Deuteronomy 22 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily:The Gladdest News of All

Grace is simply another word for God’s reservoir of strength and protection.  Not occasionally or miserly but constantly and aggressively, wave upon wave.  We barely regain our balance from one breaker, and then, bam, here comes another!

We dare to stake our hope on the gladdest news of all:  if God permits the challenge, he will provide the grace to meet it.  We never exhaust his supply. “Stop asking so much!  My grace reservoir is running dry.”  Heaven knows no such words.  God has enough grace to solve every dilemma you face, wipe every tear that you cry, and answer every question you ask.

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also graciously give us all things?  (Romans 8:32).

Having given the supreme and costliest gift, how can he fail to lavish upon us all he has to give?

From GRACE

Deuteronomy 22

 If you see your kinsman’s ox or sheep wandering off loose, don’t look the other way as if you didn’t see it. Return it promptly. If your fellow Israelite is not close by or you don’t know whose it is, take the animal home with you and take care of it until your fellow asks about it. Then return it to him. Do the same if it’s his donkey or a piece of clothing or anything else your fellow Israelite loses. Don’t look the other way as if you didn’t see it.

4  If you see your fellow’s donkey or ox injured along the road, don’t look the other way. Help him get it up and on its way.

5  A woman must not wear a man’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing. This kind of thing is an abomination to God, your God.

6–7  When you come across a bird’s nest alongside the road, whether in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, don’t take the mother with the young. You may take the babies, but let the mother go so that you will live a good and long life.

8  When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof to make it safe so that someone doesn’t fall off and die and your family become responsible for the death.

9  Don’t plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard. If you do, you will forfeit what you’ve sown, the total production of the vineyard.

10  Don’t plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.

11  Don’t wear clothes of mixed fabrics, wool and linen together.

12  Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you use to cover yourself.

13–19  If a man marries a woman, sleeps with her, and then turns on her, calling her a slut, giving her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman, but when I slept with her I discovered she wasn’t a virgin,” then the father and mother of the girl are to take her with the proof of her virginity to the town leaders at the gate. The father is to tell the leaders, “I gave my daughter to this man as wife and he turned on her, rejecting her. And now he has slanderously accused her, claiming that she wasn’t a virgin. But look at this, here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.” And then he is to spread out her bloodstained wedding garment before the leaders for their examination. The town leaders then are to take the husband, whip him, fine him a hundred pieces of silver, and give it to the father of the girl. The man gave a virgin girl of Israel a bad name. He has to keep her as his wife and can never divorce her.

20–21  But if it turns out that the accusation is true and there is no evidence of the girl’s virginity, the men of the town are to take her to the door of her father’s house and stone her to death. She acted disgracefully in Israel. She lived like a whore while still in her parents’ home. Purge the evil from among you.

22  If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both must die. Purge that evil from Israel.

23–24  If a man comes upon a virgin in town, a girl who is engaged to another man, and sleeps with her, take both of them to the town gate and stone them until they die—the girl because she didn’t yell out for help in the town and the man because he raped her, violating the fiancée of his neighbor. You must purge the evil from among you.

25–27  But if it was out in the country that the man found the engaged girl and grabbed and raped her, only the man is to die, the man who raped her. Don’t do anything to the girl; she did nothing wrong. This is similar to the case of a man who comes across his neighbor out in the country and murders him; when the engaged girl yelled out for help, there was no one around to hear or help her.

28–29  When a man comes upon a virgin who has never been engaged and grabs and rapes her and they are found out, the man who raped her has to give her father fifty pieces of silver. He has to marry her because he took advantage of her. And he can never divorce her.

30  A man may not marry his father’s ex-wife—that would violate his father’s rights.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Sunday, December 07, 2025

by John Blase

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Daniel 9:4-6, 15-19

I poured out my heart, baring my soul to God, my God:

4–8  “ ‘O Master, great and august God. You never waver in your covenant commitment, never give up on those who love you and do what you say. Yet we have sinned in every way imaginable. We’ve done evil things, rebelled, dodged and taken detours around your clearly marked paths. We’ve turned a deaf ear to your servants the prophets, who preached your Word to our kings and leaders, our parents, and all the people in the land.

“ ‘Master, you are our God, for you delivered your people from the land of Egypt in a show of power—people are still talking about it! We confess that we have sinned, that we have lived bad lives. Following the lines of what you have always done in setting things right, setting people right, please stop being so angry with Jerusalem, your very own city, your holy mountain. We know it’s our fault that this has happened, all because of our sins and our parents’ sins, and now we’re an embarrassment to everyone around us. We’re a blot on the neighborhood. So listen, God, to this determined prayer of your servant. Have mercy on your ruined Sanctuary. Act out of who you are, not out of what we are.

18  “ ‘Turn your ears our way, God, and listen. Open your eyes and take a long look at our ruined city, this city named after you. We know that we don’t deserve a hearing from you. Our appeal is to your compassion. This prayer is our last and only hope:

19  “ ‘Master, listen to us!

Master, forgive us!

Master, look at us and do something!

Master, don’t put us off!

Your city and your people are named after you:

You have a stake in us!’

Today's Insights

Daniel’s commitment to prayer is seen throughout the book that bears his name. When threatened with death in response to Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (ch. 2), he and his three friends prayed for God’s provision of an answer. We also see his commitment in chapter 6 when he continued his habit of prayer despite the king’s decree and the threat of death in the lions’ den. Here in chapter 9, we find Daniel’s great intercessory prayer on behalf of himself and his fellow captives. These situations demonstrate the priority he placed on prayer. As we make prayer a priority in our lives, we can boldly bring our concerns to God.

Pray What’s on Your Heart

Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. Daniel 9:17

Brenda and Eddie got in the car and began their Thursday evening ritual. “Where would you like to eat?” “Oh, Eddie, I don’t care, anywhere is fine, really.” Eddie’s been here before. “Okay, how about The Windmill?” Brenda bristles. “No, anywhere but there!” Eddie sighs. “So where, then?” Brenda insists, “Really, anywhere is fine.”

It’s the stuff of comedy sketches, humorous from a distance because we know how maddening it is in the moment.

Sometimes it can be that way in our prayer lives too. We’re too vague. In contrast, the prayer in Daniel 9 reveals Daniel boldly saying what he wants. First, he confesses the sins of his people: “We have sinned and done wrong” (v. 5). Then he makes his requests. “Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant” (v. 17). “Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act” (v. 19). God owed nothing to Daniel, but such was Daniel’s trust in God’s “great mercy” (v. 18) that he felt free to bring the full weight of his desires to Him.

It’s always right to pray “not as I will, but as you will,” as Jesus prayed to His Father the night before He was crucified (Matthew 26:39). But there are also times when saying what we want is the way forward. God honors our boldness when we come before Him with repentant hearts. So be bold, pray what’s on your heart, and entrust it to the God of great mercy.

Reflect & Pray

How do your prayers compare to Daniel 9:4-19? What might you need to confess before making your requests to God?

Now, my God, please hear the prayers of Your servant.

To learn more, check out Forgiveness & Reconciliation Reading Plan.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Sunday, December 07, 2025

Repentance

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret. — 2 Corinthians 7:10

Conviction of sin is one of the rarest things ever to strike us. It brings us to the threshold of a true understanding of God, showing us precisely whom we wrong when we sin: “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight” (Psalm 51:4).

“When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin”(John 16:8). When the Holy Spirit rouses our conscience, bringing us into the presence of God and showing us that we are in the wrong about sin, what bothers us isn’t our relationship with other human beings but rather our relationship with our heavenly Father.

“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret.” Conviction of sin is so interwoven with the marvel of forgiveness and with holiness that it is only the forgiven person who is the holy person. The forgiven prove they are forgiven by becoming, by the grace of God, the opposite of what they were before. Repentance always brings us to this realization: “I have sinned.” The surest sign that God is at work in us is when we say this and mean it. Anything less is simply regret for having messed up, the reflex reaction of disgust at ourselves.

The entrance into the kingdom is through the pains of repentance. The Holy Spirit produces these pains and sends them crashing against our respectable “goodness.” Then the Spirit begins to form the Son of God in our old lives, transforming them into something new. This new life manifests itself in conscious repentance and unconscious holiness, never the other way around.

Repentance is the bedrock of Christianity. Strictly speaking, we can’t choose to repent; repentance is a gift from God, the result of “godly sorrow.” The Puritans used to pray for “the gift of tears.” If you ever stop knowing the virtue of repentance, you are in darkness. Examine yourself and see if you’ve forgotten how to be sorry.

Daniel 5-7; 2 John

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Crises reveal character. When we are put to the test the hidden resources of our character are revealed exactly. 

Disciples Indeed, 393 R

Deuteronomy 21, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily:The Gladdest News of All

Grace is simply another word for God’s reservoir of strength and protection.  Not occasionally or miserly but constantly and aggressively, wave upon wave.  We barely regain our balance from one breaker, and then, bam, here comes another!

We dare to stake our hope on the gladdest news of all:  if God permits the challenge, he will provide the grace to meet it.  We never exhaust his supply. “Stop asking so much!  My grace reservoir is running dry.”  Heaven knows no such words.  God has enough grace to solve every dilemma you face, wipe every tear that you cry, and answer every question you ask.

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also graciously give us all things?  (Romans 8:32).

Having given the supreme and costliest gift, how can he fail to lavish upon us all he has to give?

From GRACE

Deuteronomy 21

If a dead body is found on the ground, this ground that God, your God, has given you, lying out in the open, and no one knows who killed him, your leaders and judges are to go out and measure the distance from the body to the nearest cities. The leaders and judges of the city that is nearest the corpse will then take a heifer that has never been used for work, never had a yoke on it. The leaders will take the heifer to a valley with a stream, a valley that has never been plowed or planted, and there break the neck of the heifer. The Levitical priests will then step up. God has chosen them to serve him in these matters by settling legal disputes and violent crimes and by pronouncing blessings in God’s name. Finally, all the leaders of that town that is nearest the body will wash their hands over the heifer that had its neck broken at the stream and say, “We didn’t kill this man and we didn’t see who did it. Purify your people Israel whom you redeemed, O God. Clear your people Israel from any guilt in this murder.”

8–9  That will clear them from any responsibility in the murder. By following these procedures you will have absolved yourselves of any part in the murder because you will have done what is right in God’s sight.

10–14  When you go to war against your enemies and God, your God, gives you victory and you take prisoners, and then you notice among the prisoners of war a good-looking woman whom you find attractive and would like to marry, this is what you do: Take her home; have her trim her hair, cut her nails, and discard the clothes she was wearing when captured. She is then to stay in your home for a full month, mourning her father and mother. Then you may go to bed with her as husband and wife. If it turns out you don’t like her, you must let her go and live wherever she wishes. But you can’t sell her or use her as a slave since you’ve humiliated her.

15–17  When a man has two wives, one loved and the other hated, and they both give him sons, but the firstborn is from the hated wife, at the time he divides the inheritance with his sons he must not treat the son of the loved wife as the firstborn, cutting out the son of the hated wife, who is the actual firstborn. No, he must acknowledge the inheritance rights of the real firstborn, the son of the hated wife, by giving him a double share of the inheritance: that son is the first proof of his virility; the rights of the firstborn belong to him.

18–20  When a man has a stubborn son, a real rebel who won’t do a thing his mother and father tell him, and even though they discipline him he still won’t obey, his father and mother shall forcibly bring him before the leaders at the city gate and say to the city fathers, “This son of ours is a stubborn rebel; he won’t listen to a thing we say. He’s a glutton and a drunk.”

21  Then all the men of the town are to throw rocks at him until he’s dead. You will have purged the evil pollution from among you. All Israel will hear what’s happened and be in awe.

22–23  When a man has committed a capital crime, been given the death sentence, executed and hung from a tree, don’t leave his dead body hanging overnight from the tree. Give him a decent burial that same day so that you don’t desecrate your God-given land—a hanged man is an insult to God.

by, December 06, 2025

by Poh Fang Chia

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Genesis 16:5-13

 Sarai told Abram, “It’s all your fault that I’m suffering this abuse. I put my maid in bed with you and the minute she knows she’s pregnant, she treats me like I’m nothing. May God decide which of us is right.”

6  “You decide,” said Abram. “Your maid is your business.”

Sarai was abusive to Hagar and Hagar ran away.

7–8  An angel of God found her beside a spring in the desert; it was the spring on the road to Shur. He said, “Hagar, maid of Sarai, what are you doing here?”

She said, “I’m running away from Sarai my mistress.”

9–12  The angel of God said, “Go back to your mistress. Put up with her abuse.” He continued, “I’m going to give you a big family, children past counting.

From this pregnancy, you’ll get a son: Name him Ishmael;

for God heard you, God answered you.

He’ll be a bucking bronco of a man,

a real fighter, fighting and being fought,

Always stirring up trouble,

always at odds with his family.”

13  She answered God by name, praying to the God who spoke to her, “You’re the God who sees me!

“Yes! He saw me; and then I saw him!”

Today's Insights

The Bible introduces us early to a God who hears and sees each of us. In the midst of Hagar’s distress in Genesis 16, she names her son Ishmael, which means “God hears” (v. 11). Hearing implies listening attentively. God also sees Hagar’s distress. She feels isolated, alone, and abandoned, but He’s already listening and watching. She confesses, “You are the God who sees me” (v. 13). Later when Abraham prepares to sacrifice his son Isaac, he too recognizes God’s oversight. He names the place, “The Lord Will Provide” (22:14), or literally, He “sees.” Today, we can also be assured that God hears and sees us in our distress, and that He’s with us.

God Sees Me

You are the God who sees me. Genesis 16:13

When Sun’s husband had a stroke, her life took a dramatic turn. She found herself having to assist her husband with the activities of daily living and cope with his emotional outbursts. For seventeen years, she’d faithfully cared for her husband. When a fall hastened his decline, however, the weight of caregiving finally became too much, and Sun sank into depression. “I felt I’d lost my faith,” she shared, “and I couldn’t see God.”

But looking back, Sun now believes that God saw her because He provided subsidized home medical and nursing care to manage her husband’s chronic condition and sent social workers to support Sun in managing the emotional challenges of caregiving.

God revealed himself as the God who sees in the story of Hagar. In Genesis 16, the slave Hagar was running away from her mistress’ mistreatment (v. 6) when the “angel of the Lord” found her “near a spring in the desert” (v. 7). He urged Hagar to “go back to [her] mistress” (v. 9) and assured her of His blessing. Even though Hagar was a nobody in her culture, God was watching out for her well-being. In gratitude, Hagar declared, “You are the God who sees me” (v. 13).

God sees us in our distress too. We’re never alone because our loving Father knows our situation, and He’s trustworthy. We can cry out to Him for help, and He’ll lift us up.

Reflect & Pray

How have you experienced that God sees and knows your need in the past? How can this knowledge help you in your present trials?

Dear Father, thank You for assuring me that You see what I’m going through.

For further study, listen to What's True About God.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Saturday, December 06, 2025

The Bow in the Cloud

I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. — Genesis 9:13

God’s will is that human beings should enter into a moral relationship with him. All his covenants are for this purpose. “Why doesn’t God save me?” you ask. He has saved you, but you haven’t entered into a moral relationship with him. “Why hasn’t God answered my prayer?” He has answered it, but this isn’t the point. The question you must answer is, Will I step into a moral relationship with him? All of God’s great blessings are finished and complete, but they aren’t mine until I enter into a relationship based on his covenant.

Entering into a moral relationship with God requires exertion on my part. Just as God went beyond himself in his relationship with humanity, becoming flesh for our sake, so I must go beyond myself in my covenant with him. I can’t just sit back and wait. Waiting for God is like unbelief; it means that I lack faith in him, that I’m waiting for a specific thing to happen so that then I can have faith in that. God will never do the thing I’m waiting for, because that isn’t the basis of his relationship with humanity.

Faith in God is the rarest thing. Most of us have faith only in our feelings. We don’t believe God unless he places something in our hand, something we can point to and say, “Now I believe.” There’s no faith in that. God says, “Turn to me and be saved” (Isaiah 45:22), not “Turn to what I’ve given you.”

When I truly enter into a covenant relationship with God, letting go of everything else, I have no sense of having achieved something by my own merit. There’s no human ingredient in it at all, just an overwhelming feeling of being brought into union with him, the whole thing transfigured with peace and joy.

Daniel 3-4; 1 John 5

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

The root of faith is the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest snares is the idea that God is sure to lead us to success.

My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L

Deuteronomy 20, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: GO BOLDLY TO JESUS - December 5, 2025

A friend of mine asked her students to make a list of questions they would like to ask Mary. “What was Jesus’ first word?” “Did he ever get sick?” “Did Jesus ever misbehave?” All legitimate questions. And the fact that we can ask them raises a greater one: Why did God go so far? Why did he become a human being? A chief reason? He wants you to know that he gets you.

The Bible says in the book of Hebrews he understands how you feel and has faced what you face. “[Jesus] has been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin! So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help” (Hebrews 4:15-16 MSG). Because of Bethlehem, you can boldly go to him.

Because of Bethlehem

Deuteronomy 20

When you go to war against your enemy and see horses and chariots and soldiers far outnumbering you, do not recoil in fear of them; God, your God, who brought you up out of Egypt is with you. When the battle is about to begin, let the priest come forward and speak to the troops. He’ll say, “Attention, Israel. In a few minutes you’re going to do battle with your enemies. Don’t waver in resolve. Don’t fear. Don’t hesitate. Don’t panic. God, your God, is right there with you, fighting with you against your enemies, fighting to win.”

5–7  Then let the officers step up and speak to the troops: “Is there a man here who has built a new house but hasn’t yet dedicated it? Let him go home right now lest he die in battle and another man dedicate it. And is there a man here who has planted a vineyard but hasn’t yet enjoyed the grapes? Let him go home right now lest he die in battle and another man enjoy the grapes. Is there a man here engaged to marry who hasn’t yet taken his wife? Let him go home right now lest he die in battle and another man take her.”

8  The officers will then continue, “And is there a man here who is wavering in resolve and afraid? Let him go home right now so that he doesn’t infect his fellows with his timidity and cowardly spirit.”

9  When the officers have finished speaking to the troops, let them appoint commanders of the troops who shall muster them by units.

10–15  When you come up against a city to attack it, call out, “Peace?” If they answer, “Yes, peace!” and open the city to you, then everyone found there will be conscripted as forced laborers and work for you. But if they don’t settle for peace and insist on war, then go ahead and attack. God, your God, will give them to you. Kill all the men with your swords. But don’t kill the women and children and animals. Everything inside the town you can take as plunder for you to use and eat—God, your God, gives it to you. This is the way you deal with the distant towns, the towns that don’t belong to the nations at hand.

16–18  But with the towns of the people that God, your God, is giving you as an inheritance, it’s different: don’t leave anyone alive. Consign them to holy destruction: the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, obeying the command of God, your God. This is so there won’t be any of them left to teach you to practice the abominations that they engage in with their gods and you end up sinning against God, your God.

19–20  When you mount an attack on a town and the siege goes on a long time, don’t start cutting down the trees, swinging your axes against them. Those trees are your future food; don’t cut them down. Are trees soldiers who come against you with weapons? The exception can be those trees which don’t produce food; you can chop them down and use the timbers to build siege engines against the town that is resisting you until it falls.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Friday, December 05, 2025

by Dave Branon

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Galatians 5:7-10

 You were running superbly! Who cut in on you, deflecting you from the true course of obedience? This detour doesn’t come from the One who called you into the race in the first place. And please don’t toss this off as insignificant. It only takes a minute amount of yeast, you know, to permeate an entire loaf of bread. Deep down, the Master has given me confidence that you will not defect. But the one who is upsetting you, whoever he is, will bear the divine judgment.

Today's Insights

In his letter to the churches in Galatia, Paul takes up one of his most passionate arguments—that believers in Jesus don’t need to become culturally Jewish in order to enjoy the blessings of Christ’s life of faithfulness. The apostle argues that he has the credentials to proclaim the gospel, recounting not only his history of Jewish perfectionism but also receiving Peter’s (Cephas’) stamp of approval on his call by Christ (1:18; 2:9). 

Then he tells the story of confronting Peter to his face about his choice to avoid the uncircumcised gentiles out of fear of some of the Jews (2:11-21). Chapter 5 reiterates that Christ has made us right with God and won our freedom. Requiring believers to follow the law denies the truth of the gospel (vv. 1-10). But encouraging them to spend time in the Scriptures directs their steps toward truth and keeps them from wandering in the wrong direction.

Walking with God

Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm. Proverbs 13:20

It was Tuesday at the gym, so the people walking around the track were supposed to go clockwise. The first walkers my wife joined were doing that. But then another person walked onto the track going counterclockwise. A couple of her friends joined her—and then another. Suddenly there was chaos on the track—and it took a few minutes to restore order.

While the wrong-way walkers intended no harm, I couldn’t help but think about the power of influence. One person headed the wrong way leads to another, and on it goes. It’s a bit like Proverbs 13:20: “Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.” Following a person going the wrong way leads to trouble.

In Galatians 5, Paul explains how such a mistake can halt our spiritual progress. “You were running a good race,” he says. “Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you” (vv. 7-8). God, who desires obedience, never leads us away from truth and “into confusion” (v. 10). But those who oppose His truth can hamper our spiritual walk by redirecting us from Him.

God wants to be our guide. When we walk with Him, we’ll never wander in the wrong direction.

Reflect & Pray

In what situations are you allowing someone to lead you away from God? What can you do to change your course?

Dear God, thank You for Scripture, which tells me to direct my steps toward You. Please help me follow You better today.

Learn more about Paul's letter to the Galations.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Friday, December 05, 2025

The Temple of the Holy Spirit

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit? — 1 Corinthians 6:19

Do I realize that God holds me accountable for how I rule my body? Am I keeping my body under his rule, drawing on his grace in order to maintain righteousness? “I do not set aside the grace of God,” Paul writes, “for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:21). To set aside the grace of God is to make it of no effect in my actual physical life.

“Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). I have to work out in my physical life the salvation that God, through his grace, has worked in. The grace of God is absolute; the salvation of Jesus is perfect; it is done, forever. I am not being saved; I am saved. Salvation is as eternal as God’s throne. But I am responsible for working out that salvation. This means that I have to manifest in my physical body the life of Jesus—not mystically, but really.

All who have been born again are capable of keeping their bodies under absolute control for God. God gives us dominion over the temple of the Holy Spirit, over imagination and affection. I must never give way to inordinate affection. Most of us are much stricter with others than we are with ourselves. We make excuses for our own inclinations while condemning others for things to which we are not naturally inclined.

“Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God”(Romans 12:1). Do I agree with my Lord and Master that my body will be his temple? If I do, then the entirety of God’s law for my body is summed up in this revelation: my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Daniel 1-2; 1 John 4

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, 1459 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Friday, December 05, 2025

THE PLACE WHERE HEAVEN COMES DOWN - #10150

There's a bridge in a park not too far from here - they take carriage rides there. It's just a bridge to most folks, but not to our son and daughter-in-law. That will always be a very special spot to them. It's where he asked her to marry him. It's interesting how a plain old piece of geography becomes forever special when something special in your life happens there: the place you were born, or maybe where you had your first date or your first kiss, or where you were married, or where some significant "first" in your life took place. When a certain place is where something important started, it will always be a special place.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Place Where Heaven Comes Down."

For many of us, there's been a place and there's been a time when everything changed, because it was there that we began our personal relationship with Jesus Christ. One day on my way to an assignment in downtown Chicago, my wife and I decided at the last second to take a certain exit ramp off the expressway. The exit sign indicated the street where I spent the first six years of my life. I haven't been back there since. And, no, it is not a cave.

We drove a few blocks until we spotted the three-story brick apartment building where my Mom and Dad, my baby brother and I lived. I knew it as soon as I saw it. We turned the corner to see if the school was still there. That old brick fortress was still standing, still a school like it was when I went there for my first day of school. Then I had to drive those three blocks to the church on the corner. It was like I was four or five years old again. My baby brother had died suddenly, and my grief-stricken father decided to take his other son to church - a place none of us ever went. I could almost see my Dad now, sitting in his old car by a side door, smoking his cigarette, reading his Sunday paper waiting for his boy to come out.

There was a choir rehearsal that night my wife and I found the church, and a nice lady took me up the long stairs to the third floor room that I remembered at the top of those stairs. That's where Junior Church met, and I choked up. I turned to my honey and I said, "This is it. This is where I asked Jesus into my heart." And there on the wall was the same image of Jesus I remembered most as a child - the Shepherd with a little lamb in His arms. Later, as I learned the Scriptures, I came to realize that in that room at the top of the stairs I had, in the Bible's words, "crossed over from death to life" (John 5:24).

I pray that if there has not been a time and a place like that for you, there will be soon...in fact, maybe today. In Genesis 28:16, our word for today from the Word of God, Jacob talks about the spot where he'd camped for the night and God showed up to change his life. He said, "Surely the Lord is in this place...how awesome is this place!" But after all is said and done, it's not the place that really matters. It's that there is a time when you open up your life to the Savior who died to pay for your sin. Jesus said it's like being born, and the birth is a definite beginning isn't it?

Has there ever been a time when you consciously gave yourself completely to Jesus as your only hope of being right with God? If you have, you know you have, whether or not you remember the exact time or place. If you don't know you have, you probably haven't.

Scripture says, "Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near" (Isaiah 55:7). That could be today for you. The place might be right where you are. God is moving in your heart now and "surely the Lord is in this place." The Shepherd has come to you to pick you up and carry you from this moment on, all the way to heaven. But you've got to say yes to Him, to tell Him with all your heart, "Jesus, I'm Yours."

If that's what you want, then I would love to be an encouragement to you at this turning point in your life, like I had in that little room on the third floor so many years ago. If you'd let me have that privilege to show you the information that will secure your relationship with Jesus, I ask you to go to ANewStory.com.

This day can become your birthday and this place can become your birthplace, because you are about to be born into the family of God.

Luke 5:17-39, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THE STORY OF A BABY - December 4, 2025

If you want to see people on the edge of insanity, just watch the way families treat their babies at Christmastime. The poor child has no warning. Red furry stocking cap, goofy elfish shoes that curl at the toes. And the pictures we take! Baby snoozing under the tree. Baby on Santa’s lap. Santa with wet spot on lap.

Is not Christmas the story of a baby? The moment that shaped all others? Mary’s eyes falling on the face of her just-born son. The first to whisper, “So this is what God looks like!” Never in mankind’s wildest imaginings did we consider that God would enter the world as an infant. John 1:14 (NKJV) says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Would you like to see God? Well then take a look at the baby Jesus.

Because of Bethlehem

Luke 5:17-39

One day as he was teaching, Pharisees and religion teachers were sitting around. They had come from nearly every village in Galilee and Judea, even as far away as Jerusalem, to be there. The healing power of God was on him.

18–20  Some men arrived carrying a paraplegic on a stretcher. They were looking for a way to get into the house and set him before Jesus. When they couldn’t find a way in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof, removed some tiles, and let him down in the middle of everyone, right in front of Jesus. Impressed by their bold belief, he said, “Friend, I forgive your sins.”

21  That set the religion scholars and Pharisees buzzing. “Who does he think he is? That’s blasphemous talk! God and only God can forgive sins.”

22–26  Jesus knew exactly what they were thinking and said, “Why all this gossipy whispering? Which is simpler: to say ‘I forgive your sins,’ or to say ‘Get up and start walking’? Well, just so it’s clear that I’m the Son of Man and authorized to do either, or both.…” He now spoke directly to the paraplegic: “Get up. Take your bedroll and go home.” Without a moment’s hesitation, he did it—got up, took his blanket, and left for home, giving glory to God all the way. The people rubbed their eyes, incredulous—and then also gave glory to God. Awestruck, they said, “We’ve never seen anything like that!”

27–28  After this he went out and saw a man named Levi at his work collecting taxes. Jesus said, “Come along with me.” And he did—walked away from everything and went with him.

29–30  Levi gave a large dinner at his home for Jesus. Everybody was there, tax men and other disreputable characters as guests at the dinner. The Pharisees and their religion scholars came to his disciples greatly offended. “What is he doing eating and drinking with crooks and ‘sinners’?”

31–32  Jesus heard about it and spoke up, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I’m here inviting outsiders, not insiders—an invitation to a changed life, changed inside and out.”

33  They asked him, “John’s disciples are well-known for keeping fasts and saying prayers. Also the Pharisees. But you seem to spend most of your time at parties. Why?”

34–35  Jesus said, “When you’re celebrating a wedding, you don’t skimp on the cake and wine. You feast. Later you may need to pull in your belt, but this isn’t the time. As long as the bride and groom are with you, you have a good time. When the groom is gone, the fasting can begin. No one throws cold water on a friendly bonfire. This is Kingdom Come!

36–39  “No one cuts up a fine silk scarf to patch old work clothes; you want fabrics that match. And you don’t put wine in old, cracked bottles; you get strong, clean bottles for your fresh vintage wine. And no one who has ever tasted fine aged wine prefers unaged wine.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Thursday, December 04, 2025

by Winn Collier

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Hebrews 11:1-4

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.

Today's Insights

Hebrews 11 commends Old Testament men and women for their faith because of their hope in God. They believed He’d one day fulfill His promises, including sending a Savior. Yet even during Jesus’ ministry, seeing Him and His works wasn’t enough, for many rejected Him. In Romans 10:9, Paul states, “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” He adds, “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ” (v. 17). When we hear the gospel and believe in Him, we’re saved. Believers in Jesus are to “[fix their] eyes on [Him], the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:2). Even though we haven’t physically seen Christ, Scripture tells us about Him, and the Holy Spirit works to increase our faith (John 14:16, 26).

Believing More Than We See

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

In the late nineteenth century, few people had access to the great sequoia groves in the United States, and many didn’t believe the reports of the massive trees. In 1892, however, four lumberjacks ventured into the Big Stump Forest in California and spent thirteen days felling the grand tree named Mark Twain. Twain was 1,341 years old, three hundred feet tall, and fifty feet in circumference. One observer described Twain as a tree “of magnificent proportions, one of the most perfect trees in the grove.” They shipped part of this remarkable beauty, now destroyed, to the American Museum of Natural History, where everyone could see a sequoia.

The reality, though, is that we can’t prove every truth with our eyes alone. Hebrews describes faith as “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). Faith isn’t irrational or a fit of fancy, because the whole story is grounded in a person—Jesus—who has entered human history. Faith includes human senses and reason, but it’s not limited to them. Faith requires more. “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command,” Hebrews says, “so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible” (v. 3).

It’s often difficult to trust what we can’t touch or see or completely comprehend. But our faith in Christ, made possible by the Spirit, helps us to believe more than we can see.

Reflect & Pray

Where do you struggle with faith? How can you trust God more confidently?

Dear God, please help me to believe and have confidence in You.

Learn more about Hebrews 11 and faith by reading Faith that Endures.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Thursday, December 04, 2025

The Law of Antagonism

In this world you will have trouble. — John16:33

Life without war is impossible, either in nature or in grace. The basis of physical, mental, moral, and spiritual life is antagonism. This is the open fact of life.

The law of antagonism means that in order to stay healthy, I have to fight. Health is a kind of balance between things that would harm me and my ability to resist them. Physical health occurs when there is a balance between my body and those things in the external world that are designed to put me to death. If I have enough vitality, enough fighting power, I will produce a healthy balance.

The same is true both mentally and morally. If I want to maintain a vigorous mental life, I have to fight; this is how the mental balance called thought is produced. When it comes to morality, everything that doesn’t partake of the nature of virtue is the enemy of virtue in me, and whether I am able to overcome and produce virtue depends on my moral vitality. When I am tempted to immorality in some particular and I fight against it, I am instantly moral in that particular. No one is virtuous by accident; virtue is acquired.

Spiritually, too, it is the same. When Jesus said that we would have trouble in this world, he meant that everything that is not spiritual would seek my undoing. “But,” he added, “take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). I have to learn to face down the things that come against me, and in that way produce the balance of holiness; then it becomes a delight to meet opposition. Holiness is the balance between my disposition and the law of God as expressed in Jesus Christ.

Ezekiel 47-48; 1 John 3

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

We are apt to think that everything that happens to us is to be turned into useful teaching; it is to be turned into something better than teaching, viz. into character. We shall find that the spheres God brings us into are not meant to teach us something but to make us something.

The Love of God—The Ministry of the Unnoticed, 664 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Thursday, December 04, 2025

HELL'S HIGHEST COMPLIMENT - #10149

Missionary pilots are some of my greatest heroes. See, missionary pilots fly around the world and land places where you think a plane could never land. They know how to take their plane apart; they know how to put it back together again.

When I was in college, a few of my friends were in a missionary aviation course and it was tremendously competitive. They studied on campus for two years when we were there, and then if you made the list, if you made the cut, you went down south to the flight campus at an airport. I said if you made the cut. See, only half of the guys would end up going.

One Friday afternoon they posted those names, and I watched my friend sweat it out all week long. For some I think it might have been the longest week of their life. Finally the day came and there was a list. You could hear the shouting of some of the guys who had just experienced one of the most exciting moments in their life, because they found out they had made the list!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hell's Highest Compliment."

Our word for today from the Word of God: we're in Acts 19, and I'll begin at verse 13. "Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, 'In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.' Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, 'Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?' Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding."

That's a pretty enlightening passage because it appears that the forces of darkness have a list of people they consider a threat. The demons said, "We know Jesus. We know Paul. Who are you guys? Let me check the list. You're not there." These guys used the right words and they tried to do spiritual things, but they were spiritually powerless.

I always thought it would be a worthy if unusual goal to have my name known in hell. It's quite a list to be on, huh? I wonder if they've ever heard of me or you there? You don't make the list by attending meetings, or believing beliefs, or just saying Christian things, or even holding Christian offices. No, you make the Devil's list by making a difference for Christ.

Maybe you've been under fire lately. You've felt some pressure physically, or financially, or medically, maybe emotionally. It could be in your relationships. Maybe it's marital. Well, it's not time to blame everything on the Devil. I"m not a fan of that. But it is possible you made his list. Maybe you've started to take Jesus seriously for the first time in your life. Maybe you're starting to take some risks to move out for Him. Maybe you're finally moving from being a spectator to being a player for Him. Or you're daring to speak out about Jesus to lost people. Or possibly you're checking out your priorities and considering leaving your comfort zone to serve the Lord - stepping up to spiritual leadership.

Well, that means you are or you soon will be pushing back the darkness. A wise old pastor said, "The ferocity of Satanic attack upon you increases in direct proportion to your potential usefulness for Jesus Christ." That's true, but you have nothing to fear. No! The Bible says, "Greater is He that is in you than he who is in the world." But you need to know that the turbulence may be coming from the Devil, which is God's signal that it's time to get your armor on and fight with spiritual weapons. It may be that nothing is really wrong; something is very right in what's going on in your life. Your new commitment to Jesus Christ has set off an alarm bell in hell.

When you're making a difference for Jesus, you're on the enemy's list, and honestly I hope you're on it. Making that list, you might say, is Hell's highest compliment.

Deuteronomy 19, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: HEART-SHAPING PROMISES - December 3, 2025

No day is accidental or incidental. No acts are random or wasted. Look at Jesus’ birth at Bethlehem. A king ordered a census. Joseph was forced to travel. Mary, round as a ladybug, bounced on a donkey’s back. The hotel was full, the hour was late. The event was one big hassle. Yet out of the hassle, hope was born. It still is.

I don’t like hassles. But I love Christmas because it reminds us of the heart-shaping promises of Christmas. Long after the guests have left, and the carolers have gone home, and the lights have come down, these promises endure: God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God. Perhaps you could use some Christmas this Christmas?

Because of Bethlehem

Deuteronomy 19

When God, your God, throws the nations out of the country that God, your God, is giving you and you settle down in their cities and houses, you are to set aside three easily accessible cities in the land that God, your God, is giving you as your very own. Divide your land into thirds, this land that God, your God, is giving you to possess, and build roads to the towns so that anyone who accidentally kills another can flee there.

4–7  This is the guideline for the murderer who flees there to take refuge: He has to have killed his neighbor without premeditation and with no history of bad blood between them. For instance, a man goes with his neighbor into the woods to cut a tree; he swings the ax, the head slips off the handle and hits his neighbor, killing him. He may then flee to one of these cities and save his life. If the city is too far away, the avenger of blood racing in hot-blooded pursuit might catch him since it’s such a long distance, and kill him even though he didn’t deserve it. It wasn’t his fault. There was no history of hatred between them. Therefore I command you: Set aside the three cities for yourselves.

8–10  When God, your God, enlarges your land, extending its borders as he solemnly promised your ancestors, by giving you the whole land he promised them because you are diligently living the way I’m commanding you today, namely, to love God, your God, and do what he tells you all your life; and when that happens, then add three more to these three cities so that there is no chance of innocent blood being spilled in your land. God, your God, is giving you this land as an inheritance—you don’t want to pollute it with innocent blood and bring bloodguilt upon yourselves.

11–13  On the other hand, if a man with a history of hatred toward his neighbor waits in ambush, then jumps him, mauls and kills him, and then runs to one of these cities, that’s a different story. The elders of his own city are to send for him and have him brought back. They are to hand him over to the avenger of blood for execution. Don’t feel sorry for him. Clean out the pollution of wrongful murder from Israel so that you’ll be able to live well and breathe clean air.

14  Don’t move your neighbor’s boundary markers, the longstanding landmarks set up by your pioneer ancestors defining their property.

15  You cannot convict anyone of a crime or sin on the word of one witness. You need two or three witnesses to make a case.

16–21  If a hostile witness stands to accuse someone of a wrong, then both parties involved in the quarrel must stand in the Presence of God before the priests and judges who are in office at that time. The judges must conduct a careful investigation; if the witness turns out to be a false witness and has lied against his fellow Israelite, give him the same medicine he intended for the other party. Clean the polluting evil from your company. People will hear of what you’ve done and be impressed; that will put a stop to this kind of evil among you. Don’t feel sorry for the person: It’s life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Wednesday, December 03, 2025

by Marvin Williams

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Psalm 119:65-72

Be good to your servant, God;

be as good as your Word.

Train me in good common sense;

I’m thoroughly committed to living your way.

Before I learned to answer you, I wandered all over the place,

but now I’m in step with your Word.

You are good, and the source of good;

train me in your goodness.

The godless spread lies about me,

but I focus my attention on what you are saying;

They’re bland as a bucket of lard,

while I dance to the tune of your revelation.

My troubles turned out all for the best—

they forced me to learn from your textbook.

Truth from your mouth means more to me

than striking it rich in a gold mine.

Today's Insights

Psalm 119 is an extended song/poem about the beauty of the law even in hard times. In today’s text (vv. 65-72), the psalmist uses a variety of terms to describe the law, including “word,” “commands,” “decrees,” “precepts,” and “law.” These ideas are intensely personal for him, for he speaks from his experiences of pain. He uses terms like “afflicted” (vv. 67, 71) and “smeared . . . with lies” (v. 69) to cry out to God‚ grateful for all he’d learned from those seasons of struggle. In spite of his afflictions and mistreatment, however, he concludes in verse 68, “You are good, and what you do is good.” In a broken world filled with hatred and pain, we too can rest in the never-failing goodness of God. He uses all things, even our trials, for our spiritual growth and to conform us to the image of His Son, Jesus.

Growth Through Pain

It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees. Psalm 119:71

The brain is remarkably small, but stress can make it even smaller. Recent research has revealed that cumulative stress can shrink the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for managing emotions, impulses, and social interactions. This shrinkage is linked to anxiety and depression, highlighting the toll that a lifetime of stress can take. But there’s good news—the brain’s plasticity allows it to heal through intentional practices like exercise, meditation, and meaningful relationships.

The psalmist in Psalm 119 understood this idea of growth and healing after facing stress and hardship: “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees” (v. 71). Affliction, though painful, became the psalmist’s teacher—taking us from being “astray” from God to choosing to “obey [His] word” (v. 67). The psalmist expresses gratitude for his bitter medicine and God’s goodness (v. 68). While he understood that affliction and suffering could diminish him, he trusted God to use those experiences to refine and restore him (v. 66).

Like our brains, our spirits are capable of being stretched. God uses this stretching to cause growth and renewal. Through Scripture, prayer, and a Spirit-inspired perspective, He can reverse the effects of our hardships. He can use our afflictions for our spiritual growth, transforming pain into purpose.

Reflect & Pray

How has God helped you grow in faith through suffering? How have you embraced gratitude?

Loving God, thank You for teaching me through my trials.

To learn more about faith in pain, read Why? Seeing God in Our Pain.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Wednesday, December 03, 2025

By the Power of the Spirit

My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power. — 1 Corinthians 2:4

When you preach, never substitute your own experience of salvation or sanctification for confidence in the power of the gospel. If you do, you will become an obstacle, blocking others’ access to spiritual reality. You have to make sure that, if you do share your knowledge of the way of salvation, you remain rooted and grounded in faith in God. Never rely on rhetorical skills; never seek to preach “with wise and persuasive words.” Rely instead on the Holy Spirit and on the certainty of God’s redemptive power. When you do, he will create his own life in the souls of those to whom you preach.

Once you are rooted in reality, nothing can shake you. If your faith is rooted only in your experiences, anything that happens is likely to disturb it. But nothing can ever disturb God or the almighty reality of redemption. Base your faith on redemption, and you will be as eternally secure as God. Get into personal contact with Jesus Christ, and you will never be moved again. This is what it means to be sanctified.

God puts his disapproval on our experiences when we begin to think of them as ends in themselves. Sanctification isn’t merely an experience; sanctification itself has to be sanctified. Jesus didn’t have a sanctified experience; he led a sanctified life, and he prayed that his disciples would do the same: “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified” (John 17:18–19). After I’ve had the experience of sanctification, I must deliberately give my sanctified life to God for his service so that he can use me as his hands and feet.

Ezekiel 45-46; 1 John 2

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

The fiery furnaces are there by God’s direct permission. It is misleading to imagine that we are developed in spite of our circumstances; we are developed because of them. It is mastery in circumstances that is needed, not mastery over them.

The Love of God—The Message of Invincible Consolation, 674 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Wednesday, December 03, 2025

NAMES ON YOUR HEART - #10148

One of the large churches in our area started a new building and they announced it would be for community outreach. But they did something I've never seen a church do before. They gathered the congregation around the just-completed foundation of that new building and they asked them to throw something into the foundation. Now you've no doubt seen people's names on the outside of a building's foundation, especially on the cornerstone. But these folks were actually putting names inside the foundation - the names of people they care about who don't belong to Jesus yet - people they are hoping and praying will be in heaven with them some day.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Names on Your Heart."

That's what should be at the foundation of every church, every ministry, every child of God - the names of specific lost people who we want to rescue. Here's a great example of how it's supposed to work. It's in our word for today from the Word of God.

In John 1:41-42, we find that a young fisherman named Andrew has just discovered Jesus Christ. Notice his very first instinct: "The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, 'We have found the Messiah'... And he brought him to Jesus." Notice the first thing that happened was that Andrew had a name laid on his heart, a specific person he wanted to meet Jesus as he had. And we all know what a world-changer Simon Peter turned out to be because of someone who loved him enough to bring him to Jesus.

There's someone like that in your life - someone who may never make it to Jesus if you don't bring them. And God is trying to plant their name deep in the foundation of your heart, so that person becomes your own personal spiritual mission from God. You need to begin to pray what I call the 3-open prayer on their behalf right now: First, "Lord, open a door." That's a natural opportunity for you to bring up your personal relationship with Jesus. Then, "Lord, open their heart." In other words, do things in that person's heart or life that will make them surprisingly ready to hear about You. And, finally, "Lord, open my mouth." Give me the courage, the words, the tone, and the approach. Let's try those: "Lord, open a door. Lord, open their heart. Lord, open my mouth." By the way, you don't have to pray, "If it be Your will." It is.

It's one thing to talk and pray generally about all those people out there. It's something else to have a burden with a name - a burden that acknowledges your personal responsibility to be the one to introduce that person to Jesus. That's why Jesus put you in their life in the first place! You've been divinely assigned to them.

And lost people should be the consuming passion of every Christian church, every Christian ministry. Our Lord's personal mission statement was to "seek and to save what was lost" (Luke 19:10). How can ours be anything less than that?

For all of us, it's just so easy to fall into doing what's easy - which is to have a ministry that's "all about us," "by us," "to us." But Jesus is all about "them." We've got to ask Him to help us see what He sees when He looks at the people all around us. They are the future inhabitants of hell, unless someone intervenes with the love and the hope that only Jesus has.

So would you make the names of some lost people that you want to be in heaven with you part of the foundation of your life, your priorities, your passion, your prayer. They're why He came, and they are why He put you where you are.

Deuteronomy 18, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THE BEST IS YET TO BE - December 2, 2025

In Matthew 1:23, God called himself Immanuel, which means God with us. Not just God made us. Not just God thinks about us. Not just God above us. But God with us. God where we are. He breathed our air and walked this earth. God…with…us!

Bethlehem was just the beginning. Jesus has promised a repeat performance. Bethlehem, Act 2. No silent night this time, however. The skies will open, and trumpets will blast, and a new kingdom will begin. He will empty the tombs and melt the winter of death. Death, you die! Life, you reign! The manger dares us to believe the best is yet to be. I love Christmas because it reminds us how “God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God” (Romans 8:28).

Because of Bethlehem

Deuteronomy 18

 The Levitical priests—that’s the entire tribe of Levi—don’t get any land-inheritance with the rest of Israel. They get the Fire-Gift-Offerings of God—they will live on that inheritance. But they don’t get land-inheritance like the rest of their kinsmen. God is their inheritance.

3–5  This is what the priests get from the people from any offering of an ox or a sheep: the shoulder, the two cheeks, and the stomach. You must also give them the firstfruits of your grain, wine, and oil and the first fleece of your sheep, because God, your God, has chosen only them and their children out of all your tribes to be present and serve always in the name of God, your God.

6–8  If a Levite moves from any town in Israel—and he is quite free to move wherever he desires—and comes to the place God designates for worship, he may serve there in the name of God along with all his brother Levites who are present and serving in the Presence of God. And he will get an equal share to eat, even though he has money from the sale of his parents’ possessions.

9–12  When you enter the land that God, your God, is giving you, don’t take on the abominable ways of life of the nations there. Don’t you dare sacrifice your son or daughter in the fire. Don’t practice divination, sorcery, fortunetelling, witchery, casting spells, holding séances, or channeling with the dead. People who do these things are an abomination to God. It’s because of just such abominable practices that God, your God, is driving these nations out before you.

13–14  Be completely loyal to God, your God. These nations that you’re about to run out of the country consort with sorcerers and witches. But not you. God, your God, forbids it.

15–16  God, your God, is going to raise up a prophet for you. God will raise him up from among your kinsmen, a prophet like me. Listen obediently to him. This is what you asked God, your God, for at Horeb on the day you were all gathered at the mountain and said, “We can’t hear any more from God, our God; we can’t stand seeing any more fire. We’ll die!”

17–19  And God said to me, “They’re right; they’ve spoken the truth. I’ll raise up for them a prophet like you from their kinsmen. I’ll tell him what to say and he will pass on to them everything I command him. And anyone who won’t listen to my words spoken by him, I will personally hold responsible.

20  “But any prophet who fakes it, who claims to speak in my name something I haven’t commanded him to say, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die.”

21–22  You may be wondering among yourselves, “How can we tell the difference, whether it was God who spoke or not?” Here’s how: If what the prophet spoke in God’s name doesn’t happen, then obviously God wasn’t behind it; the prophet made it up. Forget about him.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Tuesday, December 02, 2025

by 

Tim Gustafson

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Proverbs 15:1-4, 23-28

God Doesn’t Miss a Thing

1  15 A gentle response defuses anger,

but a sharp tongue kindles a temper-fire.

2  Knowledge flows like spring water from the wise;

fools are leaky faucets, dripping nonsense.

3  God doesn’t miss a thing—

he’s alert to good and evil alike.

4  Kind words heal and help;

cutting words wound and maim.

23  Congenial conversation—what a pleasure!

The right word at the right time—beautiful!

24  Life ascends to the heights for the thoughtful—

it’s a clean about-face from descent into hell.

25  God smashes the pretensions of the arrogant;

he stands with those who have no standing.

26  God can’t stand evil scheming,

but he puts words of grace and beauty on display.

27  A greedy and grasping person destroys community;

those who refuse to exploit live and let live.

28  Prayerful answers come from God-loyal people;

the wicked are sewers of abuse.

Today's Insights

Proverbs 15 emphasizes that the tension that occurs between people often isn’t due to truly irreconcilable differences. Instead, while conflict is an inevitable dynamic in human relationships, it can become harmful when people are careless with their words—failing to let them be guided by a gentle spirit and a desire for the other person’s good. Verses 1 and 18 both set up this contrast between an approach that makes a problem worse and an approach that brings healing. In verse 1, we’re told that “a gentle answer turns away wrath,” while “a harsh word stirs up anger.” The word translated “gentle” suggests an approach that’s tender and aimed at bringing comfort. Verse 18 similarly contrasts two kinds of people: someone “hot-tempered” who “stirs up conflict” with someone “patient” who “calms a quarrel.” Our words can be used for good when we ask God to help us carefully weigh them before we speak.

Positive Graffiti

The soothing tongue is a tree of life. Proverbs 15:4

As a young man, journalist Sebastian Junger traveled the United States and wrote about it. One day in the 1980s, he entered a restroom in the Florida Keys and found hateful graffiti scrawled on the walls. Most of it targeted Cuban immigrants. But one message, apparently from a Cuban, stood out. It read, “Thank God the rest of the people in this country are warm and caring and welcomed me in ’62.” Junger observed, “The very worst things about America were on that men’s-room wall, and the very best.”

How are we to respond to the poisonous messages we so often encounter? The book of Proverbs offers sound counsel. Solomon, who compiled most of the book, brackets chapter 15 with similar imagery: “the mouth of the fool gushes folly” (v. 2), and “the mouth of the wicked gushes evil” (v. 28). The chapter begins, however, with the antidote to such venom: “A gentle answer turns away wrath” (v. 1). Solomon also noted, “The soothing tongue is a tree of life” (v. 4). Always, a patient response is key: “The heart of the righteous weighs its answers” (v. 28).

How might God use our words when we ask Him to help us weigh them before our mouths, our pens, or our keyboards spew venom and vitriol at our fellow humans? As the proverb says, “How good is a timely word!” (v. 23).

Reflect & Pray

What’s your reaction when you see or hear hateful speech? How might you respond differently the next time you encounter hate?

Dear Father, how prone I am to answer quickly and in anger. Please guide me by Your Spirit and help me weigh my responses wisely.

Discover more about speaking wisely by reading Stewarding Words Responsibly.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Tuesday, December 02, 2025

Christian Perfection

Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect… — Philippians 3:12

It’s a trap to imagine that God wants to make us perfect examples of what he can do. God isn’t producing specimens of holiness to put in his museum. His purpose is to make us one with him: “That they may be one as we are one” (John 17:22).

If becoming a model of personal holiness is your goal, your life won’t be devoted to God. Instead, it will be devoted to achieving whatever you see as the evidence of God in your life, whether it be perfect success or perfect discipline or perfect health. “But it can’t be God’s will for me to get sick,” you protest. It was God’s will to bruise his own Son; why shouldn’t he bruise you? What matters to God isn’t your consistency to an idea of what makes a perfect Christian. What matters is your real, vital relationship with Jesus Christ and your abandonment to him, whether you are sick or well.

Christian perfection is not, and never can be, human perfection. Christian perfection is the perfection of a relationship to God, a relationship that shows itself in all the irrelevancies of human life. When you obey the call of Jesus Christ, the first thing that strikes you is the seeming irrelevancy of the things he asks you to do. The next is the fact that some people appear to be leading perfectly consistent lives. Such lives might give you the idea that God is unnecessary, that all we need to reach the standard he wants is human effort and devotion. In a fallen world, this can never be true.

I am called to live in perfect relation to God so that my life will produce a longing for God in other lives, not so that others will admire me. Thoughts about myself will always hinder my usefulness to God. God isn’t perfecting me in order to put me on display; he’s getting me to the place where he can use me. I must let him have his way.

Ezekiel 42-44; 1 John 1

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

Tuesday, December 02, 2025

CHANGING WORLD, UNCHANGING TRUTH - #10147

When I visited the Gulf Coast of Florida, I got to see a couple of glorious earth turns. The sky was ablaze with color and the sun disappeared on the horizon. You say, "Excuse me, Ron, that's a sunset." Hey, wait a minute. Are you from the 14th century or something? The sun doesn't set, it doesn't move! The earth moves! As it makes its revolution, your point on earth turns away from the sun every 24 hours. So that would be an earth turn, right? And we say the sun sets. Well, the earth is turning and you can see how mankind got it wrong for so many centuries. I mean, it looks as if the sun is revolving around the earth. It revolutionized a lot of thinking when people finally understood what was revolving around what.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Changing World, Unchanging Truth."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Timothy 3:16. It says this: "All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." Verse 17: "so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." Now, what this is really saying is the Bible is the sun - God's unchanging, unmoving truth. Everything else has to revolve around what God's Word says. God's Word on any subject is the final word.

If you read this passage, it's written in the context of a time when Paul is predicting that moral values will be in total confusion, when wrong's going to seem right, when what's right will seem wrong. Doesn't that sound familiar? It's a time when imposters and false ideas will be deceiving many people. And so God's instructions to Timothy are, "You continue in what you've learned and become convinced of what you've learned from infancy - the Holy Scriptures."

In other words, you've got to stay where you are. Don't let anything make you compromise on what God's Word says. It's unsettling to see that some research indicates that only about a fourth of America's Christians are sure there's absolute truth. We're shaky on this authority issue, especially when it comes to areas that cramp our style or require us to change or go against what our group or our culture says is true today. We sometimes try to make our idea the sun, and then we try to make the Bible a planet that revolves around it. We put more weight on what is politically correct or culturally correct than what is biblically correct.

In academic circles, for example, there's this subtle temptation to submit the Bible to whatever your discipline is, whether that's the current trend in sociology, or literature, or the arts, or science. Well, you've got to submit your discipline to the Bible. God's Word is the final word of origin of the universe and the origin of man. And any explanation that says God did anything other than instantly creating a fully developed adult is wrong. God's Word is the final word on divorce, on re-marriage, on sexuality, whether it's hetero or homosexuality. Or what it means to be a woman, what it means to be a man. It's the final word on justice, on wealth, on sex, on the value of an unborn life.

No mental contortions can neutralize God's authoritative Word on the subject. You do no one a favor by trying to make God's Word more acceptable by diluting what it says. We stand on this book, and I hope every day as we're together this book becomes more practical and more living in your life.

The planets in our world are in chaos as human wisdoms are confusing, they're colliding. But God gave us this brilliant sun, one settled, unmoving, always true authority to keep the planets in the orbits they belong in - the Word of Almighty God, the Bible. People came out of the dark ages when they realized that the sun did not revolve around them.

We come out of the darkness when we realize and we never compromise the final centrality of the Bible in our personal universe, and when we put the planets of all those other ideas where they belong - in orbit around the sun of the Word of God.

Deuteronomy 17, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: HIS GRIP IS SURE - December 1, 2025

My dad, a man of few words, told my brother and me, “Boys, Christmas is about Jesus.” In one of those bedtime, book-time moments, somewhere between the fairy tales and the monkey with the lunch pail, I thought about what Dad had said. I began asking the Christmas questions, and I’ve been asking them ever since.

God knows what it’s like to be a human. When we talk to him about deadlines or tough times, he understands. He’s been there. He’s been here. Because of Bethlehem, we have a friend in Jesus. Christmas begins what Easter celebrates. The child in the cradle became the King on the cross. And he doesn’t tell us, “Clean up before you come in.” He offers, “Come in and I’ll clean you up.” It’s not our grip on him that matters, but his grip on us. And his grip is sure.

Because of Bethlehem

Deuteronomy 17

 And don’t sacrifice to God, your God, an ox or sheep that is defective or has anything at all wrong with it. That’s an abomination, an insult to God, your God.

2–5  If you find anyone within the towns that God, your God, is giving you doing what is wrong in God’s eyes, breaking his covenant by going off to worship other gods, bowing down to them—the sun, say, or the moon, or any rebel sky-gods—look at the evidence and investigate carefully. If you find that it is true, that, in fact, an abomination has been committed in Israel, then you are to take the man or woman who did this evil thing outside your city gates and stone the man or the woman. Hurl stones at the person until dead.

6–7  But only on the testimony of two or three witnesses may a person be put to death. No one may be put to death on the testimony of one witness. The witnesses must throw the first stones in the execution, then the rest of the community joins in. You have to purge the evil from your community.

8–9  When matters of justice come up that are too much for you—hard cases regarding homicides, legal disputes, fights—take them up to the central place of worship that God, your God, has designated. Bring them to the Levitical priests and the judge who is in office at the time. Consult them and they will hand down the decision for you.

10–13  Then carry out their verdict at the place designated by God, your God. Do what they tell you, in exactly the way they tell you. Follow their instructions precisely: Don’t leave out anything; don’t add anything. Anyone who presumes to override or twist the decision handed down by the priest or judge who was acting in the Presence of God, your God, is as good as dead—root him out, rid Israel of the evil. Everyone will take notice and be impressed. That will put an end to presumptuous behavior.

14–17  When you enter the land that God, your God, is giving you and take it over and settle down, and then say, “I’m going to get me a king, a king like all the nations around me,” make sure you get yourself a king whom God, your God, chooses. Choose your king from among your kinsmen; don’t take a foreigner—only a kinsman. And make sure he doesn’t build up a war machine, amassing military horses and chariots. He must not send people to Egypt to get more horses, because God told you, “You’ll never go back there again!” And make sure he doesn’t build up a harem, collecting wives who will divert him from the straight and narrow. And make sure he doesn’t pile up a lot of silver and gold.

18–20  This is what must be done: When he sits down on the throne of his kingdom, the first thing he must do is make himself a copy of this Revelation on a scroll, copied under the supervision of the Levitical priests. That scroll is to remain at his side at all times; he is to study it every day so that he may learn what it means to fear his God, living in reverent obedience before these rules and regulations by following them. He must not become proud and arrogant, changing the commands at whim to suit himself or making up his own versions. If he reads and learns, he will have a long reign as king in Israel, he and his sons.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Monday, December 01, 2025

by Monica La Rose

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Romans 12:3-15

I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

4–6  In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we’re talking about is Christ’s body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn’t amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body, let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren’t.

6–8  If you preach, just preach God’s Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don’t take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don’t get bossy; if you’re put in charge, don’t manipulate; if you’re called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don’t let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.

9–10  Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

11–13  Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.

14–16  Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down.

Today's Insights

After laying the theological groundwork in Romans 1-11, chapter 12 represents the beginning of Paul’s practical call to action. Previously, the apostle articulated what God did to create His family. As part of that family, believers in Jesus have many joys and blessings but also responsibilities and opportunities. For example, we’re to be “devoted to one another in love” (12:10), which is just one of many “one another” commands found in the New Testament. These instructions relate to how we interact with those in the body of Christ. Jesus, who loves perfectly, helps us love others and share in their griefs and joys.

Don’t Do This Alone

Be devoted to one another in love. Romans 12:10

As I opened the bookshelf assembly instructions with piles of boards and tools strewn on the floor before me, I viewed a set of instructional diagrams of what to do and what not to do. One diagram—with a large X on top—depicted a person staring at a pile of boards and tools with a bemused frown not unlike mine just a few minutes prior. On the right side was drawn the “correct” way to assemble. The only difference? A second person was there. Both figures now had smiles on their faces as they worked together.

So I got my husband. “The instructions say I need your help,” I said, showing him the drawing. He laughed, and we assembled it together. I could have stubbornly tried to find a way to put it together on my own. But the manual was right; the process wasn’t meant to be done alone.

In Romans 12, Paul urges new believers not to try to do life in Jesus alone. Instead of seeing themselves as self-sufficient and thinking of themselves “more highly than [they] ought” (v. 3), they needed to see themselves as part of an interdependent body, where every member needs each other’s help (vv. 4-8).

As Jesus helps us learn how to “be devoted to one another in love” (v. 10), we can experience life “in harmony” with each other, where one another’s needs, griefs, and joys (vv. 13, 15) are never carried alone.

Reflect & Pray

Why do you think we’re tempted to do life alone? What helps you rely on others?

Dear God, please help me to rely daily on Your Spirit to unite and guide me in how to share life with other believers.

For further study, read The Family of God Invites Us to Re-learn Community.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Monday, December 01, 2025

The Law and the Gospel

Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. — James 2:10

The moral law doesn’t take into account the fact that we are weak human beings. It doesn’t consider our infirmities or our sinful heredity. It simply demands that we be absolutely moral. The moral law never changes, either for the noblest or for the weakest. It doesn’t adjust itself to our shortcomings or make itself weak for the weak. It remains absolute for all time and eternity. If we don’t realize this, it’s because we are less than fully alive. Once we are born again and become fully alive to God’s will for us, life becomes a tragedy. The Spirit of God convicts us, and we know: “Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died” (Romans 7:9). Until we get to this place of conviction and see that we have no hope on our own, the cross of Christ is a farce to us.

“The law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin”

(v. 14). Conviction of sin always brings a fearful, binding sense of the law. It makes me feel hopeless, because I know that a guilty sinner like me cannot keep the law on my own. There is only one way I can get right with God, and that is by the death of Jesus Christ. I must get rid of the idea that I can ever be right with God through obedience. Who among us could ever obey God with absolute perfection!

“If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture . . .” (James 2:8). The moral law comes with an if. God never coerces us. In certain moods, we wish he would; in others, we wish he’d leave us alone. But when his will is ascendant in our lives, any question of compulsion is gone. Obeying God has to be a deliberate choice. Once we have made it, God will tax the remotest star and the last grain of sand to help us obey.

Ezekiel 40-41; 2 Peter 3

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

It is impossible to read too much, but always keep before you why you read. Remember that “the need to receive, recognize, and rely on the Holy Spirit” is before all else.

Approved Unto God, 11 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Monday, December 01, 2025

A ROCKEFELLER CENTER CHRISTMAS - RINGSIDE SEATS AT THE TREE!

I always look forward to it as one of the season's great Christmas moments - the lighting of that towering Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. And it's happening this week!

I remember one year that it was just a tad more exciting, for me anyway, because I had sort of a second-hand personal connection. The tree came from the farm owned by our good friends' daughter and son-in-law. They were chauffeured to ringside (actually rink-side) seats for the big show. So, not only did I get to watch the tree and the performers. Hey, I had, like, friends on the front row!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Rockefeller Center Christmas - Ringside Seats at the Tree."

Apparently, the NBC "tree scouts" look for evergreen candidates year-round. And one of them spotted this one, driving down Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania. It was readily visible from the highway and he liked what he saw.

In the months leading up to the tree being cut down, the "treeologists" (I don't know if that's a word) would come with a large tractor trailer full of nutrients for Mr. Spruce. They wanted to be sure he was in good health for his moment of glory!

Rachel, our friends' daughter, describes herself as a "big Christmas elf." She said the giant tree was the only thing at her home she didn't decorate for Christmas. And now it was going to be decorated big time for all the world to see! You could say she was slightly excited.

I suppose our friends have viewed the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree as we always have - a nice Christmas event. But not last year. No, it went from being just an event to an unforgettable personal experience!

And thinking about that just rang a bell suddenly in my heart, because the whole Christmas thing can be much the same - a warm, cuddly event, inspired by the familiar story of that baby born in the Bethlehem manger. But it's a lot more than that for me. The event became a life-changing personal experience. When I realized the ultimate meaning of the events that night in Bethlehem, I saw that it was all about the tree.

In a sense, the shadow of that tree looms over the starlight in the manger. This child is here on a mission - a rescue mission. And that mission will take Him, 33 years later, to the tree. A Roman cross on a skull-shaped hill.

In our Word for today from the Word of God we learn in 1 Peter 2:24. "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree." Christmas was for a cross - the place where the baby of Bethlehem would become the Savior of the world by taking on Himself the death penalty for every human sin. "He bore...on the tree" every hurting thing, every dirty thing, every selfish thing, every angry thing, every wrong thing of every person who ever lived.

For a time, the horrific death of Jesus Christ on a cross was just an event to me. Remembered on Good Friday. A belief to be believed. A religious symbol. But one day it became so much more. It went from an event to the most profound personal experience of my life. When it hit me, "What's happening on that cross is...well, for me. For the sinning I've done. For the punishment I deserve."

And that's the day I was given a ringside seat at the tree, when my heart melted at the love this Jesus has for me - enough to die for me. I enthroned Him that day, not as just the Savior, but as my Savior. And that changed everything. As it has, and as it will, for anyone who makes what happened on that tree "for me."

I wonder if you've ever done that? Have you ever taken this man who loved you enough to die for you, who is your only hope of heaven. Have you ever taken what He died for? He's the only one who can forgive the sin that will keep people out of heaven. Have you ever said, "Jesus, I want to make what You did on that cross personal for me, and take the event and make it my personal experience"? Would you tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours."

We can give you more information about being sure you belong to Him. Just go to our website - ANewStory.com.

Christmas begins at a stable. Life begins at a tree.