The Gospel Comes with a House Key
Giving Up the Ghosts (2|3)
The Lamentation of Hospitality
Pages 149-153
TOGETHER read the book (END READING AT: ...mom was not - in any stretch of anyone’s imagination - a believer.) and discuss the content below.
INDIVIDUALLY take notes in your journal on what stands out (try to keep it brief).
John 6:44 (NIV) “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
Jeremiah 29:13 (NIV) You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity.
2 Corinthians 4:4 (NIV) The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Romans 10:17 (NIV) Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.
Psalm 83:16-18 (NIV) Cover their faces with shame, LORD, so that they will seek your name.
Acts 1:8 (NIV) “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
John 16:8 (NIV) “When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment…”
Acts 3:19 (NIV) Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.
Romans 10:9 (NIV) If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
2 Corinthians 5:15 (NIV) And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
Satan not only knew where we lived and how to break through the weak windows; he had made for himself an office within our walls.
TOGETHER pray for one another.
INDIVIDUALLY answer the questions in your journal - process your notes and pray.
Deathbeds are unique and holy places. I recall one of the Puritans saying something about repentance being most sweet prior to the Lord’s Supper and the deathbed.
What is your response to that statement?
Have you known someone who gave their life to Jesus in their last days on earth?
Power is infused into our prayer life when we couple prayer with God’s Word. When we pray God’s Word, it is as if we are breathing faith. The abundant life and the hope that we as believers have come to know and embrace cannot be matched by anything this world has to offer, and we desperately long for those that we love to know this hope as we do.
Spend some time in God’s Word and in prayer for those you know and love who are not yet following Jesus. Below are the scriptures from above to use as a guide as you pray.
John 6:44 – Pray that God draws them to Jesus
Jeremiah 29:13 – Pray they seek God with their whole heart
2 Corinthians 4:4 – Pray that God would open their eyes from blindness
Romans 10:17 – Pray they believe the Scriptures
Psalm 83:16-18 – Pray that God would use the circumstances of life to ripen them to the Gospel
Acts 1:8 – Pray that God sends others like me to boldly share the Gospel with them
John 16:8 – Pray that the Holy Spirit convicts them of sin
Acts 3:19 – Pray they turn from their sin
Romans 10:9 – Pray they accept Jesus as Savior and Lord
2 Corinthians 5:15 – Pray they choose to live for Christ and not themselves
EXTRA READING:
“Love, work, prayer, and suffering will sustain us in the future as they have in the past. All who are here now, all who will come after us, will have no tools than these with which to build.”
- Mollie Rogers (1882 - 1955) founder of Maryknoll Sisteters