Textos devocionales,

Rated: C
I love Max Lucado's insights and writings; however, just getting snippets just didn't do it for me. ( )

The author, Max Lucado, introduces this collection of pretended "spiritual" edifications for each day with a story of how he travels with his children. "I keep all the tickets in a satchel. When the time comes to board the plane or train, I stand between the attendant tand the child. As each child passes, I place a ticket in her hand. She in turn gives the ticket to the attendant. God does the same. He stands between us and our need, waiting to help us." So, the author is sort of...like God! Offering grace and "timely help". Heb. 4:16. While I yearn for grace on a daily basis, my horror at Lucado's presumptuous lack of standing to place himself IN the place of divine dispensation is only increased by examining his feeble attempt to enrich us, apparently on his way to his country club golf course--of which he boasts. Ah, well.

Lucado empowers us to "choose" love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. He fortifies each of these choices/goals with his little talks drawn ostensibly from quoted verses of Scripture. But there is a constant and very irritating dissonance between the two. For example, he claims "God Listens", but cites Psalm 142:1. That Psalm is not about God "listening". None of the Psalms are. It is about David begging God to smite his enemies. He wants God to protect him from the "gins of the workers of iniquity". Nothing about God hearing any of this.

Lucado cites the prophet Joel 2:13: "Come back to the Lord your God, because he is kind and shows mercy." Wow. While the quote is accurate, it is entirely out of context and highly-selective. Joel is all about blowing the Trumpet of Alarm, and how the Lord is raising up a large army to desolate everything and everyone! The Lord is annihilating us, which is simply not an example of just "Getting our Attention".

I love the author's trouble taken to collect Scripture verses. His effort to collect a body of the most important and inspirational parts, and the effort to apply them to our lives, is appreciated. But it is proof to the contrary of the content and his expressed intent.

As a book, It is revealing, utterly revealing. We see in one volume how empty and mercantile the Lucado series of 13 other books of "inspiration" are, which he flogs with this one. He cites only his own works, using this to republish.

I take it this is the best he can do and has done from the other 13 books. [Now the number is over 50 volumes floated on the surface of Faith-based monetization.] The buyers are Christian "Believers", now shorn again, as the victims of a predator: Lucado is preying. ( )

A beautiful little book with a thought a day from the Bible and from the writings of Max Lucado, a prominent Christian evangelist, author and television personality. The topics range from day to day, each one with a scripture and a quote from his many books. ( )