A Different Kind of Wild
Is Your Faith Too Tame?
by Debbie Alsdorf

List Price: $12.99
Pages: 207
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780800733667
Publisher: Revell

You were born to be WILD.

Not bad wild --- good wild, with a new zest for life, for Jesus, and for his thrilling, bold, and creative plans for you. Join Debbie Alsdorf as she coaches you in the exhilarating process of developing as a woman of God. She'll show you how to break free from old expectations and boring patterns and find the WILD (Women in Lifelong Development) way of life.

Travel this untamed new terrain and you'll deepen your faith, enrich your sense of purpose, and lift your sagging spirits when life gets hard. Alsdorf includes reflection questions at the end of each chapter and an expanded study section at the end of the book --- so you can explore the wild alone or in a small group.

So grab your cheetah-print gear and start living the WILD life God has imagined for you --- a life bigger and grander than you ever thought possible.

“Debbie bravely steps out to show us how to embrace the edges of our lives, knowing that this is the territory where faith becomes reality.” --- Anita Renfroe, bestselling author and speaker.

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1. Read Colossians 1:9–23. What part of this passage is most meaningful to you and why? Verse 13 says that God delivered us from darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of Light. What has God rescued you from? How do verses 16–17 relate to your life? Who holds you together? Verse 21 says we were once alienated from God. How do you think growing up in this culture alienates us from God?

2. How does thinking about being “the people of God” affect you? Do you think you would live differently if you remembered that you belonged to God and not to this world, other people, or yourself? How have you experienced God’s gifting in you? What is your responsibility with your God-given gifts?

3. How has perfectionism affected your life? Do you ever feel pressure to “get yourself together?” If so, how do you generally go about accomplishing that? What did you learn about the difference between process and perfection? How will you live intentionally in process rather than perfection?

4. Jesus asked his disciples to follow him. What does that mean to you today? What has God been speaking to you that might be hard to understand or follow? What might Jesus be calling you away from --- or calling you to? Are you ever surprised by how God chooses to work? Share this experience.

5. Do you have things packed in your life luggage that keep you from experiencing the love of Christ flowing through you? Do you generally live your life by faith or by feelings? Is love a feeling? A choice? A spiritual law? Or a combination of these? Read John 15:17. What does this command mean to you today? How does it challenge you?

6. Do you have any business to take care of when it comes to forgiving someone? How have you been actively listening to God’s voice in your relationships with others? Are you seeking God’s way of forgiveness or are you giving way to anger and bitterness?

7. What habits or “styles” hang in your closet that need to be dealt with once and for all? Proverbs 29:22 speaks of anger and its outcome. Do you struggle with anger, self-protection, or self-interest? What are you going to unpack? How are you going to put on a new attitude? Create a plan of action.

8. When was the last time you threw off your cares and gave them to God? What specifically did you have to trust God with? What was the outcome? Read Hebrews 11:4–40. What do these examples say to you about wild faith, trust, and surrender?

9. What does it mean to “stand firm?” How do you generally feel when receive bad news? Read 2 Chronicles 20. How did King Jehoshaphat feel and what did he do when he was told that an army was coming against him? How is this different from what you usually do? Do you think there is power in having a different attitude --- in choosing faith over fear?

10. How do your thoughts affect your actions? What thinking can easily get you off track? How do you bring a thought under the obedience of Christ? Can you see that there is a problem with only looking at the surface of things? Does the surface of things sometimes bring your thoughts to a place of fear and undermine the faith you are trying to walk in? When was the last time you considered or remembered that you belong to Christ?

11. What would it be like to really believe and trust that God has the best route mapped out for us? What would it be like to be daring enough to step out onto the dance floor with only him? What part of you is God requiring surrender of today?

12. What good have you seen in your life lately? How have you experienced the peace of God when dwelling on good things? Would it be wild to be thankful even in the dark moments of life? How can you begin to do this? Philippians 4:19 is a promise for wild women. What does it promise?

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"Alsdorf's best work yet, and it's no doubt the result of its message being lived out in her own life. Now that's the kind of book I want to read."

— Julie Barnhill, bestselling author and speaker

"Debbie bravely steps out to show us how to embrace the edges of our lives, knowing that this is the territory where faith becomes reality."

— Anita Renfroe, bestselling author and speaker

"From the first sentence to the final page, we are called to live the life most of us have only dreamt of. The impact of Debbie's book upon my life is immeasurable."

— Sue Boldt, women's ministry director, CrossRoads Community Church, California

"Debbie's honest reflections, practical advice, and God inspired insights show us a radically different way to live. I'm encouraging every woman at our church to get a copy."

— Rachel Johnston, pastor of women's ministry, Bayside Church, Granite Bay, California