Words From Max Lucado - Library 3.0 - I Am A Ruby Network!2024-03-29T08:59:36Zhttps://iamaruby.com/forum/topics/feed/category/Words+From+Max+LucadoA Daily Word, By Dr. Ed Young-1-13-12...https://iamaruby.com/forum/topics/a-daily-word-by-dr-ed-young-1-13-122012-01-13T13:07:19.000Z2012-01-13T13:07:19.000ZI Am A Ruby Networkhttps://iamaruby.com/members/iamarubynet<div><p><img src="http://media.salemwebnetwork.com/Crosswalk/SpirLife_DevoHeaders/Devo_header_WinningWalk.jpg" alt="Devo_header_WinningWalk.jpg" /></p>
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<p><strong>ACCEPTABLE LOSS?</strong> <br /><br />"Acceptable loss" is a military term many are familiar with. The idea is that there are some losses in any military endeavor, but that every mission has a level of loss that is acceptable, based on the risk undertaken and the goal to be achieved. Luke chapter 15 contains a trio of stories about people who have lost things. If you are a mathematician, you might hear these stories and consider the percentages. A man has a hundred sheep, he loses one. That's a one percent loss! That seems quite acceptable. A woman has ten coins and loses one—still only a ten percent loss, and really quite acceptable. A man has two sons, and loses one. A fifty percent loss, granted, but one that might be overcome in time.</p>
<p>But Jesus was not a mathematician or an accountant. He never considered percentages of "lost-ness." He considered people. And in these stories about searching for lost things, Jesus was saying that sinners are very, very valuable to Him. Sinners count with Jesus. There is no acceptable percentage of loss when it comes to the Son of God and sinners. He is not willing that even one "lost sheep" should perish. I wonder how different our world would be if you and I adopted Jesus' view of "acceptable loss?"<br /><br /><strong>MEMORY VERSE</strong> <br /><br /><strong>LUKE 15:8</strong><br /><em>Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not…search carefully until she finds it?</em><br /><br /><strong>READ THROUGH THE BIBLE</strong> <br /><a href="http://www.biblestudytools.com/search/?t=nas&q=ex+39:1-43">Exodus 39-40</a>; <a href="http://www.biblestudytools.com/search/?t=nas&q=ro+15:1-33">Romans 15</a> </p></div>MAX LUCADO-3-18-11https://iamaruby.com/forum/topics/max-lucado318112011-03-18T11:39:38.000Z2011-03-18T11:39:38.000ZI Am A Ruby Networkhttps://iamaruby.com/members/iamarubynet<div>Week of March 18
Dear Friend
by Max Lucado
Dear Friend,
I'm writing to say thanks. I wish I could thank you personally, but I don't know where you are. I wish I could call you, but I don't know your name. If I knew your appearance, I'd look for you, but your face is fuzzy in my memory. But I'll never forget what you did.
There you were, leaning against your pickup in the West Texas oil field. An engineer of some sort. A supervisor on the job. Your khakis and clean shirt set you apart from us roustabouts. In the oil field pecking order, we were at the bottom. You were the boss. We were the workers. You read the blueprints. We dug the ditches. You inspected the pipe. We laid it. You ate with the bosses in the shed. We ate with each other in the shade.
Except that day.
I remember wondering why you did it.
We weren't much to look at. What wasn't sweaty was oily. Faces burnt from the sun; skin black from the grease. Didn't bother me, though. I was there only for the summer. A high-school boy earning good money laying pipe.
We weren't much to listen to, either. Our language was sandpaper coarse. After lunch, we'd light the cigarettes and begin the jokes. Someone always had a deck of cards with lacy-clad girls on the back. For thirty minutes in the heat of the day, the oil patch became Las Vegas—replete with foul language, dirty stories, blackjack, and barstools that doubled as lunch pails.
In the middle of such a game, you approached us. I thought you had a job for us that couldn't wait another few minutes. Like the others, I groaned when I saw you coming.
You were nervous. You shifted your weight from one leg to the other as you began to speak.
"Uh, fellows," you started.
We turned and looked up at you.
"I, uh, I just wanted, uh, to invite … "
You were way out of your comfort zone. I had no idea what you might be about to say, but I knew that it had nothing to do with work.
"I just wanted to tell you that, uh, our church is having a service tonight and, uh … "
"What?" I couldn't believe it. "He's talking church? Out here? With us?"
"I wanted to invite any of you to come along."
Silence. Screaming silence.
Several guys stared at the dirt. A few shot glances at the others. Snickers rose just inches from the surface.
"Well, that's it. Uh, if any of you want to go … uh, let me know."
After you turned and left, we turned and laughed. We called you "reverend," "preacher," and "the pope." We poked fun at each other, daring one another to go. You became the butt of the day's jokes.
I'm sure you knew that. I'm sure you went back to your truck knowing the only good you'd done was to make a good fool out of yourself. If that's what you thought, then you were wrong.
That's the reason for this letter.
Some five years later, a college sophomore was struggling with a decision. He had drifted from the faith given to him by his parents. He wanted to come back. He wanted to come home. But the price was high. His friends might laugh. His habits would have to change. His reputation would have to be overcome.
Could he do it? Did he have the courage?
That's when I thought of you. As I sat in my dorm room late one night, looking for the guts to do what I knew was right, I thought of you.
I thought of how your love for God had been greater than your love for your reputation.
I thought of how your obedience had been greater than your common sense.
I remembered how you had cared more about making disciples than about making a good first impression. And when I thought of you, your memory became my motivation.
So I came home.
I've told your story dozens of times to thousands of people. Each time the reaction is the same: The audience becomes a sea of smiles, and heads bob in understanding. Some smile because they think of the "clean-shirted engineers" in their lives. They remember the neighbor who brought the cake, the aunt who wrote the letter, the teacher who listened …
Others smile because they have done what you did. And they, too, wonder if their "lunchtime loyalty" was worth the effort.
You wondered that. What you did that day wasn't much. And I'm sure you walked away that day thinking that your efforts had been wasted.
They weren't.
So I'm writing to say thanks. Thanks for the example. Thanks for the courage. Thanks for giving your lunch to God. He did something with it; it became the Bread of Life for me.
Gratefully,
Max
P.S. If by some remarkable coincidence you read this and remember that day, please give me a call. I owe you lunch.
From In the Eye of the Storm
Copyright (Thomas Nelson, 1997) Max Lucado
Online Bible Study Tools
Read through the Bible and
other Bible study resources:
biblestudy.crosswalk.com</div>WORDS FROM MAX LUCADO-2-14-11-(THE BLACKSMITH SHOP)https://iamaruby.com/forum/topics/words-from-max-lucado21411the2011-02-14T14:07:40.000Z2011-02-14T14:07:40.000ZI Am A Ruby Networkhttps://iamaruby.com/members/iamarubynet<div>The Blacksmith's Shop
by Max Lucado
In the shop of a blacksmith, there are three types of tools. There are tools on the junk pile:
outdated, broken, dull, rusty.
They sit in the cobwebbed corner, useless to their master, oblivious to their calling.
There are tools on the anvil:
melted down, molten hot, moldable, changeable.
They lie on the anvil, being shaped by their master, accepting their calling.
There are tools of usefulness:
sharpened, primed, defined, mobile.
They lie ready in the blacksmith’s tool chest, available to their master, fulfilling their calling.
Some people lie useless:
lives broken, talents wasting, fires quenched, dreams dashed.
They are tossed in with the scrap iron, in desperate need of repair, with no notion of purpose.
Others lie on the anvil:
hearts open, hungry to change, wounds healing, visions clearing.
They welcome the painful pounding of the blacksmith’s hammer, longing to be rebuilt, begging to be called.
Others lie in their Master’s hands:
well tuned, uncompromising, polished, productive.
They respond to their Master’s forearm, demanding nothing, surrendering all.
We are all somewhere in the blacksmith’s shop. We are either on the scrap pile, in the Master’s hands on the anvil, or in the tool chest. (Some of us have been in all three.)
From the shelves to the workbench, from the water to the fire…I’m sure that somewhere you will see yourself.
Paul spoke of becoming “an instrument for noble purposes.” And what a becoming it is! The rubbish pile of broken tools, the anvil of recasting, the hands of the Master- it’s a simultaneously joyful and painful voyage.
And for you who make the journey—who leave the heap and enter the fire, dare to be pounded on God’s anvil, and doggedly seek to discover your own purpose—take courage, for you await the privilege of being called “God’s chosen instruments.”</div>WORDS FROM MAX LUCADO(JESUS TOUCHED THE UNTOUCHABLES)https://iamaruby.com/forum/topics/words-from-max-lucado2811jesus2011-02-08T12:02:07.000Z2011-02-08T12:02:07.000ZI Am A Ruby Networkhttps://iamaruby.com/members/iamarubynet<div><p>Jesus Touched the Untouchables<br /> by Max Lucado<br /><br /> When Jesus came down from the hill, great crowds followed him. Then a man with a skin disease came to Jesus. The man bowed down before him and said, “Lord, you can heal me if you will.”<br /> Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man and said, “I will. Be healed!” And immediately the man was healed from his disease.<br /> Matthew 8:1-3<br /><br /> I wonder… about the man who felt Jesus’ compassionate touch. He makes one appearance, has one request, and receives one touch. But that one touch changed his life forever….<br /><br /> I wonder about this man because in New Testament times leprosy was the most dreaded disease. The condition rendered the body a mass of ulcers and decay. Fingers would curl and gnarl. Blotches of skin would discolor and stink. Certain types of leprosy would numb nerve endings, leading to a loss of fingers, toes, even a whole foot or hand. Leprosy was death by inches.<br /><br /> The social consequences were as severe as the physical. Considered contagious, the leper was quarantined, banished to a leper colony.<br /><br /> In Scripture the leper is symbolic of the ultimate outcast: infected by a condition he did not seek, rejected by those he knew, avoided by people he did not know, condemned to a future he could not bear…<br /><br /> The touch did not heal the disease, you know. Matthew is careful to mention that it was the pronouncement and not the touch of Christ that cured the condition. “Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man and said, ‘I will. Be healed!’ And immediately the man was healed from his disease” (Matt. 8:3).<br /><br /> The infection was banished by a word from Jesus.<br /><br /> The loneliness, however, was treated by a touch from Jesus.<br /><br /> Jesus touched the untouchables of the world.<br /><br /> From<br /> His Name is Jesus</p></div>WORDS FROM MAX LUCADO-2-4-11-(THE MEEK WERE KNEELING)https://iamaruby.com/forum/topics/words-from-max-lucado2411the2011-02-04T12:42:30.000Z2011-02-04T12:42:30.000ZI Am A Ruby Networkhttps://iamaruby.com/members/iamarubynet<div>The Meek Were Kneeling
by Max Lucado
“Blessed are the meek,” Jesus explained. Blessed are the available.
That’s why the announcement went first to the shepherds. They didn’t ask God if he was sure he knew what he was doing. Had the angel gone to the theologians, they would have first consulted their commentaries. Had he gone to the elite, they would have looked around to see if anyone was watching. Had he gone to the successful, they would have first looked at their calendars.
So he went to the shepherds. Men who didn’t have a reputation to protect or an ax to grind or a ladder to climb. Men who didn’t know enough to tell God that angels don’t sing to sheep and that messiahs aren’t found wrapped in rags and sleeping in a feed trough.
A small cathedral outside Bethlehem marks the supposed birthplace of Jesus. Behind a high altar in the church is a cave, a little cavern lit by silver lamps.
You can enter the main edifice and admire the ancient church. You can also enter the quiet cave where a star embedded in the floor recognizes the birth of the King. There is one stipulation, however. You have to stoop. The door is so low you can’t go in standing up.
The same is true of the Christ. You can see the world standing tall, but to witness the Savior, you have to get on your knees.
So …
while the theologians were sleeping
and the elite were dreaming
and the successful were snoring,
the meek were kneeling.
They were kneeling before the One only the meek will see. They were kneeling in front of Jesus.
From The Applause of Heaven
Copyright 1990, Max Lucado</div>WORDS FROM MAX LUCADO-1-31-11-(THE WEIGHT OF GLORY)https://iamaruby.com/forum/topics/words-from-max-lucado13111the2011-01-31T12:57:29.000Z2011-01-31T12:57:29.000ZI Am A Ruby Networkhttps://iamaruby.com/members/iamarubynet<div>The Weight of Glory
by Max Lucado
“Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” (2 Corinthians 4:17 NKJV)
The words “weight of glory” conjure up images of the ancient pan scale. Remember the blindfolded lady of justice? She holds a pan scale- two pans, one on either side of the needle. The weight of a purchase would be determined by placing weights on one side and the purchase on the other.
God does the same with your struggles. On one side he stacks all your burdens. Famines. Firings. Parents who forgot you. Bosses who ignored you. Bad breaks, bad health, bad days. Stack them up, and watch one side of the pan scale plummet.
Now witness God’s response. Does he remove them? Eliminate the burdens? No, rather than take them, he offsets them. He places an eternal weight of glory on the other side. Endless joy. Measureless peace. An eternity of him. Watch what happens as he sets eternity on your scale.
Everything changes! The burdens lift. The heavy becomes light when weighed against eternity. If life is “just a moment,” can’t we endure any challenge for a moment?
We can be sick for just a moment.
We can be lonely for just a moment.
We can be persecuted for just a moment.
We can struggle for just a moment.
Can’t we?
Can’t we wait for our peace? It’s not about us anyway. And it’s certainly now about now</div>WORDS FROM MAX LUCADO-1-28-11-(DO YOU TRUST HIM?)https://iamaruby.com/forum/topics/words-from-max-lucado12811do2011-01-28T18:44:32.000Z2011-01-28T18:44:32.000ZI Am A Ruby Networkhttps://iamaruby.com/members/iamarubynet<div>Week of January 28
Do You Trust Him?
by Max Lucado
I know God knows what's best.
I know I don't.
I know he cares.
Such words come easily when the water is calm. But when you're looking at a wrecked car or a suspicious-looking mole, when war breaks out or thieves break in, do you trust him?
Scripture, from Old Testament to New, from prophets to poets to preachers, renders one unanimous chorus: God directs the affairs of humanity. No leaf falls without God's knowledge. No dolphin gives birth without his permission. No wave crashes on the shore apart from his calculation. God has never been surprised. Not once.
I am the one who creates the light and makes the darkness. I am the one who sends good times and bad times. I, the Lord, am the one who does these things. (Isa. 45:7)
Some find the thought impossible to accept. One dear woman did. After I shared these ideas in a public setting, she asked to speak with me. Husband at her side, she related the story of her horrible childhood. First abused, then abandoned by her father. Unimaginable and undeserved hurts scar her early memories. Through tear-filled eyes she asked, "Do you mean to tell me God was watching the whole time?"
The question vibrated in the room. I shifted in my chair and answered, "Yes, he was. I don't know why he allowed your abuse, but I do know this. He loves you and hurts with you." She didn't like the answer. But dare we say anything else? Dare we suggest that God dozed off? Abandoned his post? That heaven sees but can't act? That our Father is kind but not strong, or strong but doesn't care?
I wish she could have spoken to Joseph. His brothers abused him, selling him into slavery. Was God watching? Yes. And our sovereign God used their rebellious hearts to save a nation from famine and the family of the Messiah from extinction. As Joseph told them, "God turned into good what you meant for evil" (Gen. 50:20).
Best of all would have been a conversation with Jesus himself. He begged God for a different itinerary: a crossless death. From Gethsemane's garden Christ pleaded for a Plan B. Redemption with no nails. " 'Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine.' Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him" (Luke 22:42-43).
Did God hear the prayer of his Son? Enough to send an angel. Did God spare his Son from death? No. The glory of God outranked the comfort of Christ. So Christ suffered, and God's grace was displayed and deployed.
Are you called to endure a Gethsemane season? Have you "been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake" (Phil. 1:29 NASB)?
If so, then come thirsty and drink deeply from his lordship. He authors all itineraries. He knows what is best. No struggle will come your way apart from his purpose, presence, and permission. What encouragement this brings! You are never the victim of nature or the prey of fate. Chance is eliminated. You are more than a weather vane whipped about by the winds of fortune. Would God truly abandon you to the whims of drug-crazed thieves, greedy corporate raiders, or evil leaders? Perish the thought!
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they will not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched,
Nor will the flame burn you.
For I am the Lord your God.
(Isa. 43:2-3 NASB)
We live beneath the protective palm of a sovereign King who superintends every circumstance of our lives and delights in doing us good.
Nothing comes your way that has not first passed through the filter of his love.
Learn well the song of sovereignty: I know God knows what's best.Pray humbly the prayer of trust: "I trust your lordship. I belong to you. Nothing comes to me that hasn't passed through you."
A word of caution: the doctrine of sovereignty challenges us. Study it gradually. Don't share it capriciously. When someone you love faces adversity, don't insensitively declare, "God is in control." A cavalier tone can eclipse the right truth. Be careful.
And be encouraged. God's ways are always right. They may not make sense to us. They may be mysterious, inexplicable, difficult, and even painful. But they are right. "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them" (Rom. 8:28).</div>WORDS FROM MAX LUCADO-1-25-11-(TRAVELING LIGHT)https://iamaruby.com/forum/topics/words-from-max2011-01-25T12:41:38.000Z2011-01-25T12:41:38.000ZI Am A Ruby Networkhttps://iamaruby.com/members/iamarubynet<div>Traveling Light
by Max Lucado
“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28 NLT).
Rest from the burden of a small god. Why? Because I have found the Lord.
Rest from doing things my way. Why? Because the Lord is my Shepherd.
Rest from endless wants. Why? Because I shall not want.
Rest from weariness. Why? Because he makes me to lie down.
Rest from worry. Why? Because he leads me.
Rest from hopelessness. Why? Because he restores my soul.
Rest from guilt. Why? Because he leads me in the paths of righteousness.
Rest from arrogance. Why? Because of his name’s sake.
Rest from the valley of death. Why? Because he walks me through it.
Rest from the shadow of grief. Why? Because he guides me.
Rest from fear. Why? Because his presence comforts me.
Rest from loneliness. Why? Because he is with me.
Rest from shame. Why? Because he has prepared a place for me in the presence of my enemies.
Rest from my disappointments. Why? Because he anoints me.
Rest from envy. Why? Because my cup overflows.
Rest from doubt. Why? Because he follows me.
Rest from homesickness. Why? Because I will dwell in the house of my Lord forever.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------</div>WORDS FROM MAX LUCADO-1-21-11-(WITH HEART HEADED HOME)https://iamaruby.com/forum/topics/words-from-max-lucado12111with2011-01-21T12:48:16.000Z2011-01-21T12:48:16.000ZI Am A Ruby Networkhttps://iamaruby.com/members/iamarubynet<div>With Heart Headed Home
by Max Lucado
Search the faces of the Cap Haitian orphanage for Carinette. She's been adopted.
Her adoptive parents are friends of mine. They brought her pictures, a teddy bear, granola bars, and cookies. Carinette shared the goodies and asked the director to guard her bear, but she keeps the pictures. They remind her of her home-to-be. Within a month, two at the most, she'll be there. She knows the day is coming. Every opening of the gate jumps her heart. Any day now her father will appear. He promised he'd be back. He came once to claim her. He'll come again to carry her home.
Till then she lives with a heart headed home.
Shouldn't we all? Carinette's situation mirrors ours. Our Father paid us a visit too. Have we not been claimed? Adopted? "So you should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God's very own children, adopted into his family calling him 'Father, dear Father' " (Rom. 8:15).
God searched you out. Before you knew you needed adopting, he'd already filed the papers and selected the wallpaper for your room. "For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn, with many brothers and sisters" (Rom. 8:29).
Abandon you to a fatherless world? No way. Those privy to God's family Bible can read your name. He wrote it there. What's more, he covered the adoption fees. Neither you nor Carinette can pay your way out of the orphanage, so "God sent [Christ] to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children" (Gal. 4:5).
Adopted, but not transported. We have a new family, but not our heavenly house. We know our Father's name, but we haven't seen his face. He has claimed us, but has yet to come for us.
So here we are. Caught between what is and what will be. No longer orphans, but not yet home. What do we do in the meantime? Indeed, it can be just that—a mean time. Time made mean with chemotherapy, drivers driving with more beer than brains in their bodies, and backstabbers who make life on earth feel like a time-share in Afghanistan. How do we live in the meantime? How do we keep our hearts headed home? Paul weighs in with some suggestions.
Paul calls the Holy Spirit a foretaste. "We have the Holy Spirit...as a foretaste of future glory" (Romans 8: 23). No person with a healthy appetite needs a definition for that word. Even as I draft this chapter, my mind drifts toward a few foretastes. Within an hour I'll be in Denalyn's kitchen sniffing the dinner trimmings like a Labrador sniffing for wild game. When she's not looking, I'll snatch a foretaste. Just a bite of turkey, a spoon of chili, a corner of bread...predinner snacks stir appetites for the table.
Samplings from heaven's kitchen do likewise. There are moments, perhaps far too few, when time evaporates and joy modulates and heaven hands you an hors d'oeuvre.
• Your newborn has passed from restlessness to rest. Beneath the amber light of a midnight moon, you trace a soft finger across tiny, sleeping eyes and wonder, God gave you to me? A prelibation from heaven's winery.
• You're lost in the work you love to do, were made to do. As you step back from the moist canvas or hoed garden or rebuilt V-eight engine, satisfaction flows within like a gulp of cool water, and the angel asks, "Another apéritif?"
• The lyrics to the hymn say what you couldn't but wanted to, and for a moment, a splendid moment, there are no wars, wounds, or tax returns. Just you, God, and a silent assurance that everything is right with the world.
Rather than dismiss or disregard such moments as good luck, relish them. They can attune you to heaven. So can tough ones.
"Although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, [we] also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us" (v. 23).
Let your bursitis-plagued body remind you of your eternal one; let acid-inducing days prompt thoughts of unending peace. Are you falsely accused? Acquainted with abuse? Mudslinging is a part of this life, but not the next. Rather than begrudge life's troubles, listen to them.
"He will wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain. All of that has gone forever" (Rev. 21:4 TLB)
Write checks of hope on this promise. Do not bemoan passing time; applaud it. The more you drink from God's well, the more you urge the clock to tick. Every bump of the second hand brings you closer to a completed adoption.
Blessings and burdens. Both can alarm-clock us out of slumber. Gifts stir homeward longings. So do struggles. Every homeless day carries us closer to the day our Father will come.</div>UP WORDS WITH MAX LUCADO-1-19-11-(BEGIN JUST BEGIN)https://iamaruby.com/forum/topics/up-words-with-max-32011-01-19T13:32:15.000Z2011-01-19T13:32:15.000ZI Am A Ruby Networkhttps://iamaruby.com/members/iamarubynet<div>Begin. Just Begin!
by Max Lucado
What difference will my work make?
God’s answer: “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin” (Zech. 4:10).
Begin. Just Begin! What seems small to you might be huge to someone else. Just ask Bohn Fawkes. During World War II, he piloted a B-17. On one mission he sustained flak from Nazi antiaircraft guns. Even though his gas tanks were hit, the plane did not explode, and Fawkes was able to land the plane.
On the morning following the raid, Fawkes asked his crew chief for the German shell. He wanted to keep a souvenir of his incredible good fortune. The crew chief explained that not just one but eleven shells had been found in the gas tanks, none of which exploded.
Technicians opened the missiles and found them void of explosive charge. They were clean and harmless and with one exception, empty. The exception contained a carefully rolled piece of paper. On it a message had been scrawled in the Czech language. Translated, the note read: “This is all we can do for you now.”
A courageous assembly-line worker was disarming bombs and scribbled the note. He couldn’t end the war, but he could save one plane. He couldn’t do everything, but he could do something. So he did it.
God does big things with small deeds.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------</div>UP WORDS WITH MAX LUCADO-1-18-11-(14 WAYS TO OUTLIVE YOUR LIFE)https://iamaruby.com/forum/topics/up-words-with-max-22011-01-18T13:10:40.000Z2011-01-18T13:10:40.000ZI Am A Ruby Networkhttps://iamaruby.com/members/iamarubynet<div>The following is a report on the practical applications of Max Lucado's recent book, Outlive Your Life: You Were Made to Make a Difference, (Thomas Nelson, 2010).
What do you want to accomplish before you die? If you invite God to use your life, the world will be a better place because you lived. Saying "yes" to God when He wants to do great works through you will create a positive legacy that will outlive your earthly life. Here's how you can outlive your life by serving God while you're still here:
Ask God to empower you. Be confident that when God calls you to serve, He will help you do whatever He calls you to do. Don't worry about whether or not you think you're qualified. God doesn't call only the qualified; He qualifies the called. Pray for the ability to recognize the needs around you that God wants you to see. Ask God to give you the wisdom to discern which needs you should help meet, and the strength to faithfully respond and carry out each task.
Get out of your shell. Don't try to isolate yourself from the world's problems or avoid other people's suffering. Remember that God took the initiative to reach out to you with love and salvation. Ask God to give you the courage to face the pain in this fallen world head on, and the compassion to move you to do something about it. Consider the types of problems that stir the most compassion within you, as well as the types of people with whom you most enjoy working. Then, using that information as clues, explore how you can best get started serving others in volunteer work.
Become a good ambassador. Realize that, as a Christian, you represent Jesus to the people you serve who don't yet have saving relationships with Him. So keep that in mind when you're serving. Always give your best effort to whatever service you undertake, so you can represent Jesus well and inspire others to draw closer to Him.
Work together with other believers. Jesus works powerfully when those who follow Him are working together in community with each other. While no one person can do everything, everyone can do something. So join other believers at your church and elsewhere to help change the world. Intercede in prayer together for people who are suffering. Form a team to tackle service projects in your local area together
Offer hospitality to people. A powerful way to let people know that they matter to you and God is by offering them hospitality. Open your heart and your home to people, inviting them regularly to come over for meals and conversation that will draw them closer to God.
Do small things and trust God to do the big things. Whenever you see a need you sense God leading you to meet or a hurt God urges you to help heal, reach out to do so. Trust in the fact that as you remain faithful to tackle lots of small assignments each day, God will use your efforts to accomplish something big - drawing people into relationships with Him.
Prepare for persecution and resist it when it comes. As a Christian in this fallen world, you can expect to encounter persecution. It may come in many forms, from people who pressure you to abandon your convictions to those who mock you for what you believe. Pray for the boldness you need to stand strong in your faith when persecution comes your way. Spend plenty of time with Jesus in prayer, and read God's promises in the Bible often to strengthen your faith so you can remain focused on what matters most when you're enduring persecution.
Do your good work quietly. Whenever you help someone through good deeds like volunteer work or financial contributions, be sure to do so quietly. Calling attention to your good deeds shifts the spotlight away from Jesus to you. Check your motives before you help others, and ask God to purify them.
Stand up for the poor. Build relationships with poor people. Pray for them often. Help them in whatever practical ways God leads you to do so, such as starting an inner-city Bible study or building houses in towns where low-income housing has been destroyed by hurricanes.
Be humble. Remember that you're not doing anything for God that He couldn't do alone, but because He loves you, He invites you to join Him in His work. Never boast about the way you're serving God and other people. Keep in mind that even Jesus was humble as He served.
Break down walls that separate God's children from each other. God accepts all people and He wants all of the people He has made to accept each other. Also, fellow Christians are part of your same spiritual family. So don't label people who are different from you. Instead, talk with them, listen to them, and come to understand and respect their points of view while loving them unconditionally.
Don't give up on anyone. Even when people seem to be hopeless cases who'll never change unhealthy behavior or decide to trust Jesus, God is still at work in their lives. So never write anyone off. View people as opportunities, not problems. Keep praying for people and giving them fresh chances to improve their lives.
Pray first and most. Pray first before starting a new service project. Pray the most you possibly can about whatever concerns are on your mind; God is always listening and ready to answer your prayers.
Recognize Jesus' reflection in needy people. Jesus has said that when you love people in need, you're really loving Him, as well. Ask Him to make you aware of His reflection in the people you encounter, and to give you the motivation you need to serve them with love.</div>UP WORDS WITH MAX LUCADO-1-14-11-(THE BRAND NEW YOU)https://iamaruby.com/forum/topics/up-words-with-max-12011-01-14T12:52:33.000Z2011-01-14T12:52:33.000ZI Am A Ruby Networkhttps://iamaruby.com/members/iamarubynet<div>The Brand-New You-
by Max Lucado-
What'all this talk about a new body? Do we change bodies? Is the new one different than this one? Will I recognize anyone? Will anyone recognize me?
"He will take these dying bodies of ours and change them into glorious bodies like his own" (Phil. 3:21 TLB).
Your body will be changed. You will not receive a different body; you will receive a renewed body. Just as God can make an oak out of a kernel or a tulip out of a bulb, he makes a "new" body out of the old one. A body without corruption. A body without weakness. A body without dishonor. A body identical to the body of Jesus.
Would you like a sneak preview of your new body? We have one by looking at the resurrected body of our Lord. After his resurrection, Jesus spent forty days in the presence of people. The resurrected Christ was not in a disembodied, purely spiritual state. On the contrary, he had a body—a touchable, visible body.
Jesus didn't come as a mist or a wind or a ghostly specter. He came in a body. A body that maintained a substantial connection with the body he originally had. A body that had flesh and bones. Real enough to walk on the road to Emmaus, real enough to appear in the form of a gardener, real enough to eat breakfast with the disciples at Galilee. Jesus had a real body. (Luke 24:13-35; John 20:10-18; John 21:12-14.)
At the same time, this body was not a clone of his earthly body. Mark tells us that Jesus "appeared in another form" (Mark 16:12 RSV). While he was the same, he was different. So different that Mary Magdalene, his disciples on the sea, and his disciples on the path to Emmaus did not recognize him. Though he invited Thomas to touch his body, he passed through a closed door to be in Thomas's presence. (John 20:14; John 21:1-4; Luke 24:16; John 20:26)
So what do we know about the resurrected body of Jesus? It was unlike any the world had ever seen.
What do we know about our resurrected bodies? They will be unlike any we have ever imagined.
Will we look so different that we aren't instantly recognized? Perhaps. (We may need nametags.) Will we be walking through walls? Chances are we'll be doing much more.
Will we still bear the scars from the pain of life? The marks of war. The disfigurements of disease. The wounds of violence. Will these remain on our bodies? That is a very good question. Jesus, at least for forty days, kept his. Will we keep ours? On this issue, we have only opinions, but my opinion is that we won't. Peter tells us that "by his wounds you have been healed" (1 Pet. 2:24 NIV). In heaven's accounting, only one wound is worthy to be remembered. And that is the wound of Jesus. Our wounds will be no more.
God is going to renew your body and make it like his. What difference should this make in the way you live?
Your body, in some form, will last forever. Respect it.
You will live forever in this body. It will be different, mind you. What is now crooked will be straightened. What is now faulty will be fixed. Your body will be different, but you won't have a different body. You will have this one. Does that change the view you have of it? I hope so.
Your pain will NOT last forever. Believe it.
Are your joints arthritic? They won't be in heaven.
Is your heart weak? It will be strong in heaven.
Has cancer corrupted your system? There is no cancer in heaven.
Are your thoughts disjointed? Your memory failing? Your new body will have a new mind.
Does this body seem closer to death than ever before? It should. It is. And unless Christ comes first, your body will be buried. Like a seed is placed in the ground, so your body will be placed in a tomb. And for a season, your soul will be in heaven while your body is in the grave. But the seed buried in the earth will blossom in heaven. Your soul and body will reunite, and you will be like Jesus.</div>UP WORDS WITH MAX LUCADO-1-12-11(REDISCOVERING AMAZEMENT!!)https://iamaruby.com/forum/topics/up-words-with-max2011-01-12T14:43:57.000Z2011-01-12T14:43:57.000ZI Am A Ruby Networkhttps://iamaruby.com/members/iamarubynet<div>Rediscovering Amazement
by Max Lucado
"I am with you always…"
Matthew 28:20
From where I write I can see seven miracles.
White-crested waves slap the beach with rhythmic regularity. One after the other the rising swells of salt water gain momentum, humping, rising, then standing to salute the beach before crashing onto the sand. How many billions of times has this simple mystery repeated itself since time began?
In the distance lies a miracle of colors—twins of blue. The ocean-blue of the Atlantic encounters the pale blue of the sky, separated only by the horizon, stretched like a taut wire between two poles.
Also within my eyesight are the two bookends of life. A young mother pushes a baby in a carriage, both recent participants with God in the miracle of birth. They pass a snowy-haired, stooped old gentleman seated on a bench, a victim of life's thief—age. (I wonder if he is aware of the curtain closing on his life.)
Behind them are three boys kicking a soccer ball on the beach. With effortless skill they coordinate countless muscles and reflexes, engage and disengage perfectly designed joints … all to do one task—move a ball in the sand.
Miracles. Divine miracles.
These are miracles because they are mysteries. Scientifically explainable? Yes. Reproducible? To a degree.
But still they are mysteries. Events that stretch beyond our understanding and find their origins in another realm. They are every bit as divine as divided seas, walking cripples, and empty tombs.
And they are as much a reminder of God's presence as were the walking lame, fleeing demons, and silenced storms. They are miracles. They are signs. They are testimonies. They are instantaneous incarnations. They remind us of the same truth: The unseen is now visible. The distant has drawn near. His Majesty has come to be seen. And he is in the most common of earth's corners.
In fact, it is the normality not the uniqueness of God's miracles that causes them to be so staggering. Rather than shocking the globe with an occasional demonstration of deity, God has opted to display his power daily. Proverbially. Pounding waves. Prism-cast colors. Birth, death, life. We are surrounded by miracles. God is throwing testimonies at us like fireworks, each one exploding, "God is! God is!"
The psalmist marveled at such holy handiwork. "Where can I go from your Spirit?" he questioned with delight. "Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there." (Psalm 139:7-8)
We wonder, with so many miraculous testimonies around us, how we could escape God. But somehow we do. We live in an art gallery of divine creativity and yet are content to gaze only at the carpet.
Or what is pathetically worse, we demand more. More signs. More proof. More hat tricks. As if God were some vaudeville magician we could summon for a dollar.
How have we grown so deaf? How have we grown so immune to awesomeness? Why are we so reluctant to be staggered or thunderstruck?
Perhaps the frequency of the miracles blinds us to their beauty. After all, what spice is there in a springtime or a tree blossom? Don't the seasons come every year? Aren't there countless seashells just like this one?
Bored, we say Ho-hum and replace the remarkable with the regular, the unbelievable with the anticipated. Science and statistics wave their unmagic wand across the face of life, squelching the oohs and aahs and replacing them with formulas and figures.
Would you like to see Jesus? Do you dare be an eyewitness of His Majesty? Then rediscover amazement.
The next time you hear a baby laugh or see an ocean wave, take note. Pause and listen as His Majesty whispers ever so gently, "I'm here."</div>WORDS OF MAX LUCADO-1-10-11(MY BODY IS ABOUT HIM)-OMG YOU SHOUL READ THIS IT IS SO GOOD-IT BLESS MY LIFE I KNOWIT WILL BLESS YOURS)https://iamaruby.com/forum/topics/words-of-max-lucado11011my2011-01-10T20:44:40.000Z2011-01-10T20:44:40.000ZI Am A Ruby Networkhttps://iamaruby.com/members/iamarubynet<div>My Body is About Him!!
by Max Lucado!!!
"Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you?" (1 Corinthians 6:19 NLT). Paul wrote these words to counter the Corinthian sex obsession. "Run away from sexual sin!" reads the prior sentence. "No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body." (v.18 NLT).
What a salmon scripture! No message swims more up-stream than this one. You know the sexual anthem of our day: "I'll do what I want. It's my body." God's firm response? "No, it's not. It's mine."
Be quick to understand, God is not antisex. Dismiss any notion that God is antiaffection and anti-intercourse. After all, he developed the whole package. Sex was his idea. From his perspective, sex is nothing short of holy.
He views sexual intimacy the way I view our family Bible. Passed down from my father's side, the volume is one hundred years old and twelve inches thick. Replete with lithographs, scribblings, and a family tree, it is, in my estimation, beyond value. Hence, I use it carefully.
When I need a stepstool, I don't reach for the Bible. If the foot of my bed breaks, I don't use the family Bible as a prop. When we need old paper for wrapping, we don't rip a sheet out of this book. We reserve the heirloom for special times and keep it in a chosen place.
Regard sex the same way—as a holy gift to be opened in a special place at special times. The special place is marriage, and the time is with your spouse.
Casual sex, intimacy outside of marriage, pulls the Corinthian ploy. It pretends we can give the body and not affect the soul. We can't. We humans are so intricately psychosomatic that whatever touches the soma impacts the phyche as well. The me-centered phrase "as long as no one gets hurt" sounds noble, but the truth is, we don't know who gets hurt. God-centered thinking rescues us from the sex we thought would make us happy. You may think your dalliances are harmless, and years may pass before the x-rays reveal the internal damage, but don't be fooled. Casual sex is a diet of chocolate—it tastes good for a while, but the imbalance can ruin you. Sex apart from God's plan wounds the soul.
Your body, God's temple. Respect it.</div>WORDS FROM MAX LUCADO-1-8-11(WOMEN IN WINTER)https://iamaruby.com/forum/topics/words-from-max-lucado1811women2011-01-08T19:11:19.000Z2011-01-08T19:11:19.000ZI Am A Ruby Networkhttps://iamaruby.com/members/iamarubynet<div>Women of Winter
by Max Lucado
I
THE MOURNERS DIDN'T CAUSE HIM TO STOP. Nor did the large crowd, or even the body of the dead man on the stretcher. It was the woman—the look on her face and the redness in her eyes. He knew immediately what was happening. It was her son who was being carried out, her only son. And if anyone knows the pain that comes from losing your only son, God does…. (Luke 7:11-17)
II
His plan was to catch a few winks while the boys went to town for food. And what better place to rest than a well at noon. No one comes for water at this hour. So he sat down, stretched his arms, and leaned against the wall of the well. But his nap was soon interrupted. He opened one eye just wide enough to see her trudging up the trail with a heavy jar on her shoulder. Behind her came half a dozen kids, each one looking like a different daddy… (John 4:1-42)
III
By the time she got to Jesus, she had nothing left. The doctors had taken her last dime. The diagnosis had stolen her last hope. And the hemorrhage had robbed her of her last drop of energy. She had no more money, no more friends, and no more options. With the end of her rope in one hand and a wing and a prayer in her heart, she shoved her way through the crowd….Luke 8:43-47)
Three women. One bereaved. One rejected. One dying. All alone.
Alone in the winter of life.
Though we don't know what they looked like, it would be fair to assume they had passed the peak of their desirability. The only heads that turned as they walked down the street were heads shaking with pity. One of the three was widowed and childless; another had lost her innocence six bedrooms back; and the third was broke, desperate, and dying.
Had Jesus ignored them, who would have noticed? In a culture where women were only a grade or two above farm animals no one would've thought any less had he walked silently past the funeral or closed his eyes and leaned back against the well or ignored the tug on his robe. After all, they were only women!
Worn,
wrinkled,
weary women.
Winter women.
Let them alone, Jesus, one could reason. Find someone with a bit of springtime about them.
By the world's standards these three could give nothing in return. They'd served their purpose: borne their children, fed their families, pleased their men. Now it was time to push them out into the cold until they died, making room for the young and spotless.
That's where Jesus found them. Shivering in the icy sleet of uselessness.
The raw winter of life.
Sound familiar? Sure it does. We have our own people of winter. People who for the lack of good looks or sufficient earning power wander around like porcupines at a picnic, unwanted and unapproachable.
Hard to believe?
Visit a high school sometime and look for the teenagers already feeling the chilly winds of rejection.
Or try Miami Beach. I don't mean the north beach where tourists pay $150 a day to get sunburned. I mean the south beach, a city deliberately built for the exhausted. Watch them shuffle aged feet down the sidewalk. They have come to their burial ground. They fill their nights with dreams of the granddaughter who might come next Christmas. And though the Gold Coast is warm, in their souls blow the winds of winter.
Or consider the unborn. Every twenty seconds one is taken from the warmth of the womb and cast into the cold lake of selfishness..
The paragraphs could go on and on. Paragraphs about quadriplegics, AIDS victims, or the terminally ill. Single parents. Alcoholics. Divorcées. The blind. All are social outcasts. Lepers, mutations. All, to one degree or another, shunned by the "normal world."
Society doesn't know what to do with them. And, sadly, even the Church doesn't know what to do with them. They often would find a warmer reception at the corner bar than in a Sunday school class.
But Jesus would find a place for them. He would find a place for them because he cares. And he cares unconditionally.
No, no one would have blamed Jesus for ignoring the three women. To have turned his head would have been much easier, less controversial, and not nearly as risky. But God, who made them, couldn't do that. And we, who follow him, can't either.</div>WORDS FROM MAX LUCADO-1-7-11(INTO THE WARM ARMS OF GOD!!!)https://iamaruby.com/forum/topics/words-from-max-lucado1711into2011-01-07T12:46:57.000Z2011-01-07T12:46:57.000ZI Am A Ruby Networkhttps://iamaruby.com/members/iamarubynet<div>Into the Warm Arms of God -
by Max Lucado-
What about my loved ones who have died? Where are they now? In the time between our death and Christ's return, what happens?
Scripture is surprisingly quiet about this phase of our lives. When speaking about the period between the death of the body and the resurrection of the body, the Bible doesn't shout; it just whispers. But at the confluence of these whispers, a firm voice is heard. This authoritative voice assures us that, at death, the Christian immediately enters into the presence of God and enjoys conscious fellowship with the Father and with those who have gone before.
Isn't this the promise that Jesus gave the thief on the cross? Earlier the thief had rebuked Jesus. Now he repents and asks for mercy. "Remember me when you come into your kingdom" (Luke 23:42). Likely, the thief is praying that he be remembered in some distant time in the future when the kingdom comes. He didn't expect an immediate answer. But he received one: "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise" (v. 43). The primary message of this passage is God's unlimited and surprising grace. But a secondary message is the immediate translation of the saved into the presence of God. The soul of the believer journeys home, while the body of the believer awaits the resurrection.
Some don't agree with this thought. They propose an intermediate period of purgation, a "holding tank" in which we are punished for our sins. This "purgatory" is the place where, for an undetermined length of time, we receive what our sins deserve so that we can rightly receive what God has prepared.
But two things trouble me about this teaching. For one, none of us can endure what our sins deserve. For another, Jesus already has. The Bible teaches that the wages of sin is death, not purgatory (see Rom. 6:23). The Bible also teaches that Jesus became our purgatory and took our punishment: "When he had brought about the purgation of sins, he took his seat at the right hand of Majesty on high" (Heb. 1:3 neb). There is no purgatory because purgatory occurred at Calvary.
Others feel that while the body is buried, the soul is asleep. They come by their conviction honestly enough. Seven different times in two different epistles, Paul uses the term sleep to refer to death (see 1 Cor. 11:30; 15:6, 18, 20; 1 Thess. 4:13-15). One could certainly deduce that the time spent between death and the return of Christ is spent sleeping. (And, if such is the case, who would complain? We could certainly use the rest!)
But there is one problem. The Bible refers to some who have already died, and they are anything but asleep. Their bodies are sleeping, but their souls are wide awake. Revelation 6:9-11 refers to the souls of martyrs who cry out for justice on the earth. Matthew 17:3 speaks of Moses and Elijah, who appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus. Even Samuel, who came back from the grave, was described wearing a robe and having the appearance of a god (1 Sam. 28:13-14). And what about the cloud of witnesses who surround us (Heb. 12:1)? Couldn't these be the heroes of our faith and the loved ones of our lives who have gone before?
I think so. When it is cold on earth, we can take comfort in knowing that our loved ones are in the warm arms of God. We don't like to say good-bye to those whom we love. It is right for us to weep, but there is no need for us to despair. They had pain here. They have no pain there. They struggled here. They have no struggles there. You and I might wonder why God took them home. But they don't. They understand. They are, at this very moment, at peace in the presence of God.</div>