Sowing Seeds of Peace

Plant goodness, harvest the fruit of loyalty, plow the new ground of knowledge.  ~  Hosea 10:12

Want to see a miracle?  Plant a word of love heartdeep in a person's life.  Nurture it with a smile and a prayer, and watch what happens.

An employee gets a compliment.  A wife receives a bouquet of flowers.  A cake is baked and carried next door.  A widow is hugged.  A gas station attendant is honored.  A preacher is praised.

Sowing seeds of peace is like sowing beans.  You don't know why it works; you just know it does.  Seeds are planted, and topsoils of hurt are shoved away.

Don't forget the principle.  Never underestimate the power of a seed.

Max Lucado, excerpt from The Applause of Heaven

God, Our Defender

Here is a big question.  What is God doing when you are in a bind?  When the lifeboat springs a leak?  When the rip cord snaps?  When the last penny is gone before the last bill is paid?...

I know what we are doing.  Nibbling on nails like corn on the cob.  Pacing floors.  Taking pills...

But what does God do?...

He fights for us.  He steps into the ring and points us to our corner and takes over.  "Remain calm; the Lord will fight for you" (Exodus 14:14).

His job is to fight.  Our job is to trust.

Just trust.  Not direct.  Or question...Our job is to pray and wait. 

Max Lucado, When God Whispers Your Name

He is my defender; I will not be defeated.  ~  Psalm 62:6

Got It All Figured Out

We understand how storms are created.  We map solar systems and transplant hearts.  We measure the depths of the oceans and send signals to distant planets.  We...have studied the system and are learning how it works.

And, for some, the loss of mystery has led to the loss of majesty.  The more we know, the less we believe.  Strange, don't you think?  Knowledge of the workings shouldn't negate wonder.  Knowledge should stir wonder.  Who has more reason to worship than the astronomer who has seen the stars?...

Ironically, the more we know, the less we worship.  We are more impressed with our discovery of the light switch than with the one who invented electricity...Rather than worship the Creator, we worship the creation (see Romans 1:25).

No wonder there is no wonder.  We've figured it all out.

Max Lucado

I look at your heavens, which you made with your fingers...But why are people important to you?  ~  Psalm 8:3-4

The Shepherd Leads

In the second verse of the Twenty-third Psalm, David the poet becomes David the artist. His quill becomes a brush, his parchment a canvas, his words paint a picture. A flock of sheep on folded legs, encircling a shepherd. Bellies nestled deep in the long shoots of grass. A still pond on one side, the watching shepherd on the other. "He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters."

Note the two pronouns preceeding the two verbs. He makes me...He leads me..."

Who is the active one? Who is in charge? The shepherd. The shepherd selects the trail and prepares the pasture. The sheep's job--our job--is to watch the Shepherd.

~ Max Lucado, Traveling Light

He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. ~ Psalm 23:2

Life is Long Enough!

No person lives one day more or less than God intends.  "All the days planned for me were written in your book before I was one day old." 

But her days here were so few...

His life was so brief...

To us it seems that way.  We speak of a short life, but compared to eternity, who has a long one?  A person's days on earth may appear as a drop in the ocean.  Yours and mine may seem like a thimbleful.  But compared to the Pacific of eternity, even the years of Methuselah filled no more than a glass...

In God's plan every life is long enough and every death is timely.  And though you and I might wish for a longer life, God knows better.  

Excerpt taken from Traveling Light by Max Lucado

"All the days planned for me were written in your book before I was one day old."  ~  Psalm 139:16