The Applause of Heaven

by Max Lucado

It comes from God and it is within your reach ... The applause of heaven.

A joy that can't be quenched? A peace that can't be broken? A happiness that can't be threatened?

There is such a joy. It is a sacred delight, a holy gladness. You can't open your Bible without reading about it. You can't live a truly satisfying life without it. And it's nearer than you think.

Jesus describes that sacred delight in the astonishing mountain message we now call the Beatitudes. And Max Lucado, in this classic exploration of enduring joy, shows you how this familiar but revolutionary prescription for living can bless your life beyond your wildest imagining.

Imagine God doing what gods would do only in your wildest dreams -- wearing diapers, riding donkeys, washing feet, dozing in storms -- dying for you mistakes. Imagine having God as your pinch-hitter, you lawyer, your dad, you biggest fan, and you best friend. Imagine having the King of kings in your cheering section and hearing the applause of heaven ring out ... just for you.

But don't just imagine it. Open your heart to it -- the heavenly joy of knowing the God who delights in you.

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Paperback, 240 pages

Published June 2nd 1999 by Thomas Nelson (first published October 1st 1990)

tags: self help, spirituality, faith, christianity, christian non fiction, religion, inspirational, nonfiction, christian living, christian

Book Quotes

“God has given us peace in our pain. He covers us all the time. Even when we are out of control, he is still there.”

― Max Lucado

“Mark it down. God does not save us because of what we’ve done. Only a puny god could be bought with tithes. Only an egotistical god would be impressed with our pain. Only a temperamental god could be satisfied by sacrifices. Only a heartless god would sell salvation to the highest bidders.”

― Max Lucado

“When we would say, ‘No way,’ he would say, ‘My way.”

― Max Lucado

“The quietness will slow my pulse, the silence will open my ears, and something sacred will happen. The soft slap of sandaled feet will break the stillness, a pierced hand will extend a quiet invitation, and I will follow.”

― Max Lucado

“I read recently about a man who had breathed the summit air. His trips up the trail began early in his life and sustained him to the end. A few days before he died, a priest went to visit him in the hospital. As the priest entered the room, he noticed an empty chair beside the man’s bed. The priest asked him if someone had been by to visit. The old man smiled, “I place Jesus on that chair, and I talk to him.” The priest was puzzled, so the man explained. “Years ago a friend told me that prayer was as simple as talking to a good friend. So every day I pull up a chair, invite Jesus to sit, and we have a good talk.” Some days later, the daughter of this man came to the parish house to inform the priest that her father had just died. “Because he seemed so content,” she said, “I left him in his room alone for a couple of hours. When I got back to the room, I found him dead. I noticed a strange thing, though: his head was resting, not on the pillow, but on an empty chair that was beside his bed.”3 Learn a lesson from the man with the chair. Make note of the music teacher and the rest. Take a trip with the King to the mountain peak. It’s pristine, uncrowded, and on top of the world. Stubborn joy begins by breathing deep up there before you go crazy down here.”

― Max Lucado

“Give a man religion without reminding him of his filth, and the result will be arrogance in a three-piece suit.” He counsels the arrogant that facing Christ is like entering the Church of the Nativity: “The door is so low, you can’t go in”

― Max Lucado

“THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. ITS CITIZENS ARE DRUNK ON WONDER. Consider the case of Sarai.1 She is in her golden years, but God promises her a son. She gets excited. She visits the maternity shop and buys a few dresses. She plans her shower and remodels her tent . . . but no son. She eats a few birthday cakes and blows out a lot of candles . . . still no son. She goes through a decade of wall calendars . . . still no son. So Sarai decides to take matters into her own hands. (“Maybe God needs me to take care of this one.”) She convinces Abram that time is running out. (“Face it, Abe, you ain’t getting any younger, either.”) She commands her maid, Hagar, to go into Abram’s tent and see if he needs anything. (“And I mean ‘anything’!”) Hagar goes in a maid. She comes out a mom. And the problems begin. Hagar is haughty. Sarai is jealous. Abram is dizzy from the dilemma. And God calls the baby boy a “wild donkey”—an appropriate name for one born out of stubbornness and destined to kick his way into history. It isn’t the cozy family Sarai expected. And it isn’t a topic Abram and Sarai bring up very often at dinner. Finally, fourteen years later, when Abram is pushing a century of years and Sarai ninety . . . when Abram has stopped listening to Sarai’s advice, and Sarai has stopped giving it . . . when the wallpaper in the nursery is faded and the baby furniture is several seasons out of date . . . when the topic of the promised child brings sighs and tears and long looks into a silent sky . . . God pays them a visit and tells them they had better select a name for their new son. Abram and Sarai have the same response: laughter. They laugh partly because it is too good to happen and partly because it might. They laugh because they have given up hope, and hope born anew is always funny before it is real. They laugh at the lunacy of it all. Abram looks over at Sarai—toothless and snoring in her rocker, head back and mouth wide open, as fruitful as a pitted prune and just as wrinkled. And he cracks up. He tries to contain it, but he can’t. He has always been a sucker for a good joke. Sarai is just as amused. When she hears the news, a cackle escapes before she can contain it. She mumbles something about her husband’s needing a lot more than what he’s got and then laughs again. They laugh because that is what you do when someone says he can do the impossible. They laugh a little at God, and a lot with God—for God is laughing too. Then, with the smile still on his face, he gets busy doing what he does best—the unbelievable.”

― Max Lucado

“You'll go nowhere tomorrow that I haven't already been.”

― Max Lucado

“And it is when we are out of options that we are most ready for God’s surprises.”

― Max Lucado

Max Lucado

Max Lucado ( - )

Max Lucado is a preacher with a storyteller’s gift—a pastor’s heart and a poet’s pen. Max’s sermons begin at home with the congregation at Oak Hills Church, which he has led for more than two decades. It is in this setting that his stories are first told, from a pastor’s heart. Eventually some of these sermons and stories are refined and fashioned into books that are shared far beyond the walls of Oak Hills and the city limits of San Antonio, Texas. Max’s words have traveled around the world in more than 41 languages via more than 100 million individual products.

Max Lucado’s first book, On the Anvil, was published in 1985. 2013 brings the release of Max’s 30th trade book, You’ll Get Through This (September), which beautifully illustrates Lucado’s ongoing mission to encourage the brokenhearted and to remind all readers of the healing love of God. Max and family moved back to Texas in 1988, and Max has been a minister at Oak Hills Church ever since. Max and Denalyn have three grown daughters, two in ministry, one in publishing, and one son-in-law, also serving in ministry.

Max Lucado is a best-selling Christian author and minister of writing and preaching at Oak Hills Church (formerly the Oak Hills Church of Christ) in San Antonio, Texas. Lucado has written more than 50 books with 28 million copies in print.

After serving as the pulpit minister for 20 years, Lucado announced in early 2007 that he was stepping down due to health concerns related to atrial fibrillation. Lucado has since assumed the ministry role of writing and preaching at Oak Hills. He co-pastors the church with one of Willow Creek's former teaching pastors, Randy Frazee.

Lucado was named "America's Pastor" by Christianity Today magazine and in 2005 was named by Reader's Digest as "The Best Preacher in America." He has been featured on The Fox News Channel, NBC Nightly News, Larry King Live, and USA Today. His books are regularly on the New York Times Best Seller List. He has been featured speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast.
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Max Lucado

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