Max Lucado Daily: THE HELMET OF SALVATION - September 5, 2025
Paul invites us to “embrace the power of salvation’s full deliverance, like a helmet to protect your thoughts from lies” (Ephesians 6:17 TPT). It’s dangerous to go through life without the helmet of salvation. Yet, most people do exactly that. They wear no supernatural protection. And when they slip and stumble, they get hurt. Please don’t be among them.
How does one acquire this helmet? Simple: Ask for it. The gift of salvation is yours to receive. Turn your heart toward Jesus in prayer. Tell him you are a sinner in need of a Savior, and he will gladly and immediately receive you into his family. It really is that simple—and marvelous. And once he saves you, God enrolls you in his mental training course. Stinking thinking is a spiritual problem. It requires a spiritual solution, and God provides it!
Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life
Leviticus 19
“I Am God, Your God”
1–2 19 God spoke to Moses: “Speak to the congregation of Israel. Tell them, Be holy because I, God, your God, am holy.
3 “Every one of you must respect his mother and father.
“Keep my Sabbaths. I am God, your God.
4 “Don’t take up with no-god idols. Don’t make gods of cast metal. I am God, your God.
5–8 “When you sacrifice a Peace-Offering to God, do it as you’ve been taught so it is acceptable. Eat it on the day you sacrifice it and the day following. Whatever is left until the third day is to be burned up. If it is eaten on the third day it is polluted meat and not acceptable. Whoever eats it will be held responsible because he has violated what is holy to God. That person will be cut off from his people.
9–10 “When you harvest your land, don’t harvest right up to the edges of your field or gather the gleanings from the harvest. Don’t strip your vineyard bare or go back and pick up the fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am God, your God.
11 “Don’t steal.
“Don’t lie.
“Don’t deceive anyone.
12 “Don’t swear falsely using my name, violating the name of your God. I am God.
13 “Don’t exploit your friend or rob him.
“Don’t hold back the wages of a hired hand overnight.
14 “Don’t curse the deaf; don’t put a stumbling block in front of the blind; fear your God. I am God.
15 “Don’t pervert justice. Don’t show favoritism to either the poor or the great. Judge on the basis of what is right.
16 “Don’t spread gossip and rumors.
“Don’t just stand by when your neighbor’s life is in danger. I am God.
17 “Don’t secretly hate your neighbor. If you have something against him, get it out into the open; otherwise you are an accomplice in his guilt.
18 “Don’t seek revenge or carry a grudge against any of your people.
“Love your neighbor as yourself. I am God.
19 “Keep my decrees.
“Don’t mate two different kinds of animals.
“Don’t plant your fields with two kinds of seed.
“Don’t wear clothes woven of two kinds of material.
20–22 “If a man has sex with a slave girl who is engaged to another man but has not yet been ransomed or given her freedom, there must be an investigation. But they aren’t to be put to death because she wasn’t free. The man must bring a Compensation-Offering to God at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, a ram of compensation. The priest will perform the ritual of atonement for him before God with the ram of compensation for the sin he has committed. Then he will stand forgiven of the sin he committed.
23–25 “When you enter the land and plant any kind of fruit tree, don’t eat the fruit for three years; consider it inedible. By the fourth year its fruit is holy, an offering of praise to God. Beginning in the fifth year you can eat its fruit; you’ll have richer harvests this way. I am God, your God.
26 “Don’t eat meat with blood in it.
“Don’t practice divination or sorcery.
27 “Don’t cut the hair on the sides of your head or trim your beard.
28 “Don’t gash your bodies on behalf of the dead.
“Don’t tattoo yourselves. I am God.
29 “Don’t violate your daughter by making her a whore—the whole country would soon become a brothel, filled with sordid sex.
30 “Keep my Sabbaths and revere my Sanctuary: I am God.
31 “Don’t dabble in the occult or traffic with mediums; you’ll pollute your souls. I am God, your God.
32 “Show respect to the aged; honor the presence of an elder; fear your God. I am God.
33–34 “When a foreigner lives with you in your land, don’t take advantage of him. Treat the foreigner the same as a native. Love him like one of your own. Remember that you were once foreigners in Egypt. I am God, your God.
35–36 “Don’t cheat when measuring length, weight, or quantity. Use honest scales and weights and measures. I am God, your God. I brought you out of Egypt.
37 “Keep all my decrees and all my laws. Yes, do them. I am God.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, September 05, 2025
by Elisa Morgan
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Deuteronomy 5:28-29, 32-33
God heard what you said to me and told me, “I’ve heard what the people said to you. They’re right—good and true words. What I wouldn’t give if they’d always feel this way, continuing to revere me and always keep all my commands; they’d have a good life forever, they and their children!
32–33 So be very careful to act exactly as God commands you. Don’t veer off to the right or the left. Walk straight down the road God commands so that you’ll have a good life and live a long time in the land that you’re about to possess.
Today's Insights
Deuteronomy records Moses’ words to the fledgling nation of Israel as they’re about to enter the promised land. Here in chapter 5, Moses reminds them of the Ten Commandments (vv. 6-21) given forty years earlier on Mount Sinai. At that time, God had spoken to them “face to face out of the fire on the mountain” (v. 4). The people feared this awesome God and told Moses, “This great fire will consume us, and we will die if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer” (v. 25). God was pleased with their reverential fear and said, “Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always” (v. 29). He knew their inclination to violate His boundaries, which were given because He loved them. That’s why Moses urged them, “Be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you” (v. 32).
The Freedom God Provides
Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper. Deuteronomy 5:33
A team of landscape architects studied the effects of providing a fence around a preschool playground. On playgrounds without fences, children tended to gather close to the school building and their teacher and didn’t stray away. But on fenced-in playgrounds, they enjoyed the entire area. The researchers concluded that boundaries can create a greater sense of freedom. This seems counterintuitive to so many of us who think boundaries restrict enjoyment. Yet fences can provide freedom!
God underlines the freedom His boundaries provide for us. In offering the Ten Commandments to Israel, He promised that a “prosperous” life would result from living within His divine boundaries. “Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess” (Deuteronomy 5:33). Here the concept of prosperity includes a life lived with good results—a life of quality.
Jesus, who fulfilled the law with His death on the cross, proclaimed, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32). Indeed, God’s boundaries are for our good. “Fences” can free us to enjoy the life God created us to experience with Him.
Reflect & Pray
In what ways do God’s commands free you? How can you better embrace the freedom such boundaries offer?
Dear God, thank You for the wise parameters You put in place for my good.
Explore five reasons why Christians should read the Old Testament.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, September 05, 2025
Keeping Watch
Watch with Me. — Matthew 26:38
When Jesus says, “Watch with me,” he is telling us to watch with no private point of view at all. In the early stages of our life with him, we do not watch with Jesus; we watch for him and expect him to watch with us. It takes us time to begin to view everything that happens in the way our Lord views it—through the revelation of the Bible.
Jesus asked his disciples to watch with him in the garden of Gethsemane, when peril was close at hand. In the same way, he comes to us, in some present-day Gethsemane where his honor is at stake, and says, “Watch with me.” He does this to teach us to identify ourselves with him and to see things from his perspective. But we will not. We say, “No, Lord. I can’t see the meaning of this. It’s too awful.”
If we don’t understand our Lord, if we don’t even know what his suffering is for, how can we ever watch with him? The disciples loved Jesus to the limits of their natural capacity, but they didn’t understand what he was after; they couldn’t grasp why his goal was to go to his death. In the garden of Gethsemane, they allowed themselves to be consumed by their own sorrow, and they fell asleep instead of keeping watch. At the end of three years of the closest intimacy with their Lord, “all the disciples deserted him and fled” (Matthew 26:56).
And yet, the disciples did eventually learn to watch with Jesus. How? After Gethsemane, a series of wonderful things happened. Our Lord died, was resurrected, and ascended into heaven; he sent the Holy Spirit, telling his disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you” (Acts 1:8). This is how the disciples were changed. On the day of Pentecost, “all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit” (2:4), and they learned to watch with Jesus for the rest of their lives.
Psalms 146-147; 1 Corinthians 15:1-28
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
The root of faith is the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest snares is the idea that God is sure to lead us to success.
My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, September 05, 2025
AFTER YOUR SUN SETS - #10085
I missed that sunset a few nights ago, but I saw something just as beautiful - the afterglow. A sky painted by my favorite Artist in brilliant hues of orange and yellow. Look, I've seen a lot of sunsets all over the country and all over the world. But the show isn't over when the sun goes down. No, the sky is still glowing, often magnificently. The sun may be gone, but its aftermath is still beautifying our horizon.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "After the Sun Sets."
I've seen lives like that. My wife was a life like that. The sun set suddenly on my baby's life. But its brilliant afterglow is continuing to light up so many lives. More than even I knew.
It's made me think about what I'll leave on people's horizon when my sun sets. And about people I've known, whose life on earth is over, but who are still "afterglowing" on the landscape of my life.
Oh, I know the kind of people who bring clouds and shadows with them. They're the gripers, the gossipers, the grimacers, the growlers, and the grumps. No glow.
But what is it about certain people that makes them a treasure to be cherished, long after they're gone? It's in a certain way, I think, that they make you feel when you're with them. They make you feel lighter. There's this contagious joy and an ever-ready smile that's like the sun on the gloomiest day. Who doesn't want to be around - even seek out - that kind of person?
My Karen had that, even when she might have been weighed down with medical, financial, or work stresses. But her joy was explained by a favorite Bible verse of hers, which is our word for today from the Word of God in Nehemiah 8:10, "The joy of the Lord is your strength." That's an unsinkable buoyancy that's independent of your circumstances and it's anchored in Christ.
These "afterglow" people also make you feel safe, unlike the many who have an agenda, can't keep a confidence, make you feel judged, or later use what you tell them against you. But there are those rare people who have been for me a harbor where I know I can run in the storm. Someone I can pour out my heart to. Those people change your life.
So do the people who make you feel heard. In a world where no one can remember what you were saying when you lost your train of thought, these people can because they're all about you. Unforgettable people really listen for your heart, not just your words.
Ultimately, the "afterglow" legacy people are the ones who make you feel important. When you're with them, you feel like you're the only person in their world at that moment. I lived with and I loved this kind of woman since I was 20 years old. Long enough to know why people of every age and race and background cherish her memory.
She made us feel Jesus. She always told us, "It's not about me. It's all about Jesus." It turns out she wasn't generating all that love and joy. She was reflecting it like the moon, reflecting the glory of the sun, or in her case, the Son of God.
She felt so totally loved by Jesus, because she could say in the words of the Bible, "He loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). You could say that too. She lived Jesus' promise to light up every life that's given to Him. He said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12).
Have you ever experienced that? Do you feel safe and secure in the love of the One who loves you the most - Jesus? The only One who loved you enough to die for your sin? Today, if you've never given your life to Him, let this be Day 1 of life like it was meant to be. Tell Him, "Jesus, nobody loves me like you do. I'm yours. Replace the darkness with Your light."
Go to our website today, and find out there exactly how to be sure you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com.
I've seen this light Jesus talked about up close for many years. I called it her Jesus-glow. So radiant that it continues to light my life and countless others, as yours can...even after your sun has set.
No comments:
Post a Comment