Young - Jesus calling: a 365-day journaling devotional

TO:

FROM:

2013 by Sarah Young

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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Other Scripture quotations are from the following sources:

The King James Version (KJV). The Message (MSG) by Eugene H. Peterson. 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved. THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION (NKJV). 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE (NASB), The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The Amplified Bible, copyright 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Special thanks to Kris Bearss for her work on the journaling prompts.

ISBN 978-1-4003-2289-3

ISBN 978-1-4041-8782-5 (leatherflex)

ISBN 978-1-4041-1409-8 (custom leathersoft)

ISBN 978-1-4003-2168-1 (teen)

ISBN 978-1-4003-1813-1 (large edition)

ISBN 978-1-4041-1390-9 (softcover)

ISBN 978-1-5914-5188-4 (hardcover)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Young, Sarah, 1946

Jesus Calling / by Sarah Young.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-5914-5188-4 (hardcover)

1. Devotional calendars. 2. Devotional literature, English. I. Title.

BV4811.Y675 2004

242.2dc22

2044005474

Printed in China

13 14 15 16 17 TIMS 5 4 3 2 1

I dedicate JESUS CALLING to my mother, whose encouragement inspired me to persevere in writing this book. She demonstrated her appreciation of my writing in poignant ways. She kept my manuscript beside her bed so she could read it every morning. Once, while away from her home, she even asked me to fax her the readings day by day. After she died from cancer, I found portions of my writings that she had hand copied into a journal. This mother who had prayed me through thick and thin, including years of rebellion, opened her heart fully to my devotional writing. Her oft-expressed desire to write childrens books never came to fruition. But there is a sense in which she has writtenthrough methis book.

Thank you, Nani! Your legacy lives on.

CONTENTS

Jesus Calling

I first experienced the Presence of God in a setting of exquisite beauty. I was studying at a Christian community in a tiny Alpine village in France. This was a branch of LAbri, an international ministry that began in Switzerland through Francis and Edith Schaeffers work. During my stay at LAbri, I often explored the fairyland-like environment all around me. It was late winter, and the noonday sun was warm enough for sunbathing, but the depth of the snow kept it from melting. Brilliant sunlight reflecting from pure white snow was cleansing my mind of the darkness that had held it captive for years.

Every day I climbed up a steep hill to attain a view that delighted my soul. As I stood at the top, I would lose myself in a panorama of unbroken beauty. Below me was the village that had become my home. Viewed from this height, the village was dominated by a high-steepled church. Turning 180 degrees, I could see Lake Geneva far below me, shouting greetings in refracted sunbeams. When I looked up, I saw icy tips of Alpine mountains encircling me. I would turn round and round, absorbing as much as I could with two eyes and a finite mind.

The daughter of a college professor, I had been encouraged to read widely and think for myself. I had majored in philosophy at Wellesley College and had almost completed my masters degree in child development at Tufts University. A few months earlier, my brother had asked me to read Francis Schaeffers Escape from Reason. To my great surprise and delight, that small book had answered questions Id long before dismissed as unanswerable. It was the intellectual integrity of Schaeffers books that had drawn me to this pristine place. I was searching for absolute, unchanging trutha foundation on which to build my life.

Shortly after I settled into the home I shared with other students, I met a gifted counselor who had come from the Swiss branch of LAbri to talk with some of us. I went into the room where she was waiting, and she told me to close the door. Before I even had time to sit down, she asked her first question: Are you a Christian? I answered that I wasnt sure; I wanted to be a Christian, but I didnt really understand why I needed Jesus. I thought that knowing God might be enough. Her second question was: What can you not forgive yourself for? This question brought me face to face with my sinfulness, and immediately I understood my need for Jesusto save me from my many sins. Later, when I was alone, I asked Him to forgive all my sins and to be my Savior-God.

One night I found myself leaving the warmth of our cozy chalet to walk alone in the snowy mountains. I went into a deeply wooded area, feeling vulnerable and awed by cold, moonlit beauty. The air was crisp and dry, piercing to inhale. After a while, I came into an open area and I stopped walking. Time seemed to stand still as I gazed around me in wondersoaking in the beauty of this place. Suddenly I became aware of a lovely Presence with me, and my involuntary response was to whisper, Sweet Jesus. This experience of Jesus Presence was far more personal than the intellectual answers for which Id been searching. This was a relationship with the Creator of the universethe One who is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

The following year, back in the United States, I had another encounter with the Presence of Jesus. I was grieving the loss of a serious dating relationship and wondering whether being a Christian made much difference in the quality of my life.

At that time I was working as a technical writer in Virginia. My boss sent me to Atlanta to attend a conference. I accepted this assignment dutifully and checked into the hotel without enthusiasm. Alone in my room, I felt waves of desolation wash over me. So I began walking the streets of Atlanta aimlessly, trying to escape my solitude. I glanced at some books in an outdoor stall and was drawn to Beyond Ourselves by Catherine Marshall. That night, as I read the book, I no longer felt alone. I knelt beside the bed in that sterile room and felt an overwhelming Presence of peace and love come over me. I knew that Jesus was with me and that He sympathized with my heartache. This was unquestionably the same Sweet Jesus I had encountered in the snowy splendor of the Alps.

During the next sixteen years, I lived what many people might consider an exemplary Christian life. I went to Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, where I earned a masters degree in counseling and biblical studies. While there, I met my husband, Steve, a third-generation missionary to Japan. After graduation, we spent two four-year terms in Japan doing church-planting ministry. We had a baby girl during our first term and a baby boy during our furlough in the United States. After our second term, we returned to the US for three years. We lived in Atlanta, where Steve worked with a local Japanese church and I earned a further degree in counseling at Georgia State University.