Max Lucado Daily: WHAT DO YOU DO WITH PAIN? - October 29, 2025
We all have pain. Some sufferings we deserve, but many we do not. Deformities? Death of a child? Wartime atrocities? What do you do with these? Why are some people bitter, angry, and harsh, while others are tender, receptive, and kind? Much of the answer is found in their response to pain.
Scripture makes three clear statements about affliction. First, there is no pain-free option. “In the world you will have tribulation,” Jesus said. (John 16:33 ESV). Second, everyone does something with their pain. Numb it. Obsess over it. Run from it. But thirdly, pain displays God’s glory. We exist to make a big deal out of God. Regarding humanity, God declares, “I have made them for my glory. It was I who created them” (Isaiah 43:7 NLT). And nothing glorifies God greater than faith in the midst of suffering.
Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life
Numbers 29
“On the first day of the seventh month, gather in holy worship and do no regular work. This is your Day-of-Trumpet-Blasts. Sacrifice a Whole-Burnt-Offering: one young bull, one ram, and seven male yearling lambs—all healthy—as a pleasing fragrance to God. Prepare a Grain-Offering of six quarts of fine flour mixed with oil for the bull, four quarts for the ram, and two quarts for each lamb, plus a he-goat as an Absolution-Offering to atone for you.
6 “These are all over and above the monthly and daily Whole-Burnt-Offerings with their Grain-Offerings and Drink-Offerings as prescribed, a pleasing fragrance, a Fire-Gift to God.
7 “On the tenth day of this seventh month, gather in holy worship, humble yourselves, and do no work.
8–11 “Bring a Whole-Burnt-Offering to God as a pleasing fragrance: one young bull, one ram, and seven yearling male lambs—all healthy. Prepare a Grain-Offering of six quarts of fine flour mixed with oil for the bull, four quarts for the ram, and two quarts for each of the seven lambs. Also bring a he-goat as an Absolution-Offering to atone for you in addition to the regular Whole-Burnt-Offering with its Grain-Offering and Drink-Offering.
12–16 “Gather in holy worship on the fifteenth day of the seventh month; do no regular work. Celebrate a Festival to God for seven days. Bring a Whole-Burnt-Offering, a Fire-Gift of pleasing fragrance to God: thirteen young bulls, two rams, and fourteen yearling male lambs—all healthy. Prepare a Grain-Offering of six quarts of fine flour mixed with oil for each of the bulls, four quarts for each ram, and two quarts for each of the fourteen lambs. Also bring a he-goat as an Absolution-Offering in addition to the regular Whole-Burnt-Offering with its Grain-Offering and Drink-Offering.
17–19 “On the second day: twelve young bulls, two rams, and fourteen yearling male lambs—all healthy. Prepare Grain-Offerings and Drink-Offerings to go with the bulls, rams, and lambs following the prescribed recipes. And bring a he-goat as an Absolution-Offering in addition to the regular Whole-Burnt-Offering with its Grain-Offering and Drink-Offering.
20–22 “On the third day: eleven bulls, two rams, and fourteen male yearling lambs—all healthy. Prepare Grain-Offerings and Drink-Offerings to go with the bulls, rams, and lambs following the prescribed recipes. And bring a he-goat as an Absolution-Offering in addition to the regular Whole-Burnt-Offering with its Grain-Offering and Drink-Offering.
23–25 “On the fourth day: ten bulls, two rams, and fourteen male yearling lambs—all healthy. Prepare Grain-Offerings and Drink-Offerings to go with the bulls, rams, and lambs following the prescribed recipes. And bring a he-goat as an Absolution-Offering in addition to the regular Whole-Burnt-Offering with its Grain-Offering and Drink-Offering.
26–28 “On the fifth day: nine bulls, two rams, and fourteen male yearling lambs—all healthy. Prepare Grain-Offerings and Drink-Offerings to go with the bulls, rams, and lambs following the prescribed recipes. And bring a he-goat as an Absolution-Offering in addition to the regular Whole-Burnt-Offering with its Grain-Offering and Drink-Offering.
29–31 “On the sixth day: eight bulls, two rams, and fourteen male yearling lambs—all healthy. Prepare Grain-Offerings and Drink-Offerings to go with the bulls, rams, and lambs following the prescribed recipes. And bring a he-goat as an Absolution-Offering in addition to the regular Whole-Burnt-Offering with its Grain-Offering and Drink-Offering.
32–34 “On the seventh day: seven bulls, two rams, and fourteen male yearling lambs—all healthy. Prepare Grain-Offerings and Drink-Offerings to go with the bulls, rams, and lambs following the prescribed recipes. And bring a he-goat as an Absolution-Offering in addition to the regular Whole-Burnt-Offering with its Grain-Offering and Drink-Offering.
35–38 “On the eighth day: Gather in holy worship; do no regular work. Bring a Fire-Gift of pleasing fragrance to God, a Whole-Burnt-Offering: one bull, one ram, and seven male yearling lambs—all healthy. Prepare Grain-Offerings and Drink-Offerings to go with the bulls, rams, and lambs following the prescribed recipes. And bring a he-goat as an Absolution-Offering in addition to the regular Whole-Burnt-Offering with its Grain-Offering and Drink-Offering.
39 “Sacrifice these to God as a congregation at your set feasts: your Whole-Burnt-Offerings, Grain-Offerings, Drink-Offerings, and Peace-Offerings. These are all over and above your personal Vow-Offerings and Freewill-Offerings.”
40 Moses instructed the People of Israel in all that God commanded him.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
by Alyson Kieda
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Joshua 4:1-8
When the whole nation was finally across, God spoke to Joshua: “Select twelve men from the people, a man from each tribe, and tell them, ‘From right here, the middle of the Jordan where the feet of the priests are standing firm, take twelve stones. Carry them across with you and set them down in the place where you camp tonight.’ ”
4–7 Joshua called out the twelve men whom he selected from the People of Israel, one man from each tribe. Joshua directed them, “Cross to the middle of the Jordan and take your place in front of the Chest of God, your God. Each of you heft a stone to your shoulder, a stone for each of the tribes of the People of Israel, so you’ll have something later to mark the occasion. When your children ask you, ‘What are these stones to you?’ you’ll say, ‘The flow of the Jordan was stopped in front of the Chest of the Covenant of God as it crossed the Jordan—stopped in its tracks. These stones are a permanent memorial for the People of Israel.’ ”
8–9 The People of Israel did exactly as Joshua commanded: They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan—a stone for each of the twelve tribes, just as God had instructed Joshua—carried them across with them to the camp, and set them down there.
Today's Insights
In the Bible, tributes or memorials—like the stone memorial in Joshua 4—aren’t expressions of wistful longing for the past. Rather, they’re reminders of God’s previous faithfulness to help us trust Him in the present. The Torah—the “law of Moses” itself (8:32)—was rewritten on stones as a memorial (vv. 30-35). God’s rescue of the previous generation from Egypt was remembered at the annual Passover feast (Exodus 13). Similarly, Communion (the Lord’s Supper) is a reminder of the broken body and shed blood of Christ on our behalf (1 Corinthians 11:24-25). Today, as we remember God’s faithfulness in our lives, may we leave behind a lasting tribute.
A Tribute and Reminder
Each of you is to take up a stone . . . to serve as a sign among you. Joshua 4:5-6
Shortly after his father’s unexpected death, Aaron gifted his mother with a framed, poster-sized photo of dozens of items that encapsulated his dad’s life—collectibles, photos, rocks, books, artwork, and more—each holding special meaning. Aaron spent days collecting the items and arranging them, and then his sister Rachel captured the arrangement in a photo. The gift was a visual tribute to their father, who despite his decades-long struggle with self-loathing and addiction, never left his love for them in doubt. It also attested to God’s love and miraculous healing power that led to their father’s victory over addiction in the last decade of his life.
When after forty long years God’s people crossed into the promised land, Joshua chose a man from each of the twelve tribes to gather a stone from the dry riverbed to “serve as a sign among [them]” (Joshua 4:1-6). Joshua used these rocks to create an altar and lasting tribute to God’s power and provision (vv. 19-24). The Israelites’ journey hadn’t been easy. But God had been with them, providing water out of rocks, manna from the sky, and a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night to guide them—and clothes that never wore out (Deuteronomy 8:4)! The memorial pointed to Him.
God does amazing things! As He provides, may we leave behind a lasting tribute to His love and power.
Reflect & Pray
Where do you see evidence of God’s work? What kind of tribute could you leave attesting to His work?
Dear God, thank You for the evidence of Your love that surrounds me.
For further study, watch God at Work in All Things.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
Substitution
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. —2 Corinthians 5:21
The modern view of the death of Jesus is that he died for our sins out of sympathy. The New Testament view is that he bore our sins by substitution: God “made him . . . to be sin.” Our sins are removed because of the death of Jesus, and the explanation of his death is his obedience to his Father, not his sympathy with us. We are acceptable to God not because we’ve obeyed or promised to give up things but because of his Son’s death.
We say that Jesus came to reveal the loving-kindness of God. The New Testament says that Jesus came to take away the sins of the world. Jesus never spoke of himself as one who’d been sent to reveal the Father’s sympathy. Instead, he spoke of himself as a stumbling block, as someone who came to erect new standards and place new demands on all who heard his word: “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin” (John 15:22). The great stumbling blocks in modern spiritual life are our Lord’s character and the demands of the Spirit. We think we’d be happy if only God would stop demanding personal holiness. Maybe so, but we’d be happy on the way to hell. It is God who puts the stumbling blocks in our path, and the stumbling over them awakens us.
The idea that God died for me and therefore I go scot-free is never taught in the New Testament. What is taught is that “he died for all” (2 Corinthians 5:15) and that, by identification with his death, I can be freed from sin and have his righteousness imparted to me (Galatians 2:20–21). The substitution taught in the New Testament is twofold: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” It’s not Christ for me unless I am determined to have Christ formed in me.
Jeremiah 18-19; 2 Timothy 3
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
For the past three hundred years men have been pointing out how similar Jesus Christ’s teachings are to other good teachings. We have to remember that Christianity, if it is not a supernatural miracle, is a sham.
The Highest Good, 548 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
THE SURPRISING SECRET OF EXCITING FAITH - #10123
When you live around New York City like I did for 30 years, you take people on lots of tours. We've had friends visit us from all over the country - all over the world - and, of course, they all want to see the sights of New York that they've heard so much about. Well, we got to take many of them to the Statue of Liberty, the late great World Trade Center, Times Square, Broadway, the United Nations, Central Park. And something interesting actually happened to me as I introduced others to the place that I knew so much about and that I'd seen a lot of times. In a sense, I sort of discovered those places for myself in a new way, and I was actually energized by watching their reactions to seeing it all for the first time.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Surprising Secret of Exciting Faith."
Those places that I knew so well actually became more special to me when I introduced others to them. Just kind of like what happens when you or I introduce someone to the Savior we've known for so long. That's why Paul prayed what he did in Philemon verse 6, our word for today from the Word of God. Interesting verse. Here's what he said, "I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ."
Now there are a lot of reasons to tell people about the life and the love that you found in Jesus Christ, not the least of which is that their eternity depends on them understanding what Jesus did on the cross for them. But here Paul gives a reason we may not think much about or we don't hear much about, and that is that in sharing your relationship with Christ you actually begin to really understand your relationship with Christ as you never did before.
If you remain silent about Jesus, you can just coast along in a comfortable but shallow spiritual rut. But once you step up to your responsibility to get this life-saving message to the people around you, something awakens in your own soul. You have to find ways to explain what Jesus did without all that religious vocabulary which I call "Christianese." And that vocabulary that we use so casually, allows us to believe without thinking a lot about it. We just kind of agree with the words. But as you struggle to explain a relationship with Christ to someone else who doesn't know all those words, you actually start to better understand that relationship yourself. It's like me taking tours of where I lived - it becomes more special to me as I tell someone else about it. As I see the wonder of someone else discovering what I discovered a long time ago. When you tell others about Jesus, He starts to mean even more to you.
And if you're like most believers, you're actually missing this life-changing, faith-expanding experience. Surveys show that up to 90% of Christians never talk about their relationship with Jesus Christ. Which means 90% are missing what Paul calls "a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ." And the lost folks in their circle of influence are likely to go into a Christless eternity, an unthinkable eternity because of the silence of the Christian they knew. Please don't let that be you.
It's time to start blowing the lid off our relationship with Jesus by telling people about that relationship - about explaining it to others! Because when you show someone else this Jesus that you know, He'll mean more to you than He's ever meant before!
