Max Lucado Daily: THE ULTIMATE GIFT GIVER - August 1, 2025
This is the age of much know-how and very little know-why. The invisible enemy of sin and secularism has left us dazed and bewildered. In the midst of the wreckage sits God’s intended rescue center, the church. We each have responsibilities, and when we work together, the displaced find a place. And, behind it all, overseeing the operation is the Holy Spirit.
And he does this through the distribution of gifts. “…All [spiritual gifts] are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines” (1 Corinthians 12:11 NIV).
The Holy Spirit is the ultimate gift giver. He garnishes his children with supernatural abilities that glorify God, bless the needy, and edify the church. Would it not be a tragedy to miss out on your unique-to-you assignment?
Help Is Here
Exodus 38
The Altar of Whole-Burnt-Offering
1–7 38 He made the Altar of Whole-Burnt-Offering from acacia wood. He made it seven and a half feet square and four and a half feet high. He made horns at each of the four corners. The horns were made of one piece with the Altar and covered with a veneer of bronze. He made from bronze all the utensils for the Altar: the buckets for removing the ashes, shovels, basins, forks, and fire pans. He made a grate of bronze mesh under the ledge halfway up the Altar. He cast four rings at each of the four corners of the bronze grating to hold the poles. He made the poles of acacia wood and covered them with a veneer of bronze. He inserted the poles through the rings on the two sides of the Altar for carrying it. The Altar was made out of boards; it was hollow.
The Washbasin
8 He made the Bronze Washbasin and its bronze stand from the mirrors of the women’s work group who were assigned to serve at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
The Courtyard
9–11 And he made the Courtyard. On the south side the hangings for the Courtyard, woven from fine twisted linen, were 150 feet long, with their twenty posts and twenty bronze bases, and fastening hooks and bands of silver. The north side was exactly the same.
12–20 The west end of the Courtyard had seventy-five feet of hangings with ten posts and bases, and fastening hooks and bands of silver. Across the seventy-five feet at the front, or east end, were twenty-two and a half feet of hangings, with their three posts and bases on one side and the same for the other side. All the hangings around the Courtyard were of fine twisted linen. The bases for the posts were bronze and the fastening hooks and bands on the posts were of silver. The posts of the Courtyard were both capped and banded with silver. The screen at the door of the Courtyard was embroidered in blue, purple, and scarlet fabric with fine twisted linen. It was thirty feet long and seven and a half feet high, matching the hangings of the Courtyard. There were four posts with bases of bronze and fastening hooks of silver; they were capped and banded in silver. All the pegs for The Dwelling and the Courtyard were made of bronze.
21–23 This is an inventory of The Dwelling that housed The Testimony drawn up by order of Moses for the work of the Levites under Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest. Bezalel, the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made everything that God had commanded Moses. Working with Bezalel was Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an artisan, designer, and embroiderer in blue, purple, and scarlet fabrics and fine linen.
24 Gold. The total amount of gold used in construction of the Sanctuary, all of it contributed freely, weighed out at 1,900 pounds according to the Sanctuary standard.
25–28 Silver. The silver from those in the community who were registered in the census came to 6,437 pounds according to the Sanctuary standard—that amounted to a beka, or half-shekel, for every registered person aged twenty and over, a total of 603,550 men. They used the three and one-quarter tons of silver to cast the bases for the Sanctuary and for the hangings, one hundred bases at sixty-four pounds each. They used the remaining thirty-seven pounds to make the connecting hooks on the posts, and the caps and bands for the posts.
29–31 Bronze. The bronze that was brought in weighed 4,522 pounds. It was used to make the door of the Tent of Meeting, the Bronze Altar with its bronze grating, all the utensils of the Altar, the bases around the Courtyard, the bases for the gate of the Courtyard, and all the pegs for The Dwelling and the Courtyard.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, August 01, 2025
by Tim Gustafson
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Psalm 37:5-17
Open up before God, keep nothing back;
he’ll do whatever needs to be done:
He’ll validate your life in the clear light of day
and stamp you with approval at high noon.
7 Quiet down before God,
be prayerful before him.
Don’t bother with those who climb the ladder,
who elbow their way to the top.
8–9 Bridle your anger, trash your wrath,
cool your pipes—it only makes things worse.
Before long the crooks will be bankrupt;
God-investors will soon own the store.
10–11 Before you know it, the wicked will have had it;
you’ll stare at his once famous place and—nothing!
Down-to-earth people will move in and take over,
relishing a huge bonanza.
12–13 Bad guys have it in for the good guys,
obsessed with doing them in.
But God isn’t losing any sleep; to him
they’re a joke with no punch line.
14–15 Bullies brandish their swords,
pull back on their bows with a flourish.
They’re out to beat up on the harmless,
or mug that nice man out walking his dog.
A banana peel lands them flat on their faces—
slapstick figures in a moral circus.
16–17 Less is more and more is less.
One righteous will outclass fifty wicked,
For the wicked are moral weaklings
but the righteous are God-strong.
Today's Insights
Israel had limited information about the afterlife, so they sought to explain how injustices in the world could be made right. Their conclusion? God blesses the righteous according to their righteousness and judges the wicked according to their wickedness. Psalm 34 explains the concept, Psalm 37 gives third-party counsel to one suffering injustice, and in Psalm 73, the psalmist Asaph questions this law because he’s the righteous sufferer. In reality, however, it’s only in the next life where injustices will finally be resolved. Asaph realized this when he entered the place of worship and put it all at God’s feet (73:16-28). Today, God provides what we need to patiently wait for His restoration of the world.
When Life Is Unfair
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5
In Charles Dickens’ classic novel Oliver Twist, the sickly Oliver is born in a workhouse, an institution notorious for exploiting the poor. Orphaned at birth, the boy eventually runs away due to abusive treatment. Through an amazing set of “twists,” he learns he is heir to a sizable fortune. Dickens, who loved happy endings, ensured that everyone who harmed Oliver over the years either received justice or repented. His oppressors got what they deserved while Oliver “inherited the land.” If only life came with tidy endings like those scripted in a Dickens novel.
In the Bible, we read the song lyrics by a man who anticipated such a day—when justice is served and the oppressed “inherit the land” (Psalm 37:9). Though he experienced evil firsthand, the poet David urged patience. “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him,” he wrote. “Do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes” (v. 7). He continued, “Those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land” (v. 9). Despite observing how the “wicked draw the sword” to “bring down the poor and needy” (v. 14), David trusted God to make things right (v. 15).
Life is hard and often unfair. Yet we hear in the words of Jesus an echo from Psalm 37: “Blessed are the meek,” He said, “for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).
Reflect & Pray
When have you been treated badly? How will you trust God in your unfair situations?
Dear God, please help me wait patiently for You to make things right.
For further study, read When Pain Won’t Go Away
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, August 01, 2025
Something More about His Ways
When Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities. — Matthew 11:1 kjv
He comes where he commands us to leave. If when God says, “Go,” you stay because you’re concerned about your people at home, you rob your loved ones of the teaching of Jesus himself. When you obey and go, trusting God with the consequences, the Lord himself ministers to those you leave behind, just as he came to “teach and preach” in the disciples’ cities after they’d set out in his service. As long as you refuse to obey, you’re in his way.
Watch out if your idea of duty begins to compete with your Lord’s commands. If you find yourself saying, “I know God told me to go, but my duty is at home,” it’s an indication that you don’t believe Jesus means what he says.
He teaches where he tells us not to. Are you teaching where God has told you not to, playing the amateur providence in other people’s lives? Are you so noisy in instructing others that God can’t get anywhere near them? We have to keep our mouths shut and our spirits alert. God wants to instruct his children in the ways of his Son. He wants to turn our times of prayer into mounts of transfiguration. We won’t let him, because we think we know what he’ll do. When we’re certain of the way God is going to work, he will never work in that way anymore.
He works where he sends us to wait. “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). Wait on God, and he will work. But don’t wait sulkily just because you can’t see an inch in front of you! Are you detached enough from your inner hysterics to wait patiently on God? Waiting on him doesn’t mean sitting on the sidelines with your hands folded. It means doing what you are told, in joyful obedience to him.
These are phases of God’s ways we rarely recognize.
Psalms 57-59; Romans 4
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
We never enter into the Kingdom of God by having our head questions answered, but only by commitment.
The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, August 01, 2025
THE FREEDOM OF TOTAL DEPENDENCY - #10060
I can still remember my wife's excited phone call that day. She said, "Honey! The baby just turned over!" Hey! He was three months old; it was a big deal. It's hard to believe there was a time you couldn't turn yourself over. Can you imagine a time when you couldn't walk by yourself? You couldn't feed yourself?
Well, we took pictures of all these steps toward independence as all of our kids took those steps. There was a big cause for getting that old Super 8 movie camera out and getting the slide film out (come on, there was no iPhone then! You get it?). "Oh, look, he's crawling for the first time! He's walking for the first time! Take pictures! It's the first day they ever went to school." And then it happened, all three of our children were grown and out of the house, independent adults. But that's normal, right? I mean, the more you grow, the more independent you become. Right? Not necessarily.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Freedom of Total Dependency."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 9. I'm going to begin reading at verse 7 - it's the dramatic conversion of that persecutor of Christians, Saul of Tarsus. What a life-transforming day! Saul has just been knocked off his horse by this light from heaven; he knows now that it is the Lord he's dealing with, and verse 7 says, "The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything."
Now, Saul of Tarsus is an intelligent, gifted, passionate leader. He felt sufficient, strong. He's all grown up, right? Wrong. Saul's road to maturity begins the moment after his conversion when it says, "They led him by the hand." Isn't it interesting to see here that from the moment of Saul's rebirth, God drives him to a position of total dependency?
Later in this chapter God refers to Saul as, "My chosen instrument. I have great plans for him." You know when those plans begin? With total dependency. The more a child grows the more independent they should become. The more a child of God grows the more dependent he should become.
Usefulness to God begins with a heart breaking. God will do whatever it takes to show you that dependency is maturity when it comes to spiritual adulthood. In fact, He may be doing whatever it takes right now. Paul would have to learn humility and dependency throughout his life. The stronger you are, the more it takes for you to learn to depend.
In 2 Corinthians 1 he talks about hardships that they'd suffered almost to the point of death. And he says the reason was, "That we might not rely on ourselves but on God." He had to learn it again. Now, 2 Corinthians 12 - he talks about his "thorn in the flesh that was given to him to 'keep me from being conceited.'" This strong, driven leader had to be humbled and broken, and then re-humbled and re-broken.
You say, "What strong and driven person? Paul?" In this case, I mean me. It's the Master's way to bring His strong-willed child to the end of their ability to control the situation; to make that child of His, in a sense, blind to where they need to be led by the hand. Maybe you're there now. God wants to pry open that tightly clenched hand of yours, empty it of self, and fill it with His power. Maybe He's brought you to the edge. It's going to be total dependency or total defeat.
Why don't you get you out of the way? Grow up to the point where you will let your Father feed you, let your Father carry you, let your Father lead you. You're never stronger than the moment you reach up a trembling, empty hand and say, "Father, lead me by the hand."
