Max Lucado - 3:16: February 28, 2010

Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people.  He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.
            Luke 1:68-69 

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 27, 2010

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever.
            Galatians 1:3-5 NKJV

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 26, 2010

[Jesus] pounds Do Not Enter signs on every square inch of Satan’s gate and tells those hell-bent on entering to do so over his dead body.  Even so, some souls insist.  In the end, some perish and some live.  And what determines the difference?  Not works or talents, pedigree or possessions.  Nicodemus had these in hoards.  The difference is determined by our belief.  “Whoever  believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 25, 2010

Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.  I have sworn by Myself, the word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and will not turn back, that to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.
            Isaiah 45:22-23 NASB

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 24, 2010

God our Savior…desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
            1 Timothy 2:3-4 NKJV

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 23, 2010

John Newton, who set faith to music in “Amazing Grace,” loved this barrier-breaking pronoun [whoever].  He said, “If I read ‘God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that when John Newton believed he should have everlasting life,’ I should say, perhaps, there is some other John Newton; but ‘whosoever’ means this John Newton and that John Newton, and everybody else, whatever his name may be.”

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 22, 2010

When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.  He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
            Titus 3:4-7

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 21, 2010

Many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.
            John 20:30-31 NASB

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 20, 2010

[God] loves the world so much he gave his: declarations? rules? dicta? edicts?  No.  The heart-stilling, mind-bending, deal-making-or-breaking claim of John 3:16 is this: God gave his son…his only son.  No abstract ideas but a flesh-wrapped divinity. Scripture equates Jesus with God.  God, then, gave himself.  Why?  So that “whoever believes in him shall not perish.”

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 19, 2010

In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed.  In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling.
            Exodus 15:13

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 18, 2010

God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
            Ephesians 2:4-7 NKJV

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 17, 2010

“God so loved the world....”  We’d expect an anger-fueled God.  One who punishes the world, re-cycles the world, forsakes the world…but loved the world?  The world?  This world?

Heartbreakers, hope-snatchers and dream dousers prowl this orb.  Dictators rage.  Abusers inflict.  Reverends think they deserve the title.  But God loves.

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 16, 2010

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.
    Psalm 23:5-6

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 15, 2010

The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.
    Zephaniah 3:17 NKJV

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 14, 2010

The words are to Scripture what the Mississippi River is to America – an entryway into the heartland.  Believe or dismiss them, embrace or reject them, any serious consideration of Christ must include them.  Would a British historian dismiss the Magna Carta?  Egyptologists overlook the Rosetta Stone?  Could you ponder the words of Christ and never immerse yourself into John 3:16?

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 13, 2010

My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation.  He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior.
    2 Samuel 22:3

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 12, 2010

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
    Psalm 23:4 NKJV

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 11, 2010

The heart of the human problem is the heart of the human.  And God’s treatment is prescribed in John 3:16.  He loves.  He gave.  We believe.  We live.

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 10, 2010

The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.
     Psalm 23:1-3 NKJV

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 9, 2010

He has brought me to his banquet hall, and his banner over me is love.
    Song of Songs 2:4 NASB

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 8, 2010

[John 3:16.]  A twenty-six-word parade of hope: beginning with God, ending with life, and urging us to do the same.  Brief enough to write on a napkin or memorize in a moment, yet solid enough to weather two thousand years of storms and questions.  If you know nothing of the Bible, start here.  If you know everything in the Bible, return here.  We all need the reminder.

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 7, 2010

We wait in hope for the Lord;
he is our help and our shield.
In him our hearts rejoice,
for we trust in his holy name.
May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord,
even as we put our hope in you.
    Psalm 33:20-22

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 6, 2010

Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
    Romans 5:5 NASB

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 5, 2010

Jesus answers [Nicodemus’s surprise] by leading him to the Hope diamond of the Bible.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 4, 2010

The Lord has redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of one stronger than he.  Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, streaming to the goodness of the Lord – for wheat and new wine and oil, for the young of the flock and the herd; their souls shall be like a well-watered garden, and they shall sorrow no more at all.
    Jeremiah 31:11-12 NKJV

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 3, 2010

O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago.
    Isaiah 25:1

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 2, 2010

The original creator recreates his creation.  This is the act that Jesus describes [when he says “born again.”]  Born:  God exerts the effort.  Again: God restores the beauty.  We don’t try again.  We need, not the muscle of self, but a miracle of God.

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: February 1, 2010

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God.
    1 Corinthians 2:12 NASB

Max Lucado – 3:16