Max Lucado Daily: GOD IS OUR GUIDE - March 24, 2025
You know I can get lost anywhere. Seriously—anywhere. I once got lost in my hotel. I told the receptionist my key wasn’t working. I’d been on the wrong floor trying to open the wrong door! If geese had my sense of direction, they’d spend winters in Alaska.
Can you relate? Of course you can. We’ve all scratched our heads a time or two. Do I take the job, or leave it? One of life’s giant-size questions is, “How can I know what God wants me to do?” In 2 Samuel 2:1 (NKJV) David inquires of the Lord, “Shall I go up to the of the cities of Judah?” “Go up.” David said, “Where shall I go up?” He made a habit of running his options past God. Do the same, and the God who guided David guides you.
Are you like I am? Do you get confused? Psalm 32:8 (NLT) is the promise you need. God says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.” Wow – we all need that promise.
Facing Your Giants: God Still Does the Impossible
Job 25
BILDAD’S THIRD ATTACK
Even the Stars Aren’t Perfect in God’s Eyes
1–6 25 Bildad the Shuhite again attacked Job:
“God is sovereign, God is fearsome—
everything in the cosmos fits and works in his plan.
Can anyone count his angel armies?
Is there any place where his light doesn’t shine?
How can a mere mortal presume to stand up to God?
How can an ordinary person pretend to be guiltless?
Why, even the moon has its flaws,
even the stars aren’t perfect in God’s eyes,
So how much less, plain men and women—
slugs and maggots by comparison!”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, March 24, 2025
by Alyson Kieda
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Matthew 28:16-20
Meanwhile, the eleven disciples were on their way to Galilee, headed for the mountain Jesus had set for their reunion. The moment they saw him they worshiped him. Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally.
18–20 Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: “God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.”
Today's Insights
Matthew 28:19-20 is referred to as the Great Commission: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” This evangelism mandate appears in varying forms in the New Testament: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15). “Repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations” (Luke 24:47). “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21). “You will be my witnesses . . . to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
The Great Commission is more than proclaiming that Jesus died for our sins and rose again. We carry out the mandate to “go and make disciples” when we baptize believers, teach them to obey the Scriptures, and encourage them to follow Christ as their master.
A Modern-Day Paul
Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Romans 12:11
George Verwer’s life changed dramatically when he became a believer in Jesus during a Billy Graham crusade in 1957. Soon after his conversion, he began Operation Mobilization (OM), and in 1963 the mission sent two thousand missionaries to Europe. OM went on to become one of the largest mission organizations of the twentieth century, sending out thousands each year. At the time of George’s death in 2023, the mission had more than 3,000 workers from 134 countries working in 147 countries, and nearly 300 other mission agencies had been established as a result of contact with OM.
Like the apostle Paul, George had a passion to bring people to saving faith in Christ. After Paul’s dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus, he became a zealous missionary for God, fervently following Jesus’ command to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). In his missionary journeys, he also trained Timothy and others to go out and do the same.
Because of Paul’s Spirit-inspired writings, people throughout the centuries have been emboldened to share the gospel. He knew the vital importance of Jesus’ Great Commission (vv. 19-20). That’s why, in Romans 12, he reminds us: “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord” (v. 11). When we have the Holy Spirit living inside us, He makes us zealous to tell others about Christ.
Reflect & Pray
Who has inspired you in your faith journey? How can you prepare to share your faith with others?
Dear God, please help me be a bold witness for You.
Find out what it takes to be an effective witness by clicking here.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, March 24, 2025
He Increases, I Decrease
He must become greater; I must become less. — John 3:30
As a disciple of Jesus Christ, your great responsibility is to be a friend of the bridegroom, following the example set by John the Baptist: “The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him” (John 3:29). The bridegroom’s friend never takes the central role away from Jesus or becomes a necessity to another person’s soul. If you find, in your relationships with others, that you have stolen the spotlight away from Christ, then you know that you are out of God’s established order for his disciples. You’ll know your influence over others has taken the right direction when you see their souls gripped by the claims of Jesus Christ.
Never interfere when another person’s soul has been gripped by Christ. However painful it may appear to you from the outside, pray that the pain grows ten times stronger, until there is no power on earth or in hell that can keep that soul away from the Lord. You may often see Jesus Christ wreck a life before he saves it. Never mind what havoc the bridegroom causes, what crumblings of health and wealth. Rejoice with divine hilarity when his voice is heard.
Over and over again, we turn ourselves into amateur providences, trying to prevent suffering by stopping God. In the end, our sympathy costs other people dearly. One day, they’ll accuse us of being thieves, of stealing their affections away from their bridegroom and causing them to lose their vision of him. We must beware of rejoicing with a soul in the wrong thing, but we must make sure to rejoice in the right thing. The bridegroom’s friend “is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:29–30). John the Baptist is describing the absolute effacement of the disciple; he will never be thought of again. But he acknowledges this with joy, not sadness.
Joshua 16-18; Luke 2:1-24
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
God created man to be master of the life in the earth and sea and sky, and the reason he is not is because he took the law into his own hands, and became master of himself, but of nothing else.
The Shadow of an Agony, 1163 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, March 24, 2025
When Someone You Know is Falling Fast - #9966
Some 16 million people saw Christopher Jones' skydive on YouTube. He bails out of the plane. Everything's going great...until the seizure. After four years of being seizure-free, he was cleared to jump.
But at 9,000 feet, Christopher suddenly rolled onto his back, unconscious. Plunging earthward at 120 miles an hour! Thank God, his instructor Sheldon McFarlane responded immediately. But as Christopher convulsed, he was falling farther out of reach. Finally, McFarlane got close enough to reach his unconscious student; just 4,000 feet from looming disaster below. He pulled his student's ripcord, the chute opened, and in Christopher's words, "He saved my life."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Someone You Know is Falling Fast."
It was a heart-stopper for sure, and for me it was a solemn reminder. On almost any given week there is someone in my personal world - and probably in yours - who is falling fast, spinning out of control and in need of a rescue. And you're the one who's in a position to catch them if you notice them.
Maybe it's a disturbing post on Facebook, a sudden withdrawing from people, just a troubled countenance, mood swings, some angry outburst. In one form or another, what you're seeing and hearing is a cry for help. The question is, "Is my radar on for a hurting person, for a wounded person, an excluded person, maybe a lonely person, the person with the breaking heart or the broken heart?"
Or am I all wrapped up in my list, my schedule, and my troubles, too self-absorbed to notice someone who's falling within my reach? But noticing isn't enough. Next comes dropping everything to help them, because nothing's more urgent than rescuing the guy who's going down.
Centuries ago, God appeared to an outback shepherd in a burning bush - Moses. You may have heard of him. And God told Moses, in our word for today from the Word of God, Exodus 3, beginning in verse 7: "I have seen the misery of My people in Egypt (where they of course were oppressed slaves)...I have heard them crying out...I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them." Good! Now the shocker for Moses in verse 10, "So now, go. I am sending you" (Exodus 3:7-10).
That might be a conversation God's wanting to have with you - probably minus the burning bush. Because He has heard the cries, even the silent cries of the people around you. And He has a plan to rescue them - you.
It is for rescue that God came to earth; to die on a cross to rescue us from the awful eternal death penalty of our sins, to walk out of His grave to offer us a forever with Him. And He rescues us to then be a rescuer; to tell people His Good News about belonging to Him, to be His voice, to be His face, to be His hands. He wants you to deliver His message. He wants you to be the one who lifts their burden in His name. He wants you to be the one who shows them what He's like. He wants you to be the one who tells them how to be with Him forever by having their sins forgiven at Jesus' cross.
How are you doing? Because that's why you are where you are. God put you there to rescue some folks. Maybe you've never experienced the rescuing power of Jesus and you're falling fast. He has come to swoop down and grab you today. Would you grab that hand, that nail scarred hand and say, "Jesus, I'm yours." Begin to belong to Him today. Be safe forever.
You can find out more about how to be long to Him if you just go to our website. It's ANewStory.com. If you've been rescued by Jesus, then you've got to dive in for the rescue of others. It's not optional. Not when someone's falling fast. No, It's life-or-death.
