Luke 9:1-17, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THE CALL TO FORGIVE - December 30, 2025

You will never forgive anyone more than God has already forgiven you. Is it still hard to consider the thought of forgiving the one who hurt you?

If so, go one more time to the room. Watch Jesus as he goes from disciple to disciple. Can you see him? Can you hear the water splash? Can you hear him shuffle on the floor to the next person? Keep that image. John 13:12 says, “When he had finished washing their feet…” Please note: he finished washing their feet. That means he left no one out. Why is that important? Because that means he washed the feet of Judas. Jesus washed the feet of his betrayer.

That’s not to say it was easy for Jesus. That’s not to say it’s easy for you. That is to say God will never call you to do what he hasn’t already done.

A Gentle Thunder: Hearing God Through the Storm

Luke 9:1-17

Keep It Simple

1–5  9 Jesus now called the Twelve and gave them authority and power to deal with all the demons and cure diseases. He commissioned them to preach the news of God’s kingdom and heal the sick. He said, “Don’t load yourselves up with equipment. Keep it simple; you are the equipment. And no luxury inns—get a modest place and be content there until you leave. If you’re not welcomed, leave town. Don’t make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and move on.”

6  Commissioned, they left. They traveled from town to town telling the latest news of God, the Message, and curing people everywhere they went.

7–9  Herod, the ruler, heard of these goings on and didn’t know what to think. There were people saying John had come back from the dead, others that Elijah had appeared, still others that some prophet of long ago had shown up. Herod said, “But I killed John—took off his head. So who is this that I keep hearing about?” Curious, he looked for a chance to see him in action.

10–11  The apostles returned and reported on what they had done. Jesus took them away, off by themselves, near the town called Bethsaida. But the crowds got wind of it and followed. Jesus graciously welcomed them and talked to them about the kingdom of God. Those who needed healing, he healed.

Bread and Fish for Five Thousand

12  As the day declined, the Twelve said, “Dismiss the crowd so they can go to the farms or villages around here and get a room for the night and a bite to eat. We’re out in the middle of nowhere.”

13–14  “You feed them,” Jesus said.

They said, “We couldn’t scrape up more than five loaves of bread and a couple of fish—unless, of course, you want us to go to town ourselves and buy food for everybody.” (There were more than five thousand people in the crowd.)

14–17  But he went ahead and directed his disciples, “Sit them down in groups of about fifty.” They did what he said, and soon had everyone seated. He took the five loaves and two fish, lifted his face to heaven in prayer, blessed, broke, and gave the bread and fish to the disciples to hand out to the crowd. After the people had all eaten their fill, twelve baskets of leftovers were gathered up.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Tuesday, December 30, 2025

by Karen Huang

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Genesis 39:20-23

Joseph’s master took him and threw him into the jail where the king’s prisoners were locked up. But there in jail God was still with Joseph: He reached out in kindness to him; he put him on good terms with the head jailer. The head jailer put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners—he ended up managing the whole operation. The head jailer gave Joseph free rein, never even checked on him, because God was with him; whatever he did God made sure it worked out for the best.

Today's Insights

Joseph’s plight in Egypt (Genesis 39) calls to mind the dilemma of Daniel in Babylon centuries later. Like Joseph, he was taken from his native land and found favor with the officials even in less-than-ideal circumstances. “God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel” (Daniel 1:9). The timeless Psalm 23 reminds us that as much as we desire “green pastures” and “quiet waters” (vv. 2-3), our life journeys often include seasons in “the darkest valley” and “in the presence of [our] enemies” (vv. 4-5). This psalm, as well as the examples of Joseph, Daniel, and others, reminds us that our lives must be more about the object of our faith than the location of our feet. God’s faithful love knows no boundaries. Even in our trials, we can trust Him: “Surely your goodness and [faithful] love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever” (v. 6 nlt).

God’s Faithful Love

The Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love. Genesis 39:21 nlt

During our church outreach in a nursing home, an elderly resident told me of how his daughter had driven him there years before and simply left him on the sidewalk. In his wheelchair, Ed couldn’t get up to run after her. She’d returned to the car without looking back and had driven away. “We’re going to a nice hotel,” she’d said earlier. That day was the last time he saw her.

Vastly different in nature from the many loving family experiences of eldercare, this clear case of abuse traumatized Ed. He still has nightmares about that day. 

Centuries ago, a young man also suffered trauma (Genesis 37:12-36). Joseph’s brothers threw him into a cistern and sold him to traders going to Egypt. But “the Lord was with Joseph” (39:2). In an unfamiliar land, as he courageously did what was right in God’s eyes, both in his master’s house (vv. 7-10) and in prison, Joseph realized that God “showed him his faithful love” (v. 21 nlt). Despite the trauma of his past, Joseph was able to succeed in whatever he did because God helped him (v. 23). Eventually he became second-in-command to Pharaoh and raised a family of his own (41:41-52). Later, he even reconciled with his brothers (45:12-15).

People may hurt us, but God never will. Although He may help us heal in ways different from what He did for Joseph, He promises us His same faithful love. Let’s follow His leading as we trust Him to heal our hearts.

Reflect & Pray

How has God helped you through trauma? How can you trust Him to care for you?

Dear Father, thank You for how Your love heals me.

Listen to how forgiveness can heal the wounds of the heart.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Tuesday, December 30, 2025

Every Virtue We Possess

All my fountains are in you. — Psalm 87:7

When God remakes us in spiritual rebirth, he doesn’t simply patch up our natural virtues. He remakes the whole person on the inside: “Put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). See that your natural human life puts on the clothing that is in keeping with the new life God has planted in you.

The life God plants in us develops its own virtues—not the virtues of Adam but the virtues of Jesus Christ. Watch how, after sanctification, God will wither up your confidence in your natural virtues, in any power you have, until you learn to draw your life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus. If you are going through a drying–up experience just now, give thanks to God.

The sign that God is at work in us is that he corrupts our confidence in our natural virtues, showing us that they are merely remnants, leftovers of what he originally created humans to be. They aren’t promises of what we are going to be. Still, we cling to the natural virtues, even as God is trying all the time to get us into contact with a life that can never be described in terms of natural virtues—the life of Jesus Christ. It’s the saddest thing to see people who, though they are in the service of God, are still depending on that which his grace never gave them, on virtues they possess merely by the accident of heredity.

God doesn’t build up our natural virtues and transfigure them, because our natural virtues can never come anywhere near what Jesus Christ wants. No natural love, no natural patience, no natural purity can ever come up to his demands. But as we bring every part of our bodily life into harmony with the new life God has put into us, he will exhibit through us the virtues that are characteristic of Jesus.

“All my fountains are in you”: every virtue we possess is his alone.

Zechariah 13-14; Revelation 21

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Wherever the providence of God may dump us down, in a slum, in a shop, in the desert, we have to labour along the line of His direction. Never allow this thought—“I am of no use where I am,” because you certainly can be of no use where you are not! Wherever He has engineered your circumstances, pray.

So Send I You, 1325 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Tuesday, December 30, 2025

LOVE HAS X-RAY VISION - #10167

I don't like to perform a wedding unless I can first have several premarital counseling sessions with the couple. I remember when I told my youngest son (he was very young at that time) that I was going to be performing a wedding ceremony for one of the women on our staff. But the way I said it was this: "Hey, guess what? I'm going to be marrying Margaret." He burst into tears. He said, "What about Mommy?"

So I've cleaned up my vocabulary a little bit, but I won't perform a wedding unless I can first counsel that couple. I'll tell you why. You need to get some of the stars out of their eyes. "I love him!" "I love her!" Well, that's great, but most pre-married couples need an emotional optometrist who can help them take a little more honest look at this person that they really do love. So I try to give them some emotional glasses to see who is really there. I think those sessions are a "must" and in fact I even give some tests to show the differences in expectations and in their perceptions of each other. Why? Well, because of the truth of three time-tested words, "Love is (fill in the blank) blind." No it isn't! Not really.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Love Has X-Ray Vision."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Philippians 1:9-10. This is a great prayer here! In fact, I think it's a prayer we ought to just pray right out of scripture on behalf of some people we care about. Here it is: "And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight." It doesn't sound like love is blind there, does it? "And I want to pray this so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ."

Now, the word that's used here is agape love. Of the several Greek words that could be used, this is the one for divine love; it's the highest form. He says, "I pray that your agape will abound more and more." And he said that agape love is insightful. It's not just blindly accepting of everything. This applies to all your relationships, not just romantic relationships.

Then he gives here some solid guidelines for all the important choices that you are making at this stage of your life. He says that this knowledgeable love will make you able to discern. It really means to test. Test what? Well, I want you to have the kind of love, God is saying here, that's able to check out what is best.

The Greek word that's used here is one that literally means to carry through. What's worth carrying through life? I want you to be able to discern that. It's often translated "more valuable" in the Bible. When you put it together it seems to say this, "Authentic love checks out every choice and chooses what's really worth the most."

That kind of thinking settled it for my oldest son one day when he was trying to spend all of his allowance on junk food at the store. But he didn't, and when he left he said, "Dad, I decided I'd spend on what lasts." That's what this is talking about. Some people have us believe that love is this syrupy, naive, acceptance of everyone and everything. But actually, that was pretty tough, because it keeps asking, "What's really best in this situation? What will last?" Not, "What's more comfortable, what's more fun, what's more acceptable, or what's more materially profitable?" No, what's more eternally valuable?

You can have that discernment in your daily choices the same way the first-century believers did. You've got to pray for it. Ask for it often. Like Superman, you can have x-ray vision, but to see the things that are really valuable. God can give you powerful inner eyes when you open up to His discerning love. When you have love, God's way, it's not blind - it has x-ray vision.

Joshua 3, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: AN EVERLASTING LOVE - December 29, 2025

God will not let you go. The big news of the Bible is not that you love God but that God loves you! He tattooed your name on the palm of his hand. His thoughts of you outnumber the sand on the shore. You never leave his mind, escape his sight, or flee his thoughts.

You need not win his love; you already have it. He sees the worst of you and loves you still. Your sins of tomorrow and failings of the future will not surprise him; he sees them now. Every day and deed of your life has passed before his eyes and been calculated in his decision. He knows you better than you know you and has reached this verdict: he loves you still. No discovery will disillusion him. No rebellion will dissuade him. He loves you with an everlasting love. God’s love—never failing, never ending.

Come Thirsty

Joshua 3

The Jordan

1–4  3 Joshua was up early and on his way from Shittim with all the People of Israel with him. He arrived at the Jordan and camped before crossing over. After three days, leaders went through the camp and gave out orders to the people: “When you see the Covenant-Chest of God, your God, carried by the Levitical priests, start moving. Follow it. Make sure you keep a proper distance between you and it, about half a mile—be sure now to keep your distance!—and you’ll see clearly the route to take. You’ve never been on this road before.”

5  Then Joshua addressed the people: “Sanctify yourselves. Tomorrow God will work miracle-wonders among you.”

6  Joshua instructed the priests, “Take up the Chest of the Covenant and step out before the people.” So they took it up and processed before the people.

7–8  God said to Joshua, “This very day I will begin to make you great in the eyes of all Israel. They’ll see for themselves that I’m with you in the same way that I was with Moses. You will command the priests who are carrying the Chest of the Covenant: ‘When you come to the edge of the Jordan’s waters, stand there on the river bank.’ ”

9–13  Then Joshua addressed the People of Israel: “Attention! Listen to what God, your God, has to say. This is how you’ll know that God is alive among you—he will completely dispossess before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites. Look at what’s before you: the Chest of the Covenant. Think of it—the Master of the entire earth is crossing the Jordan as you watch. Now take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from each tribe. When the soles of the feet of the priests carrying the Chest of God, Master of all the earth, touch the Jordan’s water, the flow of water will be stopped—the water coming from upstream will pile up in a heap.”

14–16  And that’s what happened. The people left their tents to cross the Jordan, led by the priests carrying the Chest of the Covenant. When the priests got to the Jordan and their feet touched the water at the edge (the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest), the flow of water stopped. It piled up in a heap—a long way off—at Adam, which is near Zarethan. The river went dry all the way down to the Arabah Sea (the Salt Sea). And the people crossed, facing Jericho.

17  And there they stood; those priests carrying the Chest of the Covenant stood firmly planted on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground. Finally the whole nation was across the Jordan, and not one wet foot.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Monday, December 29, 2025

by Marvin Williams

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Habakkuk 3:16-19

When I heard it, my stomach did flips.

I stammered and stuttered.

My bones turned to water.

I staggered and stumbled.

I sit back and wait for Doom's day

to descend on our attackers.

17–19  Though the cherry trees don’t blossom and the strawberries don’t ripen,

Though the apples are worm-eaten and the wheat fields stunted,

Though the sheep pens are sheepless and the cattle barns empty,

I’m singing joyful praise to God.

I’m turning cartwheels of joy to my Savior God.

Counting on God’s Rule to prevail, I take heart and gain strength.

I run like a deer.

I feel like I’m king of the mountain!

(For congregational use, with a full orchestra.)

Today's Insights

Much of the short book of Habakkuk is dark and foreboding. It begins with Habakkuk crying out, “How long, Lord, must I call for help?” (1:2). God answers by telling him the terrible things that will happen to His people (vv. 5-11). Habakkuk recoils from this strange reply with a complaint to God: “Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?” (v. 13). By chapter 3, however, the prophet is compelled to praise this powerful, terrifying God: “Lord, I have heard of your fame” (v. 2). He recounts how God “shook the earth” (v. 6) and “in wrath . . . strode through the earth” (v. 12). Habakkuk understood this power would be displayed on His people’s behalf. “You came out to deliver your people,” he says. “You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness” (v. 13). He concludes in hope: “The sovereign Lord is my strength” (v. 19). Today, when we face adversity, we also can cling to our hope in God and remember that He’s with us.

Joyful Resilience

I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. Habakkuk 3:18

Scientists studied the resilience of sixteen societies worldwide, including the Yukon and Australian Outback. They analyzed thousands of years of archaeological records, tracing the impact of famines, wars, and climate. One factor stood out—the frequency of downturns. One would think that they would weaken societies, but the researchers found the opposite to be true. Instead, they found that societies that faced frequent hardships developed resilience, bouncing back faster from future challenges. Stress, it appears, can forge resilience.

The prophet Habakkuk understood this kind of resilience. As he considered Judah’s impending devastation, he painted a bleak picture: “crop fails,” “no sheep . . . no cattle,” and barren land (3:17). Amid earthly securities being stripped away, however, the prophet declared, “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior” (v. 18). His joy wasn’t tied to circumstances and earthly pleasures but anchored in God’s unchanging character and salvation. In the bleakest seasons, the prophet chose joy and became more resilient.

Like Habakkuk and those resilient societies, our spiritual endurance grows through repeated adversity. When we face difficult seasons in life, let’s cling to our hope in God and remember that He’s with us—using our challenges to grow our joy and resilient faith.

Reflect & Pray

How do you find hope in God? Amid adversity, what prayer of rejoicing can you offer to Him?

Gracious God, I will find hope in You when life is barren and empty.

Learn more about worshipping and fearing God.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Monday, December 29, 2025

Deserter or Disciple?

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. — John 6:66

When God gives you a vision of what he wants, speaking to you by his Spirit through his word, and your mind and soul thrill to that vision, you must walk in the light of what you’ve seen. If you don’t, you will sink into servitude to a point of view our Lord never had. Disobedience to a heavenly vision will make you a slave to points of view that are alien to Jesus Christ. Don’t look at someone else and say, “If they can have those views and prosper, why can’t I?” You have to walk in the light of the vision that has been given to you, not compare yourself to others or judge them. How others think and behave is between them and God.

When you find that a point of view in which you’ve been delighting clashes with a heavenly vision, put it away at once. Debating with God will only develop certain mindsets in you: a sense of property, a sense of personal rights—things in which Jesus Christ put absolutely no stock. He was always against any sense of personal entitlement, considering it the root of everything alien to himself. “Watch out!” he told his disciples. “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions” (Luke 12:15). If we don’t recognize this, we’re ignoring the undercurrent of our Lord’s teaching.

We have the tendency to lie back and bask in the memory of the wonderful experiences we’ve had. If there’s any standard in the New Testament revealed by the light of God that you don’t meet—that you don’t even feel inclined to meet—that is the beginning of backsliding, because it means your conscience isn’t answering to the truth. You can never be the same after God unveils a truth to you. That moment marks a turning point: either you go on as an ever truer disciple of Jesus Christ, or you turn back as a deserter.

Zechariah 9-12; Revelation 20

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, 1032 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Monday, December 29, 2025

THE CURE FOR FAMILY GERMS - #10166

I don't get sick very often, but that one year I did pick up the special flu bug of the year. Which, of course, meant my wife soon followed suit. We believed in sharing everything. Then our friend, Janice, got a similar flu - sick for four or five days. Then her husband got it - sick for four or five days. Then their lucky daughter took her turn - sick for four or five days. Their teenage son was the only one who didn't get it. His mom said he was the one walking around the house with a can of Lysol all the time! You can almost count on it - when one person is infected with a germ, it's probably going to end up infecting the people closest to them.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Cure for Family Germs."

Every family has them - those germs that get passed around the family. And they're not all the kind you go to a doctor for. The most virulent, most damaging family infections of all come from moral germs, spiritual germs, some of which have infected generations or are in the process right now of being passed on to yet another generation.

One writer tells about his friend, George, and the angry explosions he had with his wife - angry words which unfortunately his little son could sometimes hear down the hall in his room. There was one particularly bitter argument where George yelled to his wife, "I don't need you. I don't want you, and I can't stand you!" A few weeks later, George was awakened by sounds down the hall from his bedroom. They were coming from his little boy's room. George tiptoed down there and he stood and listened in horror as his son was angrily telling a stuffed animal of his, "I don't need you. I don't want you. I can't stand you!"

That's how the family diseases are transmitted from one generation to the next. There are those weaknesses that scarred our parents' lives, probably their parents' lives, and who knows how many other generations! Tragically, we tend to carry that baggage into our lives and then infect another generation with them. We seem to be unable to stop the things in us that hurt most the people we love most: that anger, that selfishness, the criticism, the abuse, the addictions, the negativity.

But there's wonderful news about our family infections in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Peter 1:18-19. Listen. God says, "You were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, with the precious blood of Christ." Translation: there is a connection between my hurtful weakness and what Jesus Christ did when He died on the cross. If I open myself up to the love and the power of Jesus Christ, the disease can stop in this generation! I can be in the Bible's word "redeemed" from it.

The central disease we all have that poisons our closest relationships is the disease of me - a disease the Bible calls sin. That's just a life you run instead of God running it, and it can only be conquered by the One who died to pay the death penalty for all our sinning, and that's Jesus. When you put your total trust in Him to be your "Savior" from all your sin, He enters your life. He unleashes His power which raised Him from the dead to start changing you from the inside out.

The Bible says, "If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has gone. A new life has begun." If you're ready to finally be forgiven, if you're ready to finally be free, then you're ready to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ.

What you do is you say to Him, "Jesus, I'm pinning all my hope on you because you died for me. I am yours beginning today." That's a new beginning for you and for your family. I'd love to share with you more how you can be sure you belong to Him and what this relationship can do for you at our website. And it's got a name that's appropriate - ANewStory.com. That's what it's about - a new story for you.

The spiritual infections in your family - haven't they done enough damage? And the Man who died for you is willing to begin His miracle healing of your past, your present, and your future. Think what it could mean to you and to those you love, "It stops here - in this generation! Because Jesus is running things now!"

Joshua 2, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado: Jesus is the Gift

Little Carol with the pigtails, freckles, and shiny back shoes. Don’t let her sweet description fool you.  She broke my heart!  On the day of the great gift exchange in my fourth-grade class, I ripped the wrapping paper off the box to find—stationery.  Stationery!  Brown envelopes and folded note cards with a picture of a cowboy lassoing a horse.  What ten-year-old boy uses stationery?  There’s a term for this kind of gift:  obligatory!

I know we shouldn’t complain, but don’t you detect a lack of originality? And when a person gives a genuine gift, don’t you cherish the presence of a gift just for you?  Have you ever received such a gift?  Yes, you have.  You’ve been given a perfect personal gift.  One just for you. God says to anyone who’ll listen:  ”There has been born for you…a Savior…. ”  Jesus is the gift!

 “There has been born for you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11”

From GRACE

Joshua 2

Rahab

1  2 Joshua son of Nun secretly sent out from Shittim two men as spies: “Go. Look over the land. Check out Jericho.” They left and arrived at the house of a harlot named Rahab and stayed there.

2  The king of Jericho was told, “We’ve just learned that men arrived tonight to spy out the land. They’re from the People of Israel.”

3  The king of Jericho sent word to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you to stay the night in your house. They’re spies; they’ve come to spy out the whole country.”

4–7  The woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, two men did come to me, but I didn’t know where they’d come from. At dark, when the gate was about to be shut, the men left. But I have no idea where they went. Hurry up! Chase them—you can still catch them!” (She had actually taken them up on the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax that were spread out for her on the roof.) So the men set chase down the Jordan road toward the fords. As soon as they were gone, the gate was shut.

8–11  Before the spies were down for the night, the woman came up to them on the roof and said, “I know that God has given you the land. We’re all afraid. Everyone in the country feels hopeless. We heard how God dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you left Egypt, and what he did to the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you put under a holy curse and destroyed. We heard it and our hearts sank. We all had the wind knocked out of us. And all because of you, you and God, your God, God of the heavens above and God of the earth below.

12–13  “Now promise me by God. I showed you mercy; now show my family mercy. And give me some tangible proof, a guarantee of life for my father and mother, my brothers and sisters—everyone connected with my family. Save our souls from death!”

14  “Our lives for yours!” said the men. “But don’t tell anyone our business. When God turns this land over to us, we’ll do right by you in loyal mercy.”

15–16  She lowered them down out a window with a rope because her house was on the city wall to the outside. She told them, “Run for the hills so your pursuers won’t find you. Hide out for three days and give your pursuers time to return. Then get on your way.”

17–20  The men told her, “In order to keep this oath you made us swear, here is what you must do: Hang this red rope out the window through which you let us down and gather your entire family with you in your house—father, mother, brothers, and sisters. Anyone who goes out the doors of your house into the street and is killed, it’s his own fault—we aren’t responsible. But for everyone within the house we take full responsibility. If anyone lays a hand on one of them, it’s our fault. But if you tell anyone of our business here, the oath you made us swear is canceled—we’re no longer responsible.”

21  She said, “If that’s what you say, that’s the way it is,” and sent them off. They left and she hung the red rope out the window.

22  They headed for the hills and stayed there for three days until the pursuers had returned. The pursuers had looked high and low but found nothing.

23–24  The men headed back. They came down out of the hills, crossed the river, and returned to Joshua son of Nun and reported all their experiences. They told Joshua, “Yes! God has given the whole country to us. Everybody there is in a state of panic because of us.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Sunday, December 28, 2025

by Tom Felten

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Jeremiah 31:31-34

  “That’s right. The time is coming when I will make a brand-new covenant with Israel and Judah. It won’t be a repeat of the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant even though I did my part as their Master.” God’s Decree.

33–34  “This is the brand-new covenant that I will make with Israel when the time comes. I will put my law within them—write it on their hearts!—and be their God. And they will be my people. They will no longer go around setting up schools to teach each other about God. They’ll know me firsthand, the dull and the bright, the smart and the slow. I’ll wipe the slate clean for each of them. I’ll forget they ever sinned!” God’s Decree.

Today's Insights

Jeremiah 31:31-34 is quoted in Hebrews 8:8-12 (the longest Old Testament Scripture quotation in the New Testament). The author of Hebrews says that Jesus, who is seated at God’s right hand (8:1), is the mediator of the new and better covenant between God and His people (vv. 6-7). Chapter 10 emphasizes the superior work of Christ: “But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God . . . . For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (vv. 12, 14). Jeremiah 31 is quoted again in verses 16-17, reminding us that through Christ, God transforms the hearts of those who trust in Him. When we confess our sins, He forgives them and “will remember [them] no more” (Hebrews 10:17).

Hear more about Jesus' role as High Priest and atoning sacrifice.

Hearts Transformed by God

I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God. Jeremiah 31:33

Today's Devotional

Like many people who struggle with pornography, Russell was exposed to it at a young age. The desire to use it was overpowering, and it poisoned his heart. “My life [became] completely saturated by it,” he writes, “so much so that it was like a cancer that was deeply rooted into my very fiber.” By God’s grace, he was finally set free of porn’s power—along with other addictions—when he received salvation in Jesus and was transformed from the inside out. “I credit it all to Jesus Christ, . . . [He’s] the one who delivered me,” Russell says.

Jeremiah delivered a message from God to Israel that one day He would “put [His] law in their minds and write it on their hearts” (31:33). Under this new covenant, fulfilled in Christ (Hebrews 8:6-13), all people could be transformed by God’s grace through faith. And now, “his Spirit . . . lives in [us]” (Romans 8:11), and God’s moral law has been written on our hearts. For Russell, and for all who believe, the Holy Spirit’s power provides what’s needed to turn from harmful behavior that displeases God and seeks to destroy us.

Transformation isn’t always instantaneous or easy. But let’s remember that when we’re dealing with difficult—even addictive—sin, God can transform our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33). He says, you “will know me” (v. 34 nlt), and we can also know His heart-changing power.

Reflect & Pray

Why is it possible to turn from even chronic sin in God’s power? How can you live out your new heart with the Spirit’s help?

Loving God, thank You for transforming my heart.

Learn more by listenting to When We Sin.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Sunday, December 28, 2025

Continuous Conversion

Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. — Matthew 18:3

Our Lord is speaking here of the change that marks our initial conversion. But this isn’t a change we make just once at the start of our walk with him. We have to be continuously converted all the days of our lives, to continually turn to God as little children.

If we trust in our intelligence instead of in God, we’ll produce consequences for which God will hold us responsible. Whenever our bodies are brought into new conditions by his providence, we have to see that our natural life obeys the dictates of his Spirit. Just because we’ve done it once is no proof that we’ll do it again. The relation of the natural to the spiritual has to be one of continuous conversion. And yet continually converting our natural impulses into spiritual obedience is the one thing we object to.

In every new setting in which God places us, his Spirit remains unchanged and his salvation unaltered. But we have to “put on the new self” (Ephesians 4:24) by undergoing another conversion. God holds us responsible every time we refuse to convert ourselves, because he knows that our reason for refusing is natural willfulness.

Our natural impulses must not rule; God must. The obstacle in our spiritual life is that we have great wedges of obstinacy inside us, places where pride spits at the throne of God and says, “I won’t.” We refuse to be continually converted, deifying independence and willfulness and calling them by the wrong name. We call them “strength,” while God sees them as obstinate weakness. There are whole regions of our lives that we haven’t yet brought into subjection to him. The only way we can make them submit is by continuous conversion. Slowly but surely, we can claim the whole territory for the Spirit of God.

Zechariah 5-8; Revelation 19

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

The great point of Abraham’s faith in God was that he was prepared to do anything for God.

Not Knowing Whither

Joshua 1, and daily devotions

 Max Lucado Daily: Divine Warnings

Warnings.  Red lights in life that signal us of impending danger. They exist in all parts of life. Sirens scream as a marriage starts to sour; alarms blare when a faith weakens.

We usually know when trouble is just around the corner. Christians whove fallen away felt the fire waning long before it went out.  Unwanted pregnancies or explosions of anger are usually the result of a history of ignoring warnings about an impending fire.

Are your senses numb? Are your eyes trained to turn and roll when they should pause and observe?  One-night stands.  Dust-covered Bibles.  Careless choice of companions.  Denial of Christ.

Proverbs 19:27 says, "Cease listening to [My] instruction and you will stray from the words of knowledge."

Divine warnings.  Inspired by God; tested by time. Heed them and safety is yours to enjoy!

From God Came Near

Joshua 1

The Message

1 1-9 After the death of Moses the servant of God, God spoke to Joshua, Moses’ assistant:

“Moses my servant is dead. Get going. Cross this Jordan River, you and all the people. Cross to the country I’m giving to the People of Israel. I’m giving you every square inch of the land you set your foot on—just as I promised Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon east to the Great River, the Euphrates River—all the Hittite country—and then west to the Great Sea. It’s all yours. All your life, no one will be able to hold out against you. In the same way I was with Moses, I’ll be with you. I won’t give up on you; I won’t leave you. Strength! Courage! You are going to lead this people to inherit the land that I promised to give their ancestors. Give it everything you have, heart and soul. Make sure you carry out The Revelation that Moses commanded you, every bit of it. Don’t get off track, either left or right, so as to make sure you get to where you’re going. And don’t for a minute let this Book of The Revelation be out of mind. Ponder and meditate on it day and night, making sure you practice everything written in it. Then you’ll get where you’re going; then you’ll succeed. Haven’t I commanded you? Strength! Courage! Don’t be timid; don’t get discouraged. God, your God, is with you every step you take.”

The Taking of the Land

10-11 Then Joshua gave orders to the people’s leaders: “Go through the camp and give this order to the people: ‘Pack your bags. In three days you will cross this Jordan River to enter and take the land God, your God, is giving you to possess.’”

12-15 Then Joshua addressed the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. He said, “Remember what Moses the servant of God commanded you: God, your God, gives you rest and he gives you this land. Your wives, your children, and your livestock can stay here east of the Jordan, the country Moses gave you; but you, tough soldiers all, must cross the River in battle formation, leading your brothers, helping them until God, your God, gives your brothers a place of rest just as he has done for you. They also will take possession of the land that God, your God, is giving them. Then you will be free to return to your possession, given to you by Moses the servant of God, across the Jordan to the east.”

16-18 They answered Joshua: “Everything you commanded us, we’ll do. Wherever you send us, we’ll go. We obeyed Moses to the letter; we’ll also obey you—we just pray that God, your God, will be with you as he was with Moses. Anyone who questions what you say and refuses to obey whatever you command him will be put to death. Strength! Courage!”

Our Loving Rescuer

Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice. Psalm 55:17

By Xochitl Dixon

December 27, 2025

TODAYS SCRIPTURE

Psalm 55:1-5, 16-22

Open your ears, God, to my prayer;

    don’t pretend you don’t hear me knocking.

Come close and whisper your answer.

    I really need you.

I shudder at the mean voice,

    quail before the evil eye,

As they pile on the guilt,

    stockpile angry slander.

4-8 My insides are turned inside out;

    specters of death have me down.

I shake with fear,

    I shudder from head to foot.

“Who will give me wings,” I ask—

    “wings like a dove?”

Get me out of here on dove wings;

    I want some peace and quiet.

I want a walk in the country,

    I want a cabin in the woods.

I’m desperate for a change

    from rage and stormy weather.

16-19 I call to God;

    God will help me.

At dusk, dawn, and noon I sigh

    deep sighs—he hears, he rescues.

My life is well and whole, secure

    in the middle of danger

Even while thousands

    are lined up against me.

God hears it all, and from his judge’s bench

    puts them in their place.

But, set in their ways, they won’t change;

    they pay him no mind.

20-21 And this, my best friend, betrayed his best friends;

    his life betrayed his word.

All my life I’ve been charmed by his speech,

    never dreaming he’d turn on me.

His words, which were music to my ears,

    turned to daggers in my heart.

22-23 Pile your troubles on God’s shoulders—

    he’ll carry your load, he’ll help you out.

He’ll never let good people

    topple into ruin.

But you, God, will throw the others

    into a muddy bog,

Cut the lifespan of assassins

    and traitors in half.

And I trust in you.

Todays Devotional

During a raging wildfire, a forest ranger saved a bear cub. At a recovery site safely away from those still fighting the inferno, he placed the rescued animal on the ground. Standing on its tiny back paws, the cub hugged the man’s calf. The ranger gently pried himself away. Mouth wide as if crying out in desperation, the little bear clambered and clawed in an attempt to remain in the refuge of his rescuer’s embrace. As the cub clung to his arm, the kind man relented and rubbed his furry friend’s head.

What if we pursued our ultimate rescuer—Jesus—with the same fierce desperation and confidence as the bear cub who pursued and clung to the one who saved him from death?

All people God made need saving. The psalmist David confessed his need for a rescuer—for God to hear and answer his prayers (Psalm 55:1-2). Admitting he faced troubles, threats, suffering, and fear (vv. 3-5), David pursued God with assurance. “As for me, I call to God, and the Lord saves me,” he said (v. 16). “Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice” (v. 17). David prayed continually. He believed God listened and trusted that He would rescue him “unharmed” (v. 18).

When we face difficulties or suffering of any kind, like David, we can cry out to God. Our loving Rescuer, who pursues us, hears and saves us when we pursue Him too.

Reflect & Pray

How can you pursue God today? When has God rescued you from trouble or suffering?

Dear God, thank You for rescuing me from death through Christ and for being my refuge every day.

For further study, watch Threshing Sledge: Isaiah 21 & Purposeful Pain.

 

Todays Insights

David was in intense emotional anguish and was enduring devastating pain (Psalm 55:4-5). This pain was caused by the betrayal of someone he trusted, one whom he described in endearing terms: “my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship” (vv. 13-14). Initially, the psalmist had considered hiding in the desert to escape the storm, hoping to isolate himself from the pain. He pictures himself as a bird taking flight into the desert, which he thought would provide him with a safe place of refuge (vv. 6-8). Eventually, David chose to run to God instead, affirming that only He could rescue him and keep him safe (vv. 16-18). He says to “give your burdens to the Lord and he will take care of you” (v. 22 nlt). Just as God pursued David, He hears us and pursues us when we face difficulties.

Where the Battle’s Lost or Won

BY OSWALD CHAMBERS

“If you, Israel, will return, then return to me,” declares the Lord. — Jeremiah 4:1

Every spiritual battle is lost or won before God, in the secret places of the will, never first out in the world. Whenever I am faced with a moral dilemma, God’s Spirit apprehends me and obliges me to get alone with God and fight it out. If I don’t do this before I try to fight the battle in the external world, I’ll lose every time. The battle may take one minute or one year—how long depends on me, not on God. But it must be wrestled out first before him. Alone in his presence, I must go through the hell of a renunciation.

Nothing has power over the person who has fought and won a battle before God. If I say, “I’ll wait till I get out into the world, then put God to the test,” I’ll find that I can’t. I must settle the matter between myself and God first, in the secret places of my soul where no stranger intermeddles. Afterward, I can go forth with the certainty that the battle is won. But if I lose the battle in my will, calamity and disaster are sure to follow.

Abandonment to God always begins as an issue of will. Every now and then—not often, but sometimes—God brings us to a milestone, a point that marks a great divide in our lives. Either we go on from that point toward a more and more useless type of Christian life, or we become more and more ablaze for the glory of God, more and more our utmost for his highest.

Zechariah 1-4; Revelation 18

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 

Bible reading and daily devotionals

 The Joy of God maxlucado.com

The Joy of God - December 26, 2025

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich”  (2 Corinthians 8:9 NKJV).

No man had more reason to be miserable than Jesus, yet no one was more joyful. He was ridiculed. Those who didn’t ridicule him wanted favors. Then they wanted to kill him. He was accused of a crime he had never committed. Witnesses were hired to lie. They crucified him. He left as he came—penniless.

He should have been miserable and bitter. But he wasn’t. He was joyful! He possessed a joy that possessed him. I call it a sacred delight. Sacred because it’s not of the earth. Delight because it’s just that: the joy of God. He offers it to you, my friend—a sacred delight!

Luke 8:26-56

The Message

The Madman and the Pigs

26-29 They sailed on to the country of the Gerasenes, directly opposite Galilee. As he stepped out onto land, a madman from town met him; he was a victim of demons. He hadn’t worn clothes for a long time, nor lived at home; he lived in the cemetery. When he saw Jesus he screamed, fell before him, and howled, “What business do you have messing with me? You’re Jesus, Son of the High God, but don’t give me a hard time!” (The man said this because Jesus had started to order the unclean spirit out of him.) Time after time the demon threw the man into convulsions. He had been placed under constant guard and tied with chains and shackles, but crazed and driven wild by the demon, he would shatter the bonds.

30-31 Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“Mob. My name is Mob,” he said, because many demons afflicted him. And they begged Jesus desperately not to order them to the bottomless pit.

32-33 A large herd of pigs was grazing and rooting on a nearby hill. The demons begged Jesus to order them into the pigs. He gave the order. It was even worse for the pigs than for the man. Crazed, they stampeded over a cliff into the lake and drowned.

34-36 Those tending the pigs, scared to death, bolted and told their story in town and country. People went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had been sent, sitting there at Jesus’ feet, wearing decent clothes and making sense. It was a holy moment, and for a short time they were more reverent than curious. Then those who had seen it happen told how the demoniac had been saved.

37-39 Later, a great many people from the Gerasene countryside got together and asked Jesus to leave—too much change, too fast, and they were scared. So Jesus got back in the boat and set off. The man whom he had delivered from the demons asked to go with him, but he sent him back, saying, “Go home and tell everything God did in you.” So he went back and preached all over town everything Jesus had done in him.

His Touch

40-42 On his return, Jesus was welcomed by a crowd. They were all there expecting him. A man came up, Jairus by name. He was president of the meeting place. He fell at Jesus’ feet and begged him to come to his home because his twelve-year-old daughter, his only child, was dying. Jesus went with him, making his way through the pushing, jostling crowd.

43-45 In the crowd that day there was a woman who for twelve years had been afflicted with hemorrhages. She had spent every penny she had on doctors but not one had been able to help her. She slipped in from behind and touched the edge of Jesus’ robe. At that very moment her hemorrhaging stopped. Jesus said, “Who touched me?”

When no one stepped forward, Peter said, “But Master, we’ve got crowds of people on our hands. Dozens have touched you.”

46 Jesus insisted, “Someone touched me. I felt power discharging from me.”

47 When the woman realized that she couldn’t remain hidden, she knelt trembling before him. In front of all the people, she blurted out her story—why she touched him and how at that same moment she was healed.

48 Jesus said, “Daughter, you took a risk trusting me, and now you’re healed and whole. Live well, live blessed!”

49 While he was still talking, someone from the leader’s house came up and told him, “Your daughter died. No need now to bother the Teacher.”

50-51 Jesus overheard and said, “Don’t be upset. Just trust me and everything will be all right.” Going into the house, he wouldn’t let anyone enter with him except Peter, John, James, and the child’s parents.

52-53 Everyone was crying and carrying on over her. Jesus said, “Don’t cry. She didn’t die; she’s sleeping.” They laughed at him. They knew she was dead.

54-56 Then Jesus, gripping her hand, called, “My dear child, get up.” She was up in an instant, up and breathing again! He told them to give her something to eat. Her parents were ecstatic, but Jesus warned them to keep quiet. “Don’t tell a soul what happened in this room.”

Our Daily Bread Devotional 

Eyes Opened by God

Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. Luke 10:23

By Sheridan Voysey

TODAYS SCRIPTURE

Luke 10:21-24

21In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight. 22All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.

23And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see: 24For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Todays Devotional

In a café one afternoon, I noticed a toddler with her parents at an adjacent table. As the parents talked with their friends, a pigeon flew in and started pecking crumbs from the floor. Filled with awe at this sight, the little girl tried getting the adults’ attention by squealing with delight. But they never got to see what she saw. They just smiled at her and returned to their conversation.

Jesus once sent His disciples on a preaching mission, which turned out to be tremendously successful (Luke 10:17). “I praise you, Father,” Jesus prayed in response, “because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children” (v. 21). In this case, “little children” didn’t refer to age but status. It was humble, everyday “sinners” who responded to the gospel, while “wise and learned” religious leaders ignored it (7:29-34). While God decides who He reveals Himself to, Jesus always explained more about the kingdom to those who asked (see Matthew 13:36). The leaders had missed seeing who Jesus was because they didn’t really want to know.

The little girl in the café saw something wonderful while her parents missed out. May we never be so distracted by the world’s chatter, or lacking in humility to seek more understanding, that we miss what God wants to show us about Himself.

Reflect & Pray

What first opened your eyes and heart to the gospel? How hungry are you to know more of God right now?

Father God, please open my eyes to see everything You want me to see about You and the gospel.

Learn more about God by watching Asking Who Is God.

Todays Insights

Although the word trinity is never used in Scripture, we see clear evidence in Luke 10 of God’s triune nature. “Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit” praises His Father, the “Lord of heaven and earth” (v. 21). The Son accomplishes the Father’s will by the power of the Spirit. Then Christ speaks of Himself when He says, “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father” (v. 22). But didn’t the disciples know Him? Jesus is using the word knows in the sense of knowing someone completely and perfectly. Christ knew they were in danger of being distracted by the miracles they’d just performed (v. 17). So He turned their focus back to what mattered: “your names are written in heaven” (v. 20). Step by step, He revealed Himself to them. May we also keep our eyes open to see what God wants to reveal to us about Himself.

My Utmost for His Highest 

Placed in the Light

BY OSWALD CHAMBERS

If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, . . . the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. — 1 John 1:7

To mistake conscious freedom from sin for deliverance from sin by the atonement is a great error. Sin is what Jesus Christ faced on the cross; it is only through his sacrifice that we have deliverance. Conscious freedom from sin is how I experience this deliverance in my own life; the evidence that I am delivered is that I know the real nature of sin in me. No one can know the real nature of sin until they are born again. It takes the power of Jesus Christ’s atonement inside me—that is, the impartation to me of his absolute perfection by the Holy Spirit—to make me know what sin is.

The Holy Spirit applies the atonement to our entire being—to the realm we are conscious of and to the realm we’re unconscious of. Only when we grasp the full scope of the power of the Spirit inside us do we understand the meaning of 1 John 1:7: “The blood of Jesus . . . purifies us from all sin.” This verse doesn’t refer only to sin I’m aware of; it speaks to the tremendously profound understanding of sin which only the Holy Spirit inside me has.

If I walk in the light as God is in the light—not in the light of my conscience but in the light of God—and walk with nothing hidden, nothing folded up, then I am let in on the amazing revelation that the blood of Jesus purifies me from all sin, so thoroughly that God Almighty can see nothing to censure in me. In my consciousness, this freedom from sin works through a clear knowledge of what sin is. The love of God at work in me makes me hate with the hatred of the Holy Spirit all that is not in keeping with God’s holiness. To walk in the light means that everything that’s of the darkness drives me closer to the center of the light.

Haggai 1-2; Revelation 17

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

The fiery furnaces are there by God’s direct permission. It is misleading to imagine that we are developed in spite of our circumstances; we are developed because of them. It is mastery in circumstances that is needed, not mastery over them.

The Love of God—The Message of Invincible Consolation, 674 R

TELL THE PERSON WHO CAN FIX IT - #10165

By Ron Hutchcraft

December 26, 2025

00:2703:58

Download MP3 (right click to save)

If you live in a place like Florida for example, this word probably doesnt mean much to you - winter, cold, or furnace. See, during the summer you dont give your furnace a thought, but in the winter up north it makes life bearable. Thats why when we lived in New Jersey I was not a very happy camper when I woke up and felt a very cold nose coming out of the covers. (No, I didnt sleep with a dog...it was my nose!) And I felt a cold floor under my feet where there was no carpet. And then I would peek out the window and see a very low temperature out there.

Now, my first stop was the furnace downstairs. If it wasnt working I knew what to do. I called our family doctor. You say, "What? You dont call..." No, thats right, I didnt call the doctor. I called our neighbors and told them the furnace wasnt working. You say, "Wait a minute, what good does that do?" No, I called the newspaper delivery boy and said, "My furnace isnt working!" I called the post office and said, "Hey, can you fix my furnace?" You say, "Ron, none of those calls will help. Call the furnace man!" I did.

Im Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Tell the Person Who Can Fix It."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 5. We begin at verse 23. Jesus said, "If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember your brother has something against you, leave your gift..." He says forget the religious stuff. Dont do your spiritual thing. No, "leave your gift in front of the altar. First (in other words, before you do your thing with God), go and be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift."

Theres a parallel passage in Matthew 18:15 - "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over." It talks about involving other people from the church if that doesnt work. But the pattern is the same in both cases - go straight to the person. Now, were not talking about a furnace here, but were talking about a relationship thats not working. And Jesus addresses one of these dark corners of human nature.

Weve got this tendency to talk to everyone about the problem we have with this person except the person we have the problem with. And that sin divides families, it divides friends, it divides churches, it divides ministries, and maybe you are in the middle of one of those poisonous situations right now. Jesus says theres only one way to go when you have a problem with another person - straight to that person.

Wed rather gripe to other people, wed rather gather support for our side, get sympathy, form some power block of people who agree with us, and give the Devil an open door he can drive a truck through. The irony is that none of those other people can fix whats wrong. The problem youve got is with this person.

Now, we know it would be dumb to tell the letter carrier about our cold furnace, or the garbage man. Wouldnt that make you ask, "Hey, do you just want to gripe or do you want a solution?" Then why do we go to all the wrong people when theres a break in a relationship or some hurt? Going to the person involved is the only way it can really be fixed. You can be a relationship radical if youll covenant to go direct in a world that would rather gossip and backstab.

You can be an agent of real love and real peace if you always stay away from the back room, the back-biting, and you speak directly to that other person. That other person? They may respond or they may not respond, but you have done the only thing Jesus can bless, and you can sleep well tonight.

So, whether its a furnace, a family member or a friend, tell the person who can fix it

Bible reading, daily devotions, and more

And He Called His Name Jesus - December 25, 2025

“And Joseph took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called his name Jesus” (Matthew 1:24-25).

Joseph was literally willing to tank his reputation. And he did – he traded it in for a pregnant fiancée and an illegitimate son and made the big decision of discipleship. He placed God’s plan ahead of his own. Rather than make a name for himself, he made a home for Christ. And because he did, a great reward came his way.

“And he called his name Jesus!” Of all the saints, sinners, prodigals, and preachers who’ve spoken the name, Joseph—a blue-collar, small-town construction worker—said it first. Joseph cradled the wrinkle-faced prince of heaven, and with an audience of angels and pigs, he whispered, “Jesus, Jesus, you’ll be called Jesus.” 

From maxlucado.com

Deuteronomy 34

The Message

The Death of Moses

34 1-3 Moses climbed from the Plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, the peak of Pisgah facing Jericho. God showed him all the land from Gilead to Dan, all Naphtali, Ephraim, and Manasseh; all Judah reaching to the Mediterranean Sea; the Negev and the plains which encircle Jericho, City of Palms, as far south as Zoar.

4 Then and there God said to him, “This is the land I promised to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with the words ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I’ve let you see it with your own eyes. There it is. But you’re not going to go in.”

5-6 Moses died there in the land of Moab, Moses the servant of God, just as God said. God buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth Peor. No one knows his burial site to this very day.

7-8 Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eyesight was sharp; he still walked with a spring in his step. The People of Israel wept for Moses in the Plains of Moab thirty days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses came to an end.

9 Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him. The People of Israel listened obediently to him and did the same as when God had commanded Moses.

10-12 No prophet has risen since in Israel like Moses, whom God knew face-to-face. Never since has there been anything like the signs and miracle-wonders that God sent him to do in Egypt, to Pharaoh, to all his servants, and to all his land—nothing to compare with that all-powerful hand of his and all the great and terrible things Moses did as every eye in Israel watched.

Our Daily bread by 

Karen Pimpo

TODAYS SCRIPTURE

Matthew 2:1-2, 7-12

Matthew 2:1-2

1Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, 2Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. 

Matthew 2:7-12

7Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. 8And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also. 9When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. 10When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

11And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. 12And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another.

Jesus, the Greatest Gift

They opened their treasures and presented [Jesus] with gifts. Matthew 2:11

Todays Devotional

“What sweeter music can we bring/ Than a carol for to sing/ The birth of this our heavenly King?” The lines of this seventeenth-century poem “What Sweeter Music” by Robert Herrick were reimagined by modern-day choral composer John Rutter to become an Advent season favorite. Its gentle melody describes a long, cold season of waiting that’s thawed by the springtime feeling of Jesus’ arrival. The singers bring Him a Christmas carol; the listeners are invited to bring their hearts.

Rutter’s arrangement was commissioned to correspond with a church reading on the wise men who brought Jesus gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These mysterious magi traveled a great distance to meet baby Jesus with the express purpose of worshiping Him (Matthew 2:1-2). When they finally found Him, they “were overjoyed,” bowed down in reverence, and “opened their treasures” at His feet (vv. 10-11). Warned in a dream, they left without informing wicked King Herod (v. 12).

The Christmas season shouldn’t focus on material gifts—but it’s certainly about giving and receiving gifts. God gave His Son to heal a broken world. If we’ve never given Him our hearts, today’s a wonderful day to do so. If He already reigns there, let’s offer a carol of peace and joy as we think about His arrival all those years ago in Bethlehem—and wait for His return.

Reflect & Pray

What are some of the greatest gifts of Christmastime? What might you be reluctant to give over to God?

Dear Jesus, You’re the greatest gift of all. Everything I am, and everything I have, I give back to You.

Discover more about the Christmas story.

Todays Insights

Matthew’s gospel is bookended by the worship of Jesus (2:1; 28:17). In both accounts, readers see what the proper response to Christ should be. Based on what had been revealed to them, “Magi from the east came to Jerusalem” (2:1), bearing gifts to honor Jesus. They asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him” (v. 2). “Worship[ed]” (vv. 2, 8, 11) translates the word proskyneō—meaning “to fawn,” “to “crouch down” (literally or figuratively), “to prostrate oneself in homage” (reverence, adore). Matthew’s account of Christ shows that worship is the proper response to Him (see 8:2-3; 9:18-22; 14:33; 15:25-28; 28:9). The final use of the word worship[ed] in this gospel occurs in the last scene of the book, after the resurrection: “When they saw him, they worshiped him” (28:17). Today, as we celebrate Jesus—the greatest gift ever given—may we also respond with worship. 

From odbm.org

His Birth and Our New Birth

BY OSWALD CHAMBERS

“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).— Matthew 1:23

His birth in history. “The holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He didn’t evolve out of history; he came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ isn’t the best human being; he is a Being who can’t be accounted for by humanity at all. He isn’t man becoming God; he is God incarnate, God coming into human flesh from the outside. His life is the highest and the holiest, entering through the lowliest door. Our Lord’s birth was an advent, an arrival with no precedent.

His birth in me. “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you . . .” (Galatians 4:19). Just as our Lord came into human history from the outside, so he must come into me from the outside. Have I allowed my personal life to become a Bethlehem for the Son of God? I can’t enter into the realm of the kingdom of God unless I’m born again from above in a birth totally unlike natural birth.

Jesus said, “You must be born again” (John 3:7). This isn’t a command; it’s a statement of fact, the fact upon which our entrance into the kingdom depends. The characteristic of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that Christ is formed in me. The instant he is formed in me, his nature begins to work through me. God manifest in my flesh: this is what is made possible for you and for me by the redemption.

Zephaniah 1-3; Revelation 16

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth.

COMING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS - #10164

December 25, 2025

It was a Kleenex moment that Christmas season, for sure. Like the first Christmas, there was a newborn baby involved, but no manger. How about a Jumbotron screen at an Anaheim Ducks hockey game, of all places?

Sergeant First Class Robert Vandenberg had been gone for ten months. Hed never seen his newborn son. He was far away in Afghanistan when little Travis was born. So all eyes were on the big screen when he appeared suddenly to - at least in this small way - be "home" for Christmas.

Skype from Romania. Thats how his wife, and his one-year-old son, little Travis would make a connection this Christmas season. But with thousands watching this touching reunion by screen, the technology Grinch suddenly showed up. There was barely time for "hellos" before the sergeant started disappearing in a spasm of static. Sadly, his wife handed the microphone back to a team rep.

At that very moment, Sergeant Vandenberg walked down the steps of the arena and right into the arms of his wife! Then he picked up his new son and held him up in front of him - looking in his eyes for the very first time.

Im Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Coming Home for Christmas."

I dont know if they sell Kleenex at the stadium concession stands, but if they do, you can bet they sold out that night. I confess I reached for some when I saw it on TV. I think one of the reasons it touched me is that I saw something else in that moving reunion. I saw the first Christmas. I saw myself.

Christmas - when a God we thought was so far away came down to where we are. To hold us close. In fact, the ancient prophecy of the coming Messiah predicted it. And its our word for today from the Word of God recorded in Matthew 1:23, "A virgin shall be with child and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, God with us." Not just God projected on the screen of some church or religion. But God right here. God up close.

Too often, though, He has seemed far away hasnt He? Like theres a lot of distance between me and the God I really need. It turns out that distance is not just a feeling. Its real. But its not Gods fault. Its mine.

Lets face it, Ive wanted to believe in God, but I also want to run my own life. In essence, occupying the drivers seat in my life - a life He gave me. We have, in the words of the Bible, "left Gods path to follow our own" (Isaiah 53:6 NLT) and at great cost. Isaiah 59:2 says, "Your sins have cut you off from God." Actually, I knew that. I think we can all feel the distance.

But then...Christmas. As Linus so eloquently quoted to Charlie Brown, "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11 KJVA). In that stable in Bethlehem, God stepped out of eternity and into time. So He could step into my life and your life and change it forever. Not God as a fuzzy image. Not God far away. God with us. With me. In my home. In my office. In the doctors office. In my grief. In my loneliness. In my pain. In "the valley of the shadow of death" (Psalm 23:4 KJVA).

But it would come at great expense to Jesus, because 33 years later, the hands of the Bethlehem baby would be nailed to a Roman cross. And today, this one who loved you enough to die for you, who came that Christmas for you and me is reaching out and saying, "On this Christmas day, would you give yourself to Me?" Hes been waiting a long time. Hes ready now for you to come. You can tell it by the tug you feel in your heart. That wont always be there.

So, right now while you can, say, "Jesus, Im Yours." Go to our website today if you want more information because there youll see how to be sure youve begun this relationship on this Christmas day. Its ANewStory.com.

See, Jesus came in Bethlehem to go to a cross so God could be your Father. And so you could be, forever, a child in His arms.