by Max Lucado
The parable of the prodigal son tells the story of a rebellious son who squandered his inheritance and then sheepishly returned to his father’s household. You’ve already read part of the story. Now read the complete text of Luke 15:21–24 below. “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.”
What is the historical significance of the ring in this passage? (See p. 115.)
Max asks, “Would you have given this prodigal son power-of–attorney privileges over your affairs? Would you have entrusted him with a credit card? Would you have given him this ring?” (p. 115). How would you answer these questions?
Considering your answers above, how does it make you feel to be God’s ambassador?
Do you believe you’ve been a good ambassador for God? Why or why not?
We are called not only to receive God in our own lives but to share him with others. How does Max suggest we do this? (See pp. 116–117.) Has anyone ever showed up for you in a time of need? If so, who was it, and how did that person show up?
How did this person’s presence change your circumstances or your perspective during this time?
Our words can be a powerful way to show up for others. Read the following passages. “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (Eph. 4:29).
“For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing” (1 Thess. 5:9–11).
According to Ephesians 4:29, how should we talk to others?
According to 1 Thessalonians 5:9–11, why do we encourage and build up each other?
How could you use your words today to encourage the people in your life and be an ambassador for God?
Chapter 16
Love Those in Need
Fill in the blank: “When we love those in need, we are loving _____” (p. 121). What does this mean to you? Is it confusing or enlightening? Explain your response.
When was the last time you helped someone in need? What did you do, and how did it make you feel?
When was the last time someone helped you?
How did this person’s help make you feel?
Read part of Jesus’ final sermon in Matthew 25:34–40 below. Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?”
The King will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
What do those who are blessed by the Father receive?
Who is considered blessed?
Based on this sermon how important to God is our treatment of others?
Does this change your perspective or motivation about doing good for your neighbor? Why or why not?
According to Max what is the connection between compassion and salvation? Do you agree or disagree with his thoughts, and why?
Not all of us are called to be a Mother Teresa. But as Max said, “None of us can help everyone. But all of us can help someone” (p. 124). Who do you know that needs help today?
How could you help this person in a way that would display the love of Christ?
Chapter 17
Make a Difference
Max told a story about a sea captain who was looking for Father Benjamin. What point does this story make about the impact we can have on others?
What would you need to do in your life to say confidently, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7)? How are you currently using the gifts God has given you? Can you think of additional ways to use your gifts?
How could you share those gifts with others in a way that they would know the love of God?
How could you help those in need around you?
When the captain asked the island residents where Father Benjamin was, they showed him the mark Father Benjamin had left on their lives: a clinic, fishponds, a chapel, and a Bible. Were someone to look for you after you died, what would your neighbors show this person to prove the impact you left on that world?
Part 5 | Nuture an Eternal Perspective
Chapter 18
Reserve Judgment of Life’s Storms
Have you ever judged an experience in your life to be either good or bad and then the opposite turned out to be true? If so, what was that experience, and what did you learn from it? Why do you think you jumped to conclusions about this event?
First Corinthians 13:9–12 says, “For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” What do you think Paul is referring to when he says, “when completeness comes”?
Give an example of something you understood in childhood but that you understand differently now. What allowed you to see this in a new way?
Identify something you believed about God or your faith when you were younger that has changed as you’ve gotten older.
What is something you have limited knowledge of now (“a reflection as in a mirror”) that you wish you understood better?
Max shares a story of a woodcutter and his neighbors. How did the woodcutter’s neighbors respond when his prize horse was stolen?
How did they respond when the horse returned with a dozen other horses?
How did they respond when the woodcutter’s son broke his legs?
How did they respond when the woodcutter’s son was spared from going to war?
How did the woodcutter respond to his neighbors’ judgments, and why did he respond this way?
When unforeseen events happen in your life, how do you tend to respond? Do you judge them as the woodcutter’s neighbors did, or do you reserve judgment as the woodcutter did? Why do you respond this way?
What event or circumstance in your life do you not fully understand right now? What are your questions about this situation?
How is this affecting your faith or your relationship with God?
Read 1 Corinthians 13:9–12 again. Does that passage bring clarity or hope to this event or circumstance? If so, which part, and why?
Chapter 19
Chronicle What Christ Has Done
Believing in Christ is a soul rebirth. When you met Christ, you effectively began again, everything in the past, now past. If you were ever given a second chance, you know what it’s like to begin again. If you were ever rescued from a desperate situation and had your hope restored, you know what it’s like to begin again. Do you remember what you were like before this new beginning? Do you remember what was different in your life? Write as much as you can remember about this “before” time.
What is the purpos
e of remembering who we were and what we were like before we had a begin-again experience? Even if it is painful for you to recollect some of those memories, why is it important to remember anyway?
Max talked about a number of biblical characters in this book—some who listened to God and succeeded, others who didn’t and failed, and many who fell somewhere in between, but they all encountered God. As Max said, “The Bible contains one story after another of God leading people out of their desperate situations. Tell me, why are these stories in the Bible? Why are the Gospels full of such people?” (p. 138). How would you answer those questions? How do these characters’ stories give you hope?
Paul said to the church at Corinth, “Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth” (1 Cor. 1:26). What were you when you were called?
How have you changed since then?
What has God used in your life for good?
What has God freed you from?
Max talks about a potential heavenly scenario in which we get to hear each other’s stories of beginning again—from Jonah, to Zacchaeus, to Martin Luther, to King David, to you. How would you tell your story?
Chapter 20
Listen for the Song of the Whip-poor-will
Beginning again can be difficult in a world full of heartbreak, pain, and unknowns. This is why Max encourages us to listen to the whip-poor-will. What does the whip-poor-will represent? Would you say you’ve heard his song in your soul before?
If so, how do you experience this yearning for eternity?
Read Ecclesiastes 3:1–11: There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
Why do you think this passage talks about God’s perfect timing on earth as well as keeping eternity in mind? How might these ideas work together?
What kind of seasons have you experienced in your life? What kind of season are you in right now?
Have you experienced any of the “times” mentioned in this passage? If so, which ones?
Is it helpful for you to think of these times as seasons? Why or why not?
How might it help to keep eternity in mind as you go through the seasons of life?
Peter wrote a letter to a group of early Christians who were exiles, scattered among several different provinces: Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia (1 Peter 1:1). Peter referred to them as “foreigners and strangers in this world” (1 Peter 2:11 NCV). Have you ever felt like a foreigner or stranger in this world? If so, how?
How could the promise of eternity with God bring you peace when you feel this way?
Someday we will all begin again. In Christ even death is not the end of the story. As Max writes, “Why trust this as a truth? What gives credence to this claim of Christ’s? The empty tomb does. ‘Since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died’” (p. 150). How do you feel about the empty tomb? Do you believe in it, distrust it, or aren’t sure? Why?
End this time of reflection in prayer. Bring to God any concerns or questions you have about this ultimate new beginning, and ask him how in your life you could begin again today.
Sources
Text adapted and excerpted from the following sources:
Chapter 1: Trust Your Shepherd
Traveling Light
Chapter 2: Give Your Fears to Your Father
Traveling Light
Chapter 3: Seeing with Eyes Closed
He Still Moves Stones
Chapter 4: Don’t Give Up
Glory Days
Chapter 5: Follow the God Who Follows You
Traveling Light
Chapter 6: Accept the Gift of Himself
In the Eye of the Storm
Chapter 7: Rely On the Holy Spirit
Come Thirsty
Chapter 8: Shelter in His Protection
Come Thirsty
Chapter 9: Settle Down Deep in His Love
Come Thirsty
Chapter 10: Hold On to Your Soul Anchor
Unshakable Hope
Chapter 11: Choose Faith
Glory Days
Chapter 12: Let Your Father Fight for You
Glory Days
Chapter 13: Keep Believing God’s Promise
When God Whispers Your Name
Chapter 14: Be You
Glory Days
Chapter 15: Share What God Has Given
A Love Worth Giving
Chapter 16: Love Those in Need
Outlive Your Life
Chapter 17: Make a Difference
Outlive Your Life
Chapter 18: Reserve Judgment of Life’s Storms
In the Eye of the Storm
Chapter 19: Chronicle What Christ Has Done
He Still Moves Stones
Chapter 20: Listen for the Song of the Whip-poor-will
When God Whispers Your Name
Notes
Chapter 4: Don’t Give Up
1. Leigh Montville, “Wide and to the Right: The Kick That Will Forever Haunt Scott Norwood,” SI.com, September 12, 2011, https://www.si.com/more-sports/2011/09/12/scott-norwoodsuperbowl.
2. “The size of this group is indicated by the text as 30,000 men, which appears to be an unusually large contingent for such a secret maneuver as ambush close to the city. One plausible answer to the problem is that the text should read ‘thirty officers.’ This suggestion is made by R. E. D. Clark, who points out that the Hebrew word elep, translated ‘thousand,’ can also be translated as ‘chief’ or ‘officer,’ as it is translated in other passages (cf. 1 Chron. 12:23–27; 2 Chron. 13:3, 17; 17:14–19). If this were the case, then the thirty-man group was a highly selected commando unit, assigned to enter the vacated city and burn it. This view may better explain also the description of the contingent as chosen for being ‘mighty men of valor’—more meaningful to a thirty-man group than to a 30,000-man unit. It should be noted here, however, that the second ambuscade definitely involved 5,000 men (8:12).” Irving L. Jensen, Joshua: Rest-Land Won (Chicago: Moody Press, 1966), 72.
Chapter 5: Follow the God Who Follows You
1. F. B. Meyer, The Shepherd Psalm (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1991), 125.
2. This story initially appeared in The Gift for All People. Thanks to Multnomah Publishing for allowing us to use it in Traveling Light and Begin Again.
Chapter 6: Accept the Gift of Himself
1. Job 13:4–5 TLB.
2. Job 33:29–30.
3. Job 38:2.
4. Job 38:3.
5. Job 38:4 TLB.
6. Job 38:5–7 TLB.
7. Job 38:12–13 TLB.
8. Job 38:17–21 TLB.
9. Job 40:4–5 TLB.
10. Job 41:11 TLB.
11. Job 42:5 TLB.
Chapter 7: Rely On the Holy Spirit
1. William C. Frey, The Dance
of Hope: Finding Ourselves in the Rhythm of God’s Great Story (Colorado Springs, CO: WaterBrook, 2003), 174.
Chapter 9: Settle Down Deep in His Love
1. Gary Smith, “The Rapture of the Deep,” Sports Illustrated, 16 June 2003, 62–78.
2. David Brainerd, quoted in Cynthia Heald, “Becoming a Friend of God,” Discipleship Journal, no. 54 (1989): 22.
3. Craig Childs, The Secret Knowledge of Water: Discovering the Essence of the American Desert (Boston: Little, Brown, 2000), 61–62.
Part 3
1. Herbert Lockyer, All the Promises of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1962), 10.
Chapter 10: Hold On to Your Soul Anchor
1. Lynda Schultz, “The Story Behind the Song,” Thrive, www.thrive-magazine.ca/blog/40/.
2. Schultz, “The Story.”
Chapter 11: Choose Faith
1. Used with permission.
2. Edward Mote, “This Solid Rock” in Sacred Selections for the Church: A Collection of Sacred Selections Featuring Choice Favorites Old and New (Kendallville, IN: Sacred Selections, 1956), no. 120.
Chapter 12: Let Your Father Fight for You
1. Sean Alfano, “Teens Arrested after Posting YouTube Video of Beating 13-Year-Old Boy and Hanging Him from a Tree,” New York Daily News, February 1, 2011, www.nydailynews.com/news/national/teens-arrested-posting-youtube-video-beating-13-year-old-boy-hanging-tree-article-1.137868. See also Rick Reilly, “Eagles over Wolves in a Rout,” ESPN.com, last modified February 14, 2011, http://espn.com/espn/news/story?id=6120346.
