Max Lucado Daily: YOUR FATHER KNOWS YOUR HEART - March 4, 2025
1 Samuel 16:7 (NKJV) says, “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” Those words were written for misfits and outcasts. God uses them all. Moses ran from justice, but God used him. Jonah ran from God, but God used him. Rahab ran a brothel, Lot ran with the wrong crowd, but God used them all.
And David? God saw a teenage boy serving him in the backwoods of Bethlehem. Human eyes saw a gangly teenager, smelling like sheep. Yet, “the Lord said, ‘Arise, anoint him; for this is the one'” (1 Samuel 16:12 NKJV). God saw what no one else saw: a God-seeking heart.
Others measure your waist size or wallet. Not God. He examines hearts. When he finds one set on him, he calls it and claims it. Your Father knows your heart, and because he does, he has a place reserved just for you.
Facing Your Giants: God Still Does the Impossible
Job 11
ZOPHAR’S COUNSEL
How Wisdom Looks from the Inside
1–6 11 Now it was the turn of Zophar from Naamath: “What a flood of words! Shouldn’t we put a stop to it?
Should this kind of loose talk be permitted?
Job, do you think you can carry on like this and we’ll say nothing?
That we’ll let you rail and mock and not step in?
You claim, ‘My doctrine is sound
and my conduct impeccable.’
How I wish God would give you a piece of his mind,
tell you what’s what!
I wish he’d show you how wisdom looks from the inside,
for true wisdom is mostly ‘inside.’
But you can be sure of this,
you haven’t gotten half of what you deserve.
7–12 “Do you think you can explain the mystery of God?
Do you think you can diagram God Almighty?
God is far higher than you can imagine,
far deeper than you can comprehend,
Stretching farther than earth’s horizons,
far wider than the endless ocean.
If he happens along, throws you in jail
then hauls you into court, can you do anything about it?
He sees through vain pretensions,
spots evil a long way off—
no one pulls the wool over his eyes!
Hollow men, hollow women, will wise up
about the same time mules learn to talk.
Reach Out to God
13–20 “Still, if you set your heart on God
and reach out to him,
If you scrub your hands of sin
and refuse to entertain evil in your home,
You’ll be able to face the world unashamed
and keep a firm grip on life, guiltless and fearless.
You’ll forget your troubles;
they’ll be like old, faded photographs.
Your world will be washed in sunshine,
every shadow dispersed by dayspring.
Full of hope, you’ll relax, confident again;
you’ll look around, sit back, and take it easy.
Expansive, without a care in the world,
you’ll be hunted out by many for your blessing.
But the wicked will see none of this.
They’re headed down a dead-end road
with nothing to look forward to—nothing.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, March 04, 2025
by James Banks
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Acts 3:15-24
You no sooner killed the Author of Life than God raised him from the dead—and we’re the witnesses. Faith in Jesus’ name put this man, whose condition you know so well, on his feet—yes, faith and nothing but faith put this man healed and whole right before your eyes.
17–18 “And now, friends, I know you had no idea what you were doing when you killed Jesus, and neither did your leaders. But God, who through the preaching of all the prophets had said all along that his Messiah would be killed, knew exactly what you were doing and used it to fulfill his plans.
19–23 “Now it’s time to change your ways! Turn to face God so he can wipe away your sins, pour out showers of blessing to refresh you, and send you the Messiah he prepared for you, namely, Jesus. For the time being he must remain out of sight in heaven until everything is restored to order again just the way God, through the preaching of his holy prophets of old, said it would be. Moses, for instance, said, ‘Your God will raise up for you a prophet just like me from your family. Listen to every word he speaks to you. Every last living soul who refuses to listen to that prophet will be wiped out from the people.’
24–26 “All the prophets from Samuel on down said the same thing, said most emphatically that these days would come.
Today's Insights
In Acts 3:12-25, Peter preached the gospel to a crowd after healing a lame beggar. Regarding the people’s part in Jesus’ death, he said: “This is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer” (v. 18). These prophets included David (Psalm 69:4, 21), Isaiah (Isaiah 50:6; 53:4-11), and Zechariah (Zechariah 12:10; 13:7). In Psalm 22, David expresses words that Christ cries aloud from the cross (v. 1; see Matthew 27:46), His mistreatment (Psalm 22:6-8; see Matthew 27:27-31, 41-44), and the dividing of His garments (Psalm 22:18; Matthew 27:35). Peter’s words in Acts 3:17-18 are reminiscent of Joseph’s words to his brothers: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20).
Reading, Writing, and Jesus
You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. Acts 3:15
Moses with horns? That’s the way he’s depicted in Michelangelo’s masterpiece sculpture completed in 1515. Two horns protrude from Moses’ hair just above his forehead.
Michelangelo wasn’t alone—many Renaissance and medieval artists depict Moses that way. Why? It has to do with the Latin translation of the Hebrew Bible available at the time, which described Moses’ radiant face after being in God’s presence (see Exodus 34:29). The original language uses a word related to “horns” to describe “beams” of light shining from Moses’ face, and the Latin Vulgate Bible translated it literally. Moses was “misread.”
Have you ever misread someone? After a man unable to walk from birth was healed by Peter in Jesus’ name (Acts 3:1-10), the apostle told his fellow Israelites that they had misread Jesus. “You killed the author of life,” he said pointedly, “but God raised him from the dead” (v. 15). He continued, “This is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer” (v. 18). Peter even said Moses had pointed to Christ (v. 22).
It was “by faith in the name of Jesus,” a “faith that comes through him,” that the man’s life was transformed (v. 16). No matter how we’ve misunderstood Him or what our past contains, Christ welcomes us when we turn to Him. The author of life stands ready to write new beginnings for us!
Reflect & Pray
How have you misread Jesus? What will help you understand Him even better today?
Thank You, Jesus, for always understanding and loving me.
For further study, read The Point of It All—Why We Might Miss Jesus.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, March 04, 2025
Could This Be True of Me?
I consider my life worth nothing to me. — Acts 20:24
It’s easier to serve God without a calling than with one. It’s easier to be unbothered by his requirements and to let common sense be your guide—common sense with a thin veneer of Christian sentiment on top. If you choose to serve God in this way, you’ll be more successful and leisure-hearted. But if you have received the call, the memory of it will never let you be. Once you receive a commission from Jesus Christ, it is impossible to continue working for the Lord on the basis of common sense.
What do you truly value? If you haven’t been gripped by Jesus, you value your own acts of service, your own offerings to God, your own life. You take on practical work in his name, not because you’ve been called to it but because you want to be appreciated by the people around you. “Look how useful I am,” you think. “Look how valuable.” Practical work often competes with abandoning yourself to God. Instead of letting Jesus Christ tell you where to go and what to do, you follow your own commonsense judgment about where you’ll be most valued.
The Holy Spirit warned Paul that “prison and hardships” awaited him, should he choose to follow Jesus Christ (Acts 20:23). Acts 20:24 reveals Paul’s almost sublime annoyance at the idea that he would consider himself. His own life, he says, is worth nothing to him. The only thing that matters to him is fulfilling the ministry he’s been given, and he refuses to use his energy for anything else. He is absolutely indifferent to anything except completing the Lord’s task.
Never consider whether you are useful. Ever consider that you belong not to yourself but to him.
Numbers 31-33; Mark 9:1-29
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth.
The Place of Help, 1005 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, March 04, 2025
WHY AMAZING GRACE IS AMAZING - #9952
There are lots of people digging into their family tree these days. In fact, we've done some of our own. A lot of digging around to find out where your roots are. You know, where my grandfather came from and my great grandfather, and which king or famous person I'm descended from. Of course I would be descended from someone famous, right?
Some people do find out that they are related to royalty, and then other people find out some embarrassment in their family tree - the old horse thief, you know, that they'd rather not talk about. For 2,000 years God has been developing and protecting a line for His Son to come through, and there are in that family tree some eyebrow raisers.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why Amazing Grace is Amazing."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God actually comes right out of the Christmas Story. It's the story of God coming to earth really and it's found in Matthew 1. Now, you may or may not be aware that the story of God coming to earth actually begins with a genealogy; a list of Jesus' family tree. God's been preparing this line for the Messiah; it's the most special family tree in the history of planet earth. He goes down a long list of names that starts here with Abraham, works its way on down, and I'll just read a couple of them to you.
"Salmon was the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth," etc. You probably don't want to hear a whole lot more of that. But all of a sudden you stop and your eye goes back and you say, "Rahab? What's she doing in Jesus' family tree?" Now, in most of this genealogy only the father is mentioned. It's only in rare cases where God wants to make a special point of it that He includes the mother. Why Rahab?
Now, if you remember your Old Testament a little bit, some years before, the Israelites were preparing to conquer the land of Canaan. God sent in a couple of spies and they went to the city of Jericho and they found one home where they were taken in to hide, and it turned out it was the home of Rahab - the prostitute. She turned out to be the prostitute who gave herself to the Jewish God for the rest of her life.
But these aren't the kind of people you talk about in your family tree - these are the ones you cover up. This isn't the king! And yet God makes it a point to include her. You see, there's a hidden message here. A message that Jesus is for people who know they need forgiving and who know that God's grace has no limits. God doesn't use the word deserve when it comes to salvation and a relationship with Him. None of us deserves to be in His family tree. It's not just Rahab that's a surprise - what is Ron Hutchcraft doing in God's family? What are you doing there?
We're sinners who must always find grace to be "Amazing grace - how sweet the sound." The hymn says, "I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how He could love me...a sinner condemned, unclean." I hope today you still find God's grace amazing, and that you haven't been around so long that you think you belong in God's family because you deserve it. There is no one listening today who cannot be forgiven by Him. After all, Rahab was. And there is no person who doesn't still need His amazing grace today.
But maybe you've never experienced that grace for yourself. Oh, you've heard that song a lot of times - Amazing Grace. It says, "I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see." But today, how appropriate. The God who will forgive all those who come to Him, holds out His hand to you and says, "Grab My hand, my child." His Son died to pay the penalty that you deserve. And God can be a forgiver because of the death of His Son on a cross. And, because His Son walked out of His grave under His own power, what began in a manger ended on a cross, and culminated with a resurrection and becomes personal for you when you let this Jesus be the forgiver of your sins.
That's the day you're welcomed into His family. Would you tell Him today, "Jesus, I want You to be my personal Savior from my personal sin."
Go to our website and find out there how you can be sure you belong to Him. Just go to ANewStory.com. Because the story of Rahab tells us that there is no one who He will not welcome into the family of God.
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