Outlive Your Life_ You Were Made to Make a Difference - Max Lucado [58]
3. What is the role of prayer in the life of your church? How could you adjust your approach to prayer in your church to make it more meaningful?
4. Tell about a time when your prayer life seemed richer than it is now. What was different then?
5. What could you do to reenergize your prayer times? What postures could you take? What lists could you use? What prayer activities could you try? What scriptures could you use as prayers? Who could join you for prayer as an inspiration?
Ideas for Action
• Do a study this week on Jesus and prayer. Use the following verses from this chapter and other examples of Jesus praying or teaching about prayer to guide you:
Matthew 5:44; 6:6–13; 14:13, 23; 19:13; 21:12–13; 21:22; 24:20
Mark 1:35; 6:46; 9:28–29
Luke 6:12–16; 9:18–20; 18:1–8; 18:9–14; 22:39–46; 23:33–34
John 11:41; 17:1, 9, 20
• You may already pray before every meal and at the start of every day, but this week pray before you do these other things as well:
before you start your car
before you exercise
before you do the first thing you always do at work
before you turn on your computer
before you pick up the phone
before you go into a meeting
before you walk back into your home at the end of the day
before you turn on the television
before you open a book
before you go to sleep
before you _____________________
CHAPTER 16: THAT’S JESUS PLAYING THAT FIDDLE
Questions for Discussion
1. What various motivations move people to act compassionately?
2. For Christians, what is the key motivator to compassionate action?
3. On the Day of Judgment, how will Jesus separate the righteous from the unrighteous, according to Matthew 25:31–46? Why is this passage so hard to take at face value?
4. Which group was surprised at Jesus’ choice in Matthew 25? Was it the sheep, the goats, or both? Why would they be surprised?
5. How are you trying to outlive your life now in ways you were not six months ago?
Ideas for Action
• Go back through this book in the next few days, and note the verses or quotes that most gripped your heart. On a separate sheet of paper or a few cards, write down these words and put them in a place that will keep the truths in front of you. Place them on your bathroom mirror, in your car, on your desk, in your purse, in your wallet, or on your door. Don’t forget the message and mission you have taken from Outlive Your Life.
• Finalize your personal action plan with the goal of outliving your life. Determine how your gifts, passion, and opportunities best fit into God’s plan to serve your neighborhood, community, and world. Overlay that template on your personal calendar to put your plan into action.
Notes
Chapter 1: Our Once-in-History Opportunity
1. UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children 2009: Maternal and Newborn Health, www.unicef.org/sowc09/report/report.php.
2. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, The State of Food Insecurity in the World: Economic Crises—Impacts and Lessons Learned, 2, ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/012/i0876e/i0876e.pdf.
3. UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children 2007: Women and Children; The Double Dividend of Gender Equality, 5, www.unicef.org/sowc07/docs/sowc07.pdf.
4. That equals approximately 25,000 per day. Anup Shah, “Today, Over 25,000 Children Died Around the World,” Global Issues, www.globalissues.org/article/715/today-over-25000-children-died-around-the-world.
5. Peter Greer and Phil Smith, The Poor Will Be Glad: Joining the Revolution to Lift the World out of Poverty (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009), 26.
6. Ronald J. Sider, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2005), 10.
7. Ibid., 35.
8. UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children 2009, 133.
9. The percentage of Christians in the United States is 76.8 percent, and the population of the United States in 2009 was approximately 307,212,000, according to the CIA, The World Factbook, 2009, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html.