Numbers 4 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THE IMPLANTED WORD - September 23, 2025

James, the half-brother of Jesus, gave this admonition: “Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21 ESV). What a grand invitation! It’s not enough to uproot, we must also replant.

Jesus described a demon who had been cast out of a person. It roams about, looking for a new home. Not finding one, it returns to its former place of residence and finds it “spotlessly clean, but vacant” (Matthew 12:43 MSG). The demon sees no barrier, alerts its buddies, and they show up with a keg of chaos.

To clean out the old is wonderful, but to usher in the new—that’s essential. Uprooting weeds of lies is necessary. Replacing them with truth is vital.

Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life

Numbers 4

Duties of the Kohathites

1–3  4 God spoke to Moses and Aaron. He said, “Number the Kohathite line of Levites by clan and family. Count all the men from thirty to fifty years of age, all who enter the ministry to work in the Tent of Meeting.

4  “This is the assigned work of the Kohathites in the Tent of Meeting: care of the most holy things.

5–6  “When the camp is ready to set out, Aaron and his sons are to go in and take down the covering curtain and cover the Chest of The Testimony with it. Then they are to cover this with a dolphin skin, spread a solid blue cloth on top, and insert the poles.

7–8  “Then they are to spread a blue cloth on the Table of the Presence and set the Table with plates, incense dishes, bowls, and jugs for drink offerings. The bread that is always there stays on the Table. They are to cover these with a scarlet cloth, and on top of that spread the dolphin skin, and insert the poles.

9–10  “They are to use a blue cloth to cover the light-giving Lampstand and the lamps, snuffers, trays, and the oil jars that go with it. Then they are to wrap it all in a covering of dolphin skin and place it on a carrying frame.

11  “They are to spread a blue cloth over the Gold Altar and cover it with dolphin skins and place it on a carrying frame.

12  “They are to take all the articles used in ministering in the Sanctuary, wrap them in a blue cloth, cover them with dolphin skins, and place them on a carrying frame.

13–14  “They are to remove the ashes from the Altar and spread a purple cloth over it. They are to place on it all the articles used in ministering at the Altar—firepans, forks, shovels, bowls; everything used at the Altar—place them on the Altar, cover it with the dolphin skins, and insert the poles.

15  “When Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy furnishings and all the holy articles, and the camp is ready to set out, the Kohathites are to come and do the carrying. But they must not touch the holy things or they will die. The Kohathites are in charge of carrying all the things that are in the Tent of Meeting.

16  “Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, is to be in charge of the oil for the light, the fragrant incense, the regular Grain-Offering, and the anointing oil. He is to be in charge of the entire Dwelling and everything in it, including its holy furnishings and articles.”

17–20  God spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Don’t let the tribal families of the Kohathites be destroyed from among the Levites. Protect them so they will live and not die when they come near the most holy things. To protect them, Aaron and his sons are to precede them into the Sanctuary and assign each man his task and what he is to carry. But the Kohathites themselves must not go in to look at the holy things, not even a glance at them, or they will die.”

Duties of the Gershonites

21–23  God spoke to Moses: “Number the Gershonites by tribes according to their ancestral families. Count all the men from thirty to fifty years of age who enter the ministry of work in the Tent of Meeting.

24–28  “The Gershonites by family and clan will serve by carrying heavy loads: the curtains of the Sanctuary and the Tent of Meeting; the covering of the Tent and the outer covering of dolphin skins; the screens for the entrance to the Tent; the cords; and all the equipment used in its ministries. The Gershonites have the job of doing the work connected with these things. All their work of lifting and carrying and moving is to be done under the supervision of Aaron and his sons. Assign them specifically what they are to carry. This is the work of the Gershonite clans at the Tent of Meeting. Ithamar son of Aaron the priest is to supervise their work.

Duties of the Merarites

29–30  “Number the Merarites by their ancestral families. Count all the men from thirty to fifty years of age who enter the ministry of work at the Tent of Meeting.

31–33  “This is their assigned duty as they go to work at the Tent of Meeting: to carry the frames of The Dwelling, its crossbars, posts, and bases, as well as the posts of the surrounding Courtyard with their bases, tent pegs, cords, and all the equipment related to their use. Assign to each man exactly what he is to carry. This is the ministry of the Merarite clans as they work at the Tent of Meeting under the supervision of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest.”

34–37  Moses, Aaron, and the leaders of the congregation counted the Kohathites by clan and family. All the men from thirty to fifty years of age who came to serve in the work in the Tent of Meeting, counted by clans, were 2,750. This was the total from the Kohathite clans who served in the Tent of Meeting. Moses and Aaron counted them just as God had commanded through Moses.

38–41  The Gershonites were counted by clan and family. All the men from thirty to fifty years of age who came to serve in the work in the Tent of Meeting, counted by clan and family, were 2,630. This was the total from the Gershonite clans who served in the Tent of Meeting. Moses and Aaron counted them just as God had commanded.

42–45  The Merarites were counted by clan and family. All the men from thirty to fifty years of age who came to serve in the work in the Tent of Meeting, counted by clan, were 3,200. This was the total from the Merarite clans. Moses and Aaron counted them just as God had commanded through Moses.

46–49  So Moses and Aaron and the leaders of Israel counted all the Levites by clan and family. All the men from thirty to fifty years of age who came to do the work of serving and carrying the Tent of Meeting numbered 8,580. At God’s command through Moses, each man was assigned his work and told what to carry.

And that’s the story of their numbering, as God commanded Moses.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Tuesday, September 23, 2025

by Mike Wittmer

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Acts 20:17-24

On to Jerusalem

17–21  From Miletus he sent to Ephesus for the leaders of the congregation. When they arrived, he said, “You know that from day one of my arrival in Asia I was with you totally—laying my life on the line, serving the Master no matter what, putting up with no end of scheming by Jews who wanted to do me in. I didn’t skimp or trim in any way. Every truth and encouragement that could have made a difference to you, you got. I taught you out in public and I taught you in your homes, urging Jews and Greeks alike to a radical life-change before God and an equally radical trust in our Master Jesus.

22–24  “But there is another urgency before me now. I feel compelled to go to Jerusalem. I’m completely in the dark about what will happen when I get there. I do know that it won’t be any picnic, for the Holy Spirit has let me know repeatedly and clearly that there are hard times and imprisonment ahead. But that matters little. What matters most to me is to finish what God started: the job the Master Jesus gave me of letting everyone I meet know all about this incredibly extravagant generosity of God.

Today's Insights

In Acts 20:22-24, Paul was compelled by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. No matter what happened to him there, his aim was to complete “the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace” (v. 24). This urgency likewise motivated him to urge Timothy to “preach the word” (2 Timothy 4:2). Peter too felt the same urgency. Immediately after being filled by the Spirit (Acts 2:4), he began preaching the good news to the gathered crowd (vv. 14-40). The Spirit is the one who empowers and motivates believers in Jesus to spread the good news (1:8; 4:31; 8:29). And He’s the one who gives us the words to speak (Matthew 10:19-20). The Spirit continues to motivate and compel believers today to tell others about Christ. We can trust Him to provide the words to tell of the Savior who died and rose again so that all who receive Him can spend eternity with Him.

Saving Lives

I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing. Acts 20:19

Adolfo Kaminsky knew how to remove indelible ink from paper. As a member of the anti-Nazi resistance in France, he altered identification cards to save hundreds from concentration camps. Once he was given three days to forge nine hundred birth and baptismal certificates and ration cards for three hundred Jewish children. He labored two straight days without sleep, telling himself, “In one hour I can make thirty blank documents. If I sleep for an hour thirty people will die.”

The apostle Paul felt a similar urgency. He reminded the church in Ephesus how he’d “served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing” (Acts 20:19). Paul said, “I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you” (v. 20). This urgency compelled him to share with everyone the necessity of repentance and faith in Jesus (v. 21). Now he was sailing back to Jerusalem, eager to “finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus [had] given [him]—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace” (v. 24).

Paul couldn’t save people. Only God does that. But he could tell them God’s good news about Jesus, the only “name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Who is the Holy Spirit bringing to your mind today? You can share God’s good news with them.

Reflect & Pray

Who do you know who needs to hear “the good news of God’s grace”? How might you share it with them?

Dear Jesus, please open my heart to those who need You and give me opportunities to tell them of Your love.

For further study, read The Power of Prayer in Sharing the Gospel.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Tuesday, September 23, 2025

The Disciple’s Goal

Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem.” — Luke 18:31

In our natural life, our ambitions change as we grow and mature. In our Christian life, the goal is given to us at the beginning: we start with Christ and we end with him; the beginning and the end are the same. Disciples live this out in their willingness to follow Jesus wherever he leads. We think the aim of the Christian life is to be useful or to win converts. The disciple is useful and does win converts, but this isn’t the aim. The aim is to do the will of God by following Jesus when he says, “We are going up to Jerusalem.”

In our Lord’s life, Jerusalem was the place where he reached the climax of his Father’s will upon the cross. Unless we go with Jesus to Jerusalem, we will have no companionship with him. Nothing ever discouraged our Lord on his way to Jerusalem. He didn’t hurry through the villages where he was persecuted or linger in the villages where he was blessed. Neither gratitude nor ingratitude turned him away from his purpose: to go up to Jerusalem.

“The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master” (Luke 6:40 kjv). If Jesus Christ is our master, then the same things that happened to him as he went to his Jerusalem will happen to us as we go to ours. Works of God will be manifested through us; people will be blessed. One or two of these people will show gratitude; the rest will show ingratitude. No matter what, we must let nothing deflect us from going up to our Jerusalem.

“They crucified him there” (23:33). The cross is what happened when our Lord reached Jerusalem, and that happening is the gateway to our salvation. Those who follow Jesus Christ do not end in crucifixion; by the Lord’s grace, they end in glory. In the meantime, our watchword is “I, too, go up to Jerusalem.”

Song of Solomon 1-3; Galatians 2

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

The great point of Abraham’s faith in God was that he was prepared to do anything for God.

Not Knowing Whither

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Tuesday, September 23, 2025

HOW TO BUILD A LIFE THAT WORKS - #10097

I guess you could call it creative architecture. Or you could just call it a big stone in the middle of a high brick wall. I saw this phenomenon when I visited the new station of one of our radio partners. The front wall of the station has this big old 230-pound stone about halfway up the wall in the middle of the bricks. There's no way that could be a mistake or an accident. It is, in fact, a message.

A masonry contractor offered to do some of the work on the station, and somewhere along the way he thought about a stone like this. He thought about what the Bible says about Jesus being the "chief cornerstone." So he went to the local quarry and he found this impressive piece of rock, which he installed in a central spot in the front of the building, with the "chief cornerstone" scripture reference under it. I love the reason he gave for this unusual feature. He said, "You build everything around the cornerstone." Wow!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Build a Life That Works."

That's a builder who knows how to build a life, not just a building. And he's following the life blueprint laid out for us in the Bible, the only book God ever wrote. God is the Master Architect, not only of the universe, but of your life and mine. He tells us how to build it in our word for today in the Word of God in 1 Peter 2, beginning with verse 4. "As you come to Him, the living Stone (that's speaking of Jesus symbolically), rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him - you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house. See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame. Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. To those who do not believe, 'The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone,' and, 'a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.'"

These verses are all about Jesus. Your life is supposed to be all about Jesus, with Him as the cornerstone, with everything else in your life built on Him - your relationships, your marriage, your money. But maybe you're building on another cornerstone right now. Slowly but surely, you've pushed Jesus from the center of things to the edge.

He's the King of kings. He's the Lord of lords, but you've pushed Him to the margins. You can tell by how little time you spend with Him, by how little you make Him the bottom line in your decisions, or by the things you do that break His heart. But count on this: unless your life is being built on Jesus as the center, what you're building is not going to last, it isn't going to satisfy, and it isn't going to work.

The contractor who put that cornerstone in the middle of the wall found it at a quarry on the reject pile. A stone the builders had rejected. It now stands representing the Chief Cornerstone. Jesus is the Cornerstone rejected by man, but loved by those who are building their life around Him. Maybe you've made the mistake of rejecting Jesus as the center of your life. He's the reason you're here. In fact, the Bible says you were "created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). He gave His life for your sin so you could belong to Him...so you could live the life you were made for.

Would you let today be the day that you open your heart to the One who loved you so much He died for you? That would be God's only Son, Jesus, who knocks at the door of your heart this very day. But the handle is on the inside. You've got to let Him in.

Today, would you say, "Jesus, I've built my life around me. I'm building it around You from now on. You died for my sin, You walked out of your grave under your own power. Walk into my life this day. I invite You. I turn my life over to You."

Listen, I wish you would go to our website today. Everything you need to know about making sure you belong to Him is there. It's ANewStory.com.

Jesus is the only Cornerstone that can support everything you face in your life. Make sure that you're building that life all around Him.

Numbers 3, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: UPROOT TOXIC THOUGHTS - September 22, 2025

Ephesians 4:23-24 (CEV) reads, “Let the Spirit change your way of thinking and make you into a new person.” How? I have a three-word answer to that question: Uproot and Replant.

Your mind is like a lawn. Your toxic thoughts are like grass burrs. They prompt a predictable chain reaction. These are untruths that lead to false narratives that result in overreactions. They stick and they hurt. They sour your mood and embitter your heart. You might mow them down. Give yourself pep talks. Read a book on positive mental attitude. And, for a day or two or ten, the weeds will disappear. But eventually they return.

God has a better plan: Yank ‘em out by the roots. Your Father gives you his Word, and he invites you to treat the lies of hell with the words of heaven.

Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life

Numbers 3

The Levites

1  3 This is the family tree of Aaron and Moses at the time God spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai.

2–4  The names of the sons of Aaron: Nadab the firstborn, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar—anointed priests ordained to serve as priests. But Nadab and Abihu fell dead in the presence of God when they offered unauthorized sacrifice to him in the Wilderness of Sinai. They left no sons, and so only Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests during the lifetime of their father, Aaron.

5–10  God spoke to Moses. He said, “Bring forward the tribe of Levi and present them to Aaron so they can help him. They shall work for him and the whole congregation at the Tent of Meeting by doing the work of The Dwelling. Their job is to be responsible for all the furnishings of The Dwelling, ministering to the affairs of The Dwelling as the People of Israel come to perform their duties. Turn the Levites over to Aaron and his sons; they are the ones assigned to work full time for him. Appoint Aaron and his sons to minister as priests; anyone else who tries to elbow his way in will be put to death.”

11–13  God spoke to Moses: “I have taken the Levites from among the People of Israel as a stand-in for every Israelite mother’s firstborn son. The Levites belong to me. All the firstborn are mine—when I killed all the firstborn in Egypt, I consecrated for my own use every firstborn in Israel, whether human or animal. They belong to me. I am God.”

14–16  God spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai: “Count the Levites by their ancestral families and clans. Count every male a month old and older.” Moses counted them just as he was instructed by the mouth of God.

17  These are the names of the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

18  These are the names of the Gershonite clans: Libni and Shimei.

19  The sons of Kohath by clan: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel.

20  The sons of Merari by clan: Mahli and Mushi.

These are the clans of Levi, family by family.

21–26  Gershon was ancestor to the clans of the Libnites and Shimeites, known as the Gershonite clans. All the males who were one month and older numbered 7,500. The Gershonite clans camped on the west, behind The Dwelling, led by Eliasaph son of Lael. At the Tent of Meeting the Gershonites were in charge of maintaining The Dwelling and its tent, its coverings, the screen at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the hangings of the Courtyard, the screen at the entrance to the Courtyard that surrounded The Dwelling and Altar, and the cords—in short, everything having to do with these things.

27–32  Kohath was ancestor to the clans of the Amramites, Izharites, Hebronites, and Uzzielites. These were known as the Kohathite clans. All the males who were one month and older numbered 8,600. The Kohathites were in charge of the Sanctuary. The Kohathite clans camped on the south side of The Dwelling, led by Elizaphan son of Uzziel. They were in charge of caring for the Chest, the Table, the Lampstand, the Altars, the articles of the Sanctuary used in worship, and the screen—everything having to do with these things. Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, supervised the leaders of the Levites and those in charge of the Sanctuary.

33–37  Merari was ancestor to the clans of the Mahlites and the Mushites, known as the Merarite clans. The males who were one month and older numbered 6,200. They were led by Zuriel son of Abihail and camped on the north side of The Dwelling. The Merarites were in charge of the frames of The Dwelling, its crossbars, posts, bases, and all its equipment—everything having to do with these things, as well as the posts of the surrounding Courtyard with their bases, tent pegs, and cords.

38  Moses and Aaron and his sons camped to the east of The Dwelling, toward the rising sun, in front of the Tent of Meeting. They were in charge of maintaining the Sanctuary for the People of Israel and the rituals of worship. Anyone else who tried to perform these duties was to be put to death.

39  The sum total of Levites counted at God’s command by Moses and Aaron, clan by clan, all the males one month and older, numbered 22,000.

40–41  God spoke to Moses: “Count all the firstborn males of the People of Israel who are one month and older. List their names. Then set apart for me the Levites—remember, I am God—in place of all the firstborn among the People of Israel, also the livestock of the Levites in place of their livestock. I am God.”

42–43  So, just as God commanded him, Moses counted all the firstborn of the People of Israel. The total of firstborn males one month and older, listed by name, numbered 22,273.

44–48  Again God spoke to Moses. He said, “Take the Levites in place of all the firstborn of Israel and the livestock of the Levites in place of their livestock. The Levites are mine, I am God. Redeem the 273 firstborn Israelites who exceed the number of Levites by collecting five shekels for each one, using the Sanctuary shekel (the shekel weighing twenty gerahs). Give that money to Aaron and his sons for the redemption of the excess number of Israelites.”

49–51  So Moses collected the redemption money from those who exceeded the number redeemed by the Levites. From the 273 firstborn Israelites he collected silver weighing 1,365 shekels according to the Sanctuary shekel. Moses turned over the redemption money to Aaron and his sons, as he was commanded by the word of God.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Monday, September 22, 2025

by Sheridan Voysey

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

John 14:8-14

Philip said, “Master, show us the Father; then we’ll be content.”

9–10  “You’ve been with me all this time, Philip, and you still don’t understand? To see me is to see the Father. So how can you ask, ‘Where is the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you aren’t mere words. I don’t just make them up on my own. The Father who resides in me crafts each word into a divine act.

11–14  “Believe me: I am in my Father and my Father is in me. If you can’t believe that, believe what you see—these works. The person who trusts me will not only do what I’m doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I’ve been doing. You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I’ll do it. That’s how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you request in this way, I’ll do.

Today's Insights

Lack of spiritual sight wasn’t limited to those closest to Jesus. The beginning of John’s gospel says this about people not being able to see Christ for who He is: “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him” (1:10-11).

Yet Jesus had expectations for those who were closest to Him—those who’d heard His words, who’d seen and experienced His works. He rebuked His disciple for not recognizing Him: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time?” (14:9). When we honestly and prayerfully evaluate the words and works of Christ as seen in the Gospels, the Spirit can open our eyes and hearts regarding His identity as God’s Son and the King of Kings, and we’ll be welcomed into the family of God (1:12-13).

Recognizing Jesus

Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? John 14:9

Richard Griffin was Queen Elizabeth II’s personal police officer for fourteen years. Accompanying her on a picnic in the hills near Balmoral Castle one day, they met two American hikers. “Have you ever met the Queen?” they asked, not recognizing the monarch in plain dress. “I haven’t,” the Queen quipped, “but Richard here meets her regularly!” Thrilled to meet someone close to royalty, the hikers then handed the Queen their camera, posed with Richard, and asked her to take a photo!

It isn’t the first time someone has been in the presence of an important person unawares. “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it,” Jacob said after encountering God in a dream at Bethel (Genesis 28:16). And when Philip asked Jesus to show the disciples the Father, Jesus replied, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Like the hikers, the disciples had been ready to hand Jesus the camera, not recognizing He was the one to zoom in on (vv. 10-11).

Like the Queen that day, Jesus hasn’t always been recognized for who He really is. Beyond a “wise teacher” or “great moral leader,” He’s God in the flesh and King of the world (1:14; 18:36). What a revelation it is when we discover it!

Reflect & Pray

What would you say to Jesus if you met Him on a picnic trip? Who do you understand Him to be?

Dear Jesus, I praise You today for being the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and far more than I can ever grasp.

Learn more about the divinity and humanity of Jesus.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Monday, September 22, 2025

The Disciple’s Master

Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. — John 13:13 kjv

To have a master and to be mastered aren’t the same thing. To have Jesus as a master means that there is someone who knows me better than I know myself, someone who is closer than a friend, who is able to satisfy the deepest longing of my heart. It’s to belong to someone who gives me the secure sense that he has met and solved every perplexity and problem of my mind. To have Jesus as my master is all this and nothing less.

To be mastered is different; it implies coercion or force. Jesus Christ never enforces obedience. At certain times, I wish he would, but he doesn’t. At other times, I wish he’d leave me alone, but he won’t.

“Ye call me Master and Lord.” We call Jesus our Lord and Master, but is he? “Master” and “Lord” have little place in today’s vocabulary. We prefer “Savior,” “Teacher,” and “Healer.” The only word to describe the experience of having Jesus as master is love, and many of us know very little about love as God reveals it. This is proved by the way we use the word obey. We use it to mean the submission of a weaker person to a more powerful person. In the Bible, obedience is based on a relationship of equals: the relationship of the Father and the Son. Our Lord wasn’t God’s servant; he was God’s Son. Jesus obeyed his Father because he loved him.

Our relationship to Jesus is to be the same as his relationship to the Father. If instead we think we are being mastered, it is proof that we have no master. To take this attitude toward Jesus is to be far from the relationship he wants. He wants us in a relationship in which he is easily and effortlessly Master, so much so that we aren’t even conscious of it. All we know is that we love him, and that we are his to rule.

Ecclesiastes 10-12; Galatians 1

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

We are not to preach the doing of good things; good deeds are not to be preached, they are to be performed.

So Send I You

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Monday, September 22, 2025

THE MATING GAME - #10096

I never heard the words till I got to college. You start talking about Senior Panic. Yeah, well, if you didn't have a prospective mate by your senior year, it became pretty obvious that the odds were working against you and time was not on your side. Sadly, there were some people who got somebody in their desperation, but time began to show they got the wrong somebody. I guess you don't have to be a senior to begin to panic over your singleness. In fact, you may very well fear deep down inside never being married or never having anyone again; that you're going to be stuck eating frozen dinners alone a lot of nights for the rest of your life. In your anxiety, you can make a terrible mistake. I think we've got some good news today!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Mating Game."

Our word for today from the Word of God? It goes back to the very first couple there ever was. You remember Adam and Eve, or as my daughter said when she was a little girl when we asked her who were the first man and woman, she said, "I know! I know! Eve and Steve." Well, no, that's not quite right. It's Adam and Eve. And it says in Genesis 2, beginning with verse 20, "So the man gave names to all the livestock; the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib that he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man."

Oh, I love that story and I love some of the priorities that it teaches. God saw that Adam needed someone. He said to him, "It's not good for you to be alone." Now, in spite of the fact that he had God over him and the animals under him, he had no one to be next to him. And so, Adam slept while God worked on that need. And God prepared Adam for a partner, and then He rested. And at just the right time, God brought them together, "He brought her to the man" it says.

Now, how different that is from the frantic American dating game. We don't wait, we chase! We catch a husband; we catch a wife. I'll tell you, there is no one who knows what you need emotionally better than the God who made you. I wonder, do you think you could trust Him to meet your very deepest need as a man, as a woman? Now, that might be through a fulfilling singleness, or it might be through the marriage that perhaps you hope He'll bring about. Or are you going to have Senior Panic? Are you going to take matters into your own hands and chase, and pursue, and manipulate, and grab what you can and try to push and press?

God has unique plans. God has unique people. God has unique timing that is just for your unique life. Don't compare how He's working in someone else's life to yours. He's got a plan that's never been there before. There's never been a you. He's got a plan just for you. Right now the thing to work on is building God-glorifying friendships with both sexes without that pressure of having to think marriage with them or to push for marriage, or to put the very pressure on them that might ruin the whole thing. Don't panic!

Psalm 23:1 says, "The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want." God can meet your need in the very same way He did with Adam. Adam didn't go and find his own wife and create his own situation. Let God meet your needs. And He'll do it like with Adam, when you're resting, not running.

There's a wonderful statement in Colossians 2:10 for all of us who belong to Jesus. It says, "You are complete in Him." Wow! Married or single, alone or with lots of people, you are complete in Him, and Jesus is enough.

Mark 12:1-27, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

MaxLucado.com: So Many Hurts

If hurts were hairs—we’d all look like grizzlies!

So many hurts.  When teachers ignore your work, their neglect hurts. When your girlfriend drops you, when your husband abandons you, when the company fires you, it hurts.  Rejection always does.  People bring pain.

Sometimes deliberately.  Sometimes randomly.

So where do you turn?  Hitman.com?  Jim Beam and friends?  Pity Party Catering Service?  Retaliation has its appeal.  But Jesus has a better idea!

Grace is not blind.  It sees the hurt full well.  But Grace chooses to see God’s forgiveness even more.  Hebrews 12:15 asks us to, “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”

Where grace is lacking, bitterness abounds.  Where grace abounds,  forgiveness grows.  Forgiveness may not happen all at once.  But it can happen with you.

From GRACE

Mark 12:1-27

The Story About a Vineyard

1–2  12 Then Jesus started telling them stories. “A man planted a vineyard. He fenced it, dug a winepress, erected a watchtower, turned it over to the farmhands, and went off on a trip. At the time for harvest, he sent a servant back to the farmhands to collect his profits.

3–5  “They grabbed him, beat him up, and sent him off empty-handed. So he sent another servant. That one they tarred and feathered. He sent another and that one they killed. And on and on, many others. Some they beat up, some they killed.

6  “Finally there was only one left: a beloved son. In a last-ditch effort, he sent him, thinking, ‘Surely they will respect my son.’

7–8  “But those farmhands saw their chance. They rubbed their hands together in greed and said, ‘This is the heir! Let’s kill him and have it all for ourselves.’ They grabbed him, killed him, and threw him over the fence.

9–11  “What do you think the owner of the vineyard will do? Right. He’ll come and clean house. Then he’ll assign the care of the vineyard to others. Read it for yourselves in Scripture:

That stone the masons threw out

is now the cornerstone!

This is God’s work;

we rub our eyes—we can hardly believe it!”

12  They wanted to lynch him then and there but, intimidated by public opinion, held back. They knew the story was about them. They got away from there as fast as they could.

Paying Taxes to Caesar

13–14  They sent some Pharisees and followers of Herod to bait him, hoping to catch him saying something incriminating. They came up and said, “Teacher, we know you have integrity, that you are indifferent to public opinion, don’t pander to your students, and teach the way of God accurately. Tell us: Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

15–16  He knew it was a trick question, and said, “Why are you playing these games with me? Bring me a coin and let me look at it.” They handed him one.

“This engraving—who does it look like? And whose name is on it?”

“Caesar,” they said.

17  Jesus said, “Give Caesar what is his, and give God what is his.”

Their mouths hung open, speechless.

Our Intimacies Will Be with God

18–23  Some Sadducees, the party that denies any possibility of resurrection, came up and asked, “Teacher, Moses wrote that if a man dies and leaves a wife but no child, his brother is obligated to marry the widow and have children. Well, there once were seven brothers. The first took a wife. He died childless. The second married her. He died, and still no child. The same with the third. All seven took their turn, but no child. Finally the wife died. When they are raised at the resurrection, whose wife is she? All seven were her husband.”

24–27  Jesus said, “You’re way off base, and here’s why: One, you don’t know your Bibles; two, you don’t know how God works. After the dead are raised up, we’re past the marriage business. As it is with angels now, all our ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God. And regarding the dead, whether or not they are raised, don’t you ever read the Bible? How God at the bush said to Moses, ‘I am—not was—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? The living God is God of the living, not the dead. You’re way, way off base.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Sunday, September 21, 2025

by Karen Pimpo

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Romans 5:1-11

Developing Patience

1–2  5 By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.

3–5  There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!

6–8  Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

9–11  Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!

Today's Insights

Paul begins Romans 5 with the word therefore. He highlights what he’s already said—“we have been justified through faith” (v. 1)—and then points to its practical implications. Those who’ve been justified by their faith in the promises of God through Jesus (see 4:13-25) can enjoy peace with God (5:1), endurance through suffering, growth in character, and the overwhelming love of God (vv. 3-5).

Peace with God is a gift we receive through faith in Christ and is just the beginning of our new life. It forms the foundation from which we can grow through suffering as we cling to the hope of future glory. It teaches us to live like Jesus lived, who offered His life out of love for others and provides the peace we need.

Peace with God

Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1

When I accompanied my friend to the salon on her birthday, we were delighted by the pampering we received. Soothing music and a personal attendant welcomed us to the tranquil, dimly lit spa. The whole experience was calm, quiet, and restful. I had to suppress a giggle, however, at a sign displayed on a table proclaiming, “This organic hair-care line gives you more than beautiful hair—it gives you peace of mind.”

We know hair products don’t bring lasting peace, yet we often settle for temporary relief when our world is stressful. In reality, true peace comes not from something but someone.

While encouraging the believers in Jesus in Rome, Paul reminded them, “Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). Sin separates us from God, but Christ’s atoning sacrifice makes a way for us to have a relationship with Him (5:9-10). Jesus offers peace for today and peace for eternity (v. 1)—providing “access by faith into this grace,” “the hope of the glory of God” (v. 2), and hope despite earthly suffering (vv. 3-4). Peace with God is more than simply a feeling; it’s a gift we receive through faith in Jesus. Whether we feel close to God or not, His peace is available to us—at a salon or a hospital, in times of serenity and times of chaos.

Reflect & Pray

When are you tempted to seek a peaceful circumstance more than peace with God? How does the reminder of Jesus’ sacrifice allow you to rest in Him today? 

Dear Jesus, thank You for providing peace through Your own sacrifice.

Learn more about Jesus's Victory over Adam's Curse.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Sunday, September 21, 2025

The Disciple’s Purpose

And now the Lord says—he who formed me in the womb to be his servant . . . “I will also make you a light.” — Isaiah 49:5–6

After we’ve recognized our calling to God in Jesus Christ, the first thing that happens is the destruction of our prejudices and patriotisms. No longer are we servants of our own creeds and convictions; we have become servants of God’s purpose.

The whole of humanity was created to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Sin switched humanity onto another track, but it hasn’t altered God’s original purpose. When I am born again, I’m brought into the reality of God’s great purpose for humankind; I realize that I have been created for the God who made me. This is the most joyful realization on earth.

We have to learn to rely on the tremendous creative purposes of God. Once I’ve recognized my calling, the first thing God does is “force thro’ the channels of a single heart” the interests of the entire world. The very nature of God is introduced into me, and his nature is this: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” (John 3:16).

We have to keep our souls open to God’s creative purposes and be careful not to muddle them with our own. If we do bring in our agendas, God will have to crush them, however much pain it may cause. The purpose for which the Christian disciple is created is to be God’s servant, one in whom God is glorified. Through the salvation won for us by Jesus Christ, we are made perfectly fit for God. Once we realize this, we will understand why Jesus Christ is so ruthless in his demands. He demands absolute virtue and honor from his disciples because he has put into them the very nature of God. Be careful not to forget God’s purpose for your life.

Ecclesiastes 7-9; 2 Corinthians 13

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

To live a life alone with God does not mean that we live it apart from everyone else. The connection between godly men and women and those associated with them is continually revealed in the Bible, e.g., 1 Timothy 4:10. 

Not Knowing Whither, 867 L

Numbers 2, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Behind Bars

In 1965 Howard Rutledge parachuted into North Vietnam and spent the next several years in a prison in Hanoi, locked in a filthy cell breathing stale, rotten air trying to keep his sanity. Few of us will ever face the conditions of a POW camp.

Yet, to one degree or another, we all spend time behind bars. After half-a-century of marriage, my friend's wife began to lose her memory.  A young mother called, just diagnosed with Lupus. Why would God permit such imprisonment?  To what purpose?  Jeremiah 30:24 promises, "The Lord will not turn back until He has executed and accomplished the intents of His mind."

This season in which you find yourself may puzzle you, but it doesn't bewilder God.  He will use it for His purpose. Please be reminded…You will get through this!

From You'll Get Through This

Numbers 2

Marching Orders

1–2  2 God spoke to Moses and Aaron. He said, “The People of Israel are to set up camp circling the Tent of Meeting and facing it. Each company is to camp under its distinctive tribal flag.”

3–4  To the east toward the sunrise are the companies of the camp of Judah under its flag, led by Nahshon son of Amminadab. His troops number 74,600.

5–6  The tribe of Issachar will camp next to them, led by Nethanel son of Zuar. His troops number 54,400.

7–8  And the tribe of Zebulun is next to them, led by Eliab son of Helon. His troops number 57,400.

9  The total number of men assigned to Judah, troop by troop, is 186,400. They will lead the march.

10–11  To the south are the companies of the camp of Reuben under its flag, led by Elizur son of Shedeur. His troops number 46,500.

12–13  The tribe of Simeon will camp next to them, led by Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai. His troops number 59,300.

14–15  And the tribe of Gad is next to them, led by Eliasaph son of Deuel. His troops number 45,650.

16  The total number of men assigned to Reuben, troop by troop, is 151,450. They are second in the order of the march.

17  The Tent of Meeting with the camp of the Levites takes its place in the middle of the march. Each tribe will march in the same order in which they camped, each under its own flag.

18–19  To the west are the companies of the camp of Ephraim under its flag, led by Elishama son of Ammihud. His troops number 40,500.

20–21  The tribe of Manasseh will set up camp next to them, led by Gamaliel son of Pedahzur. His troops number 32,200.

22–23  And next to him is the camp of Ben-jamin, led by Abidan son of Gideoni. His troops number 35,400.

24  The total number of men assigned to the camp of Ephraim, troop by troop, is 108,100. They are third in the order of the march.

25–26  To the north are the companies of the camp of Dan under its flag, led by Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai. His troops number 62,700.

27–28  The tribe of Asher will camp next to them, led by Pagiel son of Ocran. His troops number 41,500.

29–30  And next to them is the tribe of Naphtali, led by Ahira son of Enan. His troops number 53,400.

31  The total number of men assigned to the camp of Dan number 157,600. They will set out, under their flags, last in the line of the march.

32–33  These are the People of Israel, counted according to their ancestral families. The total number in the camps, counted troop by troop, comes to 603,550. Following God’s command to Moses, the Levites were not counted in with the rest of Israel.

34  The People of Israel did everything the way God commanded Moses: They camped under their respective flags; they marched by tribe with their ancestral families.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Saturday, September 20, 2025

by Brent Hackett

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Psalm 19:7-14

  The revelation of God is whole

and pulls our lives together.

The signposts of God are clear

and point out the right road.

The life-maps of God are right,

showing the way to joy.

The directions of God are plain

and easy on the eyes.

God’s reputation is twenty-four-carat gold,

with a lifetime guarantee.

The decisions of God are accurate

down to the nth degree.

10  God’s Word is better than a diamond,

better than a diamond set between emeralds.

You’ll like it better than strawberries in spring,

better than red, ripe strawberries.

11–14  There’s more: God’s Word warns us of danger

and directs us to hidden treasure.

Otherwise how will we find our way?

Or know when we play the fool?

Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh!

Keep me from stupid sins,

from thinking I can take over your work;

Then I can start this day sun-washed,

scrubbed clean of the grime of sin.

These are the words in my mouth;

these are what I chew on and pray.

Accept them when I place them

on the morning altar,

O God, my Altar-Rock,

God, Priest-of-My-Altar.

Today's Insights

In Psalm 19, David’s love for Scripture (revealed as law, statutes, precepts, or commands) is evident in the descriptive language he uses: it’s “more precious than gold” (v. 10); it refreshes us, makes us wise, gives insight, brings joy, warns, and brings rewards (vv. 7-11). We see a similar love for the words of God in Psalm 119:97-104. The psalmist, like David, describes the words of Scripture as “sweeter than honey” (v. 103). In them we find wisdom for living; they’re “a lamp to guide [our] feet and a light for [our] path” (v. 105 nlt). In the New Testament, Paul says that “all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). When we crave the sweetness of Scripture and read and meditate on its words, we too will delight in the Bible and reap its rewards.

The Sweetness of Scripture

The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. Psalm 19:7

On September 22, 1959, a devotional article appeared in Our Daily Bread written by Dr. M. R. DeHaan. He wrote about how he yearned for a box of Cracker Jack candied popcorn. His intention was to relate it to the yearning for the Scriptures. But to his surprise, a few weeks later, boxes upon boxes of Cracker Jack popcorn began arriving at his office. His desire for Cracker Jack was satisfied by the loyal readers of his devotional.

Letting the practice of regular immersion in Scripture slip away is always easy. That’s why we need to yearn for something “sweeter than honey” (Psalm 19:10). The psalmist David encourages us to know that God’s words are “perfect, refreshing the soul”; they’re “trustworthy” and full of wisdom (v. 7). He explains that “the precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart” (v. 8).

Dr. DeHaan encouraged readers to make interaction with the Scriptures a habit, something they craved each day, just like sweet popcorn. It’s vital for us as well to develop a habit of meditating and reflecting on the Bible, and responding to its truths, in a regular manner. As God helps us, let’s be like David, who said, “May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight” (v. 14).

Reflect & Pray

How “sweet” is the Bible to you each day? How can you share with others that the Scriptures are more precious than gold?

Dear God, thank You for Your Scriptures, for they point me to Jesus. Please help me be engaged with them each day so I’m reminded of Your truth.

Discover more about A Prayer Before Reading the Bible, written by Reclaim Today.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Saturday, September 20, 2025

The Divine Rule of Life

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. — Matthew 5:48

In Matthew 5, our Lord calls on us to be generous in our behavior with everyone we meet. Be careful of allowing yourself to be led by your natural affinities in your spiritual life. Everyone has natural affinities—everyone likes some people and dislikes others—but we must never let these likes and dislikes rule in our Christian life. If we “walk in the light, as he is in the light” (1 John 1:7), God will give us communion with people for whom we have no affinity.

The example Jesus holds up for us in Matthew 5:48 isn’t of a good person, or even of a good Christian, but of God himself. When Jesus says, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” he means that we must show to others what God has shown to us. In our lives, God will give us many opportunities to prove whether we are perfect as he is perfect. He will ask us to deliberately identify ourselves with his interests in other people.

“Love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:12). The expression of Christian character isn’t good-doing; it’s God-likeness. If the Spirit of God has transformed you on the inside, then on the outside you will display divine characteristics, not human characteristics. God’s life in us expresses itself as God’s life, not as human life trying to be godly. The secret of being Christian is that the supernatural is made natural in us by the grace of God. We experience this in the regular, busy moments of our lives, not in times of quiet communion. When we come into contact with people or circumstances that should throw us off-balance, we find to our amazement that we have the power to keep wonderfully poised in the center of it all.

Ecclesiastes 4-6; 2 Corinthians 12

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

Numbers 1, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: WE HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST - September 19, 2025

Romans 8:6 (NCV) reads, “If people’s thinking is controlled by the sinful self, there is death. But if their thinking is controlled by the Spirit, there is life and peace.”

We are what we think! For that reason, God redeems the thought patterns of his children. Do you realize what happened to you when you were saved? He began the process of renewing your mind. When you said yes to Jesus, he saved your soul, wrote your name in the Book of Life, washed away all your sins, gave you spiritual gifts, and adopted you into his family. “We have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16 ESV).

What a stunning statement! We have access to the mind of Jesus. He has enrolled us in Christlikeness 101. In time, with the help of his Spirit, we will think and live like him.

Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life

Numbers 1

Census in the Wilderness of Sinai

1–5  1 God spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai at the Tent of Meeting on the first day of the second month in the second year after they had left Egypt. He said, “Number the congregation of the People of Israel by clans and families, writing down the names of every male. You and Aaron are to register, company by company, every man who is twenty years and older who is able to fight in the army. Pick one man from each tribe who is head of his family to help you. These are the names of the men who will help you:

from Reuben: Elizur son of Shedeur

6  from Simeon: Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai

7  from Judah: Nahshon son of Amminadab

8  from Issachar: Nethanel son of Zuar

9  from Zebulun: Eliab son of Helon

10  from the sons of Joseph,

from Ephraim: Elishama son of Ammihud

from Manasseh: Gamaliel son of Pedahzur

11  from Ben-jamin: Abidan son of Gideoni

12  from Dan: Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai

13  from Asher: Pagiel son of Ocran

14  from Gad: Eliasaph son of Deuel

15  from Naphtali: Ahira son of Enan.”

16  These were the men chosen from the congregation, leaders of their ancestral tribes, heads of Israel’s military divisions.

17–19  Moses and Aaron took these men who had been named to help and gathered the whole congregation together on the first day of the second month. The people registered themselves in their tribes according to their ancestral families, putting down the names of those who were twenty years old and older, just as God commanded Moses. He numbered them in the Wilderness of Sinai.

20–21  The line of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by tribes according to their ancestral families. The tribe of Reuben numbered 46,500.

22–23  The line of Simeon: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families. The tribe of Simeon numbered 59,300.

24–25  The line of Gad: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families. The tribe of Gad numbered 45,650.

26–27  The line of Judah: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families. The tribe of Judah numbered 74,600.

28–29  The line of Issachar: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families. The tribe of Issachar numbered 54,400.

30–31  The line of Zebulun: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families. The tribe of Zebulun numbered 57,400.

32–33  The line of Joseph: From son Ephraim the men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families. The tribe of Ephraim numbered 40,500.

34–35  And from son Manasseh the men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families. The tribe of Manasseh numbered 32,200.

36–37  The line of Ben-jamin: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families. The tribe of Ben-jamin numbered 35,400.

38–39  The line of Dan: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families. The tribe of Dan numbered 62,700.

40–41  The line of Asher: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families. The tribe of Asher numbered 41,500.

42–43  The line of Naphtali: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families. The tribe of Naphtali numbered 53,400.

44–46  These are the numbers of those registered by Moses and Aaron, registered with the help of the leaders of Israel, twelve men, each representing his ancestral family. The sum total of the People of Israel twenty years old and over who were able to fight in the army, counted by ancestral family, was 603,550.

47–51  The Levites, however, were not counted by their ancestral family along with the others. God had told Moses, “The tribe of Levi is an exception: Don’t register them. Don’t count the tribe of Levi; don’t include them in the general census of the People of Israel. Instead, appoint the Levites to be in charge of The Dwelling of The Testimony—over all its furnishings and everything connected with it. Their job is to carry The Dwelling and all its furnishings, maintain it, and camp around it. When it’s time to move The Dwelling, the Levites will take it down, and when it’s time to set it up, the Levites will do it. Anyone else who even goes near it will be put to death.

52–53  “The rest of the People of Israel will set up their tents in companies, every man in his own camp under its own flag. But the Levites will set up camp around The Dwelling of The Testimony so that wrath will not fall on the community of Israel. The Levites are responsible for the security of The Dwelling of The Testimony.”

54  The People of Israel did everything that God commanded Moses. They did it all.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Friday, September 19, 2025

by 

Jennifer Benson Schuldt

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Proverbs 28:13-14

  You can’t whitewash your sins and get by with it;

you find mercy by admitting and leaving them.

14  A tenderhearted person lives a blessed life;

a hardhearted person lives a hard life.

Today's Insights

Proverbs 28:13-14 focuses on the importance of confession—the good that comes to those who acknowledge their sins. This essential message is consistent with the Bible’s teaching elsewhere in the Old and New Testaments. Psalm 32 shares several words with the Proverbs passage: blessed, cover [conceal], confess. “Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them” (Psalm 32:1-2). “I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’ ” (v. 5). First John 1:9 shares the encouraging sentiments of these Old Testament texts: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Hiding our sin is unhealthy, but humbly bringing it to light through confession and turning from it leads to life.

The Change Christ Brings

Whoever . . . confesses and renounces [their sins] finds mercy. Proverbs 28:13

When a patch of irritated skin formed near my left eye, I used makeup to cover it. Temporarily this kept my problem a secret. After a while, though, the swollen red spot didn’t clear up, and I knew it needed medical attention. On the morning of the doctor’s appointment, I was tempted to apply makeup as usual, but I didn’t. I wanted the doctor to see the problem clearly and treat it so it could heal.

Have you ever tried to hide a sin problem? Maybe you’re aware that some action or thought is controlling you, but you’ve avoided praying about it or mentioning it to friends and family. Maybe you think it’s no big deal because many other people are dealing with similar issues. But it’s impossible to thrive spiritually when sin is secretly fouling up our lives. As Proverbs 28:13 says, “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper.” Thankfully the verse continues, “but the one who confesses and renounces [sin] finds mercy” (v. 13).

It can be hard to adopt God’s view of our actions and admit that certain practices are wrong. However, His kindness eases the process of humbling ourselves. When we welcome the power of Christ’s Spirit into our struggle, we can reject the wrong that tempts us (Galatians 5:16-17, 22-24). As God guides us, change is possible, and our spiritual health is worth the effort!

Reflect & Pray

As you consider confessing sin, why is God’s everlasting love encouraging? How might the enemy deceive you in your struggle with sin?

Dear God, please help me yield the areas of sin in my life to You.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Friday, September 19, 2025

Do You Continue to Go with Jesus?

You are those who have stood by me in my trials. — Luke 22:28

It’s true that Jesus Christ is with us in our trials, but are we with him in his? “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him” (John 6:66). Many of us stop going with Jesus the moment we have our first spiritual experience. We are so amazed by what our Lord has done for us that our experience of it becomes our focus, and though we continue to wear his badge, we take our sights off him. The trials of Jesus continued throughout his earthly life, and they will continue throughout the life of the Son of God in us. At certain times, it’s easy to stand by Jesus. But watch out when God shifts your circumstances. Are you standing by Jesus when the world turns against him, or are you siding with the world, the flesh, and the devil? Are you going with Jesus in the life you are living now?

We have the idea that we should shield ourselves from some of the things God brings around us. Never! God engineers our circumstances, and whatever they may be, we have to face them while abiding with him in his trials. His trials do not test our human nature; they test the life of the Son of God inside us. Remember that the honor of Jesus Christ is at stake in your life. Are you remaining loyal to the Son of God when his life in you is under attack?

Do you continue to go with Jesus? The way lies through Gethsemane, through the city gate, outside the camp. The way lies alone. It continues until there is no trace of a footstep left, only the voice: “Follow me” (Matthew 4:19).

Ecclesiastes 1-3; 2 Corinthians 11:16-33

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

There is no allowance whatever in the New Testament for the man who says he is saved by grace but who does not produce the graceful goods. Jesus Christ by His Redemption can make our actual life in keeping with our religious profession.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Friday, September 19, 2025

REPAIRING A BROKEN LIFE - #10095

When we secured land to build our Ministry Headquarters, we barely noticed the barn that was standing on that land, until God blessed us with some truckloads of donated materials which needed a place to be stored. Suddenly, we were taking a second look at this old pole barn filled with hay. The center was the only part that had walls - walls with rotting wood. The east and west sides of the barn had no walls, just some rotting old poles holding up a makeshift roof. We asked a contractor friend if there was any hope for the barn - especially since some folks had said just to bulldoze it. The contractor said the rafters and the foundation were actually good enough that something might be able to be done.

Well, what followed was hundreds of hours of volunteer labor, a cement floor, the old wood and poles being removed, walls built to enclose the entire area - including the east and west ends, a second story and stairs were built, and we put on the truckload of shingles and vinyl siding that had been donated. Now, little did we know when we first started rebuilding that barn, that would also become our temporary Headquarters while our new building was being completed. Today, when people see this nice, vinyl-sided building which is fundamental to our ministry and the things that are produced there going around the world, when they see how useful that facility has become, and especially when they see the pictures of the dilapidated old thing it was at the beginning, it's nothing less than amazing!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Repairing a Broken Life."

I know a Carpenter who does that with people! He takes lives that seem pretty wrecked, hopeless and too far gone, and He miraculously redeems them and rebuilds them into something no one ever dreamed they could be. Jesus is the Master Carpenter, and it might be that your life is ready for His miraculous renovating power.

In our word for today from the Word of God He describes our spiritual condition before the Carpenter comes. Ephesians 2:1-3 says, "You were dead in your...sins...we were by nature objects of wrath." See, God says all the things we've done in our life that He calls "sins" - every time we have done it our way instead of God's way - they have us under an eternal death penalty. God has to punish our sin, and the punishment is spiritual death forever.

But we're dead in our sins even before we die physically. That might be what you're feeling right now - this despair and hopelessness. Inside, you're kind of like our old barn. There are holes everywhere. You're about to give up hope of ever changing. You feel like it's all falling down. In your heart - maybe even in the eyes of others - your life seems ready for the bulldozer.

Hang on. Here comes the Carpenter. These verses from the Bible say, "But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead...By grace you have been saved, through faith." God loves you too much to lose you, so He sent His only Son, Jesus, to do the dying for all the sinning you've ever done. So you can be saved, like, rescued if you commit yourself to Jesus Christ.

The result is not just that you get rescued from hell. Jesus builds you into someone more useful than you could have ever imagined. A new you built by the Master Carpenter. It all begins the day you turn it all over to Jesus, which for you, could be today.

You can tell Him right now, "Jesus, I resign the running of my own life. I was made by You and for You. You died for every wrong thing I've ever done. Beginning this day, Jesus, I'm yours." Our website is about helping you get that relationship with Jesus started. Please go there today. It's ANewStory.com.

I've watched carpenters transform a structure that was ready for the bulldozer into something incredibly strong and useful. And I've watched Jesus transform lives that seemed so far gone into walking miracles of His grace. You can't imagine what you could be if you'll just open yourself up to the touch of the Master's hand.

Mark 11:19-33, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: UFOS - September 18, 2025

Overreactions are understandable. If I trigger your unseen emotional wound, you might react in a manner disproportionate to my action. Overreactions have their reasons. They also have their consequences. They can trap us in a stronghold.

Untruths lead to False narratives that prompt Overreactions. UFOs.

We need to follow Paul’s instructions: “Fight to capture every thought until it acknowledges the authority of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5 PHILLIPS). You confront worry at the door of your brain.  You grab worry by the nape and march him into the presence of the Prince of Peace. With the confidence of a burly barroom bouncer, toss anxiety out the door.

This is the version of you God wants to create. He will help you tame your thoughts.

Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life

Mark 11:19-33

  At evening, Jesus and his disciples left the city.

20–21  In the morning, walking along the road, they saw the fig tree, shriveled to a dry stick. Peter, remembering what had happened the previous day, said to him, “Rabbi, look—the fig tree you cursed is shriveled up!”

22–25  Jesus was matter-of-fact: “Embrace this God-life. Really embrace it, and nothing will be too much for you. This mountain, for instance: Just say, ‘Go jump in the lake’—no shuffling or shilly-shallying—and it’s as good as done. That’s why I urge you to pray for absolutely everything, ranging from small to large. Include everything as you embrace this God-life, and you’ll get God’s everything. And when you assume the posture of prayer, remember that it’s not all asking. If you have anything against someone, forgive—only then will your heavenly Father be inclined to also wipe your slate clean of sins.”

His Credentials

27–28  Then when they were back in Jerusalem once again, as they were walking through the Temple, the high priests, religion scholars, and leaders came up and demanded, “Show us your credentials. Who authorized you to speak and act like this?”

29–30  Jesus responded, “First let me ask you a question. Answer my question and then I’ll present my credentials. About the baptism of John—who authorized it: heaven or humans? Tell me.”

31–33  They were on the spot, and knew it. They pulled back into a huddle and whispered, “If we say ‘heaven,’ he’ll ask us why we didn’t believe John; if we say ‘humans,’ we’ll be up against it with the people because they all hold John up as a prophet.” They decided to concede that round to Jesus. “We don’t know,” they said.

Jesus replied, “Then I won’t answer your question either.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Thursday, September 18, 2025

by Adam R. Holz

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Job 41:1-5, 10-14

I Run This Universe

1–11  41 “Or can you pull in the sea beast, Leviathan, with a fly rod

and stuff him in your creel?

Can you lasso him with a rope,

or snag him with an anchor?

Will he beg you over and over for mercy,

or flatter you with flowery speech?

Will he apply for a job with you

to run errands and serve you the rest of your life?

Will you play with him as if he were a pet goldfish?

Will you make him the mascot of the neighborhood children?

If you can’t hold your own against his glowering visage,

how, then, do you expect to stand up to me?

Who could confront me and get by with it?

I’m in charge of all this—I run this universe!

12–17  “But I’ve more to say about Leviathan, the sea beast,

his enormous bulk, his beautiful shape.

Who would even dream of piercing that tough skin

or putting those jaws into bit and bridle?

And who would dare knock at the door of his mouth

filled with row upon row of fierce teeth?

Today's Insights

Job 41 represents part of the lengthy discourse—which began in Job 40:6—between God and His struggling servant Job about His authority and power proven by the things He’s created. After many chapters of defending his innocence and righteousness, Job can’t maintain his own personal goodness when confronted by the greatness of God, and he responds to His speech with true brokenness and repentance (42:1-6). There can be no question that Job was a good man, but confronted by the God of the universe, Isaiah’s comparison is clear: “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). Creation reminds us of the greatness of God. It reveals our smallness before Him and our deep dependence on Him.

Of Megalodons and Leviathan

Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me. Job 41:11

Years ago, a lumpy package arrived in my mailbox. I noticed my best friend’s return address on it and smiled. Joe sometimes sends me unexpected things. This package qualified: Inside was a dark brown shark’s tooth—five inches long.

Joe’s letter explained it was a fossilized tooth from a prehistoric shark, a megalodon, many times bigger than a great white shark. I tried to fathom how big a fish’s jaw would have to be to contain rows of such teeth. Scientists offer a speculative answer: nine by eleven feet. What a sight these creatures must have been!

Scripture doesn’t mention megalodons. But in the book of Job, God describes a sea beast called Leviathan. Job 41 details its impressive frame. “I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs, its strength and its graceful form,” God tells Job (v. 12). “Who dares open the doors of its mouth, ringed about with fearsome teeth?” (v. 14).

The answer? Only Leviathan’s creator. And here, God reminds Job that as great as this beast might be, it’s nothing compared to its Creator: “Everything under heaven belongs to me” (v. 11).

That meg tooth sits on my desk, a visual token of our Creator’s majesty and creativity. And that unlikely reminder of God’s character comforts me when it feels like the world might eat me up and spit me out.

Reflect & Pray

How do certain aspects of creation remind you of God’s powerful, creative nature? How does His work in creation encourage you?

 

Dear Father, Your creation speaks of Your splendor and power. Please help me trust You when life feels overwhelming.

Learn more about what we can learn from nature by reading What Leviathan Teaches Us About God.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Thursday, September 18, 2025

His Temptation and Ours

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way . . . yet he did not sin. — Hebrews 4:15

Until we are born again, the only temptation we understand is the kind mentioned in the book of James: “Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed” (1:14). After we are born again and become Jesus’s brothers and sisters, we are lifted into a different realm, where we begin to face the kinds of temptation our Lord faced during his human lifetime. Before our spiritual rebirth, our Lord’s temptations and ours moved in different spheres. His were the temptations of God-as-man, while ours were merely the temptations of man.

Once the Son of God was formed inside us through the Holy Spirit, the Spirit began to detect certain of Satan’s temptations—temptations which we, on our own, could never recognize. Satan doesn’t tempt believers to sin; he tries to lure us away from what has been put into us by our spiritual rebirth, in the hopes that we’ll no longer be of value to God. He tempts us to change our point of view, so that we’ll no longer see things from Christ’s perspective. Only the Spirit of God can detect this as a temptation of the devil.

What happens in temptation is that an outside power comes to test the things we hold dear within us, the things that define our personality. This explains the way in which our Lord was tempted. Within his person, he held the fact that he was to be the king of humankind and the savior of the world, and these are precisely what Satan came to test him on. Jesus went through the temptation and “did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15), emerging from the battle with his personality intact. If we will commit ourselves to him, his Spirit will take us through every temptation in the same way, and we will emerge from the battle victorious.

Proverbs 30-31; 2 Corinthians 11:1-15

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decay—the decay of bodily beauty, of natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them. 

The Place of Help, 1032 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Thursday, September 18, 2025

The Temple In The Mirror - #10094

I had the opportunity to spend 24 hours of my life in the city of Athens in Greece. I was on my way home from a teaching mission, and if I only had 24 hours, well, I knew what I wanted to see. I wanted to see the Acropolis, and there it was on a hill that just dominates the entire city. That's where the ancient Greeks built a temple to their goddess, Athena, after whom, obviously, the city was named.

Even after 21 centuries, I've got to tell you it is still an impressive, imposing, dominating structure up there on the mountain. Maybe you can even see a picture of it in your mind, if you've ever seen one before. It was the most sacred, most protected, most honored place in all of Athens. In fact, it was actually a crime to violate that temple. Of course it was that way in many cultures. The temple always got first-class treatment because your gods live there. Well, those ancient people had the wrong god, but they knew what to do with a temple.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Temple In The Mirror."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. It's not about the Acropolis, it's not about the ancient Jewish temple, but it's about temples. Listen to where the temple is. "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." This is one of Christianity's most revolutionary ideas - you are the building God lives in.

You can go in the bathroom, look in the mirror and see His temple. Even pagan people knew that the way you take care of your god's dwelling place tells a lot about how you feel about your god. Now, if you know Christ, you are God's two-legged temple. He's come to live in you by the presence of His Holy Spirit. That puts a whole new significance on your body - what happens with your mouth, your mind, your eyes, your ears, your hands, your feet, and every part of your body. Because in a sense, what you do with that body - everything you do with it - God is a part of. He lives in that temple. Everything you do to that body, you do to God.

Now, even people without God in ancient days recognized that you guard, and you protect, and you keep special, and you honor the place where God lives. Let me ask you, "Have you been treating your body like the temple treasure that it is?" See, if you really care about your God much, you won't let His temple get run down. You won't let it have to carry the extra weight it's been carrying. You won't let it be too out-of-shape. You won't poison it with things that should never go into it; things that will degrade your body. It's a temple you're talking about, not just your body. That's a whole new reason to take care of it.

See, that temple advertises what your god is like, and God deserves the best! Maybe you've devalued that temple with some junk you've been putting into it. Maybe you have defamed the temple of God by playing around sexually with His temple, dragging the name of God and the presence of God into things He is so much against, using His temple to satisfy your glands.

Your body isn't yours. See, it was bought with the price of Jesus' blood. Your God lives there! Keep it special.

Leviticus 27, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: FALSE NARRATIVES - September 17, 2025

A narrative is a message that ceaselessly plays in your mind. It is the way you see yourself and what you say to yourself.

Do you know anyone who seems to be incurably irritable, cranky, or melancholy? I would bet that a negative, intrusive loop dominates their thoughts. The untruth has dredged a rut, and this rut has resulted in a false narrative.

It seems that a lot of people have chosen to be less happy than they could be. Their problem began with an untruth. The untruth spread like mold and became part of their identity. And since it was left uncontested, it morphed into a false narrative that defines the way they see themselves and what they say to themselves. What narrative are you listening to today?

Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life

Leviticus 27

Vows, Dedications, and Redemptions

1–8  27 God spoke to Moses: He said, “Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them, If anyone wants to vow the value of a person to the service of God, set the value of a man between the ages of twenty and sixty at fifty shekels of silver, according to the Sanctuary shekel. For a woman the valuation is thirty shekels. If the person is between the ages of five and twenty, set the value at twenty shekels for a male and ten shekels for a female. If the person is between one month and five years, set the value at five shekels of silver for a boy and three shekels of silver for a girl. If the person is over sixty, set the value at fifteen shekels for a man and ten shekels for a woman. If anyone is too poor to pay the stated amount, he is to present the person to the priest, who will then set the value for him according to what the person making the vow can afford.

9–13  “If he vowed an animal that is acceptable as an offering to God, the animal is given to God and becomes the property of the Sanctuary. He must not exchange or substitute a good one for a bad one, or a bad one for a good one; if he should dishonestly substitute one animal for another, both the original and the substitute become property of the Sanctuary. If what he vowed is a ritually unclean animal, one that is not acceptable as an offering to God, the animal must be shown to the priest, who will set its value, either high or low. Whatever the priest sets will be its value. If the owner changes his mind and wants to redeem it, he must add twenty percent to its value.

14–15  “If a man dedicates his house to God, into the possession of the Sanctuary, the priest assesses its value, setting it either high or low. Whatever value the priest sets, that’s what it is. If the man wants to buy it back, he must add twenty percent to its price and then it’s his again.

16–21  “If a man dedicates to God part of his family land, its value is to be set according to the amount of seed that is needed for it at the rate of fifty shekels of silver to six bushels of barley seed. If he dedicates his field during the year of Jubilee, the set value stays. But if he dedicates it after the Jubilee, the priest will compute the value according to the years left until the next Jubilee, reducing the value proportionately. If the one dedicating it wants to buy it back, he must add twenty percent to its valuation, and then it’s his again. But if he doesn’t redeem it or sells the field to someone else, it can never be bought back. When the field is released in the Jubilee, it becomes holy to God, the possession of the Sanctuary, God’s field. It goes into the hands of the priests.

22–25  “If a man dedicates to God a field he has bought, a field which is not part of the family land, the priest will compute its proportionate value in relation to the next year of Jubilee. The man must pay its value on the spot as something that is now holy to God, belonging to the Sanctuary. In the year of Jubilee it goes back to its original owner, the man from whom he bought it. The valuations will be reckoned by the Sanctuary shekel, at twenty gerahs to the shekel.

26–27  “No one is allowed to dedicate the firstborn of an animal; the firstborn, as firstborn, already belongs to God. No matter if it’s cattle or sheep, it already belongs to God. If it’s one of the ritually unclean animals, he can buy it back at its assessed value by adding twenty percent to it. If he doesn’t redeem it, it is to be sold at its assessed value.

28  “But nothing that a man irrevocably devotes to God from what belongs to him, whether human or animal or family land, may be either sold or bought back. Everything devoted is holy to the highest degree; it’s God’s inalienable property.

29  “No human who has been devoted to destruction can be redeemed. He must be put to death.

30–33  “A tenth of the land’s produce, whether grain from the ground or fruit from the trees, is God’s. It is holy to God. If a man buys back any of the tenth he has given, he must add twenty percent to it. A tenth of the entire herd and flock, every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd’s rod, is holy to God. He is not permitted to pick out the good from the bad or make a substitution. If he dishonestly makes a substitution, both animals, the original and the substitute, become the possession of the Sanctuary and cannot be redeemed.”

34  These are the commandments that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai for the People of Israel.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

by Karen Huang

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Judges 3:7-11

Othniel

7–8  The People of Israel did evil in God’s sight. They forgot their God and worshiped the Baal gods and Asherah goddesses. God’s hot anger blazed against Israel. He sold them off to Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim. The People of Israel were in servitude to Cushan-Rishathaim for eight years.

9–10  The People of Israel cried out to God and God raised up a savior who rescued them: Caleb’s nephew Othniel, son of his younger brother Kenaz. The Spirit of God came on him and he rallied Israel. He went out to war and God gave him Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim. Othniel made short work of him.

11  The land was quiet for forty years. Then Othniel son of Kenaz died.

Today's Insights

Judges 2:10-19 describes a pattern throughout the book of Judges. When the people no longer “acknowledge[d] the Lord” or “remember[ed] the mighty things he had done for [them]” (v. 10 nlt), they descended into apostasy (abandoned their faith). So God would side with Israel’s enemies to defeat them (v. 15). Then He’d respond to the Israelites’ “groaning” (v. 18) by raising judges to save them. They were given safety while the judge was alive (v. 18), but once the judge died, the pattern would repeat itself (v. 19).

Judges 3:7-11 describes an example of this pattern. God’s anger led to the Israelites being under subjection for eight years (v. 8). When they cried out to God, He raised up Othniel to rescue them through the power of the Holy Spirit (vv. 9-10). As God gave strength to Othniel, we also can rely on His strength to do through us what He alone can do.

God’s Strength

The Spirit of the Lord came on him. Judges 3:10

Her husband’s death began a period of transition for Nora. She took over his hardware business and cared for their three children on her own. “Be strong,” friends often told her. But what does that mean? she’d think. That I must deliver without fail in my responsibilities?

God gave great responsibilities to Othniel in a time of transition for the people of Israel. As discipline for the nation’s idolatry, God had given them “into the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim . . . to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years” (Judges 3:8). Under the cruel king of Mesopotamia, the Israelites “cried out to the Lord,” and “he raised up for them a deliverer” (v. 9)—Othniel, whose name means “God’s strength.”

As the first judge of Israel, Othniel had no predecessor to help him. This military leader had to guide the Israelites back to living out their covenant relationship with God and defend them from their enemies. But because “the Spirit of the Lord came on him” (v. 10), he succeeded. With God’s strength sustaining Othniel’s leadership, “the land had peace for forty years, until [he] died” (v. 11).

How can we truly “be strong”? It’s by knowing we’re not strong and by trusting God to give us His strength. His “grace is sufficient for [us], for [His] power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). God’s strength works through us, doing things only He can do.  

Reflect & Pray

How have you tried to “be strong”? How does Othniel’s story impact your understanding of strength?

Father God, please enable me to rely on Your strength.

Read this article to learn more about God's Motivations.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

What’s the Good of Temptation?

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. — 1 Corinthians 10:13

The word temptation is hardly ever used correctly. We speak of temptation as a sin, but it isn’t. It’s an inherent part of human nature, something every one of us inevitably faces. Temptation isn’t something we can escape; it’s essential to a full-orbed human life. Many of us, however, suffer temptations we have no business suffering—lowly temptations that afflict us because we have refused to let God lift us to a higher plane. On a higher plane, we would still face temptations, but they would be of a completely different order. If God hasn’t lifted me higher, I can be sure it’s because I continue to yield to a lower temptation.

My disposition on the inside—that is, the makeup of my personality—determines what I am tempted by on the outside. The temptation fits the nature of the one tempted and reveals the possibilities of that nature. Each of us has our personal inclinations, but temptation itself is the common inheritance of humanity. I have to watch out if I find myself thinking that no one else has ever been tempted as I am tempted, that no one has ever gone through what I’m going through.

Am I baffled by temptation? Do I have trouble understanding whether the thing tempting me is right or wrong? This is normal, for a time. When I first begin my walk in faith, I may be tempted by things which are generally considered good, but which fall short of highest and best. Temptation promises a shortcut to what I seek, but it will never get me there. The key is to keep my sights firmly set on the highest—on God himself—and let what is merely good pass me by, however tempting it may be to follow it. Though God will not save me from temptation, he has promised to help me in its midst: “Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted” (Hebrews 2:18).

Proverbs 27-29; 2 Corinthians 10

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

The great word of Jesus to His disciples is Abandon. When God has brought us into the relationship of disciples, we have to venture on His word; trust entirely to Him and watch that when He brings us to the venture, we take it.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

JESUS IN THEIR LANGUAGE - #10093

My life was profoundly affected by the example of five American missionaries who died trying to get the Gospel to a Stone Age tribe in Ecuador who had never heard the name of Jesus. They were actually murdered by the tribe that was then known as the Aucas. We now know them as the Waoranis. Amazingly, the wife of one of those missionaries and the sister of another actually went to the tribe that had killed their loved ones to tell them about Jesus. Today, some of the murderers of the missionaries are pastors of the Waorani church. It's an amazing story.

I had the unforgettable privilege a few years ago of going to the Ecuadorian jungle to tape a radio program about what happened there. And I met Mincaye, one of the killers, one of the pastors. I learned that those missionary women had difficulty translating the Bible into the native language because this tribe literally had no word for or even concept for "forgive." But the message somehow had gotten through to Mincaye. Here's what he said: "What we did to those missionaries was a terrible thing. But one day soon I will see them in heaven because Jesus has washed our hearts."

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Jesus In Their Language."

A spiritual rescuer had come to people to whom the word "forgive" meant nothing. But God's messenger to them did what effective missionaries have always done. She found a way to say it in words the people could understand. You know, we can do no less for the spiritually dying people around us.

Obviously, the need to translate Christ's message is hard to miss in a foreign setting where there is a clearly different linguistic language. But the need to translate the Jesus-story is easy to miss when our neighbors and friends speak that same linguistic language we do, but they speak a different cultural language. The words of our Christian "tribe" simply have no meaning, or the wrong meaning, to the lost "tribe" next to us. Many lost people assigned to us by God have no better understanding of "born again," or "saved," or "accepting Christ," or "sin" than Mincaye did of "forgive."

In our word for today from the Word of God, we discover one big reason thousands of people from all over the world came to Jesus in the first outreach ever held by the Christian Church. It was Jerusalem, it was Pentecost, and according to Acts 2:6, "Each one heard them (that is the apostles) speaking in his own language."

Now that was a special miracle from God, but it underscores that people must hear Christ's message in a language they can understand, which our church language - which I call Christianese - is not. Maybe you've been transmitting the Good News about Jesus and getting little or no response. Could it be they're stumbling over your vocabulary? You can't just transmit the Good News; you have to translate it into everyday, non-religious words.

In Jesus' parable of the four soils, three of which produced little or no good harvest, we see the major difference between those three soils and the soil that produced great fruit. In each case, Jesus explains that "this is the man who hears the word." But where there was a great harvest, Jesus said, "This is the man who hears the word (and here's the one difference) and understands it" (Matthew 13:23).

We've got life-or-death information we have to deliver. We cannot afford to have our lost family and friends miss it because we said it in words they don't understand. It's time to move beyond the comfort of our Christianese to communicate the message people cannot afford to miss. The words we use could be decisive for each of us in our personal rescue mission for Jesus.

You're God's missionary where you are. If you make the effort to translate the Good News into the language of the person who needs it, you could be part of a life-giving miracle!