Tag Archives: Lucado

Max Lucado – Eternal Choices

March 26, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

God gives eternal choices, and these choices have eternal consequences.

Isn’t this the reminder of Calvary’s trio? Ever wonder why there were two crosses next to Christ? Why not six or ten? Ever wonder why Jesus was in the center? Could it be the two crosses on the hill symbolize one of God’s greatest gifts? The gift of choice. The two criminals were convicted by the same system. Condemned to death. Equally close to the same Jesus. But one changed and one did not.

You’ve made some bad choices in life, haven’t you? You look back and you say, “If only I could make up for those bad choices.” You can. When one thief on the cross prayed, Jesus loved him enough to save him. When the other mocked, Jesus loved him enough to let him. He allowed him the choice. And he does the same for you and me.

Then (the thief) said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:42-43

Max Lucado – Just for You

March 25, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

What is the fruit of sin? Step into the briar patch of humanity and feel a few thistles. Shame. Fear. Disgrace. Discouragement. Anxiety. Haven’t our hearts been caught in these brambles?

The heart of Jesus, however, had not. He had never been cut by the thorns of sin. What you and I face daily—he never knew. He never worried. He was never guilty. He never knew the fruit of sin until he became sin for us. And when he did—all the emotions of sin tumbled in on him like shadows in a forest. He felt anxious, guilty, and alone. Can you not hear the emotion in his prayer?

“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” This prayer is one of the most remarkable parts of his coming. But there’s something even greater! He did it for you…just for you!

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” (I Peter 2:24).

Max Lucado – Get Ready for a Surprise

March 22, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

Have you got God figured out? Get ready, you may be in for a surprise. Hear the rocks meant for the body of the adulterous woman drop to the ground. Listen as Jesus invites a death-row convict to ride with Him to the Kingdom in the front seat of the limo. Listen as the Messiah whispers to the Samaritan woman, “I who speak to you am He.” And listen to the surprise as Mary’s name is spoken by a man she had buried.

God appearing in the strangest of places. Doing the strangest of things. Stretching smiles where there had hung only frowns. Hanging a bright star in a dark sky. Many more knees will bow. And many more seekers will celebrate.

“For no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him!” (1 Corinthians 2:9)

Max Lucado – The Father’s Outstretched Arms

March 21, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

The prodigal son. Going home a changed man. No longer demanding he get what he deserved, but willing to take whatever he could get. How many years had it been? As the boy came around the bend that led to his house, he rehearsed his speech one more time. He turned to open the gate, but the father already had.

“Father I have sinned,” he said. (Luke 15:21). The two wept. Words were unnecessary. Forgiveness had been given.

If there’s a scene that deserves to be framed, it’s the one of the Father’s outstretched hands. His hands call us home. Imagine those hands. Stretching open like a wide gate, leaving entrance as the only option. He forced His arms so wide apart that it hurt. And to prove that those arms would never fold and those hands would never close, He had them nailed open.

Max Lucado – Good Luck Charm

March 19, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

For some, Jesus is a good luck charm. The “Rabbit’s Foot” Redeemer. Pocket sized. Handy. His specialty? Getting you out of a jam. Need a parking place? Need help on a quiz? Pull out the rabbit’s foot. No need to have a relationship with Him. No need to love Him. New jobs. New and improved spouses. Your wish is His command. Few demands, no challenges. No need for sacrifice. No need for commitment.

That’s not the Redeemer of the New Testament. When the disciples were in the storm, He rescued them. When the multitudes were hungry, He fed them. Prayer, service, and instruction all mattered to His ministry but they fell short of a higher call.

“The Son of Man” scripture says, “came to serve others and give His life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28) The Son of Man came to find lost people and save them! Rabbit charm…hardly. Savior…absolutely!

Max Lucado – Nevertheless

March 18, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

Where does Satan have a stronghold within you? It’s what David faced when he looked at Jerusalem. Nevertheless, David took the stronghold. Granted, the city was old. The walls were difficult. The voices discouraging. Nevertheless, David took the stronghold.

Wouldn’t you love for God to write a nevertheless in your biography? Born to alcoholics, nevertheless, she led a sober life. Never went to college, nevertheless, he mastered a trade. Didn’t read the Bible until retirement age, nevertheless, he came to a deep and abiding faith. We all need a nevertheless.

Paul said, “We use God’s mighty weapons to knock down the devil’s stronghold.” (2 Corinthians 10:4).

You and I? We fight with toothpicks. God comes with battering rams and cannons!

Max Lucado – What’s Done is Done

March 15, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

What do you do with your failures? Could you do it all over again, you’d do it differently. You’d be more patient. You’d control your tongue. You’d finish what you started. You’d get married first. But as many times as you tell yourself, “What’s done is done,” what you did can’t be undone.

That’s part of what the apostle Paul meant when he said, “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23). He didn’t say, “The wages of sin is a bad mood.” Or “The wages of sin is a hard day.” Read it again. “The wages of sin is death.” Sin is fatal.

What do you do? Don’t we all long for a father who will love us? A father who cares for us in spite of our failures? We have that kind of a father. A father whose grace is strongest when our devotion is weakest. Your failures are not fatal, my friend!

Max Lucado – Our Memory

March 14, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

There’s a direct correlation between the accuracy of our memory and the effectiveness of our mission. If we’re not teaching people how to be saved, it’s perhaps because we’ve forgotten the tragedy of being lost. If we’re not teaching the message of forgiveness, it may be because we don’t remember what it was like to be guilty. And if we’re not preaching the cross, it could be that we’ve subconsciously decided that—God forbid—somehow we don’t need it.

In what is perhaps the last letter Paul ever wrote, he begged Timothy not to forget. He urged Timothy to “Remember Jesus Christ—raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel. . .” (2 Timothy 2:8).

When times get hard, when people don’t listen, when tears come, when disappointment is your bed partner, when fear pitches its tent in your front yard, when death looms, when shame weighs heavily… always remember Jesus!

Max Lucado – How Quickly We Forget

March 13, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

Oh how quickly we forget. So much happens through the years. So many changes within. So many alterations without. And somewhere, back there, we leave Him. We don’t turn away from Him—we just don’t take Him with us. Assignments come. Promotions come. Budgets are made. Kids are born, and Christ—the Christ Jesus is forgotten.

Has it been a while since you stared at the heavens in speechless amazement? Has it been a while since you realized God’s divinity and your carnality? He is still there. He has not left. Do yourself a favor. Stand before Him again. Or better, allow Him to stand before you.

A man is never the same after he simultaneously sees his despair and Jesus’ grace. To see the despair without the grace is destructive. To see the grace without the despair is futility. But to see them both is conversion!

Max Lucado – The Language of the Liar

March 11, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

I was living in Brazil. It had been an especially frustrating day getting my car fixed. As I drove off, two devils perched on my shoulders. They spoke the language of the Liar. One was anger; the other self-pity! I rolled down my window when I reached a traffic stop. I saw a boy, probably nine years old. Shirtless. Barefooted.

“What’s your name?” I asked. “Jose,” he answered. Two other orphans with him were naked except for ragged gym shorts.

“Have you collected much money today?” I asked. He opened a dirty hand full of coins. Enough perhaps for a soft drink. As I pulled out the equivalent of a dollar his eyes brightened and he ran to tell his friends!

God sent Jose to me that day with this message: “Max, you cry over spilled champagne. You bellyache over frills, not the basics.” Jose gave me a lot for my dollar… he gave me a lesson on gratitude.

Max Lucado – God Never Gives Up

March 8, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

God’s people often forget their God, but God never forgets them. When Joseph was dropped into a pit by his own brothers, God didn’t give up. When Moses said, “Here am I, send Aaron,” God didn’t give up. When the delivered Israelites wanted Egyptian slavery instead of milk and honey, God did not give up. When Aaron was making a false god at the very moment Moses was with the true God, God did not give up.

And when human hands fastened the divine hands of Jesus to a cross with spikes, it wasn’t the soldiers who held the hands of Jesus steady. It was God, the God who never gives up on his people, who held them steady. He held them to the cross where, with holy blood, the divine hand wrote these words, “God would give up His only son before He’d ever give up on you!” (John 3:16)

Max Lucado – God Gave His Best

March 6, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

Jenna, wake up. It’s time to go to school. For four lightning-fast years she’d been ours, and ours alone. And now that was all going to change. I knew it was time. And I knew she would be fine. But I never knew it would be so hard to give her up on her first day of preschool.

Is that how you felt, God? Is what I felt that morning anything like what you felt when you gave up your son? It explains how your heart must have ached as you heard the cracking voice of Jesus say, “Father take this cup away.” (Mark 14:36).

I said good-bye and sent my little Jenna into a safe environment with a compassionate teacher ready to wipe away any tears. Yet, you Father, released Jesus into a hostile arena with a cruel soldier who turned the back of your son into raw meat.

God gave His best, the apostle Paul reasons. Why should we ever doubt His love?

Max Lucado – Is Heaven for Me?

March 5, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

My friend Joy teaches children in an inner city church. Her class is a lively group of nine-year-olds. There’s one exception—a timid girl named Barbara. Her difficult home life had left her afraid and insecure. She never spoke. Never. Always present. Always listening. Always speechless. Until the day Joy talked about heaven—about seeing God. About tearless eyes and deathless lives. Barbara raised her hand. “Mrs. Joy? Is heaven for girls like me?”

I would’ve given a thousand sunsets to have seen Jesus’ face as this tiny prayer reached His throne. A prayer to do what God does best: To take a pebble and kill a Goliath. To take a peasant boy’s lunch and fed a multitude. To take three spikes and a wooden beam and make them the hope of humanity. To take the common and make it spectacular!

Max Lucado – What Steals the Zeal?

March 4, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

What steals our childhood zeal? For a child the possibilities are limitless. Then weariness finds us. Sesame Street gets traffic-jammed. Star Trek’s endless horizon gets hidden behind smog and skyscrapers. What is the source of such weariness? The names of these burdens?

Jesus gazes into our weariness and makes this paradoxical promise: “Take My yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:29).

Jesus was the only man to walk God’s earth who claimed to have an answer for man’s burdens. “Come to Me” he invited them. The people came. They came out of the cul-de-sacs and office complexes of their day. They brought him the burdens of their existence, and he gave them not religion, not doctrine, not systems…He gave them rest. My prayer is that you, too, will find rest!

Max Lucado – Because of What He Did

March 1, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

Few things can weary you more than the fast pace of the human race. Too many sprints for success. Too many days of doing whatever it takes eventually take their toll. You’re left gasping for air, holding your sides on the side of the track. You’re asking yourself, “When I get what I want, will it be worth the price I paid?”

It’s this weariness that makes the words of Jesus so compelling. “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28).

Come to Me. Why Him? He offers the invitation as a penniless rabbi in an oppressed nation. He has no political office. He hasn’t written a best-seller or earned a diploma. Yet they called Him Lord. They called Him Savior. Not so much because of what He said, but because of what He did. What He did—on the Cross! He did it for the weary people of this world.

Max Lucado – Know Your Strengths

February 28, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

When you teach, do people listen? When you lead, do people follow? Identify your strengths, and —this is important—major in them. Singing for others would give me wonderful satisfaction. The problem is, it wouldn’t give the same satisfaction to my audience. I’m what you might call a prison singer—I never have the key, and I’m always behind a few bars.

Paul gives good advice in Romans 12:3: “Have a sane estimate of your capabilities.”

Be aware of your strengths. Take a few irons out of the fire so one can get hot. Failing to focus on our strengths may prevent us from accomplishing the unique task God has called us to do. We cannot meet every need in the world. But some of us try. In the end, we run out of fuel. So, have a sane estimate of your abilities—and stick to them.

Max Lucado – A Worship-Hungry Heart

February 26, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

Parents, what are your children and others learning from your worship? Do they see the same excitement as when you go to a basketball game? Do they see you prepare for worship as you do for a vacation? Do they see you hungry to arrive, seeking the face of the Father? Or are others seeking the face of the Father while you’re seeking the face of your wristwatch? Do they see you content to leave the way you came? They are watching. Believe me. They are watching.

Do you come to church with a worship-hungry heart? Our Savior did. May I urge you to be just like Jesus? Prepare your heart for worship. Let God change your face through worship. Your heartfelt worship is a missionary appeal. Let others hear the passion of your voice as they see the sincerity in your face, and they may be changed. I know you will be!

Worship Changes Our Face – Max Lucado

February 25, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

Exactly what is worship? I like King David’s definition in Psalm 34:3: “Oh magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.”

Worship is magnifying or enlarging our vision of God. Of course his size doesn’t change, but our perception of him does. As we draw nearer, he seems larger. Isn’t that what we need? A big view of God? Don’t we have big problems, big worries, and big questions? Of course we do. So, we need a big view of God. Worship offers that.

A vibrant, shining face is the mark of one who has stood in God’s presence. He wipes away the tears. Not only does God change the face of those who worship, he changes those who watch us worship!

What Are We Missing? – Max Lucado

February 20, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

Jesus declared: “I am in the father and the Father is in me.” (John 14:10). It was as if he heard a voice others were missing.

I witnessed something similar on an airplane. I kept hearing outbursts of laughter. The flight was turbulent, hardly a reason for humor. But some fellow behind me was cracking up. I turned to see what was so funny. He was wearing headphones. Because he could hear what I could not, he acted differently than I did.

The same was true with Jesus. Remember when everyone was distraught about Lazarus’s illness? Jesus wasn’t. Rather than hurry to his friends’ bedside, he said, “This sickness will not end in death. It is for the glory of God.” (John 11:4).

Jesus knew something no one else did. He had unbroken communion with his Father. Do you suppose the Father desires the same for us? God desires the same abiding intimacy with you that he has with his Son.

His Presence Never Diminishes – Max Lucado

February 19, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

For years I viewed God as a compassionate CEO and my role as a loyal sales representative. He had his office, and I had my territory. I could contact him as much as I wanted. He encouraged me, rallied behind me, and supported me, but he didn’t go with me. At least I didn’t think he did.

Then I read 2nd Corinthians 6:1: we are “God’s fellow workers.” Fellow workers? Co-laborers? God and I work together? Imagine the paradigm shift this truth creates. Rather than report to God, we work with God.Rather than check in with him and then leave, we check in with him and then follow. We are always in the presence of God. We never leave church. There is never a non-sacred moment.

His presence never diminishes. Our awareness of his presence may falter, but the reality of his presence never changes!

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