Erwin Raphael McManus - The Barbarian Way: Unleash the Untamed Faith Within

Copyright 2005 by Erwin Raphael McManus

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Nelson books may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fundraising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

Published in association with Yates & Yates, LLP, Attorneys and Counselors, Orange, California.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scripture noted NKJV is from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Interior artwork by Joby Harris

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McManus, Erwin Raphael.
The barbarian way : unleash the untamed faith within / Erwin Raphael McManus.
p. cm.
ISBN 10: 0-7852-6432-9 (hardcover)
ISBN 13: 978-0-7852-6432-3 (hardcover)
1. Christian life. I. Title.
BV4501.3.M374 2005
248.4dc22

2004027611

Printed in the United States of America
06 07 08 09 10 QW 15 14 13 12 11

To Mariah, my Sweet,

Who loves to live and lives to love.
From first breath you have brought to life
both celebration and adventure.
Compassionate and courageous.
Delicate and determined.
Tender and tenacious.
Lover of God and lover of people.
You are both laughter and tears.
In ancient times, you would be the warrior princess.
Always follow the steps of the One who is scarred.
May we always choose the barbarian way,

Dad

CONTENTS

But then the worst thing happened
that could happen to any fighter,
you got civilized.

MICK TO ROCKY,

Rocky III

THE
BARBARIAN
INVASION

Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, but he was the son of a harlot; and Gilead begot Jephthah. Gileads wife bore sons; and when his wifes sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out, and said to him, You shall have no inheritance in our fathers house, for you are the son of another woman. Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and dwelt in the land of Tob; and worthless men banded together with Jephthah and went out raiding with him.

It came to pass after a time that the people of Ammon made war against Israel. And so it was, when the people of Ammon made war against Israel, that the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. Then they said to Jephthah, Come and be our commander, that we may fight against the people of Ammon.

So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, Did you not hate me, and expel me from my fathers house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?

And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, That is why we have turned again to you now, that you may go with us and fight against the people of Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.

So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, If you take me back home to fight against the people of Ammon, and the LORD delivers them to me, shall I be your head?

And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, The LORD will be a witness between us, if we do not do according to your words. Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them. (Judges 11:111 NKJV, italics added)

On our way to Belfast, Northern Ireland, we made a stop in Paisley, Scotland. My wife, Kim, my twelve-year-old daughter, Mariah, and I were on a Hollywood version of a spiritual pilgrimage. (If you walk into our living room, you will find hanging as a centerpiece an exact replica of the sword that William Wallace made famous to the non-Scottish masses through Mel Gibsons Braveheart.) I was standing in the middle of the Paisley Abbey where Wallace was educated as a boy. I took my time as I looked reverently at the stained glass that remains a memorial to Wallaces heroics (he didnt look anything like Mel Gibson), yet it was a story about Robert the Bruce that struck me most and has stayed with me ever since.

Robert the Bruce was the Scottish noble whose character is most remembered for betraying Wallace, but he later rose up to lead Scotland to freedom after Wallaces execution. While we were standing in the abbey, Scottish pastor James Pettigrew shared a tale of Robert the Bruce that is a mixture of history and legend.

He died in 1329 at the age of fifty-four. Shortly before his death, Robert the Bruce requested that his heart be removed from his body and taken on crusade by a worthy knight. James Douglas, one of his closest friends, was at his bedside and took on the responsibility. The heart of Robert the Bruce was embalmed and placed in a small container that Douglas carried around his neck. In every battle that Douglas fought, he literally carried the heart of his king pressed against his chest.

In the early spring of 1330, Douglas sailed from Scotland to Granada, Spain, and engaged in a campaign against the Moors. In an ill-fated battle, Douglas found himself surrounded, and in this situation death was both certain and imminent. In that moment Douglas reached for the heart strapped around his neck, flung the heart into the enemys midst, and cried out, Fight for the heart of your king! One historian quoted Douglas as shouting, Forward, brave heart, as ever thou were wont to do, and Douglas will follow his kings heart or die! The motto of the Douglas clan to which the present duke belongs is even to this day simply, Forward.

A TRIBE CALLED FORWARD

Although anyone who understands the heart of God knows that the Crusades were a tragic lesson in missing the point, the power of this story awakens within me a primal longing that I am convinced waits to be unleashed within everyone who is a follower of Jesus Christ. To belong to God is to belong to His heart. If we have responded to the call of Jesus to leave everything and follow Him, then there is a voice within us crying out, Fight for the heart of your King!

Yet Christianity over the past two thousand years has moved from a tribe of renegades to a religion of conformists. Those who choose to follow Jesus become participants in an insurrection. To claim we believe is simply not enough. The call of Jesus is one that demands action. Jesus began His public ministry with a simple invitation: Come, follow Me. His closing instructions to His disciples can be summarized in one word, Go! A quick survey of the modern church would lead you to believe His invitation was Come, and listen, and His closing mandate would be summarized in the one word No! The tribe of Jesus, above all people, should rightly carry the banner, Forward.

I know the imagery of this story is nothing less than barbaric, but maybe thats the point. The invitation of Jesus is a revolutionary call to fight for the heart of humanity. We are called to an unconventional war using only the weapons of faith, hope, and love. Nevertheless, this war is no less dangerous than any war ever fought. And for those of us who embrace the cause of Christ, the cost to participate in the mission of God is nothing less than everything we are and everything we have.