Max Lucado - 3:16: July 31, 2010

He began to teach them, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.  Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.  Blessed are those who hunger an thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.  Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.  Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.  Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
            Matthew 5:2-9

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: July 30, 2010

With wood glue, poles, and newspapers, [my dad and I] fashioned [a kite,] a sky-dancing masterpiece….  We launched our creation on the back of a March wind.  But after some minutes, my kite caught a downdraft and plunged.  I tightened the string, raced in reverse, and did all I could to maintain elevation.  But it was too late.  She Hindenburged earthward.  Envision a red-haired, heartsick twelve-year-old standing over his collapsed kite….  Envision a square-bodied man…[in] coveralls placing his hand on the boy’s shoulder….  [Dad] surveyed the heap of sticks and paper and assured, “It’s OK, we can fix this.”  I believed him.  Why not?  He spoke with authority.

So does Christ.  To all whose lives feel like a crashed kite, he says: “We can fix this.  Let me teach you.”

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: July 29, 2010

To Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: July 28, 2010

I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
            John 10:10 NKJV

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: July 27, 2010

Jesus doesn’t boast in knowledge; he shares it.  He doesn’t gloat; he gives.  He doesn’t revel; he reveals.  He reveals to us the secrets of eternity.  And he shares them, not just with the top brass or purebred, but with the hungry and needy.

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: July 26, 2010

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.
            Isaiah 61:1 NKJV

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: July 25, 2010

Why do you call me, “Lord, Lord,” and do not do what I say?  I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice.  He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock.  When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.  But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation.  The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.
            Luke 6:46-49

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: July 24, 2010

When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law
            Matthew 7:28-29

Jesus knows the dimensions of God’s throne room, the fragrance of its incense, the favorite songs of the unceasing choir.  He has a unique, one-of-a-kind, unrivaled knowledge of God and wants to share his knowledge with you.

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: July 23, 2010

Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.  If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am , there you may be also.
            John 14:1-3 NASB

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: July 22, 2010

You’re a fifth grader studying astronomy.  The day you read about the first mission to the moon, you and your classmates pepper the teacher with space-travel questions.  “What does moon dust feel like?”  “Can you swallow when there’s no gravity?”  “What about going to the bathroom?”  The teacher does the best she can but prefaces most replies with, “I would guess…”  or “I think…”  or “Perhaps…”  How could she know?  She’s never been there.  But the next day she brings a guest who has.  Neil Armstrong enters the room.  Yes, the “one small step for  man, one giant leap for mankind” Neil Armstrong.  “Now ask your questions,” the teacher invites.  And Astronaut Armstrong answers each with certainty.  He knows the moon; he’s walked on it.  No speculation or hesitation – he speaks with conviction.

So did Jesus.

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: July 21, 2010

This is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.
            John 6:40 NASB

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: July 20, 2010

All things have been committed to me by my Father.  No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
            Matthew 11:27

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: July 19, 2010

Jesus claims to be, not a top theologian, an accomplished theologian, or even the Supreme theologian, but rather the Only Theologian.  “No one really knows the Father except the Son.”  He does not say, “no one really knows the Father like the Son,” or “in the fashion of the Son.”  But rather, “No one really knows the Father except the Son.”  Heaven’s door has one key and Jesus holds it.

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: July 18, 2010

All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.  For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.  This is the will of Him who sent me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.
            John 6:37-39 NASB

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: July 17, 2010

Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.  For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel.
            John 5:19-20 NASB

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: July 16, 2010

When Jesus says, “In my Father’s house are many mansions”
(John 14:2 NKJV), count on it.  He knows.  He has walked them.

When he says, “You are worth more than many sparrows”
(Matthew 10:31 ), trust him.  Jesus knows. 
He knows the value of every creature.

When Christ declares, “Your Father knows the things
you have need of” (Matthew 6:8), believe it.  After all,
“He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:2 NKJV).

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: July 15, 2010

All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to who the Son wills to reveal Him.
            Luke 10:22 NASB

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: July 14, 2010

Jesus enjoys an intimacy with God, a mutuality the Father shares with no one else.  Married couples know something of this.  They finish each other’s sentences, anticipate each other’s actions.  Some even begin to look like their mates (a possibility that deeply troubles my wife).  Denalyn and I have been married more than twenty-five years.  We no longer converse; we communicate in code….  She knows what I’ll say before I say it.  Consequently, she can speak on my behalf with highest credibility….  How much more does Jesus qualify as God’s [proxy]!  Jesus, “who exists at the very heart of the Father, has made him plain as day” (John 1:18 The Message).

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: July 13, 2010

We got the basics from Moses, and then this exuberant giving and receiving, this endless knowing and understanding – all this came through Jesus, the Messiah.  No one has ever seen God, not so much as a glimpse.  This one-of-a kind God-Expression, who exists at the very heart of the Father, has made him plain as day.
            John 1:17-18 The Message

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16: July 12, 2010

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
            Matthew 11:28-30


Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16 July 11, 2010

He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son.  The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored.  We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him.
            Romans 8:29 The Message


Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16 July 10, 2010

“‘My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,’ says the Lord.  ‘And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine’” (Isaiah 55:8 NLT).  The root meaning of the word translated thoughts is “weavings”.  It’s as if God says, “My weavings are far beyond anything you could imagine.”

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16 July 9, 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 July 8, 2010

[Christ] is to history what a weaver is to a tapestry.  I once watched a weaver work at a downtown San Antonio market.  She selected threads from her bag and arranged them first on the frame, then on the shuttle.  She next worked the shuttle back and forth through the threads, intertwining colors, overlapping textures.  In a matter of moments a design appeared.  Christ, in like manner, weaves his story.  Every person is a thread, every moment a color, every era a pass of the shuttle.  Jesus steadily interweaves the embroidery of humankind.

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16 July 7, 2010

God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.  And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.
            Hebrews 1:1-3 NASB

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16 July 6, 2010

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.  In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.  The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
            John 1:1-5 NASB

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16 July 5, 2010

Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.  How can you say, "Show us the Father"?  Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?  The words I say to you are not just my own.  Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.
            John 14:9-10

Max Lucado - 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16 July 4, 2010

Though God is the father of all humanity, Jesus alone is the monogenetic son of God, because only Christ has God’s genes or genetic make-up.  The familiar translation “only begotten Son” (John 3:16 NKJV, NASB) conveys this truth.  When parents beget or conceive a child, they transfer their DNA to the newborn.  Jesus shares God’s DNA.  Jesus isn’t begotten in the sense that he began but in the sense that he and God have the same essence, eternal life span, unending wisdom, and tireless energy.  Every quality we attribute to God, we can attribute to Jesus.

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16 July 3, 2010

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
            1 John 4:9

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16 July 2, 2010

No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side has made him known.
            John 1:18

Max Lucado – 3:16

Max Lucado - 3:16 July 1, 2010

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
            John 1:14

Max Lucado – 3:16