Sarah Young - Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence

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Devotions for Every Day of the Year

Sarah Young

Jesus
Calling

Enjoying Peace in His Presence

Jesus Calling
Copyright 2004 Sarah Young

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations used in this book are from:
The Holy Bible, New International Version. 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

Other Scripture references are from the following sources:
King James Version (KJV); The Message (MSG), 1993. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group; New King James Version (NKJV), 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.; AmplifiedBible (AMP), 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.lockman.org)

Cover design by Brand Navigation LLC; www.brandnavigation.com Interior design by Brand Navigation LLC; www.brandnavigation.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Young, Sarah, 1946
Jesus Calling / by Sarah Young.
p. cm.
ISBN 1591451884 (hardcover)
1. Devotional calendars. 2. Devotional literature, English.
I. Title.
BV4811.Y675 2004
242.2dc22

2044005474

ISBN10: 1591451884
ISBN13: 9781591451884

Printed in China
07 08 RRD 9 8 7 6 5 4
www.thomasnelson.com

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 living and 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 was free to explore 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 at Tufts University. A few months earlier my brother had asked me to read 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 Francis Schaeffers teaching that had drawn me to that pristine place. Though the quest that had taken me there was a search for truth, it was Gods glorious creation that helped me open my heart to Him.

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. Suddenly I felt as if a warm mist enveloped me. I became aware of a lovely Presence, and my involuntary response was to whisper, Sweet Jesus. This utterance was totally uncharacteristic of me, and I was shocked to hear myself speaking so tenderly to Jesus. As I pondered this brief communication, I realized it was the response of a converted heart; at that moment I knew I belonged to Him. This was far more than the intellectual answers for which Id been searching. This was a relationship with the Creator of the universe.

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 Jesus was with me and that He sympathized with my heartache. This was unquestionably the same Sweet Jesus I had met in 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 work. 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 U.S. 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.

As part of my training, I worked at a Christian counseling center in the Atlanta area. I cherished my experiences of helping deeply wounded women find healing in Christ. I was also thankful for my kind, loving husband and our two delightful children, who were the main joys of my life. However, not once during those sixteen years did I vividly experience the Presence of Jesus.