Max Lucado on Grace

A few weeks ago, I featured an interview with Max Lucado on grace as he prepared to release his latest book. As a reviewer for Book Sneeze, I got my hands on a copy early.

In typical Lucado story/devotional form, Max explores many aspects of the grace of God.

Here are a few notable quotables:

– “Grace is God’s best idea.”

• “No other religion or philosophy makes such a claim. No other movement implies the living presence of its founder in his followers. Muhammad does not indwell Muslims. Buddha does not inhabit Buddhists. Hugh Hefner does not inhabit the pleasure-seeking hedonist. Influence? Instruct? Entice? Yes. But occupy? No.”

• “Attempts at self-salvation guarantee nothing but exhaustion. We scamper and scurry, trying to please God, collecting merit badges and brownie points, and scowling at anyone who questions our accomplishments.”

– “Grace goes beyond mercy.”

• “Confession is a radical reliance on grace…A proclamation of our trust in God’s goodness. “What I did was bad,” we acknowledge, “but your grace is greater than my sin, so I confess it.”

• “To accept God’s grace is to accept God’s offer to be adopted into his family.”

– “Grace creates a resolve to do good, not permission to do bad.”

Whet your appetite? There is more where that came from.

Max Lucado’s [amazon_link id=”0849920701″ target=”_blank” ]Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine[/amazon_link] is yet another fantastic and heart touching book.

The chapter entitled “You Can Rest Now” was my favorite. Max explores our obsession with busyness and the consequential tiredness. The Israelites which were set free from slavery would have never desired to return. Why do we seek to put ourselves back into slavery that we are free?

He compares being a believer to being a Boy Scout in pursuit of the next merit badge to wear with great pride. Any time we attempt to earn our way into God’s favor, we must ask, “When have I done enough?”

“Yet for all the talk about being good, still no one can answer the fundamental question: What level of good is good enough?”

The miners who were recently trapped in Chile did not rely on their own efforts to get them to freedom. They acknowledged their need for help.

Lucado asks, “Why is it so hard for us to do the same?”

“Jesus does not say, “Come to me, all you who are perfect and sinless.”

Quite the opposite.

“You can rest now.”

[amazon_image id=”0849920701″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine[/amazon_image]