Matthew 9:1-17 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: FOCUS ON GOD - March 3, 2025

God called David a “man after his own heart.” One might read his story and wonder what God saw in him. He fell as often as he stood. He stared down Goliath, yet ogled at Bathsheba. He could lead armies but couldn’t manage a family. Raging David. Weeping David. Bloodthirsty. God-hungry. Eight wives. One God. A man after God’s own heart? That God saw him as such gives hope to us all.

Straight-A souls find David’s story disappointing. But we need David’s story, most of us do. Giants lurk in our neighborhoods. Giants of rejection and failure and revenge. Giants. We must face them, yet we need not face them alone. Focus on God. The times David did, giants fell. The days he didn’t, David did. Lift your eyes, giant-slayer! The God who made a miracle out of David stands ready to make one out of you.

Facing Your Giants: God Still Does the Impossible

Matthew 9:1-17

Who Needs a Doctor?

1–3  9 Back in the boat, Jesus and the disciples recrossed the sea to Jesus’ hometown. They were hardly out of the boat when some men carried a paraplegic on a stretcher and set him down in front of them. Jesus, impressed by their bold belief, said to the paraplegic, “Cheer up, son. I forgive your sins.” Some religion scholars whispered, “Why, that’s blasphemy!”

4–8  Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said, “Why this gossipy whispering? Which do you think is simpler: to say, ‘I forgive your sins,’ or, ‘Get up and walk’? Well, just so it’s clear that I’m the Son of Man and authorized to do either, or both.…” At this he turned to the paraplegic and said, “Get up. Take your bed and go home.” And the man did it. The crowd was awestruck, amazed and pleased that God had authorized Jesus to work among them this way.

9  Passing along, Jesus saw a man at his work collecting taxes. His name was Matthew. Jesus said, “Come along with me.” Matthew stood up and followed him.

10–11  Later when Jesus was eating supper at Matthew’s house with his close followers, a lot of disreputable characters came and joined them. When the Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company, they had a fit, and lit into Jesus’ followers. “What kind of example is this from your Teacher, acting cozy with crooks and riffraff?”

12–13  Jesus, overhearing, shot back, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? Go figure out what this Scripture means: ‘I’m after mercy, not religion.’ I’m here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders.”

Kingdom Come

14  A little later John’s followers approached, asking, “Why is it that we and the Pharisees rigorously discipline body and spirit by fasting, but your followers don’t?”

15  Jesus told them, “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 not now. No one throws cold water on a friendly bonfire. This is Kingdom Come!”

16–17  He went on, “No one cuts up a fine silk scarf to patch old work clothes; you want fabrics that match. And you don’t put your wine in cracked bottles.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Monday, March 03, 2025

by Xochitl Dixon

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Luke 10:27-37

 He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”

28  “Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.”

29  Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define ‘neighbor’?”

30–32  Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.

33–35  “A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I’ll pay you on my way back.’

36  “What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?”

37  “The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded.

Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”

Today's Insights

Luke 10:27-37 features one of Jesus’ more widely known parables—the Good Samaritan. What makes it so remarkable is that Samaritans were outcasts. As a result of Assyria’s invasion of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the Israelites intermarried with Assyrians, resulting in this mixed-race people. Though hated by the Jews, Samaritans were clearly people Christ cared about, as seen not only in this parable but also in John 4:1-42 in His encounters with a Samaritan woman and in Luke 17:11-19 with a Samaritan leper. God’s care for the Samaritans is just one example of the comprehensive nature of His love described in John 3:16.

Extending God’s Love

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” Luke 10:37

One winter day in Michigan, a delivery man noticed an elderly woman shoveling snow off her driveway. He stopped and convinced the eighty-one-year-old to let him finish the job. Concerned that he’d be late delivering his other packages, she retrieved another shovel. They worked side by side for almost fifteen minutes as her neighbors watched from afar. “I’m thankful you helped me,” she said. “You’re God-sent.”

During a conversation with an expert in the law, Jesus redefined the concept of loving our neighbors (Luke 10:25-37). When Jesus asked him to interpret the law he knew so well, the expert said, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ ” (v. 27).

Then Jesus shared a story about two religious leaders who ignored a robbery victim. But a Samaritan—a person most Jewish leaders in those days considered inferior—sacrificed to help the man in need (vv. 30-35). When the expert of the law realized that the one who had mercy on the man had loved like a neighbor, Jesus encouraged him to do likewise (vv. 36-37).

Loving others isn’t always easy or convenient. But as Jesus overwhelms us with His love, He’ll help us love all our neighbors like the Good Samaritan did.

Reflect & Pray

How has God shown you His love through an unexpected neighbor? Who can you show God’s love to in a practical way this week?

Dear Jesus, please give me opportunities to love all the people You created and who call my neighbors.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Monday, March 03, 2025

The Unrelieved Quest

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.” — John 21:17

This is love in the making: Peter, having confessed how deeply he loves Jesus, is told to add action to emotion and feed God’s sheep. The love of God was not created; love is God’s very nature. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we are united with God so that his love is manifested in us. But this isn’t the end of the story. The ultimate goal is that we may be one with the Father as Jesus is. “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one” (John 17:11). What kind of oneness is this? Such a oneness that the Father’s purpose for the Son becomes the Son’s purpose for us: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (20:21).

After Peter recognized the depth of his love for Jesus, Jesus made his point: Spend it. Don’t declare how much you love me. Don’t testify about the marvelous revelation you’ve had. “Feed my sheep.” This is a challenging request, because Jesus has some extraordinarily funny sheep! Bedraggled, dirty sheep; awkward, headbutting sheep; sheep that have gone astray (Luke 15:3–7). God’s love pays no attention to such quirks and differences. If I love my Lord, I have no business being guided by personal preference. I simply have to feed his sheep. There is no relief and no release from this part of the call.

Beware of letting your natural human sympathy decide which sheep you’ll feed. You are called to spend God’s love, not pass off a counterfeit version of it. That would end in blaspheming the love of God.

Numbers 28-30; Mark 8:22-38

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

We begin our Christian life by believing what we are told to believe, then we have to go on to so assimilate our beliefs that they work out in a way that redounds to the glory of God. The danger is in multiplying the acceptation of beliefs we do not make our own.

Conformed to His Image, 381 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Monday, March 03, 2025

THE BEST PART OF WAKING UP - #9951

So, our whole family had to go for blood tests. It was time to check everyone's cholesterol levels, we were told. Now, as our son's blood was being drawn, he suddenly said, "I'm feeling a little weak." Well, that's unusual, because this son was probably the strongest member of the family.

But this actually had to do with chemistry not strength, and he proceeded to suddenly go limp and then he passed out. When he came to just a few moments later, his first words were of course, "What happened?" He later said that all he remembered was his eyes opening and seeing a mother's concerned face. Yep, there was Mom!

And then that made him think back to a post-operative situation he had had once. Right after surgery he was in the recovery room and he said, "All I remember is opening my eyes and seeing this really old nurse." Well, it's kind of funny how strong those like just waking up impressions are.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Best Part of Waking Up."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 17, and I'm going to be reading verse 15. David says, "And I - in righteousness I will see Your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness." Now, I think he's talking primarily here about physical resurrection after he dies. You know, "After I die, I'm looking forward to seeing You." But this can also be applied to a lifestyle like this - waking up and seeing His likeness.

There's a coffee company, you might remember, that had a commercial that said, "The best part of waking up is...in your cup." You know? We don't do commercials. Well, rather than their kind of coffee in your cup, I'd like to rewrite that a little bit. The best part of waking up is Jesus in your room. That's what David's saying, "I'm satisfied when I wake up with seeing Your likeness."

The early moments of your day kind of set the tone for the day. Is it going to be a stress day, is it going to be a worry day, a dirty day, a negative day, a go-for-it day? So much depends on whether or not you consciously spend your waking moments with Jesus. And let me tell you, that takes discipline. As soon as you've got any control of your thoughts, you come out of that fog and you're starting to be able to think, that's the time, before anything else, to acknowledge Jesus. "Lord, You're here aren't You? Lord, I'm Yours." And in those groggy, getting up and getting ready moments, talk to Him; thank Him for something from yesterday, turn over to Him whatever you know will tend to be dominating your day today.

Isaiah put it this way, "You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You." In the morning it's like 20 different characters are trying to get on center stage in your head, including the devil probably. The night before, make the choice that Jesus Christ is going to be the only one on center stage in the beginning of your day, the beginning of your morning. "Seek first the kingdom of God." Remember that? Maybe that includes seeking Him before you talk with or think about anyone else. Don't check your emails, don't turn on the television, and don't answer the phone. Get up early if you have to, but don't be in anybody else's presence until you've been in His. Seek Him first in your day, in those early groggy moments.

That Jesus focus can set your course for the whole day. And after a day begun with the Lord of the universe, you're ready for anything.

See, the best part of waking up? Yep, it's waking up to Jesus.

Job 10, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: The Economy of Heaven

“A crown is being held for . . . all those who have waited with love for him to come again.” 2 Timothy 4:8

We understand that in the economy of earth, there are a limited number of crowns.

The economy of heaven, however, is refreshingly different. Heavenly rewards are not limited to a chosen few, but “to all those who have waited with love for him to come again.” The three-letter word all is a gem. The winner’s circle isn’t reserved for a handful of the elite but for a heaven full of God’s children.

Job 10

To Find Some Skeleton in My Closet

1  10 “I can’t stand my life—I hate it!

I’m putting it all out on the table,

all the bitterness of my life—I’m holding back nothing.”

2–7  Job prayed:

“Here’s what I want to say:

Don’t, God, bring in a verdict of guilty

without letting me know the charges you’re bringing.

How does this fit into what you once called ‘good’—

giving me a hard time, spurning me,

a life you shaped by your very own hands,

and then blessing the plots of the wicked?

You don’t look at things the way we mortals do.

You’re not taken in by appearances, are you?

Unlike us, you’re not working against a deadline.

You have all eternity to work things out.

So what’s this all about, anyway—this compulsion

to dig up some dirt, to find some skeleton in my closet?

You know good and well I’m not guilty.

You also know no one can help me.

8–12  “You made me like a handcrafted piece of pottery—

and now are you going to smash me to pieces?

Don’t you remember how beautifully you worked my clay?

Will you reduce me now to a mud pie?

Oh, that marvel of conception as you stirred together

semen and ovum—

What a miracle of skin and bone,

muscle and brain!

You gave me life itself, and incredible love.

You watched and guarded every breath I took.

13–17  “But you never told me about this part.

I should have known that there was more to it—

That if I so much as missed a step, you’d notice and pounce,

wouldn’t let me get by with a thing.

If I’m truly guilty, I’m doomed.

But if I’m innocent, it’s no better—I’m still doomed.

My belly is full of bitterness.

I’m up to my ears in a swamp of affliction.

I try to make the best of it, try to brave it out,

but you’re too much for me,

relentless, like a lion on the prowl.

You line up fresh witnesses against me.

You compound your anger

and pile on the grief and pain!

18–22  “So why did you have me born?

I wish no one had ever laid eyes on me!

I wish I’d never lived—a stillborn,

buried without ever having breathed.

Isn’t it time to call it quits on my life?

Can’t you let up, and let me smile just once

Before I die and am buried,

before I’m nailed into my coffin, sealed in the ground,

And banished for good to the land of the dead,

blind in the final dark?”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Sunday, March 02, 2025

by Bill Crowder

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Psalm 32:1-7

 Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be—

you get a fresh start,

your slate’s wiped clean.

2  Count yourself lucky—

God holds nothing against you

and you’re holding nothing back from him.

3  When I kept it all inside,

my bones turned to powder,

my words became daylong groans.

4  The pressure never let up;

all the juices of my life dried up.

5  Then I let it all out;

I said, “I’ll make a clean breast of my failures to God.”

Suddenly the pressure was gone—

my guilt dissolved,

my sin disappeared.

6  These things add up. Every one of us needs to pray;

when all hell breaks loose and the dam bursts

we’ll be on high ground, untouched.

7  God’s my island hideaway,

keeps danger far from the shore,

throws garlands of hosannas around my neck.

Today's Insights

Psalm 32 has traditionally been classified as one of seven penitential (repentant) psalms. Other psalms in this category are Psalms 6, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143. In Psalm 32, the psalmist acknowledges the serious impact of unconfessed sin on the body: “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. . . . My strength was sapped as in the heat of summer” (vv. 3-4). This emphasis on the impact of sin on our bodies can be found in other psalms of repentance. In Psalm 38, for example, we read, “Because of your wrath there is no health in my body” (v. 3). The focus in Psalm 32, however, is the joy and peace to be found for all who turn to God for forgiveness (vv. 1-2, 5).

Learn the true meaning of Biblical peace

Jesus—Our Place of Rest

Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:29

In 1943, a camp in rural Maryland called Shangri-La was purchased as a retreat for US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Rustic, quiet, and remote, it provided “an opportunity for solitude and tranquility,” according to the White House website, “as well as an ideal place to work and host foreign leaders.” When Dwight Eisenhower became president, he renamed this retreat Camp David in honor of his father and his grandson, and the name stuck. Aside from increased security measures, there has been very little modernizing of the camp. It remains the perfect place for US presidents and their families to escape and rest.

Believers in Jesus also have a retreat where we can find rest in the midst of our turbulent world. In Psalm 32:7, King David wrote, “You [God] are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” David recognized that God was his true place of safety.

Jesus welcomes us to find rest and restoration in Him. He says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28-29).

He can be our place of rest any time, every time, and all the time.

Reflect & Pray

What robs you of peace and rest? How might you seek to find rest in Jesus?

Loving God, I’m tired. This world is tough, and sometimes I feel like the very life is drained from me. Please help me to be more intentional about coming to You and finding rest in Your gracious presence.

Discover how prayer can give you peace and rest.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Sunday, March 02, 2025

Have You Felt the Hurt of the Lord?

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, … you know that I love you.” — John 21:17

Have you ever felt the hurt of the Lord in the very center of your being—the place where your real sensitivity lies? The devil never hurts us there. Sin never hurts us there. Human emotion never hurts us there. Nothing gets through to this place but the word of God.

A third time Jesus asked if Peter loved him. Peter was hurt because he was waking up to an amazing fact: he did love Jesus, all the way through to the core of his being. Peter had begun to see what Jesus’s patient, repeated questioning meant. It meant that Peter no longer belonged to himself. It meant that, for Peter, there was no one in heaven above or on earth below except Jesus Christ. It meant that Peter could never delude himself again. It was a revelation to Peter to realize how much he truly did love the Lord, and with amazement he said, “You know that I love you.”

How skillful, patient, and direct was Jesus Christ with Peter! Our Lord’s questions always reveal us to ourselves, but he never asks until the right time. Peter did not know how much he loved Jesus until the patient, painful questions came. Probably once in each of our lives, the Lord backs us into a corner and hurts us with this probing question, until we realize that we do love him, far more deeply than any mere declaration can tell.

Numbers 26-27; Mark 8:1-21

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Jesus Christ can afford to be misunderstood; we cannot. Our weakness lies in always wanting to vindicate ourselves.

The Place of Help

Job 9, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Because of What He Did

Few things can weary you more than the fast pace of the human race.  Too many sprints for success. Too many days of doing whatever it takes eventually take their toll.  You’re left gasping for air, holding your sides on the side of the track. You’re asking yourself, “When I get what I want, will it be worth the price I paid?”

It’s this weariness that makes the words of Jesus so compelling. “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28).

Come to Me.  Why Him?  He offers the invitation as a penniless rabbi in an oppressed nation.  He has no political office.  He hasn’t written a best-seller or earned a diploma.  Yet they called Him Lord. They called Him Savior. Not so much because of what He said, but because of what He did. What He did—on the Cross!  He did it for the weary people of this world.

from Six Hours One Friday

Job 9

JOB CONTINUES

How Can Mere Mortals Get Right with God?

1–13  9 Job continued by saying:

“So what’s new? I know all this.

The question is, ‘How can mere mortals get right with God?’

If we wanted to bring our case before him,

what chance would we have? Not one in a thousand!

God’s wisdom is so deep, God’s power so immense,

who could take him on and come out in one piece?

He moves mountains before they know what’s happened,

flips them on their heads on a whim.

He gives the earth a good shaking up,

rocks it down to its very foundations.

He tells the sun, ‘Don’t shine,’ and it doesn’t;

he pulls the blinds on the stars.

All by himself he stretches out the heavens

and strides on the waves of the sea.

He designed the Big Dipper and Orion,

the Pleiades and Alpha Centauri.

We’ll never comprehend all the great things he does;

his miracle-surprises can’t be counted.

Somehow, though he moves right in front of me, I don’t see him;

quietly but surely he’s active, and I miss it.

If he steals you blind, who can stop him?

Who’s going to say, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’

God doesn’t hold back on his anger;

even dragon-bred monsters cringe before him.

14–20  “So how could I ever argue with him,

construct a defense that would influence God?

Even though I’m innocent I could never prove it;

I can only throw myself on the Judge’s mercy.

If I called on God and he himself answered me,

then, and only then, would I believe that he’d heard me.

As it is, he knocks me about from pillar to post,

beating me up, black-and-blue, for no good reason.

He won’t even let me catch my breath,

piles bitterness upon bitterness.

If it’s a question of who’s stronger, he wins, hands down!

If it’s a question of justice, who’ll serve him the subpoena?

Even though innocent, anything I say incriminates me;

blameless as I am, my defense just makes me sound worse.

If God’s Not Responsible, Who Is?

21–24  “Believe me, I’m blameless.

I don’t understand what’s going on.

I hate my life!

Since either way it ends up the same, I can only conclude

that God destroys the good right along with the bad.

When calamity hits and brings sudden death,

he folds his arms, aloof from the despair of the innocent.

He lets the wicked take over running the world,

he installs judges who can’t tell right from wrong.

If he’s not responsible, who is?

25–31  “My time is short—what’s left of my life races off

too fast for me to even glimpse the good.

My life is going fast, like a ship under full sail,

like an eagle plummeting to its prey.

Even if I say, ‘I’ll put all this behind me,

I’ll look on the bright side and force a smile,’

All these troubles would still be like grit in my gut

since it’s clear you’re not going to let up.

The verdict has already been handed down—‘Guilty!’—

so what’s the use of protests or appeals?

Even if I scrub myself all over

and wash myself with the strongest soap I can find,

It wouldn’t last—you’d push me into a pigpen, or worse,

so nobody could stand me for the stink.

32–35  “God and I are not equals; I can’t bring a case against him.

We’ll never enter a courtroom as peers.

How I wish we had an arbitrator

to step in and let me get on with life—

To break God’s death grip on me,

to free me from this terror so I could breathe again.

Then I’d speak up and state my case boldly.

As things stand, there is no way I can do it.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Saturday, March 01, 2025

by Dave Branon

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

2 Timothy 3:14-16

But don’t let it faze you. Stick with what you learned and believed, sure of the integrity of your teachers—why, you took in the sacred Scriptures with your mother’s milk! There’s nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way.

Today's Insights

The inspiration of the Scriptures is an astonishing concept to consider. God, in His matchless wisdom, breathed out the words of the Bible by the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16-17; see Matthew 22:43) while utilizing the personalities, experiences, and even vocabularies of the individual writers. Over a span of about fifteen hundred years, God used forty different writers to produce a book that has a single and clearly coherent message: God’s love and rescue of His lost and broken creation. More specifically, that message focuses on the rescuer, Jesus Himself. The Old Testament points to and prepares the way for Him, and the New Testament explains His person and work. The Bible is so much more than a collection of sixty-six random books of religious history. It’s a cohesive message of redeeming grace, accomplished through Christ.

Discover the full story of the Bible.

Understanding the Bible

The word of God is alive and active. . . . [It] judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

How important is the Bible? It’s so vital that people in many countries risk their lives to translate it into their native languages. Often, these are ordinary believers in Jesus who face arrest for translating the words of Scripture into a heart language others can understand.

One female translator from a country hostile to believers in Jesus said, “I must complete this work. I want to see my beloved ones experience salvation in Christ.” And a man who organizes regular citizens to clandestinely translate Scripture explains that the Bible is essential to growing mature believers in local churches: “You can start a church, but . . . [without] the Bible in its heart language, it will typically only last one generation.”

Why are they doing this? Because there’s no other book like the Bible. Its preservation through the centuries is unique. Its authenticity and its representation of the human heart is accurate. It’s “alive and active . . . [and] judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). And “all Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16), inspired by Him. And most important, it reveals the source and reality of “salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (v. 15).

Let’s read, cherish, and live by the Scriptures. And as God provides, let’s help those around the world receive it and understand it.

Reflect & Pray

What’s your favorite aspect of the Bible? How can you help others understand it better?

Dear God, thank You for the Scriptures and for the privilege of sharing them with others.

For further study, read The Hard Task of Reading Well.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Saturday, March 01, 2025

The Piercing Question

Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” — John 21:17

No sin can pierce us as deeply as the question Jesus asks of Simon Peter: “Do you love me?” Sin dulls feelings; the word of God intensifies them. When Jesus asks if we love him, the feelings brought up by his question are so intense they hurt. Do we love him? Or are we fooling ourselves?

It is impossible to be casual when Jesus asks this question. Peter’s early love for Jesus was temperamental, professed in the whim of a moment and a mood. He loved Jesus on a purely natural level, in the way any person loves another who is good. It took the hurt of Jesus’s question for Peter to realize that true love never merely professes anything: it pierces straight to the core of our personality, directing not only our words but everything we do.

Unless we get hurt right out of deceiving ourselves, the word of God isn’t having its way with us. His word is sharp: “sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow” (Hebrews 4:12). Jesus’s question strikes against all our illusions, reaching past our selfish individuality into the very center of our being—a terribly painful thing. But to be hurt like this by Jesus is the most exquisite hurt imaginable. It stings away every delusion and doubt, every selfish thought and worry.

When the Lord sends the hurt of his word to his child, there is no mistaking it. But the point of the hurt is the great point of revelation: it reveals to us how we truly feel about our Lord. “Lord,” said Peter, “you know that I love you” (John 21:17).

Numbers 23-25; Mark 7:14-37

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 

Job 8, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: AS IF UPON KNEES - February 28, 2025

Unceasing prayer may sound complicated, but it needn’t be that way. Do this: think of prayer less as an activity for God and more as an awareness of God. Seek to live in uninterrupted awareness. As you stand in line to register your car, think, “Thank you, Lord, for being here.” In the grocery store as you shop, think, “Your presence, my King, I welcome.” As you wash the dishes, worship your Maker.

Brother Lawrence called himself the “lord of all pots and pans.” He wrote: The time of busyness does not with me differ from the time of prayer; and in the clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon knees at the blessed sacrament.

So talk to God, always.

Max on Life: Answers and Insights to Your Most Important Questions

Job 8

BILDAD’S RESPONSE

Does God Mess Up?

1–7  8 Bildad from Shuhah was next to speak:

“How can you keep on talking like this?

You’re talking nonsense, and noisy nonsense at that.

Does God mess up?

Does God Almighty ever get things backward?

It’s plain that your children sinned against him—

otherwise, why would God have punished them?

Here’s what you must do—and don’t put it off any longer:

Get down on your knees before God Almighty.

If you’re as innocent and upright as you say,

it’s not too late—he’ll come running;

he’ll set everything right again, reestablish your fortunes.

Even though you’re not much right now,

you’ll end up better than ever.

To Hang Your Life from One Thin Thread

8–19  “Put the question to our ancestors,

study what they learned from their ancestors.

For we’re newcomers at this, with a lot to learn,

and not too long to learn it.

So why not let the ancients teach you, tell you what’s what,

instruct you in what they knew from experience?

Can mighty pine trees grow tall without soil?

Can luscious tomatoes flourish without water?

Blossoming flowers look great before they’re cut or picked,

but without soil or water they wither more quickly than grass.

That’s what happens to all who forget God—

all their hopes come to nothing.

They hang their life from one thin thread,

they hitch their fate to a spider web.

One jiggle and the thread breaks,

one jab and the web collapses.

Or they’re like weeds springing up in the sunshine,

invading the garden,

Spreading everywhere, overtaking the flowers,

getting a foothold even in the rocks.

But when the gardener rips them out by the roots,

the garden doesn’t miss them one bit.

The sooner the godless are gone, the better;

then good plants can grow in their place.

20–22  “There’s no way that God will reject a good person,

and there is no way he’ll help a bad one.

God will let you laugh again;

you’ll raise the roof with shouts of joy,

With your enemies thoroughly discredited,

their house of cards collapsed.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Friday, February 28, 2025

by Patricia Raybon

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Colossians 3:8-17

But you know better now, so make sure it’s all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk.

9–11  Don’t lie to one another. You’re done with that old life. It’s like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you’ve stripped off and put in the fire. Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ.

12–14  So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.

15–17  Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.

Today's Insights

Paul wrote to the Colossian church to correct false teaching about Jesus and to instruct us how to live “worthy of the Lord”—fruitful and faithful lives that “please him in every way” (1:10). The apostle emphasizes the supremacy of Christ in creation, redemption, and the church (chs. 1-2). He then calls for Jesus to be supreme in their lives (chs. 3-4). Using the metaphors of putting on and taking off clothes, Paul says to live a transformed life—a Christlike life reflecting His character (3:1-17). The apostle lists various sins that believers must “put to death” (v. 5): “sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed . . . anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language” (vv. 5, 8). Then he instructs believers to replace them with the Christ-honoring virtues of “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (v. 12). We’re to “bear with each other and forgive one another” (v. 13) and envelop everything in love (v. 14).

Peace of Christ

As members of one body you were called to peace. Colossians 3:1

Would they win by arguing? Never, a small-town leader warned residents in Adirondack Park, where a pitched battle between environmentalists and small-business owners ignited the “Adirondack Wars.” The name described their fight whether to save the area’s pristine wilderness in Upstate New York or develop it.

“Go back wherever you came from!” a local leader had shouted at an environmentalist. But soon a new message emerged: “Don’t yell at each other. Try to talk to each other.” A Common Ground Alliance was formed to build bridges between warring factions. Civic dialogue led to progress—with nearly a million acres of wild land protected even as Adirondack towns grew more prosperous than they’d been in twenty years.

Peaceful coexistence is a start, but Paul taught something even better. To the new believers in Colossae, he said, “Rid yourselves of . . . anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips” (Colossians 3:8). Paul urged them to exchange their old ways for a new nature in Christ: “Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience,” he wrote (v. 12).

The invitation is offered today to all believers: surrender our old, cantankerous lives to new life in Christ. “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace” (v. 15). Then, in our peace, the world will see Jesus.

Reflect & Pray

Whom could you forgive today? With whom can you make peace?

Dear God, when my old life erupts in anger, please grant me new peace in You.

Discover more on the healing power of forgiveness.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Friday, February 28, 2025

Do You Now Believe?

Now we can see that you know all things … This makes us believe. — John 16:30-31

When the disciples finally told Jesus that they believed he was the Son of God, Jesus replied with skepticism: “Do you now believe? … You will leave me all alone” (John 16:31–32). Many Christians leave Jesus alone as they go about their work. They’re motivated by their conscience or a sense of duty, but their souls aren’t in intimate contact with their Lord; they’re leaning on their own understanding. It isn’t a sin to work for God in this way, and there’s no punishment attached to it, but when we catch ourselves acting like this, when we realize we’ve grown distant from Jesus and produced confusion and sadness for ourselves, we come back to him with shame and contrition.

We need to learn to rely on the resurrection life of Jesus on a much deeper level, to get into the habit of steadily referring everything back to him. We make decisions based on common sense, then ask God to bless those decisions. He cannot. Common sense is not in God’s domain; it is severed from divine reality. Common sense tells us that duty and moral obligation should be our guides. “I must do this; conscience compels me,” we say, haughtily. A decision based on common sense can always be backed up by an argument like this. But when we do something purely out of obedience to the Lord, no commonsense argument is possible. That’s why obedience is so easy to ridicule.

If we don’t want to leave Jesus alone, we must be willing to be ridiculed for his sake. We aren’t told to walk in the light of conscience or of duty; we’re told to walk in the light as God is in the light (1 John 1:7).

Numbers 20-22; Mark 7:1-13

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

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

He Shall Glorify Me, 494 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Friday, February 28, 2025

EARTHQUAKE HOPE - #9950

Stranded on the highest mountain on earth. Or buried beneath the rubble of a shattered hotel.

After the earthquake that rocked that mountain kingdom of Nepal, thousands of people lost their lives. Many more found their world, their homes, actually their lives wiped away.

There were some who survived the quake, but they faced the prospect of dying in the aftermath. Like those climbers on Mt. Everest, trapped on the mountain by massive avalanches. Or that 27-year-old man, lying amidst the stench of dead bodies, trapped for 82 hours under mountains of concrete.

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

One six-letter word. That was the difference between life and death for the men on the mountain and the man in the rubble.

Rescue. That's the "hope" word that we keep hearing in the heartbreaking news from great disasters all over the world.

In this one, 18 climbers died when part of Everest collapsed on their base camp. There were 140 surviving climbers, but when they tried to go down through the escape route, it was impossibly blocked by fallen rocks. And as time passed, their food was running out; their water was running out.

And then the choppers came. One after another they landed somehow on that mountain, saved those climbers, taking out two at a time.

Then there was young Rishi. He was running out of hope, he was running out of life. Beneath that collapsed hotel. Then, after ten hours of digging through concrete, the rescuers broke through. Rishi is alive...the climbers were alive...because the rescuers came.

Hope in Nepal depended on - as it is in so many disasters - a rescuer from above.

And that's where the news intersects my life and yours. Because hope for me depended on a rescuer from above. At the spiritual crossroads of my life.

I was trapped in a place where I would have died. Except my Rescuer came. His name is Jesus. The One called "Savior" by millions of people around the world. That's Savior as in Rescuer.

In fact, the Bible says in our word for today from the Word of God in Galatians 1:3, "Jesus gave His life for our sins...in order to rescue us." Not to start a religion. Not to be an example or a teacher. But to rescue us. So, it isn't about a religion, called Christianity, it's about a rescuer named Jesus. He came to rescue us at the cost of His life.

Because I - and a world of folks like me - was facing spiritual death for dethroning God in my life. Letting Him run the universe while I ran me. His Book makes the outcome of those sinful choices, unmistakable. It says, "The soul that sins shall die" (Ezekiel 18:3). Here, a life without meaning. Hereafter, an eternity without hope.

But, thank God, the Rescuer came! From above. To a cross. To die for my sin and yours so we don't have to. Amazingly, in the words of Galatians 2:20 in the Bible, "He loved me and gave Himself for me." First person singular. The death of Christ on the cross for my sins.

Then He blasted out of His grave three days later. To reach into my rubble. To reach into your rubble. To save us from certain spiritual death.

If you're ready to make The Rescuer your personal Rescuer from your sin, if you want to begin this life-saving, eternity-changing relationship with Jesus, I invite you to tell Him right now, "Jesus, I'm yours." And go to our website where you can get this confirmed and be sure you belong to Him. That website is ANewStory.com.

There was a day that Jesus reached for me. This may be the day He is reaching for you. Would you grab His nail-scarred hand, my friend? You will be safe. Forever.

Matthew 8:18-34, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

 

Max Lucado Daily: KEEP PRAYING - February 27, 2025

God heals, not prayer. A matter of semantics? No. If you think the power is in the prayer and not the One who hears the prayer, you fault the pray-er for unanswered prayer. If I had prayed more, better, differently… But the power of prayer is in the One who hears it, not the one who makes it.

So, if you are waiting on God to answer your prayer, don’t despair. We need to remember that many of God’s saints endured a time of unanswered prayer. Peter was in a storm before he walked on water. Lazarus was in a grave before he came out of it. The demoniac was possessed before he was a preacher, and the paralytic was on a stretcher before he was in your Bible.

We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love him. Please don’t interpret the presence of your disease as the absence of God’s love. I pray he heals you. And he will—ultimately! Till then, just keep praying.

Max on Life: Answers and Insights to Your Most Important Questions

Matthew 8:18-34

Your Business Is Life, Not Death

18–19  When Jesus saw that a curious crowd was growing by the minute, he told his disciples to get him out of there to the other side of the lake. As they left, a religion scholar asked if he could go along. “I’ll go with you, wherever,” he said.

20  Jesus was curt: “Are you ready to rough it? We’re not staying in the best inns, you know.”

21  Another follower said, “Master, excuse me for a couple of days, please. I have my father’s funeral to take care of.”

22  Jesus refused. “First things first. Your business is life, not death. Follow me. Pursue life.”

23–25  Then he got in the boat, his disciples with him. The next thing they knew, they were in a severe storm. Waves were crashing into the boat—and he was sound asleep! They roused him, pleading, “Master, save us! We’re going down!”

26  Jesus reprimanded them. “Why are you such cowards, such faint-hearts?” Then he stood up and told the wind to be silent, the sea to quiet down: “Silence!” The sea became smooth as glass.

27  The men rubbed their eyes, astonished. “What’s going on here? Wind and sea come to heel at his command!”

The Madmen and the Pigs

28–31  They landed in the country of the Gadarenes and were met by two madmen, victims of demons, coming out of the cemetery. The men had terrorized the region for so long that no one considered it safe to walk down that stretch of road anymore. Seeing Jesus, the madmen screamed out, “What business do you have giving us a hard time? You’re the Son of God! You weren’t supposed to show up here yet!” Off in the distance a herd of pigs was browsing and rooting. The evil spirits begged Jesus, “If you kick us out of these men, let us live in the pigs.”

32–34  Jesus said, “Go ahead, but get out of here!” Crazed, the pigs stampeded over a cliff into the sea and drowned. Scared to death, the swineherds bolted. They told everyone back in town what had happened to the madmen and the pigs. Those who heard about it were angry about the drowned pigs. A mob formed and demanded that Jesus get out and not come back.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Thursday, February 27, 2025

by Tom Felten

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Hosea 3

In Time They’ll Come Back

1  3 Then God ordered me, “Start all over: Love your wife again,

your wife who’s in bed with her latest boyfriend, your cheating wife.

Love her the way I, God, love the Israelite people,

even as they flirt and party with every god that takes their fancy.”

2–3  I did it. I paid good money to get her back.

It cost me the price of a slave.

Then I told her, “From now on you’re living with me.

No more whoring, no more sleeping around.

You’re living with me and I’m living with you.”

4–5  The people of Israel are going to live a long time

stripped of security and protection,

without religion and comfort,

godless and prayerless.

But in time they’ll come back, these Israelites,

come back looking for their God and their David-King.

They’ll come back chastened to reverence

before God and his good gifts, ready for the End of the story of his love.

Today's Insights

The fourteen chapters of Hosea comprise one of the stranger books of the Bible. Why would God command His prophet Hosea to “marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her” (Hosea 1:2)? The answer comes in the first chapter: “for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord” (v. 2). God intended Hosea’s publicly disastrous marriage to be a vivid depiction to the people of what they were doing to Him by engaging in obscene idolatry. He said of them, “She will chase after her lovers” (2:7). Yet God would bring the people back from exile. Hosea 3 anticipates a day when Israel “will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days” (v. 5). God will always love them, as Hosea loved his wife.

A Path Forward

Love [your wife] as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods. Hosea 3:1

What do we do? Scott and Bree agonized over how to relate to friends and family members who’d chosen unbiblical ways of life. As they studied the Scriptures and prayed, a path forward emerged: First, they reinforced their love for their friends and loved ones; second, they expressed what was true and good about them based on God’s good design; and third, they shared how they would lovingly interact with them based on Scriptural wisdom. In time, greater relational trust was built as Scott and Bree extended Christlike love.

Hosea likely wondered how to relate to his wife—a woman whose chosen way of life didn’t honor God or him. God directed the prophet to “show your love to your wife again, though she is . . . an adulteress” (Hosea 3:1). The prophet evidently reinforced his love for her while also expressing what was right and true for them and their relationship before God (v. 3). His relationship with her symbolized God’s own challenge with rebellious ancient Israel. Though they’d chosen a wrong course, He provided a path forward, telling them His “love will know no bounds” (14:4 nlt) but to choose His ways for they “are right” (v. 9).

As God provides wisdom and discernment, let’s continue to extend His love and truth to those who’ve chosen unbiblical ways of life. His example provides the path forward. 

Reflect & Pray

How has God shown love and truth to you? How can you show God’s love and truth to those on unbiblical paths?

Loving God, please help me to reflect Your truth and love to those far from You.

For further study, read Evangelism—Reaching Out through Relationships.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Thursday, February 27, 2025

The Almighty God

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep.” — John 4:11

“The well is deep”—indeed! The well of human nature is even deeper than the Samaritan woman knew. Think of the depths inside you, the depths of your thoughts and your feelings, of your hopes and your fears. Do you believe that no depth is too deep for Jesus?

Imagine that there is a fathomless well of trouble inside your heart. Then Jesus comes and says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1). Do you reply, “But, Lord, the well is too deep. You’ll never draw quietness and comfort up from it”? It’s true; he won’t. Jesus doesn’t bring anything up from the wells of human nature. He brings it down from God above.

If we’re looking inside ourselves for the answers, diving into the wells of our incompleteness, we’ll only succeed in placing limits on God. Sometimes, we limit God by forgetting what he’s done for us; sometimes, we limit him by remembering. We remember how far we’ve allowed him to go for us in the past, and we think that he can never go any further. But God has no limits; God is almighty. As disciples, we must believe this fully. To believe in God’s almightiness means believing in the very thing that seems to challenge it. We find it easy to believe that God can sympathize with us, but when it comes to something we’ve already decided is impossible, we shrug and say, “God can’t do everything.” God’s ministry is infinitely rich; we impoverish it when we talk like this.

The reason some of us are such poor specimens of discipleship is that we don’t believe in an almighty God. We have Christian attributes and experiences, but we aren’t abandoned to our Lord. Beware of the satisfaction that comes from sinking back and saying, “It can’t be done.” You know it can, if you look to Jesus.

Numbers 17-19; Mark 6:30-56

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

To read the Bible according to God’s providential order in your circumstances is the only way to read it, viz., in the blood and passion of personal life.

Disciples Indeed, 387 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Thursday, February 27, 2025

NO "YEAH, BUT" IN OBEDIENCE - #9949

I saw this amusing commercial. This basset hound lying on the floor next to his master; his master is totally covered by the newspaper he's reading. On the floor in front of the dog is a page of the newspaper that advertises this incredible bargain airfare from a certain airline. Suddenly, the dog has a bubble over his head in which he sees himself at the kennel again while his master is off traveling. The dog quietly picks up that part of the paper that has the ad, trots over to the garbage can, drops it in, and goes back to his master's side, and his master never knows the difference. Of course, the dog has no way of knowing those great sale fares aren't always as great as they first appear. The sale fare is in big print, but at the bottom is the small print with lots of conditions. Or you call and you get some surprises. You have to fly over a certain day of the week, or there's a penalty for any changes, or there are only a few seats at that price, or you may have to book two years in advance! It looks great for a while, but the added conditions change things a bit - conditions you hadn't counted on.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No 'Yeah, But' In Obedience."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 19:27-29. By the way, Jesus knows how it feels to call - and to find out about unadvertised conditions. The Scripture says, "Peter answered Him, 'We have left everything to follow You! What then will there be for us?' Jesus said to them,... 'You who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for My sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.'"

Peter's wanting to know what's in it for him to follow Jesus. Contrast that with his original commitment to Jesus in Mark 1, "'Come, follow Me,' Jesus said, 'and I will make you fishers of men.' At once they left their nets and followed Him.'" There were no conditions, no footnotes, but now Peter's concerned about houses and fields and closeness to his family.

Peter's not alone. His mind set here uncovers a troubling tendency in our commitment to Christ. Unconditional commitment to Christ tends to become conditional. As our lives get more complex, as we accumulate more and accomplish more, we start to add little footnotes and conditions to what began as an "anything goes" commitment to Christ.

There was probably sometime in your life when you opened yourself up totally to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. You said, "It doesn't matter where I live, how much money I make, what position I get, what I wear, what I drive, who goes with me..." but that can change, can't it? Now the Lord might be asking you to do something that might risk or change some of those parts of your life. Suddenly you're giving the Lord a contract with certain requirements: living in certain conditions, being near your family, keeping your position or some prized possessions, keeping a special person, being comfortable. You're saying, "Yes, Lord - but..." added conditions. The word "but" cannot follow the word "Lord."

Jesus assured Peter he was losing nothing any more than you lose the money you invest in a stock that later goes sky high. In fact, Jesus promises a reward 100 times any sacrifice you make. What a return! But that kind of reward is reserved for those who give Jesus a blank piece of paper, not a contract.

Have you added footnotes and conditions to your once wide-open commitment? Get back to where you began - following Jesus in total abandon.

Job 7, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: GOD LIGHTENS YOUR LOAD - February 26, 2025

Prayer reminds us of who’s in charge. You don’t take your requests to someone with less authority. You take them to someone who outranks you in the solutions department.

The same is true in prayer. You don’t pray just to let God know what’s going on. He’s way ahead of you on that one. You pray to transfer “my will be done” to “God’s will be done.” And since he’s in charge, he knows the best solution. Prayer transfers the burden to God and lightens your load. Prayer pushes us through life’s slumps, and propels us over the humps, and pulls us out of the dumps. Prayer’s the oomph we need to get the answers we seek. So pray—today!

Max on Life: Answers and Insights to Your Most Important Questions

Job 7

There’s Nothing to My Life

1–6  7 “Human life is a struggle, isn’t it?

It’s a life sentence to hard labor.

Like field hands longing for quitting time

and working stiffs with nothing to hope for but payday,

I’m given a life that meanders and goes nowhere—

months of aimlessness, nights of misery!

I go to bed and think, ‘How long till I can get up?’

I toss and turn as the night drags on—and I’m fed up!

I’m covered with maggots and scabs.

My skin gets scaly and hard, then oozes with pus.

My days come and go swifter than the click of knitting needles,

and then the yarn runs out—an unfinished life!

7–10  “God, don’t forget that I’m only a puff of air!

These eyes have had their last look at goodness.

And your eyes have seen the last of me;

even while you’re looking, there’ll be nothing left to look at.

When a cloud evaporates, it’s gone for good;

those who go to the grave never come back.

They don’t return to visit their families;

never again will friends drop in for coffee.

11–16  “And so I’m not keeping one bit of this quiet,

I’m laying it all out on the table;

my complaining to high heaven is bitter, but honest.

Are you going to put a muzzle on me,

the way you quiet the sea and still the storm?

If I say, ‘I’m going to bed, then I’ll feel better.

A little nap will lift my spirits,’

You come and so scare me with nightmares

and frighten me with ghosts

That I’d rather strangle in the bedclothes

than face this kind of life any longer.

I hate this life! Who needs any more of this?

Let me alone! There’s nothing to my life—it’s nothing but smoke.

17–21  “What are mortals anyway, that you bother with them,

that you even give them the time of day?

That you check up on them every morning,

looking in on them to see how they’re doing?

Let up on me, will you?

Can’t you even let me spit in peace?

Even suppose I’d sinned—how would that hurt you?

You’re responsible for every human being.

Don’t you have better things to do than pick on me?

Why make a federal case out of me?

Why don’t you just forgive my sins

and start me off with a clean slate?

The way things are going, I’ll soon be dead.

You’ll look high and low, but I won’t be around.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

by Katara Patton

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Acts 9:36-43

Down the road a way in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha, “Gazelle” in our language. She was well-known for doing good and helping out. During the time Peter was in the area she became sick and died. Her friends prepared her body for burial and put her in a cool room.

38–40  Some of the disciples had heard that Peter was visiting in nearby Lydda and sent two men to ask if he would be so kind as to come over. Peter got right up and went with them. They took him into the room where Tabitha’s body was laid out. Her old friends, most of them widows, were in the room mourning. They showed Peter pieces of clothing the Gazelle had made while she was with them. Peter put the widows all out of the room. He knelt and prayed. Then he spoke directly to the body: “Tabitha, get up.”

40–41  She opened her eyes. When she saw Peter, she sat up. He took her hand and helped her up. Then he called in the believers and widows, and presented her to them alive.

42–43  When this became known all over Joppa, many put their trust in the Master. Peter stayed on a long time in Joppa as a guest of Simon the Tanner.

Today's Insights

The phrase “doing good” (Acts 9:36) also appears in Acts 10:38 where Peter, preaching in the home of Cornelius, summarized the ministry of Jesus: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and . . . he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” Tabitha—a disciple of Christ—followed His example of helping those in need by making clothes as a tangible expression of her care (9:39). Peter, likewise, followed Christ in doing good by using his apostolic gifts. It’s hard to miss the similarities between Acts 9:39-42 and Mark 5:37-43, where Peter had a front row seat at Jairus’ house (see also Luke 8:51) when Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead. After Christ had returned to heaven, His good works continued through those who believed in Him.

The Joy of Giving

Tabitha . . . was always doing good and helping the poor. Acts 9:36

On a five-hour flight, a woman vigorously crocheted a sweater. As she moved her hook in and out of her yarn, she noticed a five-month-old baby who was mesmerized by her motions. Then the woman got an idea: instead of finishing the sweater she was working on; she would make a hat for her little admirer. She had to finish the hat in the remaining time of the flight, however—just one hour! When the woman presented the child’s mom with the little hat, the whole family accepted it with joy while the other passengers smiled and applauded.

Surprise gifts are often received with joy. Whether they’re gifts we need or simply want, through them the giver may also show us the kindness of Christ. In the early church, Tabitha was known for sharing clothes and “always doing good and helping the poor” (Acts 9:36). When she died, her beneficiaries displayed “the robes and other clothing that [she] had made . . . them” (v. 39). They testified about her kindness and how she’d touched their lives.

In a dramatic turn of events, Peter, through the Holy Spirit’s power, brought Tabitha back to life (v. 40). His actions filled those who loved her with joy—and led many others to believe in Christ (v. 42).

Our actions of kindness can be some of the most memorable testifying we do. As God provides, let’s share some surprise gifts with others today.

Reflect & Pray

What gifts can you share with others? What has it meant for you to receive gifts of kindness?

Heavenly Father, please remind me to be kind to others—sharing my gifts and treasures.

Discover how not to let your failure stop you from following Jesus.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Doubts about Jesus

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?” — John 4:11

When Jesus told the Samaritan woman that he could give her living water, her reply was full of doubt. We marvel at this story, because we know our Lord has told the woman the truth. But when it comes to our own lives, we aren’t always so sure. “I’m impressed with the wondrous things he says,” we think. “But in reality, they can’t be done!”

Where do our doubts about Jesus come from? They might spring from other people’s doubts about the plans we’ve made with God— their questions about where we’ll get our money or how we’ll live. Or we might plant the seeds of doubt ourselves, informing Jesus that our problems are too much, even for him.

What’s really happening is that we’ve confused Jesus’s limitations with our own. We look at our own abilities to determine what Jesus can do, then panic when we see the depths of our own inadequacy. “No, no,” we protest. “I have no doubts about Jesus, only about myself.” This is a pious kind of fraud. None of us are truly confused about ourselves: we know perfectly well what we can and can’t do. But we do have doubts about Jesus. Sometimes we even act insulted by his power, as though we’re hurt by the idea that he can do what we can’t.

If you sense doubts about Jesus in yourself, bring them to the light and confess them: “Lord, I’ve had doubts about you. I haven’t believed in your strength apart from my own. I haven’t believed in your almighty power apart from my finite understanding of it.” Then ask God to take your doubts away.

Numbers 15-16; Mark 6:1-29

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

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

The Place of Help, 1032 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

YOUR LIFE'S MOST MEMORABLE LEGACY - #9948

Ronald Reagan led one of the most extraordinary lives of the 20th Century - a life which he sadly and progressively forgot in the last years of his life. His long battle with Alzheimer's Disease acted like a cruel eraser. It removed recollections of what he had done and even who he was. After Ronald Reagan's death, we learned a lot more about what happened during his long journey into darkness. Memory of his years in Hollywood just disappeared, and then he couldn't remember being Governor of California, and ultimately he lost all that had happened in his years of being President of the United States. But one memory stayed alive almost until the end. In the office that Nancy Reagan set up for him, there was a picture on the wall, it was a picture of the Rock River in Illinois. When visitors would ask him about it, after most of his life was there no more, he would brighten and he'd say, "Oh, that's where I was a lifeguard when I was 17. That's where I saved 77 lives!"

I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Life's Most Memorable Legacy."

After all was said and done, the one thing Ronald Reagan could remember about his life was the lives he saved. But then, there's nothing about your life that's more worth remembering. No matter how many or how few, no matter how large or how small your life accomplishments have been, that's your greatest legacy. There's nothing more heroic, there's nothing more meaningful than being someone's difference between life and death - especially if it's eternal life or death.

Our word for today from the Word of God in Proverbs 11:30 tells us what the legacy of your life and mine ought to be. God says, "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise." What you should have to show for the one life you've lived is a trail of life - people whose souls you have helped move from sin's death penalty to the eternal life that can only be found at Jesus' cross.

There's a stretch of beach that God has assigned to each of us who belongs to Him. There's a stretch of beach where He's assigned you to be His lifeguard - the one who's responsible to do all you can to rescue the people around you who will die spiritually unless someone helps them get to Jesus. You may be looking around and saying, "Me? Surely God must have someone better than me to help these people get to heaven?"

Stop looking around. You're the one He's put in their lives. Not some highly trained spiritual professional, not some professional God salesman, not someone with a more outgoing personality, not someone who's got it more together than you have. Your Savior decided you were the person they needed as their link to Him.

Look, if you're like most of us, your fear has kept you from actively trying to introduce them to Jesus. Fear is actually from one thing: it's all about me. It's focusing on ourselves - how I'm going to look, what they'll think about me - instead of focusing on what might happen to them if we don't try to tell them.

Maybe you've been preoccupied with goals and accomplishments that won't even last for your lifetime, let alone forever. But God says those who lead many to righteousness will "shine like the stars forever and ever" (Daniel 12:3). People in heaven because you cared - there's nothing you can do in this life that can even come close to that as a legacy. Lives saved forever.

The place where you work, the activities you're involved in, the school you attend, the neighborhood you live in, the people who keep showing up in your life; they are the lives at stake on your stretch of the beach. Don't fail the Savior who died for them by letting them live and die without Him because of your silence. Don't fail them by not showing them the difference Jesus makes; by not telling them what Jesus did for them on the cross.

See, you are their chance at Jesus. You're their chance at heaven.

Job 6, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: PUT IT ON THE CALENDAR - February 25, 2025

A quiet time with God is very similar to a special date. Denalyn and I like to go to the same restaurants over and over again. When we’re there, we remember special moments we’ve shared before. Our hearts open up, and we talk to each other. We listen, we laugh, and sometimes we cry. I love those times! So does God. A quiet time with God is very similar to a special date.

Here are some tools to help you keep your date with him special: Select a slot in your schedule and claim it for God. Take as much time as you need. Your time with God should last long enough for you to say what you want and for God to say what he wants. Bring an open Bible—God’s Word, his love letter to you. Bring a listening heart, and listen to the lover of your soul. Make sure your date with God is on the calendar, and do everything in your power to keep it special.

Max on Life: Answers and Insights to Your Most Important Questions

Job 6

JOB REPLIES TO ELIPHAZ

God Has Dumped the Works on Me

1–7  6 Job answered:

“If my misery could be weighed,

if you could pile the whole bitter load on the scales,

It would be heavier than all the sand of the sea!

Is it any wonder that I’m screaming like a caged cat?

The arrows of God Almighty are in me,

poison arrows—and I’m poisoned all through!

God has dumped the whole works on me.

Donkeys bray and cows moo when they run out of pasture—

so don’t expect me to keep quiet in this.

Do you see what God has dished out for me?

It’s enough to turn anyone’s stomach!

Everything in me is repulsed by it—

it makes me sick.

Pressed Past the Limits

8–13  “All I want is an answer to one prayer,

a last request to be honored:

Let God step on me—squash me like a bug,

and be done with me for good.

I’d at least have the satisfaction

of not having blasphemed the Holy God,

before being pressed past the limits.

Where’s the strength to keep my hopes up?

What future do I have to keep me going?

Do you think I have nerves of steel?

Do you think I’m made of iron?

Do you think I can pull myself up by my bootstraps?

Why, I don’t even have any boots!

My So-Called Friends

14–23  “When desperate people give up on God Almighty,

their friends, at least, should stick with them.

But my brothers are fickle as a gulch in the desert—

one day they’re gushing with water

From melting ice and snow

cascading out of the mountains,

But by midsummer they’re dry,

gullies baked dry in the sun.

Travelers who spot them and go out of their way for a drink

end up in a waterless gulch and die of thirst.

Merchant caravans from Tema see them and expect water,

tourists from Sheba hope for a cool drink.

They arrive so confident—but what a disappointment!

They get there, and their faces fall!

And you, my so-called friends, are no better—there’s nothing to you!

One look at a hard scene and you shrink in fear.

It’s not as though I asked you for anything—

I didn’t ask you for one red cent—

Nor did I beg you to go out on a limb for me.

So why all this dodging and shuffling?

24–27  “Confront me with the truth and I’ll shut up,

show me where I’ve gone off the track.

Honest words never hurt anyone,

but what’s the point of all this pious bluster?

You pretend to tell me what’s wrong with my life,

but treat my words of anguish as so much hot air.

Are people mere things to you?

Are friends just items of profit and loss?

28–30  “Look me in the eyes!

Do you think I’d lie to your face?

Think it over—no double-talk!

Think carefully—my integrity is on the line!

Can you detect anything false in what I say?

Don’t you trust me to discern good from evil?”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Tuesday, February 25, 2025

by Monica La Rose

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Luke 6:31-38

  “Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that’s charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.

35–36  “I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You’ll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind.

37–38  “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Don’t condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people; you’ll find life a lot easier. Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity.”

Today's Insights

The teaching of Luke 6:31-38 is similar to that of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:38-48, which Jesus taught “up on a mountainside” (v. 1). Christ taught the sermon in Luke 6—the Sermon on the Plain—on another occasion: “on a level place” (v. 17) or “in the plain” (kjv). Here, Jesus taught about unconditional love for others, including enemies, so that we can be “children of the Most High” (v. 35). God “is kind to the ungrateful and wicked” (v. 35); we’re to be merciful in the same measure that the “Father is merciful” (v. 36). In this sermon, Christ articulated a maxim popularly known as the Golden Rule: “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (v. 31), espousing the principle of “a man reaps what he sows” (Galatians 6:7). Christ spoke of reciprocal treatment, “for with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Luke 6:38).

Responding to Generosity

Give, and it will be given to you. Luke 6:38

When Lydia was gifted $10,000 by anonymous donors, she spent little of it on herself. Instead, she gave generous gifts to coworkers, family, flood victims, and charities. Lydia, unbeknownst to her, was part of a study following how two hundred people responded to a no-strings-attached gift of $10,000 through a bank transfer. That study found that more than two-thirds of that gifted money was given away. Sharing this story, Chris Anderson, head of the TED nonprofit media organization, reflected, “It turns out that . . . we human beings are wired to respond to generosity with generosity.”

In Scripture, we find that when people live generously, they reflect the heart of the God who made them. God is generous, merciful, and kind, not just to some but to all—even “to the ungrateful and wicked” (Luke 6:35). So Jesus instructed those who desire to reflect God’s character to “love,” “do good to,” and “lend to” even enemies “without expecting to get anything back” (vv. 32-35).

When we give without expecting anything back, we’ll find that it’s never a way of life that harms us. Jesus pointed this out too, saying, “Give, and it will be given to you. . . . With the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (v. 38). When we respond to God’s generosity by living generously, we find we’re enriched in countless ways.

Reflect & Pray

How have you found joy through giving? How have the gifts of others enriched your life?

Gracious God, thank You for the joy of giving.

For further study, read The Benefits of Generosity.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Tuesday, February 25, 2025

The Poverty of Service

If I love you more, will you love me less? — 2 Corinthians 12:15

Natural love expects to be returned, but Paul didn’t care if he was loved by those he served. He was willing to be ridiculed and overlooked, to be made poor and humble, just so long as he was bringing people to God. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor” (2 Corinthians 8:9). Giving his all wasn’t a burden for Paul; it was a joy: “I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well” (12:15).

The way Jesus thinks about service is not the way the world thinks about it. Jesus Christ out-socialists socialists. He says that in his kingdom the greatest will be the servant of all (Matthew 23:11). The real test for us lies not in preaching the gospel but in washing feet, in doing the things that are little esteemed by the world but count for everything with God.

Paul didn’t care what God’s interests in other people cost him. The instant God asks us to serve, we start making calculations. “God wants me to go there?” we say. “What about the salary? What about the weather? A sensible person has to consider these things.” When we think like this, we’re being selfish and cautious about how we serve God.

Paul was never cautious. He embodied Jesus’s idea of a New Testament disciple, one who not only proclaimed the gospel but became, for the sake of others, broken bread and poured-out wine in the hands of Jesus Christ.

Numbers 12-14; Mark 5:21-43

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

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

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Tuesday, February 25, 2025

THE TAPESTRY AND THE THREADS - #9947

Okay, let's do a little word association here, you ready? Persian. Ah...cat? Well, you might have thought of cat. For me, when I hear the word Persian...I think rug. I've never owned one and I probably never will, but I've sure seen them. And you know it's much more than a carpet. It's a work of art! Years ago Amy Carmichael wrote about the incredible process that produces these masterpieces. Try to picture this. There are two sets of workmen sitting on a bench on one side of the carpet which is hanging from a beam up above. The designer stands on the other side, he's holding a pattern in his hand and he directs the workers by calling across to them exactly what they're to do next. It's like a chant actually. And then the workman chants back to the designer the word that he's heard, verifying that order. Then the workman cuts from whatever bobbin has been ordered and he pushes that thread through the carpet warp and he knots it. All he can see is that thread. He sees nothing of the pattern until the caret is finished. That's all in the designer's hands. But when he finally sees what all these commands and all these threads have made, wow!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Tapestry And The Threads."

Take a peek at what The Designer is up to...our word for today from the Word of God, Romans 8:28, "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him who have been called according to his purpose." Now, in His hands is the pattern - what the masterpiece will look like when it's finished and it's beautiful. But He's the only one that can see that whole pattern. He said in Jeremiah "You know the plans I have for you. They are plans for good and not for evil." And the Bible says, "As for God, His way is perfect." Oh, it's going to be beautiful, it's going to be good. He's working out the eternal tapestry for your life. But we're just like those workmen, we can't see the pattern. All we see is the next thread. Our job, Romans 8:14, says, "Those who are led by the spirit of God, are the sons of God." Our job is to be led. How? Psalm 119:133 gives us a clue, "Direct my footsteps according to your Word." The next step, the next thread...show me from your Word where my next step is.

The designer's on the other side giving directions that will bring me one step, one thread closer to the grand design. Some of those threads are dark, some don't make sense, some don't seem to fit the pattern, some look wrong to me, but I'm just a workman. My job is to trust the designer, not to try to understand every order. Those Persian workers choose nothing; they leave every choice to the designer. Their responsibility is simply to listen and obey, and so is ours.

Today is another thread in the tapestry. Your mission, fellow weaver, is to check with the Lord frequently, consult His Word faithfully, listen for His inner Spirit promptings regularly. It's not your mission to know or to understand where all this is going. But the grand, macro will of God for your earth journey is made up of thousands of micro wills, thousands of little obediences, "Go there, call this person, write this, listen to this, take this step, read this verse." Threads that ultimately create the tapestry.

Occasionally God will let you stand back from your weaving to see a piece of the grand design and when you've had a glimpse of what He's making, it's been incredible, hasn't it? But, most days, the designer asks you to just keep weaving those threads. Some you like, some you don't like, some you're thankful for, some you would never choose. But, keep listening, keep doing what the designer says. One day you will stand back with the Master Designer. You will see the masterpiece that you have woven together with His direction and your faithful obediences.