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In his later years Beethoven spent hours playing a broken harpsichord. The instrument was worthless. Keys were missing, strings stretched. It was out of tune, harsh on the ears. Nonetheless, the great pianist would play till tears came down his cheeks. You’d think he was hearing the sublime, and he was. He was deaf. Beethoven was hearing the sound the instrument should make, not the one it did make.

Maybe you feel like Beethoven’s harpsichord. Out of tune, inadequate. Your service ill-timed, insignificant. Ever wonder what God does when the instrument is broken? How does the Master respond when the keys don’t work? Does he demand a replacement? Or does he patiently tune until he hears the song he longs to hear? I want you to know that the Master Musician fixes what we can’t and hears music when we don’t. And he loves to hear the music that comes from your life.

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In the days when I was a missionary in Brazil I once went to visit one of our church leaders. We hadn’t seen him for several Sundays. Friends told me he had inherited three hundred dollars, and he was constructing, by hand, a one-room house. When he gave me a tour of the project, it took about twenty seconds. I told him we’d missed him, that the church needed him back. He grew quiet and turned and looked at his house. His eyes were moist. “You’re right, Max,” he confessed. “I guess I got just too greedy.”

“Greedy?” I wanted to say, “You’re building a hut in a swamp and you call it greed?” But he was right. Greed is relative. Greed is not defined by what something costs; it is measured by what it costs you. If anything costs you your family, or your faith, the price is too high.

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Some years ago, I read a study of what most Americans would do in exchange for ten million dollars. Among the options were abandon their family, abandon their church, give up their citizenship, leave their spouse or their children. It’s not surprising to me what someone would do for ten million dollars. What’s surprising is that most would do something. What would you do? Or better, what are you doing?

“Get real, Max,” you’re saying, “I’ve never had a shot at ten million.” The amount may not have been the same, but the choices are. And some people are willing to give up their family, faith, or morals for far less than ten million dollars. Jesus had a word for that: greed. He called it the practice of measuring life by possessions (Luke 12:15). Jesus cautioned against “all kinds of greed.” What’s your price?

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Seems to me God gives a lot more grace than we’d ever imagine. We could do the same. Now, I’m not for watering down the truth or compromising the Gospel. But if a fellow with a pure heart calls God Father, can’t I call that man Brother? If God doesn’t make doctrinal perfection a requirement for family membership, should I? If God can tolerate my mistakes, can’t I tolerate the mistakes of others? If God can overlook my errors, can’t I overlook the errors of others? If God allows me, with my foibles and failures, to him Father, shouldn’t I extend that same grace to others?

One thing is for sure: when we get to heaven, we’ll be surprised at some of the folks we see. And some of them will be surprised when they see us!

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I’ve never been surprised by God’s judgment, but I’m still stunned by his grace. David the psalmist becomes David the voyeur, but by God’s grace becomes David the psalmist again. Peter denied Christ before he preached Christ. Zacchaeus the crook: the cleanest part of his life was the money he’d laundered, but Jesus still had time for him. The thief on the cross: hell bent and hung-out-to die one minute, heaven-bound and smiling the next.

Story after story, surprise after surprise. Seems that God is looking more for ways to get us home than for ways to keep us out. I challenge you to find one soul who came to God seeking grace and did not find it. Search the pages, read the stories. Find one person who came seeking a second chance and left with a stern lecture. I dare you! You won’t find it.

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A hero could be next door and you wouldn’t know it. The fellow who changes the oil in your car could be a hero in overalls. Maybe as he works he prays, asking God to do with the heart of the driver what he does with the engine. The daycare worker where you drop off the kids? Perhaps her morning prayers include the name of each child and the dream that one of them will change the world.

I know—those folks don’t fit our image of a hero. They are too, well, normal. Give us four stars, titles, and headlines. But we seldom see heroes in the making. And we seldom recognize heroes, but we’d do well to keep our eyes open. Tomorrow’s great preacher might be mowing your lawn. And the hero who inspires that person might be nearer than you think — maybe in your mirror.

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Changing direction in life is not tragic, but losing passion in life is. Something happens along the way. Convictions to change the world downgrade to commitments to pay the bills. Rather than make a difference, we make a salary. Rather than look outward, we look inward. And we don’t like what we see.

But God is not finished with you yet. Oh you may think he is. You may think you’ve peaked. You may think he’s got someone else to do the job. If so, think again! The Bible says that “God began doing a good work in you, and I am sure he will continue it until it is finished when Jesus Christ comes again” (Philippians 1:6). Did you see what God is doing? A good work in you. Did you see when he’ll be finished? When Jesus Christ comes again. May I spell out the message? God ain’t finished with you yet!

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When I see a flock of sheep I see exactly that—a flock. A rabble of wool, all alike. But not so with the shepherd. To him every sheep is different. Every face is special Every sheep has a name. And that includes you. The shepherd knows you. He knows your name, and he will never forget it.

He says in Isaiah 49:16, “I have written your name on my hand.” Your name is on God’s hand, your name is on God’s lips. Perhaps you’ve never seen your name honored or heard it spoken with kindness. If so, it may be more difficult for you to believe that God knows your name. But he does! Written on his hand. Spoken by his mouth. Your name! You just keep listening. Be sure to hear when God whispers your name.

Read more When God Whispers Your Name

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God’s grace delivered us from fear, but how quickly we return. Grace told us we didn’t have to spend our lives looking over our shoulders, but look at us glancing backward. Look at us with guilt on our consciences.

Why are we so quick to revert back to our old ways? Or as Paul candidly wrote, “What a miserable man I am! Who will save me from this body that brings me death?” (Romans 7:24). Simply stated: we are helpless to battle sin alone. Aren’t we glad Paul answered his own question? “I thank God for saving me through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:25).

The same one who saved us first is there to save us still. Such is the message of grace. You are saved, not because of what you do, but because of what Christ did! And you are special because of whose you are.

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You wonder why God doesn’t remove temptation from your life? You know, if he did, you might lean on your strength instead of his grace. A few stumbles might be what you need to convince you his grace is sufficient for your sin. You wonder why God doesn’t remove the enemies in your life? Perhaps because he wants you to love like he loves. Anyone can love a friend, but only a few can love an enemy. You wonder why God doesn’t heal you? Oh, he has healed you. If you are in Christ, you have a perfected soul and will have a perfected body. His grace is sufficient for gratitude.

We can be sure of this: God would prefer we have an occasional limp than a perpetual strut. God has every right to say no to us. We have every reason to say thanks to him. His grace is sufficient.

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My high school baseball coach had a firm rule against chewing tobacco, and he wanted to draw it to our attention. He got our attention all right. Before long we’d all tried it! It was a sure test of manhood. One day I’d just popped a plug in my mouth when one of the players warned, “Here comes the coach.” I did what comes naturally—I swallowed. Gulp.

I added new meaning to the scripture, “I felt weak deep inside me. I moaned all day long” (Psalm 32:3). I paid the price for hiding my disobedience. My body was not made to ingest tobacco. Your soul was not made to ingest sin. Are you keeping any secrets from God? Any part of your past or present that you hope you and God never discuss? Well listen, once you’re in the grip of grace, you’re free to be honest. And you’ll be glad you were.

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My friend Keith took his wife, Sarah, to Cozumel, Mexico, to celebrate their anniversary.  Sarah loves to snorkel.  Down she swims, searching for the mysteries below.  Keith’s idea of snorkeling also includes a bellyboard.  The surface satisfies him.  Sarah, however, convinced him to plunge into the water where she showed him a twenty-foot-tall submerged cross.  “If I’d had another breath,” he confessed, “the sight would have taken it away.”

Jesus beckons you to descend and see the same.  Take a breath and descend so deeply into his love that you see nothing else.  Join the psalmist in saying:

Whom have I in heaven but you?

And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart

and my portion forever. . . .(Psalm 73:25–26)

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Does a branch ever release the vine?  Only at the risk of death.  Would you say the branch is vine dependent?  I would. How well do you pass the vine test?  Do you ever release yourself from the love of Christ?  Do you ever go unnourished?  You do so at the certain risk of a parched heart.

From the file entitled “It Ain’t Gonna Happen,“ I pull and pose this suggestion.  Let’s make Christ’s command a federal law:  No person may walk out into the world to begin the day until he or she has stood beneath the cross to receive God’s love.  Wild idea?  I agree.  God’s love cannot be legislated, but it can be chosen.  For Christ’s sake, and yours, choose it. The prayer is as powerful as it is simple– “Lord, I receive your love.  Nothing can separate me today from your love.”

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To abide in the love of Christ is to make his love your home.  You rest in him.  His fireplace warms you from the winters of life.  You abandon the old house of false love and move into his home of real love.

Adapting to this new home takes time.  You’ve lived a life in a house of imperfect love.  You think God is going to abandon you as your father did, or judge you as false religion did, or curse you as your friend did.  He won’t, but it takes time to be convinced.

For that reason abide in him.  Hang on to Christ the same way a branch clutches the vine.  According to Jesus:  “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me” (John 15:4).

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The sight of the healthy or successful prompts us to conclude, God must really love him.  He’s so blessed with health, money, good looks, and skill.  Or we gravitate to the other extreme. Lonely and frail in the hospital bed, we deduce, God does not love me. How could he?  Look at me.

Rebuff such thoughts!  Success signals God’s love no more than struggles indicate the lack of it.  The definitive, God-sanctioned gauge is not a good day or a bad break but the dying hours of his Son.  Consider them often. Let the gap between trips to the cross diminish daily.

Discover what David Brainerd, the eighteenth-century missionary to American Indians, meant when he said, “My heart was swallowed up in God most of the day.”  Accept this invitation of Jesus from John 15:9, “Abide in My love.”

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You don’t influence God’s love. You can’t affect the love of God. If your actions altered his devotion, then God would not be love; instead, he would be a human, for this is human love. Don’t you need a fountain of love that won’t run dry? You’ll find one on a stone-cropped hill outside Jerusalem’s walls where Jesus hangs, cross-nailed and thorn-crowned.

When you feel unloved, ascend this mount and meditate long and hard on heaven’s love for you. Both eyes beaten shut, shoulders as raw as ground beef, lips bloody and split. Fists of hair yanked from his beard. Gasps of air escaping his lungs. As you peer into the crimsoned face of heaven’s only Son, remember this: “God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8 NLT).

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In his letter to Ephesians Paul urged, “May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love; and may you be able to feel and understand, as all God’s children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high his love really is; and to experience this love for yourselves,…” (Ephesians 3:17-18).

Let God love you. Let Him love you dearly, let Him love you daily, let Him love you deeply. Grab hold of His love and never let go. “God is love” (1 John 4:16). One word into the passage reveals the supreme surprise of God’s love—it has nothing to do with you. Some people love you because of you. Not God – He loves you because He is He. He loves you because he decides to. Self-generated, uncaused, spontaneous. His constant-level love depends on his choice to give it.

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Make a list of God’s mistakes. Pretty short, huh? Now make a list of the times he has forgiven you for yours. Who on earth has such a record?  You can depend on him. “[He] is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Trust him, trust him. Join with Isaiah, who resolved, “I will trust in him and not be afraid” (Isaiah 12:2).

Psalm 37:23–24 says God is directing your steps. He delights in every detail of your life. Doesn’t matter who you are. Potbellied pig or prized purebred, God sees no difference. But he sees you. In fact, that’s his car pulling over to the side of the road. That’s God opening the door. And that’s you climbing into the passenger seat to see how he will write the next chapter in your story.

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Did you know that the smith in silversmith comes from the old English word smite? Silversmiths are accomplished smiters. So is God. A silversmith buffets the metal until he is finished with it. Some silversmiths, I’m told, keep polishing until they can see their face in the tool. When will God stop with you? When he sees his reflection in you. “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me” (Psalm 138:8).

The pounding you feel does not suggest God’s distance but proves his nearness. Trust his sovereignty. Hasn’t he earned your trust? Has he ever spoken a word that proved to be false? Given a promise that proved to be a lie? Look up reliability in heaven’s dictionary and read its one-word definition: God. “If we are faithless he always remains faithful. He cannot deny his own nature” (2 Timothy 2:13).

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“If you make the Most High your shelter, no evil will conquer you” (Psalm 91:9-10). Your serenity matters to heaven, and God guarantees he will guard you. Separating you from evil is God, your guardian. “He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings” (Psalm 91:4).

From how many winds is God protecting you? His wing, at this moment, shields you. A burglar en route to your house has a flat tire, a drunk driver runs out of gas before your car passes his. If God is our guardian, you ask, why do bad things happen to us? Well you and God may have different definitions for the word bad. He’s not only read your story, he wrote it. His perspective is different, and his purpose is clear. God uses struggles to toughen our skin. What matters most is this: you will never face a challenge without receiving His help.

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