Two part question… don’t get distracted, answer both:  Do you think you could do something like the people in those stories?  Do you want to?

Notice how the stories generally start “small”.  I think God often draws us into His plan with “baby steps”.  Assume that’s accurate… does that make you want to find the right significant baby step or does it scare you into sitting tight where you are?

What do you think is the “best” thing you can do in the next 3-6 months from the author’s Chapter 10 list?  Specifics, people… this is the end, so let’s turn this into a specific action plan.

Our informal consensus from lingerers last week was that we’d like to chat on a topic every week through the end of December, but not start a new book until January.  A new topic each week, so if you miss a week over the Holidays you won’t get behind the group.  Any suggestions for topics?

Any suggestions for our next book?

Lord, help me live from day to day
In such a self-forgetful way,
That even when I kneel to pray,
My prayers would be for others.”

“Help me in all the work I do
To ever be sincere and true,
And know that all I’d do for you
Must needs be done for others.”

“Let “Self” be crucified and slain
And buried deep and all in vain.
My efforts be to rise again
unless to live for others.”

“And when my work on earth is done,
And my new work in Heaven’s begun
May I forget the crown I’ve won
While thinking still of others.”

“Others Lord, yes others
Let this my motto be
Help me to live for others
That I may live like thee.”

By: Charles D. Migs

Do you think the author gets too caught up in works over a focus on God?  Why/Why Not?

I’ll bet you didn’t know we get to answer THE question of mankind in this book study… What is the purpose of life?  As Christians, the answer is: to serve God, right?  But what does that look like?  When I wake up Monday morning, what actions should I take to fulfill that purpose?

What tidbit from Chapters 5/6 spoke most clearly to you? Why?

Looking at the numbers of orphans, the depth of poverty, and the stories how do how can we keep from being overwhelmed by the immensity and sadness of it all?

Something I often hear… “I’m completely willing to stretch myself to do something to help the poor if God asks me to.  I’m willing to hear him on this, but I have not had any specific leading to do anything. “  Comments…

Stop typing for a minute.  Make a mental picture of a slum or a refugee camp.  Picture the rags, the starving kids.  A ten year- old boy, trying to keep his little sister warm in his arms.  Listen to the weeping as that ten year old wakes to find her dead.

What if those were your kids?  They are Gods.  How do you think God feels about His body’s response to their needs… if only 7% of Christians sponsored or adopted a child, no orphans would die of hunger or preventable disease? 

I’m under strict orders to be on “good behavior” and not be too harsh.  So here’s the good part of it… and it really is good.  How do you think God feels when we respond?  When we save even one of His kids?  How would you feel if someone saved one of yours?

Oswald:
  Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.  James 4:8
 
It is essential to give people a chance of acting on the truth of
God. The responsibility must be left with the individual, you cannot
act for him, it must be his own deliberate act, but the evangelical
message ought always to lead a man to act. The paralysis of refusing
to act leaves a man exactly where he was before; when once he acts,
he is never the same. It is the foolishness of it that stands in the
way of hundreds who have been convicted by the Spirit of God.
Immediately I precipitate myself over into an act, that second I
live; all the rest is existence. The moments when I truly live are
the moments when I act with my whole will.

Never allow a truth of God that is brought home to your soul to pass
without acting on it, not necessarily physically, but in will. Record
it, with ink or with blood. The feeblest saint who transacts business
with Jesus Christ is emancipated the second he acts; all the almighty
power of God is on his behalf. We come up to the truth of God, we
confess we are wrong, but go back again; then we come up to it again,
and go back; until we learn that we have no business to go back. We
have to go clean over on some word of our redeeming Lord and transact
business with Him. His word “come” means “transact.” “Come unto Me.”
The last thing we do is to come; but everyone who does come knows
that that second the supernatural rush of the life of God invades him
instantly. The dominating power of the world, the flesh and the devil
is paralysed, not by your act, but because your act has linked you on
to God and His redemptive power.

How do we move faith from the head to the heart – to a place where we have confidence in our faith, and where our faith leads to movement in mountains?

Where should we see Jesus, and how would this motivate us to action?  How would we know Jesus if we were to see him?

Chapter 2:
What is the significance of the good Samaritan to us?

Bono is not a religious figure.  Some of us probably admire him, some of us probably don’t.  How do you react to his exhortations and efforts?  A more extreme example is Madonna.  I read a brief article Friday about Madonna’s trip to Malawi to break ground for a multi-million dollar orphanage and school she is building.  She also promised to bring electricity to the area.  What does that make you feel?  Contempt, anger, joy?... and why do you feel that way? 

What do you think Jesus mean when he said: “I desire compassion and not sacrifice.”?  How does that statement apply to us today?

Why are you here?  What do you believe we should be doing through Known to Me?