Max Lucado Daily: LET GUILT GUIDE YOU TO GOD - October 6, 2025
Guilt tells you when you’ve done something wrong; shame tells you something is wrong with you. God wants to use your guilt to guide you, so let your guilt turn you toward God. How? Paul can help us. “Godly sadness produces a changed heart and life that leads to salvation and leaves no regrets, but sorrow under the influence of the world produces death” (2 Corinthians 7:10 CEB).
The apostle contrasts two types of remorse. One is from God that leads to deliverance. One is from the system of the world that leads to death (shame). One is healthy, the other is deadly. How can we uproot our guilt and replace it with seeds of grace? The answer: confession. “If we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins, because we can trust him to do what is right” (1 John 1:9 NCV).
Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life
Numbers 13
Scouting Out Canaan
1–2 13 God spoke to Moses: “Send men to scout out the country of Canaan that I am giving to the People of Israel. Send one man from each ancestral tribe, each one a tried-and-true leader in the tribe.”
3–15 So Moses sent them off from the Wilderness of Paran at the command of God. All of them were leaders in Israel, one from each tribe. These were their names:
from Reuben: Shammua son of Zaccur
from Simeon: Shaphat son of Hori
from Judah: Caleb son of Jephunneh
from Issachar: Igal son of Joseph
from Ephraim: Hoshea son of Nun
from Ben-jamin: Palti son of Raphu
from Zebulun: Gaddiel son of Sodi
from Manasseh (a Joseph tribe): Gaddi son of Susi
from Dan: Ammiel son of Gemalli
from Asher: Sethur son of Michael
from Naphtali: Nahbi son of Vophsi
from Gad: Geuel son of Maki.
16 These are the names of the men Moses sent to scout out the land. Moses gave Hoshea (Salvation) son of Nun a new name—Joshua (God-Saves).
17–20 When Moses sent them off to scout out Canaan, he said, “Go up through the Negev and then into the hill country. Look the land over, see what it is like. Assess the people: Are they strong or weak? Are there few or many? Observe the land: Is it pleasant or harsh? Describe the towns where they live: Are they open camps or fortified with walls? And the soil: Is it fertile or barren? Are there forests? And try to bring back a sample of the produce that grows there—this is the season for the first ripe grapes.”
21–25 With that they were on their way. They scouted out the land from the Wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob toward Lebo Hamath. Their route went through the Negev Desert to the town of Hebron. Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, descendants of the giant Anak, lived there. Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. When they arrived at the Eshcol Valley they cut off a branch with a single cluster of grapes—it took two men to carry it—slung on a pole. They also picked some pomegranates and figs. They named the place Eshcol Valley (Grape-Cluster-Valley) because of the huge cluster of grapes they had cut down there. After forty days of scouting out the land, they returned home.
26–27 They presented themselves before Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation of the People of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They reported to the whole congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. Then they told the story of their trip:
27–29 “We went to the land to which you sent us and, oh! It does flow with milk and honey! Just look at this fruit! The only thing is that the people who live there are fierce, their cities are huge and well fortified. Worse yet, we saw descendants of the giant Anak. Amalekites are spread out in the Negev; Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites hold the hill country; and the Canaanites are established on the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan.”
30 Caleb interrupted, called for silence before Moses and said, “Let’s go up and take the land—now. We can do it.”
31–33 But the others said, “We can’t attack those people; they’re way stronger than we are.” They spread scary rumors among the People of Israel. They said, “We scouted out the land from one end to the other—it’s a land that swallows people whole. Everybody we saw was huge. Why, we even saw the Nephilim giants (the Anak giants come from the Nephilim). Alongside them we felt like grasshoppers. And they looked down on us as if we were grasshoppers.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, October 06, 2025
by Marvin Williams
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Philippians 2:1-11
He Took on the Status of a Slave
1–4 2 If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
5–8 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
9–11 Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.
Today's Insights
Paul’s teaching in Philippians 2:1-11 describes the core values that believers in Jesus are to exhibit. Christ exemplified these principles by becoming a man, living as a servant, and surrendering to death by crucifixion (vv. 7-8). Jesus’ example and teaching in John 13 amplify the need for believers to serve others. Hours before His crucifixion, John describes Christ having “a towel around his waist” (v. 4). Jesus ignored His status as their leader and washed the dusty feet of all present: “After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him” (v. 5). His actions were complemented with these words: “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet” (v. 14). Christ calls us to imitate His example of love and humility and serve others.
Making Room for Others
In humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Philippians 2:3-4
At electric vehicle charging stations across the United States, some drivers overstay their time at “fast-chargers,” which are designed to help drivers quickly charge their cars and get back on the road. To resolve this unkind behavior, one of the largest charging networks has implemented strict time limits at some of its busiest stations. When a vehicle’s battery charge reaches eighty-five percent, the driver must make room for the next car in need of a charge.
The apostle Paul encouraged believers in Jesus to humbly “value others above [themselves]” (Philippians 2:3). He addressed an issue that was grating the Philippian church—self-centeredness. The people desired recognition and distinction, not from pure motives but from “selfish ambition” (v. 3). Paul urged the believers to have the mind of Christ and to look “to the interests of the others” (v. 4). This didn’t mean that they should forget their own needs in an unhealthy way, but that they would care for others’ needs as those who “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus” (v. 5). The apostle encouraged the Philippians to empty themselves of pride and to humbly make room for others. The ultimate motivation for making room? Love.
As we seek to imitate Christ’s example each day (vv. 6-11), He can help us make room for others by viewing them with His loving eyes.
Reflect & Pray
How can you place others’ needs above your own? What does it mean to see others through God’s eyes?
Dear God, please help me empty myself and make room for others.
For further study, read Loving Your Neighbor through Prayer.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, October 06, 2025
A New Heredity
God . . . was pleased to reveal his Son in me. — Galatians 1:15–16
If Jesus Christ is going to regenerate me, what is the problem he is up against? I’ve inherited a sinful nature, a heredity I had no say in. I am not holy, nor am I likely to become holy. If all Jesus Christ can do is tell me to be holy, I’ll end in despair. But since Jesus Christ does more than tell, since he is a regenerator who can impart to me his own heredity—the heredity of holiness—I begin to see what he’s getting at when he tells me to be holy.
Redemption means that Jesus Christ can remake anyone by putting his own holy nature into them. The standards he sets for us are based on this new heredity; his teaching is directed at what he puts into me, not at what I was before I received him. The moral obligation on my part is to agree with God’s verdict on sin in the cross of Jesus Christ.
What the New Testament teaches about spiritual rebirth is that when people are struck by a sense of their need, God will begin to put the Holy Spirit into their spirit, not stopping until they have been fully remade—that is, “until Christ is formed” inside them (Galatians 4:19). The moral miracle of redemption is that God can instill in me a holiness that enables me to live a totally new life. But it isn’t until I reach the frontier of need and understand my limitations that Jesus says, “Blessed are you” (Matthew 5:11). God cannot put the holiness that was in Jesus Christ into someone who is still convinced of their own morality. I have to be consciously in need of him to receive his heredity.
Just as the disposition of sin entered humanity through one man,
so the Holy Spirit entered humanity by one man. Redemption means
that I can be delivered from the heredity of sin and receive the spotless
heredity of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 26-27; Philippians 2
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
“When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” We all have faith in good principles, in good management, in good common sense, but who amongst us has faith in Jesus Christ? Physical courage is grand, moral courage is grander, but the man who trusts Jesus Christ in the face of the terrific problems of life is worth a whole crowd of heroes.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, October 06, 2025
SAYING "YES" TO LOVE - #10106
It's hard to describe to you how our first grandchild lit up our lives. He had a smile that was really a people-stopper. Yeah, I know I sound like a grandfather. Now, it's a good thing this is radio or you'd have to look at my pictures as well! One day when he was about eight months old, I came home from the office to a pleasant surprise. My wife and I were babysitting our grandson. There he was, sitting on his Grandma's lap, leaning against her. I knelt down in front of the chair and told him what I tell him often. "I love you." He just looked at me, without changing his expression. I repeated it again - no response. Then two more times. "I love you." Suddenly he smiled, his arms started reaching, and his whole body leaned forward for me to hold him. And I did.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Saying 'Yes' to Love."
I kept telling my grandson I loved him. No response. And then finally, he reached for me. That scene has been repeated over and over again - millions of times - when God comes close to someone and says, "I love you." And we just don't respond. For you, this might be the day when you finally reach for the One who has loved you so long.
Our word for today from the Word of God, from 1 John 4:19, describes in just eight words how people like you and me finally come to experience the awesome love of God. It says, "We love Him because He first loved us." Well, there's the picture: The God who made you trying to tell you how much He loves you over and over. Actually, showing you how much He loves you. Earlier in this same chapter in the Bible, God says, "This is how God showed His love among us...He sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:9-10).
God gave us our lives. And the One who rules billions of galaxies is the One who was supposed to call the shots in our lives. But according to what God says, "Each of us (and these are the Bible's words) has turned to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6). We've made ourselves God, and we've built a wall between us and the divine love that we were made for. That's why our deep loneliness has never gone away. It's cosmic loneliness. You're lonely for God.
And God's love for you is so great that He sent His only Son, Jesus, to pay for your rebellion and mine. You did the sinning. Jesus did the dying, and it's that kind of love that God has been trying to give you for years. But like my little grandson, maybe you've stayed where you are while your Heavenly Father has been saying, "I love you. I love you."
It's been a long, lonely, turbulent road without that love. And now you are risking an eternity without that love by putting off or ignoring God's forgiveness for your sins. Maybe you've thought God was mad at you, that He's an angry God you could never know or be close to. But if you want to know how God feels about you, look at the cross of Jesus. That was for you!
Haven't you lived long enough without this unloseable, unconditional love that you were made for? This isn't about being religious or some spiritual experience. It's about finally responding to the love of the man who gave His life for you!
One more time, God is leaning in close, calling you by name, and He's whispering, "I love you." But this time is your time to take that love!
You want to do that? You tell Him that right now, "Jesus, you loved me enough to die for me. I will take this life of mine that I've run too long already and I put it into Your hands. I'm pinning all my hopes on You and what you did on the cross for me." Our website is there for you at a moment like this. It's ANewStory.com. Go there as soon as you can today.
It's been a one-way love long enough. Reach out your arms for Jesus. His arms have been open for a long, long time, and He will take you in His arms and He will never let you go.
