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Hungry: Learning to Feed Your Soul with Christ

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Hunger: it drives our bodies, shapes our day, and affects our choices.

We are all too familiar with our physical hunger and the guilt it often inspires. But God designed us to hunger—our hunger is good! It shows we are meant to depend on something outside ourselves for satisfaction.

But what about the hunger we feel in our souls?

While also from God, our spiritual hunger is corrupted—leaving us binging on “junk food” like our idols and cravings. Where do we find true satisfaction for our hungry souls?

It comes when our souls feast on the Word of God—and on Jesus himself. Rondi shows us how to prepare a Bible study like a recipe for a spiritual banquet that will truly fill us.

Learn how to consume the Bible instead of just reading it—and then how to share this meal with the hungry around you.

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2016

15 people are currently reading
129 people want to read

About the author

Rondi Lauterbach

2 books4 followers
Rondi Lauterbach is a pastor’s wife who has been a friend and encourager to women in their life’s callings. She is a mother, grandmother, Bible study leader, Pilates teacher, and fierce competitor at all board games.

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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
Profile Image for Michelle Kidwell.
Author 36 books85 followers
October 19, 2016

Hungry



Learning to Feed Your Soul with Christ

by Rondi Lauterbach



P & R Publishing

Christian



Pub Date 30 Sep 2016



I am voluntarily reviewing an arc copy of Hungry through the publisher and Netgalley:



The author points out that Hunger is a driving force in our lives. She goes on to remind us just like when we are physically hungry and we feed our bellies we need to feed our souls with the Word of God.



This book points out too that we are often defined by our tastes in music, in food, in what we watch and reminds us that even Jesus experienced hunger.



I give Hungry five out of five stars.



Happy Reading.
Profile Image for Matthew Mitchell.
Author 11 books37 followers
November 22, 2017
"Hungry" is two good books in one. Rondi Lauterbach wants her readers to feed their souls with Christ by ingesting the Word of Christ so she spends the first half of her book whetting our appetites and the second half showing us how to gain spiritual nourishment from the Scriptures.

Part One is a mini-theology of spiritual hunger. Lauterbach reminds us just how deep our cravings are and the twisted lengths to which we’ll go to find soul satisfaction. Spiritual hunger is a good God-given thing, but it has become corrupted and cursed and needs to be rescued. Jesus Christ has come as the Bread of Life. He is more than enough to feed our souls. Rondi says, “Bring your hungry to his plenty.”

Part Two is a mini-class in Christ-centered Bible study. Continuing to exploit the biblical metaphor of food, Lauterbach lays out a simple recipe for reading, analyzing, understanding, and applying the Scriptures. She compares it to eating a well-prepared meal–preparing the cook, prepping the right ingredients, gathering the right tools, taking the right shortcuts, actually consuming the meal, and also sharing it with others. Because of her clear, sweet, readable, friendly writing voice this extended metaphor rings true and never feels forced.

"Hungry" will encourage Christian women (Lauterbach’s main audience) to pick up their Bibles once again. My wife Heather scooped this book up and she gobbled it down. Heather felt as though Rondi was speaking directly to her like a happy older friend from church who understands the heavy pressures of life on Christian women yet has learned how to carve out time in the Word and draw out its savory sustenance.

Heather says that most books on Bible study unintentionally heap condemnation on the ladies who read them. They set up unrealistic expectations of what Bible intake will look like in practice, and when ladies fail to meet that standard, they give up in shame. But Rondi sets up her readers for success, while serving up meat instead of milk.

Rondi’s chapter on shortcuts, for example, argues that we all need them because “we’re always bumping up against our limits,” but the real question is which shortcuts are the good ones that we can take without sacrificing anything important? She offers eight things to look for in any passage that will zoom readers to finding Christ on every page (four about God and four about us).

For me personally, the chapter on application was the most significant. Rondi points out that application (eating) is not just “what to do” but a transformation of who I am. Food changes us. I know in my head that Bible intake should not lead to moralism or legalism, but this chapter helped me to see and feel it more clearly. When I’m truly nourished by something, it gets digested and metabolized, and I am not the same person I was before eating. I am energized and changed.

But, as a pastor, my favorite chapter by far was the last one where Lauterbach reminds her readers that we aren’t supposed to just study the Bible on our own. We need the church. I don’t know of another book on Bible study that seriously mentions the role of preaching and lifts high the importance of hearing the word of God together. Rondi shows the dangers of individualistic Bible study and encourages her readers to feast on Christ at the table set by faithful expositors in the community of the redeemed.

This review originally was published by LifeWay Pastors: http://www.lifeway.com/pastors/2017/0...
Profile Image for Ko Matsuo.
569 reviews2 followers
February 7, 2017
This is really a good book and helped me better realize 3 three things.

1. How prevalent the theme of hunger is in the Bible. The author takes the reader on a fascinating journey through many stories in both the Old and New Testaments, helping me realize that hunger as a theme exists all over the Bible.
2. How to relate in a real way to characters the Bible stories. Lauterbach has an honesty and vulnerability in her writing that brings meaning and reality to the themes and verses that she discusses.
3. How to see hunger as a pointer to Christ. The author helped me realize how all of the stories about hunger in the Bible are really pointers to Jesus, who is the One who can ultimately satisfy all of our hunger.

This book has helped me to understand overlaying themes in the Bible that highlight my nature and underscore my need for my Savior.
Profile Image for Aaron.
152 reviews2 followers
June 17, 2017
The experience of hunger has always fascinated me. Why were we created with a hunger drive? What (if anything) did God intend by creating us to hunger?  Of course, without hunger those among us who are not maintenance-minded we could easily go malnourished or even worse, die. Imagine those who forget to change their oil, mow their lawn, or brush their hair after a few days of neglecting to eat of we were created without a propensity to hunger! Survival is a very practical reason for our sense of hunger. Pragmatism aside, I can't help but think that there is a deeper and more profound purpose. After all, as Rondi Lauterbach points out in her book Hungry, God very well could have created us not only without hunger, but also without the need to eat in order to sustain ourselves. Not only this, but there is a consistent thread in scripture related to food. In the garden of Eden, God told Adam to eat!

Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat
In Ecclesiastes, we are told to eat our bread and drink our wine with happiness. In Matthew, in teaching us to pray, Christ tells his disciples to thank our heavenly Father for our daily bread. We know that the church in Acts ate together often as a part of  the Lord's Supper (or more accurately the Lord's Supper WAS a meal- a weekly feast). Over and over again, stories in scripture are centered around food and eating. The most telling passage however is in John 6 when Christ declares himself to be the bread of life and that those come to him will never hunger. It's here where Lauterbach begins to unfold the mystery and splendor of hunger. Hunger, as Lauterbach brilliantly explains, is meant to point us to something greater than ourselves. It reminds us that we are completely dependent on something foreign to us in order to meet our deepest desire for satisfaction. The practical application of this truth is to learn to feed on Christ so that God is the ultimate source of our satisfaction.

In part 1, Lauterbach writes about the nature of food, our cravings, and our need for satisfaction in Christ. These cravings that we have are not physical cravings for food (although it may manifest itself as this) but cravings of the soul. The list of our cravings is long. Cravings for such things as significance, perfection, status, love and more often drive us to sin and despair. In the introduction to the book, Lauterbach imagines a scenario in which her son stares blankly into the refrigerator before exclaiming that there is "nothing to eat". She responds by telling him that there is a turkey sandwich waiting for him in the refrigerator, he just needs to gather the turkey, bread, cranberry sauce and cream cheese and get to work. This is what she helps us to do in Part 2 of Hungry. We learn to see what is before us and put it together in order to feast on Christ-- and the primary means for this is the study and application of the Word of God. This is an extraordinarily rich activity. It is here where Lauterbach expertly guides us through a way to read the Bible that goes beyond mere studying; it is a process of learning to consume, east and feast on scripture with Christ as the center of the feast. Not only do we learn to approach scripture as a means to satisfy our hunger, but Lauterbach gives us the opportunity to put it into practice using the book of Philemon.

Hungry is laid out in such a way that we can easily use it in private study or in a group setting. Each chapter ends with questions to reflect upon and discuss. The questions are designed to start us thinking about the things we hunger for and how we can fulfill that huger in a way that honors God and sets our appetites and affections upon Christ. I can't think of a better book for those who are struggling with inordinate appetites and who desire to escape the endless restlessness that our appetites often create within us. In my opinion, that describes each and every one of us.

Where to Purchase
AmazonChristianbook.com | P&R Publishing

This review first appeared at http://www.teleiaphilia.com

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from P&R Publishing in exchange for an online review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Profile Image for Becky.
6,193 reviews304 followers
November 12, 2016
Hungry: Learning to Feed Your Soul with Christ. Rondi Lauterbach. 2016. P&R. 224 pages. [Source: Review copy]

Hungry: Learning To Feed Your Soul with Christ is an amazing must-read by Rondi Lauterbach. What is it about? The simple answer is that it is about reading the Bible. The more complex answer is that it is about learning to read the Bible in such a way that you abundantly feast on the Word, or perhaps I should say the Bread of Life.

The book is not about how to check Bible reading off your list every day. The book IS about how to make the most of your time in the Word, so that whether you spend TEN minutes or TWO hours--you are FED. The book is not about how to speed read through the books of the Bible. The book is not about how to 'read like a professor' and spot all the big ideas at a glance. No, this book is all about nurturing--building--a relationship with Jesus Christ.

From the introduction by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick,
The problem is not always with knowing that we should read and digest God’s Word; the problem is with how to do it in the time that we have and to stay motivated. That’s where this immensely helpful book comes in.
and
Using the paradigm of cooking a nutritious meal, along with the book of Philemon, Rondi is going to help you to learn how to read and really digest the Word of Life. But that’s not all that she’s going to do. She’ll also accomplish something that most writers of Bible study books fail to do: she’ll help you to see Jesus, the true Bread, the Living Word, on every page . . . and in that, she’ll give you a unique motivation to keep on.
The book consists of two parts. In part one, "Hungry," the focus is on our cravings and desires and how while they are God-given aspects of who they are, they need to be re-tuned to crave and desire our God and Creator. (They got very messed up--twisted--because of the Fall). The focus is also on how God loves to feed--provide and care for--his children. She also writes a good deal about the WILDERNESS. In part two, "Plenty," the focus shifts to the HOW. Lauterbach uses the analogy of cooking to show us how to read the Bible and do Bible study. This involves prep-work, cooking, and eating, or, observation, interpretation, and application.

Lauterbach writes clearly and concisely. The book is also passionate about proclaiming Scriptural truths. I loved, loved, LOVED it. I would recommend it to EVERYBODY.
Profile Image for Dana.
296 reviews4 followers
June 3, 2017
I often times shy away from Christian non-fiction books written by female authors because they are usually fluffy, Christianity-lite. I decided to read this book because someone at my church decided to lead a study on it. Given my previous experience with women authors I wasn't expecting much but thought I would try the study anyway. I was pleasantly surprised by the depth, insight, and encouragement I found in this book. It is not hard to read but very thought provoking, revealing, and keeps bringing the reader to Christ and what He has done for us (I especially enjoyed the the part on feeding on the finished work of Christ on pg. 92-94) . I have underlined things all over the place in this book and will definitely revisit it in the future. There is much to chew on here. I highly recommend it.
3 reviews1 follower
November 28, 2016
"Present Over Perfect" recognizes women's hunger for peace, without getting to the Scriptural root of it.
"Hungry - Learning to Feed Your Soul on Christ" not only diagnoses the root cause, but offers a truly sustaining solution. Using the extended metaphor of food, Rondi Lauterbach lays out the Bible's description of our God-given hunger for Him, corrupted by the Fall, but restored through Christ. In the second half of the book, she teaches women how to feed themselves with Christ through His Word - seeing Him and His work in every chapter - with the book of Philemon as the example.

A must read, especially for younger women or those young in the faith, who are looking for something more satisfying and solid than what the Belong Tour writers offer.
Profile Image for Hope Irvin Marston.
Author 36 books14 followers
December 3, 2018
I purchased this book after hearing it discussed over Christian radio. The title literally whetted my appetite, not only for my own personal growth, but as a possible study guide for one-on-mentoring. I like the author's approach to her subject. She succeeds very well in showing the reader how to read and digest the Bible in the time one has and to stay motivated in the process.

Because I like to cook, I appreciated the way she used the paradigm of cooking a nutritious meal, along with the book of Philemon, to help the reader digest the Word of Life. Her presentation of Jesus will find the reader motivated by His love and delighting in spending more time with Him.

This book would make an excellent gift for a new believer along with a giver’s offer to read it with her.
Profile Image for Katy Sammons.
118 reviews10 followers
December 28, 2016
Excellent book on making Bible reading about Jesus and what *he* has done rather than what *I* should be doing, which is ultimately life-transforming. Substantive AND accessible. Lauterbach effectively uses and develops the Biblical metaphor for feeding on Christ and His Word and provides both the philosophical foundation and practical tools for Bible study and meditation. Her insights into "the wilderness" especially resonated with me.
Profile Image for Julia Garcia.
449 reviews73 followers
August 23, 2019
My mom got this book for my sisters and I back after it released in 2016, but I was reading another theological book so it sat on my shelf, collecting dust for a couple of years.
 Last year, I picked it up and started to go through it.
 Two months ago, I started meeting with my adopted aunt for a weekly Bible study/mentoring session and she asked me if there was a book I was going through.
 I’d only made it halfway through “Hungry”, so I mentioned it to her. She ordered a copy for herself and we started going through it, a chapter a week.
 I’ll admit that when my mom first got me this book, I thought I didn’t need it. I passed it off as a generic Bible study book. I was wrong.
 “Hungry” dives beneath the human skin and goes deep into heart issues like, “Is God really good?” and “Why do we continue to feed on idolatries?”
 This book challenged me on several levels and caused me to think about things I’ve shoved under the proverbial rug for most of my Christian life.
 When we finished, both my aunt and I wished we didn’t. I’m not sure I’ll find another book as great as this one.
 I loved Rondi’s friendly, conversational writing style and how she compared reading and studying God’s word to preparing and eating a meal. It made things come alive for me!
 I’d recommend this book to anyone who runs on fumes, chasing a fulfilled life.
 Come hungry. You’ll leave full.
Profile Image for Aria Greendyk.
38 reviews23 followers
November 1, 2023
I'm a bit conflicted about how to review this book. It took me wayy too long to get through it, and I think quite a bit of it is that many Christian books of this type have a writing style that somehow makes it difficult for me to remember anything of what they said. That said, towards the end, Rondi gives a lot of really helpful tools about how to study the Bible, which have actually been helping me dig a bit deeper in my Bible reading. She gives shortcuts to seeing Jesus on every page of the Bible, which are really valuable. She managed to make the book both accessible to those completely new to studying the Bible, but also had a few tidbits for those who have been doing it for years.

3.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews

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