Lumberjack Jesus

Bruce Kirkpatrick

Description

Insightful and uplifting, Lumberjack Jesus reminds us all that we need and deserve unconditional love.

In a series of essays written in memoir form, Bruce Kirkpatrick shows us a God who is loving, a good conversationalist, and often looks like a lumberjack. God comes alive in these pages in everyday life—in stories about Vietnam heroes, cowboy movies, wrestling matches and chemistry sets.

Bruce Kirkpatrick discovered that as he was consumed by anger, shame and guilt—quite literally dying on the inside—Jesus came to him, looking like a lumberjack, in a red plaid shirt and a short-cropped beard. Even as he pushed Jesus far away and with such belligerence that reconciliation seemed impossible, Jesus was always there.

Bruce learned the love of Jesus is not just for caring Christians who never falter or fail at life. If Jesus can love and accept an uncaring, self-centered, lustful dope like Bruce, he can do the same for you. Nobody is beyond his reach or his hand.

In a unique and introspective style, these Christian Non-fiction stories will help you see faith in almost every circumstance in your life.

This book also contains unique prayers written by Bruce Kirkpatrick and hand-picked scripture.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Prayers
• Jesús de Nazaret
• Religious text
• Jesus
• Prayer
• Guilt
• Shame
• Lumberjack
• Jésus de Nazareth

Informations

• Publié par: Written Dreams Publishing
• Date de parution: 11 juillet 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780996252164
• Langue: English

Extrait

Lumberjack Jesus by Bruce Kirkpatrick, copyright © 2016 by Bruce H. Kirkpatrick.
Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture taken from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson, 1993, 1994,1995, 1996. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
Excerpt from Awakening the Quieter Virtues by Gregory Spencer published by IVP Books, 2010. Used by permission of IVP Books.
This book is a true story about the real life of Bruce H. Kirkpatrick of Santa Barbara, California. All names and locations are real. Permission has been obtained where possible for the use of names in the book, and changed, where persons wanted their identity to remain anonymous. This book reflects the opinions of the author and his life’s decisions. Written Dreams Publishing does not approve, condone or disapprove of these opinions. It is up to the reader to make their own decisions.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher, Written Dreams Publishing, Green Bay, Wisconsin 54311. Visit writtendreams.com/wdpublishing to see more books published by Written Dreams Publishing.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase a n additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Editor: Brittiany Koren
Cover Art Design and Layout: Ed Vincent of ENC Graphic Services
Cover image: © PiXXart/Shutterstock
Category: Christian Men’s Memoir/Non-Fiction
Description: How to develop faith despite pitfalls, roadblocks, stupidity, and prejudice. Insightful and uplifting, Lumberjack Jesus is a memoir by Bruce Kirkpatrick that reminds us all that we need and deserve unconditional love.
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-9962521-4-0
Paperback ISBN: 978-0-9962521-5-7
Ebook ISBN: 978-0-9962521-6-4
LOC: Catalog info applied for.


First Edition published by Written Dreams Publishing in July 2016.
For my wife, Nancy


Introduction
B elief in God did not come easy for me. For two-thirds of my life, I resisted him, fought against him, and ignored him.
And yet, he always seemed to be around.
These are stories of how I developed a faith in God. Some are reflections on times in my life before God entered it, and seeing now how He was actually present even though I wasn’t aware of it. Some stories I’ve never told a soul before I wrote them down here for the first time. Those contain my life’s secrets, some dark, some downright devilish, some bleak, and some beckoning for help from a God I hadn’t yet met. I was crying out in the dark to something or someone for help. God was the only one that answered.
Some of these stories illustrate how I came to know God and to trust Him; He showed me the errors of my youth. My self-indulgent, narcissistic actions and thoughts gradually fell away, discarded trash piles of younger days. He changed me for the better. He taught me to love and how to accept others. He taught me to cry over the things that broke his heart. And, just as important, He taught me how to forgive myself and fall back in love with the man He originally created, born to this Earth in 1951. No small feat.
For those of you who have not discovered God or think that He doesn’t exist, this book is for you. I believe it will give you hope. Hope in a world that seems at times insane and completely without rhyme or reason, or where anyone is in charge. At least anyone in charge who knows what he’s doing. Hope in a generous, benevolent God who is open and available to you, and still in control. If He can love and accept an uncaring, self-centered, lustful dope like me, He can do the same for you. Nobody is beyond His reach or His hand.
This book may also convince you that as a Christian, I can be as stupid, calloused, and prejudiced as anybody else. That will hopefully dispel the rumors out there that we Christians somehow think we are holier than you. We are not; I am especially not.
This book is not meant to be preachy. I don’t point out how you should run your life. I simply point out the pitfalls I encountered in mine, and the lessons I learned (mostly the hard way) from those encounters. I reached deep down to discover why it is I believe in God and how He works in my everyday life, not just my Sunday go-to-meeting life. How I find Him in a drive along a congested freeway or atop a mountain in remote Wyoming. How He comes to life—real, present, almost human-like—in the slums of Haiti, by a firing squad in Utah, or near a rock concert named Woodstock. How He influenced me through my mother and my father (neither of whom knew Him intimately) or with Bobby Knight, the famed screeching general of a basketball coach.
If you don’t know God, some of these stories may show you that He does indeed exist. I’ll illustrate how I believe He saved me from such horrors as a car spinning down a freeway at 70 miles per hour backwards; from destroying my marriage by answering an email from an old girlfriend; or the shame and guilt from burying my sexual abuse for twenty-five years.
If you are a Christian, this book is for you, too. These stories will show you how I struggle with my faith, in the hope that by seeing my struggles, your struggles will become real, honest, human—and how Jesus can help you through the rough times. These stories may open new ways to think about God, react to Him, play with Him, be with Him, know Him, and dare I say, obey Him.
You may not agree with my theology or my spiritual habits, and that’s okay. After all, I recently mothballed my prayer list and haven’t attended church much in the last five years. But it is my hope, that God, and especially Jesus, may come alive to you in these pages as He did for me—in stories about Vietnam heroes, cowboy movies, wrestling matches and chemistry sets.
To me, God comes alive in everyday life. Not just in the Bible or in church. He is not simply a legalistic, ethereal character in the Bible. To me, Jesus looks like a lumberjack in a red plaid shirt, jeans and with a short-cropped beard. When I needed Him most—when I was consumed by anger, shame and guilt, and quite literally dying on the inside—Jesus visited me every day for three months and sat alongside me at my dining room table. There, I discovered how He loves me and cares for me. Even when I push Him away. So far away and with such belligerence and bellowing that you would be convinced that I neither deserved nor desired that love.
But you would be wrong. I do. You do, too. We all do.
Scripture:
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
—1 Timothy, 1:15-17
Prayer:
Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to you. Work through me now. Holy Spirit come alive in me and may your passion, your voice and your love shine on me and through me. Thank you, sweet Jesus. Amen.


Lumberjack Jesus
M y search for God has been a heart journey, an emotional quest. I’m sure my soul was involved, that someplace deep down inside of me I wanted and needed a connection with Him. I was never interested in discovering a historical God or even investigating other incarnations of God, like the ones proposed by the Mormon or Islamic religions. Religion itself has very little appeal to me. My quest has been to understand the God written about in the Bible, and my heart has always led in that journey.
My parents divorced when I was two years old, and I was predominately raised by women, my mother and grandmother. At times, it was difficult to develop into a man. There weren’t many good, strong male role models around me. In the 1950s, men had returned victorious from the war, my dad included, and they were ready to sow their oats. The traditional family was still intact in America, but acting on the little seams of discontent that were always there began to tear at its fabric. Affairs happened, like they always had, but in my family, divorce followed, which was not always the case. It certainly wasn’t accepted—not like it is today—but we weren’t too far away from the free love generation of the 60s when many of society’s traditions were tossed to the wind.
As a young boy, I was sexually molested by a family friend. I don’t write that as casually as it may read. I never told a soul for twenty-five years and it only surfaced as I was writing my autobiography for a career counselor. I had stuffed the incident and emotions deep inside.
As I matured, the shame and guilt I felt over it often exploded out of me in anger. I didn’t realize these emotional toxins I’d squashed were escaping with such force and suddenness.
I later realized I felt responsible for letting the abuse happen. I hated myself for not being man enough to stop it. Heavy burdens to bear as a young boy growing into a man. So I shouldered them alone;