Easton Cooper
I am doing a Final Assesmant for the Boom Outlive Your Life. This will include 3 Chapter Reviews, 3 Prayers, and a Final Reflective Essay.
Religion 8
10-12-17
Best Chapter Reviews and Prayers
Chapter 1&2 Review
Hello, Easton Cooper here. I am a world renown book critic. I am evaluating the first two chapters of the book Outlive Your Life by Max Lucado. I am doing this assignment for Religion 8. There are many parts to this evaluation. First is the theme. I think the theme is Outlive. To Outlive, is to have your knowledge stay on the Earth longer than you will. So when you die your knowledge outlives you. I think this is the theme because there is one key question in the chapter. It asks, “When your grandchildren discover you lived during a day in which 1.75 billion people were poor and 1 billion were hungry, how will they judge your response”(Lucado 7)? This is asking, will what you said outlive your life in a good way or in a bad way? The next question I ask myself in evaluating is, what are the author’s main points and how do they relate to the theme? I would say the main points are Serving and Choices. Serving comes up on pages 5-7. Those pages talk about our opportunity to serve those around us. There are a couple of questions and sentences that strike me. One is “American Christians by themselves have the wherewithal to house every orphan in the world”(Lucado 6). Another is, “There is enough food on this planet to offer every person twenty-five hundred calories of sustenance a day” (Lucado 6). This main point of serving connects with the theme because serving can make a difference to those people and children that they will remember even when you’re gone. My second main point is choices. We have choices around us almost every minute. Whether to eat Lucky Charms or Cheerios. Whether to dress in red or blue. Max Lucado really makes you have the passion to do something when brought up with the choice of helping people in need or keeping for yourself. Choices can Outlive you as well. You may make a choice every so often that makes an impact on someone around you. Then, this person could tell his family and the people around them and soon enough, one choice will outlive your life. Thirdly, I look for idea implied. One idea is we have every tool to serve people: technology, resources, healthy food, clean water, etc. We are, “the wealthiest generation of Christians ever”(Lucado 6). So let’s do something about it. This idea is implied we have everything, we just need to distribute it properly. Lastly, I look for the author’s goal and if he achieved it. I think the author’s goal was to get you motivated and open your eyes and mind to the world around you. He wants us to know what’s going on and to make a difference. I think he succeeded in his goal because I feel compelled to do something and I’m sure you would too.
Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father,
Our choices will Outlive our lives. Please help us to make choices that will impact our children and grandchildren in a positive way. Please help us to make the choice to serve others so that we can be a light and a focused beacon to you. I pray this in Jesus name,
Amen.
Chapter 9 Review
Hello, Book critic Easton Cooper here. I’m doing a review for chapter 9 of the book Outlive Your Life. I think the theme for this interesting chapter is Hypocrisy. The dictionary definition of hypocrisy is “the want to be publicly accepted.” The evidence I have for this is on page 88-89. Ananias said he’d give “every mite” to the widow’s fund just to look good in front of all the church goers. The second piece of evidence I found for this theme is on page 89. The quote says, “He waved the check around and announced, ‘we sold the property for ten thousand dollars!’ and he placed the check in the offering basket.” This also relates back to hypocrisy because it shows how much Ananias wanted to be publicly accepted. Lastly, As Max said on page 92 “to do good to be seen is not[a good thing]. This means that we should not do things just to get noticed by other people. Max’s main points are that to do good to be seen is an offense and that hypocrisy turns people away from God. I think the first main point is talking about events on pages 89-92 and it relates to the theme of hypocrisy because it is a direct reference to the definition of hypocrisy. The second main point is demonstrated when Max tells the story of Ananias and Sapphira and relates to the theme because hypocrisy is a sin and sins turn people away from God. Lastly, on page 93 he gives 3 steps to avoid hypocrisy. The idea implied is that we should not make a production of our faith. This idea is implied on the bottom of page 93 and top of 94 when he says, “Do good things. Just don’t do them to be noticed.” This is implied to tell us to do good things but only for the glory of God, not ourselves. I think Max’s goal was to tells us that we should do things to the glory of God and not just to get attention. I think he reached his goal because I now want to repent for all the times I’ve done things just to glorify myself. Lastly, I believe Ananias and Sapphira deserved to die because they one: tested the Holy Spirit, and two: sinned by hypocrisy, one of God’s most highly hated sins.
Prayer
Dear God,
I pray to you today so that all of us will want to serve you and not others. Please help us to want to be your servant even if it means not being publicly noticed or respected. In your name I pray,
Amen.
Chapter 10 Review
Hello, this is Easton Cooper again, famous book critic. Today I will be doing a review on chapter 10 of the book Outlive Your Life. I think the theme of this chapter is we should serve the poor, just like Jesus. I think this is the theme because in pages 99-102 it talks about this exact thing. It says quotes like, “Jesus, in his first message, declared his passion for the poor,” and “Jesus had a target audience. The poor.” These quotes tell how Jesus served the poor and set an example for us to do the same as well. I think the author’s main points are that Jesus and his disciples fed physical and spiritual needs. Also,we should bring happiness to other people. The first main point is an interesting one. It means that the apostles could’ve just told the people of that time that “Jesus loves them” and walked away. This would’ve been ok except for the fact that sometimes you need to meet the person at where they’re at then, not where they could be in the future. This connects with the theme because they both talk about serving those less fortunate than us. The second main point is also interesting. How are supposed to serve those who make less money than we can spend anywhere. So if they have struggles, the least we can do is bring happiness to them. This can be from buying them a burger or something like that, to sharing the Gospel. This main theme connects with the theme because giving happiness can be serving people. The ideas implied are that we can’t take down Poverty, but with God we can make an impact. On page 106, it talks about how there isn’t an easy way to destroy Poverty, but with God’s help we can make an impact. A second idea is that we need to have concern for the needy. Hatred and anger are from Stan, but righteous anger is from God. Righteous anger is getting mad enough to do something for God. I think Max’s goal in this chapter was to make us want to serve and help the needy and I think he accomplished the goal because I want to give everything to the needy.
Prayer
Dear Father in Heaven,
Please help us to want to serve and help the poor just like You. Please give us the need and want to do something about the outrageous thing called Pover
In your Holy and sacred name I pray,
Amen.
Final Reflective Essay
This book, Outlive Your Life, has illustrated the story of Acts in a more current context when Max Lucado talks about how we can apply the stories to our life. He takes the story of Peter and the Lame Beggar and connects it to us passing a homeless person on the street corner. We might think, “Oh, this story doesn’t apply to me because it was in the Bible and the Bible is 2,000 years old,” but it actually does. Are there people in the Bible who follow Jesus in the Bible? Are there people who follow Jesus in today’s era? The answer to both questions is yes. The disciples of Jesus time and us today both follow Jesus. I do believe the book of Acts is telling us something new because it might’ve had one meaning at the time of Jesus but now we see it in a new way and adapt, accept, and learn from it. If we see something in a new way we learn something new.
I do think I’ve outlived my live prior to this Unit. I don’t know if I’ve noticed I have outlived my life though. I have done things that people still remember to this day that happened many years ago. I remember specifically helping dig someone out of the snow one year 7 years. I didn’t think much of it at first but a couple days after they brought us cookies for helping them. Then, after I totally forgot about about 5 years ago they drove by my house and said hello and thanked us again for helping them. Another time I remember doing something nice that outlived me at the time, was handing bibles out to the homeless. I remember one person especially that was so grateful for the Bible because it was his first one. We said a prayer for him and moved on just every other homeless person we’d handed out bibles to. Later, about 4 years to be exact, I saw him again, and he told me he remembered me and that he has read his bible 2 times from front to back.
One of the most exciting times I have experienced with the Holy Spirit was again when we shared the Bible’s with the homeless people. That really opened my eyes to what and who were out there. I learned, because I was young at the time, that not everyone had a Bible, home, parents, or knew where their next meal was coming from. The Holy Spirit came into my heart right then and there and I felt the urge to give all I could to help those people have a house, better clothing, better food, and someone who cared for them. In the future I plan to start a spot much like the People City Mission that helps people like the homeless. I would like to have program as well that helps the kids that live on the street corners to have someone who cares about them and their well being.
I think a verse I can apply to my life now is Colossians 3:17. It says, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” This verse can be applied in a number of ways. I’m choosing to apply it in a way that will make me do things giving all praise to God in everything. I chose this verse specifically for the purpose to show that I cannot do anything on my own but with God’s help I can do anything. This doesn’t means we take the credit for anything, we give it to God. This verse applies to the Unit because in one of the chapters it tells us to remember who’s holding us and this verse speaks to it. The second verse I have chosen is John 18:15. It says, “Simon Peter followed Jesus and so did another disciple.” I chose this verse because we know Peter to be a disciple and that knowledge has outlived home. Outliving things is the overall theme of this Unit. I chose this verse because it directly relates to the theme of this chapter.
The show A.D. the Bible Continues has made many things clearer. One of those things is the passion of Peter. Peter is a known character and one of the main characters in the show. Every time he speaks he is passionate in everything he says. Whether it’s telling the people of that time that, “Jesus has risen,” or telling the priests, “You are wrong in teaching….” The second thing that the show made clear to me was the state of Saul. Saul was on the road to Damascus and Jesus appeared to him. He was blinded by scales and he went without food for many days. Then Ananias came and healed him. Saul was in a state of pleading. The Bible represents him welcoming Ananias, but the show shows him pleading with Ananias to heal him. Lastly, I want to bring up the way the show represented Pentecost. They showed a flame flying around the upper room the disciples were in. In the Bible they said they spoke in many tongues and I thought that meant they each went around and said the language they were speaking fluently in. The show represents them speaking the Lord’s Prayer loudly, and in every different language.