Max Lucado Daily: FIRST AND MOST - June 18, 2025
Giants. We must face them, yet we need not face them alone. Focus first, and most, on God.
Read 1 Samuel 17 and list the observations David made about Goliath. I find only two. One to Saul and one to Goliath’s face. “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” David asks nothing about Goliath’s skill, age, or the weight of the spear, or the size of the shield. But he gives much thought to God—”the armies of the living God; the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel.” In all, the God-thoughts outnumber Goliath-thoughts nine to two.
Is your list of blessings four times as long as your list of complaints? Are you four times as likely to describe the strength of God as you are the demands of your day? That’s how you face a giant.
Facing Your Giants: God Still Does the Impossible
Exodus 15
Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to God, giving voice together,
I’m singing my heart out to God—what a victory!
He pitched horse and rider into the sea.
God is my strength, God is my song,
and, yes! God is my salvation.
This is the kind of God I have
and I’m telling the world!
This is the God of my father—
I’m spreading the news far and wide!
God is a fighter,
pure God, through and through.
Pharaoh’s chariots and army
he dumped in the sea,
The elite of his officers
he drowned in the Red Sea.
Wild ocean waters poured over them;
they sank like a rock in the deep blue sea.
Your strong right hand, God, shimmers with power;
your strong right hand shatters the enemy.
In your mighty majesty
you smash your upstart enemies,
You let loose your hot anger
and burn them to a crisp.
At a blast from your nostrils
the waters piled up;
Tumbling streams dammed up,
wild oceans curdled into a swamp.
9 The enemy spoke,
“I’ll pursue, I’ll hunt them down,
I’ll divide up the plunder,
I’ll glut myself on them;
I’ll pull out my sword,
my fist will send them reeling.”
10–11 You blew with all your might
and the sea covered them.
They sank like a lead weight
in the majestic waters.
Who compares with you
among gods, O God?
Who compares with you in power,
in holy majesty,
In awesome praises,
wonder-working God?
12–13 You stretched out your right hand
and the Earth swallowed them up.
But the people you redeemed,
you led in merciful love;
You guided them under your protection
to your holy pasture.
14–18 When people heard, they were scared;
Philistines writhed and trembled;
Yes, even the head men in Edom were shaken,
and the big bosses in Moab.
Everybody in Canaan
panicked and fell faint.
Dread and terror
sent them reeling.
Before your brandished right arm
they were struck dumb like a stone,
Until your people crossed over and entered, O God,
until the people you made crossed over and entered.
You brought them and planted them
on the mountain of your heritage,
The place where you live,
the place you made,
Your sanctuary, Master,
that you established with your own hands.
Let God rule
forever, for eternity!
19 Yes, Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and riders went into the sea and God turned the waters back on them; but the Israelites walked on dry land right through the middle of the sea.
20–21 Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine, and all the women followed her with tambourines, dancing. Miriam led them in singing,
Sing to God—
what a victory!
He pitched horse and rider
into the sea!
Traveling Through the Wilderness
22–24 Moses led Israel from the Red Sea on to the Wilderness of Shur. They traveled for three days through the wilderness without finding any water. They got to Marah, but they couldn’t drink the water at Marah; it was bitter. That’s why they called the place Marah (Bitter). And the people complained to Moses, “So what are we supposed to drink?”
25 So Moses cried out in prayer to God. God pointed him to a stick of wood. Moses threw it into the water and the water turned sweet.
26 That’s the place where God set up rules and procedures; that’s where he started testing them.
God said, “If you listen, listen obediently to how God tells you to live in his presence, obeying his commandments and keeping all his laws, then I won’t strike you with all the diseases that I inflicted on the Egyptians; I am God your healer.”
27 They came to Elim where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees. They set up camp there by the water.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, June 18, 2025
by Bill Crowder
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Titus 3:1-11
He Put Our Lives Together
1–2 3 Remind the people to respect the government and be law-abiding, always ready to lend a helping hand. No insults, no fights. God’s people should be bighearted and courteous.
3–8 It wasn’t so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, dupes of sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all his doing; we had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God’s gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there’s more life to come—an eternity of life! You can count on this.
8–11 I want you to put your foot down. Take a firm stand on these matters so that those who have put their trust in God will concentrate on the essentials that are good for everyone. Stay away from mindless, pointless quarreling over genealogies and fine print in the law code. That gets you nowhere. Warn a quarrelsome person once or twice, but then be done with him. It’s obvious that such a person is out of line, rebellious against God. By persisting in divisiveness he cuts himself off.
Today's Insights
Titus, a gentile (non-Jew) who came to faith in Jesus through Paul, became the apostle’s “partner and co-worker” in his ministry (2 Corinthians 8:23). In the apostle’s letter addressed to Titus, he calls him “my true son in our common faith” (Titus 1:4). Titus proved to be especially useful in straightening out problems in the church of Corinth (2 Corinthians 7:13-15; 12:17-18). In 2 Timothy 4:10, we learn that Titus served in Dalmatia (a Roman province on the east shore of the Adriatic Sea). He also served on the island of Crete (Titus 1:5). It’s likely he strived to show respect to everyone—something we should do in God’s strength as well.
No Ordinary People
Remind them . . . to show perfect courtesy toward all people. Titus 3:1-2 esv
The statement on the wall of my bank declares that its corporate principles could be summed up in a single word: courtesy. And how refreshing it was to find courtesy in the teller who helped me with my transaction there!
In a harsh and unkind world, to be driven by courtesy is a big idea. We find this concept in the apostle Paul’s letter to his friend Titus. He instructed Titus to remind his congregation “to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people” (Titus 3:2 esv). This idea of courtesy is also rendered as “peaceable and considerate” (niv) or “showing every consideration” (nasb).
How we treat others reveals whether we see them as image bearers of God or not. C. S. Lewis wrote of this in The Weight of Glory: “There are no ordinary people,” he said. “You have never talked to a mere mortal.” Lewis anticipated eternity, where we’ll either enjoy God’s presence or be banished from Him forever. So he reminds us, “It is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”
May we allow the Spirit to enable us to treat those around as what they truly are—image bearers of God.
Reflect & Pray
What effect does the absence of courtesy have on your interactions? How might you intentionally bring more courtesy into those interactions?
Dear God, it’s easy to get frustrated with people. Please give me a patient spirit and a heart of kindness that I might treat everyone with dignity and courtesy.
For further study, read Cleaning Under the Rug.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, June 18, 2025
Don’t Think Now, Take the Road
Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid. — Matthew 14:29-30
The wind was wild and the waves were high, but at first Peter didn’t notice. Fixing his eyes on Jesus, he stepped out in recognition of his Lord and walked on the water. It was only when Peter began to pay attention to his surroundings that fear and doubt set in. The instant this happened, down he went.
Sometimes we step right out in faith and walk happily along. Then self-consideration comes in, and down we go. If we are keeping our sights on our Lord, it doesn’t occur to us to worry about ourselves or our circumstances. The circumstances of our lives simply are. It’s only when we focus on them that we become overwhelmed. We lose sight of Jesus and receive his rebuke: “Why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31).
Let circumstances be what they are. Keep looking to Jesus, maintaining complete reliance on him. If you begin to debate when God has spoken, it’s all over. Never say, “I wonder if that really was God speaking.” Be reckless. The second you hear God’s voice, fling yourself out in faith. You do not know when God’s voice will come, but whenever you sense it, even in the faintest way imaginable, recklessly abandon all to him. It is only by abandoning yourself that you learn to trust the Lord. You will hear his voice more clearly through recklessness.
Nehemiah 10-11; Acts 4:1-22
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
It is perilously possible to make our conceptions of God like molten lead poured into a specially designed mould, and when it is cold and hard we fling it at the heads of the religious people who don’t agree with us.
Disciples Indeed, 388 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, June 18, 2025
LIFTING PEOPLE UP - #10028
It seems as if the movie comes around again about once a year on TV, and we get a chance to see that charming story called "The Wizard of Oz." What a quartet! I mean, Dorothy, the little Kansas farm girl blown into the Land of Oz. She wants to see the Wizard to get help to get home. Then remember, there's a Scarecrow, he wants to see the Wizard to get some brains. And the Tin Woodsman, well, he's looking for a heart. And last but not least, there's that lovable feline, the Cowardly Lion. Now I know some people who could use some brains, I know some people who could use a little more heart; but we're surrounded by people who could use more of what that Cowardly Lion was looking for. Remember, "I need courage."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Lifting People Up."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Hebrews 10, and I'm going to begin reading at verse 24: "Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Okay, so we're supposed to be in the business of spurring people on to be what they need to be, to do what they need to do. In other words, people should be better off because they've been around you. That was the effect Jesus had on the people that He was around.
How will that happen? Well, it happens when we do this: "Let us encourage one another." I was thinking the other day about what encourage means. Just reverse it - courage in. It means you're putting courage in people. It's like a gasoline fill-up except it's a motivation fill-up. When you encourage someone, you literally put courage in them. You give them courage to take a risk, to trust God, maybe just to get through a very tough day.
You put courage in someone when you stop and you pray with them. I said with them, by the way, not just for them. An arm around them says, "Wait, let's stop and pray about your situation right now." I have seen people literally change before my eyes when I would just take a moment to pray with them.
You encourage a person when you give them specific praise for something they did or more importantly for something they are. Sometimes the courage injection comes from a scripture verse you share with them, or a spontaneous note or an email you write, or a text, maybe just a minute spent honestly inquiring how they're really doing. I can't tell you how many times someone's word, or note, or prayer of encouragement has literally put courage in me on a day when courage was really needed. And the encourager could never have known how much I needed it. But they were literally the channel for God to say to me, "Ron, I love you. It's going to be okay. Take courage, man."
Encouragement restores your perspective when it's been battered and beat up by the pressures of the day. The great thing about the ministry of putting courage in people is that anybody can do it. It doesn't require any great gifts. It doesn't require any musical ability, or speaking or leadership, or a seminary degree - just a heart. It takes a genuine interest and it looks for ways to give that person encouragement, to build them up.
That Cowardly Lion finally got his courage largely from being with three other friends who carried him through the tough times. People around you don't need a wizard to give them courage. But they may very well need some courage to take the next step on the road of their life. They just need somebody like you. They need the courage-giving love of a Jesus follower...maybe you.
