Honestly: Getting Real about Jesus and Our Messy Lives

by Daniel Fusco

Overview

Your life is messy, hard, and uncertain right now—and if it isn’t, it has been or it will be. Messiness is the human condition. Part of the messiness is the unpredictability of life, not the unrelenting evil of life. And Jesus shows up inside all of that, because He experienced every aspect of what it’s like to be human: joy, physical pain, family arguments, frustration, existential trauma, and more. If Jesus is a real person, we should expect to meet Him in all of life. And only through the Good News and love of Jesus can we learn how to thrive in the midst of our mess.

Daniel Fusco, a pastor and jazz musician, riffs on the major themes of the book of Ephesians to help each of us find God in the midst of our mess.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631463884
Publisher:	The Navigators
Publication date:	03/10/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	176
File size:	2 MB

Read an Excerpt

Honestly

Getting Real About Jesus and Our Messy Lives

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By Daniel Fusco, D. R. Jacobsen

Tyndale House Publishers

Copyright © 2016 Daniel Fusco
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-63146-386-0

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CHAPTER 1

PART I

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

1.1

ACKNOWLEDGE THE MESS

I, Paul, am under God's plan as an apostle, a special agent of Christ Jesus, writing to you faithful believers.

EPHESIAN S 1:1

So here we are, in the middle of the mess.

Maybe you've lost your job. Or hate your job. Maybe your best friend abandoned you, or you've never had a best friend. Maybe you're pulling out your hair because your teenager is doing stupid stuff and you can't get him to realize it's stupid. Maybe your closest relationships are strained. Or worse, boring. Maybe you feel betrayed by your body or your parents or your church. Whatever the specifics, we all have stuff in our lives that seems to make zero sense. Things that hurt us or confuse us or make us doubt we'll ever be able to catch our breath.

That messiness goes along with being human. All of us were born as broken people into broken families living in a broken world. Life happens amid that rubble.

What a fun place to start a book, in the middle of the mess! But since I promised to be honest, we've got to start with what's wrong. We have to acknowledge that everything is not okay. That it's actually less than okay, a lot of the time.

Trouble is, like we talked about earlier, the Christian message sometimes gets hijacked. Ever been told that that if you're really tuned-in to God, your life won't be messy? That everything will work out? Like the messiness is all pre-Jesus, and after you get saved life will always come up roses. But the honest truth is, that stuff isn't true.

Just remember, no matter how deep into the mess we get in this first part of the book, the message doesn't stop there. Good news is coming. Messiness, by itself, is not good news! But messiness that Jesus can work in and through? Absolutely good news!

You may not believe me. And you don't have to. But I bet at least part of you believes that, or wants to believe it, which is why you're reading this book. Because you're looking for someone to shoot straight with you about how messy and unpredictable life is. And I know firsthand. I'm a starter for team Life Is Messy.

If you're hurting today, or confused, or just plain tired, you've come to the right place. Remember that I'm right there with you. We're going to walk into this together. And not so we can have a pity party or rant about how unfair life is. We're after something bigger and far better. We're chasing something that's a mix of joy and wholeness and grace and peace. We're after something that's part contentment and part purpose.

And we're going to do it together, starting with acknowledgement. Life is messy, period.

After all, if life wasn't messy — if we could find peace on our own, without Jesus — the book of Ephesians wouldn't exist. (Or the whole rest of the Bible!) Paul never uses the words life is messy in his letter to the Ephesians, but he talks an awful lot about how God speaks healing into the messy parts of our lives. Why not take the next twenty or so minutes, grab your Bible, and read through the entire letter. You'll see it clear as day.

So as we crack open the good news in Ephesians, we're going to discover that we aren't the first people, or even the billion-and-first people, to struggle with the messiness of life. Which means we have a lot to learn from Paul about how to live in the midst of it all.

Again, you're not alone. I'm right here with you in the messiness, and so is every other person who's ever lived. Including Jesus, too, as we're about to discover.

RIFFING ON THE MESS

• What mess are you in?

1.2

PERCEPTIONS AND PRESENCE

Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross.

EPHESIANS 1:7

I was watching this TV drama the other night, and I had to laugh. The premise wasn't quite as unbelievable as one of those Lifetime heartstring-tuggers, but it was close.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Honestly by Daniel Fusco, D. R. Jacobsen. Copyright © 2016 Daniel Fusco. Excerpted by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Shout Outs, ix,
Start Here, xi,
PART I: Acknowledgement,
1.1 Acknowledge the Mess, 3,
1.2 Perceptions and Presence, 5,
1.3 The Difficulty of Jesus, 9,
1.4 Rockin' a Limp, 17,
1.5 Becoming Unbroken, 21,
1.6 Can I Get a Remedy?, 23,
1.7 Reflections on a Messy God, 27,
1.8 Bad News First, 30,
1.9 Cultural Cancer, 34,
1.10 Choose Hope, 41,
Coda, 45,
PART II: Resolution,
2.1 Resurrection, 49,
2.2 Jesus, Center Stage, 51,
2.3 Saved, 56,
2.4 Living God-Style, 60,
2.5 Schooling Angels, 65,
2.6 Far More Than You Could Ever Imagine, 69,
Coda, 73,
PART III: Pursuance,
3.1 You Have to Go Through It, 77,
3.2 Walk This Way, 80,
3.3 Getting Intimate, 85,
3.4 Embrace the Crutch, 89,
3.5 Training for the Race, 92,
3.6 Bowels? Yes, but It's Complicated, 97,
3.7 Walk by Faith, 102,
3.8 Imitate God, 104,
Coda, 111,
PART IV: Psalm,
4.1 The Beginning of the End, 117,
4.2 A Mess of Love and Life, 119,
4.3 The Real Shape of Love, 129,
4.4 Love, Negatively, 132,
4.5 Time to Reflect, 136,
4.6 Filled to the Brim, 143,
Coda, 148,

Editorial Reviews

Find Jesus in the midst of your mess.
There are two universal truths for every person who has ever walked this planet: Life is messy. Jesus is real.

Join Daniel Fusco on a wild, grace-filled journey through the book of Ephesians. He’ll unpack what happens when the craziness of life meets the presence of God—and something beautiful is created. Honestly.

From the Publisher