Max Lucado
Reading the Bible can be like meeting someone you don't know who, oddly, somehow seems to know you deeply. It's uncanny.Collection: Reading
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.Collection: Jesus
We enjoy the fruit of the first coming but anticipate the glory of the second.Collection: Fruit
When Jesus died on the cross, so did your sin; when He rose from the dead, so did your HOPE.Collection: Christian
Deflating inflated egos is so important to God that He offers to help.Collection: Ego
Someday I want to go back and maybe write another book on those seven sayings. I just think they are kind of like a table of contents to the Christian hope. They invite us to go into all the aspects of the heart of Jesus. Everything about them from the drama, the setting, the passion around them - I think the seven sayings of the cross are powerful.Collection: Christian
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.Collection: Christian
To see sin without grace is despair. To see grace without sin is arrogance. To see them in tandem is conversion.Collection: Grace
Gratitude is a dialysis of sorts... it flushes the self-pity out of our systems.Collection: Thankful
Honesty and vulnerability endear us to people; they don't endanger us in our relationship.Collection: Honesty
Jesus came to save us from our own sins.Collection: Jesus
God does not relish our sufferings, but He delights in our development.Collection: Suffering
Gratitude is a mindful awareness of the benefits of life. It's the greatest of virtues. Studies have linked the emotion with a variety of positive effects. Grateful people tend to be more empathetic and forgiving of others. People who keep a gratitude journal are more likely to have a positive outlook on life. Grateful individuals demonstrate less envy, materialism, and self-centeredness. Gratitude improves self-esteem and enhances relationships, quality of sleep, and longevity.Collection: Gratitude
Don't equate the presence of God with a good mood or a pleasant temperament. God is near whether you are happy or not.Collection: Good Mood
When God gives an assignment, he also gives the skill. Study your skills, then, to reveal your assignment.Collection: Skills
Never underestimate the power that comes when a parent pleads with God on behalf of a child.Collection: Children
You're never without hope, because you're never without prayer.Collection: Prayer
Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life. Do you want to be happy tomorrow? Then sow seeds of happiness today -count blessings, memorize Bible verses, pray, sing hymns, spend time with encouraging people. Do you want to guarantee tomorrow's misery? Then wallow in a mental mud pit of self-pity or guilt or anxiety today assume the worst, beat yourself up, rehearse your regrets, complain to complainers.Collection: Running
God's highest desire is not to make us rich, successful or popular. His goal is to make us HisCollection: Successful
If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.Collection: Would Be
As we meditate on Christ's life, we find strength for our own.Collection: Christ
Mark it down. You will never go where God is not.Collection: Inspirational
You will never forgive anyone more than God has already forgiven you.Collection: Forgiveness
Refusing to forgive is like ingesting a lethal dose of poison and hoping it kills my enemy.Collection: Forgiving
Worry is irrelevant. It alters nothing. When was the last time you solved a problem by worrying about it?Collection: Positive
Feed your fears and your faith will starve. Feed your faith, and your fears will.Collection: Motivational
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.Collection: Over You
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.Collection: Revenge
Conflict is inevitable but combat is optional.Collection: Peace
God can't fill you when you are already full of yourself.Collection: Full Of Yourself
We exist to exhibit God, to display his glory. We serve as canvases for his brush stroke, papers for his pen, soil for his seeds, glimpses of his image.Collection: Glimpse
When God is all you have, then all you have, is all you need.Collection: Needs
God sees in you a masterpiece about to happenCollection: God
Prayer is the window that God has placed in the walls of our world. Leave it shut and the world is a cold, dark house. But throw back the curtains and see His light. Open the window and hear His voice. Open the window of prayer and invoke the presence of God in your world.Collection: Spiritual
You are who God says you are. Spiritually alive. Heavenly positioned. Connected to the Father. A billboard of mercy. An honored child.Collection: Children
We're important, but not essential; valuable, but not indispensable. We have a part in the play, but we are not the main act. A song to sing, but we are not the featured voice. God is.Collection: Song
God wants us to know we are saved, for saved people are dangerous people, willing to face off with the world, unafraid of the consequences since they know that, whatever happens, they will have eternal life.Collection: People
Christmas is best pondered, not with logic, but with imagination.Collection: Christmas
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.Collection: Jesus
Others have promised and failed. But God has promised and succeeded. He loves you with an unfailing love.Collection: Love
I choose kindness... I will be kind to the poor, for they are alone. Kind to the rich, for they are afraid. And kind to the unkind, for such is how God has treated meCollection: Kindness
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.Collection: God
Just as your earthly house is a place of refuge, so God's house is a place of peace.Collection: God
I believe for God not to allow pain to happen in the world is for Him to extract free will from the world.Collection: Pain
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.Collection: Jesus
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.Collection: Stars
Sin is not an unfortunate slip or a regrettable act; it is a posture of defiance against a holy God.Collection: Sin
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.Collection: People
It seems to me that the prayers of the Bible can be distilled into one. The result is a simple, easy-to-remember, pocket-sized prayer: Father, you are good. I need help. They need help. Thank you. In Jesus' name, amen. Let this prayer punctuate your day.Collection: Jesus