Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Max Lucado from his book,  You Are Never Alone  (p. 77). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) But that is not the end.  Max says, "It ends with a was-blind man worshiping Christ. Is this not the desire of Jesus for us all?" Good, good question. He goes on, "Apart from Christ we are blind. We cannot see our purpose. We cannot see the future. We cannot see our way out of problems and pain. We cannot see Jesus. But he sees us, from head to foot. He knows everything about us. "When I was a fifth grader, the optometrist gave me a vision test. If God tested your spiritual vision, would you pass the test? Can you see the meaning of life? Have you caught a vision for eternity? Most of all, can you see God’s great love for you? The hand you sense on your face is his. The voice you hear is his." He then says, "It is not his will that we grope blindly through life. He wants us to know why we are on ea...

A thought by Max Lucado from his book,  You Are Never Alone  (p. 66). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)   Don't do it. Please, don't do it! Max says, "Row the boat and bail the water, but above all bid Christ to enter your sinking craft. Believe that you are never alone, that our miracle-working God sees you, cares about you, and will come to your aid. For all you know he may perform an immediate deliverance. You may reach your destination before you have a chance to wipe the rain off your face." He goes on, "He is still the great I AM. When we find ourselves in the midst of Galilean waters with no shore in sight, he will come to us. "The next time you pray, Is anyone coming to help me ? listen for the response of Jesus: I AM with you in the storm. Yes, yes he is. Will you reach out to him? Will you? Yes, yes!

  A thought by Max Lucado from his book,  You Are Never Alone  (p. 60). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)   We all have storms in our lives, don't we? Max says, "No one gets through life scot-free. At one point or another the sky will darken, the winds will rage, and we will find ourselves in a modern-day version of the Galilean gusher." John 6:16–18 (NIV) says, "When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough." Max goes on, "The hearts of the followers began to sink as their boat was certain to do. Their skin was soaked, throats hoarse, eyes wide. They searched the sky for a break in the clouds. They gripped the boat for fear of the waves. They screamed their prayers for help. But they heard nothing. "If only Jesu...

A thought by Max Lucado from his book,  You Are Never Alone  (p. 56). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)   And I know that what we have been going through has really overwhelmed so many of us, hasn't it? Max says, "You aren’t alone. You aren’t without help. What bewilders you does not bewilder him. Your uphill is downhill for him. He is not stumped by your problem. When you present your needs to him, he never, ever turns to the angels and says, 'Well, it finally happened. I’ve been handed a code I cannot crack. The demand is too great, even for me.'" No, he doesn't say that. Max then says, "You may feel outnumbered, but he does not. Give him what you have, offer thanks, and watch him go to work. Your list of blessings will be so long you’ll need to buy a new hard drive for your computer so you can store it." He is not stumped by all of this. So, will you turn to him, present your needs, offer hi...

A thought by Max Lucado from his book,  You Are Never Alone  (p. 53). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)   And the same could be said of us, his followers today, in what we are going through. Max says, "After all, they’d seen water turned into wine and a lame man walk. We’d like to see more spunk, more grit. More 'We can’t, but you can, Jesus!' But they and the silent others showed no spark. They counted the hungry people, the money in their bag, and the amount of bread and fish. They did not, however, count on Christ. "And he was standing right there! He could not have been nearer. They could see, hear, touch, maybe even smell him. Yet the idea of soliciting his help did not dawn on them.  "Even so, Jesus went right to work." John 6:10–13, "Jesus said, 'Please get the people seated.' (There was a lot of grass there.) The people sat down; they numbered about five thousand men. So Jesus took...

A thought by Max Lucado from his book,  You Are Never Alone  (p. 38). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)   It is no fun to be stuck, is it?  Max says, "Odds are you’ve never been stuck in a ventilation duct, on a roller coaster, or in a toilet, (he has just told stories of people being stuck in those places) but you have been stuck. Lodged between a rock and a hard place, unable to escape. Mired in the mud of resentment, bogged down in debt, trapped in a dead-end career, up to your waist in the swamp of an unsolvable conflict. Stuck. Stuck with parents who won’t listen or employees who won’t change. Stuck with a harsh boss or a stubborn addiction. Stuck" He goes on, "The man near the pool of Bethesda didn’t use the word stuck, but he could have. For thirty-eight years near the edge of a pool, it was just him, his mat, and his paralyzed body. And since no one would help him, help never came." Later Max says...

A thought by Max Lucado from his book,  You Are Never Alone (p. 31). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) That is a very good question and a difficult one, isn't it?   Max says, "May I approach this topic gently? Before I suggest an answer, may I tell you I am sorry we have to discuss the question? I’m sorry you have a yet-to-be-answered prayer. I’m sorry the job did not materialize, the spouse did not apologize, or the cancer chose to metastasize. I’m sorry you find yourself between Cana and Capernaum. Life has its share of dark, dank moments. "And Christ will not remove all the pain this side of heaven." Max goes on, "Did someone tell you otherwise? Did someone assure you that God permits only blue skies and rainbows and sunbeams? They misspoke. Read the Bible from the table of contents in the front to the maps in the back, and you will not find any promise of a pain-free life on this side of death. "B...

A though by Max Lucado from his book, You Are Never Alone,  (p. 21). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.   (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) There was both quantity and quality in this first miracle of Jesus. Max says, "Cooking wine would have sufficed. Convenience-store vintage  would have met the expectations of the guests. A modest sip-with-pizza-on-a-Tuesday-night quaff would have been enough for Mary. But it was not enough for Jesus. Something powerful happens when we present our needs to him and trust him to do what is right: he is 'able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think' (Eph. 3:20)." He goes on, "It simply falls to us to believe—to believe that Jesus is king of each and every situation. So make your specific request, and trust him to do, not what you want, but what is best. Before you know it, you’ll be raising a toast in honor of the One who hears your requests." I know, I know, we want more and more and...

A thought by Max Lucado from his book, You Are Never Alone (p. 15). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) That is so true isn't it? Max says, "We don’t have what we had yesterday. Our spending is outpacing our deposits—a fact, I think, that explains the reasoning behind miracle number one in the ministry of Jesus. He was at a wedding. Mary, his mother, was present as well. She came to Christ with a problem. 'They have no more wine' (John 2:3 NIV)." Max goes on, "Had I been the angel on call that day, I would have intervened. I would have placed a wing between Mary and Jesus and reminded her about the mission of her Son. 'He was not sent to the earth to handle such mundane, day-to-day tasks. We are saving his miraculous powers for cadaver calling, leper touching, and demon casting. No wine? Don’t whine to Jesus.' "But I was not the angel on call. And Mary enlisted the help of her Son to deal with...

A thought by Max Lucedo from his book, You Are Never Alone (p.6). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Oh, we need to believe that, don’t we? Max says, “Jesus touched wounds. He spoke words of hope. Lives were improved. Blessings were bestowed. There was a message in his miracles: ‘I am here. I care.’ “Had Jesus wanted just to make a case for his divinity, he could have materialized a flock of birds out of thin air and caused trees to uproot and float away. He could have turned creeks into waterfalls or rocks into bumblebees. Such deeds would have demonstrated his power. But Jesus wanted us to see more. He wanted to show us that there is a miracle-working God who loves, cares, and comes to our aid.” He goes on, “Do we not need this message today? “This book is a child of the quarantine. I completed it during the days of coronavirus. When I began writing it, some months ago, Covid-19 was unknown to most. Phrases like ‘social dist...

A thought by John Townsend from his book, Loving People (p.50). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) He says, “When we connect, we bring these aspects of ourselves into relationship with others: • Feelings . When we are connected, we can share the emotions we experience about things and people, present and past, whether pleasant or painful. • Dreams and desires . Another part of connection involves sharing our deepest longings and wishes—the things we keep protected and share with only a few friends. • Fears . We are all afraid of something, and connection makes it safe enough to share our fears openly. • Failures. No one is without mistakes, and when we connect, we let others in on the darker parts of our lives. • Past. We all have losses and joys in our pasts, and connection means that we want to bring someone else into our personal history. • The other person. One of the deepest aspe...