Job 8, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: AS IF UPON KNEES - February 28, 2025

Unceasing prayer may sound complicated, but it needn’t be that way. Do this: think of prayer less as an activity for God and more as an awareness of God. Seek to live in uninterrupted awareness. As you stand in line to register your car, think, “Thank you, Lord, for being here.” In the grocery store as you shop, think, “Your presence, my King, I welcome.” As you wash the dishes, worship your Maker.

Brother Lawrence called himself the “lord of all pots and pans.” He wrote: The time of busyness does not with me differ from the time of prayer; and in the clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon knees at the blessed sacrament.

So talk to God, always.

Max on Life: Answers and Insights to Your Most Important Questions

Job 8

BILDAD’S RESPONSE

Does God Mess Up?

1–7  8 Bildad from Shuhah was next to speak:

“How can you keep on talking like this?

You’re talking nonsense, and noisy nonsense at that.

Does God mess up?

Does God Almighty ever get things backward?

It’s plain that your children sinned against him—

otherwise, why would God have punished them?

Here’s what you must do—and don’t put it off any longer:

Get down on your knees before God Almighty.

If you’re as innocent and upright as you say,

it’s not too late—he’ll come running;

he’ll set everything right again, reestablish your fortunes.

Even though you’re not much right now,

you’ll end up better than ever.

To Hang Your Life from One Thin Thread

8–19  “Put the question to our ancestors,

study what they learned from their ancestors.

For we’re newcomers at this, with a lot to learn,

and not too long to learn it.

So why not let the ancients teach you, tell you what’s what,

instruct you in what they knew from experience?

Can mighty pine trees grow tall without soil?

Can luscious tomatoes flourish without water?

Blossoming flowers look great before they’re cut or picked,

but without soil or water they wither more quickly than grass.

That’s what happens to all who forget God—

all their hopes come to nothing.

They hang their life from one thin thread,

they hitch their fate to a spider web.

One jiggle and the thread breaks,

one jab and the web collapses.

Or they’re like weeds springing up in the sunshine,

invading the garden,

Spreading everywhere, overtaking the flowers,

getting a foothold even in the rocks.

But when the gardener rips them out by the roots,

the garden doesn’t miss them one bit.

The sooner the godless are gone, the better;

then good plants can grow in their place.

20–22  “There’s no way that God will reject a good person,

and there is no way he’ll help a bad one.

God will let you laugh again;

you’ll raise the roof with shouts of joy,

With your enemies thoroughly discredited,

their house of cards collapsed.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Friday, February 28, 2025

by Patricia Raybon

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Colossians 3:8-17

But you know better now, so make sure it’s all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk.

9–11  Don’t lie to one another. You’re done with that old life. It’s like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you’ve stripped off and put in the fire. Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ.

12–14  So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.

15–17  Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.

Today's Insights

Paul wrote to the Colossian church to correct false teaching about Jesus and to instruct us how to live “worthy of the Lord”—fruitful and faithful lives that “please him in every way” (1:10). The apostle emphasizes the supremacy of Christ in creation, redemption, and the church (chs. 1-2). He then calls for Jesus to be supreme in their lives (chs. 3-4). Using the metaphors of putting on and taking off clothes, Paul says to live a transformed life—a Christlike life reflecting His character (3:1-17). The apostle lists various sins that believers must “put to death” (v. 5): “sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed . . . anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language” (vv. 5, 8). Then he instructs believers to replace them with the Christ-honoring virtues of “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (v. 12). We’re to “bear with each other and forgive one another” (v. 13) and envelop everything in love (v. 14).

Peace of Christ

As members of one body you were called to peace. Colossians 3:1

Would they win by arguing? Never, a small-town leader warned residents in Adirondack Park, where a pitched battle between environmentalists and small-business owners ignited the “Adirondack Wars.” The name described their fight whether to save the area’s pristine wilderness in Upstate New York or develop it.

“Go back wherever you came from!” a local leader had shouted at an environmentalist. But soon a new message emerged: “Don’t yell at each other. Try to talk to each other.” A Common Ground Alliance was formed to build bridges between warring factions. Civic dialogue led to progress—with nearly a million acres of wild land protected even as Adirondack towns grew more prosperous than they’d been in twenty years.

Peaceful coexistence is a start, but Paul taught something even better. To the new believers in Colossae, he said, “Rid yourselves of . . . anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips” (Colossians 3:8). Paul urged them to exchange their old ways for a new nature in Christ: “Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience,” he wrote (v. 12).

The invitation is offered today to all believers: surrender our old, cantankerous lives to new life in Christ. “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace” (v. 15). Then, in our peace, the world will see Jesus.

Reflect & Pray

Whom could you forgive today? With whom can you make peace?

Dear God, when my old life erupts in anger, please grant me new peace in You.

Discover more on the healing power of forgiveness.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Friday, February 28, 2025

Do You Now Believe?

Now we can see that you know all things … This makes us believe. — John 16:30-31

When the disciples finally told Jesus that they believed he was the Son of God, Jesus replied with skepticism: “Do you now believe? … You will leave me all alone” (John 16:31–32). Many Christians leave Jesus alone as they go about their work. They’re motivated by their conscience or a sense of duty, but their souls aren’t in intimate contact with their Lord; they’re leaning on their own understanding. It isn’t a sin to work for God in this way, and there’s no punishment attached to it, but when we catch ourselves acting like this, when we realize we’ve grown distant from Jesus and produced confusion and sadness for ourselves, we come back to him with shame and contrition.

We need to learn to rely on the resurrection life of Jesus on a much deeper level, to get into the habit of steadily referring everything back to him. We make decisions based on common sense, then ask God to bless those decisions. He cannot. Common sense is not in God’s domain; it is severed from divine reality. Common sense tells us that duty and moral obligation should be our guides. “I must do this; conscience compels me,” we say, haughtily. A decision based on common sense can always be backed up by an argument like this. But when we do something purely out of obedience to the Lord, no commonsense argument is possible. That’s why obedience is so easy to ridicule.

If we don’t want to leave Jesus alone, we must be willing to be ridiculed for his sake. We aren’t told to walk in the light of conscience or of duty; we’re told to walk in the light as God is in the light (1 John 1:7).

Numbers 20-22; Mark 7:1-13

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Seeing is never believing: we interpret what we see in the light of what we believe. Faith is confidence in God before you see God emerging; therefore the nature of faith is that it must be tried.

He Shall Glorify Me, 494 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Friday, February 28, 2025

EARTHQUAKE HOPE - #9950

Stranded on the highest mountain on earth. Or buried beneath the rubble of a shattered hotel.

After the earthquake that rocked that mountain kingdom of Nepal, thousands of people lost their lives. Many more found their world, their homes, actually their lives wiped away.

There were some who survived the quake, but they faced the prospect of dying in the aftermath. Like those climbers on Mt. Everest, trapped on the mountain by massive avalanches. Or that 27-year-old man, lying amidst the stench of dead bodies, trapped for 82 hours under mountains of concrete.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Earthquake Hope."

One six-letter word. That was the difference between life and death for the men on the mountain and the man in the rubble.

Rescue. That's the "hope" word that we keep hearing in the heartbreaking news from great disasters all over the world.

In this one, 18 climbers died when part of Everest collapsed on their base camp. There were 140 surviving climbers, but when they tried to go down through the escape route, it was impossibly blocked by fallen rocks. And as time passed, their food was running out; their water was running out.

And then the choppers came. One after another they landed somehow on that mountain, saved those climbers, taking out two at a time.

Then there was young Rishi. He was running out of hope, he was running out of life. Beneath that collapsed hotel. Then, after ten hours of digging through concrete, the rescuers broke through. Rishi is alive...the climbers were alive...because the rescuers came.

Hope in Nepal depended on - as it is in so many disasters - a rescuer from above.

And that's where the news intersects my life and yours. Because hope for me depended on a rescuer from above. At the spiritual crossroads of my life.

I was trapped in a place where I would have died. Except my Rescuer came. His name is Jesus. The One called "Savior" by millions of people around the world. That's Savior as in Rescuer.

In fact, the Bible says in our word for today from the Word of God in Galatians 1:3, "Jesus gave His life for our sins...in order to rescue us." Not to start a religion. Not to be an example or a teacher. But to rescue us. So, it isn't about a religion, called Christianity, it's about a rescuer named Jesus. He came to rescue us at the cost of His life.

Because I - and a world of folks like me - was facing spiritual death for dethroning God in my life. Letting Him run the universe while I ran me. His Book makes the outcome of those sinful choices, unmistakable. It says, "The soul that sins shall die" (Ezekiel 18:3). Here, a life without meaning. Hereafter, an eternity without hope.

But, thank God, the Rescuer came! From above. To a cross. To die for my sin and yours so we don't have to. Amazingly, in the words of Galatians 2:20 in the Bible, "He loved me and gave Himself for me." First person singular. The death of Christ on the cross for my sins.

Then He blasted out of His grave three days later. To reach into my rubble. To reach into your rubble. To save us from certain spiritual death.

If you're ready to make The Rescuer your personal Rescuer from your sin, if you want to begin this life-saving, eternity-changing relationship with Jesus, I invite you to tell Him right now, "Jesus, I'm yours." And go to our website where you can get this confirmed and be sure you belong to Him. That website is ANewStory.com.

There was a day that Jesus reached for me. This may be the day He is reaching for you. Would you grab His nail-scarred hand, my friend? You will be safe. Forever.

Matthew 8:18-34, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

 

Max Lucado Daily: KEEP PRAYING - February 27, 2025

God heals, not prayer. A matter of semantics? No. If you think the power is in the prayer and not the One who hears the prayer, you fault the pray-er for unanswered prayer. If I had prayed more, better, differently… But the power of prayer is in the One who hears it, not the one who makes it.

So, if you are waiting on God to answer your prayer, don’t despair. We need to remember that many of God’s saints endured a time of unanswered prayer. Peter was in a storm before he walked on water. Lazarus was in a grave before he came out of it. The demoniac was possessed before he was a preacher, and the paralytic was on a stretcher before he was in your Bible.

We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love him. Please don’t interpret the presence of your disease as the absence of God’s love. I pray he heals you. And he will—ultimately! Till then, just keep praying.

Max on Life: Answers and Insights to Your Most Important Questions

Matthew 8:18-34

Your Business Is Life, Not Death

18–19  When Jesus saw that a curious crowd was growing by the minute, he told his disciples to get him out of there to the other side of the lake. As they left, a religion scholar asked if he could go along. “I’ll go with you, wherever,” he said.

20  Jesus was curt: “Are you ready to rough it? We’re not staying in the best inns, you know.”

21  Another follower said, “Master, excuse me for a couple of days, please. I have my father’s funeral to take care of.”

22  Jesus refused. “First things first. Your business is life, not death. Follow me. Pursue life.”

23–25  Then he got in the boat, his disciples with him. The next thing they knew, they were in a severe storm. Waves were crashing into the boat—and he was sound asleep! They roused him, pleading, “Master, save us! We’re going down!”

26  Jesus reprimanded them. “Why are you such cowards, such faint-hearts?” Then he stood up and told the wind to be silent, the sea to quiet down: “Silence!” The sea became smooth as glass.

27  The men rubbed their eyes, astonished. “What’s going on here? Wind and sea come to heel at his command!”

The Madmen and the Pigs

28–31  They landed in the country of the Gadarenes and were met by two madmen, victims of demons, coming out of the cemetery. The men had terrorized the region for so long that no one considered it safe to walk down that stretch of road anymore. Seeing Jesus, the madmen screamed out, “What business do you have giving us a hard time? You’re the Son of God! You weren’t supposed to show up here yet!” Off in the distance a herd of pigs was browsing and rooting. The evil spirits begged Jesus, “If you kick us out of these men, let us live in the pigs.”

32–34  Jesus said, “Go ahead, but get out of here!” Crazed, the pigs stampeded over a cliff into the sea and drowned. Scared to death, the swineherds bolted. They told everyone back in town what had happened to the madmen and the pigs. Those who heard about it were angry about the drowned pigs. A mob formed and demanded that Jesus get out and not come back.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Thursday, February 27, 2025

by Tom Felten

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Hosea 3

In Time They’ll Come Back

1  3 Then God ordered me, “Start all over: Love your wife again,

your wife who’s in bed with her latest boyfriend, your cheating wife.

Love her the way I, God, love the Israelite people,

even as they flirt and party with every god that takes their fancy.”

2–3  I did it. I paid good money to get her back.

It cost me the price of a slave.

Then I told her, “From now on you’re living with me.

No more whoring, no more sleeping around.

You’re living with me and I’m living with you.”

4–5  The people of Israel are going to live a long time

stripped of security and protection,

without religion and comfort,

godless and prayerless.

But in time they’ll come back, these Israelites,

come back looking for their God and their David-King.

They’ll come back chastened to reverence

before God and his good gifts, ready for the End of the story of his love.

Today's Insights

The fourteen chapters of Hosea comprise one of the stranger books of the Bible. Why would God command His prophet Hosea to “marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her” (Hosea 1:2)? The answer comes in the first chapter: “for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord” (v. 2). God intended Hosea’s publicly disastrous marriage to be a vivid depiction to the people of what they were doing to Him by engaging in obscene idolatry. He said of them, “She will chase after her lovers” (2:7). Yet God would bring the people back from exile. Hosea 3 anticipates a day when Israel “will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days” (v. 5). God will always love them, as Hosea loved his wife.

A Path Forward

Love [your wife] as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods. Hosea 3:1

What do we do? Scott and Bree agonized over how to relate to friends and family members who’d chosen unbiblical ways of life. As they studied the Scriptures and prayed, a path forward emerged: First, they reinforced their love for their friends and loved ones; second, they expressed what was true and good about them based on God’s good design; and third, they shared how they would lovingly interact with them based on Scriptural wisdom. In time, greater relational trust was built as Scott and Bree extended Christlike love.

Hosea likely wondered how to relate to his wife—a woman whose chosen way of life didn’t honor God or him. God directed the prophet to “show your love to your wife again, though she is . . . an adulteress” (Hosea 3:1). The prophet evidently reinforced his love for her while also expressing what was right and true for them and their relationship before God (v. 3). His relationship with her symbolized God’s own challenge with rebellious ancient Israel. Though they’d chosen a wrong course, He provided a path forward, telling them His “love will know no bounds” (14:4 nlt) but to choose His ways for they “are right” (v. 9).

As God provides wisdom and discernment, let’s continue to extend His love and truth to those who’ve chosen unbiblical ways of life. His example provides the path forward. 

Reflect & Pray

How has God shown love and truth to you? How can you show God’s love and truth to those on unbiblical paths?

Loving God, please help me to reflect Your truth and love to those far from You.

For further study, read Evangelism—Reaching Out through Relationships.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Thursday, February 27, 2025

The Almighty God

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep.” — John 4:11

“The well is deep”—indeed! The well of human nature is even deeper than the Samaritan woman knew. Think of the depths inside you, the depths of your thoughts and your feelings, of your hopes and your fears. Do you believe that no depth is too deep for Jesus?

Imagine that there is a fathomless well of trouble inside your heart. Then Jesus comes and says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1). Do you reply, “But, Lord, the well is too deep. You’ll never draw quietness and comfort up from it”? It’s true; he won’t. Jesus doesn’t bring anything up from the wells of human nature. He brings it down from God above.

If we’re looking inside ourselves for the answers, diving into the wells of our incompleteness, we’ll only succeed in placing limits on God. Sometimes, we limit God by forgetting what he’s done for us; sometimes, we limit him by remembering. We remember how far we’ve allowed him to go for us in the past, and we think that he can never go any further. But God has no limits; God is almighty. As disciples, we must believe this fully. To believe in God’s almightiness means believing in the very thing that seems to challenge it. We find it easy to believe that God can sympathize with us, but when it comes to something we’ve already decided is impossible, we shrug and say, “God can’t do everything.” God’s ministry is infinitely rich; we impoverish it when we talk like this.

The reason some of us are such poor specimens of discipleship is that we don’t believe in an almighty God. We have Christian attributes and experiences, but we aren’t abandoned to our Lord. Beware of the satisfaction that comes from sinking back and saying, “It can’t be done.” You know it can, if you look to Jesus.

Numbers 17-19; Mark 6:30-56

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

To read the Bible according to God’s providential order in your circumstances is the only way to read it, viz., in the blood and passion of personal life.

Disciples Indeed, 387 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Thursday, February 27, 2025

NO "YEAH, BUT" IN OBEDIENCE - #9949

I saw this amusing commercial. This basset hound lying on the floor next to his master; his master is totally covered by the newspaper he's reading. On the floor in front of the dog is a page of the newspaper that advertises this incredible bargain airfare from a certain airline. Suddenly, the dog has a bubble over his head in which he sees himself at the kennel again while his master is off traveling. The dog quietly picks up that part of the paper that has the ad, trots over to the garbage can, drops it in, and goes back to his master's side, and his master never knows the difference. Of course, the dog has no way of knowing those great sale fares aren't always as great as they first appear. The sale fare is in big print, but at the bottom is the small print with lots of conditions. Or you call and you get some surprises. You have to fly over a certain day of the week, or there's a penalty for any changes, or there are only a few seats at that price, or you may have to book two years in advance! It looks great for a while, but the added conditions change things a bit - conditions you hadn't counted on.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No 'Yeah, But' In Obedience."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 19:27-29. By the way, Jesus knows how it feels to call - and to find out about unadvertised conditions. The Scripture says, "Peter answered Him, 'We have left everything to follow You! What then will there be for us?' Jesus said to them,... 'You who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for My sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.'"

Peter's wanting to know what's in it for him to follow Jesus. Contrast that with his original commitment to Jesus in Mark 1, "'Come, follow Me,' Jesus said, 'and I will make you fishers of men.' At once they left their nets and followed Him.'" There were no conditions, no footnotes, but now Peter's concerned about houses and fields and closeness to his family.

Peter's not alone. His mind set here uncovers a troubling tendency in our commitment to Christ. Unconditional commitment to Christ tends to become conditional. As our lives get more complex, as we accumulate more and accomplish more, we start to add little footnotes and conditions to what began as an "anything goes" commitment to Christ.

There was probably sometime in your life when you opened yourself up totally to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. You said, "It doesn't matter where I live, how much money I make, what position I get, what I wear, what I drive, who goes with me..." but that can change, can't it? Now the Lord might be asking you to do something that might risk or change some of those parts of your life. Suddenly you're giving the Lord a contract with certain requirements: living in certain conditions, being near your family, keeping your position or some prized possessions, keeping a special person, being comfortable. You're saying, "Yes, Lord - but..." added conditions. The word "but" cannot follow the word "Lord."

Jesus assured Peter he was losing nothing any more than you lose the money you invest in a stock that later goes sky high. In fact, Jesus promises a reward 100 times any sacrifice you make. What a return! But that kind of reward is reserved for those who give Jesus a blank piece of paper, not a contract.

Have you added footnotes and conditions to your once wide-open commitment? Get back to where you began - following Jesus in total abandon.

Job 7, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: GOD LIGHTENS YOUR LOAD - February 26, 2025

Prayer reminds us of who’s in charge. You don’t take your requests to someone with less authority. You take them to someone who outranks you in the solutions department.

The same is true in prayer. You don’t pray just to let God know what’s going on. He’s way ahead of you on that one. You pray to transfer “my will be done” to “God’s will be done.” And since he’s in charge, he knows the best solution. Prayer transfers the burden to God and lightens your load. Prayer pushes us through life’s slumps, and propels us over the humps, and pulls us out of the dumps. Prayer’s the oomph we need to get the answers we seek. So pray—today!

Max on Life: Answers and Insights to Your Most Important Questions

Job 7

There’s Nothing to My Life

1–6  7 “Human life is a struggle, isn’t it?

It’s a life sentence to hard labor.

Like field hands longing for quitting time

and working stiffs with nothing to hope for but payday,

I’m given a life that meanders and goes nowhere—

months of aimlessness, nights of misery!

I go to bed and think, ‘How long till I can get up?’

I toss and turn as the night drags on—and I’m fed up!

I’m covered with maggots and scabs.

My skin gets scaly and hard, then oozes with pus.

My days come and go swifter than the click of knitting needles,

and then the yarn runs out—an unfinished life!

7–10  “God, don’t forget that I’m only a puff of air!

These eyes have had their last look at goodness.

And your eyes have seen the last of me;

even while you’re looking, there’ll be nothing left to look at.

When a cloud evaporates, it’s gone for good;

those who go to the grave never come back.

They don’t return to visit their families;

never again will friends drop in for coffee.

11–16  “And so I’m not keeping one bit of this quiet,

I’m laying it all out on the table;

my complaining to high heaven is bitter, but honest.

Are you going to put a muzzle on me,

the way you quiet the sea and still the storm?

If I say, ‘I’m going to bed, then I’ll feel better.

A little nap will lift my spirits,’

You come and so scare me with nightmares

and frighten me with ghosts

That I’d rather strangle in the bedclothes

than face this kind of life any longer.

I hate this life! Who needs any more of this?

Let me alone! There’s nothing to my life—it’s nothing but smoke.

17–21  “What are mortals anyway, that you bother with them,

that you even give them the time of day?

That you check up on them every morning,

looking in on them to see how they’re doing?

Let up on me, will you?

Can’t you even let me spit in peace?

Even suppose I’d sinned—how would that hurt you?

You’re responsible for every human being.

Don’t you have better things to do than pick on me?

Why make a federal case out of me?

Why don’t you just forgive my sins

and start me off with a clean slate?

The way things are going, I’ll soon be dead.

You’ll look high and low, but I won’t be around.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

by Katara Patton

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Acts 9:36-43

Down the road a way in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha, “Gazelle” in our language. She was well-known for doing good and helping out. During the time Peter was in the area she became sick and died. Her friends prepared her body for burial and put her in a cool room.

38–40  Some of the disciples had heard that Peter was visiting in nearby Lydda and sent two men to ask if he would be so kind as to come over. Peter got right up and went with them. They took him into the room where Tabitha’s body was laid out. Her old friends, most of them widows, were in the room mourning. They showed Peter pieces of clothing the Gazelle had made while she was with them. Peter put the widows all out of the room. He knelt and prayed. Then he spoke directly to the body: “Tabitha, get up.”

40–41  She opened her eyes. When she saw Peter, she sat up. He took her hand and helped her up. Then he called in the believers and widows, and presented her to them alive.

42–43  When this became known all over Joppa, many put their trust in the Master. Peter stayed on a long time in Joppa as a guest of Simon the Tanner.

Today's Insights

The phrase “doing good” (Acts 9:36) also appears in Acts 10:38 where Peter, preaching in the home of Cornelius, summarized the ministry of Jesus: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and . . . he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” Tabitha—a disciple of Christ—followed His example of helping those in need by making clothes as a tangible expression of her care (9:39). Peter, likewise, followed Christ in doing good by using his apostolic gifts. It’s hard to miss the similarities between Acts 9:39-42 and Mark 5:37-43, where Peter had a front row seat at Jairus’ house (see also Luke 8:51) when Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead. After Christ had returned to heaven, His good works continued through those who believed in Him.

The Joy of Giving

Tabitha . . . was always doing good and helping the poor. Acts 9:36

On a five-hour flight, a woman vigorously crocheted a sweater. As she moved her hook in and out of her yarn, she noticed a five-month-old baby who was mesmerized by her motions. Then the woman got an idea: instead of finishing the sweater she was working on; she would make a hat for her little admirer. She had to finish the hat in the remaining time of the flight, however—just one hour! When the woman presented the child’s mom with the little hat, the whole family accepted it with joy while the other passengers smiled and applauded.

Surprise gifts are often received with joy. Whether they’re gifts we need or simply want, through them the giver may also show us the kindness of Christ. In the early church, Tabitha was known for sharing clothes and “always doing good and helping the poor” (Acts 9:36). When she died, her beneficiaries displayed “the robes and other clothing that [she] had made . . . them” (v. 39). They testified about her kindness and how she’d touched their lives.

In a dramatic turn of events, Peter, through the Holy Spirit’s power, brought Tabitha back to life (v. 40). His actions filled those who loved her with joy—and led many others to believe in Christ (v. 42).

Our actions of kindness can be some of the most memorable testifying we do. As God provides, let’s share some surprise gifts with others today.

Reflect & Pray

What gifts can you share with others? What has it meant for you to receive gifts of kindness?

Heavenly Father, please remind me to be kind to others—sharing my gifts and treasures.

Discover how not to let your failure stop you from following Jesus.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Doubts about Jesus

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?” — John 4:11

When Jesus told the Samaritan woman that he could give her living water, her reply was full of doubt. We marvel at this story, because we know our Lord has told the woman the truth. But when it comes to our own lives, we aren’t always so sure. “I’m impressed with the wondrous things he says,” we think. “But in reality, they can’t be done!”

Where do our doubts about Jesus come from? They might spring from other people’s doubts about the plans we’ve made with God— their questions about where we’ll get our money or how we’ll live. Or we might plant the seeds of doubt ourselves, informing Jesus that our problems are too much, even for him.

What’s really happening is that we’ve confused Jesus’s limitations with our own. We look at our own abilities to determine what Jesus can do, then panic when we see the depths of our own inadequacy. “No, no,” we protest. “I have no doubts about Jesus, only about myself.” This is a pious kind of fraud. None of us are truly confused about ourselves: we know perfectly well what we can and can’t do. But we do have doubts about Jesus. Sometimes we even act insulted by his power, as though we’re hurt by the idea that he can do what we can’t.

If you sense doubts about Jesus in yourself, bring them to the light and confess them: “Lord, I’ve had doubts about you. I haven’t believed in your strength apart from my own. I haven’t believed in your almighty power apart from my finite understanding of it.” Then ask God to take your doubts away.

Numbers 15-16; Mark 6:1-29

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

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

YOUR LIFE'S MOST MEMORABLE LEGACY - #9948

Ronald Reagan led one of the most extraordinary lives of the 20th Century - a life which he sadly and progressively forgot in the last years of his life. His long battle with Alzheimer's Disease acted like a cruel eraser. It removed recollections of what he had done and even who he was. After Ronald Reagan's death, we learned a lot more about what happened during his long journey into darkness. Memory of his years in Hollywood just disappeared, and then he couldn't remember being Governor of California, and ultimately he lost all that had happened in his years of being President of the United States. But one memory stayed alive almost until the end. In the office that Nancy Reagan set up for him, there was a picture on the wall, it was a picture of the Rock River in Illinois. When visitors would ask him about it, after most of his life was there no more, he would brighten and he'd say, "Oh, that's where I was a lifeguard when I was 17. That's where I saved 77 lives!"

I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Life's Most Memorable Legacy."

After all was said and done, the one thing Ronald Reagan could remember about his life was the lives he saved. But then, there's nothing about your life that's more worth remembering. No matter how many or how few, no matter how large or how small your life accomplishments have been, that's your greatest legacy. There's nothing more heroic, there's nothing more meaningful than being someone's difference between life and death - especially if it's eternal life or death.

Our word for today from the Word of God in Proverbs 11:30 tells us what the legacy of your life and mine ought to be. God says, "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise." What you should have to show for the one life you've lived is a trail of life - people whose souls you have helped move from sin's death penalty to the eternal life that can only be found at Jesus' cross.

There's a stretch of beach that God has assigned to each of us who belongs to Him. There's a stretch of beach where He's assigned you to be His lifeguard - the one who's responsible to do all you can to rescue the people around you who will die spiritually unless someone helps them get to Jesus. You may be looking around and saying, "Me? Surely God must have someone better than me to help these people get to heaven?"

Stop looking around. You're the one He's put in their lives. Not some highly trained spiritual professional, not some professional God salesman, not someone with a more outgoing personality, not someone who's got it more together than you have. Your Savior decided you were the person they needed as their link to Him.

Look, if you're like most of us, your fear has kept you from actively trying to introduce them to Jesus. Fear is actually from one thing: it's all about me. It's focusing on ourselves - how I'm going to look, what they'll think about me - instead of focusing on what might happen to them if we don't try to tell them.

Maybe you've been preoccupied with goals and accomplishments that won't even last for your lifetime, let alone forever. But God says those who lead many to righteousness will "shine like the stars forever and ever" (Daniel 12:3). People in heaven because you cared - there's nothing you can do in this life that can even come close to that as a legacy. Lives saved forever.

The place where you work, the activities you're involved in, the school you attend, the neighborhood you live in, the people who keep showing up in your life; they are the lives at stake on your stretch of the beach. Don't fail the Savior who died for them by letting them live and die without Him because of your silence. Don't fail them by not showing them the difference Jesus makes; by not telling them what Jesus did for them on the cross.

See, you are their chance at Jesus. You're their chance at heaven.

Job 6, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: PUT IT ON THE CALENDAR - February 25, 2025

A quiet time with God is very similar to a special date. Denalyn and I like to go to the same restaurants over and over again. When we’re there, we remember special moments we’ve shared before. Our hearts open up, and we talk to each other. We listen, we laugh, and sometimes we cry. I love those times! So does God. A quiet time with God is very similar to a special date.

Here are some tools to help you keep your date with him special: Select a slot in your schedule and claim it for God. Take as much time as you need. Your time with God should last long enough for you to say what you want and for God to say what he wants. Bring an open Bible—God’s Word, his love letter to you. Bring a listening heart, and listen to the lover of your soul. Make sure your date with God is on the calendar, and do everything in your power to keep it special.

Max on Life: Answers and Insights to Your Most Important Questions

Job 6

JOB REPLIES TO ELIPHAZ

God Has Dumped the Works on Me

1–7  6 Job answered:

“If my misery could be weighed,

if you could pile the whole bitter load on the scales,

It would be heavier than all the sand of the sea!

Is it any wonder that I’m screaming like a caged cat?

The arrows of God Almighty are in me,

poison arrows—and I’m poisoned all through!

God has dumped the whole works on me.

Donkeys bray and cows moo when they run out of pasture—

so don’t expect me to keep quiet in this.

Do you see what God has dished out for me?

It’s enough to turn anyone’s stomach!

Everything in me is repulsed by it—

it makes me sick.

Pressed Past the Limits

8–13  “All I want is an answer to one prayer,

a last request to be honored:

Let God step on me—squash me like a bug,

and be done with me for good.

I’d at least have the satisfaction

of not having blasphemed the Holy God,

before being pressed past the limits.

Where’s the strength to keep my hopes up?

What future do I have to keep me going?

Do you think I have nerves of steel?

Do you think I’m made of iron?

Do you think I can pull myself up by my bootstraps?

Why, I don’t even have any boots!

My So-Called Friends

14–23  “When desperate people give up on God Almighty,

their friends, at least, should stick with them.

But my brothers are fickle as a gulch in the desert—

one day they’re gushing with water

From melting ice and snow

cascading out of the mountains,

But by midsummer they’re dry,

gullies baked dry in the sun.

Travelers who spot them and go out of their way for a drink

end up in a waterless gulch and die of thirst.

Merchant caravans from Tema see them and expect water,

tourists from Sheba hope for a cool drink.

They arrive so confident—but what a disappointment!

They get there, and their faces fall!

And you, my so-called friends, are no better—there’s nothing to you!

One look at a hard scene and you shrink in fear.

It’s not as though I asked you for anything—

I didn’t ask you for one red cent—

Nor did I beg you to go out on a limb for me.

So why all this dodging and shuffling?

24–27  “Confront me with the truth and I’ll shut up,

show me where I’ve gone off the track.

Honest words never hurt anyone,

but what’s the point of all this pious bluster?

You pretend to tell me what’s wrong with my life,

but treat my words of anguish as so much hot air.

Are people mere things to you?

Are friends just items of profit and loss?

28–30  “Look me in the eyes!

Do you think I’d lie to your face?

Think it over—no double-talk!

Think carefully—my integrity is on the line!

Can you detect anything false in what I say?

Don’t you trust me to discern good from evil?”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Tuesday, February 25, 2025

by Monica La Rose

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Luke 6:31-38

  “Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that’s charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.

35–36  “I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You’ll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind.

37–38  “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Don’t condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people; you’ll find life a lot easier. Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity.”

Today's Insights

The teaching of Luke 6:31-38 is similar to that of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:38-48, which Jesus taught “up on a mountainside” (v. 1). Christ taught the sermon in Luke 6—the Sermon on the Plain—on another occasion: “on a level place” (v. 17) or “in the plain” (kjv). Here, Jesus taught about unconditional love for others, including enemies, so that we can be “children of the Most High” (v. 35). God “is kind to the ungrateful and wicked” (v. 35); we’re to be merciful in the same measure that the “Father is merciful” (v. 36). In this sermon, Christ articulated a maxim popularly known as the Golden Rule: “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (v. 31), espousing the principle of “a man reaps what he sows” (Galatians 6:7). Christ spoke of reciprocal treatment, “for with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Luke 6:38).

Responding to Generosity

Give, and it will be given to you. Luke 6:38

When Lydia was gifted $10,000 by anonymous donors, she spent little of it on herself. Instead, she gave generous gifts to coworkers, family, flood victims, and charities. Lydia, unbeknownst to her, was part of a study following how two hundred people responded to a no-strings-attached gift of $10,000 through a bank transfer. That study found that more than two-thirds of that gifted money was given away. Sharing this story, Chris Anderson, head of the TED nonprofit media organization, reflected, “It turns out that . . . we human beings are wired to respond to generosity with generosity.”

In Scripture, we find that when people live generously, they reflect the heart of the God who made them. God is generous, merciful, and kind, not just to some but to all—even “to the ungrateful and wicked” (Luke 6:35). So Jesus instructed those who desire to reflect God’s character to “love,” “do good to,” and “lend to” even enemies “without expecting to get anything back” (vv. 32-35).

When we give without expecting anything back, we’ll find that it’s never a way of life that harms us. Jesus pointed this out too, saying, “Give, and it will be given to you. . . . With the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (v. 38). When we respond to God’s generosity by living generously, we find we’re enriched in countless ways.

Reflect & Pray

How have you found joy through giving? How have the gifts of others enriched your life?

Gracious God, thank You for the joy of giving.

For further study, read The Benefits of Generosity.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Tuesday, February 25, 2025

The Poverty of Service

If I love you more, will you love me less? — 2 Corinthians 12:15

Natural love expects to be returned, but Paul didn’t care if he was loved by those he served. He was willing to be ridiculed and overlooked, to be made poor and humble, just so long as he was bringing people to God. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor” (2 Corinthians 8:9). Giving his all wasn’t a burden for Paul; it was a joy: “I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well” (12:15).

The way Jesus thinks about service is not the way the world thinks about it. Jesus Christ out-socialists socialists. He says that in his kingdom the greatest will be the servant of all (Matthew 23:11). The real test for us lies not in preaching the gospel but in washing feet, in doing the things that are little esteemed by the world but count for everything with God.

Paul didn’t care what God’s interests in other people cost him. The instant God asks us to serve, we start making calculations. “God wants me to go there?” we say. “What about the salary? What about the weather? A sensible person has to consider these things.” When we think like this, we’re being selfish and cautious about how we serve God.

Paul was never cautious. He embodied Jesus’s idea of a New Testament disciple, one who not only proclaimed the gospel but became, for the sake of others, broken bread and poured-out wine in the hands of Jesus Christ.

Numbers 12-14; Mark 5:21-43

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

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Tuesday, February 25, 2025

THE TAPESTRY AND THE THREADS - #9947

Okay, let's do a little word association here, you ready? Persian. Ah...cat? Well, you might have thought of cat. For me, when I hear the word Persian...I think rug. I've never owned one and I probably never will, but I've sure seen them. And you know it's much more than a carpet. It's a work of art! Years ago Amy Carmichael wrote about the incredible process that produces these masterpieces. Try to picture this. There are two sets of workmen sitting on a bench on one side of the carpet which is hanging from a beam up above. The designer stands on the other side, he's holding a pattern in his hand and he directs the workers by calling across to them exactly what they're to do next. It's like a chant actually. And then the workman chants back to the designer the word that he's heard, verifying that order. Then the workman cuts from whatever bobbin has been ordered and he pushes that thread through the carpet warp and he knots it. All he can see is that thread. He sees nothing of the pattern until the caret is finished. That's all in the designer's hands. But when he finally sees what all these commands and all these threads have made, wow!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Tapestry And The Threads."

Take a peek at what The Designer is up to...our word for today from the Word of God, Romans 8:28, "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him who have been called according to his purpose." Now, in His hands is the pattern - what the masterpiece will look like when it's finished and it's beautiful. But He's the only one that can see that whole pattern. He said in Jeremiah "You know the plans I have for you. They are plans for good and not for evil." And the Bible says, "As for God, His way is perfect." Oh, it's going to be beautiful, it's going to be good. He's working out the eternal tapestry for your life. But we're just like those workmen, we can't see the pattern. All we see is the next thread. Our job, Romans 8:14, says, "Those who are led by the spirit of God, are the sons of God." Our job is to be led. How? Psalm 119:133 gives us a clue, "Direct my footsteps according to your Word." The next step, the next thread...show me from your Word where my next step is.

The designer's on the other side giving directions that will bring me one step, one thread closer to the grand design. Some of those threads are dark, some don't make sense, some don't seem to fit the pattern, some look wrong to me, but I'm just a workman. My job is to trust the designer, not to try to understand every order. Those Persian workers choose nothing; they leave every choice to the designer. Their responsibility is simply to listen and obey, and so is ours.

Today is another thread in the tapestry. Your mission, fellow weaver, is to check with the Lord frequently, consult His Word faithfully, listen for His inner Spirit promptings regularly. It's not your mission to know or to understand where all this is going. But the grand, macro will of God for your earth journey is made up of thousands of micro wills, thousands of little obediences, "Go there, call this person, write this, listen to this, take this step, read this verse." Threads that ultimately create the tapestry.

Occasionally God will let you stand back from your weaving to see a piece of the grand design and when you've had a glimpse of what He's making, it's been incredible, hasn't it? But, most days, the designer asks you to just keep weaving those threads. Some you like, some you don't like, some you're thankful for, some you would never choose. But, keep listening, keep doing what the designer says. One day you will stand back with the Master Designer. You will see the masterpiece that you have woven together with His direction and your faithful obediences.

Job 5, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: GOD’S WORD OVER WORRY - February 24, 2025

Fretting over tomorrow’s problems siphons the strength you need for today, leaving you anemic and weak. So when you can’t sleep, don’t count sheep; read Scripture.

Worry takes a look at catastrophes and groans, “It’s all coming unraveled.” But God says in Romans 8:28 (MSG), “Every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.” Worry claims, “The world has gone crazy,” but God’s Word disagrees. Mark 7:37 (MSG) says, “Jesus has done it all and done it well.” Worry wonders if anyone is in control, but God’s Word calls God “the blessed controller of all things” (1 Timothy 6:15 Phillips). Worry whispers this lie: “God doesn’t know what I need.” But God’s Word declares in Philippians 4:19 (MSG), “God will take care of everything you need.”

Worry never sleeps, but God’s children do!

Max on Life: Answers and Insights to Your Most Important Questions

Job 5

Don’t Blame Fate When Things Go Wrong

1–7  5 “Call for help, Job, if you think anyone will answer!

To which of the holy angels will you turn?

The hot temper of a fool eventually kills him,

the jealous anger of a simpleton does her in.

I’ve seen it myself—seen fools putting down roots,

and then, suddenly, their houses are cursed.

Their children out in the cold, abused and exploited,

with no one to stick up for them.

Hungry people off the street plunder their harvests,

cleaning them out completely, taking thorns and all,

insatiable for everything they have.

Don’t blame fate when things go wrong—

trouble doesn’t come from nowhere.

It’s human! Mortals are born and bred for trouble,

as certainly as sparks fly upward.

What a Blessing When God Corrects You!

8–16  “If I were in your shoes, I’d go straight to God,

I’d throw myself on the mercy of God.

After all, he’s famous for great and unexpected acts;

there’s no end to his surprises.

He gives rain, for instance, across the wide earth,

sends water to irrigate the fields.

He raises up the down-and-out,

gives firm footing to those sinking in grief.

He aborts the schemes of conniving crooks,

so that none of their plots come to term.

He catches the know-it-alls in their conspiracies—

all that intricate intrigue swept out with the trash!

Suddenly they’re disoriented, plunged into darkness;

they can’t see to put one foot in front of the other.

But the downtrodden are saved by God,

saved from the murderous plots, saved from the iron fist.

And so the poor continue to hope,

while injustice is bound and gagged.

17–19  “So, what a blessing when God steps in and corrects you!

Mind you, don’t despise the discipline of Almighty God!

True, he wounds, but he also dresses the wound;

the same hand that hurts you, heals you.

From one disaster after another he delivers you;

no matter what the calamity, the evil can’t touch you—

20–26  “In famine, he’ll keep you from starving,

in war, from being gutted by the sword.

You’ll be protected from vicious gossip

and live fearless through any catastrophe.

You’ll shrug off disaster and famine,

and stroll fearlessly among wild animals.

You’ll be on good terms with rocks and mountains;

wild animals will become your good friends.

You’ll know that your place on earth is safe,

you’ll look over your goods and find nothing amiss.

You’ll see your children grow up,

your family lovely and lissome as orchard grass.

You’ll arrive at your grave ripe with many good years,

like sheaves of golden grain at harvest.

27  “Yes, this is the way things are—my word of honor!

Take it to heart and you won’t go wrong.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Monday, February 24, 2025

by Brent Hackett

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Genesis 9:8-17

Then God spoke to Noah and his sons: “I’m setting up my covenant with you including your children who will come after you, along with everything alive around you—birds, farm animals, wild animals—that came out of the ship with you. I’m setting up my covenant with you that never again will everything living be destroyed by floodwaters; no, never again will a flood destroy the Earth.”

12–16  God continued, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and everything living around you and everyone living after you. I’m putting my rainbow in the clouds, a sign of the covenant between me and the Earth. From now on, when I form a cloud over the Earth and the rainbow appears in the cloud, I’ll remember my covenant between me and you and everything living, that never again will floodwaters destroy all life. When the rainbow appears in the cloud, I’ll see it and remember the eternal covenant between God and everything living, every last living creature on Earth.”

17  And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I’ve set up between me and everything living on the Earth.”

Today's Insights

The word covenant first appears in Genesis 6:18 when God says to Noah, “I will establish my covenant with you.” Though the context in which this word is used determines its specific meaning, broadly speaking, the word covenant refers to a “formal agreement between two or more parties.” Sometimes, as with God’s covenant with Noah (9:8-17) and Abraham (17:9-14), a sign is associated with it. In addition to the Noahic and Abrahamic covenants, other covenants found in the Old Testament include the Mosaic (Exodus 19-24), Davidic (2 Samuel 7), and the New Covenants (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

Rainbows and God’s Promises

I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Genesis 9:13

While I stood watching the amazing power of Niagara Falls, I noticed that other tourists suddenly began taking photos. Looking in the same direction, I saw a rainbow had appeared—arching across the river. It seemed to begin at the base of the Horseshoe Falls, ending at the base of the American Falls.

In reality, there’s no end to a rainbow. A rainbow is a full circle, something I’ve seen only once. I was gazing out an airplane window when the sun—shining in just the right direction—revealed a full-circle rainbow in the distance above the clouds. I sat enthralled with the sight until the plane turned and the circle disappeared.

That rainbow gave me much to consider—how God has no beginning or end, and that He reveals His promises to us no matter where we are. Our never-ending, eternal God “set [His] rainbow in the clouds” (Genesis 9:13) as a promise to never flood the earth again “to destroy all life” (v. 15). Even today, our Creator shares His reminder of that promise with us, His creation (vv. 13-16).

Isaiah 40:28 says, “The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. . . . No one can measure the depths of his understanding” (nlt). What an amazing thought! We will have eternity to learn about our promise keeper, and we’ll never reach the ultimate depth of His understanding.

Reflect & Pray

What attributes of God do you think about when you see a rainbow? How do His promises encourage you?

Thank You, Father, for creating rainbows and revealing them to me as confirmation of Your promise to me.

Learn more about the flood and God's promises by reading Does God Make Mistakes?

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Monday, February 24, 2025

The Delight Of Sacrifice

I will very gladly spend for you everything I have. — 2 Corinthians 12:15

When the Spirit of God has filled our hearts with the love of God, we begin to identify ourselves with Jesus’s interest in other people—and Jesus is interested in everyone. As his disciples, we have no right to be guided by personal preferences or prejudices. The delight of sacrifice comes from laying down our lives—not from carelessly flinging our lives away or giving them over to a cause but from deliberately laying them down for Jesus and his interests in others.

Paul laid down his life in order to win people to Jesus, not to himself. He sought to attract people to Jesus, never to himself (1 Corinthians 1:13). “I have become,” he wrote, “all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some” (9:22). To do this, Paul had to become a sacramental personality. He didn’t hide away or insist on a holy life alone with God, a life in which he’d be no use to others. Instead, Paul told Jesus to help himself to his life.

Many of us are so caught up in pursuing our own goals that Jesus can’t help himself to our lives. Paul didn’t have any goals of his own. “I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people,” he wrote (Romans 9:3). Wild, extravagant talk, isn’t it? No. When a person is in love, it isn’t extravagant to talk like this, and Paul was in love with Jesus Christ.

Numbers 9-11; Mark 5:1-20

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

A fanatic is one who entrenches himself in invincible ignorance.

Baffled to Fight Better, 59 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Monday, February 24, 2025

STOPPED BY A STORM - #9946

Every New York television station you turned to had the same bold graphic, "Blizzard of '96." I still remember it. It was barely 1996; we were only six days into the new year when anywhere between 20-30 inches of snow unloaded on the Metropolitan New York area. It was like a mega-ton snow bomb hit the area, and it literally drove the Big Apple to its knees.

This is a city that doesn't shut down...except for a monster storm like this. The schools were closed for an almost unprecedented two days. City workers were told not to come in and bridges to the city were closed. Some of the busiest streets in the world were bare except for an occasional snow plow or emergency vehicle that went by. The trains couldn't make it because snow had choked the tracks. Major sporting events? They were impossible. I had never seen New York like that. The city that never stops had been stopped.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Stopped by a Storm."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 9. It's really from the life of a very goal-oriented high-achiever on his way to a major conquest. His name is Saul. This is a man, sort of like New York, who couldn't be stopped. The brightest young religious leader of his time, but deeply angered by the heresy of the new followers of a man named Jesus. Well, Saul's on his way to take care of the problem. The man who never stopped was stopped that day by a sudden storm.

Verse 3 begins by saying this, "As Saul neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?' 'Who are you, Lord?' Saul asked. 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' he replied."

Well suddenly this hard driver could drive no farther. He was knocked from his horse, he's down on the ground, and he was unable to see. Perhaps you're kind of a Saul or a Saulina (whatever the female version is). You've been running full speed. You've gotten a lot done. You're competent, you're gifted, you're doing pretty well, and you're moving too fast to think about getting right with your Creator. Oh, you've got some religious credentials maybe but there's no doubt who's really God in your life. Your god's the one who's running your life? That would be you.

And suddenly there's been this heavy storm. Maybe you've been hit with something medical or financial, or your family is in a crisis or someone you love is gone or you found yourself out of work, out of money, out of hope. Sometimes a struggling son or daughter knocks us off our horse.

Whatever the storm, would you allow me to suggest a reason it might be happening? For the same reason it happened to Saul, so you would finally be able to hear the voice of Jesus - Jesus who created you. Jesus, against whom we've rebelled as we've run our life our way, not His way. Jesus, who is the only one who loved you enough to die for you; to pay the death penalty for sin that you deserved to pay. Jesus, the one who has been knocking gently on the door of your heart for a long time, but you've always been on your way somewhere else until now.

And the storm has stopped you so you could finally meet your Savior. He's calling your name today just like He did Saul's that day. And He says, "I am Jesus." That day Saul surrendered his life to the Son of God. Maybe this day you will. Maybe it's time to say, "Lord, I've run it long enough. I need a Savior from my sin. I'm yours Jesus." This storm that seems to be blowing you off course is really bringing you home.

So, I want to invite you to go to our website, and I'll walk you through there the way you can be sure you have begun your personal relationship with the One who loves you the most. Just go to ANewStory.com.

Let Jesus step into your storm and say what He did to a storm with His disciples so many years ago, "Peace be still." And it was calm.

Matthew 8:1-17, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily:  Whispered Wonderings

She will have a son, and they will name him Immanuel, which means "God is with us.”

Matthew 1:23 (NCV)

The white space between Bible verses is fertile soil for questions. One can hardly read Scripture without whispering, "I wonder..."

"I wonder if Eve ever ate any more fruit."

"I wonder if Noah slept well during storms."...

But in our wonderings, there is one question we never need to ask. Does God care? Do we matter to God? Does he still love his children?

Through the small face of the stable-born baby, he says yes.

Yes, your sins are forgiven.

Yes, your name is written in heaven....

And yes, God has entered your world.

Matthew 8:1-17

He Carried Our Diseases

1–2  8 Jesus came down the mountain with the cheers of the crowd still ringing in his ears. Then a leper appeared and went to his knees before Jesus, praying, “Master, if you want to, you can heal my body.”

3–4  Jesus reached out and touched him, saying, “I want to. Be clean.” Then and there, all signs of the leprosy were gone. Jesus said, “Don’t talk about this all over town. Just quietly present your healed body to the priest, along with the appropriate expressions of thanks to God. Your cleansed and grateful life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done.”

5–6  As Jesus entered the village of Capernaum, a Roman captain came up in a panic and said, “Master, my servant is sick. He can’t walk. He’s in terrible pain.”

7  Jesus said, “I’ll come and heal him.”

8–9  “Oh, no,” said the captain. “I don’t want to put you to all that trouble. Just give the order and my servant will be fine. I’m a man who takes orders and gives orders. I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes; to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

10–12  Taken aback, Jesus said, “I’ve yet to come across this kind of simple trust in Israel, the very people who are supposed to know all about God and how he works. This man is the vanguard of many outsiders who will soon be coming from all directions—streaming in from the east, pouring in from the west, sitting down at God’s kingdom banquet alongside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then those who grew up ‘in the faith’ but had no faith will find themselves out in the cold, outsiders to grace and wondering what happened.”

13  Then Jesus turned to the captain and said, “Go. What you believed could happen has happened.” At that moment his servant became well.

14–15  By this time they were in front of Peter’s house. On entering, Jesus found Peter’s mother-in-law sick in bed, burning up with fever. He touched her hand and the fever was gone. No sooner was she up on her feet than she was fixing dinner for him.

16–17  That evening a lot of demon-afflicted people were brought to him. He relieved the inwardly tormented. He cured the bodily ill. He fulfilled Isaiah’s well-known sermon:

He took our illnesses,

He carried our diseases.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Sunday, February 23, 2025

by Karen Pimpo

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Psalm 1

How well God must like you—

you don’t hang out at Sin Saloon,

you don’t slink along Dead-End Road,

you don’t go to Smart-Mouth College.

2–3  Instead you thrill to God’s Word,

you chew on Scripture day and night.

You’re a tree replanted in Eden,

bearing fresh fruit every month,

Never dropping a leaf,

always in blossom.

4–5  You’re not at all like the wicked,

who are mere wind-blown dust—

Without defense in court,

unfit company for innocent people.

6  God charts the road you take.

The road they take is Skid Row.

Today's Insights

Psalm 1, which introduces the book of Psalms, contrasts the way of the “blessed” with the self-destructive path of “the wicked” (v. 1). The psalm depicts a primary way of seeking God’s path: through continual meditation on God’s revelation in “the law” (v. 2). In this way, someone can experience being rooted in and sustained by God’s wisdom “like a tree planted by streams of water” (v. 3).

God’s ultimate revelation of Himself is Christ, God’s Word (John 1:1). In Ephesians 3, Paul uses similar imagery of being “rooted” (v. 17) to describe the believer’s bond with Christ, praying that God would “strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being” (v. 16). Through being “rooted and established” in Christ’s love (v. 17)—“that surpasses knowledge”—we can be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (v. 19).

Planted by the Stream

That person is like a tree planted by streams of water. Psalm 1:3

Bill is an older retired gentleman who lives alone and recently had to give up driving. He needs help to pick up groceries, prescriptions, and get to church on Sundays. “But you know what,” says Bill, “I love my days at home. I enjoy free worship music online and Bible teaching on the TV all day long.” Bill spends his days surrounded by Scripture, prayer, and praise.

The habits we keep influence where our hearts are planted. Psalm 1 describes the habits of someone who has found favor in God: they delight in His truth, meditate on it often, and therefore do not follow the rebellious pattern of the world (vv. 1-2). Hardship will come to everyone, but a life established in the ways of God “is like a tree planted by streams of water . . . whose leaf does not wither” (v. 3). Depending on our season of life, we might not be able to spend hours a day in Bible study. However, Jesus said He satisfies anyone who is thirsty that comes to Him, and the Holy Spirit fills His followers like a river (John 7:37-39). We can steep our hearts in living water through praise and Scripture, and also through caring for others, talking to God while we work, and asking for forgiveness when we mess up.

Following the wisdom of God plants our hearts in fertile soil. That life gets called righteous, and God watches over it (Psalm 1:6).

Reflect & Pray

What habits keep you planted by the life-giving water of Jesus? How does that change depending on what season of life you’re in?

Dear Jesus, may I come to You when I feel thirsty and dry.

How do we choose between the Lord's path and the world's path? Learn more by reading Two Roads Diverged.

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My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Sunday, February 23, 2025

The Determination to Serve

The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve. — Matthew 20:28

Paul’s idea of service is the same as our Lord’s. Jesus said, “I am among you as one who serves” (Luke 22:27). Paul echoed him: “For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Corinthians 4:5).

We have the idea that Jesus’s ministers are called to be different kinds of beings, that they should be higher and holier than other people. Jesus said his ministers should be other people’s doormats: spiritual leaders, not superiors. When Paul wrote, “We commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses” (6:4), he was describing the lengths he would go to as Christ’s servant. He wanted to spend himself to the last penny; he didn’t care if people stepped all over him.

Paul didn’t draw his motivation for serving from a love for humanity. The well he drew from was his love for Jesus Christ. If we are devoted to the cause of humanity, we will soon be crushed and brokenhearted—we may often meet with more ingratitude from humanity than we might from a dog! But if our motive is to love God, no amount of ingratitude will keep us from serving.

Paul’s experience of how Jesus Christ had dealt with him is the secret of his determination to serve others: “Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy” (1 Timothy 1:13). Paul realized that others could never treat him as badly as he’d treated Jesus. When we too come to this realization—when we see that Jesus Christ has served us despite our selfishness and cruelty and sin—nothing we meet with from others can shake our determination to serve them in his name.

Numbers 7-8; Mark 4:21-41

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

It is impossible to read too much, but always keep before you why you read. Remember that “the need to receive, recognize, and rely on the Holy Spirit” is before all else.

Approved Unto God, 11 L

Job 4 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Spend Time with Him

C. S. Lewis wrote: “The moment you wake up each morning your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job of each morning consists in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, letting that other, stronger, larger, quieter life come flowing in.”

Here’s how the psalmist began his day: “Every morning, I tell you what I need, and I wait for your answer” (Psalm 5:3).

Spend time waiting on God. And, at the end of the day, thank God for the good parts. Question him about the hard parts. Seek his mercy.  Seek his strength. And as you close your eyes, take this assurance into your sleep: “He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4).  If you fall asleep as you pray, don’t worry. What better place to doze off than in the arms of your Father.

From Just Like Jesus

Job 4

ELIPHAZ SPEAKS OUT

Now You’re the One in Trouble

1–6  4 Then Eliphaz from Teman spoke up:

“Would you mind if I said something to you?

Under the circumstances it’s hard to keep quiet.

You yourself have done this plenty of times, spoken words

that clarify, encouraged those who were about to quit.

Your words have put stumbling people on their feet,

put fresh hope in people about to collapse.

But now you’re the one in trouble—you’re hurting!

You’ve been hit hard and you’re reeling from the blow.

But shouldn’t your devout life give you confidence now?

Shouldn’t your exemplary life give you hope?

7–11  “Think! Has a truly innocent person ever ended up on the scrap heap?

Do genuinely upright people ever lose out in the end?

It’s my observation that those who plow evil

and sow trouble reap evil and trouble.

One breath from God and they fall apart,

one blast of his anger and there’s nothing left of them.

The mighty lion, king of the beasts, roars mightily,

but when he’s toothless he’s useless—

No teeth, no prey—and the cubs

wander off to fend for themselves.

12–16  “A word came to me in secret—

a mere whisper of a word, but I heard it clearly.

It came in a scary dream one night,

after I had fallen into a deep, deep sleep.

Dread stared me in the face, and Terror.

I was scared to death—I shook from head to foot.

A spirit glided right in front of me—

the hair on my head stood on end.

I couldn’t tell what it was that appeared there—

a blur … and then I heard a muffled voice:

17–21  “ ‘How can mere mortals be more righteous than God?

How can humans be purer than their Creator?

Why, God doesn’t even trust his own servants,

doesn’t even cheer his angels,

So how much less these bodies composed of mud,

fragile as moths?

These bodies of ours are here today and gone tomorrow,

and no one even notices—gone without a trace.

When the tent stakes are ripped up, the tent collapses—

we die and are never the wiser for having lived.’ ”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Saturday, February 22, 2025

by Kenneth Petersen

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

John 13:31-36

A New Command

31–32  When he had left, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is seen for who he is, and God seen for who he is in him. The moment God is seen in him, God’s glory will be on display. In glorifying him, he himself is glorified—glory all around!

33  “Children, I am with you for only a short time longer. You are going to look high and low for me. But just as I told the Jews, I’m telling you: ‘Where I go, you are not able to come.’

34–35  “Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”

36  Simon Peter asked, “Master, just where are you going?”

Jesus answered, “You can’t now follow me where I’m going. You will follow later.”

Today's Insights

John’s words which close the section preceding John 13:31-36 are elegant and laden with meaning: “And it was night” (v. 30). Here John implies much more than the mere passage of daylight. Judas has been possessed by Satan himself (v. 27) and has left the company of the disciples (v. 30). At this pivotal point, Jesus says, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him” (v. 31). It may seem odd that Christ speaks triumphant words at such a dark time. Judas has left to betray Him, Peter will deny Him (v. 38), and the disciples (except John) will abandon Him (Matthew 26:56). Yet Jesus prayed, “I have brought you [His Father] glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4). In Christ’s death and resurrection, the Father revealed the full scope of His love for us.

Legacy of Love in Jesus

As I have loved you, so you must love one another. John 13:34

In Sweden, there’s a concept known as döstädning. It literally means “death cleaning.” The idea is that as we grow older, we should stop accumulating “stuff” and begin to cut out the clutter we have amassed throughout our lives. “Swedish death cleaning” is actually a gift of love to children and friends, for it simplifies for them the task of wading through what we leave behind.

As believers in Jesus, at a certain age we think about our legacy—what survives us. This is often framed in terms of money, inheritance, or charitable giving—and there’s much to be said for that. But it might be helpful to look at Jesus in His final hours with His disciples: “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later” (John 13:36). In two verses (vv. 34-35), He uses the word love or loved four times—His legacy was love. He told them: “As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (v. 34).

It may be good to do some “Swedish death cleaning” in our lives, removing clutter to leave behind only the most important things. But it really isn’t about things or money. The most important legacy you can leave behind is your love for Jesus. When children and friends remember you as one who loved Jesus, that’s the best gift of all. It gives new meaning to the phrase “left behind.”

Reflect & Pray

How do your family and friends see your love for Jesus demonstrated? How might you share that love more openly?

Dear God, thank You for Your love and for the gift of Jesus in my life. Please help me to show Your love to those around me.

Discover the weight of the words “When he was gone…,” written by the disciple John.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Saturday, February 22, 2025

The Discipline of Spiritual Tenacity

Be still, and know that I am God. — Psalm 46:10

Tenacity is more than endurance; it’s endurance combined with the absolute certainty that what we expect to happen is going to happen. Tenacity isn’t simply hanging on. Hanging on can be a weakness, a sign that we’re too afraid to let go. Tenacity is the supreme effort of refusing to believe that our hero is going to be defeated. As disciples, our greatest fear isn’t that we will be damned. It’s that Jesus Christ will be defeated, and that the things he stood for—love and justice and forgiveness and kindness—won’t win out in the end. God calls us to the discipline of spiritual tenacity. He asks us to do more than simply hang on. He asks us to work deliberately for him in the certainty that he’s not going to be defeated.

If we are disappointed and losing hope just now, it means that we are being purified. There is nothing noble the human mind has ever hoped for or dreamed of that will not be fulfilled. One of the greatest stresses in life is the stress of waiting for God. But God has promised that our patience will be rewarded. “Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial” (Revelation 3:10).

Remain spiritually tenacious.

Numbers 4-6; Mark 4:1-20

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

Job 3, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: LOVE IS A DECISION - February 21, 2025

When we look at the love of Christ, we make a wonderful discovery: love is more a decision than an emotion.

Christ-like love applauds good behavior. At the same time, Christ-like love refuses to endorse misbehavior. Jesus loved his apostles, but he wasn’t silent when they were faithless. Jesus loved the people in the temple, but he didn’t sit still when they were hypocritical. Love does whatever is in the best interest of a person. The cheating husband says to his wife, “If you loved me, you’d forget what has happened and let me come home.” That may not be true. Love does what’s in the best interest of a person. Love sets boundaries. Love seeks counsel.

The love of Christ is no sweet sentiment, but rather a heartfelt resolve to do what’s in the best interest of another person. And sometimes that means dying on a cross.

Max on Life: Answers and Insights to Your Most Important Questions

Job 3

JOB CRIES OUT

What’s the Point of Life?

1–2  3 Then Job broke the silence. He spoke up and cursed his fate:

3–10  “Obliterate the day I was born.

Blank out the night I was conceived!

Let it be a black hole in space.

May God above forget it ever happened.

Erase it from the books!

May the day of my birth be buried in deep darkness,

shrouded by the fog,

swallowed by the night.

And the night of my conception—the devil take it!

Rip the date off the calendar,

delete it from the almanac.

Oh, turn that night into pure nothingness—

no sounds of pleasure from that night, ever!

May those who are good at cursing curse that day.

Unleash the sea beast, Leviathan, on it.

May its morning stars turn to black cinders,

waiting for a daylight that never comes,

never once seeing the first light of dawn.

And why? Because it released me from my mother’s womb

into a life with so much trouble.

11–19  “Why didn’t I die at birth,

my first breath out of the womb my last?

Why were there arms to rock me,

and breasts for me to drink from?

I could be resting in peace right now,

asleep forever, feeling no pain,

In the company of kings and statesmen

in their royal ruins,

Or with princes resplendent

in their gold and silver tombs.

Why wasn’t I stillborn and buried

with all the babies who never saw light,

Where the wicked no longer trouble anyone

and bone-weary people get a long-deserved rest?

Prisoners sleep undisturbed,

never again to wake up to the bark of the guards.

The small and the great are equals in that place,

and slaves are free from their masters.

20–23  “Why does God bother giving light to the miserable,

why bother keeping bitter people alive,

Those who want in the worst way to die, and can’t,

who can’t imagine anything better than death,

Who count the day of their death and burial

the happiest day of their life?

What’s the point of life when it doesn’t make sense,

when God blocks all the roads to meaning?

24–26  “Instead of bread I get groans for my supper,

then leave the table and vomit my anguish.

The worst of my fears has come true,

what I’ve dreaded most has happened.

My repose is shattered, my peace destroyed.

No rest for me, ever—death has invaded life.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Friday, February 21, 2025

by Nancy Gavilanes

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Proverbs 24:15-22

Don’t interfere with good people’s lives;

don’t try to get the best of them.

No matter how many times you trip them up,

God-loyal people don’t stay down long;

Soon they’re up on their feet,

while the wicked end up flat on their faces.

28

17–18  Don’t laugh when your enemy falls;

don’t crow over his collapse.

God might see, and become very provoked,

and then take pity on his plight.

29

19–20  Don’t bother your head with braggarts

or wish you could succeed like the wicked.

Those people have no future at all;

they’re headed down a dead-end street.

30

21–22  Fear God, dear child—respect your leaders;

don’t be defiant or mutinous.

Without warning your life can turn upside down,

and who knows how or when it might happen?

Today's Insights

Proverbs 22:17–24:22 includes the heading “Thirty Sayings of the Wise.” This section is a collection of wise words “of counsel and knowledge” (22:20) to encourage the reader to trust in God and live honest and God-honoring lives (vv. 19-21).

Each saying in this section of Proverbs encourages the reader to adopt or avoid certain behaviors and uses the characteristic injunction “Do not . . .” followed by the reason or consequence of obedience or disobedience (see 22:22-23; 23:3, 4-5; 24:1-2). Proverbs 24:15-22 focuses primarily on our attitude toward evildoers. We’re not to imitate their evil deeds, gloat over their downfall (vv. 17-18), or envy their successes (vv. 19-20). Instead, we’re to fear both God and his agent, the governing authorities, for they will punish evildoers (vv. 21-22).

Getting Back Up

For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes. Proverbs 24:16

As a teen, I was enthralled with the sport of figure skating. I loved the blend of artistry and athleticism on ice, with the fast spins, high jumps, and perfect poses. After watching many professional skaters perform, I finally got the opportunity to go ice skating and be part of a group lesson. Along with learning how to glide and stop, we learned some of the most important skills for a skater at any level—how to fall and get back up quickly. Later, I learned many spins and jumps in private lessons, but always had to rely on the basics of how to get up after a fall.

We don’t have to be athletes to know that “falling” is part of life. Perhaps we fall because we’ve sinned, we stumble due to a mistake, or we get knocked down by an overwhelming circumstance. Maybe we find ourselves being attacked by the devil one way or another. “We are . . . persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9). No matter the reason, we all fall and experience failure in life.

But we’re not meant to live in defeat, shame, or regret. When the enemy is lurking nearby and trying to plunder from us (Proverbs 24:15), we need to remember that God is fighting for us and will help us get back up, “for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again” (v. 16).

When we fall, let’s quickly turn to God and fix our eyes on Him who gives us the strength to get back up.

Reflect & Pray

How do you handle the falls in life? How has God helped you get back up?

Dear God, thank You for helping me get up after a fall.

For further study read, Do Not Rejoice.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Friday, February 21, 2025

Have You Ever Been Carried Away for Him?

“Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.” — Mark 14:6

If love does not carry us beyond ourselves, it is not love. If love is always discreet, always wise, always sensible and calculating, it is not love. It may be affection or warmth of feeling, but it does not have the true nature of love in it.

In Mark 14, Mary of Bethany is so carried away by her love for Jesus that she breaks a bottle of precious perfume and pours the fragrance over his head. Have I ever done something like this for God, not because it is my duty or there is some reward in it for me but just because I love him? If you are spending all your time marveling about the magnificence of the redemption, remember that there are valuable things you could be doing for the Redeemer. Not colossal, divine things: simple, human things that show God you genuinely love him.

There are times when it seems as though God is watching just to see if we will abandon ourselves to him. It’s as though he wants to catch us in a natural, spontaneous, affectionate action. Abandonment is of more value to God than personal holiness. Personal holiness fixes the eye on its own spotlessness. When we fixate on our own holiness, we obsess over how we walk and talk and look. We become fearful of offending God, anxiously wondering if we’re useful. If we come to the conclusion that no, we aren’t, we are near the truth. It is never a question of being useful but of being of value to God himself. When we are abandoned to God, he works through us all the time.

Numbers 1-3; Mark 3

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

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

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 1449 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Friday, February 21, 2025

MOUNTAIN SHRINKING - #9945

I always ask for a window seat on the airplane. Usually aisle seats are more popular because you can stretch your legs a little more. Mine are so short they have plenty of room, no matter where I am. And you can get up when you want to, and when you don't want to, because the two guys on the inside want to get out. Actually, I always have so much to get done during a flight that I like to just set up a little nest there by the window where I can work without getting up or passing food. Unfortunately, I'm so busy sometimes I miss some things that are worth looking at out my window, which is right there. I was flying recently with one of our team members and I was really missing the beautiful scenery of the rocky mountains below me; I didn't even think about them being there. My colleague got my attention, not by reaching over and pointing and shouting, "Hey, look at those mountains, man!" No, he did it with a simple little observation. He said, "You know, mountains sure look a lot smaller from this perspective, don't they?" And I took a good look.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Mountain Shrinking."

Growing up in flat old Illinois, the Rocky Mountains looked pretty impressive - pretty huge to me. Some of them are over 14,000 feet high! But, even the biggest ones don't look all that big when you're able to look at them from above. It can be that way with other mountains, too. Like the mountain you're facing right now. Maybe the finances look huge, or the obstacles, or the opposition, that medical situation, or maybe what's happening at work, or at school, or at home, or in a relationship. Looking up at it, it's enough to overwhelm you! You need to look at that mountain from above.

That's what they did in our word for today from the Word of God. In Acts 4, the early Christians have been told not to preach anymore about Jesus. The people telling them that are not lightweights. These are the leaders of their nation - the people who arranged for the execution of Jesus. In a sense they have the power of life or death. So, when they say, "or else!" they mean it! They can do some serious damage.

Our word for today from the Word of God begins in Acts 4:24, speaking of the first Christians. It says, "When they heard this they raised their voices together in prayer to God. 'Sovereign Lord,' they said, 'you made the heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and everything in them...they did what your power and your will had decided beforehand.'" They're speaking now of the people who executed Jesus. And then they go on, "Now Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your Word with great boldness." Boy, they are going totally against the opposition. When they started praying, they were looking up at a mountain that looked huge. By the time they finished praying they were looking down on their mountain and it looked a whole lot smaller. Why? Because they chose to focus on the size of their God, rather than the size of their problem.

You may say, "Well, I pray about it but it doesn't help." That might be because you don't remember who it is you are praying to - who you're with when you pray! This is the Sovereign Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. He's the Creator of everything and everyone in your situation. He's the One whose power and will cannot be thwarted - even in the crucifixion of Jesus. In other words, when you pray, you are standing in the throne room from which those 100 billion galaxies are governed. And when you look at a mountain from the throne room of God, it looks like an ant hill!

The Bible says what happened after this prayer time. It tells us the early Christians "were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly." They went out and they rocked their world! The mountains shrank when they prayed and they were intimidated no more! You've been looking at your mountain from down below long enough haven't you? In prayer, in the throne room of God, get above that mountain and see how small it is compared to the Lord who you have fighting for you.