Tag Archives: Max Lucado

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – True Courage

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Max Lucado

Are you timid?  Cautious?  Could you use some courage?  Scripture says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).  “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). If you’re in Christ, these promises are not only a source of joy, they are the foundations of true courage!

When God looks at you, he doesn’t see you; He sees the One who surrounds you. Failure’s not a concern for you; your victory is secure. How could you not be courageous?  In Hebrews 10:22, the writer says, “Since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus—let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.”

The point is clear. The Father of Truth will win, and the followers of Truth will be saved. The prize is yours. Applaud the victory!

From The Applause of Heaven

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Doing What Comes Naturally

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Max Lucado

My child’s feelings are hurt, I tell her she’s special. My child’s injured, I do whatever it takes to make her feel better. My child’s afraid, I won’t go to sleep until she’s secure. I’m not a hero. I’m not unusual. I’m a parent. When a child hurts, a parent does what comes naturally. He helps.

Moments of comfort from a parent. I can tell you they’re the sweetest moments in the day. They come naturally, willingly, joyfully. If all that’s so true, then why am I so reluctant to let my heavenly Father comfort me?

Being a father has taught me that when I’m criticized, injured, or afraid, there’s a Father who’s ready to comfort me. A Father who’ll hold me until I’m better. And who won’t go to sleep when I’m afraid. Ever! And that’s enough.

From The Applause of Heaven

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – The Prison of Pride

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Max Lucado

The prison of pride. You’ve seen the prisoners—the alcoholic who won’t admit his drinking problem; the woman who refuses to talk to anyone about her fears. Perhaps to see such a prisoner all you have to do is look in the mirror!

The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us” (I John 1:9). The biggest word in Scripture just might be that two-letter one, if.

Confessing sins, admitting failure, is exactly what prisoners of pride refuse to do. They say, “Listen, I’m just as good as the next guy.”  “I pay my taxes.” Justification. Rationalization. Comparison. These are the tools of the jailbird. But in the kingdom of God they sound hollow. Many know they’re wrong, yet pretend they are right. As a result they never taste the exquisite sorrow of repentance.

Blessed are those who know they’re in trouble and have enough sense to admit it!

From The Applause of Heaven

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – A New Definition

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Max Lucado

With God—all things are possible! (Matthew 19:26).

Consider Abram. Pushing a century of years, his wife, Sarai, ninety. The wallpaper in the nursery faded, baby furniture out of date.  The topic of a promised child brings sighs and tears. . . and God tells them they’d better select a name for their new son. They laugh! Partly because it’s too good to happen and partly because it might.  They’ve given up hope, and hope born anew is always funny before it’s real. They laugh a little at God, and a lot with God—for God is laughing too.

With the smile still on His face, He gets busy doing what He does the best—the unbelievable. Abram, the father of one, will now be Abraham, the father of a promised multitude. Sarai, the barren one, will now be Sarah, the mother.

Their names aren’t the only thing God changes. He changes the way they define the word impossible!

From The Applause of Heaven

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – You Cannot Save Yourself

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Max Lucado

You work hard, pay your dues, and “zap”—your account with God is paid in full.  Jesus says, “No way.”

What you want costs far more than you can pay. You don’t need a system of payment, you need a Savior. You don’t need a resume, you need a Redeemer.

The Bible says, “For what is impossible with men is possible with God” (Luke 18:27).  Don’t miss the thrust of this verse.  You cannot save yourself. Not through the right rituals. The right doctrine.  Not through the right goose bumps. Jesus’ point is crystal clear. It is impossible for human beings to save themselves.

It’s not the possessions—it’s the pomp that hinders us. It’s a different path. Admission of failure isn’t usually admission into joy. Complete confession isn’t commonly followed by total pardon. But then again, God has never been governed by what’s common!

From The Applause of Heaven

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Stubborn Peace

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Max Lucado

Who do you know with a stubborn peace? Their problems aren’t any different, but there’s a serenity that softens the corners of their lips.

A priest visited just such a man in the hospital.  The man was nearing death. The priest noticed an empty chair beside the bed and wondered if someone else had been there. The old man smiled, “I place Jesus on that chair, and I talk to him.” The priest was puzzled so the man explained. “Years ago a friend told me prayer is as simple as talking to a good friend.  So every day I pull up a chair and Jesus and I have a good talk.”

When his daughter informed the priest her father had died, she explained, “When I got to his room, I found him dead.  Strangely, his head was resting, not on the pillow, but on an empty chair beside his bed.”  The picture of stubborn peace!

From The Applause of Heaven

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – The Summit

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Max Lucado

Jesus says, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened” (Matthew 11:28).

I wish I could say it happens all the time; but it doesn’t. Sometimes He asks and I don’t listen. Other times He asks and I just don’t go. But sometimes I follow. I leave behind the deadlines, the schedule and walk the narrow trail up the mountain with Him.

You’ve been there. You’ve turned your back on the noise and sought His voice. You’ve stepped away from the masses and followed the Master as He led you up the winding path to the summit. The roar of the marketplace is down there, the perspective of the peak is up here.

He gently reminds you, “You’ll go nowhere tomorrow that I haven’t already been.”  “The victory is already yours.”  “My delight is one decision away—seize it!” Ah, the words on the sacred summit. A place of permanence in a world of transition.

From The Applause of Heaven

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – The Command to Do Nothing

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Max Lucado

When I was ten, my mother enrolled me in piano lessons. Spending thirty minutes every afternoon tethered to a piano bench was a torture just one level away from swallowing broken glass.

I hammered the staccatos. I belabored the crescendos. But there was one instruction in the music I could never obey to my teacher’s satisfaction.  The rest.  The zigzagged command to do nothing.  Nothing!  What sense does that make? “Because,” my teacher patiently explained, “music is always sweeter after a rest.”

“Be still,” the scripture says, “and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).  Perhaps it is time for you to let the music slow to a stop…and be still and rest.

From The Applause of Heaven

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Joy Within Your Reach

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Max Lucado

There’s a delicious gladness that comes from God. A joy which consequences cannot quench.  His is a peace which circumstances cannot steal.

Nine times he promises it.  And he promises it to an unlikely crowd: The poor in spirit. Those who mourn. The meek. Those who hunger and thirst.  The merciful. The pure in heart. The peacemakers. The persecuted. It is to this band of pilgrims that God promises a special blessing. A heavenly joy.

But this joy is not cheap. What Jesus promises is not a gimmick to give you goose bumps or a mental attitude. No, Matthew Chapter 5 describes God’s radical reconstruction of the heart. It’s no casual shift of attitude. It’s a demolition of the old structure and a creation of the new.

God’s joy.  And it’s within your reach.  You are one decision away from joy!

From The Applause of Heaven

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Sacred Delight

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Max Lucado

He should have been miserable.  He should have been bitter. He had every right to be a pot of boiling anger. But he wasn’t. Jesus embodied a stubborn joy!

What is this stubborn joy?  This bird that sings while it’s still dark?  What is the source of this peace that defies pain? I call it sacred delight. What is sacred is God’s!  And this joy is God’s.

Sacred delight is good news coming through the back door of your heart.  It’s the too-good-to-be-true coming true. It’s having God as your lawyer, your dad, your biggest fan, and your best friend.  It’s hope where you least expected it—a flower in life’s sidewalk.

It is sacred because only God can grant it. It is a delight because it thrills. It can’t be stolen.  It can’t be predicted. It is God’s sacred delight!

The Applause of Heaven

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – To Be Seen

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Max Lucado

If we’re not looking up at God, we’re looking inward at ourselves and outward at each other. The result? Quarreling families. Restless leaders. Fence-building. No trespassing signs.

If we see only ourselves, our tombstones will have the same epitaph Paul used to describe enemies of Christ:  “Their god is their own appetite, they glory in their shame, and this world is the limit of their horizon” (Philippians 3:19).

It’s why God came near.  To be seen. It’s why those who saw Him were never the same. Christianity, in its purest form, is nothing more than seeing Jesus. And Christian service is nothing more than imitating Him whom we see. The Bible says, “Unless a man is born again, He cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

God came near. There is no truth more worthy of your time.

From God Came Near

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Face to Face With Our Past

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Max Lucado

All of us at one time or another come face to face with our past. And it’s always an awkward encounter.  When our sins catch up with us we can do one of two things: run or wrestle.

Many choose to run. They brush it off with a shrug of rationalization. “I was a victim of circumstances.”  Or, “It was his fault.” The problem with this escape is it’s no escape at all. It’s only a shallow camouflage.

The best way to deal with our past is to roll up our sleeves, and face it head on. No more buck-passing or scapegoating.  No more glossing over or covering up.  No more games.

We need a confrontation with our Master, eyeball to eyeball, and be reminded that left alone we fall. If you wonder if you’ve gone too long to change, take courage. No man is too bad for God!

From God Came Near

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – The Truth About Life

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Max Lucado

Hair transplants, surgery, color in a bottle. All to hide what everyone already knows—we’re getting older.

If you ever want to stall a conversation at a party just say, “How’re you feeling about your approaching death?” It won’t put much life into the conversation.

I have a friend who has cancer.  He’s in remission. A nurse unaware of his condition was asking a question for his medical record.  “Are you presently ill?”  “Well yes, I have cancer,” he said.  She looked at him and asked, “Are you terminal?” He responded, “Yes, aren’t we all?”

You’d think we weren’t, the way the subject is kept hush-hush. Jesus does His best work at such moments. Just when the truth about life sinks in, His truth starts to surface.

The next time you find yourself facing the undeniables of life, whisper His name. He is nearer than you think!

From God Came Near

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – No Harm Done

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Max Lucado

Insensitivity makes a wound that heals slowly!

Words like, “Whoa–she’s put on some weight!” Or a question carelessly asked, “Trish, is it true you and Brian are separated?”

If you were to tell the one who threw these thoughtless darts about the pain they caused, the response would be, “Oh, but I had no intention. . . it was just a slip of the tongue.”  No one’s at fault.  No harm done.

But as the innocent attackers go on their way excusing themselves, a wounded soul is left in the dust.  God says, “He who guards his lips guards his life, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin” (Proverbs 13:3).

The message is clear.  Excuses are shallow when they come from those who claim to be followers and imitators of God. Insensitive slurs may be accidental—but they’re not excusable!

From God Came Near

 

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Reliable

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Max Lucado

Reliable! Liable means responsible.  Re means over and over again.

I’m wondering if someone’s listening who’s a saint of re-liability? If you are, I can’t resist the chance to say two things. The first?  Thank you!

Thank you teachers for the countless Sunday school lessons prepared and delivered with tenderness. Thank you senior saints for a generation of prayer. Thank you missionaries for your bravery in sharing the timeless truth. Thank you preachers. You thought we weren’t listening, but we were.

Thanks to all of you who practice on Monday what you hear on Sunday.  It’s on the back of your fidelity that the Gospel rides. You are reliable! You get the job done.

I said I had two things to say.  What’s the second? Keep pitching! Your Hall of Fame award is just around the corner.

From God Came Near

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Divine Warnings

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Max Lucado

Warnings.  Red lights in life that signal us of impending danger. They exist in all parts of life. Sirens scream as a marriage starts to sour; alarms blare when a faith weakens.

We usually know when trouble is just around the corner. Christians who’ve fallen away felt the fire waning long before it went out.  Unwanted pregnancies or explosions of anger are usually the result of a history of ignoring warnings about an impending fire.

Are your senses numb? Are your eyes trained to turn and roll when they should pause and observe?  One-night stands.  Dust-covered Bibles.  Careless choice of companions.  Denial of Christ.

Proverbs 19:27 says, “Cease listening to [My] instruction and you will stray from the words of knowledge.”

Divine warnings.  Inspired by God; tested by time. Heed them and safety is yours to enjoy!

From God Came Near

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Blind Ambition

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Max Lucado

Success at all cost.  Becoming a legend in one’s own time. Climbing the ladder.  King of the mountain.  Top of the heap. We call it blind ambition!

We make heroes out of people who are ambitious.  We hold them up as models for our kids. And rightly so, for this world would be in bad shape without people who dream of touching the heavens. Ambition is a gift in the soul which creates disenchantment with the ordinary.

But left unchecked it becomes an insatiable addiction to power and prestige. The husband who feeds his career with twelve-hour days, the social-conscious mother who never misses a chance to serve on a committee.  “It’s all for a good cause,” she fools herself.

Blind ambition.  Distorted values. God won’t tolerate it. Blind ambition is a giant step away from God and a step closer to catastrophe!

From God Came Near

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – God Sent a Savior

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Max Lucado

Every Christmas I read this reminder that came in the mail several years ago. If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist.

But since our greatest need was forgiveness, God sent us a Savior!  Christmas cards. These punctuated promises. Phrases filled with the reason we do it all anyway. He became like us, so we could become like him. Angels still sing and the star still beckons.

Isaiah 9:6 proclaims, “God has given a son to us. His name will be Wonderful Counselor, Powerful God. Prince of Peace.”

Ah, the wonder of it all is that He loves each one of us like there was only one of us to love!

From Grace for the Moment

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Ordinary No More

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Max Lucado

It was an ordinary night with ordinary sheep and ordinary shepherds. Then the black sky exploded with brightness.  Trees that had been shadows jumped into clarity.  Sheep that had been silent became a chorus of curiosity.  One minute the shepherd was dead asleep, the next he was rubbing his eyes and staring into the face of an angel!

The night was ordinary no more. The angel came in the night because it’s when lights are best seen and when they are most needed.  It all happened in a most remarkable moment—a moment like no other.  God became a man.  Divinity arrived.  Heaven opened and placed her most precious one in a human womb.  God had come near!

In the mystery of Christmas, we find its majesty. The mystery of how God became flesh, why he chose to come at all, and how much he must love his people!

“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men”  (Luke 2:13).

From Christmas Stories

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Touch the World

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Max Lucado

Where will God go to touch the world?  What a great thought… and an even better question!  It’s that time of year when we hear about the virgin birth. And yet it’s more, much more, than a Christmas story. It’s a story of how close Christ will come to you!

The first stop on his itinerary was a womb. Where will God go to touch the world? Look deep within Mary for an answer. Better still—look deep within yourself. “Christ in you, the hope of glory!” (Colossians 1:27).

Christ grew in Mary until he had to come out. Christ will grow in you until the same occurs. He will come out in your speech, in your actions, in your decisions. Every place you live will be a Bethlehem.  And every day you live will be a Christmas.

Deliver Christ into the world!

From Grace for the Moment