The Shack: Bible Study 11

Chapter 13: A Meeting of Hearts

Page 183: Mack – What’s this? God has time to catch a few rays? Don’t you have anything better to do this afternoon?

Papa – Mack, you have no idea what I’m doing right now.

Q: What is God doing right now in the world? How would we know?

Isaiah 40:21-24 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

Page 184: Mack apologizes for unfairly judging God. Papa answers - …that is in the past now, where it belongs. I didn’t even want your sorrow for it, Mack. I just want us to grow on together without it.

Q: Why does Papa not want any of Mack’s regret? Does God want any of ours?

Isaiah 35:10 …and the ransomed of the LORD will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Page 185: Papa – Stories about a person willing to exchange their life for another are a golden thread in your world, revealing both your need and my heart.

Q: Why does sacrifice affect us? What makes people lay down their lives for others? How do we honor those sacrifices?

John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

Papa – Mack, just because I work incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies doesn’t mean I orchestrate the tragedies. Don’t ever assume that my using something means I caused it or that I need it to accomplish my purposes.

Q: How does God use evil, tragedy, and suffering to fulfill His promises? Are their experiences in our lives where we have seen this occur?

Romans 12:9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

Romans 3:7-8 Someone might argue, "If my falsehood enhances God's truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?" Why not say-as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say-"Let us do evil that good may result"? Their condemnation is deserved.

Papa – Grace doesn’t depend on suffering to exist, but where there is suffering you will find grace in many facets and colors.

Q: What is grace? How have we personally experienced it?

Page 186: Mack – The world just looks a thousand times brighter and I feel a thousand times lighter.

Papa – You are Mack! it isn’t easy being the judge of the entire world.

Q: What makes us so judgmental about other people? Why are Christians so bad at recognizing this?

Matthew 7:1-2 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Papa – Jesus came to show people who I am and most folks only believe it about him. They still play us off like good cop/bad cop most of the time. When they want to do what they think is right, they need a stern God. When they need forgiveness, they run to Jesus.

Q: How are our beliefs about Jesus different from those we have about God? Aren’t they the same?

John 17:20-23 My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Page 187: Papa – Guilt will never help you find freedom in me. The best it can do is make you try harder to conform to some ethic on the outside. I’m about the inside.

Q: How does the Church use guilt to impinge upon our freedom? Why? Can we give examples?

Luke 11:46 Jesus replied, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.

Papa – lies are a little fortress; in side them you can feel safe and powerful. Through your little fortress of lies you try to run your life and manipulate others. But the fortresses need walls, so you build some. These are the justifications for your lies.

Page 188: Papa – the truth is, Mack, the real reason you did not tell Nan was not because you were trying to save her from pain. The real reason is that you were afraid of having to deal with the emotions you might encounter, both from her and in yourself. Emotions scare you, Mack. You lied to protect yourself, not her!

Q: Why do we resort to lies to protect ourselves? What are we trying to hide? How do these lies affect our relationship with God and other people?

John 8:44-46 Jesus said: You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me?

Papa – When you mess up again, ask for forgiveness again. It’s a process, honey, and life is real enough without having to be obscured by lies. And remember, I am bigger than your lies. I can work beyond them.

Q: How is God bigger than our lies? How can He work beyond them?

Page 189: Papa – faith does not grow in the house of certainty.

Q: What has faith got to do with doubt? Why can’t faith grow in a house of certainty? If true, what does this say about our churches?

Matthew 21:21-22 Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

People are tenacious when it comes to the treasure of their imaginary independence. They hoard and hold their sickness with a firm grip. They find their identity and worth in their brokenness and guard it with every ounce of strength they have.

…my love is bigger than your stupidity. I used your choices to work perfectly into my purposes.

Q: How do our stupid choices affect our lives? What does God do with them? How do we know that God’s love is greater than our foolishness?

1 Corinthians 3:19-20 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness"; and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile."

Page 190: Papa – I understand how difficult it is for you, so lost in your own perceptions of reality and yet so sure of your own judgments, to even begin to perceive, let alone imagine, who real love and goodness are. True love never forces.

Q: Why can love never be enforced? What does this tell us about God’s love for us?

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 John 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!


Nobody knows what horrors I have saved the world from ‘cuz people can’t see what never happened. All evil flows from independence, and independence is your choice.

You and this Creation are incredible, whether you understand that or not. You are wonderful beyond imagination. Just because you make horrendous and destructive choices does not mean you deserve less respect for what you inherently are – the pinnacle of my Creation and the center of my affection.

Q: How do we feel about being the pinnacle of creation and the center of God’s affection? How should those honors affect how we deal with, think about, and judge other people?

Psalm 8:3-5 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

Page 191: Papa – So whose choices should we countermand, Mackenzie? Perhaps I should never have created?....You demand your independence, but then complain that I actually love you enough to give it to you.

Mackenzie, my purposes are not for my comfort, or yours. My purposes are always and only an expression of love. I purpose to work life out of death, to bring freedom out of brokenness and turn darkness into light. What you see as chaos, I see as a fractal.

Q: When do we complain to God about not being involved in the world? Are we willing to give up our freedom in order to let God protect the world from evil?

Luke 13:1-5 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them-do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."

Mack – What exactly did Jesus accomplish by dying?

Q: What exactly did Jesus accomplish by dying? What did He personally accomplish for you?

1 Peter 2:23-25 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Papa – Nothing much – just the substance of everything that love purposed before the foundations of creations.

Page 192: Papa – everything is about him. Creation and history are all about Jesus. He is the very center of our purpose and in him we are now fully human, so our purpose and your destiny are forever linked. You might say that we have put all our eggs in the one human basket. There is no plan B.

Q: If Creation and history are all about Jesus, why do we prohibit Him from being the center of our lives?

Revelation 3:19-22 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

Papa – You asked me what Jesus accomplished on the cross; so now listen to me carefully: through his death and resurrection, I am now fully reconciled to the world.

Mack – The whole world? You mean those who believe in you, right?

Papa – The whole world, Mack. All I am telling you is that reconciliation is a two way street, and I have done my part, totally, completely, finally.

Q: How is the whole world reconciled to God through Jesus? Why is this a two-way street? How can we play our part in this divine process?

Romans 5:9-11 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.