MAX ON LIFE

10. Every Easter our family has the same argument: Did Jesus come back from the dead? My dad calls the resurrection a fable, I disagree. How can we know?

No one questions the existence of Jesus. Historically, he lived; he preached; he stirred a following and then was killed. No one questions these facts.

And no one questions the existence of a resurrection story. They may not buy it, but they don't question it exists. Skeptics may chalk it up as a legend or hoax, but everyone believes that the early followers proclaimed that Jesus was raised from the dead.

So the remaining question is this one: "Is the tomb empty?"

There are those who say he never died. Instead, they say a soldier mistakenly lowered his body from the cross, and those who loved him mistakenly put him in the tomb. Honestly. After a whipping that could have killed him, after six hours on the cross, after a spear in his side, could this frail and beaten Jesus spend two nights in a tomb and, on the third day, shove back the rock, overpower the soldiers, and encounter the disciples with such vigor that they believed he was raised from the dead? I don't think so.

Some teach that Jesus' body was stolen by his enemies, the religious leaders of Jerusalem. If so, why didn't they produce it? They cold have killed Christianity in its cradle! But they didn't. There are those who say the disciples took the body. Maybe the followers of Jesus staged the resurrection. There is only one problem: the disciples spent the rest of their lives proclaiming the resurrection. Some died for their belief. One might die for a truth, but one will never die for a lie.

What is left? The empty tomb is left.

You don't have to toss common sense out the door to embrace the resurrection of Jesus. In fact, it's just as challenging, or more so, to disprove the resurrection as to prove it.

By: Max Lucado

MAX ON LIFE

9. When my husband and I became the parents of a baby girl, we started to attend Church. The pastor and others here talk about being saved, but we really don't understand what that means. Can you help us?

The best answer to your question is found in the Bible's best-known scripture:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever

believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Why does God want to save us? "God so loved...." What parents can stand idly by while their child suffers in agony? Who would watch loved ones step toward a perilous pit and not stop them before they plunged into darkness? God loves us so much he wants to save us.... from the world, from Satan, from ourselves. The motivation that drives all his actions is love.... love.... love.... love. And his love is directed at you.

How does God save us? He gave his one and only Son....." A payment satisfies a debt. A gift appeases anger. A sacrifice dies in place of the guilty party. God saves us by offering his own sacrifice - his own Son - to pay for our massive debt of sin, to satisfy his immense anger toward our rebellion, and to relieve the burden of our guilt. Only one sacrifice was worthy enough to die for all the sins of all the people of all time. Jesus. He died as a sinless and perfect sacrifice on the cross.

What do we need to do to be saved? "Whoever believes in him...." The debt is too big to pay. Working ourselves to death wouldn't be enough. So Jesus, out of love, did all the work for us two thousand years ago on a cross outside the walls of Jerusalem. What must we do? Believe. Believe that Jesus died for you and me. Know that God is satisfied and our sin bill has been paid in full.

What will happen as a result of salvation? "Have eternal life." Jesus' death on the cross paid for our sins. Jesus' resurrection from the tomb promises our eternal life. We are no longer stuck on death row. We will be set free to enjoy life eternal with our Savior himself.

God saves us because he loves us.

God saves us through Jesus Christ.

God saves us when we believe.

God saves us from death.

The only question John 3:16 does not answer is, what about you? Have you been saved?

By: Max Lucado

MAX ON LIFE

8. What is the purpose of confession? Doesn't God already know what I've done? Why does he need me to tell him?

The Greek word for confession is the compound term homologeo, homo meaning "the same" and logeo meaning "to speak". To confess is to speak the same, to agree with. In this case, to agree with God.

This definition not only tells us what confession is; it tells us what confession is not. Confession is not complaining. If I merely recite my problems and tell you how tough my life is, I'm not confessing.

Confession is not blaming. Pointing fingers at others without pointing any at my self may feel good for a while, but it does nothing to remove the conflict within me.

Confession is coming clean with God.

King David did. As if the affair with Bathsheba wasn't enough. As if the murder of her husband wasn't enough. Somehow David danced around the truth. He denied his wrongdoing for at least nine months until the child was born. It took a prophet to bring the truth to the surface, but when he did, David didn't like what he saw (2 Sam 11:1-12:13).

He waved the white flag. No more combat with God. No more arguing with heaven. He confessed. He came clean with God. What was the result of such honesty?

I confessed all my sins to you

and stopped trying to hide my guilt.

I said to myself, "I will confess my rebellion to the Lord".

and you forgave me! All my guilt is gone. (Ps 32:5)

Want to get rid of your guilt? Come clean with God.

By: Max Lucado

MAX ON LIFE

7. My question's pretty basic. What are we doing here? I mean, is God up to something? If so, what? Is he taking us somewhere? If so, where?

You are right. A more basic question doesn't exist.

One word works well as an answer: kingdom. God is creating a kingdom. He is collecting for himself an eternal populace that will reign with him in the new heaven and the new earth.

Old Testament prophets envisioned a time when God would affirm and establish his rule in a new way: "He will rule from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.... All kings will bow down to him and all nations will serve him" (Ps 72:8, 11).

They promised the earthly arrival of an anointed King, a Messiah, one uniquely related to God to serve as the instrument of his rule. "Your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey" (Zech 9:9).

It's all about the King and his kingdom. "And this is (God's) plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ - everything in heaven and on earth" (Eph 1:10).

It seems to stack up like this:

• God created the universe as a habitation for humans.
• Humans exist to become a citizenry for Jesus, the King.
• Jesus, the King, came to the earth to purchase (pay for the sins of) his people and invited them to heaven.
• Those who accept his gift are placed in his family and empowered by his Spirit.
• He is coming back to reclaim us and his creation to reign over it forever.

The King and his kingdom. That's why we are here. That's where we are headed. That will be some coronation day, don't you think?

By: Max Lucado

MAX ON LIFE

6. Why talk to God about my troubles? He can't understand.

According to the Bible he can: "For we have no superhuman High Priest to whom our weaknesses are unintelligible - he himself has shared fully in all our experience of temptation, except that he never sinned" (Heb 4:15).

The writer of Hebrews is adamant almost to the point of redundancy. It's as if he anticipates our objections. It's as if he knows that we will say, "God, it's easy for you up there. You don't know how hard it is from down here." So he boldly proclaims Jesus' ability to understand. Look at the wording again.

He himself. Not an angel. Not an ambassador. Not an emissary. But Jesus himself.

Shared fully. Not partially. Not nearly. Not to a large degree. Entirely! Jesus shared fully.

In all our experience. Every hurt. Each ache. All the stresses and all the strains. No exceptions. No substitutes. Why? So he could sympathize with our weaknesses.

Every page of the Gospels hammers home this crucial principle: God knows how you feel. From the funeral to the factory to the frustration of a demanding schedule. Jesus understands. When you tell God that you've reached your limit, he knows what you mean. When you shake your head at the impossible deadlines, he shakes his too. When your plans are interrupted by people who have other plans, he nods in empathy.

He has been there.

He knows how you feel.

By: Max Lucado

MAX ON LIFE

5. My fiancee and I stayed up late last night discussing the meaning of sin and the need for salvation. We really have two different viewpoints. Isn't sin a violation of the conscience?

Actually, it is much more. One of the clearest verses on this question is Romans 3:23: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

Note the phrase fall short of. All of us know what it means to have a shortfall. Sometimes we think of a shortfall in athletic terms. The pole-vaulter doesn't have the strength to jump over the bar, so he falls short. We also think of a shortfall in financial terms. When we have month left at the end of our money rather than money at the end of our month, we suffer a shortfall. According to the Bible, there is another type of shortfall. We don't just fall short athletically or financially but, much more important, spiritually. We fall short of the high standard. We have inadequate goodness in our morality account. Heaven is a holy place, and "those who are not holy will not see the Lord" (Heb 12:14).

Simply put, we are not good enough to go to heaven.

So what can we do? Well, we can start doing good deeds. Perhaps if we do enough good deeds, they will offset our bad deeds. The question then surfaces, how many good deeds do we need to do? If I lose my temper in traffic, can I make up for it by waving at the next four cars? If I spend one year being greedy, how many years should I be generous? If I miss church one Sunday, how many services do I have to attend to break even?

No one knows the answer to those questions. No one knows how many good deeds it takes to offset the bad. A rule sheet can't be found. A code has not been discovered. It has not been discovered simply because it doesn't exist. God doesn't operate this way.

Is God nothing more than a heavenly deal broker who barters packages of grace? Does he spend his time on the phone with sinners, saying, "All right, I'll forgive your selfishness if you'll put two dollars in the plate and have your mother-in-law over for dinner"? Is that the kind of God we have? It's certainly not the kind of God we read about in the Bible.

God has been so kind to us. We have no way of balancing the scales. All we can do is ask for mercy. And God, because of his kindness, gives it. God turned over our sins to his Son. His Son, Jesus Christ, died for our sins. He did what we could not do so that we might becomes what we dare not dream: citizens of heaven.

By: Max Lucado

MAX ON LIFE

4. I'm beginning to doubt some of the things I've always just taken for granted. Like whether there really is a God. How can we know he truly exists? Can I know he's not just a product of my imagination?

Belief in God is not blind faith. Belief means having a firm conviction ("I believe this to be true"), not hoping it's true ("I believe the Cubs will win the World Series"). It's the kind of assurance you get standing on a huge rock. So how can people get to that place in their belief in God?

Space: Look to the skies. Two hundred billion stars just in the Milky Way galaxy. Billions of galaxies and expanding. Where does it end? How did it all begin?

Earth: Look to creation. So many varieties. So much beauty. A circle of life. How did it all come to be? Why does it work in perfect synchronicity?

Ethics: Look to our morals. A common sense of right and wrong shared by people in different countries and different times in history. Murder is always bad. Courage is always good. Who programmed us?

Bible: Look to God's Word. Examine the wisdom. Experience the stories. Trace its preservation throughout time. How did it remain so well intact despite wars and opposition?

Empty tomb: Look to the resurrection. So many of those who claimed to have seen the risen Lord died with that testimony on their lips. Would they die for a lie? Or did they believe they, too, would rise?

Jesus: Look to him. No other man in history has caused so many questions, stirred so many hearts, given so many answers. Could he be who he said he was?

God is not a product of your imagination. He's far more than any of us could imagine, and he is truth.

By: Max Lucado