Max's Maxims

Max Lucado's maxims, taken from John 3:1-21

It's a fact of the farm. The most fertile ground remains barren if no seed is sown.

You can't help the blind by turning up the light.

You can't help the deaf by turning up the music.

You can't change the inside by decorating the outside.

You can't grow fruit without seed, you must be born again. {John3:3}

God does the work not us. It's not a trade off, it's a gift. Man's job isn't to earn it but to accept it.

All the worlds religions can be placed in one of two camps: Legalism or Grace. Human kind does it or God does it. Salvation as a wage based on deeds done- or salvation as a gift based on Christs death.

A legalist believes the supreme force behind salvation is you. If you look right, speak right, and belong to the right segment of the right group, you will be saved. The brunt of the responsibility doesn't lie with God it lies with you. It results in 1. fear:- that you won't do enough. 2. Arrogance:- that you have done enough. 3. failure:- that you have maid a mistake.

Legalism is a dark world of slow torture, suffocation of the spirit, amputation of ones dreams. Legalism is just enough religion to keep you but not enough to nourish you. So you starve. Your teachers don't know where to find food so you starve together. Your diet is rules and standards. No taste, no zest, just bland predictable religion.

If we want to sing we better stay in step, that's legalism. It's rigid. It's uniform. It's mechanical- and it's not from God. Legalism doesn't need God. Legalism is the search for innocence, not forgiveness. It's a systematic process of defending self, explaining self, exalting self, and justifying self. Legalists are obsessed with self- not God.

Legalism:- Turns my opinion into your burden:- There is only room for one opinion in this boat. And guess who is wrong!

It turns my opinion into your boundary:- Your opposing opinion makes me question not only your right to have fellowship with me, but also your salvation.

It turns my opinion into your obligation:- Christians must tow the company line. Your job isn't to think, it's to march. If you want to be in the group, stay in step and don't ask question.

Legalism makes you fear the displeasure of your peers. It puts the fear of man in you, it makes you approval hungry. You become keenly aware of what others will say and think, and you do what it takes to please them. Conformity is not fun but it's safe. The uniform doesn't fit, but it's approved so you were it. Who are you to ask questions, stay in step and plod down the path of least resistance.

Spiritual life is not a human endeavor, it is rooted in and orchestrated by the Holy Spirit. Every spiritual achievement is created and energized by God. Spirituality, says Jesus, comes not from church attendance, or good deeds or correct doctrine, but from heaven itself.

Salvation is God's business. Grace is His idea, His work and His expense. v15 "Everyone who believes can have eternal life" Not everyone who achieves. Not everyone who succeeds. Not everyone who agrees. But "everyone who believes"

Fantastic!