Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Max Lucado, from his book, Begin Again (p. 78). Thomas Nelson, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Yes we do. Max says, "When God breathed into Adam, he gave him more than oxygen; he gave him a soul. He made him an eternal being. "Because of your soul, you wonder why you are here. Because of your soul, you wonder where you are going. Because of your soul, you wrestle with right and wrong, you value the lives of others, and you get choked up at the singing of the national anthem and teary-eyed at the sight of your baby." He goes on, "Your soul unites you to God. And your soul needs an anchor. Your soul is fragile. It feels the pain of death and knows the questions of disease. Your liver may suffer from the tumor, but your soul suffers from the questions. Hence, your soul needs an anchor, a hooking point that is sturdier than the storm. "This anchor is set, not on a boat or person or possession. No, this ancho...

  A thought by Max Lucado, from his book,  Begin Again   (p. 75). 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, " Boss demands more hours, doctor requires more tests, spouse wants more attention, church needs more volunteers—everyone wants more. Before long you are out of gas. Heaven has an ample supply of energy. But how do you make the connection? How do you put God’s gas in your tank?" He goes on, "Here is my suggestion. Fill your tank with the promises of God. One student of Scripture spent a year and a half attempting to tally the number of promises God has made to humanity. He came up with 7,487 promises! 1 God’s promises are pine trees in the Rocky Mountains of Scripture: abundant, unbending, and perennial. . . You’ll go further on a full tank of his love." Later he says: "Do critics define your identity? No, because God said, 'Let us make human beings in our image...

A thought by Max Lucado, from his book,  Begin Again   (p. 71). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) It sure can! Max says, " Choose it, won’t you? For the sake of your fresh start. For the sake of your journey. For Christ’s sake, and yours, choose it. The prayer is as powerful as it is simple: 'Lord, I receive your love. Nothing can separate me from your love.'" Max goes on, "My friend Keith took his wife, Sarah, to Cozumel, Mexico, to celebrate their anniversary. Sarah loves to snorkel. Give her fins, a mask, and a breathing tube, and watch her go deep. Down she swims, searching for the mysteries below. "Keith’s idea of snorkeling includes fins, a mask, and a breathing tube, but it also includes a bellyboard. The surface satisfies him. "Sarah, however, convinced him to take the plunge. Forty feet offshore, she shouted for him to paddle out. He did. The two plunged into the water where she showed hi...

A thought by Max Lucado, from his book,  Begin Again   (p. 60). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Good question. Max says, " Have they? Have bad things really happened to you? You and God may have different definitions for the word bad . Parents and children do. Look up the word bad in a student dictionary, and you’ll read definitions such as 'pimple on nose,' 'Friday night all alone,' or 'pop quiz in geometry.' 'Dad, this is really bad!' the youngster says. Dad, having been around the block a time or two, thinks differently. Pimples pass. And it won’t be long before you’ll treasure a quiet evening at home. Inconvenience? Yes. Misfortune? Sure. But bad ? Save that adjective for emergency rooms and cemeteries. "What’s bad to a child isn’t always bad to a dad. When a five-year-old drops her ice cream cone, it is a catastrophe to her. Her father has a different perspective." He goes o...

A thought by Max Lucado, from his book,  Begin Again   (p. 55). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Yes He does! Max says, " What a sentence worthy of a highlighter. Who does not need this reminder? Weak bodies. Weak wills. Weakened resolves. We’ve known them all. The word weakness can refer to physical infirmities, as with the invalid who had been unable to walk for thirty-eight years (John 5:5), or spiritual impotence, as with the spiritually 'helpless' of Romans 5:6 (NLT)." He goes on, "Whether we are feeble of soul or body or both, how good to know it’s not up to us. 'The Spirit himself is pleading for us.' "Imagine: your value to God is so great that your needs top the Holy Spirit’s to-do list. Did you have any idea that your needs are being described in heaven? The Holy Spirit 'prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what ...

A thought by Max Lucado, from his book,  Begin Again   (p. 48). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) And that is such a great thought. Right before this thought, Max says, " Ah, but God is not angry with Job. Firm? Yes. Direct? No doubt. Clear and convincing? Absolutely. But angry? No." He goes on, "If you underline any passage in the book of Job, underline this one: 'I had heard about you before, but now I have seen you.' Job 32:5 (TLB) "Job sees God—and that is enough. "But it isn’t enough for God. He will give Job a chance to begin again." Max continues, "The years to come find Job once again sitting behind his mahogany desk with health restored and profits up. His lap is once again full of children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren—for four generations! A new beginning indeed. "If Job ever wonders why God doesn’t bring back the children he has taken away, he doesn’t ask. Ma...

A thought by Max Lucado, from his book,  Begin Again   (p. 40). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) That's where we live, isn't it? Max says, " We are proud of our long hours and late flights. Weariness is a badge of honor. If we aren’t swamped and overworked, we almost hate to admit it. "The consequence? A society of exhaustion. People pushed and pulled in a thousand directions." He goes on, "Are you among them? You don’t have to be. Jesus has an invitation for you. 'Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest' (Matt. 11:28 NASB). "Rest. Isn’t that what we need? Rest for the soul. God has plenty to offer." Max continues, "The story is told about a poor man who lived in Eastern Europe in the early 1900s. Seeking a better life for himself and his family, he scraped together enough money to buy a third-class ticket on a steamship to New York City. He plann...

A thought by Max Lucado, from his book,  Begin Again   (p. 25). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) That is so true, we hope! Max says, " When you lost your job, flunked the exam, dropped out of school. When your marriage went south. When your business went broke. When you failed. The voices began to howl. Monkeys in a cage, they were, laughing at you. You heard them. "And you joined them! You disqualified yourself, berated yourself, upbraided yourself. You sentenced yourself to a life of hard labor in the Leavenworth of poor self-worth. Oh, the voices of failure." He goes on, "Failure finds us all. Failure is so universal we must wonder why more self-help gurus don’t address it. Bookstores overflow with volumes on how to succeed. But you’ll look a long time before you find a section called 'How to Succeed at Failing.'" "Maybe no one knows what to say. But God does. His book is written for fail...

  A thought by Max Lucado, from his book,  Begin Again   (p. 16). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) So what is it? I want to know? Max says, "We are blind. We can’t see the future. We have absolutely no vision beyond the present. I’m not talking nearsightedness or obstructed view; I’m talking opaque blindness. I’m not talking about a condition that passes with childhood; I’m describing a condition that passes only with death. We are blind. Blind to the future." He goes on, "It’s one limitation we all share. The wealthy are just as blind as the poor. The educated are just as sightless as the unschooled. And the famous know as little about the future as the unknown. "None of us know how our children will turn out. None of us know the day we will die. None of us know if another pandemic is on the way. We are universally, absolutely, unalterably blind." Later he says, "There are times in life when everyt...

  A thought by Max Lucado, from his book,  Begin Again   (p. 13). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Yes it is. Max says, " If worry is a burlap bag, fear is a trunk of concrete. It wouldn’t budge." He goes on, "How remarkable that Jesus felt such fear. But how kind that he told us about it. We tend to do the opposite. Gloss over our fears. Cover them up. Keep our sweaty palms in our pockets, our nausea and dry mouths a secret. Not so with Jesus. We see no mask of strength. But we do hear a request for strength. "'Father, if you are willing, take away this cup of suffering.' The first one to hear his fear is his Father. He could have gone to his mother. He could have confided in his disciples. He could have assembled a prayer meeting. All would have been appropriate, but none were his priority. He went first to his Father. "Oh, how we tend to go everywhere else. First to the bar, to the counselor, ...

  A thought by Max Lucado, from his book,  Begin Again   (p. 9). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Max says, " The guide ahead of him had a machete and was whacking away the tall weeds and thick underbrush. The traveler, weary and hot, asked in frustration, 'Where are we? Do you know where you are taking me? Where is the path?' The seasoned guide stopped and looked back at the man and replied, 'I am the path.'" Max goes on, "We ask the same questions, don’t we? We ask God, 'Where are you taking me? Where is the path?' And he, like the guide, doesn’t tell us. Oh, he may give us a hint or two, but that’s all. If he did, would we understand? Would we comprehend our location? No, like the traveler, we are unacquainted with this jungle. So rather than give us an answer, Jesus gives us a far greater gift. He gives us himself. "Does he remove the jungle? No, the vegetation is still thick.  ...

A thought by Max Lucado, from his book,  Begin Again   (p. 7). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) That is a very good question for some. Maybe you? Max says, " Though the answers are abundant, three come quickly to mind. "The first would be a person. Not just any person. You don’t need someone equally confused. You need someone who knows the way out. Someone you can trust. "And from him you need some vision. You need someone to lift your spirits. You need someone to look you in the face and say, 'This isn’t the end. Don’t give up. You can begin again. There is a better place than this. And I’ll lead you there.' "And perhaps most important you need direction. If you have only a person but no renewed vision, all you have is company. If he has a vision but no direction, you have a dreamer for company. But if you have a person with direction—who can take you from this place to the right place—ah, then you h...

A thought by Max Lucado from his book, Begin Again   (pp. xii-xiii). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) And maybe that is what you need? Max says, " Sometimes all we need is a little hope.  "That’s all Noah needed. And that’s what Noah received." He goes on, "The old sailor stares at the sun bisected by the horizon. One could hardly imagine a more beautiful sight. But he’d give this one and a hundred more for an acre of dry ground and a grove of grapes. Mrs. Noah’s voice reminds him that dinner is on the table and he should lock the hatch, and he’s just about to call it a day when he hears the cooing of the dove. This is how the Bible describes the moment: 'When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf!' (Gen. 8:11). "An olive leaf. Noah would have been happy to have the bird—but to have the leaf! This leaf was more than foliage; this was promise. ...