Michael blinked. His whole body flooded with joy. The name fit her so well. A wanderer in foreign lands, a barren woman filled with doubt. Yet Sarah of old had become a symbol of trust in God and ultimately the mother of a nation. Sarah. A benediction. Sarah. A barren woman who conceived a son. His beautiful, cherished wife who would someday give him a child.
It’s a promise, Lord, isn’t it? Michael felt the warmth and assurance of it enter every cell of his body.
He held out his hand. “Hello, Sarah.” She looked endearingly confused as she placed her hand in his. He shook it and grinned down at her. “I’m very pleased to meet you. Finally.”
She laughed. “You are such a crazy, crazy man, Michael.”
Michael laughed with her and pulled her into his arms to kiss her. He felt her arms around him as she kissed him back. She was home for good this time. Not even death would part them.
When they drew breath, Michael swung her around and lifted her above him joyously. She threw back her head and spread her arms wide to embrace the sky, tears of celebration streaming down her cheeks.
Michael had once read to her how God had cast a man and woman out of Paradise. Yet, for all their human faults and failures, God had shown them the way back in.
Love the Lord your God, and love one another. Love one another as he loves. Love with strength and purpose and passion and no matter what comes against you. Don’t weaken. Stand against the darkness, and love. That’s the way back into Eden. That’s the way back to life.
Weeping may last for the night,
But a shout of joy comes in the morning.
PSALM 30 : 5B
Sarah and Michael shared many happy years together. On their seventh anniversary, their prayers were answered with the birth of a son, Stephen. Stephen was followed by Luke, Lydia, and Esther. Miriam and Paul also remained happy and had three sons, Mark, David, and Nathan.
Both families prospered and remained lifelong friends. Together they built a community church and school and welcomed many more settlers to their valley.
Susanna Axle remained at the House of Magdalena until her death in 1892. With her help, dozens of young women once trapped into prostitution crossed the threshold to better lives. Several married well and became leading citizens.
Though Sarah’s family grew rich and famous—eventually including doctors, ambassadors, missionaries, and even a much-decorated veteran of San Juan Hill—she returned for one week each year to the House of Magdalena. As long as she was physically able, she walked through the Barbary Coast and down to the docks, talking with young prostitutes and encouraging them to change their lives. When asked why, she said, “I never want to forget where I came from and all God has done for me.” She frequently returned from the docks to the House of Magdalena holding an Angel by the hand.
After sixty-eight years of marriage, Michael was laid to rest. Sarah followed within a month. According to their wishes, only simple wooden crosses marked their graves. However, a few days after Sarah’s burial, an epitaph was found scratched into her marker.
Though fallen low
God raised her up
An angel.
A NOTE FROM FRANCINE RIVERS
Why I Wrote Redeeming Love
Many born-again Christians talk about a single conversion experience that changed their lives forever. They can tell you the day and the hour they made their decision to live for the Lord. I can’t do that.
I was reared in a Christian home. I went to Sunday school and church camp. I attended youth groups. When I filled out various forms that asked what religion I was, I checked the box that said “Protestant.” Yet, for me, my actual conversion came slowly—like the changing of seasons—and with a power that still humbles me.
I will not go into details about the mistakes I made. Suffice it to say I was burdened and soul-hungry, and so was my husband Rick. We both had burdens—enough to sink a marriage had not God wanted it otherwise.
Writing was my escape from the world and hard times. It was always the one area of my life where I believed (mistakenly) that I had complete control. I could create characters and stories to suit me. I wrote romances for the secular market and I read them voraciously.
Rick once said, “If you had to choose between me and the children or your writing, you would take your writing.” At the time he said it, it was sadly true. I frequently contemplated how much easier it would be to live by myself in a cabin away from everyone, with an electric typewriter as my only company.
Before long, Rick and I decided we needed to make some changes in our lives. We never do anything by half-measure, so we sold our house, gave away half of our furnishings, and moved north to Sonoma County to start a new business. All external changes, you will note, not internal ones of the heart. Though the business flourished, our relationship was disintegrating.
Yet, even through the hardest times, I can look back and see that God showed His love and concern for us. He was constantly holding out His arms and saying, “Come to me.” One such message came through a little boy who lived in the house next door. We arrived with our U-Haul and were carrying in boxes to the small rental house in Sebastopol when little Eric came over to welcome us and help out. “Have I got a church for you!” he said, and Rick and I rolled our eyes and wished he would go bother someone else.
Out of curiosity, a few weeks later I attended Eric’s church. After all, I had found no peace in anything else. Well, our little neighbor was right! The warmth and love I felt in the congregation drew me the moment I walked in the front door. I heard the Word of God being preached; I felt God’s truth and love in action all around me. Many churches seem to be mere museums for plastic saints, or they preach fulfillment from the world’s point of view—a “prosperity gospel.” This church was different. It was a hospital for repentant sinners; their only blueprint for life was the Bible, which everyone was carrying and—most amazing of all—reading! The church wasn’t connected to an organization. They went by the name of “Christians,” and said living according to Christ’s example is a lifetime process.
I started taking the children to church with me. Then Rick started coming. Our lives began to change, not from the outside, but from the inside out. We were all baptized by immersion, not just in water, but in the Spirit. It did not happen quickly, and we still have struggles, but we belong to the Lord and He is molding and making us according to His will.
I believe we all serve someone in this life. For the first thirty-eight years of mine, I served myself. My conversion was not a highly emotional experience. It was a conscious, thought-out decision that changed my focus, my direction, my heart, my life. But I don’t want to mislead anyone. It was not all peace and light afterward. The first thing that happened was that I couldn’t write. Oh, I tried, but it didn’t feel right. Writing just didn’t work for me anymore. I couldn’t escape into it. I had given myself to the Lord, and He had something else in mind. I finally accepted that it might not even be in His plan that I ever write again. And I surrendered. What I came to understand was that He wanted me to get to know Him first. He wanted no other gods in my life—not my family, not my writing. Nothing.
I started craving the Word of God. I read page by page, cover to cover and cover to cover and cover to cover. I started to pray. I started to listen and learn. God’s Word is like food and clean, clear water. It filled the emptiness inside me. It renewed me. It opened my eyes and ears and mind and heart and filled me with joy.
We opened our house for a home Bible study, and our pastor began a study on the gospels. Then we did a study on materialism. Then we began a study on the minor prophets. We eventually came to the Book of Hosea. That portion of God’s Word hit me so profoundly that I knew this was the love story the Lord wanted me to write! His story, a deeply moving story of His passionate love for each of us—unconditional, forgiving, unchanging, everlasting, self-sacrificing—the kind of love for which most people hunger their entire lives, yet never find.
Writ
ing Redeeming Love was a form of worship for me. Through it, I was able to thank God for loving me even when I was defiant, rebellious, contemptuous of what I thought being a Christian meant, and afraid to give my heart away. I had wanted to be my own god and have control of my life the way Eve did in the Garden of Eden. Now I know to be loved by Christ is the ultimate joy and fulfillment. Everything in Redeeming Love was a gift from the Lord: plot, characters, theme. None of it is mine to claim.
There are many who struggle to survive in life, many who have been used and abused in the name of love, many who have been sacrificed on the altars of pleasure and “freedom.” But the freedom the world offers is, in reality, false. Too many have awakened one day to discover they are in bondage, and they have no idea how to escape. It is for people such as these that I wrote Redeeming Love—people who fight, as I did, to be their own gods, only to find in the end that they are lost, desperate, and terribly alone. I want to bring the truth to those trapped in lies and darkness, to tell them that God is there, He is real, and He loves them—no matter what.
I used to believe the purpose in life is to find happiness. I don’t believe that anymore. I believe we are all given gifts from our Father, and that our purpose is to offer them to Him. He knows how He wants us to use them. I used to struggle to find happiness. I used to work hard to attain it. By the world’s standards, I was successful. But it was all meaningless vanity. Now, I have joy. I have everything I ever wanted or dreamed of having: a love that is so precious I can find no words to describe it. I haven’t achieved this through my own efforts. I certainly have done nothing worthy to earn it or even deserve it. I have received it as a free gift from the Lord, the everlasting God. It is the same gift He offers you, every minute, every hour, every day of your life.
I hope this story will help you see who Jesus is and how much He loves you. And may the Lord draw you to Him.
Dear Reader,
We hope you have enjoyed Francine Rivers’s novel Redeeming Love. This timeless story of love between God and man reminds us of the deep well within us that cries out to be filled with unconditional, redeeming love. As always, it is Francine’s desire for you, the reader, to find the answers to life’s incredible circumstances from God’s Word through a personal relationship with Him. The following study guide is intended to whet your appetite and encourage you on your journey. There are three sections in each lesson:
• DISCUSSION—the story and the characters
• DISCOVERIES—God’s principles and character
• DECISIONS—reflection on the characters and self
In Romans 8:28 we read, “God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” (NLT). Angel eventually realized God’s call in her life and discovered the good He had for her. Sarah and Michael learned to deal with all that life dealt them through their belief in God’s faithfulness and His unfailing love. May you realize God’s call in your life and find the joy and goodness He has for you. May He bless you as you seek the answers for life from His Word.
Peggy Lynch
He [Jesus] was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with bitterest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way when he went by. He was despised, and we did not care.
ISAIAH 53 : 3
DISCUSSION
How was Sarah/Angel rejected and betrayed? What were her earliest experiences with God and/or the church?
What experience did Michael have with rejection or betrayal? Contrast Michael’s and Angel’s examples in coping with life’s circumstances.
Who else in the story suffered from rejection or betrayal, and how did they cope?
Which character do you identify with the most and why?
Describe a time when you were rejected or betrayed. To whom did you turn and why?
DISCOVERIES
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God!
PSALM 139 : 15 – 17
Where was God when you were born? How does that make you feel? What else do you learn about God from these verses?
How would you relate these verses to Angel? Relate these same verses to yourself.
DECISIONS
God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
ROMANS 8 : 28
When Angel experienced rejection and betrayal, was God calling her? What good was He working in her life?
When you have faced rejection or betrayal, was God calling you? What good has He worked in your life in relation to those circumstances?
Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many counselors bring success.
PROVERBS 15 : 22
People may be pure in their own eyes, but the LORD examines their motives.
PROVERBS 16 : 2
DISCUSSION
Which scene do you feel best shows how Angel was resigned to relying on no one but herself? What events caused her to do so? Why do you think she never cried out to God?
Contrast Michael with Angel in regard to authority.
Describe Miriam’s relationship with God. Why were her attitudes and beliefs so different from Angel’s?
On whom do you rely and why?
DISCOVERIES
He [God] will rescue the poor when they cry to him; he will help the oppressed, who have no one to defend them. He feels pity for the weak and the needy, and he will rescue them. He will save them from oppression and from violence, for their lives are precious to him.
PSALM 72 : 12 – 14
What do you learn about God’s character from these verses?
What is our part in experiencing God’s help? What holds you back?
Discuss the characters in light of these verses.
DECISIONS
God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
ROMANS 8 : 28
In what ways was God calling Angel while she was relying only on herself? What good was He working?
In what ways has God been calling you, regardless of whom you rely on? How is He working good for you through that process?
Though I am surrounded by troubles, you will preserve me against the anger of my enemies. You will clench your fist against my angry enemies! Your power will save me. The LORD will work out his plans for my life—for your faithful love, O LORD, endures forever. Don’t abandon me, for you made me.
PSALM 138 : 7 – 8
DISCUSSION
Who helped Michael escape his past? In what ways was he rescued?
Angel repeatedly tried to escape her circumstances. Describe the various plans.
Contrast Hosea, the slave who helped Michael, with the slave dealer Duke.
Discuss Michael’s rescue of Angel from the hand of Magowan.
Why do you think Angel returned to her former ways?
From what or whom are you trying to escape and why?
What causes you to return to old habits?
DISCOVERIES
For “Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?
ROMANS 10 : 13 – 14
How would you apply these verses to Angel? According to these verses, why had she never cried out to God? Who was responsible?
What keeps you from crying out to God? What can you do about it now?
DECISIONS
God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
ROMANS 8 : 28
List any ways in which Go
d was calling Angel at this juncture in her life.
Can you see the good He was working around her? List it.
What about your life? How has God rescued you? How has He called you and worked good through that?
He [Jesus] gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing what is right.
TITUS 2 : 14
DISCUSSION
Angel was bought and sold on numerous occasions. What was different about Michael’s redeeming her? Discuss the role of trust (or lack of trust) in Angel.
When Michael and Angel helped the Altman family, what did Angel learn about Michael? Herself? God?
Describe the changes in actions and thinking that took place after Angel was rescued a second time by Michael. What do you think caused the changes?
What trust issues do you have? Who has God placed in your life as positive examples?
DISCOVERIES
God saved you by his special favor when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
Francine Rivers Page 47