Max Lucado - Grace Happens Here: You Are Standing Where Grace is Happening

Grace Happens Here

YOU ARE STANDING WHERE
GRACE IS HAPPENING

MAX LUCADO

Grace Happens Here

2012 by Max Lucado

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Cover design by LeftCoast Design

Compiled by Terri Gibbs

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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. 1993, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked MSG are from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson. 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NCV are from the New Century Version. 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NLT are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation. 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NASB are from NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE . 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN-13: 978-1-4003-2038-7

Printed in China

11 12 13 14 [RRD] 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

PURSUED
BY
Grace

To discover grace
is to discover Gods utter devotion to you,
his stubborn resolve to give you a

cleansing,
healing,
purging love
that lifts the wounded
back to their feet.

GOD GIVES A NEW HEART

When grace happens, we receive not a nice compliment from God but a new heart. Give your heart to Christ, and he returns the favor. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you (Ezekiel 36:26 NKJV).

You might call it a spiritual heart transplant.

Tara Storch understands this miracle as much as anyone can. In the spring of 2010, a skiing accident took the life of her thirteen-year-old daughter, Taylor. What followed for Tara and her husband, Todd, was every parents worst nightmare: a funeral, a burial, a flood of questions and tears. They decided to donate their daughters organs to needy patients. Few people needed a heart more than Patricia Winters. Her heart had begun to fail five years earlier, leaving her too weak to do much more than sleep. Taylors heart gave Patricia a fresh start on life.

Tara had only one request: she wanted to hear the heart of her daughter. She and Todd flew from Dallas to Phoenix and went to Patricias home to listen to Taylors heart.

The two mothers embraced for a long time. Then Patricia offered Tara and Todd a stethoscope. When they listened to the healthy rhythm, whose heart did they hear? Did they not hear the still-beating heart of their daughter? It indwells a different body, but the heart is the heart of their child. And when God hears your heart, does he not hear the still-beating heart of his Son?...

The Christian is a person in whom Christ is happening.

Grace

God dispenses his goodness
not with an eyedropper
but a fire hydrant.

Your heart is a Dixie cup,
and his grace is
the Mediterranean Sea.

You simply cant contain it all.

BUT YOU, O LORD, ARE A COMPASSIONATE
AND GRACIOUS GOD,
SLOW TO ANGER, ABOUNDING IN
LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS.

Psalm 86:15

God wrote the book on grace.
He coaxed Adam and Eve out of
the bushes, murderous Moses out
of the desert. He made a place for
David, though David made a move
on Bathsheba. He didnt give up on
Elijah, though Elijah gave up on him.
Undeserved. Unexpected. Grace.

BEFORE WE KNEW OUR NEED

The bank sent me an overdraft notice on the checking account of one of my daughters. I encouraged my collegeage girls to monitor their accounts. Even so, they sometimes overspent.

What should I have done? Let the bank absorb it? They wouldnt. Send her an angry letter? Admonition might have helped her later, but it wouldnt satisfy the bank. Phone and tell her to make a deposit? Might as well tell a fish to fly. I knew her liquidity. Zero.

Transfer the money from my account to hers? Seemed to be the best option. After all, I had $25.37. I could have replenished her account and paid the overdraft fee as well.

Besides, that was my job. Dont get any ideas. If youre overdrawn, dont call me. My daughter can do something you cant do: she can call me Dad. And since she calls me Dad, I did what dads do. I covered my daughters mistake.

When I told her she was overdrawn, she said she was sorry. Still, she offered no deposit. She was broke. She had one option. Dad, could you... I interrupted her sentence. Honey, I already have. I met her need before she knew she had one.

Long before you knew you needed grace, your Father did the same. He made the deposit, an ample deposit: Christ died for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8 NCV). Before you knew you needed a Savior, you had one. And when you ask him for mercy, he answers, Ive already given it, dear child. Ive already given it.

Cure for the Common Life

Jesus
treats your shame-filled days
with grace.

Hell take your guilt
if youll ask him.