Friend, Think back to the last time you stood at the edge of a room where you were not sure you belonged, where everyone else seemed to know one another and you wondered whether anyone would notice if you slipped out the door. That ache, that sense of being on the outside of something you long to be part of, is older than any of us, and it sits at the very center of the ten stories I want to put into your hands today. My new book, Jesus and the Outsiders, is now available on Amazon. You can watch a short video clip of the first outsider, here in this post. This book follows ten people the world had pushed to the margins, a woman drawing water alone in the heat of the day, a tax collector despised by his neighbors, a man so tormented he lived among the tombs, and it watches what happened when each of them met Jesus. I wrote it so that you would not read these stories from a safe distance, as a spectator studying someone else’s life, but would step inside each one and find your own thirst there, the same longing every human heart carries to be connected to the God who made us. Each of the ten outsiders gets four days of study, forty days in all, and across those days you will see how the freedom Jesus provides is not something we work up by gritting our teeth and trying harder, but something we receive because of what He has already finished for us at the cross and in His resurrection. I would love for you to watch the short video above before you begin, and then to open the book and meet the first outsider waiting at the well. One more thing worth marking on your calendar. Beginning September 1st, we are going to walk through this book together as a group, right here on Substack. It will come with a study guide, a podcast that my wife and I record for you, and, as people submit their daily study, the two of us will read and respond to each one personally. You will not be doing this study alone. Come see yourself in the story, and discover the freedom that has been waiting for you all along. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikecleveland.substack.com/subscribe
