Max Lucado Daily: DECISIONS, DECISIONS - July 31, 2025
According to God’s plan life is a series of decisions. Do I move or stay? Hold on or let go? Tie the knot or not? Small decisions. Large decisions. Decisions everywhere! We make our choices, and they make us. Consequently, decision-making saps energy and creates anxiety. What if I make the wrong choice?
So what can we do? Given the weightiness of choices, how can we make good ones? You will be encouraged by the promise of Scripture. We can be led by the Holy Spirit: “He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” (Psalm 23:3 ESV). God, our Good Shepherd, doesn’t just feed us; he leads us. He does more than correct us; he directs us. He keeps us on the right track. He has commissioned the Holy Spirit to guide us down the winding roads of life.
Help Is Here
Exodus 37
The Chest
1–5 37 Bezalel made the Chest using acacia wood: He made it three and three-quarters feet long and two and a quarter feet wide and deep. He covered it inside and out with a veneer of pure gold and made a molding of gold all around it. He cast four gold rings and attached them to its four feet, two rings on one side and two rings on the other. He made poles from acacia wood, covered them with a veneer of gold, and inserted the poles for carrying the Chest into the rings on the sides.
6 Next he made a lid of pure gold for the Chest, an Atonement-Cover, three and three-quarters feet long and two and a quarter feet wide.
7–9 He sculpted two winged angel-cherubim out of hammered gold for the ends of the Atonement-Cover, one angel at one end, one angel at the other. He made them of one piece with the Atonement-Cover. The angels had outstretched wings and appeared to hover over the Atonement-Cover, facing one another but looking down on the Atonement-Cover.
The Table
10–15 He made the Table from acacia wood. He made it three feet long, one and a half feet wide and two and a quarter feet high. He covered it with a veneer of pure gold and made a molding of gold all around it. He made a border a handbreadth wide all around it and a rim of gold for the border. He cast four rings of gold for it and attached the rings to the four legs parallel to the tabletop. They will serve as holders for the poles used to carry the Table. He made the poles of acacia wood and covered them with a veneer of gold. They will be used to carry the Table.
16 Out of pure gold he made the utensils for the Table: its plates, bowls, jars, and jugs used for pouring.
The Lampstand
17–23 He made a Lampstand of pure hammered gold, making its stem and branches, cups, calyxes, and petals all of one piece. It had six branches, three from one side and three from the other; three cups shaped like almond blossoms with calyxes and petals on one branch, three on the next, and so on—the same for all six branches. On the main stem of the Lampstand, there were four cups shaped like almonds, with calyxes and petals, a calyx extending from under each pair of the six branches. The entire Lampstand with its calyxes and stems was fashioned from one piece of hammered pure gold. He made seven of these lamps with their candle snuffers, all out of pure gold.
24 He used a seventy-five-pound brick of pure gold to make the Lampstand and its accessories.
The Altar of Incense
25–28 He made an Altar for burning incense from acacia wood. He made it a foot and a half square and three feet high, with its horns of one piece with it. He covered it with a veneer of pure gold, its top, sides, and horns, and made a gold molding around it with two rings of gold beneath the molding. He placed the rings on the two opposing sides to serve as holders for poles by which it will be carried. He made the poles of acacia wood and covered them with a veneer of gold.
29 He also prepared with the art of a perfumer the holy anointing oil and the pure aromatic incense.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, July 31, 2025
by Arthur Jackson
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Matthew 5:1-10
You’re Blessed
1–2 5 When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said:
3 “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.
4 “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.
5 “You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.
6 “You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.
7 “You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.
8 “You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.
9 “You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.
10 “You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.
Today's Insights
The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) is Jesus’ great kingdom sermon, describing what makes life in His kingdom different from life in this fallen world. While the world is marked by selfishness, self-promotion, and self-gratification, the kingdom of God is characterized by selflessness and self-sacrifice. Beginning with the Beatitudes (5:3-12), that tone is set immediately—with the remaining exposition explaining how those big ideas are lived out. For example, the statement, “Blessed are the merciful” (v. 7) echoes forth with the instructions Christ gives on loving our enemies (vv. 43-48). Additionally “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (v. 6) finds connection in Matthew 6:33, where we’re challenged to “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.” As we read the Sermon on the Mount, the Holy Spirit can help us see connections that point back to the principles set forth in the Beatitudes and lead us to better reflect the ways of Christ.
Visit ODBU.org/learning-library/the-poor-in-spirit-the-beatitudes-of-jesus/ to examine the Beatitudes with Dr. Craig Blomberg.
Looking Like Christ
Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. Romans 13:14
As a child of the 1950s and ’60s, I grew up in the era when “America’s pastime” was baseball. I couldn’t wait to go to the park and play ball, and one of my greatest thrills was when I received my baseball jersey emblazoned with our team’s name—GIANTS! Though the number 9 on the back distinguished me from the others, the common uniform identified us as being on the same team.
In Matthew 5:3-10, known as the Beatitudes, Jesus identifies those who belong to the kingdom of heaven as those who “wear the jersey” of Christlikeness. The kingdom of heaven is comprised of those who assume the posture and character of their king. According to Jesus, “blessed” persons aren’t characterized by external appearance, health, or possessions. Rather, it’s the inside or heart of a person that counts. “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (v. 3)—the humble—those who are spiritually needy and know it. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (v. 6)—those whose soul’s yearning is to please and honor God. “Blessed are the peacemakers” (v. 9)—those who join Jesus in the pursuit of harmony.
As the Spirit helps us, we can put on the garment of Christlikeness, which identifies us as believers in Jesus and members of His team. As such, we’re blessed indeed!
Reflect & Pray
According to the Beatitudes, how “well-dressed” are you? What aspect of Christlikeness are you praying for?
Heavenly Father, thank You for my status as a citizen in the kingdom of heaven. Please give me grace each day by the Spirit to look like Christ.
Are you becoming more Christlike? Learn how the stories we tell ourselves make us who we are by reading Character Comes from the Story We Tell Ourselves.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, July 31, 2025
Till You Are Entirely His
Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. —James 1:4
Many of us are all right for the most part, but we’re still lazy about certain things. It isn’t sin that makes us this way; it’s the remnants of our old carnal life, the life we led before we were born again in the Spirit. Carelessness and laziness are an insult to the Holy Spirit. There should be nothing careless about us, whether it’s in the way we eat and drink or the way we worship God.
Not only must our relationship to God be right; the way we express that relationship must be right, too. Ultimately God will let nothing about us escape his attention. He keeps every detail of our lives under his scrutiny. In numberless ways, God will bring us back to the same issue over and over again until we learn our lesson. The issue may be our impulsiveness or our independent individuality or our tendency to let our thoughts run away with us. No matter what it is, God will bring us back to it again and again until he has made us fully aware of the thing that isn’t right. He’ll never tire, and he won’t stop—not until he has achieved the finished work.
Thanks to God’s wonderful work in you, you know that you are all right in what matters most: your relationship to him. Now “let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Watch out when you start letting things slide, or when you hear yourself saying, “Oh, that will have to do for now.” Whatever the issue, God will point it out with persistent patience until you are entirely his.
Psalms 54-56; Romans 3
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
There is no condition of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus. We have to learn to abide in Him wherever we are placed.
Our Brilliant Heritage, 946 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, July 31, 2025
THE GREAT WALL DESTROYER - #10059
If you'd seen the front lawn of our office, you wouldn't have been able to tell that there had been a change inside. The only evidence of that was that there was an uncustomary pile of shattered sheetrock in this big lump in the yard. The changes were on the second floor immediately above that pile where two small offices had just become one large office. A man from our staff went in, and went after that temporary wall that divided the people in that room, and ripped it out in no time. I'll tell you, it felt pretty different in there with that wall gone! Wish they were all that easy to tear down.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Great Wall Destroyer."
Let's go to another upstairs room with a lot of walls in it. This room is an upper room in Acts 2, where we find our word for today from the Word of God. In a sense, there were a lot of walls there. It tells us when the disciples arrived they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. And then it lists some of the people who were there. It mentions Peter. Of course, Peter was very different from somebody else listed there, like Thomas. Peter was sort of a walking gland; he's like all emotions. Thomas - not his type. Thomas - cerebral, the thinker - always got an intellectual question.
And then it talks about Matthew. Well, he had worked for the government as a tax collector. And then it mentions Simon the Zealot. He'd been a revolutionary, trying to overthrow the very same government that Matthew worked for. In fact, only a few weeks before, all of these guys who were in this upper room together, had been arguing over who was going to be the greatest. They were, each one, trying to win "king of the hill" against each other.
Listen to what happens. "They all joined constantly in prayer." Chapter 2, verse 1: "On the Day of Pentecost they were all together in one place." Chapter 2, verse 42 says, "The new Christians had devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." That word fellowship is koinonia; it means intimate closeness. Verse 44: "After they prayed together, all the believers were together and had everything in common." The book of Acts goes on talking about times when the people will pray together and it literally brings them together.
Listen, if you want to tear down a wall between rooms, use a crowbar. If you want to tear down walls between people, you use prayer. You can't get really, really close until you really, really pray together. Oh, sure, sometimes prayer can be a time when people still keep their masks on, keep it superficial, stick to the general praying kind of stuff. But real prayer is where people come together and express how they really need the Lord. You know, worship Him with specific thanks for specific things He's done recently. You fight together on your knees for the lives of people you care about. You come against Satan. You come against the stronghold of darkness that you both know is there. You admit your struggle, you passionately seek His strength, His answers, and walls start coming down.
Every married couple needs to pray together daily. It is the ultimate glue between people: Christian coworkers, parents and their children, Christian friends, even if it starts out feeling awkward. Go to your Father together. In fact, the person you're having the most difficulty with is probably the one you most need to be praying with.
When we go into the Father's presence sort of distant from each other, we almost always come out of His presence closer. Prayer softens hearts; prayer helps us see people and situations through God's eyes. And prayer is the great wall destroyer.
