Max Lucado

The cross is where God forgave his children without lowering his standards.

One of the greatest gifts we can give people is the hope that their death is nothing to fear - you know, not that it has no fear in it, but the promise of scripture is that God will lead us through the valley of the shadow of death.

The life of Jesus Christ is a message of hope, a message of mercy, a message of life in a dark world.

I was raised in the greatest of homes... just a really great dad, and I miss him so much... he was a good man, a real simple man... Very faithful, always loved my mom, always provided for the kids, and just a lot of fun.

Gratitude lifts our eyes off the things we lack so we might see the blessings we possess.

Hiding out with the enemy brings only temporary relief.

How we handle our tough times stays with us for a long time.

The worship of safety emasculates greatness.

Anxiety and fear are cousins but not twins. Fear sees a threat. Anxiety imagines one.

How grimy did God get when He reached down to clean you up How grimy are you willing to get in order to be an imitator of God

Indeed baptism is a vow a sacred vow of the believer to follow Christ. Just as a wedding celebrates the fusion of two hearts baptism celebrates the union of sinner with Savior.

Sentences are like just caught fish. Spunky today, stinky tomorrow.

When grace happens, we receive not a nice compliment from God but a new heart. Give your heart to Christ, and he returns the favor.

The church is never a place to show off. Do your good deeds quietly. Serve; don't seek to be seen

Gratitude develops faith. The surest path out of a slump is marked by the road sign 'thank you, God.'

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.

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.

It's nothing mystical, necessarily. It's nothing secretive. It's just what we do with our body we do with our soul.

Bitterness is the trap that snares the hunter.

My book centers in on the New Testament, the goal being to help a person who wants to understand the Bible to see how what God did as revealed in the New Testament will reveal to them their own personal story.

Are you weary Catch your breath. Are you strong Reserve passing judgment on the tired.

Lower your expectations of earth. This isn't heaven, so don't expect it to be.

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.

You werent an accident. You werent mass produced. You arent an assembly line product. You were deliberately planned specifically gifted and lovingly positioned on the earth by the Master Craftsman.

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 me.

What if you woke up this morning and had only the things you thanked God for yesterday?

God created marriage. No government subcommittee envisioned it. No social organization developed it. Marriage was conceived and born in the mind of God.

Grace is God as heart surgeon, cracking open your chest, removing your heart - poisoned as it is with pride and pain - and replacing it with his own.

For years I thought my assignment or the Church's assignment was to articulate the Gospel and nothing more. Now I believe that if we don't support the verbal expression of the Gospel with physical demonstration of compassion, we are not imitating Jesus.

It's not about winning or losing, but love and respect.

Become a worry-slapper. Treat frets like mosquitoes. Do you procrastinate when a bloodsucking bug lights on your skin? 'I'll take care of it in a moment.' Of course you don't! You give the critter the slap it deserves. Be equally decisive with anxiety.

When grace moves in... guilt moves out.

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.

A split second is nothing compared to twenty-four hours. On God's clock you're in the middle of your millisecond. Compared to eternity, what is seventy, eighty, ninety years?

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.

Worship is the thank you that can't be silenced.

The meaning of life. The wasted years of life. The poor choices of life. God answers the mess of life with one word: 'grace.'

You change your life by changing your heart.

If we think that this life is all there is to life, then there is no interpretation of our problems, our pain, not even of our privileges. But everything changes when we open up to the possibility that God's story is really our story too.

When Christ was born so was our hope.

I don't believe our works save us, but I believe they follow us into heaven and bring glory to God.

Faithful servants have a way of knowing answered prayer when they see it, and a way of not giving up when they don't.

God never said that the journey would be easy, but He did say that the arrival would be worthwhile

The presence of fear does not mean you have no faith. Fear visits everyone. But make your fear a visitor and not a resident.

God meets daily needs daily. Not weekly or annually. He will give you what you need when it is needed.

God has a timeline. And because of Bethlehem, we have an idea where we stand on it.

A season of suffering is a small assignment when compared to the reward. Rather than begrudge your problem, explore it. Ponder it. And most of all, use it. Use it to the glory of God.

What we realize is number one, people want to know what the Bible says. In their heart, they want to know the Bible but it is just hard to understand the big picture of it. And number two, they want to know where they plug in.

Grace is the voice that calls us to change and then gives us the power to pull it off.

Jesus tends to his people individually. He personally sees to our needs. We all receive Jesus touch. We experience his care.

Dont quit. For if you do you may miss the answer to your prayers.

A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.

God never said that the journey would be easy but He did say that the arrival would be worthwhile.

The apostle Paul never seemed to exhaust the topic of grace - what makes us think we can? He just kept coming at it and coming at it from another angle. That's the thing about grace. It's like springtime. You can't put it in a single sentence definition, and you can't exhaust it.

Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want. It is the belief that God will do what is right.

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'll regret opening your mouth. You'll rarely regret keeping it shut.

Don't equate the presence of God with a good mood or a pleasant temperament. God is near whether you are happy or not.

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.

Next time a sunrise steals your breath or a meadow of flowers leave you speechless, remain that way. Say nothing, and listen as Heaven whispers, do you like it? I did it just for you.

Be gone, sorrow, sickness, wheelchairs, and cancer! Enough of you, screams of fear and nights of horror! Death, you die! Life, you reign!

Be a doer, not a stewer.

Become a worry slapper. Treat frets like mosquitoes. Do you procrastinate when a bloodsucking bug lights on your skin Ill take care of it in a moment. Of course you dont You give the critter the slap it deserves. Be equally decisive with anxiety.

You are heavens Halleys comet we have one shot at seeing you shine.

Lower your expectations of earth. This isnt heaven so dont expect it to be.

Christ became one of us to redeem all of us.

God will use whatever he wants to display his glory. Heavens and stars. History and nations. People and problems.

Our Savior kneels down and gazes upon the darkest acts of our lives. But rather than recoil in horror, he reaches out in kindness and says, "I can clean that if you want." And from the basin of his grace, he scoops a palm full of mercy and washes away our sin.

Anger is the noise of the soul; the unseen irritant of the heart; the relentless invader of silence.

Gods glory is the big news of the Bible and my desire is that it would be all about me but really its all about Gods glory.

Filter your pain through the brevity of this life and the unending beauty of the next.

Well, I think the main message is there is more to your story. There is more than what happens between the crib and the grave, and that is what I am really trying to speak to, this idea that all of life is this life and that there is nothing more than what we see and experience right here on this earth.

Baptism is the initial step of a faithful heart.

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.

There is a time for risky love. There is a time for extravagant gestures. There is a time to pour out your affections on one you love. And when the time comes - seize it, don't miss it.

The meaning of life. The wasted years of life. The poor choices of life. God answers the mess of life with one word grace.

Philosophers can debate the meaning of life, but you need a Lord who can declare the meaning of life.