Max Lucado Daily: PICK A SIDE - August 31, 2026
We cannot win both the applause of people and the “well done” of Christ. Do you play both sides?
Many in the West did in the years leading up to World War II. In 1938 Neville Chamberlain met with Adolf Hitler. The British prime minister had long championed a policy of appeasing the dictator’s aggressions, so he agreed to Hitler’s demands. Six months later Hitler occupied all of Czechoslovakia. Next he invaded Poland, and the war began. For a decade the world watched as Hitler flexed his muscles. Yet freedom-loving nations waffled between apathy and fear. Many simply couldn’t pick a side.
The prophet Elijah once asked, “How long are you going to struggle with the two choices? If the Lord is God, follow Him” (1 Kings 18:21 NASB).
Unbreakable Courage
John 20:1-15
Resurrection!
1–2 20 Early in the morning on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone was moved away from the entrance. She ran at once to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, breathlessly panting, “They took the Master from the tomb. We don’t know where they’ve put him.”
3–10 Peter and the other disciple left immediately for the tomb. They ran, neck and neck. The other disciple got to the tomb first, outrunning Peter. Stooping to look in, he saw the pieces of linen cloth lying there, but he didn’t go in. Simon Peter arrived after him, entered the tomb, observed the linen cloths lying there, and the kerchief used to cover his head not lying with the linen cloths but separate, neatly folded by itself. Then the other disciple, the one who had gotten there first, went into the tomb, took one look at the evidence, and believed. No one yet knew from the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead. The disciples then went back home.
11–13 But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. As she wept, she knelt to look into the tomb and saw two angels sitting there, dressed in white, one at the head, the other at the foot of where Jesus’ body had been laid. They said to her, “Woman, why do you weep?”
13–14 “They took my Master,” she said, “and I don’t know where they put him.” After she said this, she turned away and saw Jesus standing there. But she didn’t recognize him.
15 Jesus spoke to her, “Woman, why do you weep? Who are you looking for?”
She, thinking that he was the gardener, said, “Mister, if you took him, tell me where you put him so I can care for him.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, August 31, 2026
by Jennifer Benson Schuldt
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Galatians 2:19-21
What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.
Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.
Today's Insights
“Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed,” Jesus said. “But if it dies, it produces many seeds” (John 12:24). Christ spoke these words during the week He was killed. It’s a lesson Paul had learned as he wrote to people in danger of relying on keeping the law to earn salvation. In Romans 3:10-20, he outlines why law-keeping will never save us. He then explains that it’s “apart from the law [that] the righteousness of God has been made known” (v. 21). “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe” (v. 22). He goes on: “Our old self was crucified with him . . . that we should no longer be slaves to sin” (6:6). Because “Christ [lived]” in him (Galatians 2:20), the apostle could live a life honoring to God that would draw others to Christ. Today, God can help us surrender to the Spirit so others will see Christ in us.
Jesus never called the church to be a country club. In fact, He commissioned His disciples to go into all the world and bring people in. Rather than keeping outside people out, Jesus sent inside people out to bring outside people in. Read more on the community of Christ: The community of Christ
Christ in Me
I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. Galatians 2:20
Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer became famous for his talent at age twenty. The art critics of his day called him “the greatest mind that ever expressed itself in line.” As his fame spread, influential people tried to hire him with promises of luxury and ease. Even other acclaimed artists such as Giovanni Bellini and Raphael revered his work.
In what experts consider to be his best self-portrait, Dürer mingled his physical characteristics with what he thought Jesus might have looked like. He painted himself with long, wavy hair, a beard, and eyes that seemed to convey a sense of divine purpose. While many assumed this was the artist’s prideful opinion of himself, others who knew him believed Dürer wanted to live a life that would allow people to see Jesus in him.
If we truly know Christ, this is our desire as well. Believing in Him and accepting His death and resurrection as the basis for our relationship with God means we should now live for Jesus—not for ourselves (Galatians 2:19). We live for Him, and He lives in us and works through us. The apostle Paul said this about his spiritual transformation: “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (v. 20). May the glory of Christ shine through our lives today so that the world sees Him in us.
Reflect & Pray
How do you feel when you sense Jesus working through you to make Himself known? What challenges prevent this from happening at times?
Father in heaven, please help me to stop living to satisfy my desires. Help me to surrender to Your Spirit so others will see Christ in me.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, August 31, 2026
My Joy, Your Joy
I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. — John 15:11
What is the joy Jesus mentions here? It isn’t mere happiness; using the word happiness in connection with Jesus Christ is an insult. The joy of Jesus was the joy of surrendering and sacrificing himself to his Father. It was the joy of doing exactly what his Father sent him to do: “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38). Jesus prayed that our joy might go on fulfilling itself until it was the same joy as his. Have I allowed Jesus Christ to introduce his joy to me?
The fullness of my life lies not in bodily health, not in external events, not in seeing God’s work succeed. It lies in the perfect understanding of God, and in the communion with him that Jesus himself had. The first thing that will upset this communion is the irritation that comes from trying to control my circumstances. The worries of this life, said Jesus, will choke the word of God (Mark 4:19). God’s aim is to get me beyond worry to the place where I will be his witness and proclaim who Jesus is. Everything God has done for me until now is the mere threshold of this deeper relationship with him.
Be rightly related to God, find your joy in him, and out of you will flow rivers of living water. Be a center through which Jesus Christ can pour living water. Stop being self-conscious, stop being smug and self-righteous, and start living the life that is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). The life that is rightly related to God is as natural as breathing. The lives that have been of most blessing to you are those which were unconscious of their influence.
Psalms 132-134; 1 Corinthians 11:17-34
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
The vital relationship which the Christian has to the Bible is not that he worships the letter, but that the Holy Spirit makes the words of the Bible spirit and life to him.
The Psychology of Redemption, 1066 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, August 31, 2026
When You Know You're Not Staying - #10341
One of the great chapters in the history of the modern church has been the Billy Graham crusades, reaching millions of people around the world. Now carried on through his son and grandson. We were preparing for one in our area, and it was amazing to watch the Billy Graham Crusade Team move in to help us organize what was an unprecedented effort. One of our first jobs was a pretty practical one. The setup team needed housing for the year. A lot of people had ideas of what kind of places the team members should live in, but the Crusade Team, they had experience. They knew what it took to come in for a year.
For one thing, they moved every year, if you can imagine that. We're talking committed people here. I heard the Crusade Director explaining to a realtor just what they were looking for. He said something like this, "We need a one-year lease. We won't be here long." Okay. "We need the most reasonable price; we can't spend a lot. We need a place that will require minimal yard work and maintenance. We'll be so busy we won't have much time." Well, you know what? I think they've got it right.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When You Know You're Not Staying."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Peter 2:11. Listen to how you and I are spoken of as believers. "Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul." The King James Version uses "pilgrims in this world." Well, whatever word you use, the point is clear; we're just passing through. We're like those Billy Graham Team members. We're not staying in the area too long.
Jesus told His disciples to keep it simple. He said, for example, in Luke 9:2-4, "He sent them out to preach the Kingdom of God, and He told them, 'Take nothing for the journey, no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic. Whatever house where you stay, remain there until you leave that town.'" In other words, "Travel light. Don't get bogged down with earth stuff. You're not staying here for too long."
Many of us sure act like this is our final destination. We're building quite a kingdom of house, a kingdom of car, we've got our recreational equipment, we've got our nest egg all built up for the future. Hey, we're just pilgrims! And pilgrims keep it simple. They travel light. I like what those Billy Graham staff people said before that crusade, "We won't be here for long. We can't really spend a lot on this stuff. We won't have much time to spend on maintaining a base."
That's how we all ought to be living. The tragedy of many North American Christians is that we are so encumbered. We can't go very far for the Lord or give very much for the Lord, or get too involved in the Lord's work. We are owned by what we own. These are times when I think God is calling us to think about our lifestyle in terms of what really matters forever. If it isn't going to matter there, how much should it matter here? To simplify our lifestyle; to stop this growing buildup of earth stuff and debt obligations. He wants us to be less attached to earth and more attached to heaven.
Jesus is still looking for some modern day apostolic type people who aren't burdened down with a lot of baggage. Think about it. Pray about it. Does your Lord want you to simplify your life in some ways? Does He want you to lighten up on the baggage a little bit? Does He want you to start to untangle your life some?
You see, you live very differently when you know you're not staying.
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