July 2

A NEW CHAPTER FOR LIFE - July 2, 2026

By Max Lucado 

The anxious heart says, “There’s trouble out there!” So you don’t sleep well, you don’t laugh often, misfortune lurks…it’s just a matter of time. As a result, you’re anxious.

How can this be? Our cars are safer than ever. We regulate food and water and electricity. Yet if worry were an Olympic event, we’d win the gold medal. Keep in mind anxiety is not a sin; it’s an emotion. It can, however, lead to sinful behavior.  When we numb our fears with six-packs or food binges, or when we peddle our fears to anyone who’ll buy them, we’re sinning.

Jesus gave this word: “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with…the anxieties of life.” (Luke 21:34 NIV). God made you for more than a life of angst and mind-splitting worry. He has a new chapter for your life, and he is ready to write it.

 Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World

Psalm 12

The Message

12 1-2 Quick, God, I need your helping hand!

The last decent person just went down,

All the friends I depended on gone.

Everyone talks in lie language;

Lies slide off their oily lips.

They doubletalk with forked tongues.

3-4 Slice their lips off their faces! Pull

The braggart tongues from their mouths!

I’m tired of hearing, “We can talk anyone into anything!

Our lips manage the world.”

5 Into the hovels of the poor,

Into the dark streets where the homeless groan, God speaks:

“I’ve had enough; I’m on my way

To heal the ache in the heart of the wretched.”

6-8 God’s words are pure words,

Pure silver words refined seven times

In the fires of his word-kiln,

Pure on earth as well as in heaven.

God, keep us safe from their lies,

From the wicked who stalk us with lies,

From the wicked who collect honors

For their wonderful lies.

Our Daily Bread devotion:

Today's Scripture:

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

–10  It’s better to have a partner than go it alone.

Share the work, share the wealth.

And if one falls down, the other helps,

But if there’s no one to help, tough!

11  Two in a bed warm each other.

Alone, you shiver all night.

12  By yourself you’re unprotected.

With a friend you can face the worst.

Can you round up a third?

A three-stranded rope isn’t easily snapped.

Insight

Ecclesiastes may seem like little more than a string of musings from an embittered sage. Any coherent message we do find is steeped in futility. Chapter 4 is typical as the philosopher surveys “toil and all achievement” (v. 4) through a bleak, earthbound lens. “There was a man all alone,” he says. “There was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his wealth” (v. 8). When we live for ourselves, contentment eludes us. The writer provides hope, however: “Two are better than one” (v. 9), and “a cord of three strands is not quickly broken” (v. 12). Left to ourselves, our human pursuits are truly in vain. God intended for us to live in community, interdependent on each other. Most of all, He wants us to live with Him at the center of our lives (see 12:1, 13-14). In Him, toil becomes teamwork as He helps us accomplish what He wants us to do.

 Effort in Christ

Pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.

Ecclesiastes 4:10

In 1869, construction began on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. Soon after work commenced, chief engineer Washington Roebling became very ill. His wife, Emily, pitched in to help. She studied his plans, revised specifications, and gave instructions to his assistants. Emily assisted her husband in any way she could, and when the bridge opened in 1883, she rode in the first carriage across it. Her husband praised her “remarkable talent” and “her thorough knowledge of the work and plans.”

Such teamwork is beautiful and the secret to the most meaningful work of our lives. Solomon explained the basis of teamwork in Ecclesiastes: “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: if either of them falls down, one can help the other up” (4:9-10). And Paul said we should view teamwork as a key to the work of the church: “There are many parts, but one body” (1 Corinthians 12:20). He further explained that there should be “no division in the body” (v. 25) as everyone serves together, caring for each other.

In our work, our family, or in the life of the church, none of us are in this alone. We need each other when someone falters, and we need each other as we combine our talents. Teamwork is vital as we set out to accomplish what God wants us to do.

By:  Dave Branon

Reflect & Pray

In what ways can you team up with others to do God’s work? How have you been helped by a teammate in serving Christ?

Thank You, dear God, for guiding me to work together with others. Please help me to be the kind of helper others can depend on.

The Conditions of Discipleship

BY OSWALD CHAMBERS

If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. —Luke 14:26, see also 27, 33

If the closest relationships of my life clash with the claims of Jesus Christ, Jesus says my choice must be instant obedience to him. Discipleship means passionate devotion to a person—to our Lord, Jesus Christ. There is a difference between devotion to a person and devotion to a cause. Our Lord never proclaimed a cause; he proclaimed that we should be personally devoted to him. To be a disciple is to be a devoted love-slave of the Lord.

Many of us who call ourselves Christians aren’t devoted to Jesus Christ. We may admire Jesus Christ, we may respect and reverence him, but we do not love him. The only lover of Jesus Christ is the Holy Spirit, and the only way anyone on earth can possess passionate love for Jesus is if the Holy Spirit imparts it to them; it is the Spirit who puts the love of God in our hearts. When the Holy Spirit sees a chance of glorifying Jesus through you, he will take your heart, your nerves, your whole personality, and make you simply blaze and glow with devotion to the Lord.

What does this devotion look like? The life of the devoted Christian is marked by the moral originality that comes from abandonment to God. This spontaneous obedience to the Spirit leaves the Christian disciple open to a charge that was leveled against Jesus Christ: the charge of inconsistency. But Jesus Christ was always consistent to God. As Christians, we must be consistent to the life of the Son of God inside us, not to our creeds and ideologies. People pour themselves into creeds. God has to blast them out of their prejudices before they can become devoted to Jesus Christ.

Job 22-24; Acts 11

 

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Am I learning how to use my Bible? The way to become complete for the Master’s service is to be well soaked in the Bible; some of us only exploit certain passages. Our Lord wants to give us continuous instruction out of His word; continuous instruction turns hearers into disciples. 

Approved Unto God, 11 L

Your Passport for Heaven - #10299

July 2, 2026

Ron Hutchcraft

Scripture:  John 3:1-3

I was traveling to South Africa, and I had this 18-hour flight layover in Rome, and I wanted to see as much of it as I could. A friend of mine picked me up at the airport and we began this whirlwind day by taking me to the Coliseum. As we left, we were surrounded by five or six gypsy children who started talking all at once. My friend actually told me to hang onto my stuff, which I desperately tried to do. I had my wallet in my front pants pocket as a precaution, my passport in my sport jacket, a camera bag, and an umbrella because it was raining. Those kids were good at what they did. They did everything to distract us as they tried to grab something of value. Well, my friend fended them off using his umbrella like a sword, and then we breathed a sigh of relief as we checked to see if we had everything. We had just rounded a corner when I saw this little gypsy girl - maybe five years old or so - running over the hill toward us. She was waving something blue in her hand. It was my passport. Unbeknownst to me, the kids had gotten my passport, and unbeknownst to them, this little girl had brought it back to me. It was a little miracle actually, and it was a good thing. I wasn’t about to get into South Africa without my passport!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about “Your Passport for Heaven.”

There’s no telling what would have happened without that little girl. There was no way I could go where I wanted to go unless I had my passport. It’s the only way of getting into any country in the world. It’s the same about getting into heaven when you die. You've got to have your passport!

Jesus spelled that out in very explicit terms in our word for today from the Word of God in John 3:1-3. In light of what He says about who will be in heaven, it’s surprising how many think they will be and apparently are wrong. The Bible says, “There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, ‘Rabbi, we know You are a teacher who has come from God’ ... In reply Jesus declared, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” That’s the required passport to get into heaven - being born again.

Well, what is this? Whatever it is, you have no chance of heaven without it. It’s the experience that makes it possible for a sinner like you and me to be born into God’s family so we can be with Him forever. Now, at what point are you “born again”? Listen to God’s Word a couple of chapters earlier: speaking of Jesus it says, “To all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). The only way to be born into God’s family - to be born again - is to open your heart to Jesus, to tell Him you’re done running your life, that you’re putting your total trust in Him and His death for your sins on the cross.

The man Jesus said this to was deeply religious, very successful, and he was highly respected. But apparently none of that will get you into heaven. The most religious people still have sin that will keep them out of heaven until they’ve been to Jesus to get it forgiven. And if you don’t know you’ve done that, I'm guessing you haven’t. And you can’t possibly get into heaven when you die. The Bible says, “No one can enter unless he is born again.”

But Jesus is coming to you right now and He’s got your eternal passport in His hand. Don’t you want to reach out and take it? You want to belong to Him? Listen, tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours. Only what You did on the cross for me can pay for my sin and remove it from God's book forever. Jesus, you paid for my life. I give it to You today."

And let me encourage you to check out our website. There’s where you’ll get biblical information on how to be sure you belong to Jesus. Here’s the address: ANewStory.com.

Today could be like your birthday - your second birthday. This is the one that gets you into God’s family and gets you into heaven. This could be the day that you could be born again.