Background Image

...

What Is This Love That Endures Decades, Passes On Sleep, And Resists Death To Give One Kiss? Call It Agape Love, A Love That Bears A Semblance Of God's.

-Max Lucado

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

What Is This Love

Max Lucado

...

What Is This Love That Endures Decades, Passes On Sleep, And Resists Death To Give One Kiss? Call It Agape Love, A Love That Bears A Semblance Of God's.

Views: 5

Topic

More From Max Lucado

God Has Proven Himself As A Faithful Father. Now It Falls To Us To Be Trusting Children.

Those Who Successfully Go Through Tough Times Do So Because They Keep Insisting.

The Difference Between Mercy And Grace? Mercy Gave The Prodigal Son A Second Chance. Grace Gave Him A Feast.

Every Movie Really Does Have A Message. Somebody Somewhere Is Trying To Make A Point Or Advance A Cause Or Promote Their Agenda. There's Nothing Wrong With That. They Try To Do So In An Entertaining Fashion.

The Past Does Not Have To Be Your Prison. You Have A Voice In Your Destiny. You Have A Say In Your Life. You Have A Choice In The Path You Take.

I Am Very Confident In Preaching.

Religion Is Intended To Facilitate Hope And Faith. Much Like A Path Is Intended To Facilitate A Journey.

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

What I Try To Do Is Narrow The Sermon Series Down To One Big Question. In This Case The Question Is: What Happens When Grace Happens? I Knew I Wanted To Preach About Grace. I Just Felt As If It Was Time For Our Church To Be Refreshed And See The Beauty Of God's Grace - The Uniqueness Of The Christian Grace As Compared To The Teachings Of Other World Religions On Forgiveness.

World Religions

It's My Hope That As You Dip Your Toe Into The Bible's Story And Viewpoint, You'll Find Yourself Feeling That The Good Book Knows More About The World - And About You - Than Any Normal Book Does.

Finding Yourself

God Meets Our Needs One Day At A Time.

I Was Praying About What I Needed To Teach. I Felt It Wasn't Time To Move Out Of The Theme Of Romans, Which Is Salvation By Grace Through Faith.

The Bible Urges Us To Be Respectful To All People, Especially People With Whom We Have Disagreements, To Never Libel People, To Never Label People.

God Wants To Help You Find Your Way Home.

I Accepted The Forgiveness Of God. I Got Off Track As An Adult And Because I Believe In God's Grace, I Believe That Gave Me Strength Then To Get That Little Part Of My Life Realigned, To Not Play Games About It, To Confess It, To Ask For Forgiveness From God And Ask Others To Forgive Me As Well And Then Move On.

I Work In Theology And Christian Books All Day Long, When Im Studying, So Its Just Kind Of Nice To Pick Up Something Different. The Books That Have Influenced Me, Theres Not Just One Book That Was A Watershed, Although Mere Christianity Was As Much As Any.

You're Special-not Because Of What You Have. You're Special Because Of Who You Are.

It's Against God's Nature To Remember Forgiven Sins

I Just Love Preaching.

I Believe The Bible Tells A Story We Recognize As True. I Don't Just Mean It Tells An Accurate Story - Though It's Telling That The Bible Stands Tall Even After More Than 2,000 Years Of Secular Criticism.

Does God Know If I Am Ignored Or Rejected? Find The Answer In The Compassionate Eyes Of Christ As He Stands To Defend The Adulterous Woman.

I Do Believe That Leaders Have To Be Held To A Higher Standard, Especially Christian Leaders. I Put Myself In That Camp.

The Purpose Of The Bible Is Simply To Proclaim God's Plan To Save His Children. It Asserts That Man Is Lost And Needs To Be Saved. And It Communicates The Message That Jesus Is The God In The Flesh Sent To Save His Children.

Meet Your Fears With Faith.

You Are Who God Says You Are. Spiritually Alive. Heavenly Positioned. Connected To The Father. A Billboard Of Mercy. An Honored Child.

The Book On My Nightstand Right Now Isnt Anything That Inspired Me, But It Entertained Me. I Read A Book On Labor Day, It Was A Holiday, And I Have Three Daughters, And We All Went To The Shopping Mall And I Sat On The Bench And Read A Book While They Shopped, It Was Called The Greatest Golfer There Ever Was, It Was A Great Book, Easy To Read And Entertaining.

You Are Never More Like Jesus Than When You Pray For Others. Pray For This Hurting World.

I Want A Real Take-home Quality To The Sermon, So I Built The Whole Sermon Series Around The Word Grace, Those Five Letters.

We're All Travelers, All Sojourners.

If You're Looking For A Place With No Change, Try A Soda Machine.

I Try To Help People See They're Going To Have These Times In Which They Turn Away, In Which They Deny Christ And Their Faith Grows Cold, Their Convictions Weakened; But Jesus Is Waiting.

There's A Great Place For Good Christian Children's Books. After The Upcoming Projects I'm Working On, I'd Like To Turn My Attention Back To Children's Books. Maybe With A Granddaughter I'll Have More Inspiration And New Ideas.

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

Parents, What Are Your Children Learning From Your Worship? Do They See The Same Excitement As When You Go To A Basketball Game? Do They See You Prepare For Worship As You Do For A Vacation? Do They See You Hungry To Arrive, Seeking The Face Of The Father? Or Do They See You Content To Leave The Way You Came?.....they Are Watching. Believe Me. They Are Watching.

Want To Learn To Forgive? Then Consider How You've Been Forgiven.

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.

Very, Very Rarely Will I Leave San Antonio To Speak Somewhere Else. I Used To Do That, And It Just About Wore Me Out, So I Quit Traveling.

Has Worrying About Tomorrow Every Changed It?

I Co-pastor Now, So I Preach Six Months, Then Another Guy Preaches Six Months. So That's Really Why I'm Preparing For January, Because I'll Finish In June; Then I'll Be Writing And Doing Other Projects For The Rest Of The Year.

There Is A Difference Between Grace And Mercy. Mercy Is The Decision Of God Not To Punish Us. But Grace Is The Decision Of God To Save And Bless Us.

Grace And Mercy

God Is Using My Struggle. My Struggle Is The Answer To The Prayer.

The Same Hand That Stilled The Seas Stills Your Guilt. The Same Hand That Cleansed The Temple Cleanses Your Heart. The Hand Is The Hand Of God. The Nail Is The Nail Of God. And As The Hands Of Jesus Opened For The Nail, The Doors Of Heaven Opened For You.

Our Society Is Just Less Open To Platitudes, More Open To Stories.

I Was Never Really Lead By [my Parents] And Didnt Sense Any Leading From The Lord To Go Into Writing.

My First Encounters With Faith Came About The Time I Was A Boy Scout, At About 14 Or 15. I Made The Logical Deduction That They Operate The Same Way; I Treated My Faith Like Earning A Merit Badge, And Everything About Christianity Was About Earning Merit Badges.

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.

If You Knew Jesus Was Coming Tomorrow, What Would You Do Today? Then Do It!

Every Time We Equip The Church With A Verse, Chapter Or A Story From The Bible, We're Really Placing Another Weapon In The Hands Of The Holy Spirit That He Uses To Challenge And Strengthen The Church. I Think That's Very Important.

Jesus Took Your Punishment, And God Gave You Credit For Jesus' Perfection.

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.

No Person Is Too Hardened.

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

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

If Today Were Your Last, Would You Do What You're Doing? Or Would You Love More, Give More, Forgive More? Then Do So! Forgive And Give As If It Were Your Last Opportunity. Love Like There's No Tomorrow, And If Tomorrow Comes, Love Again.

To Me That's Always A Little Satisfying - To Find An Underdeveloped Topic And Start Developing It.

God Uses Every Possible Means To Communicate With You.

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.

All Of My Sermons Become Books. I've Been Accused Of Having No Unpublished Thought. I Encourage Pastors To Do That. I Think There Are So Many Great Sermons That Never Really Get Circulation.

If Today Were Your Last, Would You Do What You're Doing? Or Would You Love More, Give More, Forgive More?

The Strength Of A Story Is That It Stays With People And It Gives An Opportunity For That Story To Connect With People Where The Holy Spirit Intends For It To Do So.

The Temptation Is For Us To Share Our Own Opinions, Our Own Thoughts And To Speak From The Whole Realm Of Possibility. We Can't Do That As Pastors. We Need To Have A Strong Voice Of Conviction, And The Way We Can Do That Is Through Scripture.

The Land Of Promise Is For Those Who Simply Remain To The End.

Every Person Is Unique.

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

Vengeance Fixes Your Attention On Life's Ugliest Moments. Is This Where You Want To Look? Remember: God Dispenses Perfect Justice.

The Idea Of A Spiritual Heart Transplant Is A Vivid Image To Me; Once You Have The Heart Of Somebody Else Inside You, Then That Heart Is There. Jesus' Heart Is Inside Me, And My Heart Is Gone. So If God Were To Place A Stethoscope Against My Chest, He Would Hear The Heart Of Jesus Christ Beating.

My Parents, They Were Good, Godly People, But They Never Said, You Need To Write.

Don't Measure The Size Of The Mountain; Talk To The One Who Can Move It.

Christ Lived The Life We Could Not Live And Took The Punishment We Could Not Take To Offer The Hope We Cannot Resist.

Your Home Is Your Giant-size Privilege, Your Towering Priority.

Even Though You May Not Understand How God Works, You Know He Does.

You Know People Just Assume, 'well, All My Life I'll Be A Worrier.' That Doesn't Have To Be True. There's A Way To Drink From God's Presence So Much That Worry Begins To Dissipate.

I Really Believe The Purpose Of Scripture Is To Give Us This Authoritative Handbook.

Thoughts Have Consequences. Healing From Anxiety Requires Healthy Thinking. Your Challenge Is Not Your Challenge. Your Challenge Is The Way You Think About Your Challenge. Your Problem Is Not Your Problem; It's The Way You Look At It.

In Order To Find Jesus, Every One Of Us Needs Direction. God Gives It. The Story Of The Wise Men Shows Us How. The Star Sign Was Enough To Lead The Magi To Jerusalem. But It Took Scripture To Lead Them To Jesus.

Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, And Self-control. To These I Commit My Day. If I Succeed, I Will Give Thanks. If I Fail, I Will Seek His Grace. And Then, When This Day Is Done, I Will Place My Head On My Pillow And Rest.

No One Can Do Everything, But Everyone Can Do Something

Our Kids Were God's Kids First... We Tend To Forget This Fact, Regarding Our Children As "our" Children, As Though We Have The Final Say In Their Health And Welfare. We Don't. All People Are God's People, Including The Small People Who Sit At Our Tables.

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

That's What I'm Hoping We Can All Do, Is Come Together In A Spirit Of Prayer.

God Is Kind, But He Is Not Soft. He Takes Us Firmly By The Hand And Leads Us Into A Radical Life Change.

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

I Think We Have Such A Crown Jewel In The Forgiveness Of God, And It Changes People's Lives.

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.'

Children Spell Love With Four Letters: T-i-m-e.

Just As Your Earthly House Is A Place Of Refuge, So God's House Is A Place Of Peace.

A Nation Is Blessed When It Has Godly Leaders.

I Think It's Noteworthy That The Almighty Didn't Act High And Mighty. The Holy One Wasn't Holier-than-thou. The One Who Knew It All Wasn't A Know-it-all. The One Who Made The Stars Didn't Keep His Head In Them. The One Who Owns All The Stuff Of Earth Never Strutted It.

Baptism Is The Initial Step Of A Faithful Heart.

You Have A God Who Hears You, The Power Of Love Behind You, The Holy Spirit Within You, And All Of Heaven Ahead Of You. If You Have The Shepherd, You Have Grace For Every Sin, Direction For Every Turn, A Candle For Every Corner And An Anchor For Every Storm. You Have Everything You Need.

As We Meditate On Christ's Life, We Find Strength For Our Own.

Finding Strength

Every Faith Has Its Story; Every Faith Has Its Roots.

All Of My Books Began As Sermons, So Really The Heart Of The Message Is Still The Same.

I Don't Think I Have Ever Created An Entire Fiction Piece Or Followed A Historical Piece And Made That Into A Sermon.

When You Teach On A Familiar Text, You're Capitalizing On Common Knowledge. When You Teach On An Unfamiliar Text, You're Having To Build A Bridge Of Understanding, And We Need To Do That As Well.

Stay Strong! Your Test Will Become Your Test-imony, Your Mess Will Become Your Mess-age.

You May Not Be Down To Your Final Heartbeat, But You May Be Down To Your Last Paycheck, Solution, Or Thimble Of Faith. Each Sunrise Seems To Bring Fresh Reasons For Fear.

Where We Might Think Of Sin As Slip-ups Or Missteps, God Views Sin As A Godless Attitude That Leads To Godless Action.

We Have A Place Where We Can Take People When They Come To Us With Questions So We're Not Just Speaking Out Of Our Own Opinion. We're Really Speaking To Them Out Of An Authoritative Place, Not Because Of What We Discovered, But Because Of What God Says.

A Couple Of Things Have Helped. One Is That I Dont Travel Any, That Takes A Lot Of Time From Peoples Schedules, If They Travel, So I Dont Travel.

There Is A Rawness And A Wonder To Life. Pursue It. Hunt For It. Sell Out To Get It. Don't Listen To The Whines Of Those Who Have Settled For A Second-rate Life And Want You To Do The Same So They Won't Feel Guilty. Your Goal Is Not To Live Long; It's To Live.

No One Wants Your Worries...not Even You. Anxiety Comes At A High Cost. Let Jesus Lead You Beside Still Waters.

I Would Guess That About 75% Of My Stories Are Like That - Personal Experiences That I Probably Over-milk.

Personal Experiences

All My Books Come Out Of Sermons, And I'm Really A Pastor Who Writes Rather Than A Writer Who Pastors.

Be Patient. God Is Using Today's Difficulties To Strengthen You For Tomorrow. He Is Equipping You. The God Who Makes Things Grow Will Help You Bear Fruit.

I Think We Pray, We Make A Clear-headed Decision, And Then We Quit Being So Mean To Each Other. We've Got To Stop That.

The Worship Of Safety Emasculates Greatness.

Jesus Came To Save Us, Not Just From Politics, Enemies, Challenges, Or Difficulties.

You Can Do Something No One Else Can Do In A Fashion No One Else Can Do It.

Can Do Something

The Ultimate Solution To Poverty Is Found In The Compassion Of God's People.

There Is Something About Keeping Him Divine That Keeps Him Distant, Packaged, Predictable. But Don't Do It. For Heaven's Sake, Don't. Let Him Be As Human As He Intended To Be. Let Him Into The Mire And Muck Of Our World. For Only If We Let Him In Can He Pull Us Out.

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

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?

The Moment Mary Touched God's Face Is The Moment God Made His Case: There's No Place He Will Not Go.

Truth Can Arrive Within The Story And Ride Latent - A Bit Incognito - Within A Story, And People Are More Prone To Receive It.

Lower Your Expectations Of Earth. This Isn't Heaven, So Don't Expect It To Be.

I Guess Grace Doesn't Have To [be] Logical. If It Did, It Wouldn't Be Grace.

Baptism Separates The Tire Kickers From The Car Buyers.

The Peace Of God, Which Surpasses All Understanding, Will Guard Your Hearts And Minds Through Christ Jesus . As We Do Our Part Rejoice In The Lord, Pursue A Gentle Spirit, Pray About Everything, And Cling To Gratitude, God Does His Part. He Bestows Upon Us The Peace Of God. Note, This Is Not A Peace From God. Our Father Gives Us The Very Peace Of God. He Downloads The Tranquility Of The Throne Room Into Our World, Resulting In An Inexplicable Calm. We Should Be Worried, But We Aren't. We Should Be Upset, But We're Comforted.

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.

It Works Well For Me To Go Ahead And Prepare The Sermon With A Chapter In Mind. What That Does Is To Force Me To Be Very Thrifty In My Language, Tighten Up My Words And Not Ramble So Much. It Puts Some Fiber In The Sermon.

Just When The Truth About Life Sinks In, His Truth Starts To Surface. He Takes Us By The Hand And Dares Us Not To Sweep The Facts Under The Rug But To Confront Them With Him At Our Side.

It's God's Job To Run The World. Sometimes We Accomplish More By Doing Less.

Hiding Out With The Enemy Brings Only Temporary Relief.

The Presence Of Fear Does Not Mean You Have No Faith. Fear Visits Everyone. But Make Your Fear A Visitor And Not A Resident.

Which Would You Prefer? To Be King Of The Mountain For A Day? Or To Be A Child Of God For Eternity?

Most People Have Settled For A Wimpy Grace. It's Something That Doesn't Change Their Lives. There Is A Difference Between Grace And Mercy. Mercy Is The Decision Of God Not To Punish Us. But Grace Is The Decision Of God To Save And Bless Us.

Grace And Mercy

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

I Think You Could Say Every Pastor Is Writing This Book, Max On Life; For Many It Just Never Gets Published. All I Did Was Collect A Few Of The Questions I've Been Asked Through The Years, Write Up A Brief Response And Put Them In This Publication.

Does God Notice When I'm Afraid? Note The Resolve In The Eyes Of Jesus As He Marches Through The Storm To Rescue His Friends.

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.

The Prodigal Son Story Is, I Think, The Greatest Short-story Ever Written. It Has Such Drama In It, Such Great Characters, It's So Clear And Concise, And It's Entertaining In The Sense That Everyone Can Relate To It. But You Have No Doubt What Our Lord Was Trying To Communicate In The Heart Of That Story. So The Truth Was Not Sacrificed On The Altar Of Entertainment In That Case. And It Can Be.

God Cast You In His Play, Wrote You Into His Story. He Has A Definite Direction For Your Life. Fulfill It And Enjoy Fulfillment. Play The Part God Prepared For You And Get Ready For Some Great Days.

We Refuse To Believe That This Present World Is The Sum Total Of Human Existence.

I Think The One Thing That I Cannot Do Without Each Day Is Hope. If You Put Me In A Position Where You Took All My Hope Away, I'm Not Sure I Could Make It Through The Day.

Give A Man Religion Without Reminding Him Of His Filth, And The Result Will Be Arrogance In A Three- Piece Suit.

We May Not See The Connection Between The Name Jesus And The Phrase "save His People From Their Sins," But Joseph Would Have. He Was Familiar With The Hebrew Language.

I Remember Enjoying Writing Those, Theres Two Clues Of A Gift: You Enjoy Doing It And People Enjoy You Doing It.

God Will Restore His Planet And His Children To Their Garden Of Eden Splendor. It'll Be Perfect. Perfect In Grandeur. Perfect In Righteousness. Perfect In Harmony.

God Has No Cousins, Only Children.

Your Pain Has A Purpose. Your Problems, Struggles, Heartaches, And Hassles Cooperate Toward One End-the Glory Of God.

There Are Certain Weights In Life You Simply Cannot Carry. Your Lord Is Asking You To Set Them Down And Trust Him. What Do You Say We Take God Up On His Offer?

God Must've Had A Blast. Painting The Stripes On The Zebra, Hanging The Stars In The Sky, Putting The Gold In The Sunset. What Creativity! Stretching The Neck Of The Giraffe, Putting The Flutter In The Mockingbird's Wings, Planting The Giggle In The Hyena. And Then, As A Finale To A Brilliant Performance, He Made A Human Who Had The Unique Honour To Bear The Stamp, In His Image.

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

When You Keep The Porch Light On For The Prodigal Child, You Do What God Does Every Single Moment.

We’re Grateful When All Is Well, But Can We Say The Same On Disastrous Days?

I Really Enjoyed Reading The Writings Of Fredrick Buechner, I Havent Read Anything By Him In Probably A Decade But About 20 Years Ago I Read Four Or Five Books Of His And It Helped Me.

First, God Does Not Send People To Hell. He Simply Honors Their Choice. Hell Is The Ultimate Expression Of God's High Regard For The Dignity Of Man. He Has Never Forced Us To Choose Him, Even When That Means We Would Choose Hell.

When You Read The Bible, It's As Though It Reads You.

On The Eve Of The Cross, Jesus Made His Decision. He Would Rather Go To Hell For You Than Go To Heaven Without You.

One Phrase Summarizes The Horror Of Hell. "god Isn't There."

Focus On Giants - You Stumble. Focus On God - Giants Tumble.

God Gives Us People To Love And Things To Use, Not Things To Love And People To Use.

I Would Love To Have A More Earnest Prayer Life! In My Life, Prayer Is The Single Most Difficult Discipline. I Love God And There's Something In Me That Would Rather Do Things For God Than Talk To God. I'm Not By Nature A Mystical, Devotional Person. I Like To Do Things. And So It's A Challenge For Me To Have A Faithful Prayer Life, But I Know God Loves Me And He's Not Mad At Me. He Just Wishes I Would Slow Down And Turn Things Over To Him. And That's What I Think You Achieve Through Prayer.

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

Reading The Bible Can Be Like Meeting Someone You Don't Know Who, Oddly, Somehow Seems To Know You Deeply. It's Uncanny.

Meeting Someone

I Choose Faithfulness...today I Will Keep My Promises. My Debtors Will Not Regret Their Trust. My Associates Will Not Question My Word. My Wife Will Not Question My Love. And My Children Will Never Fear That They Father Will Not Come Home.

Scot Mcknight Stirs The Treasures Of Our Lord's Life In An Engaging Fashion. He Did So With The Jesus Creed, And Does So Again With 40 Days Living The Jesus Creed. Make Sure This New Guide For Living Is On Your Shelf.

Usually I'm Able To Prepare A Message About Two To Three Weeks In Advance.i Know Some Preachers Don't Like That. They Want To Be Finishing It On Friday Before They Preach It On Sunday, But Our Worship Team Really Likes Me To Get It Done Way In Advance.

When You're Full Of Yourself, God Can't Fill You. But When You Empty Yourself, God Has A Useful Vessel.

Full Of Yourself

We Enjoy The Fruit Of The First Coming But Anticipate The Glory Of The Second.

We Live In The Most Multicultural, Multiracial, Multiethnic America Ever, And I Get The Sense That Because Of That Reality So Many Of Us Are Turning Nativist.

Forgiveness Is Choosing To See Your Offender With Different Eyes.

We Will Never Be Cleansed Until We Confess We Are Dirty. And We Will Never Be Able To Wash The Feet Of Those Who Have Hurt Us Until We Allow Jesus, The One We Have Hurt, To Wash Ours.

God's Solution Is A Prayer Away!

You Can Climb Too High For Your Own Good. Linger Too Long At High Altitudes And Your Hearing Dulls And Your Eyesight Dims.

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.

God's Blessings Are Dispensed According To The Riches Of His Grace, Not According To The Depth Of Our Faith.

The Church Is Never A Place To Show Off. Do Your Good Deeds Quietly. Serve; Don't Seek To Be Seen

My Concern Is That Somebody Would Make A Decision Against Christianity Because Of Mr. Trump's Behavior.

You'll Never Know Jesus Is All You Need Until Jesus Is All You Have. Are You In The Wilderness? Find Refuge In God's Presence. Find Comfort In His People.

I'm Protective Of The Reputation Of Christ And The Church.

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

We May Speak About A Place Where There Are No Tears, No Death, No Fear, No Night; But Those Are Just The Benefits Of Heaven. The Beauty Of Heaven Is Seeing God.

Jesus Spoke To Those Who Had Turned Their Backs On History. He Spoke To Those Who Had Blatantly Ignored Sign After Sign, Servant After Servant.

As Long As You Hate Your Enemy, A Jail Door Is Closed And A Prisoner Is Taken. But When You Try To Understand And Release Your Foe From Your Hatred, Then The Prisoner Is Released And That Prisoner Is You.

The Bible Teaches Us That God Does Not Cause Pain, But That He Uses Pain And Evil To Advance His Cause And Shape His Servants.

We Are Jesus Christ's; We Belong To Him. But Even More, We Are Increasingly Him. He Moves In And Commandeers Our Hands And Feet, Requisitions Our Minds And Tongues. We Sense His Rearranging: Debris Into The Divine, Pig's Ear Into Silk Purse. He Repurposes Bad Decisions And Squalid Choices. Little By Little, A New Image Emerges.

No One Can Teach Your Child Like You Can. No Nanny, Bible School Teacher, Aunt, Or Uncle Has Your Authority. What A Phenomenal Privilege Is Yours.

Michael Jordan Once Said That The Most Peaceful Moments Of His Life Were On A Basketball Court, Because That's The Only Place He Knew Exactly What To Do. And To Me The Most Peaceful Moments In My Ministry Are In The Pulpit Because That's When I Really Know What I'm Going To Do.

What Christ Does In Us And Through Us Will Always Be 'exceedingly Abundantly Above All We Ask Or Think.'

God Will Use Whatever He Wants To Display His Glory. Heavens And Stars. History And Nations. People And Problems.

When I Was A Young Kid, My Dad, A Man Of Few Words, Told My Brother And Me, "boys, Christmas Is About Jesus." I Thought About What He Said, And I Began Asking The Christmas Questions. I've Been Asking Them Ever Since. I Love The Answers I've Found.

About Four Days A Week, I Do Pretty Good At Having A Morning Prayer Time. But Even At That, It's A Rambling Sort Of Thing. What I Have Learned To Do Better Is To Try To Keep My Mind Turned Toward God And Ear Inclined Toward God Throughout The Day, And I Think I'm Doing Better At That ,but I've Got A Long Way To Go.

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

The Worst Part Of All Is That, Without Forgiveness, Bitterness Is All That Is Left

God Created Marriage. No Government Subcommittee Envisioned It. No Social Organization Developed It. Marriage Was Conceived And Born In The Mind Of God.

See Your Enemies, Not As God's Failures, But As God's Projects.

Nails Didn't Hold God To A Cross. Love Did.

Who Was Jesus? God Saves.

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

I've Found Great Virtue In Two-thirds Of The Way Into The Message; Right Before I'm Really Want To Nail Home A Point, Pausing To Tell A Joke Or To Tell A Light-hearted Story, Because I Know My Audience Has Been Working With Me Now For 20 Or 25 Minutes. And If I Can Get Them To Laugh, Get Oxygen Into Their System, It Wakes Up Those Who Might Be Sleeping, So There's Something About Using A Story To Draw People Back In Right Before You Drive Home Your Final Point. In That Case I Think It's Real Legitimate Just To Use A Story For Story's Sake.

There Is Nothing On Earth That Can Satisfy Our Deepest Longing. We Long To See God. The Leaves Of Life Are Rustling With The Rumor That We Will - And We Won't Be Satisfied Until We Do.

Fredrick Buechner Kind Of Loosened Me Up, Hes Got A Little Irreverency To Him And I Have A Little Too Much Reverancy.

Seek First The Kingdom Of Wealth And You'll Worry Over Every Dollar. Seek First The Kingdom Of Health And You'll Sweat Every Blemish And Bump. Seek First The Kingdom Of Popularity, And You'll Relive Every Conflict. Seek First The Kingdom Of Safety, And You'll Jump At Every Crack Of The Twig. But Seek First His Kingdom And You Will Find It. On That, We Can Depend And Never Worry.

In This Post-modern Culture In Which We Live - Where People Question Absolute Truth - Stories Are Resistant To Platitudes; They're Resistant To Me Making Declarations Of Truth To Them. A Story Can Do That In Kind Of A Trojan-horse Fashion.

God Grants Us An Uncommon Life To The Degree We Surrender Our Common One.

God Does Uncommon Things Through Common People In Common Places.

The One Who Saved Your Soul Longs To Remake Your Heart. Let's Fix Our Eyes On Jesus. Perhaps In Seeing Him, We Will See What We Can Become!

I Believe You Select A President Who Best Represents What You Think Are The Values That God Wants Us To Have.

Trending Author

Aulus Persius Flaccus

Category