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Stephen Lawes is a Pastor and Church Growth Consultant with an active Web Ministry. His most popular sites include Church Growth Consulting, Internet Pastor Online, God's Daytimer, and Christian Book Club Online. He also runs a site to teach people how to create a blog called My Newbie Blog.

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1. 

   Comment by Wendy on 6 June 2008:

   I’m glad you suggested this book. I’ve read everything Lucado has written. My very favorite is “When God whispers your name”. I pull that book about every few months and read it again.

   Someone I go to church with recently referred to Max’s writings as “bubble gum”. Okay….so? I like bubble gum and I like to “chew” on God’s word in any way possible. I don’t always have to read something that takes me a hour to get past the first page. Max is great at getting to his point quickly.

   There are lots of people that I look forward to seeing in heaven (have you ever been asked this question? Most people say Jesus or their mom or dad). I always answer with King David, Peter, Rahab and Nicodemus. Nicodemus is fascinating to me. He realizes who Jesus really is but is still human enough to be afraid to see Jesus during the day. Jesus doesn’t fuss at him for it either. Jesus gives him the answers he is seeking and in turn gives us hope and assurance. “Stretch out on Christ and rest”. Yeah I like that.

   God is. Nothing else needs to be added. We sure try though. We want to define God because then He can be what we “say”. Pages 17-18 make you go hmmmm….”a house implies a builder; a painting suggests a painter. Don’t stars suggest a star maker? Doesn’t creation imply a creator?” Even the scientific community that for decades teach the Big Bang theory are starting to talk about an “intelligent designer”.
   Page 20 “I can’t maintain a holy thought for my two-minute morning commute”. Can I get an amen?! That made me laugh out loud.
   God is.

   Loved. That is what we all want to say of ourselves. That someone loves us. I don’t even love myself some days but God loves me period. I can’t earn it, I can’t lose it. I believe I read in “Rich Mullins:an arrow pointing to heaven” the statement “there is nothiing you can do to make God love you more, and nothing you can do to make Him love you less.” We just need to really believe this statement.

   Don’t forget what God has done for you. Acknowledge what you have done against God.
   Two statements that keep running through my brain. My prayer life is taking this route….thanking Him and repenting. As Lucado says we live in a hard world but we don’t have to live with a hard heart.
2. 

   Comment by stephenlawes on 7 June 2008:

   Hi Wendy,
   I like bubble gum as well. But I would submit that Max has a way of taking deep subjects and writing about them in such a way that they allow you to embrace and think about them. I share your opinion about reading books that you have to wrestle through page by page. I enjoy the flow Max brings to his writing. I am glad you are enjoying the book.
   Blessings!
3. 

   Comment by Carol on 8 June 2008:

   I love reflecting on Jesus’ birth in the middle of June. That is why the devotional for the first seven days thrilled me! I love pondering the details of the night Jesus was born, and that is exactly what Max invites us to to as we use our imaginations to think about the sky and the sheep and the shepherds on the ordinary night that Jesus was born, and why the angels went to the shepherds
   with the announcement. Day 2 reminds me of the “Mary, Did You Know?” song that is popular these days, that asks if Mary knew that when she was kissing her baby, she knew she was kissing the face of God. Oh, if all of us could kiss the face of God right now!
   Day 3 through 7 helps us understand what it must
   have been like for Joseph to have made the decision
   he made to take Mary as his wife. And then what it must have been like for Jesus in infancy and his
   growing up. It’s possible, according to Max, that
   Mary might have raised Jesus (after 12 years old) without Joseph by her side because there is no reference to Joseph in Jesus’ adult life.
   My favorite thing that I read this week in the
   book is the quote on Page 133 that stated that “There are so many other things Jesus did. If they were all written down, each of them, one by one, I can’t imagine a world big enough to hold such library of books”(John 21:25 MSG). But they
   weren’t written down, so that leads us to believe that the good stuff, the stuff God really wanted us
   to hear, and know, and take to heart, is written in the bible we currently study. And that’s interesting!

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