3:16 The Numbers of Hope, a review

The request came and I wrote back with a definite... YES! Max... I'll review a book by Max anytime and anywhere. Max Lucado is the Cracker Barrel of the author world! Huh? Well, you see... I am not a great traveler as mentioned before.

When my family has been on the road, I need a place for meals that I know always has good food, lovely interiors, clean forks and spoons, and a cute little gift shop never hurts... Cracker Barrel... I know what to expect.

Isn't that boring? No... is it boring when you purchase a Snicker bar over and over? Is Starbucks boring even though there are a gajillion of them in the towns close to me? Never...

Max paints word pictures like no other author I've ever read. (I was listening to a sermon by Chuck Swindoll on the car radio a couple years ago when I turned to my son and sighed, stating that Chuck S. was the Max Lucado of the spoken word... a high compliment.) He didn't disappoint in this book which takes John 3:16 and makes 12 Chapters, a Conclusion, and a small 40 day Devotional out of one verse.

John 3:16 is the plumb line of the New Testament Church. It is the nuclear core on which all our theology has its' basis. Do you believe God sent his Son to pay the price for us to have eternal life? Doesn't get much more basic than that. Yet, Max Lucado writes in such a way (as usual) that the profound meets simplicity and leads us to a deeper understanding of the work of Christ on the cross.

Just listen to a few chapter titles: The Most Famous Conversation in the Bible, Hope for the Hard Heart, When You Get Booted Out, Heaven's "Whoever" Policy, What Makes Heaven Heavenly... just to name a few.

If the last book I reviewed took awhile to read because it had so much "meat of the Word" in it that I needed to ponder a lot, this book is the bread on the side. It is nutritious, wholesome, but easy to digest.

I was asked for a book recommendation a few years ago by a friend who wanted to give a relative a book about the Faith that was Biblically sound but not to deep, one that would be easy to read. I recommended Max without having to think twice. While there rarely is a book where thinking Christians would agree with absolutely everything, I've never read a book by Lucado that would cause me to wince as I read a paragraph and wonder what Bible he was reading. His main audience is not Bible scholars needing to break down the verses in the original Greek. However, his writings just may send the average person into the Word for further study. :)

If you have been waiting for a book to hand to a friend about the Faith, or send to your sister so perhaps she'll understand why Jesus is the source of your strength... a book that gives exactly what 3:16 means within the context of scripture and stories... here is the book for which you have been waiting. Good stuff...