3:16
The Numbers of Hope
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Sometimes life appears to fall to pieces and can seem irreparable. We've all had our fair share of disappointments, losses, and hardships. But for every challenge there is a breathtaking promise: It's going to be okay. How can we know? Because God so loved the world.
In 3:16, pastor and New York Times bestselling author Max Lucado encourages us to study closely the "Hope Diamond of the Bible": John 3:16.
Max says of his favorite verse, "Every time I recall these words, they are fresh and as stunning as my first encounter with them. The mind-bending awareness of God's limitless love, his incalculable sacrifice, and the priceless teaching at the core. How can we not review it again and again? I want this generation, and all who come after, to look closely at the key promise of God and choose the gift beyond all gifts."
Throughout 3:16, Max will invite you to:
Stand in awe of how deep, wide, long, and high God's love is for youUnderstand more fully the living hope you have through Jesus' death and resurrectionRest in the assurance that salvation is a gift from God, not something you can earn
If you know nothing of the Bible, start here. John 3:16 invites you to know God's love deeply and intimately. And once you accept God's love, your life will never be the same.
If you know everything in the Bible, return here. Let John 3:16 become the banner of your life, so much so that the message of God's unending and unbending love overflows from you to others.
Each copy of 3:16 also includes a 40-day devotional designed to help you draw closer to your loving Savior.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lucado (When Christ Comes; Facing Your Giants) digs deeply into one of the most famous and oft-quoted passages of the Bible John 3:16. First situating it in its biblical context as part of Jesus's I thought our style was to use an apostrophe without the additional s for Jesus and Moses. Let me know. conversation with Nicodemus, Lucado then dissects the 26-word promise phrase by phrase, picking out key theological ideas that provide hope to Christians. What does it mean that God "so loved the world"? What must we do to gain everlasting life? Using his trademark folksy style, Lucado employs great stories and real-life illustrations to drive home points about God's love, justice and determination to save. The chapter on hell (pinging off the phrase "shall not perish") is alone worth the price of admission; it's uncharacteristically hard-hitting for Lucado, with the beloved pastor drawing a line in the sand for evangelicals who might be tempted to believe in universal salvation or who imagine hell as a mere metaphor. That chapter, in fact, could and should be further developed in a book of its own. Some of Lucado's points in this book are devastatingly insightful, others only gimmicky or superficial; still, the book is an excellent entry into the popular Texas writer's body of work. It's short, marvelously accessible and followed by a 40-day Bible study on the life of Jesus (excerpted from Lucado's prior books).
