Max on Life Participant's Guide: Answers and Inspiration for Life's Questions - Softcover

Lucado, Max

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1418547557 ISBN 13: 9781418547554

Verlag: Thomas Nelson, 2012

Inhaltsangabe

Address your biggest questions about life and faith with guidance from Max Lucado.

For 25 years men and women have turned to Max Lucado for answers, encouragement, and insight into every facet of their lives. Together with Max they’ve journeyed through life’s most exciting and challenging times―births, deaths, financial ups and downs, spiritual quests, and relational adventures. And Max has become a trusted advisor, pastor, and friend in times of need. Now, more than ever, Max’s wisdom is needed to help readers navigate the tumults of every-day life.

In the Max on Life DVD-based study, Max  addresses questions about the role of prayer, the purpose of pain, and the reason for our ultimate hope. He responds to the day-to-day questions―parenting quandaries, difficult relationships―as well as to the profound: Is God really listening?

Designed as a companion to the DVD, and perfect for study for both new and mature believers, this participant's guide can be used for journaling or as a prompt for open-hearted discussions with your small group.  

Features:

• Daily readings
• Questions for personal reflection and group discussion

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Since entering the ministry in 1978, Max Lucado has served churches in Miami, Florida; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and San Antonio, Texas. He currently serves as the teaching minister of Oak Hills Church in San Antonio. He is the recipient of the 2021 ECPA Pinnacle Award for his outstanding contribution to the publishing industry and society at large. He is America's bestselling inspirational author with more than 150 million products in print.

Visit his website at MaxLucado.com

Facebook.com/MaxLucado

Instagram.com/MaxLucado

X.com/MaxLucado

Youtube.com/MaxLucadoOfficial

The Max Lucado Encouraging Word Podcast

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Max on Life

Participant's GuideBy Max Lucado

Thomas Nelson

Copyright © 2011 Max Lucado
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4185-4755-4

Contents

Introduction.............................9How this Study Works.....................10Week One: Hurt...........................11Week Two: Him/Her........................35Week Three: Home.........................61Week Four: Hereafter.....................87Special Thanks...........................110

Chapter One

WEEK 1

* Hurt *

* Introduction *

Why do we suffer? It's probably the toughest question we have to face as believers. And it's not just some theoretical quandary for scholars to bat around, but something that touches our lives deeply. If we believe in a God of love and power, why can't God use his power to keep bad things from happening to us? It's a complaint as old as Job.

We've all gone through tough times, and we've all asked the question: "Why me?" It's hard enough to deal with calamity but it makes it even worse when we don't understand why it's happening. In today's video, Max Lucado explores these tough questions.

A lesson like this won't provide all the answers, but it might lead us into a tighter embrace with God.

* Icebreaker *

What do you do in your daily work? What sort of preparation have you gone through to do that? Note that "daily work" involves whatever someone spends most of the day doing. For a student, it's school. For a homemaker, it's the home, or the family. Preparation can be anything—education, past experience, a personality trait, or a lucky break.

* Video Notes *

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

* After the Video *

We saw two very different real-life stories in the video, though both involved a great deal of personal pain. Rob was accused of something and dismissed from his job, putting his family in a very difficult financial situation. How would you feel in a situation like that?

Max zeroed in on the issues of anger and hurt. He suggested three things to do in situations like that.

1. Change your focus. It's easy to say, "Let God be your focus," but how can you do that?

2. Discover why a person behaves that way (their past). Are we making excuses for a person when we try to understand their past?

3. Pray for the person who hurt you. Have you ever prayed that good would come to a person who hurt you? What happened?

Jennifer was struck by a life-altering disease, and she shared her reactions in brutally honest ways. She mentioned some "cutting things, just insensitive things, Bible verses" that Christians said to her. "It's such a strange thing that scripture can hurt sometimes." Have you ever been hurt by people who were trying to comfort you?

Is there anything you could say to Rob, Jennifer or someone like them that would help?

Read 2 Corinthians 4:8–10. The apostle Paul is writing from his own experience as a missionary. In what way does Paul "carry around ... the death of Jesus"? Could we say the same thing about ourselves? How is the "life of Jesus" revealed "in our body"?

Someone go back and read verse 7. Why has God entrusted his great treasure to our clay jars?

Read 2 Corinthians 4:16–18. How can we "fix our eyes ... on what is unseen"? How can that help when we are in times of hurt?

Read 2 Corinthians 5:1–5. What does this passage say about our "purpose"? What is "this very purpose" (v. 5)?

How could this sense of purpose help us when we go through painful circumstances on earth?

* Reflective Reading *

Day 1: No Revenge

Blood ran down his forehead and dripped off the end of his nose. He watched as it landed below in a pool of red now forming in the brown dirt. His arms ached. Splinters of wood lodged themselves in the fresh wounds on his back as he slowly slid up the plank, trying to catch his breath.

He gathered his strength, raised his head, and looked out at the faces staring back at him. Some people gawked at his naked body. Others mocked him, calling him names. Down to his left, several soldiers were arguing about who'd get his clothes. People he had never seen before hurled insults at him. "Criminal! Liar! Blasphemer!" they yelled.

Right in front, the priests and leaders responsible for putting him in this disgraceful position grinned with smug contentment. But he was innocent. Not once had his lips spoken falsely. Not once had he acted out of selfish ambition. Not once had he disobeyed God's law.

But instead of putting his accusers in their place, he raised his head heavenward and said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34 NIV).

When someone hurts us, our natural instinct is to hurt them back—to defend ourselves—especially if their outburst is unprovoked and undeserved. But that's not how God wants us to respond. We are called to follow Christ's example.

Read 1 Peter 2:19–25.

Consider the last time someone wronged you. How did you react? How do you think you'd have reacted if you were in Jesus' situation? What do these verses teach us about the importance of the words we speak?

We might be tempted to dismiss this call to follow Jesus by pointing out that he was God, so of course he could endure unjust suffering. But Jesus was also fully man. The key to understanding how he could endure this kind of abuse is found in his purpose, for Christ endured the humiliation of the cross so that he could extend grace and salvation to us. How might you endure suffering and thereby demonstrate God's grace to someone this week?

Day 2: It's Worth It

Few things tax a woman's body like pregnancy. Soon after hearing the good news, you're as sick as sailor in a cyclone. Your body starts to expand in gravity-defying proportions and your skin begins to stretch farther than your budget. You walk the aisles of the grocery store on swollen feet looking for chili cheese-flavored corn chips—and you don't even like chili—while children stare at the unusual shapes the alien in your abdomen is creating through your clothes. And then at 2 a.m., after shopping online at Land's End for a new wardrobe, you finally begin to drift off when a circus erupts in your stomach.

Then there's the pain of delivery, that first diaper change, and nights of even less sleep. As you warm her 4 a.m. bottle, your whole future blurs before your eyes—brawls over makeup and short skirts, sneaking in late through the bedroom window, and the pain of watching her go off to college where you can't protect her anymore. At some point you wonder why anyone ever bothered to reproduce.

But then, those tiny fingers curl around yours and the crying subsides as a little miracle falls asleep on your chest. Soon, pureed peas get used as hair conditioner and your home is filled with innocent laughter. Before you know it, she's off to her first daddy-daughter dance after catching the game-winning pop fly. And then you realize—it's all been worth it.

While not everyone experiences the pain of childbirth, we all endure hurts and heartaches of one kind or another. Jesus was well...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Thomas Nelson
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2012
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1418547557
• ISBN 13: 9781418547554
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 112
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Friedensallee 273; Hamburg; 22763; Deutschland