Category Archives: Max Lucado

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Ears to Hear

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“Let he who has ears to hear, use them.” Jesus said these words more than once. We’re reminded that it’s not just enough to have ears—it’s necessary to use them.

Scripture has always placed a premium on hearing God’s voice. “Happy are those who listen to me” is the promise of Proverbs 8:34. When John wrote to each of the seven churches in Revelation, they were addressed in the same manner: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” John 10:3-5 says, “The sheep recognize his voice…” They follow because they are familiar with the shepherd’s voice.

Our ears, unlike our eyes, do not have lids. They are to remain open, but how easily they close. Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes from hearing.” How long has it been since you had your hearing checked?

From Just Like Jesus

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – The Power of a Godly Touch

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The power of a godly touch! Have you known it? The doctor who treated you, the teacher who dried your tears? Was there a hand holding yours at a funeral? A handshake of welcome at a new job? A pastoral prayer for healing? Can’t we offer the same?

Many already do! You use your hands to pray over the sick. If you aren’t touching them personally, your hands are sending notes, making calls, baking pies. You’ve learned the power of touch. But others of us tend to forget. Our hearts are good; it’s just that our memories are bad. We fear saying the wrong thing, acting the wrong way. So rather than do it incorrectly, we no nothing at all.

Aren’t we glad Jesus didn’t make the same mistake? Jesus touched the untouchables of the world. Will you do the same?

From Just Like Jesus

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Into His Likeness

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Strange as it may seem, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 2:16 that Christians actually have within themselves a portion of the very thoughts and mind of Christ. Strange is the word! If I have the mind of Jesus, why do I still think so much like me? Why do I still have the hang-ups of Max? Why do I still hate traffic jams?

God has ambitious plans for us. The same one who saved your soul longs to remake your heart. His plan is nothing short of a total transformation. Colossians 3:10 reminds us, “You have begun to live the new life, in which you are being made new and are becoming like the One who made you. This new life brings you the true knowledge of God.” Let’s fix our eyes on Jesus! Perhaps in seeing him, we will see what we can become.

From Just Like Jesus

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Your Heart, His Home

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The crowning attribute of Christ was this: his heart was spiritual. His thoughts reflected his intimate relationship with the Father. Our hearts seem so far from his. He is pure; we’re greedy. He is peaceful; we’re hassled. He is purposeful; we’re distracted. He is pleasant; we’re cranky. The distance between our hearts and his seems so immense! How could we ever hope to have the heart of Jesus?

Ready for a surprise? You already do. One of the supreme yet unrealized promises of God is simply this: if you’ve given your life to Jesus, Jesus has given himself to you. He has made your heart his home. It would be hard to say it any more succinctly than Paul does in Galatians 2:20, “Christ lives in me.”

God is willing to change us into the likeness of the Savior. Shall we accept his offer?

 

From Just Like Jesus

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Just the Way You Are

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Don’t confuse God’s love with the love of people. That kind of love often increases with performances and decreases with mistakes. When my daughter was a toddler, she loved going to the park and playing in the sandbox. And often I’d give her an ice-cream treat. One day as I turned to do that, I saw her mouth was full of sand. Where I intended to put a delicacy, she had put dirt. Did I love her with dirt in her mouth? Absolutely. Was I going to allow her to keep the dirt in her mouth? No way. I loved her right where she was, but I refused to leave her there.

God does the same for us. “Spit the dirt out, honey,” our Father urges. I’ve got something better for you.” Jesus wants to give us a heart like his. Can you imagine a better offer?

From Just Like Jesus

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – A Heart Like His

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What if, for one day, Jesus were to become you? His priorities would be governing your actions. His love would be directing your behavior. Would people notice a change? How about your enemies? Would they receive more mercy? Keep working on this for a moment. Adjust the lens of your imagination until you have a clear picture of Jesus leading your life—then snap the shutter and frame the image. What you see is what God wants. Nothing short of a new heart. In Philippians 2:5 it says, to “think and act like Christ Jesus.” He wants you to have a heart like His.

I’m going to risk something here. It’s dangerous to sum up grand truths in one statement, but I’m going to try. God loves you just the way you are, but he refuses to leave you that way. He wants you to be just like Jesus!

From Just Like Jesus

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – An Anchor for Your Soul

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Six hours, one Friday. To the casual observer the six hours are mundane. But to a handful of awestruck witnesses, the most maddening of miracles is occurring. God is on a cross. The Creator of the universe is being executed!

It is no normal six hours; it is no normal Friday. His own friends ran for cover. And now his own father is beginning to turn his back on him, leaving him alone. What do you do with that day in history? If God did commandeer his own crucifixion. . .if he did turn his back on his own son. . .if he did storm Satan’s gate, then those six hours that Friday were packed with tragic triumph. If that was God on that cross, then the hill called Skull is granite studded with stakes to which you can anchor your soul forever!

From On Calvary’s Hill

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Calvary

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Come with me to the hill of Calvary. Watch as the soldiers shove the carpenter to the ground and stretch his arms against the beams. Jesus turns his face toward the nail just as the soldier lifts his hammer to strike it!

Couldn’t Jesus have stopped him? With a flex of bicep, a clench of the fist, he could’ve resisted. But the moment isn’t aborted. Why? Why didn’t Jesus resist? As the soldier pressed his arm, Jesus saw a nail—yes. The soldier’s hand—yes. But he saw something else. A long list of our lusts and lies and greedy moments and prodigal years. A list of our sins. He knew the price of those sins was death. He knew the source of those sins was you. And he couldn’t bear the thought of eternity without you. He chose the nails!

From On Calvary’s Hill

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – The Sign on Christ’s Cross

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John 19:19 says, “Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross: Jesus of Nazareth, The King of the Jews.”

Why is a sign placed over the head of Jesus? Could it be that this piece of wood is a picture of God’s devotion? A symbol of his passion to tell the world about his Son? Pilate intended the sign to threaten and mock the Jews. But God had another purpose. Every passerby could read the sign, for every passerby could read Hebrew, Latin or Greek. In the language of culture, Christ was declared King in them all. There’s no language he will not speak. Which leads us to the delightful question: What language is he speaking to you? I’m referring to the day-to-day drama of your life. God does speak, you know. He speaks in any language that we will understand.

From On Calvary’s Hill

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – He Wore Our Sin

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Scripture often describes our behavior as the clothes we wear. 1 Peter 5:5 urges us to be “clothed with humility.” In Psalm 109:18, David speaks of evil people who clothe themselves “with cursing.” Garments can symbolize character; and like his garment, Jesus’ character was uninterrupted perfection.

But when Christ was nailed to the cross, he took off his robe of seamless perfection and assumed a different wardrobe… the wardrobe of indignity. Stripped before his own mother. Shamed before his family. The indignity of failure. For a few pain-filled hours, the religious leaders were victors, and Christ appeared the loser. Worst of all, he wore the indignity of sin. Scripture says, “He himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree.” The cloth of Christ on the cross? Sin—yours and mine. The sins of all humanity.

From On Calvary’s Hill

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Far From Christ

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Imagine the scene at the cross. Soldiers huddled in a circle, dice-throwing—casting lots for the possessions of Christ. Common soldiers witnessing the world’s most uncommon event. To them he is just another criminal; the cross is forgotten.

It makes me think of us. The religious. Those who claim heritage at the cross. All of us. The strict…the loose…the simple…spirit-filled…evangelical. All of us! We’re not so unlike these soldiers. We too, play games at the foot of the cross. We compete for members. We scramble for status.  Competition. Selfishness. Personal gain. It’s all there. We major in the trivial, we split into little huddles. Another name. Another doctrine. So close to the cross but so far from the Christ. “May they all be one,” Jesus prayed. One. Not one in groups of two thousand. One church. One faith. One Lord. No hierarchies. No traditions. Just Christ.

From On Calvary’s Hill

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Father, Forgive Them

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Of all the scenes around the cross, the one that angers me most is when those in the crowds said, “Let this Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross, that we may see and believe” (Matthew 27:42). There’s nothing more painful than words meant to hurt.

1 Peter 2:23 tells us that “Jesus entrusted himself to him who judges justly.” He simply left the judging to God. “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing,” he said. They were a crazy mob, mad at something they couldn’t see so they took it out on, of all people, God. Yet, Jesus died for them. How could he do it? I don’t know. Sometimes I wonder if we don’t see Jesus’ love as much in the people he tolerated, as in the pain he endured. Such amazing grace!

From On Calvary’s Hill

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Simon Carries Jesus’ Cross

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Four soldiers. One criminal. One cross. Simon, a farmer, stands among the crowd and can’t see the man’s face, only a head wreathed with thorny branches. Jesus stops in front of Simon and heaves for air, the beam rubbing against an already-raw back.

“His name is Jesus,” someone speaks. “Move on!” commands the executioner. But Jesus can’t. The beam begins to sway. Simon instinctively extends his strong hands and catches the cross. “You! Take the cross.” Simon dares to object. “I don’t care,” the soldier says, “Take up the cross!” And Simon did literally what God calls us to do figuratively: take up the cross and follow Jesus. Luke 9:23 says, “If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget yourself. You must take up your cross each day and follow me.”

From On Calvary’s Hill

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Peace Be With You

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When the Roman soldiers took Jesus out of the Garden of Gethsamane, Jesus’ followers took off. We don’t know where they went but we do know they couldn’t get him out of their minds. They came back and the church of our Lord began with a group of frightened men in an upper room.

Sound familiar? How many churches have just enough religion to come together, but not enough passion to go out? Good people. Good intentions. Words. Promises. But while all this is going on, the door remains locked and the story stays a secret. What will it take to unlock it?

Allow Jesus to come into your upper room and stand before you. Place your hand in the pierced side. Look into those eyes that melted the gates of hell and sent Satan running. Look at them as they look at you, and you will never be the same.

From On Calvary’s Hill

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – The Temple Curtain Torn

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On Calvary’s Hill, Jesus cried out in a loud voice and died. Then the curtain in the Temple was torn into two pieces, from the top to the bottom. What did fifteen-hundred years of a curtain-draped Holy of Holies communicate? Simple: God is holy! God IS holy—separate from us and unapproachable. Even Moses was told, “You cannot see my face because no one can see me and live.” God is holy and we are sinners, and there is a distance between us.

But Jesus hasn’t left us with an unapproachable God. 1 Timothy 2:5 says, “There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ.” When Jesus’ flesh was torn on the cross, the curtain was torn in two. With no hesitation, we are welcome into God’s presence—any day, any time. The barrier of sin is down. No more curtain!

From On Calvary’s Hill

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – A Cry of Victory

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“It is finished.” Jesus cried! Stop and listen. Can you imagine the cry from the cross? What was finished? The history-long plan of redeeming man. The message of God to man. The works done by Jesus as a man on earth were finished.

Had Jesus’ hands not been fastened down, I dare say that a triumphant fist would have punched the dark sky. This is no cry of despair. It is a cry of completion. A cry of victory. A cry of fulfillment. Yes, even a cry of relief. “Take me home.” Come, ten thousand angels! Come and take this wounded one to the cradle of his Father’s arms.

Farewell, manger’s infant. Yes, take him home. Take this Son to his Father. He deserves a rest. Bless you, holy ambassador. Go home, rest well. The battle is over! It is finished.

From On Calvary’s Hill

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – My God, My God

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On Calvary’s Hill, Christ lifts his heavy head toward the heavens crying out, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani”—that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). We would ask the same. Why him? Why forsake your son? Forsake the murderers. Desert the evildoers. Turn your back on the perverts and peddlers of pain. Abandon them, not him.

What did Christ feel on the cross? The icy displeasure of a sin-hating God. Why? Because Jesus carried our sins in His body. With hands nailed open, he invited God, “Treat me as you would treat them.” And God did. In an act that broke the heart of the Father, yet honored the holiness of heaven, sin-purging judgment flowed over the sinless Son of the ages.

My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Why did God scream those words? So you’ll never have to!

From On Calvary’s Hill

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Saved to Serve

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Some people feel so saved they never serve.  Some serve at the hope of being saved. Does one of these sentences describe you? Do you feel so saved that you never serve? So content in what God has done that you do nothing? The fact is, we’re here to glorify God in our service.

Or is your tendency the opposite? Perhaps you always serve for fear of not being saved. You’re worried there is a secret card that exists with your score written on it; and your score is not enough. Is that you? If so, know this: The blood of Jesus is enough to save you.  John 1:29 announces that Jesus is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”

The blood of Christ doesn’t cover your sins, conceal your sins, postpone or diminish your sins.  It takes away your sins, once and for all! So…since you are saved, you can serve!

From He Chose the Nails

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Two Thieves, Two Crosses

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Scripture says, “And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left.” (Luke 23:33)

Calvary’s Hill. Two thieves—gaunt and pale. With the cynicism of most of the crowd, one calls out, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself, and us too, while you’re at it!”

The other in defense says, “Don’t you even fear God when you are dying? We deserve to die, but this man hasn’t done one thing wrong.”

Lodged in the thief’s statement are what anyone needs to recognize in order to come to Jesus. Jesus is not on that cross for his sins. He is there for ours! And the thief on the cross makes the same request any Christian makes, “Remember me when you come into your Kingdom!”

From On Calvary’s Hill

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Centurion at the Cross

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Matthew 27:54 says when the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw all that had happened, they were terrified and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

The centurion was no stranger to finality. But this crucifixion plagued him. As the hours wore on, he didn’t know what to do with the Nazarene’s silence or with his kindness. But most of all, he was perplexed by the black sky in mid afternoon. No one could explain it. When Jesus suddenly sliced the silence by calling out, “It is finished,” it wasn’t a scream. It was a roar—a lion’s roar! Perhaps that is what made the centurion say what he said. “This was no normal man. This was the Son of God.” Had the centurion not said it, the soldiers would have. The rocks would have. Surely he was the Son of God!

From On Calvary’s Hill