As I Have Done to You

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by Max Lucado

 

Victoria Ruvolo doesn’t remember the 18-year-old boy leaning out the window, of all things, holding a frozen turkey. He threw it at her windshield. Crashing through the glass, it shattered Victoria’s face like a dinner plate on concrete.

John 13:14-15 (NKJV) says, “Since I, the Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet…do as I have done to you.” Victoria Ruvolo did. Months later, she stood face to face with her offender in court. He was no longer cocky. He as trembling, tearful, and apologetic. Six months behind bars, five years’ probation. Everyone in the courtroom objected to the light sentence. He sobbed, but she spoke. The light sentence was her idea. She said, “I forgive you, and I want your life to be the best it can be.” Grace does this. Grace chooses to give the forgiveness that’s been received.

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Where Grace Abounds

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by Max Lucado

 

If hurts were hairs, we’d all look like grizzlies! So many hurts. When teachers ignore your work, their neglect hurts. When your girlfriend drops you, when your husband abandons you, when the company fires you, it hurts. Rejection always hurts. People bring pain. Sometimes deliberately, sometimes randomly. So where do you turn? Hitman.com? Jim Beam and friends? Pity Party Catering Service? Retaliation has its appeal, but Jesus has a better idea.

Grace is not blind. It sees the hurt full well. But grace chooses to see God’s forgiveness even more. Hebrews 12:15 (NIV) urges us to, “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” You see, where grace is lacking, bitterness abounds. But where grace abounds, forgiveness grows. Forgiveness may not happen all at once. But it can happen with you.

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Enough of the Frenzy

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by Max Lucado

 

Attempts at self-salvation guarantee nothing but exhaustion. We scamper and scurry, trying to please God,  collecting merit badges and brownie points, scowling at anyone who questions our accomplishments. The result? The weariest people on earth. We so fear failure that we create the image of perfection. Call us the church of hound-dog faces and slumped shoulders. Stop it! Once and for all, enough of this frenzy.

Hebrews 13:9 (NCV) says, “Your hearts should be strengthened by God’s grace, not by obeying rules.” In Matthew 11:28 (NASB) Jesus said, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” There is no fine print. A second shoe isn’t going to drop. God’s promise has no hidden language. Let grace happen. You have his unending affection. Stretch yourself out in the hammock of grace. You can rest now.

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Salvation is Not Earned

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by Max Lucado

 

I became a Christian about the same time I became a Boy Scout, and I made the assumption that God grades like the Boy Scouts do: on a merit system. Good scouts move up. Good people go to heaven.

So, I resolved to amass of multitude of spiritual badges. I worked toward the day when God, amid falling confetti and dancing cherubim, would drape my badge-laden sash across my chest and welcome me into his eternal kingdom, where I would humbly display my badges for eternity.

But some thorny questions surfaced. How many badges does he require? How good is good?  And then I was corrected. Ephesians 2:8 (NASB) says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” Unearned. A gift. Our merits merit nothing. So let grace happen, for Heaven’s sake.

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Grace is Personal

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by Max Lucado

 

Christ took away your sins. He endured not just the nails of the Romans, the mockery of the crowd, and the spear of the soldier, but he endured the anger of God.

God didn’t just overlook your sins, lest he endorse them. He didn’t punish you, lest he destroy you. Instead he found a way to punish the sin and preserve the sinner. Jesus took your punishment, and God gave you credit for Jesus’ perfection.

As long as the cross is God’s gift to the world, it will touch you but it will not change you. Precious as it is to proclaim, “Christ died for the world,” even sweeter it is to whisper, “Christ died for me.” For my sins he died. He took my place on the cross. He felt my shame, he spoke my name. Thank God for the day Jesus took your place, for the day grace happened to you.

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What Just Happened?

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by Max Lucado

 

We are incarcerated by our past. Our low road choices, our high minded pride. We have been found guilty. Our executioner’s footsteps echo against stone walls. We sit on the floor of the dusty cell, awaiting our final moment. We don’t look up as he opens the door; we know what he’s going to say. “Time to pay for your sins!”

But we hear something else. “You’re free to go. They took Jesus instead of you.” The door swings open and the guard barks, “Get out!” And we find ourselves shackles gone, crimes pardoned, wondering, what just happened?

Well, grace just happened. Christ took away your sins. Romans chapter 3 explains that God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us. What happened? Grace happened!

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Jesus, Your Righteous Advocate

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by Max Lucado

Not all guilt is bad. God uses appropriate doses of guilt to awaken us to sin. God’s guilt brings enough regret to change us. Satan’s guilt, on the other hand, brings enough regret to enslave us. Don’t let Satan lock his shackles on you. Colossians 3:3 (NIV) says, “Your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

You see, when God looks at you, he sees Jesus first. In the Chinese language the word for “righteousness” is a combination of two characters: the figure of a lamb and a person. The lamb is on top, covering the person. Whenever God looks down on you, this is what he sees. The perfect Lamb of God covering you.

It boils down to this choice: Do you trust your Advocate, Jesus, or your Accuser, Satan? Give no heed to Satan’s voice. You have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the righteous.

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Jesus Has Risen to Your Defense

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by Max Lucado

Satan’s condemnation brings no repentance or resolve, just regret. Satan has come to steal, kill, and destroy. To steal your peace, to kill your dreams, to destroy your future. Satan has deputized people to peddle his poison. Friends dredge up your past, preachers proclaim all guilt and no grace, and parents—oh your parents! They own a travel agency that specializes in guilt trips. “Why can’t you grow up?” they say. “When are you going to make me proud?” they say.

But your accusers will not have the last word. Jesus has acted on your behalf. Jesus has risen to your defense. Hebrews 10:22 (NCV) says, “Let us come near to God with a sincere heart and a sure faith, because we have been made free from a guilty conscience.” Not just for our past mistakes, but also for our future ones.

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Christ Stands Up for Us

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by Max Lucado

 

The voices in our world and the voices in our head. Who is this morality patrolman who issues a citation at every stumble? Does he ever shut up? No. Because Satan never shuts up.

Revelation 12:10 (NLT) says, “For the accuser has been thrown down to earth, the one who accused our brothers and sisters before our God day and night.”  Satan is relentless, tireless. The accuser makes a career out of accusing, but he will not have the last word. Jesus has acted on our behalf.

He stooped. Low enough to be spat upon, nailed, and speared. Low, low enough to be buried. And then he stood. He stood up. Romans 8:34 promises that he is in the presence of God at this very moment standing up for us. So we have a clean conscience. We have a clean record. Free from condemnation, a new life in Christ! Grace.

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What You Need

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by Max Lucado

 

She was only five years old when you took the photo. Cheeks freckled by the summer sun, hair in pigtails. That was twenty years ago. Three marriages ago. A million flight miles and e-mails ago. Today she walks down the aisle on the arm of another father. You left your family bobbing in the wake of your high-speed career. Now that you have what you wanted, you don’t want it at all. Oh, to have a second chance.

Did you know God will give you one? 1 John 4:15 says, “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” God repurposes bad decisions and squalid choices. To be saved by grace is to be saved by God, who placed a term limit on sin, and his son Jesus Christ, who danced a victory jig in the graveyard. God can do something with the mess of your life, and Grace is what you need.

Read more Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine