Tailor-Made

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Tailor-Made

Lucille Ball said the secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age. It’s hard to lie about the obvious. When you’re young you make a lot of faces in the mirror. When you’re old the mirror gets even.

Growing older. Aging. We laugh about it and we groan about it. We resist it, but we can’t stop it. And with the chuckles and wrinkles come some serious thoughts and questions about what happens when we die.

God is doing what any father would do. He’s providing a better place for us. A place to rest. A place He has prepared for us. Heaven isn’t mass-produced; it’s tailor-made. We must trust God. We must trust not only that He does what is best, but that He knows what’s ahead.

This world wears like a borrowed shirt. Heaven will fit like one tailor-made!

From A Gentle Thunder

Love is All You'll Find

We know the love that God has for us, and we trust that love.
1John 4:16

Go to the beginning of every decision he has made and you'll find it. Go to the end of every story he has told and you'll see it. Love. No bitterness. No evil. No cruelty. Just love. flawless love. Passionate love. Vast and pure love. He is love. (passage from In the eye of the storm)

A Plate Of Experiences - Max Lucado

I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. Jeremiah 29:11

The next time your plate has more broccoli than apple pie, remember who prepared the meal. And next time your plate has a portion you find hard to swallow, talk to God about it. Jesus did.

So KIND to us

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Our Feet in His Hands

“Jesus poured water into a bowl and began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel wrapped around Him.” (John 13:5)

We say, “No! Don’t wash their feet, Jesus. Tell them to wash Yours!” Do we object because we don’t want to see God washing feet? Or do we object because we don’t want to do the same?

Logic says, “Put up your fists.” Jesus says, “Fill up the basin.”
Logic says, “She doesn’t deserve it.” Jesus says, “You’re right, but you don’t, either.”

I don’t understand how God can be so kind to us, but he is. He kneels before us, takes our dirty feet in his hands, and washes them. Not from our dirt, but from our sins. And the cleansing isn’t just a gesture; it’s a necessity. We cannot cleanse our own filth. We cannot remove our own sin. Our feet must be in His hands.

Would you let him wash your feet today?

From A Gentle Thunder

Please continue to pray for the USA! 40 Days of Prayer

Pray. Pray again. Pray more. Often. Pray Always.

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Jesus Prayed

Much of life is spent getting out of bed. Fixing lunches. Turning in assignments. Changing diapers. Paying bills. Routine. Regular. More struggle than strut.

You thought marriage was going to be a lifelong date? You thought having kids was going to be like baby-sitting? You thought the company who hired you wanted to hear all the ideas you had in college? Then you learned otherwise. The honeymoon ended.

But at the right time, God comes. In the right way, He appears. So don’t bail out. Don’t give up. He is too wise to forget you, too loving to hurt you. When you can’t see Him, trust Him.

So what does God do while we’re enduring the pain? Mark 6:46 says, “Jesus prayed.” He prayed for His disciples when they were in the storm. And when He heard their cries, He remained in prayer.

He’s praying a prayer right now that He Himself will answer at the right time.

“Jesus is able always to save those who come to God through him because he always lives, asking God to help them.” (Hebrews 7:24-25)

From A Gentle Thunder

Download and listen to Max’s 3-part interview on Family Life Today!

Just Row

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Just Row

It’s one thing to suffer for doing wrong. Something else entirely to suffer for doing right. But it happens. And when the storm bursts, it washes away the naïve assumption that if I do what is right, I will never suffer.

Just ask the faithful couple whose crib is empty. Just ask the business person whose honest work was rewarded with runaway inflation. Just ask the student who took a stand for the truth and got mocked.

And like the disciples in the boat, they wonder, “Why the storm, and where is Jesus?” (John 6:19)

It’s bad enough to be in the storm, but to be in the storm alone? So where does that leave us? It’s simple. We do what the disciples did. We row the boat. Oh there are moments of glamour, days of celebration. But we also have our share of baloney sandwiches. And to have the first we must endure the second. We row the boat.

“God will always give what is right to his people who cry to him night and day, and he will not be slow to answer them.” (Luke 18:7)

From A Gentle Thunder

Listen to HIM

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It’s Just Like Him
Think for a moment about your world. Remember that voice, that face, that event? Wasn’t there a time for you—maybe the birth of your child? The tears of the widower? The explosion of a sunset? The impassioned sermon? Wasn’t there a time when you heard God speak?

It isn’t the circumstance that matters; it’s God in the circumstance. It isn’t the words; it’s God speaking them. It wasn’t the mud that healed the eyes of the blind man; it was the finger of God in the mud. The cradle and the cross were as common as grass. What made them holy was the One laid upon them.

God speaks to us. He may use a sermon. He may inspire a conversation. He may speak through a song. He may even speak through this brief message. But, isn’t that just like Him? Oh, the lengths to which God will go to get our attention and win our affection! Listen to Him.

“Very truly I tell you, you will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (John 1:51)

From A Gentle Thunder

To Reach The Destination

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To Reach the Destination

Oct 14, 2012 10:01 pm
Today's MP3
In order to reach the destination, we have to say no to some requests! Can you imagine the chaos if a parent honored each request of a child during a trip? Can you imagine the chaos if God indulged each of ours? “No!” is a necessary word to take on a trip!

Scripture says, “For God has not destined us to the terrors of judgment but to the full attainment of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Thess. 5:9)

Note God’s destiny for your life: Salvation. God’s overarching desire is that you to reach that destiny. His itinerary includes stops that encourage your journey. He frowns on stops that deter you. When His sovereign plan and your earthly plan collide, a decision must be made. Who’s in charge of this journey?

If God must choose between your earthly satisfaction and your heavenly salvation, which do you hope He chooses?

From In the Eye of the Storm

What do you hear?

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Listen to His Voice

There are a lot of lying voices that make “noise” in our world! You’ve heard them. They tell you to swap your integrity for a new sale. To barter your convictions for an easy deal. They whisper. They woo. They taunt. They flirt. They flatter.

“Go ahead, it’s okay.” “Just wait until tomorrow.” “Don’t worry, no one will know.”

The voices of the crowd! The world rams at your door. But Jesus taps at your door. Scripture says, “the sheep listen to His voice.” (John 10:2-4) The mark of a disciple of Jesus is the ability to hear the Master’s voice.

Which voice do you hear? Let me state something important. There’s never a time Jesus is not speaking. Never a place in which Jesus is not present. Never a room so dark, that the ever-present, ever-pursuing Jesus is not present.

Never! If we will but listen to His voice.

From In the Eye of the Storm

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