Max Lucado Daily: HEAR GOD’S NAME - October 20, 2026
Jesus says to us what he said to the disciples on the stormy sea. “It is I, don’t be afraid” (John 6:20). The literal translation of what Jesus said is, “I AM, don’t be afraid.”
I AM. That’s God’s name. When we wonder if God is coming, he answers with his name, I AM. When we wonder if he is able, he declares, I AM. When we see nothing but darkness, feel nothing but doubt, and wonder if God is near or aware, the welcome answer from Jesus is this: I AM.
Pause for a moment and let him tell you his name. Your greatest need is his presence. Yes, you want this storm to pass. Yes, you want the winds to still. But yes, yes, yes, you want to know and need to know and must know that the great I AM is near. Remember friends, you are never alone.
You Are Never Alone: Trust in the Miracle of God's Presence & Power
Acts 6
The Word of God Prospered
1–46During this time, as the disciples were increasing in numbers by leaps and bounds, hard feelings developed among the Greek-speaking believers—“Hellenists”—toward the Hebrew-speaking believers because their widows were being discriminated against in the daily food lines. So the Twelve called a meeting of the disciples. They said, “It wouldn’t be right for us to abandon our responsibilities for preaching and teaching the Word of God to help with the care of the poor. So, friends, choose seven men from among you whom everyone trusts, men full of the Holy Spirit and good sense, and we’ll assign them this task. Meanwhile, we’ll stick to our assigned tasks of prayer and speaking God’s Word.”
5–6The congregation thought this was a great idea. They went ahead and chose—
Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit,
Philip,
Procorus,
Nicanor,
Timon,
Parmenas,
Nicolas, a convert from Antioch.
Then they presented them to the apostles. Praying, the apostles laid on hands and commissioned them for their task.
7The Word of God prospered. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased dramatically. Not least, a great many priests submitted themselves to the faith.
8–10Stephen, brimming with God’s grace and energy, was doing wonderful things among the people, unmistakable signs that God was among them. But then some men from the meeting place whose membership was made up of freed slaves, Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and some others from Cilicia and Asia, went up against him trying to argue him down. But they were no match for his wisdom and spirit when he spoke.
11So in secret they bribed men to lie: “We heard him cursing Moses and God.”
12–14That stirred up the people, the religious leaders, and religion scholars. They grabbed Stephen and took him before the High Council. They put forward their bribed witnesses to testify: “This man talks nonstop against this Holy Place and God’s Law. We even heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth would tear this place down and throw out all the customs Moses gave us.”
15As all those who sat on the High Council looked at Stephen, they found they couldn’t take their eyes off him—his face was like the face of an angel!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, October 20, 2026
by Sheridan Voysey
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Acts 9:1-6, 17-20
The Blinding of Saul
1–29All this time Saul was breathing down the necks of the Master’s disciples, out for the kill. He went to the Chief Priest and got arrest warrants to take to the meeting places in Damascus so that if he found anyone there belonging to the Way, whether men or women, he could arrest them and bring them to Jerusalem.
3–4He set off. When he got to the outskirts of Damascus, he was suddenly dazed by a blinding flash of light. As he fell to the ground, he heard a voice: “Saul, Saul, why are you out to get me?”
5–6He said, “Who are you, Master?”
“I am Jesus, the One you’re hunting down. I want you to get up and enter the city. In the city you’ll be told what to do next.”
Acts 9:1-6, 17-20
So Ananias went and found the house, placed his hands on blind Saul, and said, “Brother Saul, the Master sent me, the same Jesus you saw on your way here. He sent me so you could see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” No sooner were the words out of his mouth than something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes—he could see again! He got to his feet, was baptized, and sat down with them to a hearty meal.
Plots Against Saul
19–21Saul spent a few days getting acquainted with the Damascus disciples, but then went right to work, wasting no time, preaching in the meeting places that this Jesus was the Son of God.
Today's Insights
Believers in Jesus are distinctively described as “the faithful in Christ” (Ephesians 1:1; see Colossians 1:2). Paul says that we who are “in Christ . . . though many, form one body” (Romans 12:5). This solidarity between Jesus as “head” of the church, His body (Ephesians 4:15), is clearly affirmed when He warned Saul that an attack on the church was an attack on Him (Acts 9:4-5). In the gospel of Luke, Christ teaches through a parable about helping those in need (10:25-37). In another parable, He says that whatever help given to believers is a service rendered to Him personally (Matthew 25:40). Today, we can “do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (Galatians 6:10) knowing that when we serve those who are suffering, we serve Jesus.
For further study, listen to the podcast: Give Up
You Do It to Me
He . . . heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Acts 9:4
In September 1963, Welsh artist John Petts heard the news that a racially motivated bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, had killed four African American girls. Wanting to help, he offered to replace the church’s shattered stained-glass window. The people of Wales soon raised the funds.
Petts’ striking replacement window shows Jesus on the cross, His right hand pressing against the frame to signify His pushing out hatred, and His left hand open, offering forgiveness. Along the bottom of the window run the words, you do it to me. One wonders who Jesus is talking to in those words—the racist group that killed those three young believers or the Welsh people who donated the window?
Maybe we don’t have to choose. Before his conversion, Saul persecuted Jesus’ disciples (Acts 9:1-2). Yet, when Christ appeared to him, He said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (v. 4). Jesus identifies so closely with His people that to harm or bless them is to harm or bless the Lord Himself.
As Saul discovered, Jesus pushes out hatred by offering transforming forgiveness (9:17-20). His right and left hands always work together—and are never taken off the shoulders of His suffering people.
Reflect & Pray
How might Jesus’ example motivate you to serve the persecuted church? How might it change how you view generosity to any believer in need?
Dear Jesus, I want to serve You by serving Your suffering people today.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, October 20, 2026
Is God’s Will My Will?
It is God’s will that you should be sanctified. — 1 Thessalonians 4:3
My sanctification isn’t a question of whether God is willing to sanctify me. The question is, Am I willing? Am I willing to let God do in me all that has been made possible by the atonement? Am I willing to let the life of Jesus Christ manifest itself in my mortal flesh?
Beware of saying, “I’m longing to be sanctified.” Stop longing and treat it as a transaction, a simple matter of asking and receiving. Ask God for the Holy Spirit on the basis of Luke 11:13: “How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Then, in implicit faith, receive Jesus Christ to be made sanctification to you, and the great marvel of the atonement will be made real in you.
All that Jesus Christ made possible is mine because of one thing and one thing only: the free, loving gift of God. My attitude as a saved and sanctified soul must be one of profound, humble holiness. (There’s no such thing as proud holiness.) I recognize what Jesus has done for me with agonizing repentance and a sense of unspeakable shame and degradation. I have the amazing realization that even when I cared nothing for God, his love for me was so great that he completed everything for my salvation and sanctification.
No wonder Paul says that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39). Sanctification makes me one with Jesus Christ, and in him one with God. This is done only through the atonement of Christ, which is the cause of my holiness. Never confuse the cause and the effect. My holiness and obedience and service and prayer are all effects—the outcome of speechless thanks and adoration for the sanctification worked in me by the atonement.
Isaiah 59-61; 2 Thessalonians 3
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
Both nations and individuals have tried Christianity and abandoned it, because it has been found too difficult; but no man has ever gone through the crisis of deliberately making Jesus Lord and found Him to be a failure.
The Love of God—The Making of a Christian, 680 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, October 20, 2026
Lost and Not Knowing It - #10377
Scripture: Luke 18:9
The setting was a beautiful Christian conference center, nestled in this idyllic spot in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Now Rocky Mountain fans won't be impressed, but some of the mountains around the conference center rise to five or six thousand feet. I had been speaking there, and the director began to tell me some interesting stories from their last few months at the center, like the man they had to go looking for at the top of a nearby mountain in the middle of the night. See, he'd gone too far, and he'd stayed out too long. I asked the obvious question: "Well, was he lost?" The director said: "He didn't think he was."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Lost and Not Knowing It."
Being lost can be a dangerous thing. Being lost and not knowing you're lost, or not admitting it, can mean extreme danger—especially if you're spiritually lost. You're away from God, you’re racing without knowing it toward an eternity without Him and you think you're doing just fine. If you're religious, or successful, or smart, things are going pretty well, you may be in the greatest danger of all of being lost and not knowing it, and as a result, ending up lost forever.
Jesus has made a lot of us people who don't seem lost give a second thought with His revealing story of these two men with very different views of their need for Him. In Luke 18, beginning with verse 9, our word for today from the Word of God, the Bible says: "To some who were confident of their own righteousness... Jesus told this parable: 'Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee (that's the most religious people of Jesus' day) and the other a tax collector (usually regarded as some of the most sinful people in Jesus' day). The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'"
Jesus continues: "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' I tell you this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God.'" Wow! You and I are probably one of these two men; the person who looks around at a lot of people who are much worse off and thinks, "Well, you know what? I'm doing okay." But we're not right with God. Or we're the person who says, "I know I'm lost. I know I have no hope of being forgiven. I have no hope of going to heaven except You, Jesus." Which one is you? The difference is the difference between heaven and hell.
Romans 3:10 bursts all our self-sufficient, self-righteous bubbles when it says: "There is none righteous, not even one." But if you don't think or you won't admit you're lost, you'll never reach out in desperate faith to the only One who can bring you home, and that is Jesus, the Son of God. He died for your sins because there was absolutely no other way for you to know God or get into His heaven.
Pride might be the number one reason people will end up in hell instead of the heaven they were sure they were going to. But they never admitted they were lost. They never pinned all their hopes on their only hope, Jesus, the Savior. God’s not willing to just leave you lost. He sent His Son for you. He doesn't want to lose you, and He's come to where you are today to give you this chance to admit that you are what He says you are—lost, and to finally surrender your pride and bow down at Jesus' feet.
This could be your day to say, "God, be merciful to me a sinner and save me, for Jesus' sake." Finally free. Finally His. If you're ready to make the Savior your Savior, would you tell Him that today, "Jesus, I'm yours."
I invite you to check out our website, where there's a lot more information about how to be sure you're going to heaven. It is ANewStory.com.
There are two choices. Don't admit you're lost and be lost forever. Admit you're lost and be found forever. The stakes are eternal.