INTRODUCTION TO THIS STUDY GUIDE
A NEWLY RETIRED COUPLE moves to New Mexico to spend
their twilight years on the golf course. A middle-aged man labors
all day at the office to make enough money to provide his family
with a nice house in a safe neighborhood and fun vacations in the
summer. A young student enters college in hopes of gaining the
education and skills needed to have a good career. Is this all there
is to life? Or did God make us for something greater than the
American Dream?
It is our conviction that God did indeed create us for more
than the American Dream. Nevertheless, millions of people waste
their lives in pursuit of the vain trappings of this world because
they never discover the simple, obvious, glorious, biblical reality
that “[God’s] steadfast love is better than life” (Psalm 63:3). They
are never gripped by the truth that “to live is Christ, and to die is
gain” (Philippians 1:21). The awesome biblical promise that “the
earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14) has never landed
on them by the power of the Holy Spirit and awakened them to a