Dinner with a Perfect Stranger
Page 8
9. What aspects of your life would you like to change, but you don’t seem to have the strength to do so? How does God want to be the one to do them through you?
10. In what sense is marriage “not about rules”? Why can God’s relationship with us be described the same way?
Week Six: Chapter 8
1. What does it mean to you personally that God became human?
2. Why is trusting God a matter of the heart, not a matter of what the eyes do or do not see? Explain.
3. Why does God offer eternal life only as a gift instead of something you can earn?
4. Jesus said that he came to reveal the Father. Based on what you know about Jesus, how would you describe God the Father?
5. Why does Jesus say to Nick on this page, “But that’s not the real issue, is it?” What is the real issue in you placing your faith in Christ, either for your eternal destiny or your daily life?
6. Most of the New Testament teaching on hell comes from Jesus himself. How does knowing this affect your view of hell?
7. Why do you think anyone would choose continued separation from God?
8. How would you explain God’s purpose for the present time? In what sense will one day everything be made right?
9. What are the implications of the fact that God chose to suffer more than his creation suffered?
10. Are there hurts in your life that it seems God doesn’t care about? If you are willing to share, what is one of them? What does this chapter have to say about whether God actually cares or not?
11. How does God use personal pain in his plan of restoring his relationship with people? Have there been wounds in your heart that have driven you to God? What were/are they? How did they drive you to him?
Week Seven: Chapter 9
1. Are you stuck on a performance basis with God, trying to please him through your own efforts? How does he want you to depend on him living through you instead?
2. Explain how eternal life and heaven are not the same thing. Based on what Jesus says, how would you describe eternal life?
3. What aspects of God seem mysterious to you? Can other members of the group shed some light on these mysteries? Will some aspects of God always be a mystery to us?
4. In what way is “God living in you” the best part of the message of Jesus? What difference should it make if God lives in us?
5. Have you lost the spark or adventure in life? How should being joined to the Creator of the universe change that?
6. In what sense is your life still like the child making mud pies by the curb? What would it take for you to choose to go to Disney World instead?
7. Would God design life with him in eternity to be boring or to be the fulfilling enjoyment of all you were designed to be? What makes you say so? What are the implications of your answer for you?
8. If God lives in you, is it possible to love those whom you don’t have a positive emotional response to, at least at times? How does this happen in a practical sense?
9. Read the gospel of Luke, chapter 15. If you have placed your trust in Jesus as your Savior, is God “doing back-flips” over you? What is the implication of that for you?
Week Eight: Chapter 10
1. What would you expect to happen in Nick’s life now?
2. From the characterization in the book, how would you describe Jesus? What kind of person is he? What qualities of his stand out to you the most?
3. Which of the following aspects of the good news of Jesus Christ is most important to you:
• getting your sins forgiven
• being with God in eternity
• having a real relationship with God now
• receiving a changed heart with new desires from God
• God living in you now and forever
4. What is the personal application for you of Revelation 3:20, the Bible verse that the book closes with?
5. How can we dine with Jesus daily?
6. What was the most important aspect of the book to you personally?
7. What questions remain in your mind concerning any of the issues the book raised? Is getting an answer to these questions important to you? How are you going to go about getting your answers?
8. What action step(s) would you like to take concerning yourself as a result of reading this book?
9. What action step(s) would you like to take concerning someone else as a result of reading this book?
DAVID GREGORY is the best-selling author of A Day with a Perfect Stranger, The Next Level, The Last Christian, and the coauthor of the nonfiction book, The Rest of the Gospel. After a ten-year business career, he returned to school to study religion, sociology, and communications. He holds master’s degrees from Dallas Theological Seminary and the University of North Texas. A native of Texas, he now lives in the Pacific Northwest.
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Praise for
Dinner with a Perfect Stranger
“Here’s a wonderful feast for the mind and soul! Pull up a chair and eavesdrop on this provocative conversation. If you’re like me, you’ll hear questions that match your own—and answers that can change your life.”
—LEE STROBEL, author of The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, and The Case for a Creator
“There’s just one thing people need in order to live a happy, abundant life: to be convinced that God loves them. Want to be convinced? Read Dinner with a Perfect Stranger. The author deftly anticipates and answers every question. I predict this little book will become a classic—one of a handful of modern books (like Mere Christianity) that people read to kindle or rekindle faith. All of the “business” surrounding the dinner is done so well it reminds me of Babette’s Feast—simple, earthy details that profoundly convey spiritual reality. Dinner with a Perfect Stranger is truly a wonderful book that makes me feel I’ve just heard the gospel for the very first time.”
—MIKE MASON, author of The Mystery of Marriage, Champagne for the Soul, and Practicing the Presence of People
“The choice is yours: Enjoy a delicious meal of, say, veal fantarella with grilled vegetables. Or spend a quiet hour reading David Gregory’s book. You may find an altogether different sort of hunger has been sated by the final page. Brilliant in its simplicity, fearless in its presentation of the truth, Dinner with a Perfect Stranger is one invitation you’ll want to RSVP.”
—LIZ CURTIS HIGGS, author of Thorn in My Heart, Fair Is the Rose, and Whence Came a Prince
DINNER WITH A PERFECT STRANGER
PUBLISHED BY WATERBROOK PRESS
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A division of Random House, Inc.
The Scripture quotation is based on the New International Version and the New American Standard Bible. Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. New American Standard Bible® (NASB). © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org).
The events and characters (except for Jesus Christ) in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to actual events or persons is coincidental.
Copyright © 2005 by David Gregory Smith
Previously released in an earlier edition under the same title, copyright © 2003 by David Gregory Smith.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
WATERBROOK and its deer design logo are registered trademarks of WaterBrook Press, a division of Rando
m House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gregory, David, 1959-
Dinner with a perfect stranger: an invitation worth considering/David Gregory.—1st WaterBrook ed.
p. cm.
1. Jesus Christ—Fiction. 2. Dinners and dining—Fiction. 3. Restaurants—Fiction. 4. Imaginary conversations. I. Title.
PS3607.R4884D56 2005
813’.6—dc22
2005001761
www.waterbrookpress.com
eISBN: 978-0-307-44630-5
v3.0_r2