If 9/11 are the numbers of terror and despair, then 3:16 are the numbers of hope. Best selling author Max Lucado leads readers through a word-by-word study of John 3:16, the passage that he calls the "Hope Diamond" of scripture.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. — John 3:16

A twenty-six-word parade of hope: beginning with God, ending with life, and urging us to do the same. Brief enough to write on a napkin or memorize in a moment, yet solid enough to weather two thousand years of storms and questions. The verse is an alphabet of grace, a table of contents to the Christian hope, each word a safe-deposit box of jewels. read it again, slowly and aloud, and note the word that snatches your attention. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God so loved this world? Heartbreakers, hope-snatchers, and dream-dousers prowl this orb. Dictators rage. Abusers inflict. Reverends think they deserve the title. But God loves. And he loves the world so much he gave his: Declarations? Rules? Dicta? Edicts? No. the heart-stilling, mind-bending, deal-making-or-breaking claim of John 3:16 is this: God gave his son... his only son. Not abstract ideas but a flesh-wrapped divinity. Why? so that “whoever believes in him shall not perish.”

The words are to Scripture what the Mississippi River is to America — an entryway into the heartland. Believe or dismiss them, embrace or reject them, any serious consideration of Christ must include them. Would a British historian dismiss the Magna Carta? Egyptologists overlook the Rosetta stone? Could you ponder the words of Christ and never immerse yourself into John 3:16?

John Newton, who set faith to music in "Amazing Grace," loved this barrier-breaking pronoun. He said, "If I read 'God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that when John Newton believed he should have everlasting life,' I should say, perhaps, there is some other John Newton; but 'whosoever' means this John Newton and the other John Newton, and everybody else, whatever his name may be." Whoever... a universal word. And perish... a sobering word. We'd like to dilute, if not delete, the term. Not Jesus. He pounds Do Not Enter signs on every square inch of Satan's gate and tells those hell-bent on entering to do so over his dead body. Even so, some souls insist.

3:16: The Numbers of Hope Max Lucado 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' 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"? 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. The book is an excellent entry into the popular writer's body of work. USA UK Canada

Facing Your Giants: The God Who Made a Miracle Out of David Stands Ready to Make One Out of You Giants. We must face them. Yet, we need not face them alone. This profound look at the life of David digs deeply into the defeats he suffered, and the victories he won, as he faced the giants in his life. When David focused on God, giants tumbled. But when David focused on giants… he stumbled. Goliaths still roam in our world. Debt. Disaster. Dialysis. Divorce. Deceit. Disease. Depression. These super-sized challenges swagger and strut into our lives, pilfering our sleep, embezzling our peace and robbing us of our joy. And while these giants try to dominate our lives, we know what to do! We've learned what David learned, and we do what David did. We become God focused. We pick up five stones. We make five decisions. And we take a swing. Max Lucado, with 40 million books in print, will draw more readers to his fold with this release. USA UK Canada

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