Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Outlive Your Life by Max Lucado Book Review

Synopsis from Goodreads:

These are difficult days in our world's history. 1.75 billion people are desperately poor, natural disasters are gouging entire nations, and economic uncertainty still reigns across the globe. But you and I have been given an opportunity to make a big difference. What if we did? What if we rocked the world with hope? Infiltrated all corners with God's love and life? We are created by a great God to do great works. He invites us to outlive our lives, not just in heaven, but here on earth. Let's live our lives in such a way that the world will be glad we did.

Outlive Your Life: You Were Made to Make A DifferenceOutlive Your Life: You Were Made to Make A Difference by Max Lucado
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have to admit that at the beginning of this book, I wasn't too excited.  I have read my share of Max Lucado books.  He often has great devotional insight, but I figured I had heard it all before.

As I read, I discovered that this book was different.  I got into the meat of the book, and I realized that the premise of his book was to live the gospel we preach in tangible ways.  You can tell a hungry child all you want that Jesus loves you, but what will that mean to him or her without giving a hearty meal to the child in need?  We tend to get so caught up in our own lives that we just don't slow down enough to put into practice what we profess to believe.

One of the messages that really touched me was when the Apostle Paul was brought up. We know that he was the chief persecutor of Christians, and then Jesus met him and changed his life forever.  Lucado pointed out that even those we think are far gone and seem like they will never turn to the Lord should not be the ones that we abandon and say they will never change.  We have to keep praying.  In fact, as Lucado points out in another chapter, we should pray first, not last.

This would be a fantastic book use in a small group Bible study or devotional time.  There is a discussion guide in the back of the book.  But if you are not willing to put action behind what you are learning, you and your group would be wasting your time.  One person can make a difference.  If everyone on earth believed that he or she could not make a difference, nothing would ever change.  He challenges us to be like Mother Theresa who, though dead, still lives on through her tremendous work with the orphans of Calcutta.


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I reviewed this book for booksneeze.com, and I received only this book in exchange for my review.  I was not financially compensated in any way, and I only shared my honest review of this book.

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