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For All Its Peculiarities And Unevenness, The Bible Has A Simple Story. God Made Man. Man Rejected God. God Won't Give Up Until He Wins Him Back. God Will Whisper. He Will Shout. He Will Touch And Tug. He Will Take Away Our Burdens; He'll Even Take Away Our Blessings. If There Are A Thousand Steps Between Us And Him, He Will Take All But One. But He Will Leave The Final One For Us. The Choice Is Ours. Please Understand. His Goal Is Not To Make You Happy. His Goal Is To Make You His. His Goal Is Not To Get You What You Want; It Is To Get You What You Need.

-Max Lucado

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For All Its Peculiarities

Max Lucado

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For All Its Peculiarities And Unevenness, The Bible Has A Simple Story. God Made Man. Man Rejected God. God Won't Give Up Until He Wins Him Back. God Will Whisper. He Will Shout. He Will Touch And Tug. He Will Take Away Our Burdens; He'll Even Take Away Our Blessings. If There Are A Thousand Steps Between Us And Him, He Will Take All But One. But He Will Leave The Final One For Us. The Choice Is Ours. Please Understand. His Goal Is Not To Make You Happy. His Goal Is To Make You His. His Goal Is Not To Get You What You Want; It Is To Get You What You Need.

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Sovereignty Is The Term The Bible Uses To Describe God's Perfect Control And Management Of The Universe. He Preserves And Governs Every Element. He's Continually Involved With All Created Things, Directing Them To Act In A Way That Fulfills His Divine Purpose. That's Why The Most Stressed-out People Are Control Freaks. They Fail At The Quest They Most Pursue. The More They Try To Control The World, The More They Realize They Cannot. Life Becomes A Cycle Of Anxiety, Failure; Anxiety, Failure; Anxiety, Failure. We Can't Take Control, Because Control Is Not Ours To Take.

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Seek Beauty And Miss Love. But Seek Love And Find Both.

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Visions Of The Future

My Co-pastor Is Randy Frazee. Randy Is The Brightest Bulb In This Box. He Really Has A Feeling For What A Church Needs In Terms Of Maturity, So I Listen To Him.

How We Handle Our Tough Times Stays With Us For A Long Time.

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Outlook On Life

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I'm A Preacher First And A Writer Second, Although My Role Is Changing A Bit At The Church. I'm Going To Bring On A Co-teacher, But I'll Still Be A Pastor And A Writer.

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Unmet Expectations Are Tough When It's Your Wife Or Your Husband, But It's Really Tough When It's God. And Yet, It Can Be A Time Of Growth And A Time Of Faith, A Time Of Understanding Who God Is.

God Has Forgiven You; You'd Be Wise To Do The Same

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Forgiveness Is Choosing To See Your Offender With Different Eyes.

I Never Told Anybody I Wanted To Write, I Kind Of Fell Into It Backwards.

You Are Valuable Because You Exist. Not Because Of What You Do Or What You Have Done - But Simply Because You Are.

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Be Kind To Yourself. God Thinks You're Worth His Kindness. And He's A Good Judge Of Character.

I Have Learned That My Assignment Is To Write Books For People Who Do Not Like To Read Books. I Really Try To Connect With People Who Are Not Given To Spending A Lot Of Time With An Open Book. Pay Day To Me Is When Somebody Comes Up To Me And Says, "i Never Read Books But I Read Yours." I Have A Heart For That Person.

I Spent The Better Part Of A Week Trying To Figure Out How To Organize These Stacks Of 30 Years Of Conversations And Dialogues. I Finally Began Clustering Them In These Different Categories, And I Ended Up With The Ones You Listed.it's Interesting To Me The Kinds Of Questions I Haven't Been Called To Wrestle With. For Example, I Don't Know What This Says, But I'm Not Asked A Lot Of Political Questions.

Each One Of Us Should Lead A Life Stirring Enough To Start A Movement.

Jesus Said, "my Father Is The Gardener...he Trims And Cleans Every Branch That Produces Fruit So That It Will Produce Even More Fruit".

I Noticed People Would Read These Short Articles I Was Assigned To Write For Our Church Bulletin And They Would Say, Boy, Thats Good Stuff. I Got Letters From People Around The Country Saying, Thats Really Good. And I Thought, Is It Really?

Gratitude Lifts Our Eyes Off The Things We Lack So We Might See The Blessings We Possess.

It Was A Matter Of Going Back Through A Lot Of Sermons And Remembering The Questions And Conversations, Where These Ideas Came From. So The Book [max On Life] Is Really Kind Of A Second Chance To Answer These Questions.

I'm Convinced That The Christian Claim Is Really True, That This Is Just A Warm Up To The Big Event. That This Is Just The Appetizer To The Feast, And If We Can Plug Into That And Understand That This Part Of Our Story Is Just The Introduction, It Is Not Even The First Line Of The First Paragraph, It's Just The First Letter Or First Word. We Are Just Getting Started.

If Relationships Matter Most Then [at The End Of Our Lives], Shouldn't They Matter Most Now?

The Duty Of The Branch Is To Cling To The Vine.

Da Vinci Painted One Mona Lisa. Beethoven Composed One Fifth Symphony. And God Made One Version Of You.

It's Important To Preach Like There's A Broken Heart On Every Pew. That's Always Been A Phrase That Stuck With Me. Not Everybody Is Having A Tough Time, But You Can Bet Your Buck That There's A Good Tenth Of Your Church That's Going Through A Hard Season. There Really Is A Broken Heart On Every Pew.

When Jesus Died On The Cross, So Did Your Sin; When He Rose From The Dead, So Did Your Hope.

When Words Are Most Empty, Tears Are Most Apt.

We Might Question God's Actions, Decisions, Or Declarations. But We Can Never, Ever Question His Zany, Stunning, Unquenchable Affection.

We Are Presumptuous Not When We Marvel At His Grace, But When We Reject It.

When We Submit To God's Plans, We Can Trust Our Desires. Our Assignment Is Found At The Intersection Of God's Plan And Our Pleasures.

Do You Understand What God Has Done? He Has Deposited A Christ Seed In You. As It Grows You Will Change. It's Not That Sin Has No More Presence In Your Life, But Rather That Sin Has No More Power Over Your Life.

Ggrace Is God's Best Idea - It's His Decision To Ravage People By Love, To Rescue Passionately, And To Restore Justly.

Anger Is The Noise Of The Soul; The Unseen Irritant Of The Heart; The Relentless Invader Of Silence.

You Are Heaven's Halley's Comet; We Have One Shot At Seeing You Shine.

To Have A Pure Heart, We Must Submit All Thoughts To The Authority Of Christ. If We Are Willing To Do That, He Will Change Us To Be Like Him.

Pastoring The Flock With Words. I Love That. We Always Have A Prayer Time In The Middle Of Our Service. We Take About Eight Or Ten Minutes Before I Preach, After We've Sung, And Invite People To Come Forward For Prayer. That's A Tender Moment To Me. I Don't Preach Much In That, But I Like To Speak To The People.

The Next Time You Are Called To Suffer, Pay Attention. It May Be The Closest You'll Ever Get To God.

I Think There Is, Not In The Sense That I Enjoy It, But That It's An Important Question. It's The Question, "does The Presence Of Pain Mean God Doesn't Care? Does God Not Love Me Anymore?" I Think That's A Very Common Connection We Tend To Make.

A Book Should Be A Garden That Fits In The Hands. Word-petals Of Color. Stems Of Strength. Roots Of Truth. Turn A Page And Turn The Seasons. Read The Sentence And Enjoy The Roses.

Maybe Your Life Resembles A Bethlehem Stable. Crude In Some Spots, Smelly In Others. Not Much Glamour. Not Always Neat. People In Your Circle Remind You Of Stable Animals: Grazing Like Sheep, Stubborn Like Donkeys, And That Cow In The Corner Looks A Lot Like The Fellow Next Door. You, Like Joseph, Knocked On The Innkeeper's Door. But You Were Too Late. Or Too Old, Sick, Dull, Damaged, Poor, Or Peculiar. You Know The Sound Of A Slamming Door.

People Assume When They Come Into A Church And See A Person Up There Speaking, 'that Person Must Be A Good Person.' My Challenge Through The Years Has Been Believing That: 'i Guess I Must Be A Really Good Person.' I Struggle With It. It Just Helps Me To Keep That Confessional Posture.

Aging Is God's Idea. It's One Of The Ways He Keeps Us Headed Homeward.

I Really Enjoy Making People Laugh; I've Discovered That's A Great Technique. That's As Powerful As Stirring Their Sorrow, Stirring Their Compassion, Because That Befriends You To Them. It Engages You With Them And Then You Can Come In; They Will Remember That Point.

What I'm Urging People To Do Is Trust In The Sovereignty Of God.

Sovereignty Of God

Your Challenge Is Not Your Challenge. Your Challenge Is The Way You Think About Your Challenge. Your Problem Is Not Your Problem; It Is The Way You Look At It.

Resentment Is When You Allow What’s Eating You To Eat You Up. Revenge Is The Raging Fire That Consumes The Arsonist. Bitterness Is The Trap That Snares The Hunter. And Mercy Is The Choice That Can Set Them All Free.

Our Task Is To Stand Tall In God's Love, Secure In Our Place, Sparkling In Kindness, Surrounded By His Goodness, Freely Giving To All Who Come Our Way. You, Me, And The Christmas Tree. Picked, Purchased, And Pruned.

Write Today's Worries In Sand. Chisel Yesterday's Victories In Stone.

You Are God's Child. His Creation. Destined For Heaven. You Are A Part Of His Family.

Though The Bible Was Written Over Sixteen Centuries By At Least Forty Authors, It Has One Central Theme-salvation Through Faith In Christ.

We Serve A Good God Who Oversees The Affairs Of Mankind.

God's Love Has A Width, Length, Height, And Depth, But We Will Never Reach The End Of It. Our Capacity To Experience God's Love Will Be Exhausted Long Before God's Capacity To Give It Is Strained. The Picture Of Having Christ Dwell Inside Us By Faith Presents Us With Compelling And Comforting Possibilities. What Christ Does In Us And Through Us Will Always Be 'exceedingly Abundantly Above All We Ask Or Think.'

A Little Rain Can Straighten A Flower Stem. A Little Love Can Change A Life.

I Don't Think God Is A Gender. He Presents Himself As A Father But He Comes To Us With The Tenderness Of A Mother. In Some Of The Parables, He Is The Housewife Who Cleans The House Looking For The Lost Coin. So I Think We Can Miss The Point If We Get Too Concerned About The Gender Of God.

Let's Try To Present The Same Gospel But In A Fresh Fashion, Always Looking For A Better Way To Connect With The Audience.

Be Careful What You Think, Because Your Thoughts Run Your Life.

I Love Everything About The Christmas Season.

Christmas Season

I Wanted To Talk About How Grace In And Of Itself Changes Us. It Changes The Way We Treat Other People, The Way We View Our Lives, The Way We Treat Our Purpose And Our Eternal Identity.

We Forget That Impossible Is One Of God's Favorite Words

No One Can Pray And Worry At The Same Time.

We Have The Freedom To Pray And The Freedom To Love The God Of Our Heart. And We Have Been Forgiven By The Only One Who Could Condemn Us. We Are Truly Free.

What You And I Might Rate As An Absolute Disaster, God May Rate As A Pimple-level Problem That Will Pass. He Views Your Life The Way You View A Movie After You've Read The Book. When Something Bad Happens, You Feel The Air Sucked Out Of The Theater. Everyone Else Gasps At The Crisis On The Screen. Not You. Why? You've Read The Book. You Know How The Good Guy Gets Out Of The Tight Spot. God Views Your Life With The Same Confidence. He's Not Only Read Your Story...he Wrote It.

Fear May Fill Our World, But It Doesn’t Have To Fill Our Hearts.

Our Aim - Our Only Aim - Is To Be At Home In Christ. He's Not A Roadside Park Or Hotel Room. He's Our Permanent Mailing Address. Christ Is Our Home. He's Our Place Of Refuge And Security. We're Comfortable In His Presence, Free To Be Our Authentic Selves. We Know Our Way Around In Him. We Know His Heart And His Ways. We Rest In Him, Find Our Nourishment In Him. His Roof Of Grace Protects Us From Storms Of Guilt. His Walls Of Providence Secure Us From Destructive Winds. His Fireplace Warms Us During The Lonely Winters Of Life. We Linger In The Abode Of Christ And Never Leave.

You May Be Transferred, Enlisted, Commissioned, Reassigned, Or Hospitalized - But Brand This On Your Heart - You Can Never Go Where God Is Not.

Does God Care If I'm Sad? Look At The Tear-streaked Face Of Jesus As He Stands Near Lazarus's Tomb.

For Seven Years Ancient Israel Could Not Be Stopped In The Joshua Book. I Have Found This To Be A Great Imagery And Analogy For The Christian Life. As Christians, We Have The Same Images. We've Come Out Of Egypt (been Saved) We've Crossed Over, And Jesus Christ Is Our Moses And Our Joshua.

Of All The Things You Must Earn In Life, God's Unending Affection Is Not One Of Them. You Have It.

God Rewards Those Who Seek Him. Not Those Who Seek Doctrine Of Religion Or Systems Or Creeds. Many Settle For These Lesser Passions, But The Reward Goes To Those Who Settle For Nothing Less Than Jesus Himself. And What Is The Reward? What Awaits Those Who Seek Jesus? Nothing Short Of The Heart Of Jesus.

To Live As God's Child Is To Know That You Are Loved By Your Maker Not Because You Try To Please Him And Succeed, Or Fail To Please Him And Apologize, But Because He Wants To Be Your Father. Nothing More.

Through The Years, I Have Always Enjoyed Anything Chuck Swindoll Has Written. When I First Got Into Writing Chuck's Books Really Modeled A Style Of Writing That I Thought Was Accessible To People And Yet Still Biblical. I Wanted To Do That.

If You Concern Yourself With Your Neighbor’s Talents, You’ll Neglect Your Own. But If You Concern Yourself With Yours, You Could Inspire Both!

The Promised Land, For Many People, Though, Is Something That's Far Off In The Future. People Are Saved, But They Don't Feel Victory. They Feel Like They're In A Wilderness And They're Wandering. And So This Book Of Joshua Gives Us A Picture Of How We Can Come Out Of The Wilderness In Our Own Spiritual Lives And Enter Into A Season Of Victory.

You Cover 50 Yards On The Playing Field Of Faith With A Story That Downplays Your Success. You Cover 3 Yards, Or You May Even End Up Backward, With Anything That Up-plays Or Promotes You.

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