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Praise for Outlive Your Life
One hundred percent of the author’s royalties from Outlive Your Life products will benefit children and families through World Vision and other ministries of faith-based compassion. To follow World Vision’s use of the funds, go to MaxLucado.com
INSPIRATIONAL
OUTLIVE YOUR LIFE
© 2010 Max Lucado
Denalyn and I would like to dedicate this hook to my sister and brother-in-law, Jacquelyn and Ken Wallace. Kinder hearts may exist but not this side of heaven. We love you.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Behind this book stands an army of thinkers, strategists, dreamers, and grinders.
Finding Father Benjamin: A Fable
Unfavorable winds blow the ship off course, and when they do, the sailors spot uncharted islands. They see half a dozen mounds rising out of the blue South Seas waters. The captain orders the men to drop anchor and goes ashore. He is a robust man with a barrel chest, full beard, and curious soul.
1. Our Once-in-History Opportunity
By the time you knew what to call it, you were neck deep in it. You’d toddler-walked and talked, smelled crayons and swung bats, gurgled and giggled your way out of diapers and into childhood.
After David had done the will of God in his own generation, he died and was buried.
2. Calling Mr. Pot Roast
You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. —ACTS 1:8 (NIV)
They don’t look like much. No one has accused them of overqualification. Clumsiness, yes. Hardheadedness and forgetfulness, for certain. But ambassadors? Avant-garde leaders? Hope harbingers?
Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you.Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful.
3. Let God Unshell You
They’re speaking our languages, describing God’s mighty works! —ACTS 2:11 (MSG)
May I show you my new clamshell? It just arrived. My old one was thinning out. You know how worn they can get. Sheer as the wall of a cheap motel. Mine was so chipped I could see right through it. And noise? It couldn’t block the sound of a baby’s whimper.
[God] comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.
4. Don’t Forget the Bread
Tour sins will be forgiven. Then you will be given the Holy Spirit. This promise is for you.—ACTS 2:38 39 (CEV)
Denalyn called as I was driving home the other day. “Can you stop at the grocery store and pick up some bread?”
For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
5. Team Up
Now all who believed were together. —ACTS 2:44
In 1976 tremors devastated the highlands of Guatemala. Thousands of people were killed, and tens of thousands were left homeless. A philanthropist offered to sponsor a relief team from our college. This flyer was posted in our dormitory: “Needed: students willing to use their spring break to build cinder-block homes in Quetzaltenango.” I applied, was accepted, and began attending the orientation sessions.
Two are better than one,
6. Open Your Door: Open Your Heart
They ate together in their homes, happy to share their food with joyful hearts. —ACTS 246 (NCV)
If a voice could be a season, hers was springtime. “Hello,” she sang. “Thank you for calling.” I needed a kind welcome. The sky was pouring buckets of rain. Lightning had caused blackouts, and storms were jamming the traffic. News reports were telling drivers to stay off the roads. But I had a flight to catch.
Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay. God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.
7. See the Need: Touch the Hurt
Peter, with John at his side, looked him straight in the eye... He grabbed him by the right hand and pulled him up. —ACTS 34, 7 (MSG)
A gate called Beautiful. The man was anything but.
When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
8. Persecution: Prepare for It; Resist It
The priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them. —ACTS 4:1
On April 18, 2007, three Christians in Turkey were killed for their beliefs. Necati Aydin was one of them. He was a thirty-five-year-old pastor in the city of Malatya.
You know how much persecution and suffering I have endured. You know all about how I was persecuted in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra—but the Lord rescued me from all of it. Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
9. Do Good. Quietly
Ananias his wife, Sapphira, conniving in this with him -sold a piece of land, secretly kept part of the price for himself, and then brought the rest to the apostles and made an offering of it. —ACTS 5:1-2 (MSG)
The couple sat at the kitchen table and stared at the check for fifteen thousand dollars. The silence was a respite. The last half hour had been twelve rounds of verbal jabs and uppercuts. She blamed him for the idea. “You just had to give the money away.”
But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
10. Stand Up for the Have-Nots
The Greek-speaking widows were not given their share when the food supplies were handed out each day. —ACTS 6:i (CEV)
Jim Wallis took some scissors to his Bible. He was a seminary student at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School when he and some classmates decided to eliminate a few verses. They performed surgery on all sixty-six books, beginning with Genesis and not stopping until Revelation. Each time a verse spoke to the topic of poverty, wealth, justice, or oppression, they cut it out. They wanted to see what a compassionless Bible looked like. By the time they finished, nearly two thousand verses lay on the floor, and a book of tattered pages remained.1
Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.
11. Remember Who Holds You
Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me? says the Lord, or what is the place of My rest? Has My hand not made all these things? Acts 7:49-50
When my nephew Lawson was three years old, he asked me to play some basketball. A towheaded spark plug of a boy, he delights in anything round and bouncy. When he spotted the basketball and goal in my driveway, he couldn’t resist.
What do you have that God hasn’t given you?And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift?
12. Blast a Few Walls
"See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?" Then Philip said, "if you believe with all your heart, you may. —ACTS 8:36 37
Fans rooted for the competition. Cheerleaders switched loyalties. The coach helped the opposition score points. Parents yelled for the competition.
Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory.
13. Don’t Write Off Anyone
Brother Saul the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and he filled with the Holy Spirit. —ACTS 9:17
Ananias hurries through the narrow Damascus streets.1 His dense and bristling beard does not hide his serious face. Friends call as he passes, but he doesn’t pause. He murmurs as he goes, “Saul? Saul?
I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.
14. Stable the High Horse
God has shown me that he doesn’t think anyone is unclean or unfit. —ACTS 10.28 (CEV)
Molokai, a ruby on the pearl necklace of the Hawaiian Islands. Tourists travel to Molokai for its quiet charm, gentle breezes, and soft surf. But Father Damien came for a different reason. He came to help people die.
You [Jesus] are worthy to take the scroll
15. Pray First; Pray Most
But while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him. —ACTS 12:5 (NLT)
King Herod suffered from a Hitler-level obsession with popularity. He murdered the apostle James to curry favor with the populace. The execution bumped his approval rating, so he jailed Peter and resolved to behead him on the anniversary of Jesus’ death. (Would you like a little salt with that wound?)
Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ.
16. That’s Jesus Playing That Fiddle
Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me-you did it to me. MATTHEW 25:40 (MSG)
At 7:51 a.m., January 12, 2007, a young musician took his position against a wall in a Washington, D.C., metro station. He wore jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt, and a Washington Nationals baseball cap. He opened a violin case, removed his instrument, threw a few dollars and pocket change into the case as seed money, and began to play.
Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.”
Discussion and Action Guide
CHAPTER 1: OUR ONCE-IN-HISTORY OPPORTUNITY
CHAPTER 2: CALLING MR. POT ROAST
CHAPTER 3: LET GOD UNSHELL YOU
CHAPTER 4: DON’T FORGET THE BREAD
CHAPTER 5: TEAM UP
CHAPTER 6: OPEN YOUR DOOR; OPEN YOUR HEART
CHAPTER 7: SEE THE NEED; TOUCH THE HURT
CHAPTER 8: PERSECUTION: PREPARE FOR IT; RESIST IT
CHAPTER 9: DO GOOD, QUIETLY
CHAPTER 10: STAND UP FOR THE HAVE-NOTS
CHAPTER 11: REMEMBER WHO HOLDS YOU
CHAPTER 12: BLAST A FEW WALLS
CHAPTER 13: DON’T RITE OFF ANYONE
CHAPTER 14: STABLE THE HIGH HORSE
CHAPTER 15: PRAY FIRST; PRAY MOST
CHAPTER 16: THAT’S JESUS PLAYING THAT FIDDLE
Notes
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