Max Lucado Daily: BE SOMEONE - November 4, 2026
When disaster strikes, the human spirit responds by reaching out to help those afflicted. People stand in line to give blood. Rescue teams work for endless hours. But the most essential effort is accomplished by another valiant team. Their task? To gird the world with prayer.
For the most part, we don’t even know their names. Such is the case of someone who prayed on a day long ago. He went to Jesus on behalf of a friend who was sick. No one was more vital than the one who went to Jesus. John writes, “So Mary and Martha sent someone to tell Jesus, ‘Lord, the one you love is sick'” (John 11:3 NCV).
Someone went to Jesus on behalf of Lazarus. And because someone went, Jesus responded. Would you be someone for someone?
God Is with You Every Day
Acts 8:1-25
1Saul was right there, congratulating the killers.
Simon the Wizard
1–28That set off a terrific persecution of the church in Jerusalem. The believers were all scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. All, that is, but the apostles. Good and brave men buried Stephen, giving him a solemn funeral—not many dry eyes that day!
3–8And Saul just went wild, devastating the church, entering house after house after house, dragging men and women off to jail. Forced to leave home base, the followers of Jesus all became missionaries. Wherever they were scattered, they preached the Message about Jesus. Going down to a Samaritan city, Philip proclaimed the Message of the Messiah. When the people heard what he had to say and saw the miracles, the clear signs of God’s action, they hung on his every word. Many who could neither stand nor walk were healed that day. The evil spirits protested loudly as they were sent on their way. And what joy in the city!
9–11Previous to Philip’s arrival, a certain Simon had practiced magic in the city, posing as a famous man and dazzling all the Samaritans with his wizardry. He had them all, from little children to old men, eating out of his hand. They all thought he had supernatural powers, and called him “the Great Wizard.” He had been around a long time and everyone was more or less in awe of him.
12–13But when Philip came to town announcing the news of God’s kingdom and proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ, they forgot Simon and were baptized, becoming believers right and left! Even Simon himself believed and was baptized. From that moment he was like Philip’s shadow, so fascinated with all the God-signs and miracles that he wouldn’t leave Philip’s side.
14–17When the apostles in Jerusalem received the report that Samaria had accepted God’s Message, they sent Peter and John down to pray for them to receive the Holy Spirit. Up to this point they had only been baptized in the name of the Master Jesus; the Holy Spirit hadn’t yet fallen on them. Then the apostles laid their hands on them and they did receive the Holy Spirit.
18–19When Simon saw that the apostles by merely laying on hands conferred the Spirit, he pulled out his money, excited, and said, “Sell me your secret! Show me how you did that! How much do you want? Name your price!”
20–23Peter said, “To hell with your money! And you along with it. Why, that’s unthinkable—trying to buy God’s gift! You’ll never be part of what God is doing by striking bargains and offering bribes. Change your ways—and now! Ask the Master to forgive you for trying to use God to make money. I can see this is an old habit with you; you reek with money-lust.”
24“Oh!” said Simon, “pray for me! Pray to the Master that nothing like that will ever happen to me!”
25And with that, the apostles were on their way, continuing to witness and spread the Message of God’s salvation, preaching in every Samaritan town they passed through on their return to Jerusalem.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, November 04, 2026
by
Anne Cetas
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Ephesians 1:3-14
The God of Glory
3–6How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.
7–10Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.
11–12It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.
13–14It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This signet from God is the first installment on what’s coming, a reminder that we’ll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.
Today's Insights
To encourage believers in Jesus to live godly lives in an ungodly world (Ephesians 4:1, 17), Paul begins this letter by reminding us how much God loves us and in Christ has “blessed us with every spiritual blessing” (1:3). Through Jesus, we’re chosen, redeemed, forgiven, saved, and adopted as His children into His family, destined to be His heirs. Distinctively marked and empowered by the Holy Spirit, we’re graciously cared for and given all that we need to live God-honoring lives as His children (vv. 3-14). Whatever challenges or trials we may face, and whatever losses and pain we may suffer, our heavenly Father “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,” for “his power . . . is at work within us” (3:20).
For further study, read: Personal Relationship with God
Hope in Loss
God . . . has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Ephesians 1:3
While out walking the family dog, my nephew Andy was hit by a car. Someone saw the accident and stopped to give him CPR and call for an ambulance. A ventilator kept him alive for a week. Miraculously, he was weaned off the sedation medicines and vent the day after Christmas and told his wife, parents, brother, and five children, “I love you.” Emotions and hope soared! But the very next day, he died.
All of his children, ages fifteen to twenty-one, spoke through their tears at his God-honoring memorial service. Daughter Julia read a quote that made those in attendance think: “It’s not about how much we lost. It’s about how much we have left.”
But the truth is, those of us who knew and loved him lost so much with Andy’s passing—a beautiful life lived for Jesus—and he’s greatly missed. What do we have left that gives us hope? Ephesians 1 speaks of the spiritual blessings Andy and other believers have in Jesus: We’re “blameless in his sight” (v. 4), “predestined . . . for adoption to sonship” (v. 5), “[redeemed] through his blood” (v. 7), and “[forgiven] of sins [by] God’s grace” (v. 7). “The promised Holy Spirit” lives in us and guarantees “our inheritance” with Him in the life to come (vv. 13-14).
Those who love Jesus have His gift of eternal salvation.
Reflect & Pray
What have you lost? If you’re grieving, how much do you have left that you can thank God for?
Father God, please comfort me and enable me to depend on Your promises.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, November 04, 2026
Acting on His Truth
Come near to God and he will come near to you. —James 4:8
It’s essential for us, as ministers of the gospel, to give people a chance to act on the truth of God. We might wish we could act for them, but no individual can act for another. Our role is to share the evangelical message, a message which can and should lead to action. But the ultimate responsibility must be left with the individual. The paralysis of refusing to act leaves people exactly where they were before. Once they act, they are never the same again.
Acting on the truth of God can look like foolishness in the eyes of the world. Because of this, many who have been convicted by the Holy Spirit refuse to act. And yet the very second I act, I live; all the rest is mere existence. The moments when I truly live are the moments when I act with my whole will.
Never allow a truth of God that is brought home to your soul to pass without acting on it—not necessarily physically, but in your will. Record it with ink or with blood. The weakest saint is emancipated the instant she acts. In that instant, all the power of God Almighty is on her side.
We back down from acting on God’s truth all the time. We come up to the truth, confess we are wrong, then turn back. We do this over and over again, until we learn that we have no business going back. We have to transact business with our Lord on the truth he is showing us, whatever it may be. When he tells us, “Come,” he really means “transact with me.”
“Come near to God.” The last thing we’ll do is come to God, but all who do come know that the instant they come, the supernatural life of God invades them. The dominating power of the world and the flesh and the devil is paralyzed, not by their act of coming but because that act has linked them to God and his redemptive power.
Jeremiah 32-33; Hebrews 1
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
God does not further our spiritual life in spite of our circumstances, but in and by our circumstances.
Not Knowing Whither, 900 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, November 04, 2026
The Tragedy of Doing Nothing
We love it when we hear those stories in the news about ordinary people who come upon someone in danger and they risk their own lives to save them. And then there’s the kind of story that came from Mount Everest some years ago. A British mountaineer became desperate for oxygen on his descent from that mountain. And you know, it is a legendary mountain. Ultimately, he collapsed along a well-traveled route to the summit. He was dying. And more than forty climbers are thought to have seen him as he lay dying, and they passed him by. He died because of oxygen deficiency. But you know what? He sure didn’t have to die.
Im Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “The Tragedy of Doing Nothing.”
The official cause of death was probably something like “oxygen deficiency.” But apparently there was another cause of that climber’s death—human indifference; people too busy climbing their mountain to stop and help someone who was dying.
Sadly, that happens more than we know. And the ones who are dying may be people we see everyday. Without the Bible, we’d never know the real spiritual condition of the folks that we know who don’t belong to Jesus. But we have the Bible, and it describes every person without Christ in words like these: and I’ll just quote from the Bible, they are “lost,” they are “without hope and without God in this world,” Ephesians 2:12. Some folks you see often, are in God’s words, “condemned,” according to John 3:18. Or, they’re called in Proverbs 24, “those who are being led away to death.”
My Bible tells me that neighbors and friends of mine who don’t know Christ will be “shut out from the presence of the Lord” (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9). There’s no way anyone can get into heaven with their sin unforgiven. And the only One who can forgive their sin is the One who died for those sins. So we have dying people all around us. People whose eternal destination may hinge on whether or not we stop for them to tell them what Jesus did for them on the cross. Look you could live a good life in front of them for fifty years and they’re not going to guess Jesus died for them. You have to tell them that.
Where are we in this disturbing story Jesus told in Luke 10:30-34, our word for today from the Word of God? “A man…fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him…beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.” And then another religious leader came along and it says he “passed by on the other side.” Then it says, “But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds…he took him to an inn and took care of him.” What troubles me is that it’s the really religious folks who just keep walking by this man who needed them—people like me, and maybe like you.
So many times I’ve met people who have come to Christ late in life, and they just regret so much that they did not know Him sooner. And I’ve heard so many say something like, “I was 52 years old…I was 45 years old before I ever heard what Jesus did for me.” And it turns out, in retrospect, that they had known several folks along the way who were believers and who never told them about their Jesus.
Look around your personal world: those coworkers, the family members, your fellow students, your teammates, your fellow club members, how bout your friends, your neighbors. If you’ll let Jesus show you what He sees, you’re going to see people who are slowly dying spiritually; who are headed for an unthinkable eternity without Christ while you’re enjoying the glories of heaven. Silence is unacceptable. Silence is wrong.
Don’t talk to them about religion. Or your church. Or their lifestyle. Tell them about the Man who loved them enough to die in their place. God put you in their life to be their chance at Jesus. Don’t keep walking by their need. You know Jesus. They need your Jesus. Don’t let them down. Don’t let Him down.
