Max Lucado Daily: TIME TO COME HOME - October 23, 2025
Satan wants you to look back, to obsess over past failures. Yet, the grace of Christ invites you to move forward, enter a new life. “His blood will make our consciences pure from useless acts so we may serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:14 NCV).
The disciples of Christ abandoned their Lord. They left him to carry his cross alone. What would have happened if they had lived in the past? We would not have their gospels, their influence, their teachings.
What about you? If you fail to move forward, who wins? What messages will go untaught? Words unsaid? People unloved? Organizations unled? Children unparented? Confess your struggle to God. He will hear, and he will help. Help will come through a circle of good friends. Get smart, make some changes, time for a new start! It’s time to come home.
Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life
Mark 16
The Resurrection
1–3 16 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so they could embalm him. Very early on Sunday morning, as the sun rose, they went to the tomb. They worried out loud to each other, “Who will roll back the stone from the tomb for us?”
4–5 Then they looked up, saw that it had been rolled back—it was a huge stone—and walked right in. They saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed all in white. They were completely taken aback, astonished.
6–7 He said, “Don’t be afraid. I know you’re looking for Jesus the Nazarene, the One they nailed on the cross. He’s been raised up; he’s here no longer. You can see for yourselves that the place is empty. Now—on your way. Tell his disciples and Peter that he is going on ahead of you to Galilee. You’ll see him there, exactly as he said.”
8 They got out as fast as they could, beside themselves, their heads swimming. Stunned, they said nothing to anyone.
9–11 [After rising from the dead, Jesus appeared early on Sunday morning to Mary Magdalene, whom he had delivered from seven demons. She went to his former companions, now weeping and carrying on, and told them. When they heard her report that she had seen him alive and well, they didn’t believe her.
12–13 Later he appeared, but in a different form, to two of them out walking in the countryside. They went back and told the rest, but they weren’t believed either.
14–16 Still later, as the Eleven were eating supper, he appeared and took them to task most severely for their stubborn unbelief, refusing to believe those who had seen him raised up. Then he said, “Go into the world. Go everywhere and announce the Message of God’s good news to one and all. Whoever believes and is baptized is saved; whoever refuses to believe is damned.
17–18 “These are some of the signs that will accompany believers: They will throw out demons in my name, they will speak in new tongues, they will take snakes in their hands, they will drink poison and not be hurt, they will lay hands on the sick and make them well.”
19–20 Then the Master Jesus, after briefing them, was taken up to heaven, and he sat down beside God in the place of honor. And the disciples went everywhere preaching, the Master working right with them, validating the Message with indisputable evidence.]
Note: Mark 16:9–20 [the portion in brackets] is contained only in later manuscripts.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, October 23, 2025
by Leslie Koh
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Proverbs 27:17-27
Your Face Mirrors Your Heart
17 You use steel to sharpen steel,
and one friend sharpens another.
18 If you care for your orchard, you’ll enjoy its fruit;
if you honor your boss, you’ll be honored.
19 Just as water mirrors your face,
so your face mirrors your heart.
20 Hell has a voracious appetite,
and lust just never quits.
21 The purity of silver and gold is tested
by putting them in the fire;
The purity of human hearts is tested
by giving them a little fame.
22 Pound on a fool all you like—
you can’t pound out foolishness.
23–27 Know your sheep by name;
carefully attend to your flocks;
(Don’t take them for granted;
possessions don’t last forever, you know.)
And then, when the crops are in
and the harvest is stored in the barns,
You can knit sweaters from lambs’ wool,
and sell your goats for a profit;
There will be plenty of milk and meat
to last your family through the winter.
Today's Insights
Learning to view troubles and trials as instruments in God’s hand is an important key to our spiritual growth. His goal for us isn’t that we have an easy or pain-free life, but rather that we “be conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29). As fire purifies gold (Proverbs 17:3; 27:21), so the heat of trials can be God’s tool to purify us and make us more like Jesus. Christ’s half brother James affirms this in his letter: “The testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete” (James 1:3-4). Part of walking by faith is trusting that God doesn’t waste anything. We can be sure that when difficult times come, He has a purpose for those trials in refining and shaping us to become more like Jesus.
Sharpened by Iron
As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17
Louise, a project manager, regretted taking on the freelance job. Both the client and designer were testing her patience. Why is it so difficult? she wondered. Why can’t these people get it together?
Weeks later, as she read Proverbs 27, verse 17 stood out—“iron sharpens iron.” “You can’t file down rough edges with something soft, like silk,” she told her small group soon after. “You need something hard, like iron.”
Louise realized that the challenges in the project were smoothing down some rough edges of her own. She was learning to be more patient and humble, and to adapt to different working styles. God, she concluded, was using the project to expose her flaws and teach her new lessons about working with others.
Much of the book of Proverbs extols the value of godly wisdom, but this wisdom doesn’t come easily. It needs to be sought after with obedience and discernment (3:13; 13:20; 19:20), and refined in crucibles and furnaces, with mortars and pestles (27:21-22)—situations that may mean temporary pain and suffering.
Yet the Bible reminds us that challenges come with rewards: In seeking God’s wisdom diligently and obeying His ways, we’ll find true security, satisfaction, and blessing (vv. 26-27).
Reflect & Pray
What lessons can you learn from difficult situations you’re facing? How might God be refining and shaping you to be more like His Son, Jesus?
Loving Father, please grant me strength to endure my trials and a humble heart to learn from life’s challenges. Thank You for shaping and molding me each day.
Disover more about A Resilient Life.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, October 23, 2025
Not a Bit of It!
If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! — 2 Corinthians 5:17
Our Lord never nurses our prejudices; he destroys them. We imagine that God has a special interest in our personal preferences. We’re sure he’ll never deal with us as he does with others. We think, “Well, of course God has to handle those people in a very stern way, but he knows my prejudices are OK.” Not a bit of it! Instead of God being on the side of our prejudices, he is deliberately wiping them out. It’s part of our moral education to have our prejudices pierced straight through by his providence.
God wants only one thing from us: unconditional surrender. When we are born again, the Holy Spirit begins to work his new creation inside us, and a time will come when the old life will have gone entirely—the old sense of self-importance, the old attitudes and bigotries. Then we will be a “new creation,” knowing that “all this is from God” (2 Corinthians 5:17–18).
How are we to get this new life? The life that has no lust, no self-interest, no oversensitivity? How will we get the love that is not easily angered, that thinks no evil, that is always kind (1 Corinthians 13:4–6)? The only way is by allowing nothing of the old life to remain—only simple, perfect trust in God, such trust that we no longer want God’s blessings, only God himself. Have we come to the place where God can withdraw his blessings and it doesn’t shake our trust in him? Once we’ve seen God at work, we will never again worry ourselves about what happens. All our trust will be in our Father in heaven, whom the world cannot see.
Jeremiah 1-2; 1 Timothy 3
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
We are not fundamentally free; external circumstances are not in our hands, they are in God’s hands, the one thing in which we are free is in our personal relationship to God. We are not responsible for the circumstances we are in, but we are responsible for the way we allow those circumstances to affect us; we can either allow them to get on top of us, or we can allow them to transform us into what God wants us to be.
Conformed to His Image, 354 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, October 23, 2025
LEAVING A TRAIL OF GIFTS - #10119
My wife was one of the most generous people I've ever known. We never had a whole lot to spend on gifts, but somehow she usually found a way to give them. Over the years God has blessed us with some friends who have been very generous with us. They have invited us to get away to their cabin or their cottage or their farm. I can remember occasions where I've been all packed and ready to go and anxious to leave, and my wife hadn't come out yet. I'd go back inside and I'd say, "Honey, what are you doing?" You know where she is? She's rummaging through her gift box or her gift closet, and she would say, "Wait a minute, Honey, I'm looking for a gift."
Sure enough she almost always left a gift behind for those friends. She found something of hers that she could give. I can't tell you how many times she did that for a dinner host, for a sick friend, for a new mom. She just left a gift in so many lives.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Leaving a Trail of Gifts."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Romans 1:11. Paul says to the Roman Christians, "I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong." Whoa! That reminds me of my Karen! "I want to be with you. And when I am, I'll leave you with a gift."
What kind of trail do you leave with the people you touch? It's exciting to live like Paul describes here, consciously asking as you're with a person, "Lord, what spiritual gift could I give him or her? How could I leave this person a little better off than they were before I was with them?" Whether you're on the phone or on the Internet with them, or you're in an appointment, or whether it's a casual contact on social medis, or it's with your mate, or your roommate, or your son or your daughter, or you parents, what kind of gift could I give them on this occasion? I want to impart to you, he said, "some spiritual gift."
Too often we look at it the other way, "What gift can they give me?" We go looking to them for some attention, or information, or affection. What connection does this person have that I could use? What promotion could they give me? What money could they give me? Well, this doesn't talk about living for you to impart to me. It's about me imparting to you.
Or maybe, you too often impart a gripe instead of a gift. There are some people who just tend to drop bad news or some burden on everybody they meet. You walk away and they are feeling down or suddenly heavier than before you were with them.
Because Jesus lives in you, people should feel richer after they have been with you. Do they? What gift could you give them? A word of encouragement maybe, or just to put your arm around them and pray with them if that would be appropriate right now, or a testimony of how God is at work in your life right now that might help them see how He can work in theirs. Maybe you could share with them just something you're thankful for that God has done for you, a God-sighting you've had today, or maybe some good news about a friend instead of bad news, a verse that came alive for you recently. Maybe just give them a chance to laugh when it's been mostly tears.
The gifts will differ with the person's need, but your mission - your attitude - should always be "What gift can I leave today?" I remember singing that song "Make me a blessing to someone today." Well, you will be a blessing if you approach folks as a giver and not a taker.
I've watched the blessing a person can leave because she was always looking for a gift to give. Why don't you try that as a lifestyle? I think you'll like it, and they'll love it.
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