Chapter 1
16 Could God actually send a person a letter?
22 What is your favorite name for God?
Mack told Nan I’m sure God knows what he is doing even though Mack did not personally believe it. Do you ever try to encourage people with things about God you do not believe? For instance? How does this help them? What does it do to you?
Chapter 2
The Gathering Dark
24 Mack’s companion was the Great Sadness. What is your companion?
25 How does your companion effect you?
28-29 How does truth, reality, legend, history mix in the story of the Multnomah Falls? Read Young’s blog on Truth, reality and Fiction and the story of the Good Samaritan.
30 What are the similarities between the Princess and Jesus?
31 How can we tell the difference between legend and history?
Why do people think God is mean? Is He? Why or why not?
32 How far will God ask us to go?
Posts
Our Homeschool Journey
7 years ago
9 comments:
i'd love to hear you expand on some of the answers from your discussion time. :)
The theme of our discussions on this blog is looking for where we may have started on the wrong foot in our relationship with God. The last question "How far will God ask me to go?" may reveal one of our common errant steps. As a believer God will ask you to go all the way to the end of your own independent self, trusting Him alone in all things. Many misunderstand and view God as asking them to undergo some kind of evil or tragedy for the greater good. Later in The Shack Papa explains that He NEVER does that. While he does protect his children from untold evil, some, becasue we live in a fallen world, will effect us. A side door approach to this is feeling that if God did not stop it, he in essence casued it. Wrong. Any time we relate God with evil, we are starting on the wrong foot. God is Love. Review pages 189 to 193 where you will find "if I take away the consequences of peoples choices I destroy the possibility of love. Love that is forced is no love at all". IE God loves me to much to overrule every bad decision I make or anyone else. He does not stop it for LOVE'S SAKE!
Funny that you wrote that in one paragraph because it was not nearly so simple to work through last night. Someone brought up that last question first thing and we never moved off it. A group of 17 of us discussed it for two full hours. Good times...good times....:)
Well when you write it like that, it sure does look so much easier! What a great discussion it was last night. It is comforting, energizing and down right renewing to see how we all struggle and grow together. We can have discussions, see things differently and then come back around again to the one thing that matters the most. God loves us inspite of ourselves.
Well said sista
I browsed the pages of The Shack and ended up reading about three and a half chapters, plus the ending. Voom! Powerful. Despite some awkward sentencing and obivous theological loopholes, the book is creatively absorbing. Clearly is does not line up one hundred percent with scripture (no book does), but this is why it is FICTION. Does it dishonors God? I think not. Is is leaven and heresy? That is debatable. It simply is what it is. Let the reader beware. An equally intriguing and controversial work is A Step Into Deliverance by T. Pugh. It is a riveting autobiography about a pastor's amazing journey down the road to the deliverance ministry. It's a real page-turner
I love the book. My relationship with God has been totally enhanced. The one thing that bothered me about the book is there is not much mention about the daily prayers of all of us. the Bible says to pray without ceasing, but it sounded like God doesn't pay much attention or ever intervene. Am I wasting my time to pray? I choose to believe I am not. It just bothered me that it wasn't addressed. I love my prayer time and hate to think God doesn't pay attention. I know he does. That was the only issue I had with the book. I've recommended it to everyone!
Nancy - When Mack found Papa on the porch and said "Don't you have anything better to do this afternoon?" Papa replied "Mack, you have no idea what I'm doing right now." Just because Papa was attending to Mack doesn't mean that He wasn't tending to others as well. Since we can not comprehend the power and vastness of God doesn't mean that your prayers aren't being heard and listened to. God knows what you can handle on your own because He's given you the ability to do so. Even though He's there and knows what will happen, you must live your life with simple trust that this is the life you are supposed to live.
Who are the children in the picture at the top of the page of Papas ponderings. They are adorable. Do they have anything to to do with the book.
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