Max Lucado Daily: HE WILL GET US HOME - July 24, 2025
Why do you need to know that you are adopted by the Father and sealed by the Spirit? Simple—there is power in assurance.
A young college graduate requested that I pray for her to be accepted into law school. Each time we talked, she seemed increasingly anxious. The unknown future unsettled her. But then came the acceptance letter. She called me with the great news. Her thoughts were positive; her future was secure.
The Holy Spirit provides a far more significant assurance. From him we receive an acceptance letter to heaven. 1 John 4:17 (NLT) says, “So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.” The Holy Spirit will keep his promise. We’ve been sealed. He will get us home.
Help Is Here
Exodus 32
“Make Gods for Us”
1 32 When the people realized that Moses was taking forever in coming down off the mountain, they rallied around Aaron and said, “Do something. Make gods for us who will lead us. That Moses, the man who got us out of Egypt—who knows what’s happened to him?”
2–4 So Aaron told them, “Take off the gold rings from the ears of your wives and sons and daughters and bring them to me.” They all did it; they removed the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from their hands and cast it in the form of a calf, shaping it with an engraving tool.
The people responded with enthusiasm: “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from Egypt!”
5 Aaron, taking in the situation, built an altar before the calf.
Aaron then announced, “Tomorrow is a feast day to God!”
6 Early the next morning, the people got up and offered Whole-Burnt-Offerings and brought Peace-Offerings. The people sat down to eat and drink and then began to party. It turned into a wild party!
7–8 God spoke to Moses, “Go! Get down there! Your people whom you brought up from the land of Egypt have fallen to pieces. In no time at all they’ve turned away from the way I commanded them: They made a molten calf and worshiped it. They’ve sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are the gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt!’ ”
9–10 God said to Moses, “I look at this people—oh! what a stubborn, hard-headed people! Let me alone now, give my anger free reign to burst into flames and incinerate them. But I’ll make a great nation out of you.”
11–13 Moses tried to calm his God down. He said, “Why, God, would you lose your temper with your people? Why, you brought them out of Egypt in a tremendous demonstration of power and strength. Why let the Egyptians say, ‘He had it in for them—he brought them out so he could kill them in the mountains, wipe them right off the face of the Earth.’ Stop your anger. Think twice about bringing evil against your people! Think of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants to whom you gave your word, telling them ‘I will give you many children, as many as the stars in the sky, and I’ll give this land to your children as their land forever.’ ”
14 And God did think twice. He decided not to do the evil he had threatened against his people.
15–16 Moses turned around and came down from the mountain, carrying the two tablets of The Testimony. The tablets were written on both sides, front and back. God made the tablets and God wrote the tablets—engraved them.
17 When Joshua heard the sound of the people shouting noisily, he said to Moses, “That’s the sound of war in the camp!”
18 But Moses said,
Those aren’t songs of victory,
And those aren’t songs of defeat,
I hear songs of people throwing a party.
19–20 And that’s what it was. When Moses came near to the camp and saw the calf and the people dancing, his anger flared. He threw down the tablets and smashed them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made, melted it down with fire, pulverized it to powder, then scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.
21 Moses said to Aaron, “What on Earth did these people ever do to you that you involved them in this huge sin?”
22–23 Aaron said, “Master, don’t be angry. You know this people and how set on evil they are. They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will lead us. This Moses, the man who brought us out of Egypt, we don’t know what’s happened to him.’
24 “So I said, ‘Who has gold?’ And they took off their jewelry and gave it to me. I threw it in the fire and out came this calf.”
25–26 Moses saw that the people were simply running wild—Aaron had let them run wild, disgracing themselves before their enemies. He took up a position at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is on God’s side, join me!” All the Levites stepped up.
27 He then told them, “God’s orders, the God of Israel: ‘Strap on your swords and go to work. Crisscross the camp from one end to the other: Kill brother, friend, neighbor.’ ”
28 The Levites carried out Moses’ orders. Three thousand of the people were killed that day.
29 Moses said, “You confirmed your ordination today—and at great cost, even killing your sons and brothers! And God has blessed you.”
30 The next day Moses addressed the people: “You have sinned an enormous sin! But I am going to go up to God; maybe I’ll be able to clear you of your sin.”
31–32 Moses went back to God and said, “This is terrible. This people has sinned—it’s an enormous sin! They made gods of gold for themselves. And now, if you will only forgive their sin.… But if not, erase me out of the book you’ve written.”
33–34 God said to Moses, “I’ll only erase from my book those who sin against me. For right now, you go and lead the people to where I told you. Look, my Angel is going ahead of you. On the day, though, when I settle accounts, their sins will certainly be part of the settlement.”
35 God sent a plague on the people because of the calf they and Aaron had made.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, July 24, 2025
by Brent Hackett
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Esther 4:10-16
Esther talked it over with Hathach and then sent him back to Mordecai with this message: “Everyone who works for the king here, and even the people out in the provinces, knows that there is a single fate for every man or woman who approaches the king without being invited: death. The one exception is if the king extends his gold scepter; then he or she may live. And it’s been thirty days now since I’ve been invited to come to the king.”
12–14 When Hathach told Mordecai what Esther had said, Mordecai sent her this message: “Don’t think that just because you live in the king’s house you’re the one Jew who will get out of this alive. If you persist in staying silent at a time like this, help and deliverance will arrive for the Jews from someplace else; but you and your family will be wiped out. Who knows? Maybe you were made queen for just such a time as this.”
15–16 Esther sent back her answer to Mordecai: “Go and get all the Jews living in Susa together. Fast for me. Don’t eat or drink for three days, either day or night. I and my maids will fast with you. If you will do this, I’ll go to the king, even though it’s forbidden. If I die, I die.”
Today's Insights
The book of Esther tells of a near-holocaust of the ancient Jewish people, which God supernaturally prevented through Esther’s willingness to serve. As is often the case in Judaism, great moments lead to abiding celebrations. As liberation from slavery is celebrated in the Feast of the Passover, and the Maccabean victory over the Greek/Syrian oppressors (160 BC) resulted in Hanukkah (sometimes known today as the “Festival of Lights”), the Esther story led to the annual celebration of Purim. Each spring (usually in March), Purim is a time when gifts are exchanged, and people give to the poor. Children dress up as characters in the Esther story and remember God’s rescue of His people from the wicked Haman and his genocidal intentions. The story of Esther can remind us that God can use our current situation for His specific purpose.
Right Place, Right Time
Who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this? Esther 4:14
A nursing convention was being held at a hotel when a guest experienced a heart attack in the lobby. Immediately, more than two dozen caregivers came to his side and worked to keep him alive. The guest was incredibly grateful for all the nurses who were at the right place at the right time.
Esther was also at the right place at the right time. She’d been chosen to be queen after winning the king’s favor and approval (Esther 2:17). Yet a decree threatened her people, the Jews, so her cousin Mordecai encouraged her to use her position to appeal to the king to save them from certain death. “Who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” he challenged her (4:14). Her decision to risk her life and “go to the king” (v. 16) to expose this evil plot saved the Jews from certain death (ch. 8). It’s apparent that Queen Esther understood that God had placed her in that position at just the right time.
Sometimes, we may wonder why situations happen or circumstances change. Perhaps we get frustrated and try to get things “back to normal.” God may have placed us in our current situation for a specific purpose. Today, as we encounter disruptions or changes, let’s ask God to show us if there’s something special He wants us to do as part of His perfect plan.
Reflect & Pray
What disruptions have you had lately? What opportunities might God be presenting to you in them?
Dear Father, when I get frustrated with change, please help me see the bigger picture and understand that You may be doing something in and through me.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, July 24, 2025
Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. —Matthew 5:20
The defining characteristic of Christian disciples is not that they do good things; it’s that they are good in their motives. Their motives have been made good by the supernatural grace of God.
The only thing that surpasses right doing is right being. Jesus Christ came to put a new heredity into anyone who would let him, a heredity that would surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees. Jesus says, in essence, “If you are my disciple, you must be right not only in how you live but also in your motives and your dreams, in the deepest recesses of your mind. You must be so pure in your motives that God Almighty can see nothing to censure.”
Who can stand in the eternal light of God and have nothing for God to censure? Only the Son of God. Jesus Christ claims that, by the power of his redemption, he can put his own disposition into anyone, making them as pure and simple as a child. The purity God demands is impossible for me unless I can be remade from within—and this is exactly what Jesus Christ has undertaken with his redemption.
None of us can make ourselves pure by obeying laws. Jesus Christ doesn’t give us rules and regulations. His teachings are truths which only he can interpret. If we wish to understand them, we must do so through the disposition he puts in us—his own disposition. This is what it means that Jesus Christ alters our heredity: he doesn’t alter
human nature; he alters the disposition of sin that lies beneath it. This is the great marvel of his salvation.
Psalms 35-36; Acts 25
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
God does not further our spiritual life in spite of our circumstances, but in and by our circumstances.
Not Knowing Whither, 900 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, July 24, 2025
ETERNITY INSURANCE - #10054
It's always hard to lose someone you love. It's especially hard when it's a child. I had friends who lost their precious granddaughter, Amy. Two years old - went to sleep with a little cold and a little fever. By the end of the night, Amy was gone from a cause, well it was still a medical mystery. As I talked with the family at the visitation, of course there was deep grief, but there was also a little comfort from something beautiful that happened right before Amy went to sleep that night. Her mother began singing "Jesus Loves Me" to her and little Amy sang along with her. Her last words, "Jesus loves me, this I know." And then she was with Him.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Eternity Insurance."
The way little Amy went into eternity is a wonderful way for any of us to go into eternity - knowing Jesus loves us and that we will be with Him forever. We all have our appointment to keep with God, and what happens there has everything to do with our response to that love. A love that little children sometimes seem to understand best.
Maybe that's why, according to our word for today from the Word of God in Matthew 18, beginning at verse 2, "Jesus called a little child and had him stand among them. And He said: 'I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.'"
When you put that in the context of a little two-year-old's simple trust in the love of Jesus, you see some of what Jesus is trying to say here. We've got all our sophistication, our questions, our doubts, our analysis, our hardness, and our pride. You and I don't want to believe that we can't earn heaven with our goodness, that all we can do is put all our trust in the Savior who died to remove the death penalty for our sin. No, no. We're strong, we're self-reliant, we're smart, we can figure things out, we can handle things, we can fix things. We struggle with simply reaching out to Jesus in uncomplicated, uninhibited faith. But there is no other way to, in Jesus' words, "enter the kingdom of heaven."
But when our heart beats for the last time, it won't matter what degrees or positions we held, or how many people we know, or what religion we were, or what nice things they said about us at our funeral. All that will matter is whether or not you have grabbed the nail-scarred hand of Jesus Christ to forgive your sin and take you to His heaven.
Grabbing a hand in total trust is something a child totally understands and something we grown-up children need to understand again. Because if you haven't trusted Jesus to be your personal Savior from your personal sin, you don't stand a chance in eternity. He's the only One who could forgive and erase what will keep you out of heaven - your sin and its death penalty. He's the only One who died that death penalty for you on the cross so you don't have to.
You need to face eternity knowing that Jesus loves you and that you have responded to that love. You don't want to enter eternity, you don't want to face Jesus, knowing you've neglected or rejected His love for you poured out on His cross.
Have you ever grabbed Jesus' hand in total trust to say, "Jesus, you're my only hope of being rescued from my sin"? If not, why would you risk another day without Him? Why would you live another day outside His love? Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours" right where you are today.
I invite you to our website, because it's there simply to help you be sure you actually have begun this relationship with the only One who can rescue you from your sin. It's ANewStory.com. Please check it out today.
So, this little girl enters eternity, knowing that Jesus loves her and showing you and me the love we so desperately need. "Jesus loves me, this I know."
