Max Lucado Daily: BECAUSE WE’VE BEEN GIVEN GRACE - March 12, 2025
Forgiveness is not excusing, nor is it pretending. To forgive is to move on, not to think about the offense anymore. You don’t excuse him, endorse her, or embrace them. You just route thoughts about them through heaven. Revenge is God’s job.
By the way, how can we grace recipients do anything less? Dare we ask God for grace when we refuse to give it? It’s a huge issue in the Bible. Jesus was tough on sinners who refused to forgive other sinners. In the final sum, we give grace because we’ve been given grace.
In the story Jesus tells in Matthew 18, the master calls the servant in. “You wicked servant,” he says, “I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” (Matthew 18:32-33 NIV). That’s a good question. We’ve been given grace – shouldn’t we freely give it?
Facing Your Giants: God Still Does the Impossible
Matthew 10:1-20
The Twelve Harvest Hands
1–4 10 The prayer was no sooner prayed than it was answered. Jesus called twelve of his followers and sent them into the ripe fields. He gave them power to kick out the evil spirits and to tenderly care for the bruised and hurt lives. This is the list of the twelve he sent:
Simon (they called him Peter, or “Rock”),
Andrew, his brother,
James, Zebedee’s son,
John, his brother,
Philip,
Bartholomew,
Thomas,
Matthew, the tax man,
James, son of Alphaeus,
Thaddaeus,
Simon, the Canaanite,
Judas Iscariot (who later turned on him).
5–8 Jesus sent his twelve harvest hands out with this charge:
“Don’t begin by traveling to some far-off place to convert unbelievers. And don’t try to be dramatic by tackling some public enemy. Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighborhood. Tell them that the kingdom is here. Bring health to the sick. Raise the dead. Touch the untouchables. Kick out the demons. You have been treated generously, so live generously.
9–10 “Don’t think you have to put on a fund-raising campaign before you start. You don’t need a lot of equipment. You are the equipment, and all you need to keep that going is three meals a day. Travel light.
11 “When you enter a town or village, don’t insist on staying in a luxury inn. Get a modest place with some modest people, and be content there until you leave.
12–15 “When you knock on a door, be courteous in your greeting. If they welcome you, be gentle in your conversation. If they don’t welcome you, quietly withdraw. Don’t make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and be on your way. You can be sure that on Judgment Day they’ll be mighty sorry—but it’s no concern of yours now.
16 “Stay alert. This is hazardous work I’m assigning you. You’re going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack, so don’t call attention to yourselves. Be as cunning as a snake, inoffensive as a dove.
17–20 “Don’t be naive. Some people will impugn your motives, others will smear your reputation—just because you believe in me. Don’t be upset when they haul you before the civil authorities. Without knowing it, they’ve done you—and me—a favor, given you a platform for preaching the kingdom news! And don’t worry about what you’ll say or how you’ll say it. The right words will be there; the Spirit of your Father will supply the words.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
by Elisa Morgan
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
1 Corinthians 12:21-26
Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, “Get lost; I don’t need you”? Or, Head telling Foot, “You’re fired; your job has been phased out”? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the “lower” the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it’s a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn’t you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?
25–26 The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.
Today's Insights
The concept of unity that Paul highlights in 1 Corinthians 12 depends on two things. The first is its diversity. Each part of the body has a different function, yet every part is vital. Paul wrote to a society steeped in slavery, and the church brought together groups of people unaccustomed to equality with each other—slave and free, Jew and gentile (v. 13). How could such a diverse body experience unity? Because of God’s Holy Spirit, who unites us in one purpose. This kind of unity was unique in the world. Paul tells us, “We were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body . . . and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” (v. 13). Whether great or small, each member is important for the body to perform properly. As Paul said, “God has put the body together” (v. 24). Many members. One body. One Spirit.
Elephant Helpers
There should be no division in the body, but . . . its parts should have equal concern for each other. 1 Corinthians 12:25
Reflect & Pray
When have you received help from the family of God? What will you do to help other believers today?
Dear God, please help me to understand the vital value of each member in the body of Christ and show me how to both receive and give help so that together we’re stronger.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
Our Abandonment to Him
Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!” — Mark 10:28
Jesus replies to Peter that the disciples will be amply rewarded for their sacrifice. But he also makes clear that their reason for following him shouldn’t be anything they’ll get in return. It must be entirely for Jesus himself: “for me and the gospel” (Mark 10:29).
Beware of an abandonment that has a self-interested spirit in it. Too often, we abandon ourselves to God because we want to be made holy or delivered from sin. We will be, if we are rightly related to him, but this demanding spirit is not in line with the essential nature of Christianity.
Abandonment is not for any thing at all. We’ve become so commercialized in our thinking that we go to God only when we want something. It’s as if we’re saying, “I don’t want you, God. I want myself: a clean, Spirit-filled version of myself. I want to be put on display in your showroom, and to be able to say, ‘See what God has done for me.’”
If we give something to God only because we want something in return, there is nothing of the Holy Spirit in our abandonment: it is miserable, commercial self-interest. To gain heaven, to be delivered from sin, to be made useful to God: real abandonment never considers these things. Real abandonment is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ himself.
When we are forced to choose between our natural relationships and Jesus Christ, most of us desert him. “I did hear your call, Lord,” we say. “But my spouse needs me; my mother needs me; my self- interest needs me.” “Such a person,” Jesus replies, “cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). It is always natural devotion that tests abandonment. Rise to the test, and God will embrace all those you hurt when you abandoned yourself to him.
Deuteronomy 17-19; Mark 13:1-20
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
For the past three hundred years men have been pointing out how similar Jesus Christ’s teachings are to other good teachings. We have to remember that Christianity, if it is not a supernatural miracle, is a sham.
The Highest Good, 548 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
GETTING PASSENGERS OFF THE FATAL FLIGHT - #9958
Back when I was flying a great deal, people would often ask me where I lived, and I would frequently answer with the name of the airline I flew on the most. Now, when I hear of airplane crashes and disasters, it kind of hits me personally. I think it does anybody who has been a frequent flyer. Whether you're a flyer or not, though, there are images of certain airline tragedies that kind of forever imprint on your memory. One of those for me was the ValuJet crash in the everglades. It's been a number of years now, but the entire plane and all its passengers just vanished in the swamp.
But to one man, there's another image related to that crash. According to one news report, he used his I.D. to help his friend purchase his ticket for that flight. That friend didn't have sufficient I.D. with him at the time. And the man who bought the ticket watched his friend and all those other passengers boarding. The man who bought the ticket simply said, "I cannot forget their faces." And then he was quoted as saying, "If only there had been some signs of what was going to happen. If only I had known to warn them."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Getting Passengers Off the Fatal Flight."
Now, if anyone had a warning of what would have happened to that fatal flight, you know they would have done everything possible to keep the passengers from going. But seldom do we have such a warning. When it comes to when the people around us will go into eternity, we have all the signs, all the warning we need. God tells us in 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9, "Those who do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord."
Without the Savior, no one we know is going to be able to get to heaven. That means hell. Now, our word for today from the Word of God, Proverbs 24:11 - "Rescue those being led away to death. Hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, 'But we knew nothing about this,' does not He who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not He who guards your life know it? Will He not repay each person according to what he has done?"
See, if you know people on a flight that leads to death, your responsibility is obvious. Rescue them! But if you look around at most of Jesus' followers today, we're not in a rescue mode. There's little sense of the life-or-death urgency about introducing those around us to Jesus. We need to ask, "Do we really believe the people we know will be lost forever if they don't know Christ? Do we really believe they're spiritually dying?"
Someone suggested to me recently, they called Christians practical Universalists. Now, in theological circles, a Universalist basically is someone who believes that everyone will eventually make it with Christ or not. Practical Universalists probably don't believe that, they believe, as the Bible teaches, that people must have the Savior to go to heaven; they just don't act like it. They act like the people who think that folks are going to make it without Jesus. Yet the Bible says, "There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." Without the man who died to pay for our sins, we'll have to pay for them.
What about the people you live with, you live close to, the people you work with, you go to school with? You see some of those faces? The Bible clearly teaches that sin has an eternal death penalty and that Jesus and only Jesus died to pay that death penalty. And that we will pay that death penalty for our sins if we don't accept the payment Jesus made because of His love for us.
The people around you are on a flight that ends in eternal death and you and I have the information that can save them. Pretty clear, our responsibility, huh? "Rescue those who are being led away to death." Begin to pray daily by name with life-or-death passion for the people around you. Ask God for the words and the opportunity to tell them about your Jesus.
You know what God's Word says, and He's the final word. You know where the Christ-less flight is headed. You can see their faces. Be the one who gets them off that fatal flight and onto the one that will take them to eternal life.
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