Matthew 23:1-22, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: FROM MOURNFUL TO HOPEFUL - May 26, 2025

In May of 2008, Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife, Mary Beth, lost their five-year-old daughter in an automobile accident. They were deluged by messages of kindness. One in particular gave Steven strength. It was from a pastor friend who had lost his son in an auto accident. “Remember, your future with your daughter will be greater than your past with her.”

Death seems to take so much. We bury the wedding that never happened, the golden years we never knew. We bury dreams. But in heaven these dreams will come true. Acts 3:21 says that God has promised a “restoration of all things.” And all things include all relationships. Our final home will hear no “goodbyes.”  Gone forever. Let the promise change you. From sagging to seeking, from mournful to hopeful, from dwellers in the land of goodbyes to a heaven of hellos! You’ll get through this.

You'll Get Through This: Hope and Help for Turbulent Times

Matthew 23:1-22

Religious Fashion Shows

1–3  23 Now Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. “The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer.

4–7  “Instead of giving you God’s Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn’t think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend.’

8–10  “Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don’t set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title of ‘Father’; you have only one Father, and he’s in heaven. And don’t let people maneuver you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them—Christ.

11–12  “Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.

Frauds!

13  “I’ve had it with you! You’re hopeless, you religion scholars, you Pharisees! Frauds! Your lives are roadblocks to God’s kingdom. You refuse to enter, and won’t let anyone else in either.

15  “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You go halfway around the world to make a convert, but once you get him you make him into a replica of yourselves, double-damned.

16–22  “You’re hopeless! What arrogant stupidity! You say, ‘If someone makes a promise with his fingers crossed, that’s nothing; but if he swears with his hand on the Bible, that’s serious.’ What ignorance! Does the leather on the Bible carry more weight than the skin on your hands? And what about this piece of trivia: ‘If you shake hands on a promise, that’s nothing; but if you raise your hand that God is your witness, that’s serious’? What ridiculous hairsplitting! What difference does it make whether you shake hands or raise hands? A promise is a promise. What difference does it make if you make your promise inside or outside a house of worship? A promise is a promise. God is present, watching and holding you to account regardless.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Monday, May 26, 2025

by Tim Gustafson

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Psalm 144:1-2, 9-15

Blessed be God, my mountain,

who trains me to fight fair and well.

He’s the bedrock on which I stand,

the castle in which I live,

my rescuing knight,

The high crag where I run for dear life,

while he lays my enemies low.

9–10  O God, let me sing a new song to you,

let me play it on a twelve-string guitar—

A song to the God who saved the king,

the God who rescued David, his servant.

11  Rescue me from the enemy sword,

release me from the grip of those barbarians

Who lie through their teeth,

who shake your hand

then knife you in the back.

12–14  Make our sons in their prime

like sturdy oak trees,

Our daughters as shapely and bright

as fields of wildflowers.

Fill our barns with great harvest,

fill our fields with huge flocks;

Protect us from invasion and exile—

eliminate the crime in our streets.

15  How blessed the people who have all this!

How blessed the people who have God for God!

Today's Insights

Quick to wield the weapons of war, David rose to prominence after killing Goliath with a sling and a stone (see 1 Samuel 17). Although he was God’s anointed to lead Israel into battle, David was prohibited from building the temple for God (see 1 Chronicles 17) partly due to how “much blood” he had “shed” (22:8). Despite his military prowess, he knew he couldn’t rely on military strength. In Psalm 20 he wrote, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God” (v. 7). And as we trust Him, we can find the strength to promote peace wherever we are.

From the Deadly Sword

I will sing a new song to you, my God. Psalm 144:9

Sabin Howard’s remarkable sculpture A Soldier’s Journey breathes with vitality and anguish. Thirty-eight bronze figures lean forward across a fifty-eight-foot bas-relief that traces the life of a World War I soldier. Completed in 2024, the panorama begins with a heartrending goodbye to family, leads us through the naive elation of departure, and moves into the horrors of battle. Finally the sculpture returns us home, where the veteran’s daughter peers into his upturned helmet—only to foresee World War II.

Howard sought “to find the thread that runs through humanity—that human beings can reach great heights, and they can sink to the level of the animal.” War reveals this reality.

The psalmist David knew well the bloody consequences of war. Aware of its tragic necessity to confront evil, he praised the God who “trains my hands for war” (Psalm 144:1). Yet he also recoiled from combat, praying, “From the deadly sword deliver me” (vv. 10-11). David looked forward to the time when the young won’t die in war, but sons “will be like well-nurtured plants” and daughters “like pillars carved to adorn a palace” (v. 12). On that day “there will be no breaching of walls, no going into captivity, no cry of distress in our streets” (v. 14).

Looking back, we remember those who’ve fallen in battle. Looking ahead, we sing with David, “I will sing a new song to you, my God” (v. 9).

Reflect & Pray

How has war affected you? What can you do to work for peace?

Father, we remember those who’ve died in war. We long for Your lasting peace.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Monday, May 26, 2025

Think as Jesus Taught

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.— 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

We think rightly or wrongly about prayer according to the idea of prayer we have in our minds. If we think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood in our hearts, we think rightly. The breathing continues ceaselessly; the blood flows ceaselessly. We’re not always conscious of these activities, but they are always going on. This is how it ought to be with prayer. We might not be conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect, prayerful harmony with God, but if we are obeying him, he always is. Prayer isn’t an exercise; it’s life. To “pray continually” means to keep the childlike habit of spontaneous prayer in our hearts at all times.

Jesus never mentioned unanswered prayer. He had the boundless certainty that prayer is always answered. Do we, through the Holy Spirit, share Jesus’s certainty? Or do we always think of the times when it seemed God didn’t answer? Jesus taught that “everyone who asks receives” (Matthew 7:8). “But, but, but . . .” we say. We forget that God answers prayer in the best way—not sometimes but every time. His answer might not come immediately, nor in the exact way we want, but it does come.

Do we truly expect God to answer prayer? The danger with many of us is that we want to water down what Jesus said. We want to make his words mean something that agrees with common sense. If what Jesus said is only common sense, it wasn’t worthwhile for him to say it. The things Jesus said about prayer are supernatural revelations.

1 Chronicles 28-29; John 9:24-41

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

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Monday, May 26, 2025

YOUR CRISIS OF CONTROL - #10011

It's a well known fact that men are never lost, right? We just find alternative routes - scenic routes. I've found more than my share, but my choice of a wrong road has never led to deadly consequences. It did for Comair Flight 5191 out of Lexington, Kentucky some years ago. Somehow, the pilot went down the wrong runway; one half the length of the runway from which he'd been cleared to take off. He ran out of runway, he hit a row of trees, and tragically, 49 of the 50 people aboard died in that crash. As the investigation of the crash unfolded, we found out that the one flight controller in the tower wasn't looking when the plane turned onto that fatal runway. He had what was described as "administrative duties" to tend to, and he turned his back, and moments later - disaster.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Crisis of Control."

No matter what season of your life you're in, you've got tons of choices to make about money, your job, your family, your relationships. At any given point, you could probably make a list of at least a dozen important decisions you need to make, any one of which can significantly affect your life if you get it wrong.

We need a flight controller; someone who can see what we can't see. We're stuck looking out our little window, trying to choose a runway based on the little that we can see. The good news from the Bible is that we can have a flight controller like that; one who has promised He will never turn His back. One of His many promises to His children is recorded in Psalm 32:8, and it's our word for today from the Word of God. God says, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you."

In other words, God's offering to direct you each day in every area of your life. And face it, He's so much smarter than we are; He can see the whole picture. He has the plans that He made you for. He talks about them in Jeremiah 29:11, "I know the plans I have for you...plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." That's security. That's safety from a God who is not going to let you crash.

Here's the problem. We'd rather navigate our own life. Listen to God's statement right after the "I will instruct and teach you" verse. "Do not be like the horse or the mule which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit or bridle or they will not come to you." That's us. We'll give God money, we'll give Him time, belief; we'll give Him everything but one thing - control. We want a God who bails us out but not a God who calls the shots. So here we are, trying to call our own shots from our own little cockpit window, and missing the runway we're designed for.

If we refuse to let the Divine Flight Controller direct our path, we will die. In the Bible's words, "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). That's eternal death, as in "hell." But that's not what God wants. In spite of the fact that we've chosen to reject His Creator-right to run our life, He loves us so much that He chose to pay that death penalty Himself. His Son was butchered on a cross, dying as your substitute, taking the punishment for your sin so you could be forgiven; so you could belong to the God that you can't really live without. The God you sure don't want to die without.

He's coming to you today, down in your heart, to invite you to finally let Him be God for your life. The life He made you for, the moment you tell His Son, "Jesus, I'm Yours. You died for me. You came back from the grave to prove You can give life forever, and I am Yours beginning today."

Listen, if that's what you want I would love to help you be sure you belong to Him before this day is over. That's what our website is there for. Please go there - it's ANewStory.com.

You've tried doing it your way long enough. It hasn't taken you where you want to go. It never will. You were made to live with God as your Flight Controller, the One who will never turn His back on you. Let Him call the shots before you crash.

Genesis 48, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Follow Me

“‘Follow Me,’” [Jesus] told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.” Matthew 2:9, NIV

You gotta wonder what Jesus saw in Matthew . . .

Whatever it was, it must’ve been something. Matthew heard the call and never went back. He spent the rest of his life convincing folks that the carpenter was the King. Jesus gave the call and never took it back. He spent his life dying for people like Matthew, convincing a lot of us that if he had a place for Matthew, he just might have a place for us.

Genesis 48

 Some time after this conversation, Joseph was told, “Your father is ill.” He took his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, and went to Jacob. When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has come,” he roused himself and sat up in bed.

3–7  Jacob said to Joseph, “The Strong God appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me. He said, ‘I’m going to make you prosperous and numerous, turn you into a congregation of tribes; and I’ll turn this land over to your children coming after you as a permanent inheritance.’ I’m adopting your two sons who were born to you here in Egypt before I joined you; they have equal status with Reuben and Simeon. But any children born after them are yours; they will come after their brothers in matters of inheritance. I want it this way because, as I was returning from Paddan, your mother Rachel, to my deep sorrow, died as we were on our way through Canaan when we were only a short distance from Ephrath, now called Bethlehem.”

8  Just then Jacob noticed Joseph’s sons and said, “Who are these?”

9–11  Joseph told his father, “They are my sons whom God gave to me in this place.”

“Bring them to me,” he said, “so I can bless them.” Israel’s eyesight was poor from old age; he was nearly blind. So Joseph brought them up close. Old Israel kissed and embraced them and then said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face again, and now God has let me see your children as well!”

12–16  Joseph took them from Israel’s knees and bowed respectfully, his face to the ground. Then Joseph took the two boys, Ephraim with his right hand setting him to Israel’s left, and Manasseh with his left hand setting him to Israel’s right, and stood them before him. But Israel crossed his arms and put his right hand on the head of Ephraim who was the younger and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, the firstborn. Then he blessed them:

The God before whom walked

my fathers Abraham and Isaac,

The God who has been my shepherd

all my life long to this very day,

The Angel who delivered me from every evil,

Bless the boys.

May my name be echoed in their lives,

and the names of Abraham and Isaac, my fathers,

And may they grow

covering the Earth with their children.

17–18  When Joseph saw that his father had placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head, he thought he had made a mistake, so he took hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s, saying, “That’s the wrong head, Father; the other one is the firstborn; place your right hand on his head.”

19–20  But his father wouldn’t do it. He said, “I know, my son; but I know what I’m doing. He also will develop into a people, and he also will be great. But his younger brother will be even greater and his descendants will enrich nations.” Then he blessed them both:

Israel will use your names to give blessings:

May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.

In that he made it explicit: he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh.

21–22  Israel then said to Joseph, “I’m about to die. God be with you and give you safe passage back to the land of your fathers. As for me, I’m presenting you, as the first among your brothers, the ridge of land I took from Amorites with my sword and bow.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Sunday, May 25, 2025

by Jasmine Goh

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

1 Thessalonians 5:4-15

But friends, you’re not in the dark, so how could you be taken off guard by any of this? You’re sons of Light, daughters of Day. We live under wide open skies and know where we stand. So let’s not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let’s keep our eyes open and be smart. People sleep at night and get drunk at night. But not us! Since we’re creatures of Day, let’s act like it. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation.

9–11  God didn’t set us up for an angry rejection but for salvation by our Master, Jesus Christ. He died for us, a death that triggered life. Whether we’re awake with the living or asleep with the dead, we’re alive with him! So speak encouraging words to one another. Build up hope so you’ll all be together in this, no one left out, no one left behind. I know you’re already doing this; just keep on doing it.

The Way He Wants You to Live

12–13  And now, friends, we ask you to honor those leaders who work so hard for you, who have been given the responsibility of urging and guiding you along in your obedience. Overwhelm them with appreciation and love!

13–15  Get along among yourselves, each of you doing your part. Our counsel is that you warn the freeloaders to get a move on. Gently encourage the stragglers, and reach out for the exhausted, pulling them to their feet. Be patient with each person, attentive to individual needs. And be careful that when you get on each other’s nerves you don’t snap at each other. Look for the best in each other, and always do your best to bring it out.

Today's Insights

Paul urges his readers to “[put] on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet” (1 Thessalonians 5:8). His use of this imagery might sound familiar. He expands on this idea in Ephesians 6 when he urges believers in Jesus to “put on the full armor of God” (v. 13), including “the belt of truth” (v. 14), “feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace” (v. 15), the “shield of faith” (v. 16), and “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (v. 17). As we put on God’s armor, we’re better prepared to serve God and to come alongside those who need encouragement.

Hope Renewed

Encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 1 Thessalonians 5:14

Thia was puzzled. Why was his eighteen-year-old son spending so much time in the library these days? His son, who was autistic and rarely spoke to anyone, would usually return straight home after class. What changed? When pressed, his son finally replied: “Studying with Navin.”

Navin, it turned out, was a classmate who'd noticed that Thia’s son was struggling in class and had invited him to study together. This budding friendship—the first in eighteen years—greatly encouraged the disheartened father, who’d given up hope of his son ever having a friend.

Hope was renewed because one person cared enough to come alongside another who needed help. In Paul’s ministry to the early church, he knew this also applied to our hope of salvation. For believers in Jesus to “be awake and sober” (1 Thessalonians 5:6), living in the hope of His return, they had to help one another (v. 11), especially those who were struggling.

That’s why, even though these believers led lives of love that pleased God (4:1, 10), Paul reminded them to “encourage the disheartened, help the weak” (5:14). When we notice believers in Christ who are fearful, anxious, or despondent, and we come alongside them—whether to listen, offer a kind word, or sit quietly together—God can use us to give them the strength and courage to hold on to their hope in Jesus.

Reflect & Pray

Who in your community can you come alongside this week? What can you do to show them care and attention?

 

Dear God, please help me to care for the disheartened and the weak so that their hope in Jesus may be renewed.

Learn how we can prioritze others over our own busyness by reading this article from Reclaim Today.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Sunday, May 25, 2025

The Test of Self-Interest

Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me. . . . If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.”— Genesis 13:8-9

As soon as you begin to live the life of faith in God, rich and fascinating possibilities open up before you. These things are yours by right, but if you are living the life of faith, you will exercise your right to waive your rights. You will let God choose for you.

In Genesis 13, Abraham declines to choose a parcel of land, even though choosing would seem the wisest thing for him to do. Even though it is Abraham’s right to choose, even though people will consider him a fool for not choosing, Abraham lets God decide.

God sometimes allows you to be tested in a way that requires you to sacrifice your own well-being. At such times, it seems only right for you to think about yourself, to put your needs first. But if you are living a life of faith, you will joyfully set aside your right and allow God to direct your path. This is the discipline by which the natural is transformed into the spiritual, through obedience to the voice of God.

Whenever we allow rights and entitlements to guide us, we dull our spiritual insight. The great enemy of the life of faith in God isn’t sin; it’s the good which isn’t good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best.

Many of us fail to progress spiritually because we prefer to choose what seems right instead of relying on God to choose for us. We have to learn to walk according to the standard which keeps its eye on God: “Walk before me” (Genesis 17:1).

1 Chronicles 25-27; John 9:1-23

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Civilization is based on principles which imply that the passing moment is permanent. The only permanent thing is God, and if I put anything else as permanent, I become atheistic. I must build only on God (John 14:6).

The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 565 L

Genesis 47, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: At Once, Man and God

Christ—at once, man and God.  Colossians 2:9 says, “For in Christ there is all of God in a human body.” Jesus was not a godlike man, nor a manlike God.  He was God-man. What do we do with such a person? One thing is certain, we can’t ignore Him.  He is the single most significant person who ever lived. Forget MVP; He is the entire league. The head of the parade?  Hardly.  No one else shares the street.

Dismiss Him?  We can’t.  Resist Him?  Equally difficult.

Don’t we need a God-man Savior? A just-God Jesus could make us but not understand us.  A just-man Jesus could love us but never save us. But a God-man Jesus? Near enough to touch.  Strong enough to trust.  A Savior found by millions to be irresistible.

As the Apostle Paul says in Philippians 3:8, nothing compares to “the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”

from Next Door Savior

Genesis 47

Joseph went to Pharaoh and told him, “My father and brothers with their flocks and herds and everything they own have come from Canaan. Right now they are in Goshen.”

2–3  He had taken five of his brothers with him and introduced them to Pharaoh. Pharaoh asked them, “What kind of work do you do?”

3–4  “Your servants are shepherds, the same as our fathers were. We have come to this country to find a new place to live. There is no pasture for our flocks in Canaan. The famine has been very bad there. Please, would you let your servants settle in the region of Goshen?”

5–6  Pharaoh looked at Joseph. “So, your father and brothers have arrived—a reunion! Egypt welcomes them. Settle your father and brothers on the choicest land—yes, give them Goshen. And if you know any among them that are especially good at their work, put them in charge of my own livestock.”

7–8  Next Joseph brought his father Jacob in and introduced him to Pharaoh. Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Pharaoh asked Jacob, “How old are you?”

9–10  Jacob answered Pharaoh, “The years of my sojourning are 130—a short and hard life and not nearly as long as my ancestors were given.” Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and left.

11–12  Joseph settled his father and brothers in Egypt, made them proud owners of choice land—it was the region of Rameses (that is, Goshen)—just as Pharaoh had ordered. Joseph took good care of them—his father and brothers and all his father’s family, right down to the smallest baby. He made sure they had plenty of everything.

13–15  The time eventually came when there was no food anywhere. The famine was very bad. Egypt and Canaan alike were devastated by the famine. Joseph collected all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan to pay for the distribution of food. He banked the money in Pharaoh’s palace. When the money from Egypt and Canaan had run out, the Egyptians came to Joseph. “Food! Give us food! Are you going to watch us die right in front of you? The money is all gone.”

16–17  Joseph said, “Bring your livestock. I’ll trade you food for livestock since your money’s run out.” So they brought Joseph their livestock. He traded them food for their horses, sheep, cattle, and donkeys. He got them through that year in exchange for all their livestock.

18–19  When that year was over, the next year rolled around and they were back, saying, “Master, it’s no secret to you that we’re broke: our money’s gone and we’ve traded you all our livestock. We’ve nothing left to barter with but our bodies and our farms. What use are our bodies and our land if we stand here and starve to death right in front of you? Trade us food for our bodies and our land. We’ll be slaves to Pharaoh and give up our land—all we ask is seed for survival, just enough to live on and keep the farms alive.”

20–21  So Joseph bought up all the farms in Egypt for Pharaoh. Every Egyptian sold his land—the famine was that bad. That’s how Pharaoh ended up owning all the land and the people ended up slaves; Joseph reduced the people to slavery from one end of Egypt to the other.

22  Joseph made an exception for the priests. He didn’t buy their land because they received a fixed salary from Pharaoh and were able to live off of that salary. So they didn’t need to sell their land.

23–24  Joseph then announced to the people: “Here’s how things stand: I’ve bought you and your land for Pharaoh. In exchange I’m giving you seed so you can plant the ground. When the crops are harvested, you must give a fifth to Pharaoh and keep four-fifths for yourselves, for seed for yourselves and your families—you’re going to be able to feed your children!”

25  They said, “You’ve saved our lives! Master, we’re grateful and glad to be slaves to Pharaoh.”

26  Joseph decreed a land law in Egypt that is still in effect, A Fifth Goes to Pharaoh. Only the priests’ lands were not owned by Pharaoh.

27–28  And so Israel settled down in Egypt in the region of Goshen. They acquired property and flourished. They became a large company of people. Jacob lived in Egypt for seventeen years. In all, he lived 147 years.

29–30  When the time came for Israel to die, he called his son Joseph and said, “Do me this favor. Put your hand under my thigh, a sign that you’re loyal and true to me to the end. Don’t bury me in Egypt. When I lie down with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me alongside them.”

“I will,” he said. “I’ll do what you’ve asked.”

31  Israel said, “Promise me.” Joseph promised.

Israel bowed his head in submission and gratitude from his bed.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Saturday, May 24, 2025

by Nancy Gavilanes

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Hebrews 11:1-8

Faith in What We Don’t See

1–2  11 The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.

3  By faith, we see the world called into existence by God’s word, what we see created by what we don’t see.

4  By an act of faith, Abel brought a better sacrifice to God than Cain. It was what he believed, not what he brought, that made the difference. That’s what God noticed and approved as righteous. After all these centuries, that belief continues to catch our notice.

5–6  By an act of faith, Enoch skipped death completely. “They looked all over and couldn’t find him because God had taken him.” We know on the basis of reliable testimony that before he was taken “he pleased God.” It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.

7  By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land. He was warned about something he couldn’t see, and acted on what he was told. The result? His family was saved. His act of faith drew a sharp line between the evil of the unbelieving world and the rightness of the believing world. As a result, Noah became intimate with God.

8–10  By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God’s call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going.

Today's Insights

Jewish believers in Jesus suffered under severe persecution and were at risk of reverting back to Judaism. The author of Hebrews wrote to encourage them to live by faith and to persevere, for the “righteous ones will live by faith” (10:38 nlt). Here in Hebrews 11’s “Hall of Faith,” he gives examples of many people who had lived by faith (vv. 4-38) and shows what unwavering faith looks like (see vv. 39-40). He uses the phrase “by faith” more than twenty times in this chapter to emphasize that this is the only way to please God “because anyone who comes to [God] must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (v. 6). In love, He also disciplines His children for their good.

Leap of Faith

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1

About seven hundred emperor penguins in West Antarctica, only six months old, huddled together at the edge of a towering icy cliff fifty feet above the frigid water. Finally one penguin leaned forward and took “a leap of faith,” diving into the icy water below and swimming away. Soon scores of penguins took the plunge.

Young penguins typically jump just a couple of feet into the water for their first swim. This group’s death-defying leap was the first to be caught on camera.

Some people would say that the blind leap into the unknown by those penguins is similar to what happens when a person trusts in Jesus for salvation. However, faith in Him is just the opposite. The author of Hebrews said, “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1).

Enoch’s faith pleased God: “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (v. 6). The world hadn’t seen anything like the great flood, and yet Noah “in holy fear built an ark to save his family” (v. 7) because he trusted in God. By faith Abraham followed God “even though he did not know where he was going” (v. 8).

When we first put our trust in Jesus, it’s by faith. As we continue following Him and our faith is tested, we can remember how God came through for these men. Even when we don’t know the whys and hows, we can trust God with the outcome.

Reflect & Pray

When has your faith resulted in God’s hand of protection? How do you see God working in your life because of your faith in Him?

Dear Jesus, thank You for being so faithful.

Watch this video for insights on God's power and love for us all.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Saturday, May 24, 2025

The Delight of Despair

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.— Revelation 1:17

It may be that, like the apostle John, you know Jesus Christ intimately. Then one day, Jesus appears and you hardly recognize him. No longer counselor or comrade, he is in his majesty. Instead of walking to triumph, Jesus goes to disaster; instead of bringing peace, he brings a sword. All you can do is fall at his feet as though you were dead.

At times God can’t reveal himself in any way other than in his majesty, and the awfulness of the vision brings you to the delight of despair. There is another kind of despair, one with no horizon, no hope of anything brighter. But when Jesus appears to you in his deity, the despair you feel at your own weakness is tempered by the vision of his overwhelming strength. In this moment, you understand that if you are ever going to be raised up, it must be by the hand of God. God can do nothing for you until you get to the limit of the possible.

“Then he placed his right hand on me and said: ‘Do not be afraid’” (Revelation 1:17). In the midst of the awfulness comes a touch. It isn’t a touch of restraint or correction; it’s the right hand of the everlasting Father. Whenever this hand is laid upon you, it brings instant peace and comfort. You sense that nothing can ever cast you into fear again. “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27). The Lord’s tenderness in this moment is indescribably sweet: in the midst of his glory, he comes to an insignificant disciple to say, “Fear not.” Do I know Jesus like this?

1 Chronicles 22-24; John 8:28-59

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

When a man’s heart is right with God the mysterious utterances of the Bible are spirit and life to him. Spiritual truth is discernible only to a pure heart, not to a keen intellect. It is not a question of profundity of intellect, but of purity of heart.

Bringing Sons Unto Glory, 231 L

Genesis 46, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THIS IS OUR HOPE - May 23, 2025

Goodbye. No one wants to say it. And death is the most difficult goodbye of all.

After our church had five funerals in seven days, the sorrow took its toll on me. I chided myself, “Come on, Max, get over it.  Death is a natural part of living.” Then I self-corrected. No it isn’t. Birth is. Breathing is. Belly laughs, big hugs and bedtime kisses are. But death? We weren’t made to say goodbye.

God’s original plan had no farewell, no final breath, day, or heartbeat. No matter how you frame it, goodbye doesn’t feel right. But God has served notice. All farewells are on the clock. He has decreed a family reunion, and what a reunion it will be! Revelation 21:4 says on that day, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes.” This long journey will come to an end. You’ll see him—and you’ll see them. Isn’t this our hope?

You'll Get Through This: Hope and Help for Turbulent Times

Genesis 46

 So Israel set out on the journey with everything he owned. He arrived at Beer-sheba and worshiped, offering sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

2  God spoke to Israel in a vision that night: “Jacob! Jacob!”

“Yes?” he said. “I’m listening.”

3–4  God said, “I am the God of your father. Don’t be afraid of going down to Egypt. I’m going to make you a great nation there. I’ll go with you down to Egypt; I’ll also bring you back here. And when you die, Joseph will be with you; with his own hand he’ll close your eyes.”

5–7  Then Jacob left Beer-sheba. Israel’s sons loaded their father and their little ones and their wives on the wagons Pharaoh had sent to carry him. They arrived in Egypt with the livestock and the wealth they had accumulated in Canaan. Jacob brought everyone in his family with him—sons and grandsons, daughters and granddaughters. Everyone.

8  These are the names of the Israelites, Jacob and his descendants, who went to Egypt:

Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn.

9  Reuben’s sons: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.

10  Simeon’s sons: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman.

11  Levi’s sons: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

12  Judah’s sons: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (Er and Onan had already died in the land of Canaan). The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.

13  Issachar’s sons: Tola, Puah, Jashub, and Shimron.

14  Zebulun’s sons: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel.

15  These are the sons that Leah bore to Jacob in Paddan Aram. There was also his daughter Dinah. Altogether, sons and daughters, they numbered thirty-three.

16  Gad’s sons: Zephon, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.

17  Asher’s sons: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, and Beriah. Also their sister Serah, and Beriah’s sons, Heber and Malkiel.

18  These are the children that Zilpah, the maid that Laban gave to his daughter Leah, bore to Jacob—sixteen of them.

19–21  The sons of Jacob’s wife Rachel were Joseph and Ben-jamin. Joseph was the father of two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, from his marriage to Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On. They were born to him in Egypt. Ben-jamin’s sons were Bela, Beker, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.

22  These are the children born to Jacob through Rachel—fourteen.

23  Dan’s son: Hushim.

24  Naphtali’s sons: Jahziel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.

25  These are the children born to Jacob through Bilhah, the maid Laban had given to his daughter Rachel—seven.

26–27  Summing up, all those who went down to Egypt with Jacob—his own children, not counting his sons’ wives—numbered sixty-six. Counting in the two sons born to Joseph in Egypt, the members of Jacob’s family who ended up in Egypt numbered seventy.

28–29  Jacob sent Judah on ahead to get directions to Goshen from Joseph. When they got to Goshen, Joseph gave orders for his chariot and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel. The moment Joseph saw him, he threw himself on his neck and wept. He wept a long time.

30  Israel said to Joseph, “I’m ready to die. I’ve looked into your face—you are indeed alive.”

31–34  Joseph then spoke to his brothers and his father’s family. “I’ll go and tell Pharaoh, ‘My brothers and my father’s family, all of whom lived in Canaan, have come to me. The men are shepherds; they’ve always made their living by raising livestock. And they’ve brought their flocks and herds with them, along with everything else they own.’ When Pharaoh calls you in and asks what kind of work you do, tell him, ‘Your servants have always kept livestock for as long as we can remember—we and our parents also.’ That way he’ll let you stay apart in the area of Goshen—for Egyptians look down on anyone who is a shepherd.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Friday, May 23, 2025

by Mike Wittmer

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

2 Thessalonians 2:7-12

That doesn’t mean that the spirit of anarchy is not now at work. It is, secretly and underground. But the time will come when the Anarchist will no longer be held back, but will be let loose. But don’t worry. The Master Jesus will be right on his heels and blow him away. The Master appears and—puff!—the Anarchist is out of there.

9–12  The Anarchist’s coming is all Satan’s work. All his power and signs and miracles are fake, evil sleight of hand that plays to the gallery of those who hate the truth that could save them. And since they’re so obsessed with evil, God rubs their noses in it—gives them what they want. Since they refuse to trust truth, they’re banished to their chosen world of lies and illusions.

Today's Insights

Embracing the truth is essential for believers in Jesus, for He’s the one who is the truth (see John 14:6). Judas Iscariot is a classic example of one who had the opportunity to fully follow Christ but didn’t. The life of Judas and the teaching of 2 Thessalonians have several things in common. First, Satan is at work in both. Luke 22:3 says that “Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot,” and 2 Thessalonians 2:9 notes that “the coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works.” Furthermore, John 17:12 refers to Judas as “the son of destruction” (esv), a term also found in 2 Thessalonians 2:3: “Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction” (esv). Satan’s agenda is deception that leads to destruction. We can avoid his deceiving ways by loving Jesus and embracing His truth.

Love the Truth

They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 2 Thessalonians 2:10

Jack hates school. The lectures on algebra, grammar, and the periodic table bore him. But he loves building houses. His father takes him to work in the summer, and Jack can’t get enough. He’s only sixteen, but he knows about cement, shingles, and how to frame a wall. What’s the difference between school and construction? Love. Jack loves one and not the other. His love fuels knowledge.

As believers in Jesus, we’re to “love the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:10). Paul says a satanic figure will use “signs and wonders” (v. 9) to deceive “those who are perishing” (v. 10). Why are they perishing? “They refused to love the truth and so be saved” (v. 10). Their failure to love the truth blinds them from knowing it. They’ll be duped (v. 11).

What do we know? That important question depends on a more basic one: What do we love? Our passions incline our heart and direct our mind. We cherish what we love. We protect it and seek more of it. If we love truth and wisdom, we’ll search for them as precious gold (Proverbs 3:13-14; 4:7-9). They’ll guard us. “Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you” (4:6).

What is true wisdom? Jesus says it’s Him. “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). Our most important question is who do we love? Love Jesus and you’ll learn His way. He’ll guard your life by guiding you into His truth.

Reflect & Pray

Why is it important to love the truth? Why does Jesus say He is the truth?

Dear Father, please fill my heart with love for You and what’s true.

Learn more about the astonishing claims Jesus makes about himself by reading I Am the Way.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Friday, May 23, 2025

Careful Infidelity

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.— Matthew 6:25

Jesus speaks of commonsense carefulness in a disciple as infidelity—a

failure to have faith in him. If we’ve received the Spirit of God, he

will press us on certain points, asking us to examine our commonsense

decisions and plans. “Where is God in this relationship?” the Spirit will

ask. “Where is God in this carefully mapped-out vacation? In these new

books?” God always presses a point until we learn to put him first in our

thoughts. Whenever we put something else first, the result is confusion.

“Do not worry . . .” Refusing to worry means refusing to put pres-

sure on ourselves about the future. Not only is it wrong to worry but

it’s also a lack of faith. Worry implies that we don’t believe God can

look after the practical details of our lives.

Have you ever noticed what Jesus said would choke the word of

God in us? The devil? No, the cares of the world—“the little foxes that

ruin the vineyards” (Song of Songs 2:15). It is always the little wor-

ries that threaten to derail us. Yet worry becomes impossible once we

accept Jesus Christ’s revelation that God is our Father and that we can

never think of anything he will forget. People who trust Jesus Christ

in a definite, practical way are freer than anyone else to do their work

in the world. Free from fretting and worry, they are able to go about

their days with absolute certainty because the responsibility for their

lives rests not with them but with God.

Infidelity to God begins when we say, “I will not trust where I can-

not see.” The only cure is obedience to the Spirit and abandonment

to Jesus Christ. “Abandon to me” is the great message of Jesus to his

disciples.

1 Chronicles 19-21; John 8:1-27

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

When a man’s heart is right with God the mysterious utterances of the Bible are spirit and life to him. Spiritual truth is discernible only to a pure heart, not to a keen intellect. It is not a question of profundity of intellect, but of purity of heart.

Bringing Sons Unto Glory, 231 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Friday, May 23, 2025

RESTLESS FOR MORE - #10010

If someone is a champion in sports, we tend to make them an automatic hero. Now, not every champion lives like a hero or necessarily deserves to be one. But Wilma Rudolph? Oh, she was more than a champion. She really belonged in the hero category. See, she began her life with a bout of polio.

As a little girl, she grew up in braces. And then she battled her way to be able to walk again, and she finally begged the basketball coach to give her one chance to play basketball. She did, and she got better and better. Then she started to run competitively. What an accomplishment! One day she qualified for the Olympics! She went to the Olympics in Rome and became the first woman ever to win three gold medals in track and field.

Wilma Rudolph's philosophy rings a bell with me. Here's what she said: "When you're running, you're always in the process of trying to master something, and you're never quite there." I guess that's what makes the champion," she said, "the willingness to continue to work and strive to improve your excellence every day." Well, are you tired of just jogging along with that herd of mediocre runners? Maybe you're ready for the gold.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Restless for More."

Revival - that's the spiritual gold that every healthy Christian is hungry for. It's that extraordinary, powerful, transforming visit of the Holy Spirit above and beyond our normal relationship with Him. That extra visit that gives a generation a taste of all God can do. I want revival. I'm not sure I understand all its implications, but I am finding everywhere I travel that God's people are hungry for something more. I think that's what they want. As we run our race, we have to share that Olympians restlessness. "We're never quite there," she said.

Are you tired of the ordinary? I hope you are. Is spiritual business as usual just not enough for you any more? Oh, I hope it's not. Return with me to that first spirit invasion of the book of Acts. While Pentecost is not a repeatable event, because the Holy Spirit's unique birthing of the church at that time won't happen quite that way again, there is here a pattern for being ready for revival.

Acts 1:1 talks about the fact that this is about all that Jesus began to do and to teach. Well, going back to what Jesus began - chapter 1, verse 4 Jesus says, "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised." "Go back there and wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit, guys." And then in chapter 1, verse 14, you find out what to do in the waiting room while you're waiting for a visit from the Holy Spirit. "They all joined together constantly in prayer."

Now, how can we get the power and reality that we all want; are restless for and hungry for? Well, you find a group of restless runners who are restless like you; a group you can pray with, who together can say, "Lord, we're not there yet. We want your best. We want the rest of You. We want all of You." Realize that this unusual, reviving work of the Holy Spirit comes when Christians wait for it together, ask for it together, prepare for it by finally dealing with their sin.

Open up the book of Acts; read it again. Let God warm your heart with how it can be, how it ought to be. So much more powerful; so much more supernatural than what we're experiencing right now. And then go into the waiting room with some other folks who know there's more and who must have that more.

Then together let's tell our Lord, "We are restless for Your gold."

Matthew 22:23-46, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: DO WHAT YOU CAN - May 22, 2025

You can’t control the weather. You aren’t in charge of the economy. You can’t un-wreck the car. But you can do this: you can map out a strategy. Remember, God is in this crisis. Ask him to give you a plan—two or three steps you can take today. Seek counsel from someone who’s faced a similar challenge. Ask friends to pray.  Look for resources. Reach out to a support group. Make a plan.

You’d prefer a miracle? You’d rather see the bread multiplied or the stormy sea turned to glassy calm in a finger snap? God may do this. Then again, he may tell you, “I’m with you. I can use this for good. Now, let’s make a plan.”

You see, God’s sovereignty doesn’t negate our responsibility. Just the opposite – it empowers it. So trust God to do what you can’t. Obey God and do what you can. You’ll get through this.

You'll Get Through This: Hope and Help for Turbulent Times

Matthew 22:23-46

Marriage and Resurrection

23–28  That same day, Sadducees approached him. This is the party that denies any possibility of resurrection. They asked, “Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies childless, his brother is obligated to marry his widow and get her with child. Here’s a case where there were seven brothers. The first brother married and died, leaving no child, and his wife passed to his brother. The second brother also left her childless, then the third—and on and on, all seven. Eventually the wife died. Now here’s our question: At the resurrection, whose wife is she? She was a wife to each of them.”

29–33  Jesus answered, “You’re off base on two counts: You don’t know your Bibles, and you don’t know how God works. At the resurrection we’re beyond marriage. As with the angels, all our ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God. And regarding your speculation on whether the dead are raised or not, don’t you read your Bibles? The grammar is clear: God says, ‘I am—not was—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.’ The living God defines himself not as the God of dead men, but of the living.” Hearing this exchange the crowd was much impressed.

The Most Important Command

34–36  When the Pharisees heard how he had bested the Sadducees, they gathered their forces for an assault. One of their religion scholars spoke for them, posing a question they hoped would show him up: “Teacher, which command in God’s Law is the most important?”

37–40  Jesus said, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”

David’s Son and Master

41–42  As the Pharisees were regrouping, Jesus caught them off balance with his own test question: “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said, “David’s son.”

43–45  Jesus replied, “Well, if the Christ is David’s son, how do you explain that David, under inspiration, named Christ his ‘Master’?

God said to my Master,

“Sit here at my right hand

until I make your enemies your footstool.”

“Now if David calls him ‘Master,’ how can he at the same time be his son?”

46  That stumped them, literalists that they were. Unwilling to risk losing face again in one of these public verbal exchanges, they quit asking questions for good.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Thursday, May 22, 2025

by Winn Collier

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Matthew 16:21-28

You’re Not in the Driver’s Seat

21–22  Then Jesus made it clear to his disciples that it was now necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, submit to an ordeal of suffering at the hands of the religious leaders, be killed, and then on the third day be raised up alive. Peter took him in hand, protesting, “Impossible, Master! That can never be!”

23  But Jesus didn’t swerve. “Peter, get out of my way. Satan, get lost. You have no idea how God works.”

24–26  Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?

27–28  “Don’t be in such a hurry to go into business for yourself. Before you know it the Son of Man will arrive with all the splendor of his Father, accompanied by an army of angels. You’ll get everything you have coming to you, a personal gift. This isn’t pie in the sky by and by. Some of you standing here are going to see it take place, see the Son of Man in kingdom glory.”

Today's Insights

After Peter’s confession that Jesus is “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16), Christ speaks plainly about His imminent suffering, death, burial, and resurrection (v. 21; 17:22-23; 20:17-19; 26:2). Peter rejected a Messiah who would suffer and die, but he was severely rebuked by Jesus (16:22-23). In the wilderness temptations at the start of Christ’s ministry, Satan offered to make Him king without the suffering (4:8-10). Peter’s idea of the kingly Messiah was the same as Satan’s—the crown without the cross. But going to the cross to die for sinful humanity was the primary reason Jesus came. To prevent His crucifixion is what Satan wanted. Jesus recognized that the same satanic source was behind Peter’s rejection of the cross (16:23).

Love Worthy of Our Life

Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. Matthew 16:25

William Temple, a twentieth-century English bishop, once concluded a sermon to Oxford students with the words of the hymn “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.” But he cautioned against taking the song lightly. “If you mean [the words] with all your hearts, sing them as loud as you can,” Temple said. “If you don’t mean them at all, keep silent. If you mean them even a little, and want to mean them more, sing them very softly.” The crowd went quiet as everyone eyed the lyrics. Slowly, thousands of voices began to sing in a whisper, mouthing the final lines with gravity: “Love so amazing, so divine / Demands my soul, my life, my all.”

Those Oxford students understood the reality that believing in and following Jesus is a serious choice, because it means saying yes to a radical love that demands everything from us. Following Christ requires our entire life, our whole being. He plainly told His disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). No one should make this choice flippantly.

Yet following Jesus is also the way to our deepest joy. Life with Him, we’ll discover, is the life we truly desire. It appears to be a great paradox. However, if we respond to God’s love, believe in Christ, and relinquish our selfish, shortsighted demands, we’ll find the life our soul craves (v. 25).

Reflect & Pray

What will believing in and following Jesus cost you? What will you gain?

Dear God, following You isn’t easy, but I want to give You my life and my all.

For further study, read Keeping the Faith—The Cost of Following Christ

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Thursday, May 22, 2025

Now This Explains It

. . . that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us.— John 17:21

If you are walking a lonely path just now, read John 17. It explains exactly why you are where you are: Jesus has prayed that you may be one with him, as he is one with the Father. Jesus isn’t leaving you all alone; he is getting you alone with him, so that his prayer for oneness might be answered. Are you helping God to answer Jesus’s prayer? Or do you have some other goal for your life? Since you became a disciple, you cannot be as independent as you used to be.

Some of us think God’s entire purpose is to answer our prayers. But there is only one prayer that God must answer, and that is the prayer of Jesus: “. . . that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.” Are you this intimate with Jesus?

God isn’t concerned about our plans. He doesn’t say, “Do you want to go through this trial? Do you want to suffer this loss?” He allows things to happen to us for his own purposes. Either the things we go through make us sweeter, better, and nobler, or they make us more critical and fault-finding, more insistent on having our own way. Either trials and difficulties make us fiends, or they make us saints; it depends entirely on our relationship with God. If our relationship to him is one in which we always say, “Your will be done,” then we will have the consolation of John 17. We will know that our Father is working according to his wisdom and toward his ends, and this will prevent us from becoming mean and cynical.

Jesus has prayed for nothing less than absolute oneness with him. Some of us are far from this state of oneness, but we can be sure that, because Jesus has prayed that it may be so, God won’t leave us alone until it is.

1 Chronicles 16-18; John 7:28-53

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Beware of isolation; beware of the idea that you have to develop a holy life alone. It is impossible to develop a holy life alone; you will develop into an oddity and a peculiarism, into something utterly unlike what God wants you to be. The only way to develop spiritually is to go into the society of God’s own children, and you will soon find how God alters your set. God does not contradict our social instincts; He alters them. 

Biblical Psychology, 189 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Thursday, May 22, 2025

Escaping the Stalker of Your Soul - #10009

Sometimes when we travel to Indian reservations in North America, we end up on roads that go where not many go. Our Director at the time, our Ojibwe brother, Craig Smith, was on one of those roads. His destination was a remote reserve in Northern Canada. At one point in his 140-mile journey, he noticed a van coming from the other direction, proceeding very slowly. Craig decided to slow down, too. That's when he saw what the van driver had already seen - a beautiful deer by the side of the road. Sadly, one of his rear legs was broken and just kind of dangling limply when he moved. At that point, he saw the rest of the picture that had caused the van to stop in front of the deer. On the other side of the road was a wolf, stalking the wounded deer. It was obvious all the van could do was postpone the inevitable. There was no happy ending for that deer.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Escaping the Stalker of Your Soul."

If we could put on God-glasses for even a day and look at our life, we'd see a scene much like my friend saw that day in the Northwood's of Canada. And it would unnerve us. Because we'd see the one who is stalking us, waiting for the chance to have us. He's the one the Bible calls the devil, and he wants your soul. The Bible describes him, not as a wolf, but as a lion who "prowls around...looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). To ignore or laugh off that warning is to play right into the predator's hands.

However smart or strong we may think we are, that vulnerable deer is an all-too-accurate picture of us. Again, the Bible describes us as being "like sheep" (Isaiah 53:6), one of the most vulnerable animals of all. The devil's goal for you can be summed up in one horrible little word - hell. The Bible says that the people who are on that road are "many" and the people who are headed for heaven are "few" (Matthew 7:13-14). That should be unsettling for all of us.

Our word for today from the Word of God reveals the life-taker who is counting on having his way with us. But it also reveals the life-giver, who is our hope. In John 10:10 Jesus says, "The thief (that's the devil) comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full." The devil seems to offer you life, but he gives you only death. His plan to steal and kill and destroy you is to keep you away from the only One who can save you. That's Jesus. Because Jesus was torn apart for your sin so you don't ever have to be.

The only hope that wounded deer had that day was a rescuer. That's your only hope of ever being free from your sins, of being with God in heaven someday. The Bible says that Jesus "was pierced for our transgressions" and "crushed for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53:5). Like the van that temporarily stood between the killer and the deer, all our religion and spirituality can do is postpone the inevitable. There are a lot of nice things that can't save us. Sin is too expensive for religion to pay for. The Rescuer is our only hope. And the Bible says of Him, "By His wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5).

The devil's plan is simple: keep you busy with anything but Jesus. He doesn't care if it's pleasure, or religion, or work, or education, or family, or people-pleasing. All he needs to do is to keep you from trusting Jesus. All he wants to do is keep you from Jesus until you breathe your last breath.

Today, the life-taker and the life-giver are fighting for your soul. That's the tug-of-war you feel in your heart. Please, would you let this be the day you give yourself to the only One who can save you; the Rescuer who refused to save Himself so you could be saved. Would you tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours."

There's information at our website that will help you be sure you belong to Him. Would you go there today? It's ANewStory.com.

I love the way the Bible describes what will happen to you the moment you give your life to Jesus. You're going to love this. It says you will literally "cross over from death to life" (John 5:24).

Genesis 45, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: GOD IS IN YOUR CRISIS - May 21, 2025

Do you recite your woes more naturally than you do heaven’s strength? No wonder life’s tough. You’re assuming God isn’t in this crisis.

Isabel spent her first three and a half years in a Nicaraguan orphanage. As with all orphans, her odds of adoption diminished with time. And then the door slammed on her finger. Why would God permit this innocent girl to feel even more pain? Might he be calling the attention of Ryan Schnoke sitting in the playroom nearby? He and his wife had been trying to adopt a child for months. Ryan walked over, picked her up, and comforted her. Several months later, Ryan and Christina were close to giving up, and Ryan remembered Isabel. Little Isabel is growing up now in a happy, healthy home.

A finger in the door? God doesn’t manufacture pain, but he certainly puts it to use! Your crisis? You’ll get through this.

You'll Get Through This: Hope and Help for Turbulent Times

Genesis 45

Joseph couldn’t hold himself in any longer, keeping up a front before all his attendants. He cried out, “Leave! Clear out—everyone leave!” So there was no one with Joseph when he identified himself to his brothers. But his sobbing was so violent that the Egyptians couldn’t help but hear him. The news was soon reported to Pharaoh’s palace.

3  Joseph spoke to his brothers: “I am Joseph. Is my father really still alive?” But his brothers couldn’t say a word. They were speechless—they couldn’t believe what they were hearing and seeing.

4–8  “Come closer to me,” Joseph said to his brothers. They came closer. “I am Joseph your brother whom you sold into Egypt. But don’t feel badly, don’t blame yourselves for selling me. God was behind it. God sent me here ahead of you to save lives. There has been a famine in the land now for two years; the famine will continue for five more years—neither plowing nor harvesting. God sent me on ahead to pave the way and make sure there was a remnant in the land, to save your lives in an amazing act of deliverance. So you see, it wasn’t you who sent me here but God. He set me in place as a father to Pharaoh, put me in charge of his personal affairs, and made me ruler of all Egypt.

9–11  “Hurry back to my father. Tell him, ‘Your son Joseph says: I’m master of all of Egypt. Come as fast as you can and join me here. I’ll give you a place to live in Goshen where you’ll be close to me—you, your children, your grandchildren, your flocks, your herds, and anything else you can think of. I’ll take care of you there completely. There are still five more years of famine ahead; I’ll make sure all your needs are taken care of, you and everyone connected with you—you won’t want for a thing.’

12–13  “Look at me. You can see for yourselves, and my brother Ben-jamin can see for himself, that it’s me, my own mouth, telling you all this. Tell my father all about the high position I hold in Egypt, tell him everything you’ve seen here, but don’t take all day—hurry up and get my father down here.”

14–15  Then Joseph threw himself on his brother Ben-jamin’s neck and wept, and Ben-jamin wept on his neck. He then kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Only then were his brothers able to talk with him.

16  The story was reported in Pharaoh’s palace: “Joseph’s brothers have come.” It was good news to Pharaoh and all who worked with him.

17–18  Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Tell your brothers, ‘This is the plan: Load up your pack animals; go to Canaan, get your father and your families and bring them back here. I’ll settle you on the best land in Egypt—you’ll live off the fat of the land.’

19–20  “Also tell them this: ‘Here’s what I want you to do: Take wagons from Egypt to carry your little ones and your wives and load up your father and come back. Don’t worry about having to leave things behind; the best in all of Egypt will be yours.’ ”

21–23  And they did just that, the sons of Israel. Joseph gave them the wagons that Pharaoh had promised and food for the trip. He outfitted all the brothers in brand-new clothes, but he gave Ben-jamin three hundred pieces of silver and several suits of clothes. He sent his father these gifts: ten donkeys loaded with Egypt’s best products and another ten donkeys loaded with grain and bread, provisions for his father’s journey back.

24  Then he sent his brothers off. As they left he told them, “Take it easy on the journey; try to get along with each other.”

25–28  They left Egypt and went back to their father Jacob in Canaan. When they told him, “Joseph is still alive—and he’s the ruler over the whole land of Egypt!” he went numb; he couldn’t believe his ears. But the more they talked, telling him everything that Joseph had told them and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him back, the blood started to flow again—their father Jacob’s spirit revived. Israel said, “I’ve heard enough—my son Joseph is still alive. I’ve got to go and see him before I die.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Wednesday, May 21, 2025

by Patricia Raybon

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Leviticus 19:9-10, 33-34

“When you harvest your land, don’t harvest right up to the edges of your field or gather the gleanings from the harvest. Don’t strip your vineyard bare or go back and pick up the fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am God, your God.

33–34  “When a foreigner lives with you in your land, don’t take advantage of him. Treat the foreigner the same as a native. Love him like one of your own. Remember that you were once foreigners in Egypt. I am God, your God.

Today's Insights

The posture of God’s redeemed people toward the “foreigner” (outsiders) is the focus of today’s text. The grounds for the instructions were that the Israelites belonged to the God who’d redeemed them: “I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:10, 34). This relational reality was to guide their conduct both negatively and positively. Relative to the gathering of their produce, they were not to “reap to the very edges of [their] field” or “go over [their] vineyard a second time” (vv. 9-10). Foreigners were not to be mistreated (v. 33); rather, they were to be “treated as your native-born” and loved “as yourself” (v. 34).

Guidelines like these also help believers in Jesus to think proactively about what can be done for “the outsider.” Peter says that “once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:10).

Loving the Stranger

Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners. Exodus 23:9

A friend’s wife, a master seamstress, made a loving plan before she passed away from a long illness. She donated all her sewing equipment to our town’s sewing guild, providing sewing machines, cutting tables, and more for classes teaching newly arrived immigrants. “I counted twenty-eight boxes of fabric alone,” her husband told us. “Six women came by to pick up everything. Their students are hard workers, eager to learn a skill.”

Others describe such newcomers in less flattering ways. The plight of immigrants has become a divisive issue.

Moses, however, issued God’s view: “Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners” (Exodus 23:9). He further shared God’s decree regarding strangers. “When you reap the harvest of your land . . . do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:9-10).

God also declared, “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God” (vv. 33-34).

God set the standard. May He bless our hearts to show love to the strangers among us.

Reflect & Pray

How can you help those in your church or neighborhood from other countries or who speak another language? Where can you find opportunities to help someone from another culture?

Dear Father, please give me a heart that welcomes others.

Learn some practical ways to evangelize in the 21st century by reading chapter six of Discovery Series' Evangelism: Reaching Out Through Relationships.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Divine Reasonings of Faith

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.— Matthew 6:33

The words Jesus speaks here are the most revolutionary words human ears ever heard: “Seek first his kingdom.” Even the most spiritually-minded of us argue that we must do other things first. “But I must make money. I must be clothed. I must be fed,” we say. When we reason like this, we make it clear that the great concern of our lives isn’t the kingdom of God; it’s how we’re going to get by financially. Jesus reverses the order, telling us to get rightly related to God first. He asks us to maintain our relationship with our heavenly Father as the main focus of our lives, and to take the focus off all other concerns.

“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear” (Matthew 6:25). Our Lord points out the unreasonableness of being anxious about how we’ll live. Jesus isn’t saying that the person who thinks of nothing is blessed—that person is a fool (Proverbs 19:2). Jesus is telling us to place our relationship to God at the center of our lives, and to be carefully careless about everything else in comparison. He’s saying, “Don’t make the main concern of your life what you will eat and what you will drink. Be focused on God.”

Some people are careless about what they eat and drink, and they suffer for it. Some are careless about what they wear, and they look as they have no business looking. Some are careless about their earthly affairs, and God holds them responsible. What Jesus is saying in these verses is that the great care of our life should be to put our relationship to God first, and everything else second. One of the harshest disciplines of the Christian life is allowing the Holy Spirit to bring us into harmony with this teaching of Jesus.

1 Chronicles 13-15; John 7:1-27

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

The Christian Church should not be a secret society of specialists, but a public manifestation of believers in Jesus. 

Facing Reality, 34 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Making Jesus at Home in Your Life - #10008

We have had a wide variety of people come to our front door. The salesmen - oh they're basically asked to stay on the front steps and give us their little pitch. And then there were those neighborhood kids who, well, they were raising money. Well, they usually got inside the door - we'd let them into the welcome mat, and we'd deal with them there. And there were a lot of acquaintances and friends of course. Those people you just immediately invite into your living room to sit down and stay as long as they want. And sometimes at the door is a relative or real close friend, and they come in and they go straight to the refrigerator and help themselves. If they want to make a call they go ahead and do that and they feel very free to use the bathroom. So you can tell how close we are by how far a person is allowed into the house.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Making Jesus at Home in Your Life."

Well, our word for today from the Word of God: Colossians 2:6. God says, "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord..." Now, let's stop for a minute. You remember how that was when you received Him. Jesus described it once as "knocking on the door." You go to the door, you open it and you let Him in. Well, that's how you received Him. You invited Him in; He came in by invitation.

"So then as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him." In other words, the way to follow Christ, to be a Christian from the moment of conversion, is to do what you did to get started with Jesus. And that is you keep on inviting. Not inviting Him in - He's in to stay. But you invite Him into more and more of the rooms of your life house so to speak. Continue to live in Him just the way you invited Him in.

Now, you keep on inviting. You say, "Well, right now my life house is a mess." Well, I have to tell you, I've been asked many times, "Ron, you know, I became a Christian. I invited Christ in. How come I still feel so lonely?" Or, "Why do I still feel so depressed?" Or, "I still feel so defeated by some of my old problems." One reason might be this: You might have invited Jesus in, but maybe you left Him on the welcome mat. Oh, He's in, but you're not inviting Him into any more rooms.

It's like a lot of people who have a spiritual wedding. They begin with Christ. They had a wonderful conversion and a testimony of how Christ saved them, but they haven't had much of a marriage since then. They just got Him in and thought that was it. It's more than a wedding. Well, Christ will only improve that which is consciously turned over to Him, and He only goes where He's invited.

Now, if you let Christ into let's say 10% of your life, then 90% will still be as much of a mess as if you hadn't invited Him in. You may be missing much of the love, the peace, maybe the meaning that you came to Christ to get, because you've never asked Him past the welcome mat. Remember, He only goes where He's invited.

What specific part of your life did you invite Jesus Christ to rule today? See, that's always the question, or it should be, on any given day, "Into what specific part of you did you invite Jesus today?" It's only into that percentage of your life where you actively invited Him that you'll begin to know His peace, His love, and His answers.

So, keep on inviting Jesus deeper and deeper into what matters to you. You can tell how close you are to Him by how far you allow Him into your house.

Genesis 44, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: A PLACE PREPARED FOR YOU - May 20, 2025

God’s purpose from all eternity is to prepare a family to indwell the kingdom of God. “’For I know the plans I have for you’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV). God’s plotting for our good. In all the setbacks, he’s ordaining the best for our future. Every event of our day is designed to draw us toward our God and our destiny.

When people junk you in the pit, God can use it for good. When family members sell you out, God will recycle the pain. Falsely accused? Utterly abandoned? You may stumble, but you will not fall. You will get through this! Not because you’re strong, but because God is. Not because you’re big, but because God is. Not because you’re good, but because God is. He has a place prepared for you!

You'll Get Through This: Hope and Help for Turbulent Times

Genesis 44

Joseph ordered his house steward: “Fill the men’s bags with food—all they can carry—and replace each one’s money at the top of the bag. Then put my chalice, my silver chalice, in the top of the bag of the youngest, along with the money for his food.” He did as Joseph ordered.

3–5  At break of day the men were sent off with their donkeys. They were barely out of the city when Joseph said to his house steward, “Run after them. When you catch up with them, say, ‘Why did you pay me back evil for good? This is the chalice my master drinks from; he also uses it for divination. This is outrageous!’ ”

6  He caught up with them and repeated all this word for word.

7–9  They said, “What is my master talking about? We would never do anything like that! Why, the money we found in our bags earlier, we brought back all the way from Canaan—do you think we’d turn right around and steal it back from your master? If that chalice is found on any of us, he’ll die; and the rest of us will be your master’s slaves.”

10  The steward said, “Very well then, but we won’t go that far. Whoever is found with the chalice will be my slave; the rest of you can go free.”

11–12  They outdid each other in putting their bags on the ground and opening them up for inspection. The steward searched their bags, going from oldest to youngest. The chalice showed up in Ben-jamin’s bag.

13  They ripped their clothes in despair, loaded up their donkeys, and went back to the city.

14  Joseph was still at home when Judah and his brothers got back. They threw themselves down on the ground in front of him.

15  Joseph accused them: “How can you have done this? You have to know that a man in my position would have discovered this.”

16  Judah as spokesman for the brothers said, “What can we say, master? What is there to say? How can we prove our innocence? God is behind this, exposing how bad we are. We stand guilty before you and ready to be your slaves—we’re all in this together, the rest of us as guilty as the one with the chalice.”

17  “I’d never do that to you,” said Joseph. “Only the one involved with the chalice will be my slave. The rest of you are free to go back to your father.”

18–20  Judah came forward. He said, “Please, master; can I say just one thing to you? Don’t get angry. Don’t think I’m presumptuous—you’re the same as Pharaoh as far as I’m concerned. You, master, asked us, ‘Do you have a father and a brother?’ And we answered honestly, ‘We have a father who is old and a younger brother who was born to him in his old age. His brother is dead and he is the only son left from that mother. And his father loves him more than anything.’

21–22  “Then you told us, ‘Bring him down here so I can see him.’ We told you, master, that it was impossible: ‘The boy can’t leave his father; if he leaves, his father will die.’

23  “And then you said, ‘If your youngest brother doesn’t come with you, you won’t be allowed to see me.’

24–26  “When we returned to our father, we told him everything you said to us. So when our father said, ‘Go back and buy some more food,’ we told him flatly, ‘We can’t. The only way we can go back is if our youngest brother is with us. We aren’t allowed to even see the man if our youngest brother doesn’t come with us.’

27–29  “Your servant, my father, told us, ‘You know very well that my wife gave me two sons. One turned up missing. I concluded that he’d been ripped to pieces. I’ve never seen him since. If you now go and take this one and something bad happens to him, you’ll put my old gray, grieving head in the grave for sure.’

30–32  “And now, can’t you see that if I show up before your servant, my father, without the boy, this son with whom his life is so bound up, the moment he realizes the boy is gone, he’ll die on the spot. He’ll die of grief and we, your servants who are standing here before you, will have killed him. And that’s not all. I got my father to release the boy to show him to you by promising, ‘If I don’t bring him back, I’ll stand condemned before you, Father, all my life.’

33–34  “So let me stay here as your slave, not this boy. Let the boy go back with his brothers. How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? Oh, don’t make me go back and watch my father die in grief!”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

by Kenneth Petersen

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Isaiah 41:10-13

Don’t panic. I’m with you.

There’s no need to fear for I’m your God.

I’ll give you strength. I’ll help you.

I’ll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you.

11–13  “Count on it: Everyone who had it in for you

will end up out in the cold—

real losers.

Those who worked against you

will end up empty-handed—

nothing to show for their lives.

When you go out looking for your old adversaries

you won’t find them—

Not a trace of your old enemies,

not even a memory.

That’s right. Because I, your God,

have a firm grip on you and I’m not letting go.

I’m telling you, ‘Don’t panic.

I’m right here to help you.’

Today's Insights

Isaiah 41 starts with God warning “islands” and “nations” (v. 1). He asks a rhetorical question: “Who has stirred up one from the east?” (v. 2). It is God Himself who has stirred up this “one.” He is Cyrus, the great Persian king who wouldn’t be born for another 150 years, yet Isaiah introduces him by name (44:28-45:1). God calls this future Persian monarch “his anointed” (45:1)—anointed in the sense that God will use Cyrus to vanquish those who’d conquered His people. He’ll do this “for the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen” (v. 4).

Isaiah 41:8-20 comprises a shift in tone from the first seven verses of the chapter: “But you, Israel, my servant . . .” (v. 8). God comforts a people long persecuted: “I have chosen you and have not rejected you” (v. 9). And He grieves with us and extends His comfort to us today.

A Grieving God

Do not fear, for I am with you. Isaiah 41:10

In the aftermath of Turkey’s devastating earthquake in February 2023, a haunting photo came across newswires: a father sitting amid ruins holding a hand extending from the rubble—the hand of his daughter. We see the edge of the mattress where his daughter had been sleeping, and we see her lifeless fingers that he now holds. His face is grim; his grief is profound.

In this father’s gritted face, I see a semblance of our own heavenly Father. Genesis tells us that God was grieved by the devastation of sin in His creation: “It broke his heart” (6:6 nlt). Isaiah, speaking of the future Messiah, says, “He was . . . a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief” (53:3 nlt). God grieves for us, and with us, and sits at the edge of the rubble of our lives, reaching for us: “I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand” (41:13).

Whatever devastation you currently face—a tragic circumstance, the loss of a dear one, or maybe even the effects of your own sin—know that God grieves with you. Whatever earthquake has shaken your life, see that God is reaching for your hand. Whatever your current sorrow, hear the God of love saying to you, “Do not fear; I will help you” (v. 13).

Reflect & Pray

In what ways has your life, current or past, been shaken to the core? What does it mean to you that God grieves with you?

Father God, who grieves with me and for me, thank You for Your “righteous right hand.”

Jesus shares our grief. Learn more by reading Crying for Us All.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Standing Firm Before the Lord

Stand firm, and you will win life.— Luke 21:19

For some time after we are born again, we aren’t as quick in our thinking and reasoning as we were before. We have to learn how to express our new life by forming the mind of Christ, and this takes time, effort, and patience.

“In your patience possess ye your souls” (Luke 21:19 KJV). Many of us prefer to stay at the threshold of the Christian life. We refuse to move on to the arduous work of constructing a soul—a soul that reflects the new life God has put inside us. We fail at this because we are ignorant of the way we are made. We blame our shortcomings on the devil, instead of on our own undisciplined natures.

We try to pray our weaknesses away, not understanding that there are certain things we must not pray about—moods, for example. Moods go by kicking, not by praying. When we are tired or hungry or in pain, it is a tremendous effort not to listen to our mood. But we must not listen, not even for a second. We have to pick ourselves up and shake off our mood. Once we do, we realize that we can do the things we’d thought impossible. The trouble with most of us is that we won’t. We refuse to stand up to our moods, and they end up sapping our energy and motivation.

Think what we can be when we are motivated! If we will stand firm in obedience to the Lord, if we will obey him instead of our own natures, he will guide us in building a soul that harmonizes perfectly with the Spirit inside. The Christian life is a life of incarnate spiritual pluck: “Stand firm, and you will win life.”

1 Chronicles 10-12; John 6:45-71

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Seeing is never believing: we interpret what we see in the light of what we believe. Faith is confidence in God before you see God emerging; therefore the nature of faith is that it must be tried.

He Shall Glorify Me, 494 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

ENDING WELL - #10007

The late, great Kobe Bryant decided to set off some fireworks for his final game in the NBA. Sixty points carried his team to an unlikely and dramatic victory! That's a pretty good way to wrap up 20 seasons and five championship rings! Kobe Bryant finished that career well, and he went out of professional basketball in a blaze of glory.

But so is my friend Kenny. Not on a basketball court. It was in his hospice room. The doctors said he didn't have much more time; walking as Psalm 23:4, our word for today from the Word of God says, "through the valley of the shadow of death." It actually begins that Psalm by saying, "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Yes, though I walk through the shadow of death I will fear no evil for You are with me."

His wife, Mary Ann, spoke to me about his painful journey with a strength that could only be described as supernatural. She told me, "Ron, for a long time, one of my greatest fears has been living life without Kenny." I mean, anybody who knows them knows they have had a very true and very obvious lifetime love.

But her report was amazing. She said, "Ron, we're doing so well. God has moved in amazing ways. Kenny is calm and comfortable. I feel so much peace and calm. He's ready to go with Jesus and I'm ready to let him go." Then she summed it all up in one word - miracles. As the thing she had feared so long was now looming as a reality, a peace that was not of this earth flooded into her soul. And suddenly, she had grace to say, "He's Yours, Lord. I release him to You." Miracle!

But what she told me about Kenny was what really wiped me out. She described the scene in his room: grandchildren, children singing and talking and laughing. And the hospice staff said they had seldom, if ever, seen anyone facing death with this kind of peace, confidence and even joy. Then describing what his grandchildren were experiencing, she made this very moving observation: "He's teaching them how to die." That's legacy.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Ending Well."

I had a friend who said, "Ron, if people who don't know Jesus want to know the difference He makes, let them come to our funerals." Or our hospice room. Kenny and Mary Ann's word for why death had lost its dread - Jesus. Years ago, they heard how the Son of God bled out His life so we could live forever, because there was no other way we could. The Bible sure makes that clear. It says in Isaiah 59:2, "Your sins have cut you off from God." Sinless God. Perfect heaven. Sinful us.

Kenny and Mary Ann told me that they had been religious folks. And they thought that would get them to heaven like most folks do. Until they realized that no amount of goodness could pay the death penalty that sin requires. Somebody had to die. Somebody did. In the Bible's words, "Christ died for us sinners; taking our hell so we could go to His heaven." (Romans 5:6).

So when Jesus walked out of His grave that morning, He guaranteed eternal life to everybody who belongs to Him. And my friend, Kenny? Yep, someone who belongs to Jesus forever. And he did in the face of death what he did with his whole life - radiating a living Christ.

Today if you'd like to have that assurance when you die - that you are ready for eternity whenever it comes, however it comes. To know your sins are forgiven, they've been erased from God's Book, nothing would keep you out of heaven. Well, then today you need to say, "Jesus, you are the Savior of the world. But beginning today, you are my Savior from my sin. I'm putting all my trust in You."

I would love to help you get there and make sure you got it done. That's what our website is for. I invite you to go there - ANewStory.com.

My friend was walking through the valley of the shadow of death. But as it says in the Psalm, he "feared no evil" because, "You are with me" (Psalm 23:4). Doing life with Jesus. Doing eternity with Jesus. That's what I call going out in a blaze of glory.