Deuteronomy 15, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: IT MATTERS TO GOD - November 28, 2025

What matters to you matters to God. You probably think that’s true when it comes to the big stuff like death, disease, sin, and disaster. But what about the smaller things? What about grouchy bosses or flat tires?  What about broken dishes, late flights, toothaches, or a crashed hard drive? Do these matter to God?

Let me tell you who you are. In fact, let me proclaim who you are. The Bible says you are an heir of God and a co-heir with Christ. You have a crown that will last forever. You were chosen before the creation of the world. But more than anything else is the simple fact you are God’s child.

1 John 3:1 (NCV) says, “We are called children of God. And we really are his children.” I love that: we really are his children. So, if something is important to you it’s important to God!

The Lucado Inspirational Reader

Deuteronomy 15

At the end of every seventh year, cancel all debts. This is the procedure: Everyone who has lent money to a neighbor writes it off. You must not press your neighbor or his brother for payment: All-Debts-Are-Canceled—God says so. You may collect payment from foreigners, but whatever you have lent to your fellow Israelite you must write off.

4–6  There must be no poor people among you because God is going to bless you lavishly in this land that God, your God, is giving you as an inheritance, your very own land. But only if you listen obediently to the Voice of God, your God, diligently observing every commandment that I command you today. Oh yes—God, your God, will bless you just as he promised. You will lend to many nations but won’t borrow from any; you’ll rule over many nations but none will rule over you.

7–9  When you happen on someone who’s in trouble or needs help among your people with whom you live in this land that God, your God, is giving you, don’t look the other way pretending you don’t see him. Don’t keep a tight grip on your purse. No. Look at him, open your purse, lend whatever and as much as he needs. Don’t count the cost. Don’t listen to that selfish voice saying, “It’s almost the seventh year, the year of All-Debts-Are-Canceled,” and turn aside and leave your needy neighbor in the lurch, refusing to help him. He’ll call God’s attention to you and your blatant sin.

10–11  Give freely and spontaneously. Don’t have a stingy heart. The way you handle matters like this triggers God, your God’s, blessing in everything you do, all your work and ventures. There are always going to be poor and needy people among you. So I command you: Always be generous, open purse and hands, give to your neighbors in trouble, your poor and hurting neighbors.

12–15  If a Hebrew man or Hebrew woman was sold to you and has served you for six years, in the seventh year you must set him or her free, released into a free life. And when you set them free don’t send them off empty-handed. Provide them with some animals, plenty of bread and wine and oil. Load them with provisions from all the blessings with which God, your God, has blessed you. Don’t for a minute forget that you were once slaves in Egypt and God, your God, redeemed you from that slave world.

For that reason, this day I command you to do this.

16–17  But if your slave, because he loves you and your family and has a good life with you, says, “I don’t want to leave you,” then take an awl and pierce through his earlobe into the doorpost, marking him as your slave forever. Do the same with your women slaves who want to stay with you.

18  Don’t consider this an unreasonable hardship, this setting your slave free. After all, he’s worked six years for you at half the cost of a hired hand.

Believe me, God, your God, will bless you in everything you do.

19–23  Consecrate to God, your God, all the firstborn males in your herds and flocks. Don’t use the firstborn from your herds as work animals; don’t shear the firstborn from your flocks. These are for you to eat every year, you and your family, in the Presence of God, your God, at the place that God designates for worship. If the animal is defective, lame, say, or blind—anything wrong with it—don’t slaughter it as a sacrifice to God, your God. Stay at home and eat it there. Both the ritually clean and unclean may eat it, the same as with a gazelle or a deer. Only you must not eat its blood. Pour the blood out on the ground like water.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Friday, November 28, 2025

by Karen Pimpo

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Philippians 3:1-9

To Know Him Personally

1  3 And that’s about it, friends. Be glad in God!

I don’t mind repeating what I have written in earlier letters, and I hope you don’t mind hearing it again. Better safe than sorry—so here goes.

2–6  Steer clear of the barking dogs, those religious busybodies, all bark and no bite. All they’re interested in is appearances—knife-happy circumcisers, I call them. The real believers are the ones the Spirit of God leads to work away at this ministry, filling the air with Christ’s praise as we do it. We couldn’t carry this off by our own efforts, and we know it—even though we can list what many might think are impressive credentials. You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Ben-jamin; a strict and devout adherent to God’s law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting the church; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God’s law Book.

7–9  The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.

Today's Insights

Paul was tutored by Gamaliel, a leading authority of Judaism (Acts 5:34), and “carefully trained in [the] Jewish laws and customs” (22:3 nlt). He was a Pharisee par excellence, whose knowledge of religious learning was unrivaled among his peers (Philippians 3:4-6). Yet he considered “everything else . . . worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus” (v. 8 nlt). Because knowing Jesus is the key to living a life of faith in Him, the apostle made it his life goal “to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead” (v. 10 nlt). When we’re tempted to seek satisfaction in earthly things, we can remember that to experience life fully is simply to know “the only true God, and Jesus Christ” (John 17:3).

A City Worth Seeking?

What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. Philippians 3:8

On May 29, 1925, Percy Fawcett sent a final letter to his wife before he ventured deeper into the unmapped jungles of Brazil. He was seeking a fabled lost city of great splendor, determined to be the first explorer to share its location with the world after years of searching. But his team of explorers got lost, the city was never found, and many expeditions failed to recover either.

Percy’s courage and passion, while admirable, was squandered on a lost city that could never be reached. If we’re honest, there are many unreachable goals in our lives that hold a similar power over us. But there is a real treasure for each person that’s worth seeking with all of our heart, mind, and strength.

In his letter to believers in Philippi, Paul put it this way: “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8). Unlike a fabled city—yielding riches, fame, or power—knowing Jesus and believing in Him is a treasure without equal. Worldly goals of power or status, or even the appearance of righteousness through keeping the law, are nothing compared to knowing Jesus (vv. 6-7). Are we spending our time and energy on something that can never satisfy? May Christ help us check what “city” we’re seeking.

Reflect & Pray

What treasure are you seeking today? How does meditating on the worth of knowing Jesus help rightly align your priorities?

Thank You, Jesus, that I don’t have to strive for something that can never satisfy. I have the treasure of knowing You.

For further study, read The Promised King.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Friday, November 28, 2025

The Bounty of the Destitute

All are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. — Romans 3:24

The gospel of God’s grace awakens an intense longing in the human soul, but also an equally intense resentment. We resent the revelation that we are justified freely by God’s grace, that there’s nothing we have to do to receive it. Human beings take a certain pride in giving, but receiving is a different matter. To come and accept something freely offered to us offends our pride. I’ll gladly give my life to martyrdom; I’ll gladly give myself in consecration. But don’t humiliate me by placing me on the same level as the most hell-deserving sinner and tell me that all I have to do for my salvation is to accept it as a gift through Jesus Christ.

We have to realize that we can’t earn or win anything from God. We must either receive his grace as a gift or go without. The greatest blessing spiritually is the knowledge that we are destitute. Until we arrive at this knowledge, our Lord is powerless to help us. He can do nothing for us if we think we’re sufficient without him. As long as we believe ourselves to be rich, as long as we possess anything resembling pride or independence, we won’t be able to enter his kingdom. We have to enter it by the door of destitution.

Are you knocking at the door of destitution now? Are you spiritually hungry? Only when we get spiritually hungry do we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit makes effectual in us the very nature of God. By the Spirit, God imparts to us the quickening life of Jesus, the life that puts the “beyond” within us. The instant the “beyond” is inside us, it rises to the “above,” lifting us into the domain where Jesus lives.

Ezekiel 33-34; 1 Peter 5

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

The great word of Jesus to His disciples is Abandon. When God has brought us into the relationship of disciples, we have to venture on His word; trust entirely to Him and watch that when He brings us to the venture, we take it. 

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 1459 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Friday, November 28, 2025

BLACK FRIDAY BATTLES - #10145

I was in one of those "big box" stores over the weekend - and Santa was strolling the aisles wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. I told my wife, "It was fun to see Santa. I was just a little surprised to see him carrying pepper spray on his belt." (OK, I made that part up.) But the thought never would have occurred to me, except for that crazy Black Friday and all the headlines. People getting pushed, punched, sprayed, hospitalized, and even shot - all in the frenzy to get some coveted item cheap.

Well, there was this image on a news organization's website that was almost laughable - if it weren't more sad than funny. Pictures captioned with the day's major headlines kept rotating across my screen. First came the photo of pre-dawn bargain-hunters massing outside the store - caption: "Shoppers Show Up in Droves." Next picture - hundreds of thousands of Egyptians massing in a square in their capitol city, and it said: "Crowd Swells in Cairo's Tahrir Square."

You're right! They were there trying to bring down at that time a dictator. I smiled - and then I sobered - at the contrast. One crowd fighting for bargains. Another crowd fighting for freedom. I was ready to put those pictures side-by-side with the caption of my own: "So what are you fighting for?"

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Black Friday Battles."

I'm not against bargains. I like them. But the contrasting agendas of those Black Friday crowds were reminders to make sure that I'm investing myself in the battles that really matter. Even though there are less important battles that constantly jockey for my attention and for my time.

We find our lives filled with the pursuit of more house, more money, more Facebook friends, more fun, more title, more commitments, more sports, more gadgets, more entertainment. We dance to the music of a culture that tells us what we must have, what we must see and do. We put our energies more into having than giving, into activity - more than relationships, into maintaining church programs - more than moving out to reach people who are clueless about our Jesus.

Christians choose to define themselves by the ten percent that divides them rather than the 90% that unites them. Couples fight over petty differences instead of fighting for their marriage. Relationships between family, friends, business people often focus on the insignificant rather than what really matters and really is important. Church folks fight over music styles and personal slights instead of fighting for the lost and for the hurting people just across town.

Jesus said to stop running after all these "temporaries" that possess the lives of people who live like this world is all there is. And our word for today from the Word of God says, in Matthew 6:32-33, "seek first the kingdom of God." In other words, the things that God thinks are worth living for and fighting for. Like the hard work of a happy marriage, strong relationships, building kids who have a Jesus of their own. Like the ever-living, never-dying souls of the people you know, and the powerless and broken people who break the heart of Jesus and ought to break ours.

I love this high tribute to David, the "man after God's own heart." It says, "He fights the Lord's battles" (1 Samuel 25:28). After all, those are the only ones worth fighting.

Deuteronomy 14, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: CHRIST WILL GIVE YOU REST - November 27, 2025

How does a person get relief from shame, embarrassment, anger? In Matthew 11:28-29 (NCV) Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Accept my teachings and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest for your lives.”

I can see you shaking your head. “I’ve tried that. I’ve read the Bible, I’ve sat on the pew, but I’ve never received relief.” Could it be you went to religion and you didn’t go to God? Could it be you went to a church, but never saw Christ? “Come to me” the verse reads. Jesus is the solution for weariness of soul. Go to him. Admit you have soul secrets you’ve never dealt with. He already knows what they are. Go to him! He’s just waiting for you to ask him to help.

When God Whispers Your Name

Deuteronomy 14

 You are children of God, your God, so don’t mutilate your bodies or shave your heads in funeral rites for the dead. You only are a people holy to God, your God; God chose you out of all the people on Earth as his cherished personal treasure.

3–8  Don’t eat anything abominable. These are the animals you may eat: ox, sheep, goat, deer, gazelle, roebuck, wild goat, ibex, antelope, mountain sheep—any animal that has a cloven hoof and chews the cud. But you may not eat camels, rabbits, and rock badgers because they chew the cud but they don’t have a cloven hoof—that makes them ritually unclean. And pigs: Don’t eat pigs—they have a cloven hoof but don’t chew the cud, which makes them ritually unclean. Don’t even touch a pig’s carcass.

9–10  This is what you may eat from the water: anything that has fins and scales. But if it doesn’t have fins or scales, you may not eat it. It’s ritually unclean.

11–18  You may eat any ritually clean bird. These are the exceptions, so don’t eat these: eagle, vulture, black vulture, kite, falcon, the buzzard family, the raven family, ostrich, nighthawk, the hawk family, little owl, great owl, white owl, pelican, osprey, cormorant, stork, the heron family, hoopoe, bat.

19–20  Winged insects are ritually unclean; don’t eat them. But ritually clean winged creatures are permitted.

21  Because you are a people holy to God, your God, don’t eat anything that you find dead. You can, though, give it to a foreigner in your neighborhood for a meal or sell it to a foreigner.

Don’t boil a kid in its mother’s milk.

22–26  Make an offering of ten percent, a tithe, of all the produce which grows in your fields year after year. Bring this into the Presence of God, your God, at the place he designates for worship and there eat the tithe from your grain, wine, and oil and the firstborn from your herds and flocks. In this way you will learn to live in deep reverence before God, your God, as long as you live. But if the place God, your God, designates for worship is too far away and you can’t carry your tithe that far, God, your God, will still bless you: exchange your tithe for money and take the money to the place God, your God, has chosen to be worshiped. Use the money to buy anything you want: cattle, sheep, wine, or beer—anything that looks good to you. You and your family can then feast in the Presence of God, your God, and have a good time.

27  Meanwhile, don’t forget to take good care of the Levites who live in your towns; they won’t get any property or inheritance of their own as you will.

28–29  At the end of every third year, gather the tithe from all your produce of that year and put it aside in storage. Keep it in reserve for the Levite who won’t get any property or inheritance as you will, and for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow who live in your neighborhood. That way they’ll have plenty to eat and God, your God, will bless you in all your work.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Thursday, November 27, 2025

by atara Patton

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Proverbs 22:1-6

The Cure Comes Through Discipline

1  22 A sterling reputation is better than striking it rich;

a gracious spirit is better than money in the bank.

2  The rich and the poor shake hands as equals—

God made them both!

3  A prudent person sees trouble coming and ducks;

a simpleton walks in blindly and is clobbered.

4  The payoff for meekness and Fear-of-God

is plenty and honor and a satisfying life.

5  The perverse travel a dangerous road, potholed and mud-slick;

if you know what’s good for you, stay clear of it.

6  Point your kids in the right direction—

when they’re old they won’t be lost.

Today's Insights

It’s fascinating that the man who collected or wrote most of the sayings in the book of Proverbs (King Solomon) is also believed to be the writer of Ecclesiastes. The proverbs essentially say, Do this, and get that result. Do wise things and get good results; do foolish things and pay the price. However, Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes, “With much wisdom comes much sorrow” (1:18). Yet in Proverbs he says, “Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding” (4:7). Ecclesiastes shows us the futility of life without God at the center; Proverbs instructs us how and why to live wisely. And so we live by the wisdom of the Proverbs: “A good name is more desirable than great riches” (22:1). And “humility is the fear of the Lord; its wages are riches and honor and life” (v. 4)—a truth that will see its full fruition in the next life.

A Humble Thanksgiving

Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it. Proverbs 22:6

One Thanksgiving I called home to greet my parents. As we talked, I asked my mom what she was most grateful for. She exclaimed that she was most grateful that “all three of my children know how to call on the name of the Lord.” For my mother, who’d always emphasized the importance of education, there was something more valuable than her children doing well in school and taking care of themselves.

Her sentiments remind me of Proverbs 22:6: “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” While this isn’t a promise but more a wise principle, and many children do wander from God for at least a season of life, she and my father had strived to raise us to humbly, reverently love God (v. 4)—primarily through example. Now, by His grace, they were able to see us grow older and benefit from a personal relationship with Him. As verse 2 says, God is “the Maker of . . . all.” And although some children will respond to loving instruction in Christ, others might take longer perhaps to hear His voice. For those precious children, we continue to pray and rest in God’s timing.

Mom’s humble thanksgiving points to what’s most important in life. Reverently loving God yields spiritual riches for this life and beyond (v. 4). And while we can’t control what children will choose to do, we can rest in the hope that God will lovingly continue to work in their hearts.

Reflect & Pray

How have you been shown the love of God? How do you reverently love Him?

Dear God, please help me to love and disciple others well.

For further study, read God Is Love.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Thursday, November 27, 2025

The Consecration of Spiritual Energy

. . . through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. — Galatians 6:14

When I brood on the cross of Christ, I become a person who is concentrated on and dominated by Jesus Christ’s interests. My focus is taken off myself and my own holiness. I’m no longer trapped in my private, subjective viewpoint. I’m identified with my Lord’s view-point and interests.

Our Lord wasn’t a recluse or an ascetic; he didn’t cut himself off from society. He was so much in the ordinary world that the religious people of his day called him a glutton and a drunkard (Matthew 11:19). And yet our Lord maintained an inward separateness all the time. On a fundamental level, he lived in a world apart from this one. Everything he did, he did for the glory of his heavenly Father, devoting every thought and action to God.

We, too, must devote every ounce of spiritual energy God gives us to doing his work, letting nothing interfere; this is how we consecrate our lives to him. Sanctification is God’s part; consecration is our part. We have to deliberately decide to have God’s interests as our interests. The way to solve perplexing problems is to ask, “Is this the kind of thing that interests Jesus Christ? Or is it something the spirit of the devil would embrace?”

A counterfeit version of consecration is the conscious cutting off of certain activities and pleasures with the idea of storing up spiritual power for use later on. This is a hopeless mistake. The Spirit of God has prevented the sins of a great many people, yet there’s no emancipation, no fullness in their lives. The ascetic, reclusive religious life is entirely different from the robust holiness of the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ preached that we are to be in the world but not of it—detached fundamentally, not externally: “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one” (John 17:15).

Ezekiel 30-32; 1 Peter 4

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Crises reveal character. When we are put to the test the hidden resources of our character are revealed exactly. 

Disciples Indeed, 393 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Thursday, November 27, 2025

TIGGER, EEYORE, AND THANKSGIVING - #10144

Maybe it was the dumb voices I did. But the kids used to love it when I read "Winnie the Pooh" to them. Tigger with his irrepressible "hoo-hoo!" bouncing everywhere. And Eeyore with his head down and his ever-present gloom. I'd rather be Tigger than Eeyore maybe without the bouncing. I mean, I want to be the one to leave sunshine in the room, not storm clouds.

That's not so easy. There's plenty to make us Eeyores: overheated schedules, grumpy folks, medical battles, family tension, too little sleep, long delays, aggravating pain, and aggravating people who are a pain. And then there's the antidote - thanksgiving. Well, actually, giving thanks. That may be the difference between being the joy-bringer or the joy-killer.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Tigger, Eeyore, and Thanksgiving."

The "inventors" of our Thanksgiving exemplify that difference. According to H. U. Westermayer, "The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than those who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving."

There's Thanksgiving, the holiday. Then there's thanks-living, the lifestyle. It's the difference between the dirty window and the blessing glasses. Yep! See, when I look out a dirty window, the whole world looks yucky. Even the really good stuff is dimmed by all the caked-on dirt that's coloring my view.

If you've decided your role in life is "victim," it's going to be hard for you to see much that's positive through that window: abused, neglected, abandoned, misunderstood, passed over, or wounded - that's real hurt. But to let those who hurt you define you? That's a self-imposed sentence of despair; denying the many good things because they don't fit the victim narrative - living as a prisoner of your past.

Unthankfulness, for whatever reason, breeds some ugly offspring. In Romans 1, God describes how humans end up doing unthinkably depraved things and where that downward slide starts. "They wouldn't worship Him as God or even give Him thanks...their minds became dark and confused" (Romans 1:21 NLT). Okay, here it is. Unthankful heart - dark mind, bitterness, resentment, depression, anger, rebellion against God. They come from an ungrateful heart.

Yes, you can choose to go through life looking out your dirty window, seeing all that's wrong. Or, you can choose to put on your blessing glasses that enable you to live, not in denial of the bad stuff but celebrating the goodness of God all around you if you have eyes to see it.

And those blessings are always there: the ever-changing masterpiece of the Ultimate Artist all over the sky, the yard, the smile of a friend, the laughter of that child, the roof over your head, the food in the fridge, the job you have, that person who cares. We call them "God-sightings."

Actually, thanks-living isn't just an option for a follower of Jesus. It's a command. "Always be joyful." How am I going to do that, for heaven's sake? Well, in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Thessalonians 5:16 and 18, where it says, "Always be joyful." It also says, "Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Jesus."

When you look at life through blessing glasses, all kinds of good things blossom: joy that's from what's happening in your spirit, not your situation, peace that banishes anxiety, faith that sees a God who's bigger than whatever is bigger than you are.

Thanksgiving's a great time to become intentional about collecting blessings, not burdens. Living "with gratitude in your hearts to God."

For me, that thanks begins, not at a turkey-filled table, but at an old rugged cross where I once again allow myself to be leveled by the love of my Jesus who took my hell so I can spend forever in His heaven.

Thanksgiving and thanks-living begin with the love that will never let me go.

Luke 4:31-44, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THE WHITE FLAG OF THE HEART - November 26, 2025

Maybe your past isn’t much to brag about. Maybe you’ve seen evil and you have to make a choice. Do you rise above the past and make a difference? Or do you remain controlled by the past and make excuses? Many choose the convalescent homes of the heart. Healthy bodies, sharp minds, but retired dreams. Lean closely and you’ll hear, “If only.” The white flag of the heart. “If only…”

Maybe you’ve used those words. Maybe you have every right to use them. Perhaps you were hearing the ten count before you even got into the ring. Can I show you where to turn? Go to John’s gospel and read Jesus’ words in John 3:6 (NCV). “Human life comes from human parents, but spiritual life comes from one Spirit.” Your parents have given you genes, but God gives you grace. God is willing to give you what your family didn’t.

When God Whispers Your Name

Luke 4:31-44

  He went down to Capernaum, a village in Galilee. He was teaching the people on the Sabbath. They were surprised and impressed—his teaching was so forthright, so confident, so authoritative, not the quibbling and quoting they were used to.

33–34  In the meeting place that day there was a man demonically disturbed. He screamed, “Ho! What business do you have here with us, Jesus? Nazarene! I know what you’re up to. You’re the Holy One of God and you’ve come to destroy us!”

35  Jesus shut him up: “Quiet! Get out of him!” The demonic spirit threw the man down in front of them all and left. The demon didn’t hurt him.

36–37  That set everyone back on their heels, whispering and wondering, “What’s going on here? Someone whose words make things happen? Someone who orders demonic spirits to get out and they go?” Jesus was the talk of the town.

He Healed Them All

38–39  He left the meeting place and went to Simon’s house. Simon’s mother-in-law was running a high fever and they asked him to do something for her. He stood over her, told the fever to leave—and it left. Before they knew it, she was up getting dinner for them.

40–41  When the sun went down, everyone who had anyone sick with some ailment or other brought them to him. One by one he placed his hands on them and healed them. Demons left in droves, screaming, “Son of God! You’re the Son of God!” But he shut them up, refusing to let them speak because they knew too much, knew him to be the Messiah.

42–44  He left the next day for open country. But the crowds went looking and, when they found him, clung to him so he couldn’t go on. He told them, “Don’t you realize that there are yet other villages where I have to tell the Message of God’s kingdom, that this is the work God sent me to do?” Meanwhile he continued preaching in the meeting places of Galilee.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Wednesday, November 26, 2025

by Alyson Kieda

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Ezra 3:1, 4-6, 9-11

The Building Begun: “The Foundation of the Temple Was Laid”

1–2  3 When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled into their towns, the people assembled together in Jerusalem.

They also celebrated the Festival of Booths as prescribed and the daily Whole-Burnt-Offerings set for each day. And they presented the regular Whole-Burnt-Offerings for Sabbaths, New Moons, and God’s Holy Festivals, as well as Freewill-Offerings for God.

6  They began offering Whole-Burnt-Offerings to God from the very first day of the seventh month, even though The Temple of God’s foundation had not yet been laid.

Today's Insights

The celebration recorded in Ezra 3:10-11 is significant. After decades of captivity on foreign soil, God’s people were back in their homeland in fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy: “I will . . . bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you . . . and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile” (Jeremiah 29:14). Though the work ahead of them would be long and hard, the presence of the temple foundation (Ezra 3:10-13) was a visible reminder that God had kept His promise. When we’re discouraged and facing severe obstacles, we can pause and recognize what God has done. Gratitude for His faithfulness helps us gain momentum for the future.

Count Your Blessings

All the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord. Ezra 3:11

When I was a little girl, I loved the old hymn “Count Your Blessings.” The song encourages those who are “tempest-tossed” and “thinking all is lost” to “count your blessings, name them one by one.” Years later when my husband, Alan, was discouraged, he would often ask me to sing that simple song to him. Then I would help him to enumerate his blessings. Doing so took Alan’s focus off his struggles and self-doubt and centered his thoughts on God and his reasons for thankfulness.

The book of Ezra describes God’s people facing overwhelming challenges through focusing on God’s power and provision. After they’d endured decades of captivity in Babylon, King Cyrus allowed the Jewish exiles to return to Israel to rebuild the temple (Ezra 1-2). Only a fraction returned (2:64). Despite their “fear of the peoples around them” and the great task before them, they rebuilt the altar and laid the temple’s foundation (3:3, 10). Then “with praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord: ‘He is good; his love toward Israel endures forever.’ And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord” (v. 11).

If you’re discouraged or facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles, turn your thoughts toward God. “Count your blessings . . . and it will surprise you what the Lord has done,” and continues to do, for those who love Him.

Reflect & Pray

How has counting your blessings helped you in a difficult situation? What are you thankful for?

Dear God, please help me to be grateful and praise You for who You are and for all You’ve done.

Discover more about gratefulness by reading Consistently Celebrating.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Wednesday, November 26, 2025

The Concentration of Spiritual Energy

. . . the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me. — Galatians 6:14

If you want to know the energy of God—the energy of the resurrection life of Jesus Christ—in your physical body, you must do more than simply think on the tragedy of God on the cross; you must brood upon it. Cut yourself off from distractions, stop taking an obsessive interest in your personal spiritual development, and consider, bare-spirited, the tragedy of God. The instant you do, his energy will be in you.

“Turn to me,” says God (Isaiah 45:22). God must become the dominating object of your attention. Pay attention to the objective Source and the subjective energy will follow. We lose power when we fail to concentrate on the right thing. The right thing is the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross is the only thing we are called to preach—not salvation or sanctification or healing. In much preaching today, the focus is placed not on the cross but on its effects. Churches are criticized as feeble, and the criticism is justified because there has been no concentration of spiritual energy, no brooding on the tragedy of Calvary or on the meaning of redemption.

Concentrate on the cross in your preaching, and though the members of your audience might not seem to pay attention, they’ll never be the same again. If I talk my own talk, it’s of no more importance to you than your talk is to me. But if I talk the truth of God, you will meet it again, and so will I. When you concentrate on the great point of spiritual energy—the cross—keeping in contact with this center where all the power lies, its energy will be let loose. The proclaiming of the cross of Jesus Christ does its own work.

Ezekiel 27-29; 1 Peter 3

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Sincerity means that the appearance and the reality are exactly the same.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Wednesday, November 26, 2025

THE MISSION AT YOUR HOUSE - #10143

When our kids were growing up, the early morning shift around our house was particularly exciting. I was getting ready for a full day, three kids were scrambling to have what they needed for school, my wife was playing maid, chef, valet, and chauffeur. Man! In the rush, a lot of our communication was basically non-verbal. For example, one morning I was shaving and thinking through this endless list of things I had to do that day - all the Lord's work, of course. I was mulling over a sermon, radio programs, an important appointment that day, an event I was planning, and my son popped in. Now, I must have somehow succeeded in telegraphing how much I had on my mind (the Lord's work, remember? Right.) - he disappeared as quickly as he had appeared. Then, as I was praying about all the Lord's work I had to do that day, I remembered an important decision my son had to make that day, one that he probably needed to talk to his father about. I had just missed the Lord's work.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Mission at Your House."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from John 4:30. Jesus has just had a transforming conversation with this Samaritan woman He met at a well, and she goes back to tell her village about the Messiah she has just met. The Bible says, "They came out of the town and made their way toward Him." The disciples, who have been in the village shopping for groceries, are just focused on trying to get Jesus to eat some lunch.

But with these unreached Samaritans streaming out of the village toward them, Jesus says, "Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest?' I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest." To Jesus' disciples, this village was just a rest and refueling stop. Apparently they were looking ahead to some great future ministry and missing the ministry right under their noses!

Sounds like this father shaving, thinking about the ministry he had ahead of him and missing a son who needed some ministry right there. All too often we're like what I was that busy morning or the disciples were that lunch time in Samaria. We miss the work of God that's right under our nose. In fact, you don't even have to leave your home to do the Lord's work. Actually, the work of God begins at home! That's one reason the qualifications for spiritual leaders in 1 Timothy 3 tell us that it must be someone whose relationship with their spouse and their children is healthy.

So we often fill up our lives with ministry responsibilities, only to reach other people's kids while missing our own, to bring blessing to God's house while neglecting our first responsibility - the congregation at our own house. Many husbands and wives, children and parents have been the victims of a distorted view of God's work - that you have to leave home before you start doing ministry. You know, your family may be the most important ministry you will ever have.

This doesn't mean you withdraw from every spiritual responsibility outside your home, but it does mean you take care of the Lord's work at home first. Maybe your unbelieving family member would be better reached by your staying home with them sometimes than by your going to a meeting to pray for them. Your mate, your child may need your ear, your encouragement, your counsel. And they may need it at least as much as anyone you're going to see at your meeting.

So look around your house for those needs that are there before you go charging off somewhere else to start doing the Lord's work. Sometimes the most important Lord's work you have to do is right there under your nose!

Deuteronomy 13, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: STUNNING GRACE - November 25, 2025

I’ve never been surprised by God’s judgment, but I’m still stunned by his grace. God’s judgment has never been a problem for me. In fact, it always seems right. Lightning bolts on Sodom. Fire on Gomorrah. Good job, God! Egyptians swallowed in the Red Sea. They had it coming. Discipline is easy for me to swallow, logical to assimilate. But God’s grace? Anything but.

Examples? How much time do you have? Peter denied Christ before he preached Christ. Zacchaeus, the crook. The cleanest part of his life was the money he’d laundered, but Jesus still had time for him. The thief on the cross – hung-out to die one minute, heaven-bound and smiling the next.

Story after story. Surprise after surprise! Search the pages, read the stories. Find one person who came seeking a second chance and left with a stern lecture. Search. You won’t find it. 

When God Whispers Your Name

Deuteronomy 13

When a prophet or visionary gets up in your community and gives out a miracle-sign or wonder, and the miracle-sign or wonder that he gave out happens and he says, “Let’s follow other gods” (these are gods you know nothing about), “let’s worship them,” don’t pay any attention to what that prophet or visionary says. God, your God, is testing you to find out if you totally love him with everything you have in you. You are to follow only God, your God, hold him in deep reverence, keep his commandments, listen obediently to what he says, serve him—hold on to him for dear life!

5  And that prophet or visionary must be put to death. He has urged mutiny against God, your God, who rescued you from Egypt, who redeemed you from a world of slavery and put you on the road on which God, your God, has commanded you to walk. Purge the evil from your company.

6–10  And when your brother or son or daughter, or even your dear wife or lifelong friend, comes to you in secret and whispers, “Let’s go and worship some other gods” (gods that you know nothing about, neither you nor your ancestors, the gods of the peoples around you near and far, from one end of the Earth to the other), don’t go along with him; shut your ears. Don’t feel sorry for him and don’t make excuses for him. Kill him. That’s right, kill him. You throw the first stone. Take action at once and swiftly with everybody in the community getting in on it at the end. Stone him with stones so that he dies. He tried to turn you traitor against God, your God, the one who got you out of Egypt and the world of slavery.

11  Every man, woman, and child in Israel will hear what’s been done and be in awe. No one will dare to do an evil thing like this again.

12–17  When word comes in from one of your cities that God, your God, is giving you to live in, reporting that evil men have gotten together with some of the citizens of the city and have broken away, saying, “Let’s go and worship other gods” (gods you know nothing about), then you must conduct a careful examination. Ask questions, investigate. If it turns out that the report is true and this abomination did in fact take place in your community, you must execute the citizens of that town. Kill them, setting that city apart for holy destruction: the city and everything in it including its animals. Gather the plunder in the middle of the town square and burn it all—town and plunder together up in smoke, a holy sacrifice to God, your God. Leave it there, ashes and ruins. Don’t build on that site again. And don’t let any of the plunder devoted to holy destruction stick to your fingers. Get rid of it so that God may turn from anger to compassion, generously making you prosper, just as he promised your ancestors.

18  Yes. Obediently listen to God, your God. Keep all his commands that I am giving you today. Do the right thing in the eyes of God, your God.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Tuesday, November 25, 2025

by Patricia Raybon

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

1 Samuel 7:7-12

The Place Where God Helped Us

7  When the Philistines heard that Israel was meeting at Mizpah, the Philistine leaders went on the offensive. Israel got the report and became frightened—Philistines on the move again!

8  They pleaded with Samuel, “Pray with all your might! And don’t let up! Pray to God, our God, that he’ll save us from the boot of the Philistines.”

9  Samuel took a young lamb not yet weaned and offered it whole as a Whole-Burnt-Offering to God. He prayed fervently to God, interceding for Israel. And God answered.

10–12  While Samuel was offering the sacrifice, the Philistines came within range to fight Israel. Just then God thundered, a huge thunderclap exploding among the Philistines. They panicked—mass confusion!—and ran helter-skelter from Israel. Israel poured out of Mizpah and gave chase, killing Philistines right and left, to a point just beyond Beth Car. Samuel took a single rock and set it upright between Mizpah and Shen. He named it “Ebenezer” (Rock of Help), saying, “This marks the place where God helped us.”

Today's Insights

In Hebrew literature, a “word pair” refers to two closely related yet distinct words that are often found together and enhance an idea. In 1 Samuel 7, we find the common word pair of “deliver” (v. 3; Hebrew, natsal) and “rescue” (v. 8; Hebrew, yasha). To “deliver” captures the idea of God rescuing from a situation of immediate danger, while “rescue” (or “save” in some translations), points to a more enduring, secure, and ultimate victory. In 1 Samuel 7, Samuel calls for God’s people to trust Him to “deliver” (v. 3) and “rescue” them from the Philistines (v. 8). Together, this word pair points to our need to ask God for help when we face trials and to leave both our immediate situation and our ultimate security and final salvation in God’s hands.

Asking for God’s Help

Thus far the Lord has helped us. 1 Samuel 7:12

When I was younger, I thought it improper to ask God to help me meet writing deadlines. Other people have greater needs, I told myself. Family problems. Health crises. Job letdowns. Financial needs. I’ve faced all those things too. But meeting a writing deadline seemed too small to take to God. I changed my view, however, after finding multiple examples in the Bible of God helping people regardless of the challenge they faced.

In one story, the Israelites were dismayed because they faced an attack at Mizpah by their enemies, the Philistines. “[The Israelites] said to Samuel, ‘Do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, that he may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines’ ” (1 Samuel 7:8). In response, Samuel sacrificed a lamb to God, crying out to Him on Israel’s behalf, “and the Lord answered him” (v. 9).

“While Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to engage Israel in battle. But that day the Lord thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites” (v. 10).

Later, “Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, ‘Thus far the Lord has helped us’ ” (v. 12). Samuel placed the stone to commemorate God helping His people. Ebenezer means “stone of help.”

Asking God for help is always proper. Let’s call out to Him today.

Reflect & Pray

What help do you need from God? Why is it vital for you to call out to Him?

Please help me today, loving God. I need You!

For further study, listen to The Mercy Prayer.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Tuesday, November 25, 2025

The Secret of Spiritual Coherence

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. — Galatians 6:14

When people are first born again, they become incoherent. They display a certain amount of unregulated emotion; their actions seem not to make sense. Yet this incoherence is only on the surface. The external life of the apostle Paul appeared haphazard, but underlying everything he did was a strong, steady coherence. Paul was rooted and grounded in God, and because of this he was able to let his external life change without it causing him distress.

Most of us aren’t spiritually coherent for the simple reason that we care more about external coherence than internal coherence. Paul lived in the basement; his consistency was down in the fundamentals, where the order of God’s purpose reigns. Most of us live in the upper stories, among the coherent critics, where external consistency is all that matters. The two spaces do not begin to touch each other. The great basis of Paul’s coherence was the agony of God in the redemption of the world—the cross of Jesus Christ.

Restate to yourself what you believe, then do away with as much of it as possible. Get back to the bedrock of the cross of Christ. Viewed as a single event in history, the cross is an infinitesimal thing; from the point of view of the Bible, it’s more important than all the empires of the world. If, when we preach, we drift away from brooding on the tragedy of God upon the cross, our preaching will produce nothing. It won’t convey the energy of God, and though it may be interesting, it will have no power. But if we preach the cross, the energy of God will be set loose. “God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. . . . We preach Christ crucified” (1 Corinthians 1:21, 23).

Ezekiel 24-26; 1 Peter 2

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Always keep in contact with those books and those people that enlarge your horizon and make it possible for you to stretch yourself mentally.

The Moral Foundations of Life, 721 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Tuesday, November 25, 2025

WHERE TRUST IS BORN - #10142

We met Dan and Rita and their dog when we took our Native American team to a reservation in South Dakota. They live in this dusty little village, doing their best to make a difference for the people there. They've got this little dog named Gal. Now most dogs are pretty aggressive in meeting strangers - they come right up to you, even on you. But not Gal. No, she retreats when she sees people. She cowers actually; she trembles. Dan and Rita explained why. Their dog had been severely abused by several previous owners before they got her. So she has a hard time trusting even people who want to treat her right, but she's missing a lot of loving that way.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Where Trust Is Born."

Wounded, then afraid to trust, and missing a lot of love. That's not just the life story of a dog. It's a life story of millions of people. It might be your story. You've been betrayed by people you should have been able to trust - abused, abandoned, deeply hurt. And it's hard for you to trust anyone. You've just been hurt too often.

It's even hard for you to trust someone who wants to treat you right. Maybe even the Person who wants to give you the deepest love a human being can ever experience, and that would be God. You're not even sure how you feel about Him. There have been tragedies you don't understand, there've been questions you can't find answers for.

And even though all those children sing that little song, "Jesus loves me, this I know," you can't sing their song because you haven't really trusted Him with everything you've got. You've never really experienced this "I will never leave you" love. In fact, that's the promise Jesus made to those who belong to Him. He said literally, "I will never leave you or forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5).

If you struggle to trust even the God who has the love and the healing you need, I ask you to consider our word for today from the Word of God. It's from Romans 8:31-32. "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Someone might be asking, "Is God for us?" Here's the answer: "He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all - how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?"

God says, "If you want to know if you can trust Me, come to My Son's cross." Because the only way for you and me to belong to God is to have the death penalty for our sin paid. God gave up His Son to pay it. God really doesn't want to lose you. He really does love you. Just look at His Son, hanging on that bloody cross, pouring out His life in exchange for yours.

Stand at the foot of the cross and try to get these words out, "I don't know if I can trust You." It's pretty hard to say those words there, because you've finally found the one person you can totally trust. Because the Savior who loves you enough to die for you will never betray your trust. He will never do you wrong! Who else can you count on to love you like that for now, forever?

Trust is born at the cross of Jesus when you let the walls around your wounded heart finally come down, and when you say, "Jesus, I need a Savior. I need to be forgiven. I need Your love. Jesus, I'm Yours."

If you've never done that, let today be the day you let His love flood into your hurting heart. I want to invite you to go to our website, because it's there for someone who is ready to begin their relationship with Jesus. I hope you'll go there today - ANewStory.com.

There's more love waiting for you than you ever imagined you could have. The arms of Jesus are wide open, extending to you hands that have nail scars in them - proof of how much He loves you. Now, it's your move.

Deuteronomy 12, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: WHO CAN BE AGAINST US? - November 24, 2025

Paul asks the question in Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” The question isn’t simply, “Who can be against you?” You could answer that one. Who is against you? Disease, inflation, corruption, exhaustion. Calamities confront, fears imprison. Were Paul’s question, “Who can be against us?” we could list our foes much easier than we could fight them.

God is for us. God is for us. God is for us. Your parents may have forgotten you, your teachers may have neglected you, your siblings may be ashamed of you. But within reach of your prayers is the maker of the oceans – God! God is for you. Not may be, not has been, not was, but God is! He is for you. Today. At this hour. At this minute. As you hear this, he is with you. God is for you.

The Lucado Inspirational Reader

Deuteronomy 12

2 These are the rules and regulations that you must diligently observe for as long as you live in this country that God, the God-of-Your-Fathers, has given you to possess.

2–3  Ruthlessly demolish all the sacred shrines where the nations that you’re driving out worship their gods—wherever you find them, on hills and mountains or in groves of green trees. Tear apart their altars. Smash their phallic pillars. Burn their sex-and-religion Asherah shrines. Break up their carved gods. Obliterate the names of those god sites.

4  Stay clear of those places—don’t let what went on there contaminate the worship of God, your God.

5–7  Instead find the site that God, your God, will choose and mark it with his name as a common center for all the tribes of Israel. Assemble there. Bring to that place your Absolution-Offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and Tribute-Offerings, your Vow-Offerings, your Freewill-Offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. Feast there in the Presence of God, your God. Celebrate everything that you and your families have accomplished under the blessing of God, your God.

8–10  Don’t continue doing things the way we’re doing them at present, each of us doing as we wish. Until now you haven’t arrived at the goal, the resting place, the inheritance that God, your God, is giving you. But the minute you cross the Jordan River and settle into the land God, your God, is enabling you to inherit, he’ll give you rest from all your surrounding enemies. You’ll be able to settle down and live in safety.

11–12  From then on, at the place that God, your God, chooses to mark with his name as the place where you can meet him, bring everything that I command you: your Absolution-Offerings and sacrifices, tithes and Tribute-Offerings, and the best of your Vow-Offerings that you vow to God. Celebrate there in the Presence of God, your God, you and your sons and daughters, your servants and maids, including the Levite living in your neighborhood because he has no place of his own in your inheritance.

13–14  Be extra careful: Don’t offer your Absolution-Offerings just any place that strikes your fancy. Offer your Absolution-Offerings only in the place that God chooses in one of your tribal regions. There and only there are you to bring all that I command you.

15  It’s permissible to slaughter your nonsacrificial animals like gazelle and deer in your towns and eat all you want from them with the blessing of God, your God. Both the ritually clean and unclean may eat.

16–18  But you may not eat the blood. Pour the blood out on the ground like water. Nor may you eat there the tithe of your grain, new wine, or olive oil; nor the firstborn of your herds and flocks; nor any of the Vow-Offerings that you vow; nor your Freewill-Offerings and Tribute-Offerings. All these you must eat in the Presence of God, your God, in the place God, your God, chooses—you, your son and daughter, your servant and maid, and the Levite who lives in your neighborhood. You are to celebrate in the Presence of God, your God, all the things you’ve been able to accomplish.

19  And make sure that for as long as you live on your land you never, never neglect the Levite.

20–22  When God, your God, expands your territory as he promised he would do, and you say, “I’m hungry for meat,” because you happen to be craving meat at the time, go ahead and eat as much meat as you want. If you’re too far away from the place that God, your God, has marked with his name, it’s all right to slaughter animals from your herds and flocks that God has given you, as I’ve commanded you. In your own towns you may eat as much of them as you want. Just as the nonsacrificial animals like the gazelle and deer are eaten, you may eat them; the ritually unclean and clean may eat them at the same table.

23–25  Only this: Absolutely no blood. Don’t eat the blood. Blood is life; don’t eat the life with the meat. Don’t eat it; pour it out on the ground like water. Don’t eat it; then you’ll have a good life, you and your children after you. By all means, do the right thing in God’s eyes.

26–27  And this: Lift high your Holy-Offerings and your Vow-Offerings and bring them to the place God designates. Sacrifice your Absolution-Offerings, the meat and blood, on the Altar of God, your God; pour out the blood of the Absolution-Offering on the Altar of God, your God; then you can go ahead and eat the meat.

28  Be vigilant, listen obediently to these words that I command you so that you’ll have a good life, you and your children, for a long, long time, doing what is good and right in the eyes of God, your God.

29–31  When God, your God, cuts off the nations whose land you are invading, shoves them out of your way so that you displace them and settle in their land, be careful that you don’t get curious about them after they’ve been destroyed before you. Don’t get fascinated with their gods, thinking, “I wonder what it was like for them, worshiping their gods. I’d like to try that myself.” Don’t do this to God, your God. They commit every imaginable abomination with their gods. God hates it all with a passion. Why, they even set their children on fire as offerings to their gods!

32  Diligently do everything I command you, the way I command you: don’t add to it; don’t subtract from it.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Monday, November 24, 2025

by Tom Felten

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Jeremiah 25:4-11

 Not only that but God also sent a steady stream of prophets to you who were just as persistent as me, and you never listened. They told you, “Turn back—right now, each one of you!—from your evil way of life and bad behavior, and live in the land God gave you and your ancestors, the land he intended to give you forever. Don’t follow the god-fads of the day, taking up and worshiping these no-gods. Don’t make me angry with your god-businesses, making and selling gods—a dangerous business!

7  “You refused to listen to any of this, and now I am really angry. These god-making businesses of yours are your doom.”

8–11  The verdict of God-of-the-Angel-Armies on all this: “Because you have refused to listen to what I’ve said, I’m stepping in. I’m sending for the armies out of the north headed by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant in this, and I’m setting them on this land and people and even the surrounding countries. I’m devoting the whole works to total destruction—a horror to top all the horrors in history. And I’ll banish every sound of joy—singing, laughter, marriage festivities, genial workmen, candlelit suppers. The whole landscape will be one vast wasteland. These countries will be in subjection to the king of Babylon for seventy years.

Today's Insights

The people of Judah were stubbornly unrepentant, persistently refusing to trust God and blatantly ignoring His warnings of punishment for their idolatry (Jeremiah 25:3-7). The Babylonians would turn their country into a desolate wasteland, and the people would be exiled to Babylon for seventy years (vv. 8-11). But God wouldn’t abandon them. He assured them of His presence and love: “Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, . . . for I am with you and will save you and deliver you from his hands. I will show you compassion so that he will have compassion on you and restore you to your land” (42:11-12). Whatever situation we’re facing today, we can entrust ourselves to God, knowing that He loves us and is with us.

Hope in the Waiting

“You did not listen to me,” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 25:7

Alida took a DNA test in 2020 and discovered a strong match to a man living on the opposite coast of the US. Later, she and her daughters found news articles from the 1950s that led them to conclude that the man was Alida’s long-lost uncle, Luis! He’d been abducted from a park in 1951 when he was six years old. That DNA test, taken seventy years after Luis’ disappearance, eventually led to a happy reunion with his biological family members. Alida said, “With [our] story out there, it could help other families . . . . I would say, don’t give up.”

Seventy years is a long time to keep hope alive. Jeremiah and the people of Judah must have been heartbroken and fearful when God said they would “serve the king of Babylon seventy years” (Jeremiah 25:11). But they hadn’t listened to God and turned from their “evil ways and . . . practices” (v. 5), which had deformed them into “an object of horror and scorn” (v. 9). The people were condemned more than thirty times in Jeremiah for not listening to Him. Seventy years might have felt like forever, but God would be with them, and He promised that the hard season would eventually end (29:10).

As we face challenging seasons that seem to go on and on, let’s remember that while we may struggle to trust God, He promises that He’s with us and loves us (30:11). As we listen to Him and wait expectantly, we can find hope.

Reflect & Pray

How is it possible to endure difficult times? Where can you find comfort in God’s promises?

Loving God, please help me find hope in You.

Find out how you can find comfort in who God is and what He says He will do.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Monday, November 24, 2025

The Direction of Aspiration

Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters…so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God. — Psalm 123:2 kjv

This verse is a description of what it means to rely entirely on God. Just as the eyes of servants are riveted on their masters, so our eyes are fixed on God. Spiritual drift begins when we cease to lift our eyes to him. This loss of focus comes not so much through trouble on the outside as trouble on the inside, from questioning and doubting our own devotion and effort. “I guess I’ve been stretching myself a bit too much,” we think. “I’ve been standing on tiptoe and trying to look like God instead of being an ordinary, humble person.” We have to realize that no effort can be too high.

Think back to your own spiritual crisis. What happened after you made a stand for God and had the witness of the Spirit? At first you were full of inspiration and energy. But the weeks went by, then maybe the years, and you began to think, “Well, after all, I was being pretentious. Wasn’t I aiming a bit too high?” Your rational friends agreed with you. “Don’t be a fool,” they said. “We knew when you talked about this spiritual awakening that it was a fleeting impulse. You can’t keep up the strain, and God doesn’t expect you to.” Now you say, “I guess I was expecting too much.” It sounds humble to say this, but it means that your reliance on God is gone and reliance on worldly opinion has come in. The danger is that, because you no longer rely on God, you no longer lift your eyes to him. Only when God brings you to a sudden stop will you realize how terribly you’ve been missing out.

Whenever you begin to lose your focus on God, remedy the situation immediately. Recognize that something has been coming between you and him and make a readjustment at once.

Ezekiel 22-23; 1 Peter 1

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

We are in danger of being stern where God is tender, and of being tender where God is stern. 

The Love of God—The Message of Invincible Consolation, 673 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Monday, November 24, 2025

GET IN THE GAME - #10141

Professional football wasn't the same for me once I began to have the opportunity to speak at NFL chapels. All of the NFL teams have chapel services before their games. And so, a few hours before game time, I had the opportunity to meet in a hotel conference room with a number of the players; sometimes from our local team, sometimes from a visiting team. And the players were so intense! I mean, it was a lot more than a game to them. By the time that day was over, their career could have been in jeopardy, their income was on the line, sometimes what shape their body was in was on the line.

Then, because they often gave me two tickets, I would go to the stadium. And there I saw those wonderful, courteous New York fans. There they were out in the parking lot with their little grills having a party and passing their six packs. Then they'd go into the stadium and here is this guy; he's kind of the stereotypical football fan. He's got, you know, a lot of six packs that he's been carrying around in his stomach apparently for a number of years stuffed into some New York Giants or Jets shirt. He's got a Budweiser hat on. He's passing more down his way, and he's yelling and screaming. He knows all the players by their first name of course. Well, at least it sounds like it. And he knows how to play every play; he's very quick to criticize.

Of course, because I know how intense it is for the guys on the field because I've been with them, I just want to stand up and say, "Hey, Buddy, why don't you just be quiet for a little while? Why don't you get out of the stands and get in the game? Let's see how you do." Look behind you right now. Maybe there's someone telling you that.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Get In the Game."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Ephesians 4, and I'm going to begin reading at verse 11. "It was God who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers." Now why do we have all this here? Well, we're about to find out the reason why we have all these sermons you've heard in your life, and all the Sunday School lessons you've ever heard, all these guys talking at you from radio. Why all of this? Why is that all happening?

Here's why: It says to prepare God's people for works of service. See, that's why you've gotten all this input you've been getting spiritually all these years. It isn't so you can just be smart about God. It's to get you ready to do something... "for works of service." So many of us are willing to go to the meetings, put some money in the offering, and maybe do some low-risk jobs. But we're like that fan in the stands. We like watching, maybe criticizing. We don't mind kind of being on the fringes and sometimes even telling those players on the field how to play better.

Well, see, Jesus has enough fans. He doesn't need any more fans. He needs players, and it could very well be that He's had you tune in today so you could hear these words, coming from Him, not from me, "Get out of the stands and get in the game."

Someone has wisely said, "In the first reformation the people of God were given the Word of God. Now a second reformation is needed where the people of God will be given the work of God." See, God has work for you to do; not just to go to Bible Studies and attend meetings and sing the songs and support ministries. It's time for you to play! There's someone only you can share Christ with. You're closer to that lost person than any other believer.

There's a group that maybe He wants to burden your heart for. There's someone who needs your time, your attention, your experience. In American Christianity we like to assign all of it to a few spiritual athletes. We call them pastors, missionaries, youth leaders. How about they take all the risks for us? But Jesus says we are all to be out on a limb, taking risks to serve Him.

Why don't you be one of the heroes on the field? There are no heroes in the stands. Dare to say, "Lord, what would You have me to do?" You've spent enough time watching. Now get out of the stands and get in the game.

Luke 4:1-30 , bible reading and devotionals.

Max Lucado Daily: He’s the Real Deal

God’s not a love-‘em-and-leave-‘em kind of God!  When I was 7, I ran away from home.  I’d had it with my dad and his rules. With my clothes in a paper bag, I headed out. What do I need a father for?  Well, I didn’t go far.  When it  came down to it, hunger won me over!

Did my dad know what I’d done—what I thought?  I suspect he did—dads always seem to, don’t they?  But you know—my dad called himself my father even when I didn’t call myself his son.  His commitment to me was greater than my commitment to him.

You can count on God to be in your corner—no matter what–He cares!

Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Matthew 7:7?

From Max On Life

Luke 4:1-30

Tested by the Devil

1–2  4 Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wild. For forty wilderness days and nights he was tested by the Devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when the time was up he was hungry.

3  The Devil, playing on his hunger, gave the first test: “Since you’re God’s Son, command this stone to turn into a loaf of bread.”

4  Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes more than bread to really live.”

5–7  For the second test he led him up and spread out all the kingdoms of the earth on display at once. Then the Devil said, “They’re yours in all their splendor to serve your pleasure. I’m in charge of them all and can turn them over to whomever I wish. Worship me and they’re yours, the whole works.”

8  Jesus refused, again backing his refusal with Deuteronomy: “Worship the Lord your God and only the Lord your God. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness.”

9–11  For the third test the Devil took him to Jerusalem and put him on top of the Temple. He said, “If you are God’s Son, jump. It’s written, isn’t it, that ‘he has placed you in the care of angels to protect you; they will catch you; you won’t so much as stub your toe on a stone’?”

12  “Yes,” said Jesus, “and it’s also written, ‘Don’t you dare tempt the Lord your God.’ ”

13  That completed the testing. The Devil retreated temporarily, lying in wait for another opportunity.

To Set the Burdened Free

14–15  Jesus returned to Galilee powerful in the Spirit. News that he was back spread through the countryside. He taught in their meeting places to everyone’s acclaim and pleasure.

16–21  He came to Nazareth where he had been reared. As he always did on the Sabbath, he went to the meeting place. When he stood up to read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written,

God’s Spirit is on me;

he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor,

Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and

recovery of sight to the blind,

To set the burdened and battered free,

to announce, “This is God’s year to act!”

He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the place was on him, intent. Then he started in, “You’ve just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place.”

22  All who were there, watching and listening, were surprised at how well he spoke. But they also said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son, the one we’ve known since he was a youngster?”

23–27  He answered, “I suppose you’re going to quote the proverb, ‘Doctor, go heal yourself. Do here in your hometown what we heard you did in Capernaum.’ Well, let me tell you something: No prophet is ever welcomed in his hometown. Isn’t it a fact that there were many widows in Israel at the time of Elijah during that three and a half years of drought when famine devastated the land, but the only widow to whom Elijah was sent was in Sarepta in Sidon? And there were many lepers in Israel at the time of the prophet Elisha but the only one cleansed was Naaman the Syrian.”

28–30  That set everyone in the meeting place seething with anger. They threw him out, banishing him from the village, then took him to a mountain cliff at the edge of the village to throw him to his doom, but he gave them the slip and was on his way.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Sunday, November 23, 2025

by Mike Wittmer

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Mark 5:1-6, 12-13, 18-20

The Madman

1–5  5 They arrived on the other side of the sea in the country of the Gerasenes. As Jesus got out of the boat, a madman from the cemetery came up to him. He lived there among the tombs and graves. No one could restrain him—he couldn’t be chained, couldn’t be tied down. He had been tied up many times with chains and ropes, but he broke the chains, snapped the ropes. No one was strong enough to tame him. Night and day he roamed through the graves and the hills, screaming out and slashing himself with sharp stones.

6–8  When he saw Jesus a long way off, he ran and bowed in worship before him

The demons begged him, “Send us to the pigs so we can live in them.” Jesus gave the order. But it was even worse for the pigs than for the man. Crazed, they stampeded over a cliff into the sea and drowned.

18–20  As Jesus was getting into the boat, the demon-delivered man begged to go along, but he wouldn’t let him. Jesus said, “Go home to your own people. Tell them your story—what the Master did, how he had mercy on you.” The man went back and began to preach in the Ten Towns area about what Jesus had done for him. He was the talk of the town.

Today's Insights

The man with the “impure spirit” had terrorized the community (Mark 5:3-4), yet Christ redeemed him, showing him compassion while confronting his literal demons. Mark writes, “When [the man] saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him” (v. 6). Why would a man possessed by agents of Satan run to meet Christ, the enemy of Satan? Perhaps because even demons sense the irresistible compulsion to worship this “Son of the Most High God” (v. 7). Just as Jesus demonstrated to the demon-possessed man that his life had value, we can be assured that because of Christ we’re also of immeasurable worth.

Our Worth in Christ

Jesus . . . said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you.” Mark 5:19

Mario was a twenty-eight-year-old crack and alcohol addict who was imprisoned for burglary. At his sentencing the judge said he was “a waste of a human life.” Mario sadly agreed. Midway through his jail time he saw an advertisement for a journalism contest. It piqued Mario’s interest, and he enrolled in a nearby university. He was hooked. Mario loved working on news stories, and after his release he finished his master’s degree in journalism and now writes for The New York Times. He’s a waste no more!

The life of the demon-possessed man living in the tombs seemed a waste to anyone who knew him. His neighbors bound him with chains for their protection and his, but “he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet” (Mark 5:4). He ran back to the tombs where “night and day . . . he would cry out and cut himself with stones” (v. 5). Then he was changed forever.

Jesus cast out the man’s demons and returned him to normal society. The town was amazed to find him “sitting there, dressed and in his right mind” (v. 15). The grateful man wanted to sail away with Christ, but He said no. “Go home to your own people,” said Jesus, “and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you” (v. 19).

This man’s mission is our mission. Let’s tell others about Christ. Because of Him, no one’s life is a waste.

Reflect & Pray

What has Jesus saved you from? Where would you be without Him?

Dear Father, thank You for the immeasurable worth I have in You.

For further study, watch You're a Fixer Upper.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Sunday, November 23, 2025

The Distraction of Contempt

Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly piled with contempt. — Psalm 123:3kjv

The thing we have to watch out for isn’t so much damage to our belief in God as damage to our Christian state of mind. Our mindset has tremendous, far-reaching effects; it can be devoted to and formed by God, or it can be an enemy, one that penetrates to the soul and distracts us from him. There are certain states of mind in which we should never dare indulge, like worry and contempt. If we do indulge in these states of mind, we will find that we are completely distracted from our faith. Until we get back into a quiet mood before God, our faith in him will be nil, and confidence in the flesh and in human ingenuity will rule.

Never indulge in worry. Beware of the cares of this world; they produce a wrong temper of soul. It’s extraordinary what enormous power simple things have to pull our attention away from God. Refuse to be swamped by the cares of this life.

Never indulge in self-justification. St. Augustine praised God for healing him from “the lust of vindicating” himself. The mindset that says “I must explain myself; I must get people to understand” is one that will destroy the soul’s faith in God. Our Lord never explained anything. He left others’ mistaken impressions and interpretations of him to correct themselves.

Never indulge in criticizing others. Sometimes we discern that another person isn’t developing spiritually, and we allow this discernment to turn into criticism and contempt. When we do, we block our own path to God. God doesn’t give us discernment about other people so that we can criticize them. He gives us discernment so that we can intercede in prayer on their behalf.

Ezekiel 20-21; James 5

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence. 

Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L

Deuteronomy 11, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: God is For You

Paul asks the question in Romans 8:31,  "If God is for us, who can be against us?"

The question isn't simply, "Who can be against you?" You could answer that one.  Who is against you? Disease, inflation, corruption, exhaustion. Calamities confront, and fears imprison. Were Paul's question, "Who can be against us?" we could list our foes much easier than we could fight them.

But God is for us.  God is for us.  God is for us! Your parents may have forgotten you, your teachers may have neglected you, your siblings may be ashamed of you; but within reach of your prayers is the maker of the oceans. God!

God is for you.  Not "may be," not "has been," or "was," but God is!  He is for you. Today.  At this hour.  At this minute. As you hear this, He is with you. God is for you!

From  The Lucado Inspirational Reader

Deuteronomy 11

So love God, your God;

guard well his rules and regulations;

obey his commandments for the rest of time.

2–7  Today it’s very clear that it isn’t your children who are front and center here: They weren’t in on what God did, didn’t see the acts, didn’t experience the discipline, didn’t marvel at his greatness, the way he displayed his power in the miracle-signs and deeds that he let loose in Egypt on Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land, the way he took care of the Egyptian army, its horses and chariots, burying them in the waters of the Red Sea as they pursued you. God drowned them. And you’re standing here today alive. Nor was it your children who saw how God took care of you in the wilderness up until the time you arrived here, what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab son of Reuben, how the Earth opened its jaws and swallowed them with their families—their tents, and everything around them—right out of the middle of Israel. Yes, it was you—your eyes—that saw every great thing that God did.

8–9  So it’s you who are in charge of keeping the entire commandment that I command you today so that you’ll have the strength to invade and possess the land that you are crossing the river to make your own. Your obedience will give you a long life on the soil that God promised to give your ancestors and their children, a land flowing with milk and honey.

10–12  The land you are entering to take up ownership isn’t like Egypt, the land you left, where you had to plant your own seed and water it yourselves as in a vegetable garden. But the land you are about to cross the river and take for your own is a land of mountains and valleys; it drinks water that rains from the sky. It’s a land that God, your God, personally tends—he’s the gardener—he alone keeps his eye on it all year long.

13–15  From now on if you listen obediently to the commandments that I am commanding you today, love God, your God, and serve him with everything you have within you, he’ll take charge of sending the rain at the right time, both autumn and spring rains, so that you’ll be able to harvest your grain, your grapes, your olives. He’ll make sure there’s plenty of grass for your animals. You’ll have plenty to eat.

16–17  But be vigilant, lest you be seduced away and end up serving and worshiping other gods and God erupts in anger and shuts down Heaven so there’s no rain and nothing grows in the fields, and in no time at all you’re starved out—not a trace of you left on the good land that God is giving you.

18–21  Place these words on your hearts. Get them deep inside you. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder. Teach them to your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning until you fall into bed at night. Inscribe them on the doorposts and gates of your cities so that you’ll live a long time, and your children with you, on the soil that God promised to give your ancestors for as long as there is a sky over the Earth.

22–25  That’s right. If you diligently keep all this commandment that I command you to obey—love God, your God, do what he tells you, stick close to him—God on his part will drive out all these nations that stand in your way. Yes, he’ll drive out nations much bigger and stronger than you. Every square inch on which you place your foot will be yours. Your borders will stretch from the wilderness to the mountains of Lebanon, from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea. No one will be able to stand in your way. Everywhere you go, God-sent fear and trembling will precede you, just as he promised.

26  I’ve brought you today to the crossroads of Blessing and Curse.

27  The Blessing: if you listen obediently to the commandments of God, your God, which I command you today.

28  The Curse: if you don’t pay attention to the commandments of God, your God, but leave the road that I command you today, following other gods of which you know nothing.

29–30  Here’s what comes next: When God, your God, brings you into the land you are going into to make your own, you are to give out the Blessing from Mount Gerizim and the Curse from Mount Ebal. After you cross the Jordan River, follow the road to the west through Canaanite settlements in the valley near Gilgal and the Oaks of Moreh.

31–32  You are crossing the Jordan River to invade and take the land that God, your God, is giving you. Be vigilant. Observe all the regulations and rules I am setting before you today.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Saturday, November 22, 2025

by Sheridan Voysey

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

John 12:1-8

Anointing His Feet

1–3  12 Six days before Passover, Jesus entered Bethany where Lazarus, so recently raised from the dead, was living. Lazarus and his sisters invited Jesus to dinner at their home. Martha served. Lazarus was one of those sitting at the table with them. Mary came in with a jar of very expensive aromatic oils, anointed and massaged Jesus’ feet, and then wiped them with her hair. The fragrance of the oils filled the house.

4–6  Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, even then getting ready to betray him, said, “Why wasn’t this oil sold and the money given to the poor? It would have easily brought three hundred silver pieces.” He said this not because he cared two cents about the poor but because he was a thief. He was in charge of their common funds, but also embezzled them.

7–8  Jesus said, “Let her alone. She’s anticipating and honoring the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you. You don’t always have me.”

Today's Insights

Through her actions, Mary of Bethany displayed how precious Jesus was to her. Several things are worth noting in this account. Her devotion was costly: “Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume . . . . It was worth a year’s wages” (John 12:3, 5). Furthermore, the scent of the perfume (v. 3) matched the fragrant aroma of her devotion to Christ. But the striking scene of lavish devotion was disrupted by the response of Judas Iscariot. “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor?” he asked (v. 5). Judas, who would later betray Jesus (v. 4), was a deceiver who covered his motives with pious words (v. 5); he was a hypocrite and a thief (v. 6) who would betray Christ for thirty pieces of silver (four months’ wages). But Jesus had the last word when He replied, “Leave her alone” (v. 7). Christ, who surrendered all for us, still desires that we treasure Him over everything.

Consider what Mary's actions tell us about worship.

Visit go.odb.org/112225 to learn more about what Mary’s actions tell us about worship.

Treasured Possession

Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. John 12:3

My father first locked eyes on my mother at a party in London. Next he gate-crashed a second party, then organized a third, just to see her again. Finally he asked Mum out for a country drive, picking her up in his old Rover sedan—his treasured possession.

Mum and Dad became sweethearts, but there was a problem. Mum was about to move to Peru to become a missionary. Dad took her to the airport, then five months later arrived in Peru himself—to propose to her. And the best part of the story? He’d sold his beloved Rover to pay for the plane ticket.

If you would’ve asked Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, what her most treasured possession was, she’d have shown you a precious bottle of “expensive perfume” (John 12:3). And if you’d have been at the party she and Martha threw for Jesus (v. 2) and watched her lavish that bottle’s contents on his feet, you’d have known just what Christ meant to her. He was that precious, that valuable.

For my mother, Dad selling his car wasn’t just about a plane ticket. It was a sign of how much he valued her. And Mary’s actions had deeper meaning too—she was preparing Jesus for His burial (v. 7). Like her, when we sacrifice for God what we treasure most, we take part in His redemptive work by echoing His great sacrifice for us.

Reflect & Pray

What treasure would you give up for God? How would you feel in Mary’s place, when Jesus revealed the deeper meaning of her actions?

Dear Jesus, You’re more valuable to me than my most treasured earthly possession.

For further study read, Lazarus Comes Back from the Dead—and That’s a Problem.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Saturday, November 22, 2025

Shallow and Profound

Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. — 1 Corinthians 10:31

Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow concerns of life aren’t ordained by God. Shallow things belong to God as much as profound things. If you refuse to be shallow, it isn’t because you’re more devoted to God than others; it’s because you want to impress them with how deep you are, a sure sign that you’re a spiritual snob. If this is the case, watch out: snobbery and contempt will make you go around like a walking rebuke, chastising others because you think they’re more shallow than you. Beware of posing as a profound person; God became a baby.

Being shallow isn’t a sign of being wicked. Nor is shallowness a sign that there are no depths; the ocean has a shore. The simple, shallow delights of life—eating and drinking, walking and talking—are all ordained by God. Our Lord lived in the shallows. He lived in them as the Son of God, and he said, “The student is not above the teacher” (Luke 6:40).

Our safeguard is in the shallow things. We have to live the surface, commonplace life in a commonsense way. Deeper concerns do come, but they come separately; God gives them to us apart from the shallow concerns. Never show the depths to anyone but God. We are so abominably serious, so desperately interested in our own characters, that we refuse to behave like Christians in the simple concerns of life.

Take no one seriously except for God—especially not yourself. You’ll find that the first person you need to leave severely alone, for being the greatest fraud you’ve ever encountered, is you.

Ezekiel 18-19; James 4

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decay—the decay of bodily beauty, of natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them.

The Place of Help