Max Lucado Daily: KEEP FORGIVING - June 9, 2025
Colossians 3:13 says, “As Christ forgave you, so you also must do.” Really, God? Begin the process of healing. How? Keep no list of wrongs. Pray for your antagonists rather than plot against them. Hate the wrong without hating wrongdoers. Turn your attention away from what they did to you to what Christ did for you. Outrageous as it may seem, Jesus died for them, too. If he thinks they are worth forgiving, they are.
Does that make forgiveness easy? No. Quick? Seldom. Painless? Forgiveness vacillates. It has fits and starts, good days and bad. Anger intermingled with love. Irregular mercy. We make progress only to make a wrong turn. Step forward and fall back. But it’s okay. As long as you’re trying to forgive, you’re forgiving. It’s when you no longer try that bitterness sets in. So Keep trying, keep forgiving.
You'll Get Through This: Hope and Help for Turbulent Times
Matthew 25:1-30
The Story of the Virgins
1–5 25 “God’s kingdom is like ten young virgins who took oil lamps and went out to greet the bridegroom. Five were silly and five were smart. The silly virgins took lamps, but no extra oil. The smart virgins took jars of oil to feed their lamps. The bridegroom didn’t show up when they expected him, and they all fell asleep.
6 “In the middle of the night someone yelled out, ‘He’s here! The bridegroom’s here! Go out and greet him!’
7–8 “The ten virgins got up and got their lamps ready. The silly virgins said to the smart ones, ‘Our lamps are going out; lend us some of your oil.’
9 “They answered, ‘There might not be enough to go around; go buy your own.’
10 “They did, but while they were out buying oil, the bridegroom arrived. When everyone who was there to greet him had gone into the wedding feast, the door was locked.
11 “Much later, the other virgins, the silly ones, showed up and knocked on the door, saying, ‘Master, we’re here. Let us in.’
12 “He answered, ‘Do I know you? I don’t think I know you.’
13 “So stay alert. You have no idea when he might arrive.
The Story About Investment
14–18 “It’s also like a man going off on an extended trip. He called his servants together and delegated responsibilities. To one he gave five thousand dollars, to another two thousand, to a third one thousand, depending on their abilities. Then he left. Right off, the first servant went to work and doubled his master’s investment. The second did the same. But the man with the single thousand dug a hole and carefully buried his master’s money.
19–21 “After a long absence, the master of those three servants came back and settled up with them. The one given five thousand dollars showed him how he had doubled his investment. His master commended him: ‘Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.’
22–23 “The servant with the two thousand showed how he also had doubled his master’s investment. His master commended him: ‘Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.’
24–25 “The servant given one thousand said, ‘Master, I know you have high standards and hate careless ways, that you demand the best and make no allowances for error. I was afraid I might disappoint you, so I found a good hiding place and secured your money. Here it is, safe and sound down to the last cent.’
26–27 “The master was furious. ‘That’s a terrible way to live! It’s criminal to live cautiously like that! If you knew I was after the best, why did you do less than the least? The least you could have done would have been to invest the sum with the bankers, where at least I would have gotten a little interest.
28–30 “ ‘Take the thousand and give it to the one who risked the most. And get rid of this “play-it-safe” who won’t go out on a limb. Throw him out into utter darkness.’
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, June 09, 2025
by Amy Boucher Pye
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Ezekiel 36:22-28
“Therefore, tell Israel, ‘Message of God, the Master: I’m not doing this for you, Israel. I’m doing it for me, to save my character, my holy name, which you’ve blackened in every country where you’ve gone. I’m going to put my great and holy name on display, the name that has been ruined in so many countries, the name that you blackened wherever you went. Then the nations will realize who I really am, that I am God, when I show my holiness through you so that they can see it with their own eyes.
24–28 “ ‘For here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to take you out of these countries, gather you from all over, and bring you back to your own land. I’ll pour pure water over you and scrub you clean. I’ll give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you. I’ll remove the stone heart from your body and replace it with a heart that’s God-willed, not self-willed. I’ll put my Spirit in you and make it possible for you to do what I tell you and live by my commands. You’ll once again live in the land I gave your ancestors. You’ll be my people! I’ll be your God!
Today's Insights
Ezekiel, exiled in Babylon (Ezekiel 1:1), ministered to the exiled Jewish community during and after the destruction of Jerusalem. God promised restoration and a bright future to His people if they’d repent of their covenantal unfaithfulness. He’d forgive them and transform them into a holy nation. Only with a new heart and a new spirit would they be able to honor God (36:26-28; see 11:19-20). This new heart and spirit are central to God’s redemption plan.
The prophet Jeremiah also prophesied of God’s new covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-34. And Jesus spoke of “the new covenant in [His] blood” (Luke 22:20) hours before He died on the cross. He’s the mediator of the new covenant through “the sprinkled blood, which speaks of forgiveness” (Hebrews 12:24 nlt). And He alone can change our hearts.
Heart Surgery
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. Ezekiel 36:26
Some years ago, after exchanging heated words, Carolyn and I resolved our conflict through compassion and love for each other. I confessed my wrongdoing, and she prayed for me, referencing Ezekiel 36:26: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” I sensed that God was conducting a form of spiritual heart surgery on me, taking away my fears and bitterness as He enfolded me in His love.
God delights for us to engage with the Scriptures as I did back then, but it’s important to note the passage’s original context. Ezekiel spoke on God’s behalf to His people with the promise that He would cleanse them. Why? “It is not for your sake . . . I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name” (v. 22). God would do His purifying work among His people so that all the nations would revere Him and know that He is God.
God works His purposes in our lives not only to help us flourish and grow, but so we would bring Him honor. Even as He gave the Israelites the promise of a new heart and a new spirit, so through the inward work of the Holy Spirit, God replaces our cold and hardened hearts with those that receive and share His love and life.
Reflect & Pray
How have you experienced God’s “heart surgery”? How have others noticed the changes that He’s brought about in your life?
God of all life, thank You for changing me, for forming in me a new self that’s rooted in You. Please pour out Your love on me today.
Learn more about having a personal relationship with God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, June 09, 2025
Ask If You Have Not Received
For everyone who asks receives. — Luke 11:10
There is nothing more difficult than to ask. We desire and crave and suffer, but only when we’ve reached our absolute limit do we ask. What finally makes us ask God for the Holy Spirit is a sense of unreality. We sense that we are not spiritually real and that we cannot become spiritually real on our own. When this happens, when we glimpse our powerlessness, we must ask God for the Spirit, basing our request on the words of Jesus: “How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Luke 11:13). The Holy Spirit is the one who makes real in us all that Jesus did on our behalf.
“For everyone who asks receives.” This doesn’t mean that if we don’t ask, we’ll get nothing; God “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good” alike (Matthew 5:45). But until we ask, we won’t receive from God directly. To receive from God directly means that we have come into a specific relationship with him—we have become his children— and now we perceive, with moral appreciation and spiritual under- standing, that all things come from him.
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God” (James 1:5). If you realize you lack wisdom, it is because you’ve come into contact with spiritual reality, and your eyes have been opened. Don’t put on the blinders of reasonableness again. Don’t listen when people say, “Be reasonable; preach the simple gospel. Don’t tell us we have to be holy, because that makes us feel abjectly poor.”
If we are abjectly poor, we are in the right condition for asking. “Ask” means “beg.” We must ask out of poverty. If instead we ask out of greed, we’ll never receive. We must ask because we know that, without God, we have nothing. A pauper isn’t ashamed to beg. Paupers beg because they are poor; there is no other reason. Blessed are the paupers in spirit (Matthew 5:3).
2 Chronicles 32-33; John 18:19-40
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
To live a life alone with God does not mean that we live it apart from everyone else. The connection between godly men and women and those associated with them is continually revealed in the Bible, e.g., 1 Timothy 4:10.
Not Knowing Whither, 867 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, June 09, 2025
YOUR TRANSFORMATION MIRACLE - #10021
Caterpillars are ugly. I hope none are listening. I don't mean to be critical, but let's face it, those hairy crawlers are not the beauty queens of the animal kingdom. I suppose someone could try a makeover on a caterpillar, shave off some of that hair, give him a little color. But who could ever imagine that one of the uglier critters around could actually become one of the most beautiful animals in the world - a butterfly! You don't see many pictures of caterpillars on things, but you see pictures of butterflies everywhere! A critter covered with ugly black hair becomes a butterfly splashed with these amazing colors. An animal that lives off the leaves on the ground becomes the connoisseur of flower nectar. And a creature that once crawled everywhere becomes one that can fly everywhere. We're not talking makeover here. We're talking miracle!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Transformation Miracle."
The Creator who so miraculously transforms caterpillars does something far more amazing. He does it for people like you and me. He did it for my wife's grandfather, and He changed the course of her family's history...not to mention mine.
My wife's grandfather, Bill, was a handsome, successful guy with a fatal flaw - alcohol. He'd been hooked since he was 12 years old, and no one could get him unhooked...including himself. His addiction eventually cost him his job, his relationship with his family, even his freedom, landing him in prison for a while. He was, in essence, crawling through life on a caterpillar level because of something inside him he could not change.
So, one night Bill decided to die. He was on his way to Lake Michigan in Chicago to end his life when he heard this vaguely familiar song coming out of an old rescue mission. It was a song his mother used to sing. He decided to go in for a minute - never dreaming that the caterpillar who went into that mission would emerge a butterfly. From that night on, Bill never touched a drop of alcohol again. He became a wonderful husband, a loving father, and a respected spokesman for the Man who had changed his life. That night he was planning to die, Bill began a new life by beginning a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Now, while your struggles with your own darkness may be different from Bill's, the same kind of miracle can happen to you. It's described in our word for today from the Word of God, 2 Corinthians 5:17. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" For the rest of his life, my wife's grandfather dedicated himself to telling as many people as possible about the life-changing miracle that only Jesus could accomplish. And I've had the privilege of being married to some of his heritage - a heritage of spiritual transformation that has now affected another generation in our own children, and then again in our grandchildren.
Transformation? That's what Jesus does. Bill would always tell people, "An old derelict like me could never be reformed. I was transformed by Jesus Christ!" That's the testimony of millions of people over hundreds of years, including the guy talking with you right now. We all fight our own monsters inside us - the sinful, hurtful, even shameful urges, attitudes and actions that we've never been able to conquer. And even being religious or spiritual, even our best efforts at self-improvement have only turned out to be an unsuccessful makeover for a caterpillar.
See, Jesus died on the cross to pay for the sin that enslaves you, and now He offers to begin transforming you from the inside out if you'll invite Him to be your Savior. If you have never begun that relationship with Jesus Christ then tell Him, today, that you want to be His from now on.
And I think you'll be glad to find information at our website that will help you be sure you belong to Him. That website is ANewStory.com.
Trying to be reformed can only change you on the outside. Jesus offers to transform you from the inside out - to make what had been so ugly into something so beautiful. It's time to let Jesus do what only He can do.