Outlive your Life by Max Lucado

This is another review for http://booksneeze.com/  My previous ones are here and here.
 
I only received this book two days ago due to international postage glitches. However I am required to post the review today, so, although I haven't finished the book yet, I'll do my best.

Max Lucado's writing is clear and crisp as usual. He says more than most people can with many less words. I love the way he throws little real life stories in the middle of sections about the Bible that bring scripture to life.

This book is loosely based on Acts. Its main point is well summarised in the last four sentences of the last chapter (yes, I looked ahead).

"None of us can help everyone. but all of us can help someone. And when we help them, we serve Jesus.

Who would want to miss a chance to do that?" p172

Pretty simple. But he elaborates, challenges and teases the reader into feeling as though the author is standing in your living room persuading you to be more involved in this world.

He shares simple stories, like an English stockbroker who saved German children during the war, a group of ordinary American women who encountered the sex-trade in Cambodia, wrote an article about it, were given a large amount of money and formed an anti-trafficking ministry that is making a difference world-wide. He talks about micro-loans, hospitality, persecution, hypocrisy, to mention just a few in the first half of the book. And he talks about how ordinary people can fit into this.

I was particularly struck by this quote from The Messenger:
"make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that" (Gal. 6:4). Yes, we are not asked to do everything, but need instead to find out for whom we feel the most compassion, with whom do we feel most fluent. God has designed us differently. Take notice.

I look forward to seeing what else the book has in store for me. It is easy for me, as a missionary, to think, "I'm doing my bit for the world." Yet none of us who have been given so much have the luxury of doing that. Much is expected.

Disclaimer: A complimentary copy of this book was provided to me for review by Thomas Nelson Books http://BookSneeze.com. The opinions I have expressed are my own.