Max Lucado Daily: GRACE CHANGES HEARTS - April 30, 2025
When Jesus traveled through the city of Jericho, half the town showed up to take a look. Short-in-stature Zacchaeus was among them, hopping up and down behind the wall of people, hoping to get a glimpse.
Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector. Apparently the crowd blocked his view. He spotted a sycamore tree and shimmied up. He never imagined that Christ would take a good look at him, but Jesus did. Of all the homes in town, Jesus selected Zack’s. Financed with illegal money, avoided by neighbors, yet on that day it was graced by the presence of Jesus.
Zacchaeus was never quite the same. Grace walked in the front door and selfishness scampered out the back. It changed his heart. Is it changing yours?
Jesus, the God Who Knows Your Name
Matthew 13:1-30
A Harvest Story
1–3 13 At about that same time Jesus left the house and sat on the beach. In no time at all a crowd gathered along the shoreline, forcing him to get into a boat. Using the boat as a pulpit, he addressed his congregation, telling stories.
3–8 “What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn’t put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.
9 “Are you listening to this? Really listening?”
Why Tell Stories?
10 The disciples came up and asked, “Why do you tell stories?”
11–15 He replied, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it. I don’t want Isaiah’s forecast repeated all over again:
Your ears are open but you don’t hear a thing.
Your eyes are awake but you don’t see a thing.
The people are blockheads!
They stick their fingers in their ears
so they won’t have to listen;
They screw their eyes shut
so they won’t have to look,
so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face
and let me heal them.
16–17 “But you have God-blessed eyes—eyes that see! And God-blessed ears—ears that hear! A lot of people, prophets and humble believers among them, would have given anything to see what you are seeing, to hear what you are hearing, but never had the chance.
The Meaning of the Harvest Story
18–19 “Study this story of the farmer planting seed. When anyone hears news of the kingdom and doesn’t take it in, it just remains on the surface, and so the Evil One comes along and plucks it right out of that person’s heart. This is the seed the farmer scatters on the road.
20–21 “The seed cast in the gravel—this is the person who hears and instantly responds with enthusiasm. But there is no soil of character, and so when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.
22 “The seed cast in the weeds is the person who hears the kingdom news, but weeds of worry and illusions about getting more and wanting everything under the sun strangle what was heard, and nothing comes of it.
23 “The seed cast on good earth is the person who hears and takes in the News, and then produces a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.”
24–26 He told another story. “God’s kingdom is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. That night, while his hired men were asleep, his enemy sowed thistles all through the wheat and slipped away before dawn. When the first green shoots appeared and the grain began to form, the thistles showed up, too.
27 “The farmhands came to the farmer and said, ‘Master, that was clean seed you planted, wasn’t it? Where did these thistles come from?’
28 “He answered, ‘Some enemy did this.’
“The farmhands asked, ‘Should we weed out the thistles?’
29–30 “He said, ‘No, if you weed the thistles, you’ll pull up the wheat, too. Let them grow together until harvest time. Then I’ll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and tie them in bundles for the fire, then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.’ ”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, April 30, 2025
by Leslie Koh
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Psalm 32:6-11
These things add up. Every one of us needs to pray;
when all hell breaks loose and the dam bursts
we’ll be on high ground, untouched.
7 God’s my island hideaway,
keeps danger far from the shore,
throws garlands of hosannas around my neck.
8 Let me give you some good advice;
I’m looking you in the eye
and giving it to you straight:
9 “Don’t be ornery like a horse or mule
that needs bit and bridle
to stay on track.”
10 God-defiers are always in trouble;
God-affirmers find themselves loved
every time they turn around.
11 Celebrate God.
Sing together—everyone!
All you honest hearts, raise the roof!
Today's Insights
A penitential psalm is a personal lament where the author confesses sin, expresses sorrow in repentance, and entrusts himself to God’s mercy and forgiveness. David wrote five of the seven penitential psalms (Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 143). Scholars also attribute the remaining two—Psalms 102 and 130—to him, though the author isn’t identified. For about a year after his adultery with Bathsheba, David refused to repent until the prophet Nathan confronted him (2 Samuel 11-12). The superscription to Psalm 51 indicates it was written when “Nathan came to [David].” Many scholars believe this was also the background of Psalm 32. David speaks of the crushing burden of guilt in his denial of sin (32:3-4) and the joy of receiving God’s forgiveness when he confessed and repented (vv. 1-2, 5). He contrasts the blessedness of repentance (vv. 1-2) with the anguish of living with unconfessed sin (vv. 3-4). Repentance reveals our desire to willingly follow God and experience His purifying presence (1 John 1:9).
Truly Trusting God
I will instruct . . . you in the way you should go . . . with my loving eye on you. Psalm 32:8
The stray cat mewed pitifully, stopping me in my tracks. I had just walked past a pile of food that someone had carelessly discarded on the ground. Wow, God's provided a meal for this hungry cat, I thought. The food was hidden behind a nearby pillar, so I tried to lure the emaciated cat to it. It moved toward me trustingly—then stopped and refused to follow me further. I wanted to ask, Why don’t you trust my directions? There’s a whole meal waiting for you!
Then it struck me: Don’t I act similarly in my relationship with God? How often have I responded to His directions thinking, I do trust You, God, but I don’t think Your instructions are reliable—not realizing that His divine provision might be waiting right around the corner.
God’s paths are trustworthy, for He loves us and has our best interests at heart. “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you,” He tells us (Psalm 32:8). Yet He doesn’t treat us like animals that need to be controlled (v. 9). He desires for us to follow Him willingly and promises His everlasting presence as we do so: “The Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in him” (v. 10). All we need to do is just keep following Him, knowing that He’ll be with us every step of the way.
Reflect & Pray
What fears or concerns keep you from trusting God completely? What is He guiding you to do at this time?
Dear Father, please teach me to trust You completely, for I know You love me and desire nothing but the best for me.
For further study, read A Prayer for Wondering if God Is There.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, April 30, 2025
The Spontaneity of Love
Love is patient, love is kind. — 1 Corinthians 13:4
Love is not premeditated. Love is spontaneous, bursting up in extraordinary ways. Consider Paul’s description of love: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Corinthians 13:4–5). There is nothing calculating about the kind of love Paul describes. It is free and easy, arriving without conscious effort on our part. When the Spirit of the Lord is having his way with us, we pour out his love spontaneously, living up to God’s standard without even realizing it.
Like everything that has to do with the life of God in us, the true nature of a loving action can only be seen in hindsight. Looking back on some loving action we took, we are amazed at how we felt in the moment: unselfish and uncalculating. That is the evidence real love was there.
Trying to prove to God how much we love him is a sure sign that we do not love him. The evidence that our love for him is true is that it comes naturally, bubbling up without our bidding at the command of the Holy Spirit. That is why we can’t see our own reasons for doing certain loving things: it is the Spirit in our hearts who does them. We can’t say, “Now I am going to always be patient.” The springs of love are in God, not in us. To look for the love of God in our hearts is absurd if we have not been born again by the Spirit: God’s love is there only when he is. “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).
1 Kings 8-9; Luke 21:1-19
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
Both nations and individuals have tried Christianity and abandoned it, because it has been found too difficult; but no man has ever gone through the crisis of deliberately making Jesus Lord and found Him to be a failure.
The Love of God—The Making of a Christian, 680 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, April 30, 2025
YOUR LONG LIFETIME SEARCH - #9993
If you happen to watch the Discovery Channel on cable TV, you can end up seeing some real "reality TV" - including some pretty unusual fare. How about this one, "The Search for the Giant Squid"? No, that is not an adventure flick - it was a documentary about one scientist's quest to film what no one had ever filmed - the giant squid. For the whole hour, the viewer follows this man's almost lifelong pursuit. You watch as the likely target area is identified - as an expensive expedition follows clues that seem to be leading to this elusive prey - the giant squid. But at the end, you find out you got sucked into an expedition that ultimately failed to find what it was looking for.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Long Lifetime Search."
It's disappointing - a long search, an expensive search, that ends up not finding what it was looking for. For many of us, that could be our life story. Maybe yours.
It could be that you've been on your quest since you were a teenager. You've been through a lot of relationships since then - sampled a lot of experiences - maybe enjoyed a few achievements along the way - even found a pretty respectable status quo. But you still haven't found what you hoped you would find by now. In spite of all the places you've looked, you still can't honestly answer the million dollar question, "Why am I here?" You still haven't found what will give you the love you need and fill that hole in your heart.
At the peak of her fortune and fame, Chris Evert had 146 tennis championships behind her and she was married to the man she loved, but she said this: "We get into a rut. We play tennis, we go to a movie, we watch TV, but I keep saying, 'John, there has to be more.'" Maybe you know that feeling. The good news is: there is more. Much more.
In John 4:13-14, which is our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus is talking with a woman who has been searching for a long time. In her case, her search has taken her into a series of unfulfilling relationships with men. Since they meet at a well where they have each come for a drink, Jesus puts his diagnosis of her restlessness in these words: "Whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become a spring of water, welling up to eternal life."
Jesus says that all our earth-sources of love and meaning are wells we have to keep going back to for more - and they never satisfy for long. But what He offers is a relationship with Him that puts the source inside us where it can't be touched, where it will never leave us thirsty again. Those words "thirsty again" may vividly describe how you have felt after you've gotten everything that you thought would satisfy the hole in your heart...but you're "thirsty again."
That "eternal life" Jesus promises did not come cheap. We're searching because we're away from our Creator - not by His choice, it's ours. We've done our life our way, not His way. And the only way that wall between Him and us could come down was for Jesus to pay for the sinning you and I did - by dying on the cross for them.
Today, Jesus - the One you were made by and made for - is offering to be the end of your search. He's what you've been looking for your whole life - that search ends at His cross. You can tell Him right where you are - "Jesus, I'm tired of looking and I'm tired of not finding. You're right - I've blown it with God. But I believe You died to bring me to Him. I am Yours beginning today."
That wonderful relationship begins, for you, a whole new story. Which, by the way, is the address of our website - ANewStory.com. I would urge you to go there as soon as you can today. Find there the information that will help you anchor this new relationship with Jesus Christ.
You're so very close to the answers you've been searching for so long. His name is Jesus. Don't live another empty day without Him.
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