"How could he still look at her with anything but loathing after all she had done?  How could he love her?"

*7  Ever felt this way?  Ever been the Michael in a situation?

"You know, sometimes you can hurt  yourself more by trying to keep yourself from being hurt!"

"She's afraid of being hurt."

"She's hurting herself now."

*8  This is one of the most difficult things to watch.  Have you ever lived it?  

She wondered now if Michael wasn't the answer to all things for her.  

Idols must be torn down.  Even when our idols are relationships.  Just a thought.

"He asked me to forgive him, and I told him he could rot in hell."

"He shot himself three days later."

Unforgiveness eats us alive.  Just a thought. 

Michael stood like a soldier going into battle.  "I can't have children."

Do you think there is ANYTHING Angel could have said that would have swayed Michael away from her?  

Mama had worked to keep Alex Stafford's love alive.  She had tried everything to please him and keep his passion alive.  Angel wondered now if it hadn't been those very efforts that served to drive him away.  Mama had been so hungry for his love.  Her entire life had revolved around Alex Stafford's coming to the small cottage.  Her happiness depended solely on him.  It had been an obsession. 

The way I see it...Angel left because she was afraid she would turn out to be just like her mother ...which would eventually... turn Michael into Alex Stafford. 

Whatever her motives for leaving...the Lord in His wisdom was using her time away from Michael... working behind the scenes......protecting her from idol worship. 





Chapters 23-27  / Friday March 7th

Redeeming Love 11-17

"In the middle of the journey of our life, I came to myself in a dark wood. "

1*  I am so intrigued by the fact that Dante went from the plural to the singular in this quote.   Can't stop thinking about it.  Thoughts?

"You can wear them or walk barefoot.  Your choice.  But you are going with me. "

2*  Why do we fight against what's good for us?

As I read the passage where Michael takes Angel to see the sunrise...I was struck by her fear.  She had a very real physical reaction to the situation.  It made me stop and think about those around me who sometimes have what I feel to be irrational reactions to things.  It reminded me to be mindful and sensitive.

"It's got to be my way or not at all."

Michael's response to Angel's fear reminded me that ...whatever is in the way...is the way.

This thought is reiterated by Angel when she says..."No matter how hard you try, you can't escape the truth."

He couldn't seem to hear the still small voice anymore.

3* Think about the perfect picture of a loving earthly father.  If we could not hear him anymore...hear his instructions...why would that be?  

4* Would those reasons be true about the Lord? 

It was going to be open warfare from here on out.  Well, so be it.  Anything was better than apathy.

My thoughts on this are...apathy is the enemy.

"That way is home.  One mile downhill, fire and food and me.  But you'd better understand something right now.  If you come back, we're picking up where we left off last night, and we're still playing by my rules."  He left her standing in the road.

Yep.  Submission. 

A woman is either a wall or a door, beloved. 

5*  I've been both.  Have you ever repented for being a wall?

"I know what I am.  I never pretended to be anything else.  Not once.  Not ever!"

I love and totally respect Angel's authenticity.

He had to go and get her back.  She was his wife.  Until death do us part. 

6*  Yep.  When we know obedience will bring pain.  When we trust that it is for our good & His glory.  Did the Lord meet you there?     

The mind is it's own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.

So true.  And, what we think...we do.  We need our minds to be renewed. 

Let's read Chapters 18-22 by Friday...the 21st.

Redeeming Love Chapters 4-10

* Hope was a dream, and reaching for it turned her life into an unbearable nightmare.

It's as if we can bear what we know... but not what might be...because it also might turn out not to be.

Have you ever been in a place of utter hopelessness?  If so...what pulled you out?

Or have you ever ministered to a person who is in that place?   Do words suffice/  What words?

*  While in her room...begging her to leave with him...Michael asks Angel... "What's keeping you here?" 

"I like it." is the reply he gets.

Angel does not like it.  We know that she does not.

Why do we stay in situations that are bad for us?  That are hurting us?  That we hate?   Why do we not take the way out that the Lord provides?

*And the next time he prayed for God to send him a woman to share his life,  he would be a lot more specific about the kind he wanted.

Think of a time (or 100x)  you got what you needed rather than what you asked for.

I'm pretty sure we all have...but can you think of a specific time that you treated God as a genie in a bottle?  Like a Buddha...who's belly you rub to get what you want. 

Originating in China as Budai, the Laughing Buddha statue depicts a Chinese deity from pre-Buddhist folklore. This deity is referred to as Hotei in Japan, and considered one of the Seven Lucky Gods, Shichi Fukujin, with Hotei being the lucky god of happiness and abundance – thus his fat, smiling appearance. 

* She smoothed the flowing red silk of her lounging gown.  It did little to conceal the rolls of flesh gathering around her waist.  Her cheeks were puffy and she was developing a second chin.  A pink ribbon held her graying hair back.  She was obscene.

She was obscene brought images of female televangelists to my mind.  Then as I went deeper...I wondered if those in terrible situations...maybe the homeless...those in 3rd world countries...those living in slums......foster kids...those in orphanages....ever think of us as obscene.  Me as obscene?  It's not exactly the same....but is it ever somewhat the same?  

*  "I don't see what good will come of it, but I'll go back, Lord. I don't like it much, but I'll do what you want."   When he finally went back to bed, he slept deeply and without dreaming for the first time in days.  

Obedience brought Michael rest.  Think back to a time in your own life when obedience brought immediate relief.  Why do you think we forget this?  Doesn't it seem so foolish to think that we forget this and yet we do.  

* Angel, she never asks for nothing."  

Sometimes when we are so disappointed we stop asking for what we long for.  Have you ever been at a place with the Lord...where you stopped asking Him for what your heart longed for?  

The good news is that He knows our hearts...better than we know them.   

*  "When you're living out there in your cabin with the climbing roses all around, think about me once in a while, will you?  Remember your old friend, Lucky." 

I have a thought on this one.  It's that hope begets hope.   Hope is contagious.  

* But she had never had this silence, this quiet that rang in her ears.

In wisdom...Michael allows Angel to be by herself.  Quiet.  Still.  Alone.   

Have you ever had an extended period of silence?  No conversation.  No t.v.  No computer.  No busyness?  No distraction?  

Does it sound wonderful or frightening?  If it sounds frightening...why does it?


*Why are you tearing up your garden?"  Michael glanced up at her tone.  Her face was white and drawn.  He straightened and brushed his hands on his pants.  "I'm pulling up weeds.  They're choking everything else.  I haven't had time to work out here.  One of the things I'll ask of you is tending the garden.  When you're ready."

Michael does not know of Angel's history with gardens.  

Isn't it exactly like the Lord to bring us to the very thing we are afraid of...and walk us through it?  Has he ever made you face a very specific fear and met you there?  

*She was so tightly wrapped in herself, her own misery and dark thoughts, that she was blind to everything else.

Been there.  Done that.  You too, I bet.  

What are some ways that we can help others when they are in this very place? 


____________________________________

Let's have Chapters 11-17 read by next Friday...Feb 7th.

Redeeming Love / Prologue & Chapters 1-3

This will be my third time going through Redeeming Love.  My first time with friends and...I'm so pleased about this...with my two eldest daughters.  I pray that the Lord would soften hearts...expose lies and fill us with hope and a peace that surpasses all understanding during this journey.

If you are so led...please leave your remarks in the comment section of each post.  I trust the Lord will speak through each of you what He wants the others to hear. 

Love, Dawn 

First thing that hit me...the Shakespeare quote at the start of the Prologue...

..."The prince of darkness is a gentleman."

*  Isn't it the truth?  The enemy of our souls hardly ever shows up as an ugly beast.  Right?  Not at first...at least.  Whatever he has to offer is wrapped in paper that glitters.

Think back to a time in your own life when the prince of darkness attempted to entice you.  Was he successful?   Why was he able to succeed?  If yes...why do you think?  If no...why wasn't he?

*  I was struck by Sarah's/Angel's  discernment.  As a child...she quickly works through the confusion she has about her "beautiful" birth father and comes to a place of heartbreaking realization.   With her mother as well.  With Cleo...with Merrick...with Rab...with Duke...it's as if she is given insightful eyes to see. 

*  "Sarah thought it was the most fearsome sound she had ever heard.  The wind howled in the trees like a wild beast searching for warm-blooded prey, and when the door to the Four Winds opened, she heard loud laughter and men shouting.  Sarah drew back sharply, not wanting to go inside."

After reading this passage....I thought to myself...the Lord is giving Sarah a glimpse behind the curtain.  It is being drawn back for her.  She is witnessing the heavenly realms...where spiritual battles are being waged.

Has there ever been a time in your life where the Lord has given you a very obvious RED FLAG?  Where you feel as if you've been given eyes to see beyond the curtain?  

*  "Moonlight flowed over the flower garden and Sarah saw her mother kneeling in her thin white nightgown.  She was ripping all the flowers out.  handful by handful, she yanked the plants up and flung them in all directions, weeping and talking to herself as she did.  She picked up a knife and came to her feet.  She went down again on her knees besides her beloved rose bushes.  One after another, she cut the roots.  Every last one of them."

What do you think Mae's garden represented?  Why did she destroy it?

*  And oh the heartbreak when Mae's earthly father fails her.  When he fails Sarah.  Personally, I feel as if Mae's mother should have done more.  I'm wondering now if I'm awfully rebellious?  I would absolutely struggle with submissiveness in an instance like this. 

*  At the end of Chapter One  Angel says, "I don't look back, and I don't look forward."  "Now doesn't exist."

Have you ever been in this place?  Numb?   Merely surviving.  Alive but not really. 

* At the end of Chapter Two Michael Hosea is faced with something that makes no earthly sense at all.

"Lord, "  he said heavily.  " Lord, this isn't exactly what I had in mind."  But he knew he was going to marry that girl anyway. 

Think back to a time when the Lord impressed something upon your heart that seemed ridiculous at the time.  Can you laugh about it now?  Does it make you cry?  Did it grow your faith?  Convince you of His sovereignty?  His goodness?  His provision?

*  The William Walsh quote that Chapter Three opens with kills me cuz I've experienced a thought like it.

"I can endure my own despair, but not another's hope."

Can you relate?

*  And at the end of the chapter Angel more or less tells Michael that he wouldn't be able to handle the truth when she says... "Mister, five minutes and you'd run like the devil."  

Have you ever felt like if others knew the full truth about you...the whole truth...the ugly truth...that they'd run?  Does anybody know you?  Really know you?

Let's read Chapters 4-10 and be ready to ponder with one another by next Friday...January 31st.

Book Club / Redeeming Love

Francine Rivers dedicates this story to ...those who hurt and hunger.

Before we begin our journey into this retelling of Hosea and Gomer's story set in California's gold country/1850....  the author quotes Jesus.  

"Let anyone among you who is without sin, be the first to throw a stone at her."  John 8:7



Let's all have our books read through the Prologue & Chapters 1-3  by Friday...January 24th.