Pastor Explains Why We Can Trust God’s Eternal Plan
By Movieguide® Contributor
Pastor and New York Times best-selling author Max Lucado is about to release another book that he hopes will help Christians face a chaotic world with confidence in God’s plan.
This new book, “What Happens Next: A Traveler’s Guide Through the End of This Age,” is “dedicated to understanding God’s plan in the End Times and what it means to how we live today. It is all about hope and all about Jesus.”
For those who fear the end times, the pastor reminds them of a story from the New Testament.
“It is all about hope, you know? When the disciples, the followers of Jesus, had their final meal with Him — ‘course they didn’t know [it was] going to be their final meal with Him — but He told them what was going to happen the next day, and that included the crucifixion and deceit and denial,” the pastor explained, adding that the disciples were worried about what would happen to them after their teacher was dead.
“His response was, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me,” Lucado said. Even though we might not understand what’s going on, we can trust God and His plan because He has proved faithful in the past.
Lucado is a prolific writer, pumping out books to encourage and inspire believers.
“It’s every year, I release a book. Every August or September, depending upon the publisher,” he said of how he manages to release so many books. “I preach it first at the church, and that gives me a great opportunity to, number one, minister to the church, but number two, kinda test the material.”
Lucado appreciates that process because “I can tell what works and what doesn’t.
“So, I’ll typically preach it during the fall, turn it into a book during the spring, then it will release either that August or sometimes it will flip flop and hold off until a year later. But there is always one in the pipeline,” he added.
“What Happens Next” is available for preorder and will release on Aug. 13.
“‘What Happens Next’ is an optimistic, accessible, and nonsensational guide to what the Bible says about heaven’s timeline that will empower you to face the future with faith,” the synopsis reads. “Max takes you on a well-researched overview of what God’s Word says, exploring the following four big ideas that provide a solid foundation for understanding God’s eternal plan.”
Movieguide® recently reported how the book shows readers why they can have hope in a chaotic world:
“The beauty about the Bible in a variety of things is one, it gives us a timeline,” the NYT best-selling author said. “It describes what God’s intent is with history. It tells us that we’re not a part of an endless cycle of meaningless events, but that God is directing history stage by stage, milestone by milestone toward a wonderful, climatic end. We need that hope today.”
The growing hopelessness in the world is obvious, but God has a plan.
“If you look at the statistics with teenagers battling anxiety and unprecedented proportions with the suicide rate,” Lucado continued. “It’s higher than it’s been since World War II. We’re divided. We’re anxious. We’re troubled. And I do believe that God’s solution is to tell us what happens next. To help us break free from feeling trapped in this life, and to raise our hope and expectation about the next life.”
