Max Lucado Daily: FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH - April 24, 2025
“Jesus was full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Not just grace, but truth. Not just truth, but grace.
Grace told the adulterous woman, “I do not condemn you.” Truth told her, “Go and sin no more” (John 8:11). Grace invited a swindler named Zacchaeus to lunch. Truth prompted him to sell half of his belongings and give to the poor (Luke 19:1–8). Grace washed the feet of the disciples. Truth told them, “Do as I have done to you” (John 13:15). Grace invited the woman at the well to drink everlasting water. Truth tactfully reminded her that she had gone through five husbands and was shacking up with a boyfriend (John 4:18).
Jesus shared truth, but graciously. And he offered grace, but truthfully. Grace and truth. Acceptance seeks to offer both.
Jesus, the God Who Knows Your Name
Matthew 18:1-20
Whoever Becomes Simple Again
1 18 At about the same time, the disciples came to Jesus asking, “Who gets the highest rank in God’s kingdom?”
2–5 For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, “I’m telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you’re not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God’s kingdom. What’s more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it’s the same as receiving me.
6–7 “But if you give them a hard time, bullying or taking advantage of their simple trust, you’ll soon wish you hadn’t. You’d be better off dropped in the middle of the lake with a millstone around your neck. Doom to the world for giving these God-believing children a hard time! Hard times are inevitable, but you don’t have to make it worse—and it’s doomsday to you if you do.
8–9 “If your hand or your foot gets in the way of God, chop it off and throw it away. You’re better off maimed or lame and alive than the proud owners of two hands and two feet, godless in a furnace of eternal fire. And if your eye distracts you from God, pull it out and throw it away. You’re better off one-eyed and alive than exercising your twenty-twenty vision from inside the fire of hell.
10 “Watch that you don’t treat a single one of these childlike believers arrogantly. You realize, don’t you, that their personal angels are constantly in touch with my Father in heaven?
Work It Out Between You
12–14 “Look at it this way. If someone has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders off, doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine and go after the one? And if he finds it, doesn’t he make far more over it than over the ninety-nine who stay put? Your Father in heaven feels the same way. He doesn’t want to lose even one of these simple believers.
15–17 “If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him—work it out between the two of you. If he listens, you’ve made a friend. If he won’t listen, take one or two others along so that the presence of witnesses will keep things honest, and try again. If he still won’t listen, tell the church. If he won’t listen to the church, you’ll have to start over from scratch, confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God’s forgiving love.
18–20 “Take this most seriously: A yes on earth is yes in heaven; a no on earth is no in heaven. What you say to one another is eternal. I mean this. When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, April 24, 2025
by Marvin Williams
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Proverbs 28:9-13
God has no use for the prayers
of the people who won’t listen to him.
10 Lead good people down a wrong path
and you’ll come to a bad end;
do good and you’ll be rewarded for it.
11 The rich think they know it all,
but the poor can see right through them.
12 When good people are promoted, everything is great,
but when the bad are in charge, watch out!
13 You can’t whitewash your sins and get by with it;
you find mercy by admitting and leaving them.
Today's Insights
The book of Proverbs is followed by Ecclesiastes, yet the two seem to conflict with each other. Proverbs provides advice for living and assumes a good outcome if we live by its counsel. In contrast, Ecclesiastes says, “The righteous . . . get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked . . . get what the righteous deserve” (8:14). But Proverbs and Ecclesiastes aren’t in conflict. These two books are wisdom literature and communicate general truth. For example, when Peter advises husbands to treat their wives with “respect . . . so that nothing will hinder your prayers” (1 Peter 3:7), he affirms the principle in Proverbs 28:9: “If anyone turns a deaf ear to my instruction, even their prayers are detestable.” Similarly, the principle of Proverbs 28:13 that “whoever conceals their sins does not prosper” is seen in Acts, where concealing sin cost Ananias and Sapphira their lives (5:1-11). And the writer of Ecclesiastes noted, “I know that it will go better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him” (8:12).
Confessing to Christ
Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy. Proverbs 28:13
Hidden and ignored sources of toxins can have severe consequences. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, telecom companies have left behind more than two thousand lead-covered cables across the United States. The toxic lead runs underwater, “in the soil, and on poles overhead.” As the lead deteriorates, it ends up in places where people “live, work, and play.” Many telecom companies, some of which have known for years about the dangers of toxic exposure, are taking the potential risk of lead leaching into the environment very seriously.
The toxin of unconfessed and unaddressed sin can also pose serious consequences in our lives. When a person sins, there’s a natural tendency to try to cover up or conceal it from God and others. But it’s foolish to indulge in things that go against Him and His “instruction” (Proverbs 28:9)—attempting to ignore, hide, or excuse them. As the writer reveals, “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy” (v. 13).
When we confess our sins to God, Scripture reveals that He will purify us from them in His abundant grace: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive . . . and purify us” (1 John 1:9). So let’s ask God to help us honestly confess our sins before the toxins leach into our hearts and into the lives of others.
Reflect & Pray
When are you tempted to conceal your sin? What are the consequences of doing so?
Dear God, please help me to confess my sins honestly and forsake them completely.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, April 24, 2025
Spiritual Discipline
Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. — Luke 10:20
As Christian disciples, worldliness isn’t our snare; sin isn’t our snare. Our snare—the thing that threatens to entrap us—is a lack of spiritual discipline. If we are spiritually undisciplined, we shamelessly strive to fit in with the religious age we live in, drawn by the lure of spiritual “success.”
Never court anything besides the approval of God. Take yourself “outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore” (Hebrews 13:13). Jesus told the disciples not to rejoice in successful service, and yet this seems to be the one thing in which most of us do rejoice. We have a commercial viewpoint, tallying up how many souls have been saved and sanctified on our watch. We forget that our work begins where God’s grace has laid the foundation. Salvation and sanctification are the work of God’s sovereign grace. Our work is to disciple lives until they are entirely given over to God. One life wholly devoted to God is more valuable to him than a hundred lives reawakened by his Spirit. God brings his disciples to a standard of life by his grace, and we are responsible for reproducing that standard in others.
Unless we are living a life hidden with Christ in God, we are likely to become irritating dictators instead of indwelling disciples. Many of us are dictators. We dictate when we pray and when we preach, telling God what he must do, telling others how they must be. Jesus never dictated. When Jesus talked about discipleship, he prefaced it with an “if,” not with a “must” (Matthew 16:24 kjv). Discipleship carries an option with it.
2 Samuel 19-20; Luke 18:1-23
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
The great point of Abraham’s faith in God was that he was prepared to do anything for God.
Not Knowing Whither, 903 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, April 24, 2025
REALIZING WHAT YOU COST - #9989
Passages - that's how one author described life's major points of transition where you are moving from one life-stage to another. I remember when our daughter and son-in-law were in one of those passages. They were going to have their first child.
Actually, as our daughter experienced all the morning sickness, and afternoon sickness, and evening sickness, and as she experienced the impact of pregnancy on her body, it brought about some tender moments between her and her Mom. My daughter got real soft and she said to my wife, "Mom, I don't know how to thank you." Her Mom wasn't sure what she had done to be thanked for. Actually, it was something a long time ago. Our daughter said, "Mom, I really want to thank you because I never realized what you went through for me." Well, then there was a lot of hugging.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Realizing What You Cost."
It does something to a relationship when you suddenly realize what that person has gone through for you. In fact, when it comes to life's most important relationship - a relationship with God - that realization may actually be what starts your God-relationship.
Our son-in-law once met a man on a plane, and the man told him about growing up in a Christian church, but deciding that what he heard wasn't for him. He related his years of sampling a lot of spiritual experiences and beliefs on the spirituality buffet. But none of them satisfied the yearning in his heart. Then one day he visited the church of his childhood; he saw a cross up front. He said, "You know, I had seen that cross hundreds of times. But something powerful happened that day, because I saw it again for the first time in many years. Suddenly, I was overcome with emotion as I looked at that cross and I found myself saying two words, 'For me.'"
Finally, he realized what Jesus went through was for him, and he was ready to embrace Jesus as his Savior. One Biblical writer - a man who had once bitterly opposed Christianity - writes in our word for today from the Word of God what captured his heart. It's in Galatians 2:20 - "I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me." There are those two words again, "for me."
I wonder, have you ever in your heart stood at the cross of Jesus, and said those two life-changing, eternity-deciding words, "For me. Jesus, what You are doing on that cross is for me." After years of hearing about the cross, knowing about the cross, it finally hits you; some of those sins Jesus died for are the sins you've done. My daughter's relationship with her mother deepened when she realized what her mother went through for her.
Your relationship with God begins when you realize what the Son of God went through for you. Remember, this is the Son of God - the One who created every galaxy, who made the tree He was dying on, who made the soldiers who nailed Him there. He chose to die there for you. The thorns jammed into His head, the spikes driven into His hands, into His feet, the spear rammed into His side - for you.
But much more, Jesus was absorbing all the guilt and all the degradation of your sin; this One who had never sinned in His life. He was taking all the eternal agony of a hell you and I deserve, cut off from His Father so you would never have to be.
Maybe this is your "for me" day. "The Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me." Isn't it time you gave yourself to Him? If you want to begin this relationship with Jesus, tell Him that right now. Stand there at Jesus' cross. Look at what He went through for you.
Let me encourage you to just go to our website as soon as you can today and let me walk you through exactly how to be sure you really do belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com.
When you stand at that cross in your mind, you'll realize how very much God loves you and how very urgent it is that you belong to Him, and why God is never going to forget what you do with His Son.
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