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This post covers chapter 10.

Pre-reading questions for you and your journal.

1. If you had to boil down the whole experience of living the Christian life to one central goal, what would it be?
2. What practical relationship does this statement, “Christ rose from the dead” have for you in the challenges that you face(d) today?
3. If a girlfriend sits with you over coffee and shares a struggle that she’s having with a challenge in homeschooling, where do you tend to go first. Do you:
   • Go for practical solutions to her presenting problem?
   • Go to ways that she can improve herself or others around her?
   • Go to Scripture and seek to remind her of gospel truths that inform her heart attitudes?

After (or during) your read:

1. “Maturity in the Christian life is measured by only one test: how much closer to His character have we become?” (158). See Romans 8:29. It’s not about what we achieve,  it’s not about what we accomplish (even for Him or others) and, at the end of the day, it’s not about how well we obey, though Jesus did perfectly obey His Father. It’s about our relationship with God, and that patterned after the life (and death0 of Jesus. This is God’s end for us; it’s the reason that He takes us through the good times and the hard times. Encourage yourself by looking back ten years. List five significant ways that you have grown to be more like Jesus today than you were ten years ago. Then, imagine where God can take you in the next ten years!
2. From pages 160-170, Elyse details four different scenarios of everyday life and walks us through ways to connect the key elements of the gospel with them. Summarize what you learned in relation to your own life. Is there a way that you better see how to relate gospel essentials to your “daily grind” as she puts it?
3. Choose a very small incident in your life from yesterday where you know that you fell short of Christlike behavior with a family member. The shorter the incident, the better it will serve you. Something like a harsh word spoken, a critical comment dropped, or a moment of despair at your own lack of discipline would be good. Now, follow Elyse’s example. Examine the key elements of the gospel, and relate your thoughts, words, and actions to them. What have you discovered? How can such an exercise help to further God’s ultimate goal: conforming you to the image of His Dear Son?

Below are links that will help you navigate the discussions easier. (You can also use the Archives section of this blog.)

Discussion #9 for this book.

Discussion #11 for this book.

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