Danielle Strickland - The Ultimate Exodus: Finding Freedom from What Enslaves You

This isnt a book with information and steps in it. Its a book about the power of love to set us free. Danielle doesnt just talk about this in books; she lives it out on the streets. This book wont make you want to be like Danielleit will make you want to be like Jesus.

BOB GOFF

New York Times bestselling author of Love Does

If youre searching and longing for freedom in your life, find someone who knows what it feels like to be free, and lives it. Find someone who understands that freedom is not a cheap quick fix and that its often hard, sacrificial, and disciplined. Find someone whos failed and gotten up again, with skin in the game and scars to prove it. Someone who is compassionate enough to love you where youre at but challenging enough to not let you stay there. Find someone who cant stop working toward setting people free because she has discovered the kind of good news too good not to share. Danielle offers us all this and more in The Ultimate Exodus.

Get the book, and get back on your journeyto freedom.

JO SAXTON

Cohost of Lead Stories Podcast and board chair of 3D Movements

In The Ultimate Exodus, Danielle Strickland reminds us that God invades our ordinary, everyday lives in ways that lead us closer to true freedom. She knows this, of course, because shes experienced that liberty in real ways most of us can only imagine. As she retells some of the ways God has led her from the edge to an exodus, we are reminded again that life is more than just one Red Sea crossing.

REGGIE JOINER

Founder and CEO of Orange

The Ultimate Exodus effervesces with Danielle Stricklands characteristic passion, compassion, and clarity. It addresses some of the most pressing, pervasive, and personal issues of our time, unlocking freedom and greater joy for us all.

PETE GREIG

Bestselling author, pastor, and founder of 24-7 Prayer

This is a book about getting free and becoming a real and an honest-to-goodness follower of Goddisciplined, focused, evangelizing, praying, serving, sabbathing, giving, and believing. And because I know Danielle Strickland, I can say that its also written by one. You simply must read it.

MICHAEL FROST

Author of Surprise the World

Danielle Strickland gives off the fragrance of Jesus. And in The Ultimate Exodus, she reminds us that Jesus came not just to make bad people good but to set oppressed people free and bring dead people back to life. Its a beautiful book.

SHANE CLAIBORNE

Author, activist, red-letter Christian, and recovering sinner

Its common to find a book that would be good for someone you know. Its rare to find a book that would be good for everyone you know. Simple, beautiful, and comprehensive, The Ultimate Exodus holds treasures of Danielles life experiences, and the depth of her spiritual reflections is poetic and life changing. While freedom can be a buzzword, this journey through the central metaphor of Scripture is not only hopeful but also enlightening and deeply enthralling. Through The Ultimate Exodus, you will catch a glimpse of the beauty of Gods love for his children and gain invaluable perspective on how to attain the freedom promised in Christ. This book is a gem.

KEN WYTSMA

Pastor, educator, and author of The Grand Paradox and Create vs. Copy

Im a total Danielle Strickland fan. Not only is she one of the most outstanding speakers around today, but shes also a radical witness to Jesus and a good writer to boot. Danielle speaks with the authority of someone who lives out her message in the rough-and-tumble of life.

ALAN HIRSCH

Award-winning author on missional Christianity and leadership

NavPress is the publishing ministry of The Navigators, an international Christian organization and leader in personal spiritual development. NavPress is committed to helping people grow spiritually and enjoy lives of meaning and hope through personal and group resources that are biblically rooted, culturally relevant, and highly practical.

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The Ultimate Exodus: Finding Freedom from What Enslaves You

Copyright 2017 by The Salvation Army. All rights reserved.

A NavPress resource published in alliance with Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

NAVPRESS and the NAVPRESS logo are registered trademarks of NavPress, The Navigators, Colorado Springs, CO. TYNDALE is a registered trademark of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Absence of in connection with marks of NavPress or other parties does not indicate an absence of registration of those marks.

The Team:

Don Pape, Publisher

David Zimmerman, Acquisitions Editor

Jennifer Phelps, Designer

Cover illustration of maze copyright printcolorfun.com. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked GNT are taken from the Good News Translation in Todays English Version, Second Edition, copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked WEB are taken from the World English Bible.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version.

Some of the anecdotal illustrations in this book are true to life and are included with the permission of the persons involved. All other illustrations are composites of real situations, and any resemblance to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Tyndale House Publishers at or call 800-323-9400.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-63146-647-2

Build: 2017-05-09 10:42:48

To Jan, who faithfully unravels oppression with cupcakes.

To Stepfanie, because flowers are meant to bloom.

To Taanis, who demonstrates that freedom is never too hard and never too late with God.

To those who are trapped in modern-day slavery. We hear your cries.

Introduction

I WAS INCREDIBLY privileged to visit Haiti recently. I traveled there with Compassion International to meet up with my sponsor child and his mother. It was impacting in every way. You can imagine the mix of pain and joy as I heard the story of extreme poverty and its devastating consequences in the lives of this family I had become entwined with. I also celebrated the hope of a different future for a few of them through the faithfulness and strength of a local church offering a lifeline of resources. Hope and hardship work like thisalmost in tandem with each other. Great celebration gives way to desperate feelings of powerlessness, and then back again to celebration. Like a great pendulum of the heart.