Luke 8:1-25, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: His Kingdom Will Never End

His kingdom will never end. Luke 1:33

In Bethlehem, the human being who best understood who God was and what he was doing, is the teenage girl in the smelly stable.

As Mary looks into the face of the baby. Her son. Her Lord. His Majesty—she can’t take her eyes off him. Somehow Mary knows she is holding God.

So this is he. She remembers the words of the angel. “His kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:33)

He looks like anything but a king. His cry, though strong and healthy, is still the helpless and piercing cry of a baby.

Majesty in the midst of the mundane. Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat. Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager and in the presence of a carpenter.

God came near!

Luke 8:1-25

He continued according to plan, traveled to town after town, village after village, preaching God’s kingdom, spreading the Message. The Twelve were with him. There were also some women in their company who had been healed of various evil afflictions and illnesses: Mary, the one called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out; Joanna, wife of Chuza, Herod’s manager; and Susanna—along with many others who used their considerable means to provide for the company.

The Story of the Seeds

4–8  As they went from town to town, a lot of people joined in and traveled along. He addressed them, using this story: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. Some of it fell on the road; it was tramped down and the birds ate it. Other seed fell in the gravel; it sprouted, but withered because it didn’t have good roots. Other seed fell in the weeds; the weeds grew with it and strangled it. Other seed fell in rich earth and produced a bumper crop.

“Are you listening to this? Really listening?”

9  His disciples asked, “Why did you tell this story?”

10  He said, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom—you know how it works. There are others who need stories. But even with stories some of them aren’t going to get it:

Their eyes are open but don’t see a thing,

Their ears are open but don’t hear a thing.

11–12  “This story is about some of those people. The seed is the Word of God. The seeds on the road are those who hear the Word, but no sooner do they hear it than the Devil snatches it from them so they won’t believe and be saved.

13  “The seeds in the gravel are those who hear with enthusiasm, but the enthusiasm doesn’t go very deep. It’s only another fad, and the moment there’s trouble it’s gone.

14  “And the seed that fell in the weeds—well, these are the ones who hear, but then the seed is crowded out and nothing comes of it as they go about their lives worrying about tomorrow, making money, and having fun.

15  “But the seed in the good earth—these are the good-hearts who seize the Word and hold on no matter what, sticking with it until there’s a harvest.

Misers of What You Hear

16–18  “No one lights a lamp and then covers it with a washtub or shoves it under the bed. No, you set it up on a lamp stand so those who enter the room can see their way. We’re not keeping secrets; we’re telling them. We’re not hiding things; we’re bringing everything out into the open. So be careful that you don’t become misers of what you hear. Generosity begets generosity. Stinginess impoverishes.”

19–20  His mother and brothers showed up but couldn’t get through to him because of the crowd. He was given the message, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside wanting to see you.”

21  He replied, “My mother and brothers are the ones who hear and do God’s Word. Obedience is thicker than blood.”

22–24  One day he and his disciples got in a boat. “Let’s cross the lake,” he said. And off they went. It was smooth sailing, and he fell asleep. A terrific storm came up suddenly on the lake. Water poured in, and they were about to capsize. They woke Jesus: “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!”

Getting to his feet, he told the wind, “Silence!” and the waves, “Quiet down!” They did it. The lake became smooth as glass.

25  Then he said to his disciples, “Why can’t you trust me?”

They were in absolute awe, staggered and stammering, “Who is this, anyway? He calls out to the winds and sea, and they do what he tells them!”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion 

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Read: Hebrews 9:11-22

Christ Is the Perfect Sacrifice

So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come.[a] He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. 12 With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.

13 Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. 14 Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds[b] so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. 15 That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.

16 Now when someone leaves a will,[c] it is necessary to prove that the person who made it is dead.[d] 17 The will goes into effect only after the person’s death. While the person who made it is still alive, the will cannot be put into effect.

18 That is why even the first covenant was put into effect with the blood of an animal. 19 For after Moses had read each of God’s commandments to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats,[e] along with water, and sprinkled both the book of God’s law and all the people, using hyssop branches and scarlet wool. 20 Then he said, “This blood confirms the covenant God has made with you.”[f] 21 And in the same way, he sprinkled blood on the Tabernacle and on everything used for worship. 22 In fact, according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.

Just The Right Time

By Julie Ackerman Link

Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come. —Hebrews 9:11

The conductor stood on the podium, his eyes scanning the choir and orchestra. The singers arranged the music in their folders, found a comfortable position for standing, and held the folder where they could see the conductor just over the top. Orchestra members positioned their music on the stand, found a comfortable position in their seats, and then sat still. The conductor waited and watched until everyone was ready. Then, with a downbeat of his baton, the sounds of Handel’s “Overture to Messiah” filled the cathedral.

With the sound swirling around me, I felt I was immersed in Christmas—when God, at just the right moment, signaled the downbeat and set in motion an overture that started with the birth of the Messiah, the “High Priest of the good things to come” (Heb. 9:11).

Every Christmas, as we celebrate Christ’s first coming with glorious music, I’m reminded that God’s people, like choir and orchestra members, are getting ready for the next downbeat of the conductor when Christ will come again. On that day, we will participate with Him in the final movement of God’s symphony of redemption—making all things new (Rev. 21:5). In anticipation, we need to keep our eyes on the conductor and make sure we are ready.

Sound the soul-inspiring anthem,

Angel hosts, your harps attune;

Earth’s long night is almost over,

Christ is coming—coming soon! —Macomber

The advent of Christ celebrates His birth and anticipates His return.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Experience or God’s Revealed Truth?

We have received…the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. —1 Corinthians 2:12

My experience is not what makes redemption real— redemption is reality. Redemption has no real meaning for me until it is worked out through my conscious life. When I am born again, the Spirit of God takes me beyond myself and my experiences, and identifies me with Jesus Christ. If I am left only with my personal experiences, I am left with something not produced by redemption. But experiences produced by redemption prove themselves by leading me beyond myself, to the point of no longer paying any attention to experiences as the basis of reality. Instead, I see that only the reality itself produced the experiences. My experiences are not worth anything unless they keep me at the Source of truth— Jesus Christ.

If you try to hold back the Holy Spirit within you, with the desire of producing more inner spiritual experiences, you will find that He will break the hold and take you again to the historic Christ. Never support an experience which does not have God as its Source and faith in God as its result. If you do, your experience is anti-Christian, no matter what visions or insights you may have had. Is Jesus Christ Lord of your experiences, or do you place your experiences above Him? Is any experience dearer to you than your Lord? You must allow Him to be Lord over you, and pay no attention to any experience over which He is not Lord. Then there will come a time when God will make you impatient with your own experience, and you can truthfully say, “I do not care what I experience— I am sure of Him!”

Be relentless and hard on yourself if you are in the habit of talking about the experiences you have had. Faith based on experience is not faith; faith based on God’s revealed truth is the only faith there is.

Deuteronomy 31, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: No Room

Some of the saddest words on earth are “We don’t have room for you.” Jesus knew the sound of those words.  He was still in Mary’s womb when the innkeeper said, “We don’t have room for you” (Luke 2:7).

And when he was hung on the cross, wasn’t the message one of utter rejection?  “We don’t have room for you in our world.”

Even today Jesus is given the same treatment.  He goes from heart to heart, asking if he might enter. Every so often, he’s welcomed.  Someone throws open the door of his or her heart and invites him to stay.  And to that person Jesus gives this great promise, “In my Father’s house are many rooms” (John 14:2).

What a delightful promise he makes us! We make room for him in our hearts….And he makes room for us in his house!

From Grace for the Moment

Deuteronomy 31

The Charge

1–2  31 Moses went on and addressed these words to all Israel. He said, “I’m 120 years old today. I can’t get about as I used to. And God told me, ‘You’re not going to cross this Jordan River.’

3–5  “God, your God, will cross the river ahead of you and destroy the nations in your path so that you may dispossess them. (And Joshua will cross the river before you, as God said he would.) God will give the nations the same treatment he gave the kings of the Amorites, Sihon and Og, and their land; he’ll destroy them. God will hand the nations over to you, and you’ll treat them exactly as I have commanded you.

6  “Be strong. Take courage. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t give them a second thought because God, your God, is striding ahead of you. He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down; he won’t leave you.”

7–8  Then Moses summoned Joshua. He said to him with all Israel watching, “Be strong. Take courage. You will enter the land with this people, this land that God promised their ancestors that he’d give them. You will make them the proud possessors of it. God is striding ahead of you. He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down; he won’t leave you. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t worry.”

9–13  Moses wrote out this Revelation and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the Chest of the Covenant of God, and to all the leaders of Israel. And he gave these orders: “At the end of every seven years, the Year-All-Debts-Are-Canceled, during the pilgrim Festival of Booths when everyone in Israel comes to appear in the Presence of God, your God, at the place he designates, read out this Revelation to all Israel, with everyone listening. Gather the people together—men, women, children, and the foreigners living among you—so they can listen well, so they may learn to live in holy awe before God, your God, and diligently keep everything in this Revelation. And do this so that their children, who don’t yet know all this, will also listen and learn to live in holy awe before God, your God, for as long as you live on the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.”

14–15  God spoke to Moses: “You are about to die. So call Joshua. Meet me in the Tent of Meeting so that I can commission him.”

So Moses and Joshua went and stationed themselves in the Tent of Meeting. God appeared in the Tent in a Pillar of Cloud. The Cloud was near the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.

16–18  God spoke to Moses: “You’re about to die and be buried with your ancestors. You’ll no sooner be in the grave than this people will be up and whoring after the foreign gods of this country that they are entering. They will abandon me and violate my Covenant that I’ve made with them. I’ll get angry, oh so angry! I’ll walk off and leave them on their own, won’t so much as look back at them. Then many calamities and disasters will devastate them because they are defenseless. They’ll say, ‘Isn’t it because our God wasn’t here that all this evil has come upon us?’ But I’ll stay out of their lives, keep looking the other way because of all their evil: they took up with other gods!

19–21  “But for right now, copy down this song and teach the People of Israel to sing it by heart. They’ll have it then as my witness against them. When I bring them into the land that I promised to their ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey, and they eat and become full and get fat and then begin fooling around with other gods and worshiping them, and then things start falling apart, many terrible things happening, this song will be there with them as a witness to who they are and what went wrong. Their children won’t forget this song; they’ll be singing it. Don’t think I don’t know what they are already scheming to do, and they’re not even in the land yet, this land I promised them.”

22  So Moses wrote down this song that very day and taught it to the People of Israel.

23  Then God commanded Joshua son of Nun saying, “Be strong. Take courage. You will lead the People of Israel into the land I promised to give them. And I’ll be right there with you.”

24–26  After Moses had finished writing down the words of this Revelation in a book, right down to the last word, he ordered the Levites who were responsible for carrying the Chest of the Covenant of God, saying, “Take this Book of Revelation and place it alongside the Chest of the Covenant of God, your God. Keep it there as a witness.

27–29  “I know what rebels you are, how stubborn and willful you can be. Even today, while I’m still alive and present with you, you’re rebellious against God. How much worse when I’ve died! So gather the leaders of the tribes and the officials here. I have something I need to say directly to them with Heaven and Earth as witnesses. I know that after I die you’re going to make a mess of things, abandoning the way I commanded, inviting all kinds of evil consequences in the days ahead. You’re determined to do evil in defiance of God—I know you are—deliberately provoking his anger by what you do.”

30  So with everyone in Israel gathered and listening, Moses taught them the words of this song, from start to finish.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Saturday, December 20, 2025

by 

Bill Crowder

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Matthew 1:18-25

The Birth of Jesus

18–19  The birth of Jesus took place like this. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. Before they came to the marriage bed, Joseph discovered she was pregnant. (It was by the Holy Spirit, but he didn’t know that.) Joseph, chagrined but noble, determined to take care of things quietly so Mary would not be disgraced.

20–23  While he was trying to figure a way out, he had a dream. God’s angel spoke in the dream: “Joseph, son of David, don’t hesitate to get married. Mary’s pregnancy is Spirit-conceived. God’s Holy Spirit has made her pregnant. She will bring a son to birth, and when she does, you, Joseph, will name him Jesus—‘God saves’—because he will save his people from their sins.” This would bring the prophet’s embryonic sermon to full term:

Watch for this—a virgin will get pregnant and bear a son;

They will name him Immanuel (Hebrew for “God is with us”).

24–25  Then Joseph woke up. He did exactly what God’s angel commanded in the dream: He married Mary. But he did not consummate the marriage until she had the baby. He named the baby Jesus.

Today's Insights

Jesus is Immanuel, which means “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). John’s gospel describes His incarnation in this way: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The concept that God is with His people can be seen throughout the Bible. It’s the theme of Psalm 46, where the repeated refrain is: “The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress” (vv. 7, 11). The psalm concludes with this tender appeal to those facing loneliness or any other life challenge: “Be still, and know that I am God” (v. 10). Whatever we’re facing today, God is with us, and we’re never alone.

With Us in Our Loneliness

Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you. Hebrews 13:5

Henry David Thoreau described a city as a place where many people are “lonesome together.” Those words have the ring of truth. In my youth, songs like “Mr. Lonely,” “Only the Lonely,” and “Eleanor Rigby” focused on isolation and loneliness. In recent years, the pandemic was one of the most isolating seasons the world has known. And social media can feed that loneliness, giving us connection without relationship. Perhaps loneliness is the new pandemic.

As Matthew shared the story of the birth of Jesus (1:18-25), he told us, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet [Isaiah]: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’) ” (vv. 22-23). Ponder that for a moment. God with us!

As believers in Jesus, we’re never alone. We’ve been born again into the family of Christ, a family that spans the globe and the ages. The apostle Paul said, “You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household” (Ephesians 2:19). We’re loved by the ever-present God, who said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).

Whatever you’re facing today, your heavenly Father is present with you. Allow Him to help you as you step into life’s uncertainties and challenges. He’s with you.

Reflect & Pray

When have you felt lonely? When experiencing this sense of isolation, how do you respond to it?

Thank You, Father, that because of Your abiding presence, I’m never alone.

Discover more about being lonely by reading Alone Instead of Lonely by Reclaim Today.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Saturday, December 20, 2025

The Right Lines of Work

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. — John 12:32

Very few of us have any understanding of why Jesus Christ died. It wasn’t out of sympathy. If sympathy is all that human beings require, then Christ’s cross was a farce; there was no need for it. But the cross was necessary. What the world needs isn’t just a little bit of love, as so many preach today; it’s a surgical operation.

When you are face–to–face with a soul in spiritual difficulty, remind yourself of Jesus Christ on the cross. If the soul you’re counseling can get to God by some path other than the cross, then the cross is unnecessary. If you’re holding out your own sympathy as that other path, you’re a traitor to Jesus Christ. You have to keep your soul rightly related to God and pour out for others in the way he has designated, not in the human way of sympathy and understanding. The dominant note in spiritual guidance today is amiable religiosity; we have to avoid this, or we ignore God and his gospel.

The one thing New Testament workers have to do is exhibit Jesus Christ crucified, to lift him up all the time. Any doctrine that isn’t embedded in the cross will lead astray. When we believe in Jesus Christ and base our message on the reality of redemption, the people we talk to will inevitably be concerned by what we say. The thing that remains and deepens is the worker’s simple relationship to Jesus Christ. Our usefulness to God depends on that and that alone.

God’s workers can’t be poetic; we have to be surgical. Our calling is to uncover sin and reveal Jesus Christ as savior, not to give beautiful discourses. We have to go deep when we preach to others, as deep as God has gone with us. We have to be discerning in sensing which Scriptures will bring the truth straight home to another soul, and then apply them fearlessly.

Micah 1-3; Revelation 11

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

The vital relationship which the Christian has to the Bible is not that he worships the letter, but that the Holy Spirit makes the words of the Bible spirit and life to him. 

The Psychology of Redemption, 1066 L

Deuteronomy 30, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: SUCH A THING TO DO - December 19, 2025

The God of the universe was born into the poverty of a peasant and spent his first night in the cows’ feed trough. He left the glory of heaven and moved into our neighborhood. Who could have imagined he would do such a thing?

What a world he left. Our classiest mansion would be a tree trunk to him. God became a one-celled embryo and entered the womb of Mary. He became like us. Just look at the places he was willing to go: feed troughs, carpentry shops, badlands, and cemeteries. The places he went to reach us show how far he will go to touch us. He loves to be with the ones he loves.

In the Manger

Deuteronomy 30

 Here’s what will happen. While you’re out among the nations where God has dispersed you and the blessings and curses come in just the way I have set them before you, and you and your children take them seriously and come back to God, your God, and obey him with your whole heart and soul according to everything that I command you today, God, your God, will restore everything you lost; he’ll have compassion on you; he’ll come back and pick up the pieces from all the places where you were scattered. No matter how far away you end up, God, your God, will get you out of there and bring you back to the land your ancestors once possessed. It will be yours again. He will give you a good life and make you more numerous than your ancestors.

6–7  God, your God, will cut away the thick calluses on your heart and your children’s hearts, freeing you to love God, your God, with your whole heart and soul and live, really live. God, your God, will put all these curses on your enemies who hated you and were out to get you.

8–9  And you will make a new start, listening obediently to God, keeping all his commandments that I’m commanding you today. God, your God, will outdo himself in making things go well for you: you’ll have babies, get calves, grow crops, and enjoy an all-around good life. Yes, God will start enjoying you again, making things go well for you just as he enjoyed doing it for your ancestors.

10  But only if you listen obediently to God, your God, and keep the commandments and regulations written in this Book of Revelation. Nothing halfhearted here; you must return to God, your God, totally, heart and soul, holding nothing back.

11–14  This commandment that I’m commanding you today isn’t too much for you, it’s not out of your reach. It’s not on a high mountain—you don’t have to get mountaineers to climb the peak and bring it down to your level and explain it before you can live it. And it’s not across the ocean—you don’t have to send sailors out to get it, bring it back, and then explain it before you can live it. No. The word is right here and now—as near as the tongue in your mouth, as near as the heart in your chest. Just do it!

15  Look at what I’ve done for you today: I’ve placed in front of you

Life and Good

Death and Evil.

16  And I command you today: Love God, your God. Walk in his ways. Keep his commandments, regulations, and rules so that you will live, really live, live exuberantly, blessed by God, your God, in the land you are about to enter and possess.

17–18  But I warn you: If you have a change of heart, refuse to listen obediently, and willfully go off to serve and worship other gods, you will most certainly die. You won’t last long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

19–20  I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you today: I place before you Life and Death, Blessing and Curse. Choose life so that you and your children will live. And love God, your God, listening obediently to him, firmly embracing him. Oh yes, he is life itself, a long life settled on the soil that God, your God, promised to give your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Friday, December 19, 2025

by Leslie Koh

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Acts 12:5-11

 All the time that Peter was under heavy guard in the jailhouse, the church prayed for him most strenuously.

6  Then the time came for Herod to bring him out for the kill. That night, even though shackled to two soldiers, one on either side, Peter slept like a baby. And there were guards at the door keeping their eyes on the place. Herod was taking no chances!

7–9  Suddenly there was an angel at his side and light flooding the room. The angel shook Peter and got him up: “Hurry!” The handcuffs fell off his wrists. The angel said, “Get dressed. Put on your shoes.” Peter did it. Then, “Grab your coat and let’s get out of here.” Peter followed him, but didn’t believe it was really an angel—he thought he was dreaming.

10–11  Past the first guard and then the second, they came to the iron gate that led into the city. It swung open before them on its own, and they were out on the street, free as the breeze. At the first intersection the angel left him, going his own way. That’s when Peter realized it was no dream. “I can’t believe it—this really happened! The Master sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s vicious little production and the spectacle the Jewish mob was looking forward to.”

Today's Insights

Peter “was sleeping” the “night before Herod was to bring him to trial” (Acts 12:6). He’d already been unjustly imprisoned by King Herod for eight days and would’ve been sentenced the following day. And, like James, his fellow apostle, he too would’ve been executed (vv. 2-3). But “the church was earnestly praying to God for him” (v. 5; see vv. 11-12). During his imprisonment, Peter experienced the peace that only Jesus could give (see John 14:27).

In the Old Testament, David also had confident trust in God and experienced His peace: “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety” (Psalm 4:8; see 3:5). No matter what we’re facing today, we can turn our situation over to God, knowing that we can trust Him and experience the peace He alone provides (Philippians 4:6-7).

Resting in God

The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers. Acts 12:6

My neighbor Sam returned home one night without his car. “It was stolen,” he told his wife, then added, “I’m going to sleep. I’ll sort it out tomorrow.” His wife was flabbergasted. She couldn’t understand how Sam could be so calm, but he explained, “What else can I do? Panicking won’t make any difference.”

My ever-sensible neighbor could see there was no point worrying. He trusted that the authorities would be able to find his missing car later—which they did.

Did the apostle Peter feel likewise after being thrown into prison (Acts 12:4)? He was likely to face execution, yet the usually impulsive disciple “was sleeping between two soldiers” (v. 6). The angel had to “[strike] Peter on the side” to wake him up (v. 7)—suggesting that he was completely calm and at peace. Was it because he knew his life was in God’s hands? Verses 9 and 11 suggest that it wouldn’t have mattered whether he was rescued or not; perhaps he recalled the assurance of salvation and glory that Jesus had given him (Matthew 19:28), as well as Christ’s call to simply “follow me” and not worry about what would happen to him (John 21:22).

No matter what we’re facing today, we can trust that God holds our future—both on earth and in heaven—in His mighty hands. Perhaps then we can sleep in peace more easily.

Reflect & Pray

What worries keep you awake at night? How can you learn to surrender them to God and hold on to His promises?

Dear God, I know that my life and future are in Your loving and mighty hands. Please help me to keep trusting You.

For further study, read Putting Worry to Work.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Friday, December 19, 2025

What to Concentrate On

I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. — Matthew 10:34

Never be sympathetic with the soul whose situation makes you conclude that God is hard. God is more tender than we can imagine. Occasionally, he asks us to be the hard ones so that he can be the tender one. Sometimes toughness is what’s needed, especially when you’re deal–ing with souls who can’t get through to God because they have some secret thing they’re refusing to give up. They might admit it’s wrong, but secretly they think, “I no more intend to give that up than to fly.” It’s impossible to deal sympathetically with someone like this. We have to dig down to the source of their resistance, until they respond with antagonism and resentment to our message. People want God’s blessing, but they can’t stand anything that cuts straight to the quick.

If God has had his way with you, the message you’ll deliver as his servant will be one of merciless insistence on a single point that gets right at the root of the problem. Otherwise, there will be no healing. You have to drive home the message until the person has no choice but to apply it individually. Try to get at people where they are, until they realize what they lack. Then erect the standard of Jesus Christ for their lives. If they reply, “We can never live like that!” tell them, “Jesus Christ says you must.” They will wonder how it’s possible. The only way is with a new Spirit, which Jesus promised to all who ask. Guide them to Luke 11:13: “How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

There must be a sense of need in your listener before your message will be of use. Millions of people are happy without God. If people were happy and moral before Jesus came, why did he come? Because that kind of happiness and peace is on a wrong level. Jesus Christ came to send a sword through every kind of peace that isn’t based on a personal relationship with him.

Jonah 1-4; Revelation 10

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else. “Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord”;… 

The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 537 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Friday, December 19, 2025

HOW CHRISTMAS RIGHTSIZES THE WORLD - #10160

One of the amusing sides of Christmas is people shopping in departments they never otherwise shop in - generally clueless. Let me give you an example that I can relate to - men shopping in the ladies clothing department. Oh, we're a mess. Now, if you need a good laugh; you're feeling a little down, you ought to go to the ladies garment department somewhere; especially the more personal the item is, the funnier it is to watch men shopping. They're slightly embarrassed, generally incompetent at what they're doing, and it's very important if you're going to go shopping for a woman during the Christmas season that you get the woman's size: your wife, your mother, your sister, your girlfriend, or whatever. And you trust that the tags are right, of course, on the size. You know that a small had better be a small, because you don't know anything. A large had better be a large. Now, you want to know how to sow some confusion and have some fun? (Don't anybody do this, please.) Imagine if someone snuck into that store late one night and just changed the tags around. Well, people would make a lot of wrong choices, all because the sizes were wrong. Now, that doesn't happen to clothes, but it does happen to people, and it takes the Christmas Story to straighten out small and large.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How Christmas Rightsizes the World."

Our word for today from the Word of God is found in Luke 1:52-53. Mary is pregnant; she's carrying the baby Jesus, and we get a little idea of the insight God has given her as she prays this prayer, what is often called The Magnificat. She says, "God has brought down rulers from their thrones, but He has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things, but He has sent the rich away empty."

You know, Mary has the right sizes on the right people. She has the smalls on the small, and the bigs on the big. You see, the world would call these the big people - those people who are called rulers and rich. But she says, "the rulers have been brought down. The rich have been sent away empty." God's heroes - the people the world calls small. They're identified as the humble, who He lifts up, and the hungry, who He fills up.

You see, what is a big deal to men is a little deal to God - big deal like money, gifts, title, fame. That's a little deal to God. Conversely, what's a little deal to men: "You don't have much money. You don't have much influence. Not many people know you. You're average." See, that's a big deal to God. You hear people say all the time, "Well, I'm just a... I'm just a student. I'm just a mother. I'm just a secretary. I'm just a helper. I'm just a Sunday school teacher. I'm just a laborer. It's just a small church. It's just a little class. I'm just a choir member." With God, there are no "just a's," not in God's value system.

Bethlehem, we're told, was "little among the villages, but out of you (little village) will come the Prince," Mary, the peasant but the Mother of God's Son. Shepherds, the outcasts of their society, the first evangelists. I wonder if you have the two qualifications for God's heroes: humble, which means you are totally depending on the Lord, and hungry, restless to know and serve Him more. God likes to make folks like that big for Him - the humble and the hungry.

Remember to give attention to the people others ignore. They're the big people to God - children, the poor, the powerless. Oh, by the way, don't ever call yourself "just a..." again. God does His biggest things through the smallest instruments. Call big what God calls big. Make sure you've got the right size.

Luke 7:31-50, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: A MOMENT LIKE NO OTHER - December 18, 2025

It was an ordinary night with ordinary sheep and ordinary shepherds. Then the black sky exploded with brightness. Trees that had been shadows jumped into clarity. Sheep that had been silent became a chorus of curiosity. One minute the shepherd was dead asleep, the next he was rubbing his eyes and staring into the face of an angel! The night was ordinary no more. The angel came in the night because it’s when lights are best seen, and when they are most needed.

It all happened in a most remarkable moment—a moment like no other. God became a man. Divinity arrived. Heaven opened and place her most precious one in a human womb. God had come near.

In the mystery of Christmas, we find its majesty. The mystery of how God became flesh, why he chose to come at all, and how much he must love his people.

God Came Near

Luke 7:31-50

  “How can I account for the people of this generation? They’re like spoiled children complaining to their parents, ‘We wanted to skip rope and you were always too tired; we wanted to talk but you were always too busy.’ John the Baptizer came fasting and you called him crazy. The Son of Man came feasting and you called him a lush. Opinion polls don’t count for much, do they? The proof of the pudding is in the eating.”

Anointing His Feet

36–39  One of the Pharisees asked him over for a meal. He went to the Pharisee’s house and sat down at the dinner table. Just then a woman of the village, the town harlot, having learned that Jesus was a guest in the home of the Pharisee, came with a bottle of very expensive perfume and stood at his feet, weeping, raining tears on his feet. Letting down her hair, she dried his feet, kissed them, and anointed them with the perfume. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man was the prophet I thought he was, he would have known what kind of woman this is who is falling all over him.”

40  Jesus said to him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”

“Oh? Tell me.”

41–42  “Two men were in debt to a banker. One owed five hundred silver pieces, the other fifty. Neither of them could pay up, and so the banker canceled both debts. Which of the two would be more grateful?”

43–47  Simon answered, “I suppose the one who was forgiven the most.”

“That’s right,” said Jesus. Then turning to the woman, but speaking to Simon, he said, “Do you see this woman? I came to your home; you provided no water for my feet, but she rained tears on my feet and dried them with her hair. You gave me no greeting, but from the time I arrived she hasn’t quit kissing my feet. You provided nothing for freshening up, but she has soothed my feet with perfume. Impressive, isn’t it? She was forgiven many, many sins, and so she is very, very grateful. If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal.”

48  Then he spoke to her: “I forgive your sins.”

49  That set the dinner guests talking behind his back: “Who does he think he is, forgiving sins!”

50  He ignored them and said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Thursday, December 18, 2025

by Kirsten Holmberg

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Exodus 31:1-11

Bezalel and Oholiab

1–5  31 God spoke to Moses: “See what I’ve done; I’ve personally chosen Bezalel son of Uri, son of Hur of the tribe of Judah. I’ve filled him with the Spirit of God, giving him skill and know-how and expertise in every kind of craft to create designs and work in gold, silver, and bronze; to cut and set gemstones; to carve wood—he’s an all-around craftsman.

6–11  “Not only that, but I’ve given him Oholiab, son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan, to work with him. And to all who have an aptitude for crafts I’ve given the skills to make all the things I’ve commanded you: the Tent of Meeting, the Chest of The Testimony and its Atonement-Cover, all the implements for the Tent, the Table and its implements, the pure Lampstand and all its implements, the Altar of Incense, the Altar of Whole-Burnt-Offering and all its implements, the Washbasin and its base, the official vestments, the holy vestments for Aaron the priest and his sons in their priestly duties, the anointing oil, and the aromatic incense for the Holy Place—they’ll make everything just the way I’ve commanded you.”

Today's Insights

Bezalel and Oholiab are mentioned again in Exodus 35-38, as the Israelites prepared to put into action the instructions God had given them. But the construction of the “tent of meeting” (31:7) wasn’t just for those specially gifted by God (v. 6). The entire nation had the opportunity to participate. Moses said, “From what you have, take an offering for the Lord” (35:5). Notice that the command was to give “from what you have.” Then Moses said, “All who are skilled among you are to come and make everything the Lord has commanded” (v. 10). The record says, “Everyone who was willing and whose heart moved them came and brought an offering to the Lord for the work on the tent of meeting” (v. 21). God has equipped each of us to contribute something, whether skill or time or material.

Gifted by God

I have given ability to all the skilled workers to make everything I have commanded you. Exodus 31:6

Virtuoso composer Ludwig van Beethoven is one of the most celebrated musicians in history. Nearly two centuries after his death in 1827, his compositions are still among the most performed pieces. A study of Beethoven’s DNA, however, indicates he may not have been born with some of his abilities—as we might assume. When his genes were compared to those of 14,500 other people who’d shown an ability to keep rhythm (merely one aspect of musical talent), Beethoven ranked surprisingly low.

Beethoven also had ample opportunity and exposure to music (which developed the aptitude he did have). Yet neither talent nor opportunity fully account for God’s role in endowing us with the abilities we have. Our Creator equipped two men, Bezalel and Oholiab, with specific skills to be used in building the tabernacle. God filled Bezalel “with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—to make artistic designs” and appointed Oholiab “to help him” (Exodus 31:3-6). God gave “ability to all the skilled workers to make everything [He] commanded” (v. 6).

Few of us will work on projects as significant as God’s tabernacle. And our abilities may never be recorded in history’s annals. Yet God has equipped us with the skills, aptitudes, and experiences He wants us to share with the world. May we serve Him faithfully, in His strength and for His glory.

Reflect & Pray

What skills and abilities has God given you? How might you serve Him with them?

Thank You, Father, for the abilities You’ve given me. Please help me use them for Your glory.

For further study, watch Gifts with Your Name on Them.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Thursday, December 18, 2025

The Test of Loyalty

Only the loyal soul believes that God engineers circumstances. We take enormous liberties with our circumstances, treating the things that happen as if they’d been engineered by human beings. We say we believe God is in control, but we don’t really. If we did, we’d be faithful to him in every circumstance; we’d have just one loyalty, and that would be to our Lord.

Most of us tend to go about our lives thinking we’re in control. Then, suddenly, God comes in and breaks up our circumstances, and we have the shocking realization that he was in control all along and that we’ve been disloyal to him by not recognizing it. We didn’t see the special thing he was trying to create with our circumstances, and now the thing is gone, never to be repeated all the days of our life; the test of loyalty always comes in this way. We have to learn that if we will worship God in difficult times, he will show us that he can alter our circumstances in two seconds flat, whenever he chooses.

Loyalty to Jesus Christ is what we stumble over today. We will be loyal to work, to service, to anything else; just don’t ask us to be loyal to Jesus Christ. Many Christians are intensely impatient of talk about loyalty to Jesus. Our Lord is dethroned more emphatically by Christian workers than by the world. God is turned into a machine for generating blessings, and Jesus into a worker among workers.

The idea we should have isn’t that we work for God but that we are so loyal to him that he can work through us. God wants to use us as he used his own Son. When Jesus said, “You will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8), he meant “witnesses who satisfy me in any circumstance I put you in, witnesses I am counting on for extreme service, with no complaining on your part and no explanation on mine.”

Obadiah; Revelation 9

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest.

Disciples Indeed, 395 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Thursday, December 18, 2025

THE CHRISTMAS KNOCKOUT - #10159

Every day the people who broadcast the news to us have to decide what's going to be big news and what's going to be little news. The big news they talk about first. And the little news may not get mentioned at all.

Unfortunately, there are often disasters that occur every day, and they may or may not be big news. Most disasters produce casualties, but casualties are sort of little news. That means people just got hurt. Then there are fatalities. And when there are fatalities, well, sadly, that makes it big news - somebody was killed. The fatality factor seems to propel news to page one. The story of Christmas has a casualty in it, a fatality and a champion.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Christmas Knockout."

Now, I know you thought this was about Christmas and it is. But we're suddenly going to be in the Garden of Eden for a minute with our word for today from the Word of God which is in Genesis 3:15. The great tragedy; perhaps the greatest tragedy of history has just taken place as Adam and Eve have chosen to disobey God. Sin has entered a perfect world, and God is already talking about the solution.

He speaks to the serpent, who is the Devil, and says, "I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers. He (that's her offspring) will crush your head and you (that's the serpent) will strike his heel." Did you know that Christmas began in the Garden of Eden? The answer for sin began at the moment sin entered the world. Because God says here there will come a man ultimately descended from Adam and Eve - from the very people who perpetrated sin in the world - a man will come who will crush the serpent.

Notice the verbs here. It says the serpent, Satan, will strike the heel of the Messiah who will come. Satan's going to be able to hurt the Redeemer. That happened at the cross. But it was canceled three days later when Jesus Christ walked out of His grave. But notice what the Redeemer is going to do to the serpent - crush his head. That's the difference between a casualty and a fatality. When the Redeemer comes, Satan will receive a death blow He says.

You need to know that the Devil, for all of his interference in your life right now, is a dead man. Colossians 2:15 says "Christ disarmed the powers and the authorities, and made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." If you're in Christ, if you belong to Jesus, the most the Devil can do is to wound you. You may be a casualty, but thank God you will never be a fatality. Satan tried over and over again to wipe out the Messianic line - the family from which Jesus would come. And then he tried to wipe out all the babies that were the age of baby Jesus. It didn't work. He's beaten!

Why would you ever let the Devil or his people beat you or intimidate you? God has entered human history in person. Everywhere Jesus went the forces of darkness surrendered. Everywhere Jesus goes now through your life, those forces of darkness still must surrender.

So, Christmas isn't just a warm and fuzzy little story about a baby in a stable and a star. In the battle for human lives, in the battle you're facing today, Christmas is God's knockout punch.

Deuteronomy 29, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: HIS KINGDOM WILL NEVER END - December 17, 2025

In Bethlehem, the human being who best understood who God was and what he was doing was a teenage girl in a smelly stable. As Mary looked into the face of the baby, she saw her son, her Lord, his majesty—she couldn’t take her eyes off him. Somehow Mary knew she was holding God. So this is he she thought. She remembered the words of the angel: “His kingdom will never end.”

He looked like anything but a King. His cry, though strong and healthy, was still the helpless and piercing cry of a baby. Majesty in the midst of mundane. Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat. Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager, and in the presence of a carpenter. God came near. And as Luke 1:33 says, “His kingdom will never end.”

God Came Near

Deuteronomy 29

These are the terms of the Covenant that God commanded Moses to make with the People of Israel in the land of Moab, renewing the Covenant he made with them at Horeb.

Moses Blesses Israel on the Plains of Moab

2–4  Moses called all Israel together and said, You’ve seen with your own eyes everything that God did in Egypt to Pharaoh and his servants, and to the land itself—the massive trials to which you were eyewitnesses, the great signs and miracle-wonders. But God didn’t give you an understanding heart or perceptive eyes or attentive ears until right now, this very day.

5–6  I took you through the wilderness for forty years and through all that time the clothes on your backs didn’t wear out, the sandals on your feet didn’t wear out, and you lived well without bread and wine and beer, proving to you that I am in fact God, your God.

7–8  When you arrived here in this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan met us primed for war but we beat them. We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

9  Diligently keep the words of this Covenant. Do what they say so that you will live well and wisely in every detail.

10–13  You are all standing here today in the Presence of God, your God—the heads of your tribes, your leaders, your officials, all Israel: your babies, your wives, the resident foreigners in your camps who fetch your firewood and water—ready to cross over into the solemnly sworn Covenant that God, your God, is making with you today, the Covenant that this day confirms that you are his people and he is God, your God, just as he promised you and your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

14–21  I’m not making this Covenant and its oath with you alone. I am making it with you who are standing here today in the Presence of God, our God, yes, but also with those who are not here today. You know the conditions in which we lived in Egypt and how we crisscrossed through nations in our travels. You got an eyeful of their obscenities, their wood and stone, silver and gold junk-gods. Don’t let down your guard lest even now, today, someone—man or woman, clan or tribe—gets sidetracked from God, our God, and gets involved with the no-gods of the nations; lest some poisonous weed sprout and spread among you, a person who hears the words of the Covenant-oath but exempts himself, thinking, “I’ll live just the way I please, thank you,” and ends up ruining life for everybody. God won’t let him off the hook. God’s anger and jealousy will erupt like a volcano against that person. The curses written in this book will bury him. God will delete his name from the records. God will separate him out from all the tribes of Israel for special punishment, according to all the curses of the Covenant written in this Book of Revelation.

22–23  The next generation, your children who come after you and the foreigner who comes from a far country, will be appalled when they see the widespread devastation, how God made the whole land sick. They’ll see a fire-blackened wasteland of brimstone and salt flats, nothing planted, nothing growing, not so much as a blade of grass anywhere—like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which God overthrew in fiery rage.

24  All the nations will ask, “Why did God do this to this country? What on earth could have made him this angry?”

25–28  Your children will answer, “Because they abandoned the Covenant of the God of their ancestors that he made with them after he got them out of Egypt; they went off and worshiped other gods, submitted to gods they’d never heard of before, gods they had no business dealing with. So God’s anger erupted against that land and all the curses written in this book came down on it. God, furiously angry, pulled them, roots and all, out of their land and dumped them in another country, as you can see.”

29  God, our God, will take care of the hidden things but the revealed things are our business. It’s up to us and our children to attend to all the terms in this Revelation.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Wednesday, December 17, 2025

by James Banks

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Isaiah 43:1-7

When You’re Between a Rock and a Hard Place

1–4  43 But now, God’s Message,

the God who made you in the first place, Jacob,

the One who got you started, Israel:

“Don’t be afraid, I’ve redeemed you.

I’ve called your name. You’re mine.

When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you.

When you’re in rough waters, you will not go down.

When you’re between a rock and a hard place,

it won’t be a dead end—

Because I am God, your personal God,

The Holy of Israel, your Savior.

I paid a huge price for you:

all of Egypt, with rich Cush and Seba thrown in!

That’s how much you mean to me!

That’s how much I love you!

I’d sell off the whole world to get you back,

trade the creation just for you.

5–7  “So don’t be afraid: I’m with you.

I’ll round up all your scattered children,

pull them in from east and west.

I’ll send orders north and south:

‘Send them back.

Return my sons from distant lands,

my daughters from faraway places.

I want them back, every last one who bears my name,

every man, woman, and child

Whom I created for my glory,

yes, personally formed and made each one.’ ”

Today's Insights

God disciplined His covenant people because of their unrepentant unfaithfulness and exiled them to Babylon for seventy years (Isaiah 39:6-7). But He wouldn’t forget His covenant or abandon His chosen people. In Isaiah 40-66, the prophet speaks of the return from exile and Judah’s future restoration. In chapter 43, God promised He’d bring them back to the promised land. They were disciplined, not abandoned, for He said, “I am with you” (v. 5). He reminded them that He’s still their God—their creator, redeemer, protector, and savior (vv. 7-15). As God’s people, we need not be afraid of the trials we face or the uncertainties of our future. Because we belong to Him, we can be assured of His unfailing love (vv. 1-3). He tells us, “You are precious and honored in my sight” (v. 4). He loves us and won’t forget us.

Precious to God

You are precious and honored in my sight. Isaiah 43:4

The painting hung on the wall of a home for years, unnoticed and forgotten, until one day it fell. When it was taken to an art restorer for repairs, he discovered it was a long-lost Rembrandt masterpiece titled The Adoration of the Magi. It had been thought that only copies of the work remained, but here was the original. Suddenly the painting’s value skyrocketed to hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Bible paints another picture of underestimated value and forgotten worth. Isaiah the prophet, inspired by the Holy Spirit, told God’s people that even though they would be taken away to a foreign land where they would suffer and be devalued, He would still be with them: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine,” He assured them (Isaiah 43:1). Though they would “pass through the waters” and “walk through the fire” (v. 2), His faithfulness to them would not change. With words that point to His coming kingdom in Christ, God promised that He would one day restore “everyone who is called by my name” (v. 7) and bring them home to Him.

God will one day gather all who are His because they “are precious and honored in [His] sight” (v. 4), each one an original! Our Creator values us because of His infinite kindness and mercy. The world may overlook us, but He never will.

Reflect & Pray

How does God’s kindness in Christ show that you are precious to Him? How much is He worth to you?

Saving God, how amazing is Your perfect love, that You would give Yourself for me!

Learn more here about having a personal relationship with God.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Wednesday, December 17, 2025

Redemption Creates the Need It Satisfies

The gospel of God creates a sense of needing the gospel. Paul says, “If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled”—to whom? To those who behave immorally? No—“to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel” (2 Corinthians 4:3–4). By “unbelievers,” Paul means those who haven’t had the life of God created in them through personal redemption. As redemption creates the life of God in a human soul, it also creates the things belonging to that life, including a sense of needing the Lord. It is God who creates the need of which no human being is conscious until God manifests himself; nothing can satisfy the need but that which created the need. This is the meaning of redemption: it both creates and satisfies.

The majority of people have no sense of needing the gospel because they have morality and self–sufficiency well within their grasp. Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you” (Matthew 7:7). This is true, but God can’t give until we ask, and we won’t ask if we don’t feel a need. It isn’t that God withholds; this is simply how he has constituted things on the basis of the redemption. Through our asking, God sets a process in motion by which he creates what doesn’t exist until we ask. The inner reality of redemption is that it creates all the time.

“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32). We preach our own experiences, and people are interested, but no sense of need is awakened. But when Jesus Christ is lifted up, the Spirit of God will create a conscious need of him. Behind the preaching of the gospel is the creative redemption of God at work in people’s souls. Personal testimony is never what saves: “The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life” (John 6:63).

Amos 7-9; Revelation 8

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

We are not to preach the doing of good things; good deeds are not to be preached, they are to be performed.

So Send I You, 1330 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Wednesday, December 17, 2025

GREEN LIGHTS ON THE RESCUE ROAD - #10158

I was speeding along the Interstate - legally speeding of course - and this van passed me. He pulled into the right lane and then he seemed to be maintaining a pretty consistent speed. For many miles, I ended up traveling behind him. I noticed there was something unusual about this van - it had a plastic bubble that was mounted just above the roof. I had some ideas of why it might be there, especially in light of the words printed on the side of the van. It gave the name of a large express mail delivery service, followed by these words, "Critical Care Van." Later, actually a law enforcement friend of mine confirmed my theory of what that vehicle was actually carrying - parts. Body parts needed for transplants that can save lives. And the bubble on top? My friend said that's a strobe light that actually turns traffic lights green as the van approaches them! Wonder how I could get one of those for me?

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Green Lights on the Rescue Road."

The driver of that Critical Care Van is, of course, on an important mission and he needs green lights all the way. So do we, if we're carrying out a mission that's been given to us by our Lord. See, He's got assignments for all of us who belong to Him. He's got assignments for you. Maybe you're living out His assignment right now, or maybe you're holding back on saying "yes" to an assignment He's trying to give you. In either case, there's something decisive that you need to know. When you're on a mission for Jesus, He's the One who turns the lights green as you go. He actually promised.

1 Thessalonians 5:24, our word for today from the Word of God, is one of the places where He made that promise. It simply says, "The One who calls you is faithful and He will do it." That's it! When Jesus prompts you to do something for Him, He isn't about to leave you stranded somewhere in the middle of His mission and in the middle of His will. You can't see how it's going to get done, how it's ever going to come together. He says, "I got you into this, I'll see that it gets done!"

Where's the money going to come from? His problem. If it's God's will, it's God's bill. Where are the people you need going to come from? He's already getting them ready for you and you ready for them. How are you going to get over the huge obstacles that are in the way? The God who parts Red Seas is going to make the way for you. How can you possibly do this thing when you are so flawed, so inadequate, so ordinary? Since when is this about what you can do? With God's assignment always comes God's enabling!

Look, Jesus might be summoning you right now to undertake some work for Him. It may be here, it may be thousands of miles from here. Maybe He's summoning you to touch some lives for Him, maybe a few in your immediate world, or maybe more people than you could ever imagine. But many times, all we see are the red lights ahead. So we resist our Master's call and we miss His amazing will. Your Lord has promised to turn those red lights green - not before you move out for Him, but as you're moving out for Him.

Just like that Critical Care Van, you're carrying something that lives depend on - the Good News of Jesus Christ. There are people that He is depending on you to tell, so they can be rescued from an eternity without God and without hope. Don't let those red lights keep you sitting in the parking lot.

Now start driving toward that mission God has given you, and leave those green lights to Him!

Deuteronomy 28, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: WHEN HOPE WAS BORN - December 16, 2025

When Christ was born, so was our hope. This is why I love Christmas. The event invites us to believe the wildest of promises: He did away with every barrier, fence, sin, bent, debt, and grave. Anything that might keep us from him was demolished. He only awaits our word to walk through the door. Invite him in, escort him to the seat of honor, and pull out his chair. Clear the table; clear the calendar. Call the kids and neighbors. Christmas is here. Christ is here.

One request from you, and God will do again what he did then: scatter the night with everlasting light. He’ll be born in you. Let “Silent Night” be sung. Every heart can be a manger. Every day can be a Christmas. The Christmas miracle—a yearlong celebration!

Because of Bethlehem

Deuteronomy 28

If you listen obediently to the Voice of God, your God, and heartily obey all his commandments that I command you today, God, your God, will place you on high, high above all the nations of the world. All these blessings will come down on you and spread out beyond you because you have responded to the Voice of God, your God:

God’s blessing inside the city,

God’s blessing in the country;

God’s blessing on your children,

the crops of your land,

the young of your livestock,

the calves of your herds,

the lambs of your flocks.

God’s blessing on your basket and bread bowl;

God’s blessing in your coming in,

God’s blessing in your going out.

7  God will defeat your enemies who attack you. They’ll come at you on one road and run away on seven roads.

8  God will order a blessing on your barns and workplaces; he’ll bless you in the land that God, your God, is giving you.

9  God will form you as a people holy to him, just as he promised you, if you keep the commandments of God, your God, and live the way he has shown you.

10  All the peoples on Earth will see you living under the Name of God and hold you in respectful awe.

11–14  God will lavish you with good things: children from your womb, offspring from your animals, and crops from your land, the land that God promised your ancestors that he would give you. God will throw open the doors of his sky vaults and pour rain on your land on schedule and bless the work you take in hand. You will lend to many nations but you yourself won’t have to take out a loan. God will make you the head, not the tail; you’ll always be the top dog, never the bottom dog, as you obediently listen to and diligently keep the commands of God, your God, that I am commanding you today. Don’t swerve an inch to the right or left from the words that I command you today by going off following and worshiping other gods.

15–19  Here’s what will happen if you don’t obediently listen to the Voice of God, your God, and diligently keep all the commandments and guidelines that I’m commanding you today. All these curses will come down hard on you:

God’s curse in the city,

God’s curse in the country;

God’s curse on your basket and bread bowl;

God’s curse on your children,

the crops of your land,

the young of your livestock,

the calves of your herds,

the lambs of your flocks.

God’s curse in your coming in,

God’s curse in your going out.

20  God will send The Curse, The Confusion, The Contrariness down on everything you try to do until you’ve been destroyed and there’s nothing left of you—all because of your evil pursuits that led you to abandon me.

21  God will infect you with The Disease, wiping you right off the land that you’re going in to possess.

22  God will set consumption and fever and rash and seizures and dehydration and blight and jaundice on you. They’ll hunt you down until they kill you.

23–24  The sky over your head will become an iron roof, the ground under your feet, a slab of concrete. From out of the skies God will rain ash and dust down on you until you suffocate.

25–26  God will defeat you by enemy attack. You’ll come at your enemies on one road and run away on seven roads. All the kingdoms of Earth will see you as a horror. Carrion birds and animals will boldly feast on your dead body with no one to chase them away.

27–29  God will hit you hard with the boils of Egypt, hemorrhoids, scabs, and an incurable itch. He’ll make you go crazy and blind and senile. You’ll grope around in the middle of the day like a blind person feeling his way through a lifetime of darkness; you’ll never get to where you’re going. Not a day will go by that you’re not abused and robbed. And no one is going to help you.

30–31  You’ll get engaged to a woman and another man will take her for his mistress; you’ll build a house and never live in it; you’ll plant a garden and never eat so much as a carrot; you’ll watch your ox get butchered and not get a single steak from it; your donkey will be stolen from in front of you and you’ll never see it again; your sheep will be sent off to your enemies and no one will lift a hand to help you.

32–34  Your sons and daughters will be shipped off to foreigners; you’ll wear your eyes out looking vainly for them, helpless to do a thing. Your crops and everything you work for will be eaten and used by foreigners; you’ll spend the rest of your lives abused and knocked around. What you see will drive you crazy.

35  God will hit you with painful boils on your knees and legs and no healing or relief from head to foot.

36–37  God will lead you and the king you set over you to a country neither you nor your ancestors have heard of; there you’ll worship other gods, no-gods of wood and stone. Among all the peoples where God will take you, you’ll be treated as a lesson or a proverb—a horror!

38–42  You’ll plant sacks and sacks of seed in the field but get almost nothing—the grasshoppers will devour it. You’ll plant and hoe and prune vineyards but won’t drink or put up any wine—the worms will devour them. You’ll have groves of olive trees everywhere, but you’ll have no oil to rub on your face or hands—the olives will have fallen off. You’ll have sons and daughters but they won’t be yours for long—they’ll go off to captivity. Locusts will take over all your trees and crops.

43–44  The foreigner who lives among you will climb the ladder, higher and higher, while you go deeper and deeper into the hole. He’ll lend to you; you won’t lend to him. He’ll be the head; you’ll be the tail.

45–46  All these curses are going to come on you. They’re going to hunt you down and get you until there’s nothing left of you because you didn’t obediently listen to the Voice of God, your God, and diligently keep his commandments and guidelines that I commanded you. The curses will serve as signposts, warnings to your children ever after.

47–48  Because you didn’t serve God, your God, out of the joy and goodness of your heart in the great abundance, you’ll have to serve your enemies whom God will send against you. Life will be famine and drought, rags and wretchedness; then he’ll put an iron yoke on your neck until he’s destroyed you.

48–52  Yes, God will raise up a faraway nation against you, swooping down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you can’t understand, a mean-faced people, cruel to grandmothers and babies alike. They’ll ravage the young of your animals and the crops from your fields until you’re destroyed. They’ll leave nothing behind: no grain, no wine, no oil, no calves, no lambs—and finally, no you. They’ll lay siege to you while you’re huddled behind your town gates. They’ll knock those high, proud walls flat, those walls behind which you felt so safe. They’ll lay siege to your fortified cities all over the country, this country that God, your God, has given you.

53–55  And you’ll end up cannibalizing your own sons and daughters that God, your God, has given you. When the suffering from the siege gets extreme, you’re going to eat your own babies. The most gentle and caring man among you will turn hard, his eye evil, against his own brother, his cherished wife, and even the rest of his children who are still alive, refusing to share with them a scrap of meat from the cannibal child-stew he is eating. He’s lost everything, even his humanity, in the suffering of the siege that your enemy mounts against your fortified towns.

56–57  And the most gentle and caring woman among you, a woman who wouldn’t step on a wildflower, will turn hard, her eye evil, against her cherished husband, against her son, against her daughter, against even the afterbirth of her newborn infants; she plans to eat them in secret—she does eat them!—because she has lost everything, even her humanity, in the suffering of the siege that your enemy mounts against your fortified towns.

58–61  If you don’t diligently keep all the words of this Revelation written in this book, living in holy awe before This Name glorious and terrible, God, your God, then God will pound you with catastrophes, you and your children, huge interminable catastrophes, hideous interminable illnesses. He’ll bring back and stick you with every old Egyptian malady that once terrorized you. And yes, every disease and catastrophe imaginable—things not even written in the Book of this Revelation—God will bring on you until you’re destroyed.

62  Because you didn’t listen obediently to the Voice of God, your God, you’ll be left with a few pitiful stragglers in place of the dazzling stars-in-the-heavens multitude you had become.

63–66  And this is how things will end up: Just as God once enjoyed you, took pleasure in making life good for you, giving you many children, so God will enjoy getting rid of you, clearing you off the Earth. He’ll weed you out of the very soil that you are entering in to possess. He’ll scatter you to the four winds, from one end of the Earth to the other. You’ll worship all kinds of other gods, gods neither you nor your parents ever heard of, wood and stone no-gods. But you won’t find a home there, you’ll not be able to settle down. God will give you a restless heart, longing eyes, a homesick soul. You will live in constant jeopardy, terrified of every shadow, never knowing what you’ll meet around the next corner.

67  In the morning you’ll say, “I wish it were evening.” In the evening you’ll say, “I wish it were morning.” Afraid, terrorized at what’s coming next, afraid of the unknown, because of the sights you’ve witnessed.

68  God will ship you back to Egypt by a road I promised you’d never see again. There you’ll offer yourselves for sale, both men and women, as slaves to your enemies. And not a buyer to be found.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Tuesday, December 16, 2025

by Patricia Raybon

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Luke 10:25-34, 36-37

Defining “Neighbor”

25  Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?”

26  He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?”

27  He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”

28  “Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.”

29  Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define ‘neighbor’?”

30–32  Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.

33–35  “A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable.

36  “What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?”

37  “The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded.

Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”

Today's Insights

The key to understanding the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) lies in knowing how first-century Israel answered the question, “Who is my neighbor?” (v. 29). They’d distorted the command “love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) into “love your neighbor and hate your enemy” (Matthew 5:43). The Jews defined a neighbor as a fellow Israelite, for gentiles were accursed. For the Pharisees (experts in the law), it referred to a fellow Pharisee, for those who knew nothing of the law were accursed (John 7:49). Jesus turned this thinking upside down by making a hated Samaritan (people of mixed race whom the Jews viewed as heretics) the hero of the story. The Spirit can help us today to show compassion to others instead of simply passing by.

Who Is My Neighbor?

Go and do likewise. Luke 10:37

From her hospital bed, Marie Coble lit up when she saw the delivery driver whose help had likely saved her life. She’d fallen in her driveway and hit her head, causing a brain bleed. Seeing her injury, Raheem Cooper helped her while calling paramedics. Invited by family to visit her in the hospital, Raheem often brings sweet treats she enjoys to assist her recovery.

Their story brings to mind the parable of the Good Samaritan. The parable is Jesus’ reply to an expert’s question on what he must do to inherit eternal life. Do “what is written in the law,” Jesus said (Luke 10:26), including “love your neighbor as yourself” (v. 27). But the expert persisted, asking, “Who is my neighbor?” (v. 29).

Christ’s answer describes a man attacked by robbers, left half dead, and then ignored by two people—a priest and a Levite—who passed him by. “But a Samaritan . . . took pity on him,” “bandaged his wounds, . . . and took care of him” (vv. 33-34). Seeing the hurting man in need, the Samaritan’s help was active, urgent, and without bias—looking past race or creed to assist someone he could’ve ignored.

Thus, Jesus asked, "Which of these three was a neighbor to the man?" “The one who had mercy on him,” the expert said. Said Jesus, “Go and do likewise” (vv. 36-37). In Christ, we too can find the compassion to help a hurting person instead of passing by. It’s a lesson for all in sharing Jesus’ love.

Reflect & Pray

How do you need mercy? How can you show mercy?

Dear Father, may I look beyond differences to share Jesus’ mercy with others.

To learn more about mercy, read Living Justly, Loving Mercy.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Tuesday, December 16, 2025

Wrestling before God

Put on the full armor of God. . . And always keep on praying. — Ephesians 6:13,18

You have to wrestle against the things that prevent you from getting to God, and you have to wrestle in prayer for other souls. But never say that you wrestle with God in prayer; this idea is scripturally unfounded. Attempt to wrestle with God, and you will be crippled for the rest of your life.

“He touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched”

(Genesis 32:25). If God comes into your life in some way you don’t like, and you try, as Jacob did, to wrestle with him, you compel God to put your hip out of joint. You should wrestle; God doesn’t want you to hobble along weakly in his ways. Just make sure you’re wrestling the right things. Be someone who wrestles before God for other souls and against those things that would keep you from him, and you will be more than a conqueror through him (Romans 8:37).

Wrestling before God in prayer prevails in his kingdom, so long as the one praying is complete in Christ. If you ask me to pray for you and I’m not complete, my prayer counts for nothing. But if I’m complete in him, my prayer always prevails. I have to put on the full armor of God before I pray; prayer is effective only when there is completeness.

Always distinguish between God’s order and his permissive will. God’s order is unchangeable; the things he allows by his permissive will are what we have to wrestle against. God uses his permissive will providentially to turn us into his sons and daughters. Our reaction to the things he permits is what enables us to get at his order. He asks us to meet these things head–on, not to be like jellyfish, floating along and saying, “Oh, well, it’s the Lord’s will.” Beware of drifting lazily before God instead of putting up a glorious fight so that you may lay hold of his strength.

Amos 4-6; Revelation 7

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Am I learning how to use my Bible? The way to become complete for the Master’s service is to be well soaked in the Bible; some of us only exploit certain passages. Our Lord wants to give us continuous instruction out of His word; continuous instruction turns hearers into disciples. 

Approved Unto God, 11 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Tuesday, December 16, 2025

YOUR OWN PERSONAL UMPIRE - #10157

There are certain occupations where I think you need a particularly strong self image. For example, I would think a dentist needs a strong self image. I mean, he's a professional, he's helping people, but it's just hard to have so many people dreading what you do. Or in the world of sports, like a baseball umpire? Everybody thinks they can see better than the umpire can. You can tell because they keep yelling, "Hey, are you blind?" Because they don't agree with your call. Everybody thinks they have a higher IQ than you do. They keep commenting on the intelligence of an umpire negatively just because they don't agree with him.

But you couldn't have baseball without the umpires. I mean, can you imagine the players trying to agree on whether a guy was safe or out at second? That would end the game right there. Or how about letting the fans decide? Man, there would be chaos without the umpire. So, let's say there's a dramatic play at home plate. The winning run is sliding into home plate as the ball is thrown to the catcher, there's a cloud of dust, there are thousands of voices giving their opinion whether the runner was safe or not, but there's only one voice that matters. The umpire settles it.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Own Personal Umpire."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Colossians 3:15 where God says, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace." Notice here it says that "the peace of Christ should rule in your hearts." Now, that word in the original language of the New Testament means to be the judge; the one who awards the prize. In essence, "Let the peace of Christ be the umpire in your heart."

In other words, the peace of God is your own personal umpire. As you make each day's choices, you need some way to decide what should be safe and what should be out. Well, that's the peace of Christ. You've got a lot of choices. You've got right or wrong choices, and some of them are not covered by a specific rule in the Bible. You've got to decide which way to go in a lot of situations; which option is the one God wants.

Well, the Bible says, "Let the peace of Christ decide." Let it be the umpire. Now, this peace comes as you continue to bring a choice to God. You come to Him with a blank piece of paper and you say, "God, you know what I'd like, but I'm not going to give you a contract to sign. This is my blank piece of paper. What do you want?" And as you pray it through, I think you'll find that one way you're supposed to go. One road feels right most of the time when you're praying about it when it's just you and Jesus - as you pray about it over and over again.

Now, I'm not talking about rushed prayer here. You've got to have time to let Him put His thoughts into your heart. But as you get off your knees and start to go through your day, the peace of Christ is going to be challenged by a lot of other voices - like the umpire and all those people in the stands. I mean as soon as you get with other people, God's will starts to seem a little less clear than it did when you were just with Him. There are all these other voices, but you've got to focus on the one voice that decides it.

How can you tune your peace meter so you can hear and receive the peace of Christ? Well, the next verse says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly." So you need to have some increased time in God's Word. You need to memorize some verses. You need to read whenever you can, looking for a personal word from the Lord. The more you get full of God's Word, the more God has to work with in giving you His personal guidance. His peace and His Word always go together.

Human umpires? Well, they're right some of the time. God's umpire is right all the time. Why don't you offer your choices to the Lord and ask for His peace as the confirming signal in your heart, that sense that you've had a divine "OK" or a divine "forget it"? God's peace is His wonderful way of calling "Safe!" or "Out!" on the calls you have to make. And you'll always win if you go along with God's personal umpire.

Luke 7:1-30, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: NO PLACE HE WILL NOT GO - December 15, 2025

Maybe your life resembles a Bethlehem stable. Crude in some spots, smelly in others. Not much glamour. You do your best to make the best of it. But try as you might, the roof still leaks, and the winter wind still sneaks through the holes you just can’t seem to fix. You’ve shivered through your share of cold nights and you wonder if God has a place for a person like you.

Find your answers in the Bethlehem stable. The story of Christmas is the story of God’s relentless love for us. The moment Mary touched God’s face is the moment God made his case: there is no place he will not go. No place is too common, no person is too hardened, no distance is too far. There is no person he cannot reach. There is no limit to his love.

Because of Bethlehem

Luke 7:1-30

A Place of Holy Mystery

1–5  7 When he finished speaking to the people, he entered Capernaum. A Roman captain there had a servant who was on his deathbed. He prized him highly and didn’t want to lose him. When he heard Jesus was back, he sent leaders from the Jewish community asking him to come and heal his servant. They came to Jesus and urged him to do it, saying, “He deserves this. He loves our people. He even built our meeting place.”

6–8  Jesus went with them. When he was still quite far from the house, the captain sent friends to tell him, “Master, you don’t have to go to all this trouble. I’m not that good a person, you know. I’d be embarrassed for you to come to my house, even embarrassed to come to you in person. Just give the order and my servant will get well. I’m a man under orders; I also give orders. I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes; another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

9–10  Taken aback, Jesus addressed the accompanying crowd: “I’ve yet to come across this kind of simple trust anywhere in Israel, the very people who are supposed to know about God and how he works.” When the messengers got back home, they found the servant up and well.

11–15  Not long after that, Jesus went to the village Nain. His disciples were with him, along with quite a large crowd. As they approached the village gate, they met a funeral procession—a woman’s only son was being carried out for burial. And the mother was a widow. When Jesus saw her, his heart broke. He said to her, “Don’t cry.” Then he went over and touched the coffin. The pallbearers stopped. He said, “Young man, I tell you: Get up.” The dead son sat up and began talking. Jesus presented him to his mother.

16–17  They all realized they were in a place of holy mystery, that God was at work among them. They were quietly worshipful—and then noisily grateful, calling out among themselves, “God is back, looking to the needs of his people!” The news of Jesus spread all through the country.

Is This What You Were Expecting?

18–19  John’s disciples reported back to him the news of all these events taking place. He sent two of them to the Master to ask the question, “Are you the One we’ve been expecting, or are we still waiting?”

20  The men showed up before Jesus and said, “John the Baptizer sent us to ask you, ‘Are you the One we’ve been expecting, or are we still waiting?’ ”

21–23  In the next two or three hours Jesus healed many from diseases, distress, and evil spirits. To many of the blind he gave the gift of sight. Then he gave his answer: “Go back and tell John what you have just seen and heard:

The blind see,

The lame walk,

Lepers are cleansed,

The deaf hear,

The dead are raised,

The wretched of the earth

have God’s salvation hospitality extended to them.

“Is this what you were expecting? Then count yourselves fortunate!”

24–27  After John’s messengers left to make their report, Jesus said more about John to the crowd of people. “What did you expect when you went out to see him in the wild? A weekend camper? Hardly. What then? A sheik in silk pajamas? Not in the wilderness, not by a long shot. What then? A messenger from God? That’s right, a messenger! Probably the greatest messenger you’ll ever hear. He is the messenger Malachi announced when he wrote,

I’m sending my messenger on ahead

To make the road smooth for you.

28–30  “Let me lay it out for you as plainly as I can: No one in history surpasses John the Baptizer, but in the kingdom he prepared you for, the lowliest person is ahead of him. The ordinary and disreputable people who heard John, by being baptized by him into the kingdom, are the clearest evidence; the Pharisees and religious officials would have nothing to do with such a baptism, wouldn’t think of giving up their place in line to their inferiors.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Monday, December 15, 2025

by Tim Gustafson

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

2 Corinthians 2:1-8

That’s why I decided not to make another visit that could only be painful to both of us. If by merely showing up I would put you in an embarrassingly painful position, how would you then be free to cheer and refresh me?

3–4  That was my reason for writing a letter instead of coming—so I wouldn’t have to spend a miserable time disappointing the very friends I had looked forward to cheering me up. I was convinced at the time I wrote it that what was best for me was also best for you. As it turned out, there was pain enough just in writing that letter, more tears than ink on the parchment. But I didn’t write it to cause pain; I wrote it so you would know how much I care—oh, more than care—love you!

5–8  Now, regarding the one who started all this—the person in question who caused all this pain—I want you to know that I am not the one injured in this as much as, with a few exceptions, all of you. So I don’t want to come down too hard. What the majority of you agreed to as punishment is punishment enough. Now is the time to forgive this man and help him back on his feet. If all you do is pour on the guilt, you could very well drown him in it. My counsel now is to pour on the love.

Today's Insights

Romans says that we all fall short of God’s holy standards: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (3:23). Yet Jesus loves us so much that He died for us and freely forgives all who come to Him in sorrow for their sins (John 3:16; 1 John 1:9). In turn, believers in Christ are to strive to forgive others (Matthew 6:14; Ephesians 4:32). Paul says in Colossians, “As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (3:12-13). When we’ve been wronged by others, working toward restoration can seem like a daunting task. As we seek God’s guidance, however, He’ll help us to take the necessary steps.

Knowing and Loving Others

I wrote you . . . to let you know the depth of my love for you. 2 Corinthians 2:4

Hippocrates (ca. 460–375 bc) brought medicine out of the realm of the superstitious and into the light of testing and observation. But he didn’t lose sight of the patient’s humanity. “It is far more important to know what person the disease has,” he said, “than what disease the person has.”

The apostle Paul cared for a church with multiple problems, yet he saw the humanity of each member—including a man who’d committed a sin “that even pagans do not tolerate” (1 Corinthians 5:1). Paul dealt strongly with the “disease,” and the man repented. Now, as he wrote another letter to the church in Corinth, Paul had affirming instructions for all of them. He recognized that this man’s sin had affected everyone: “He has grieved all of you to some extent,” he said (2 Corinthians 2:5). But since the man had turned from his sin, Paul said, “Reaffirm your love for him” (v. 8).

His motivation was clear: “I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you” (v. 4). He knew them all. And he loved them.

Sin affects us all. Behind each sin is a human being. When we’ve been wronged, it may be difficult to work toward restoration, yet that’s what God calls us to do. Know the person. Then, in Christ’s strength, love them.

Reflect & Pray

How did Paul handle the sin in the Corinthian church? How does loving someone despite their sin differ from enablement?

Dear Father, please help me see others as You see them. Thank You for complete forgiveness of my sins.

To learn more about fellowship with others, read Why Christians Need Good Friendships.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Monday, December 15, 2025

Approved unto God

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. — 2 Timothy 2:15

What we need today isn’t a new gospel; it’s men and women who can restate the gospel of the Son of God in terms that will reach the very heart of people’s problems. There’s nothing easy or automatic about becoming such a man or woman. If you wish to become a worker who, as Paul puts it, “correctly handles the word of truth,” you must “do your best”—that is, make a serious effort.

If you can’t clearly express your thoughts on a truth God has given you, struggle until you can. Otherwise, you’ll be unable to pass it on, and someone will be poorer for it all the days of his life. But when you put serious effort into reexpressing some truth of God for yourself, God will use that expression for someone else. Go through the winepress where God’s grapes are crushed, struggle to get at the expression you need, and a time will come when that expression will be the very wine of strength to another. If instead you say, “I’m not going to struggle to express this truth for myself; I’ll borrow what I say,” the expression will be not only of no use to you but of no use to anyone. Try to restate to yourself what you implicitly feel to be God’s truth, and you will give God a chance to pass it on to someone else through you.

Always make a practice of challenging your mind to think out what it accepts easily. Our position is not truly ours until we make it ours by suffering. The author who benefits you isn’t the one who tells you something you didn’t know before; it’s the one who gives expression to the truth that has been struggling for utterance inside you.

Amos 1-3; Revelation 6

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Much of the misery in our Christian life comes not because the devil tackles us, but because we have never understood the simple laws of our make-up. We have to treat the body as the servant of Jesus Christ: when the body says “Sit,” and He says “Go,” go! When the body says “Eat,” and He says “Fast,” fast! When the body says “Yawn,” and He says “Pray,” pray!

Biblical Ethics, 107 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Monday, December 15, 2025

HOW DID MARTHA GET IN THE CHRISTMAS STORY? - #10156

It's about that time of year when you start getting all those Christmas letters from people. You know, all those family letters that tell you about all the things they've done: Junior's in Boy Scouts, Emily's in cheerleading. I've noticed there's one recurring word; it's almost like a theme that runs through all those letters. It's that little four-letter word "busy." Everybody tells you how busy they are all year long. "I'm busy, busy, busy and I have a busy, busy, busy family."

I don't know how it is at your house, but the race is at full speed in most of our homes right now getting ready for Christmas: The dinners, the parties, the shopping, the wrapping, the churching, the decorating, entertaining, and driving. Aren't you tired just hearing about it? It's amazing that the angels introduced this season by saying, "Peace on earth." Christmas seems more like a time when instead of peace on earth we're "going to pieces" doesn't it?

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have "A Word With You" today about "How Did Martha Get In The Christmas Story?"

Well, in the midst of all this Christmas chaos, I want to blow the whistle, call a time out, and ask an important question, "How did Martha get in the Christmas Story?" We'll talk about that in just a moment.

First, our word for today from the Word of God in Luke 10 - I'll begin reading at verse 38. It is not part of the Christmas Story, but then again, maybe in a strange way it is. "As Jesus and His disciples were on their way, He came to a village where a woman named Martha (there she is) opened her home to Him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what He said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to Him and asked, 'Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me.' 'Martha, Martha' the Lord answered, 'you are worried and upset about many things. But only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.'"

Boy, Martha would have been a real treat during the Christmas season, don't you think? She had a way of getting all stressed out. And what was happening here was that although there was not a Christmas to celebrate, it was Jesus' season at Martha's house and she's going crazy! She would have written a great Christmas letter because she's busy. The tragedy is that Martha is so busy with the festivities of Jesus' coming, she has no time for Jesus.

Here we are, you and I, in the most Christ-conscious, Christ-honoring time our culture has. Oh, there's a lot of phony in it, but this is the most Christ-honoring time that we have. And if you and your family aren't closer to Christ at Christmas, haven't you missed the point of it all? You've wasted this golden time.

I'm realistic enough to know that you're not going to cancel all your plans...all the running around before Christmas. But if possible, how about lowering your expectations of yourself? Don't try to do a year's worth of everything in the next few days. And more importantly, stop right now and put a reserved sign on some prime time between now and Christmas. Commit yourself to quality time with Jesus each morning from now through Christmas. It will stabilize you during these stressful days.

Wouldn't it be ironic if Christmas actually crowded out your time with Christ? It's so easy to lose that time in all this busyness, isn't it? Don't! No, study the Christmas accounts in the Bible. Convene the family for some quality, spiritual time around the Lord Jesus - more than you usually do. I mean, it's going to have to be intentional - a decision.

Reach out to your lost neighbors; pray for them. Use your time in line and in traffic to worship the Lord and focus on Him. Give thanks daily for the gifts coming your way. Here comes a verb that doesn't exist. Don't get "Martha'd" this Christmas. Put Him first. Put your time with Him first. Make everything else fit around His time.

Don't get so busy with the festivities of Jesus' coming that you have no time for Jesus.