Amanda Jenkins - The Chosen: 40 Days with Jesus

The devotions in The Chosen put us into the story of the ordinary people who surrounded Jesus. No plastic saints here, just sinners who spent time with the one Man who understood them and would eventually die for them. These are stories of rebuke and hope, of sin and forgiveness. Yes, their story is ours. Read The Chosen and pass it along to some other struggling sinners who need to see Jesus in a new light.

DR. ERWIN LUTZER, pastor emeritus,
The Moody Church, Chicago, Illinois

I dont know of anyone like Dallas Jenkins. His fresh eyes and instincts take the greatest stories ever told and make them new. This beautiful and powerful devotional is borne of that same gift. You will be inspired and motivated to live life to the fullest as you read these deep insights!

PASTOR RAY BENTLEY, author, speaker, and
pastor of Maranatha Chapel, San Diego, California

In The Chosen, three voices join as one to lead you on a remarkable forty-day journey with Jesus. Youll meet the people who loved Him, served Him, and followed Him, seeing the Savior through their eyes as you consider who He is and why He came. The writing style is relatable and accessible, and the prayer focus for each devotion provides the perfect landing spot. And the questions meant to help you move forward in your faith are challenging enough to do just that. A gem of a book!

LIZ CURTIS HIGGS, best-selling author of
Bad Girls of the Bible

BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC

Savage, Minnesota, USA

BroadStreetPublishing.com

THE CHOSEN: 40 Days with

Copyright 2019 The Chosen Productions, LLC

978-1-4245-5785-1 (faux leather)

978-1-4245-5786-8 (e-book)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright 2000, 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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To Simon Peter, Mary Magdalene,

Nicodemus, and Matthew.

Before they were heroes of the faith

who inspired The Chosen series,

they were desperate sinners like us.

When the Son of God walked the earth in our shoes, He connected with humanity through story. Jesus used our own tales to help us understand Gods truths. He communicated the immutable principles of the heavens with parables of familiar, earthly circumstances and relatable characters to which any of His listeners could universally identify. They were anecdotes, chronicles, and narratives that became like soul food to everyone He met.

Thats how God the Father has been giving His revelation to humankind since the dawn of the cosmos. Through story, because God is and has always been the First Author: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1, emphasis added).

God knows that when we are most hungry spiritually, the themes of heavengrace, forgiveness, sacrifice, redemption, reconciliation, and resurrectionwill resonate in our hearts and draw us closer to Him. Those themes are like violin strings running through our souls and, when plucked in just the right way, always reverberate back the plumb line of Gods truth.

That is what my friend, Dallas Jenkins, is creating with his powerful media series, The Chosen, which takes us on a journey with Jesus through the eyes of the real people whose lives He absolutely transformed with His words, love, and deeds. Imagine what it would be like to walk the dusty roads of those characters who encountered the Messiah.

That is what you are going to find in these beautiful and powerful devotions. Take The Chosen journey these next forty days. Read and reflect on these devotions. Digest them as food for your soul. And then write them in your heart, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.

Screenwriter and producer of The Case for Christ film and television series When Calls the Heart; co-author of the devotional series When God Calls the Heart

Ive been a believer my whole life, Ive attended Christian schools my whole life, and Ive heard the stories of Jesus countless times. Ive also seen every Jesus movie and miniseries ever made, and there have been dozens. So why a new TV show about Jesus?

Because of what youre reading now.

I have a passion for people to hear the old, old story again for the very first time. When I see Jesus movies, its very rare for me to be moved or excited, and the same is true for a lot of Jesus-related devotionals. Quite frankly, Ive heard it all before, and its hard to relate to the perfect and sinless Son of God. However, I can relate to the sinners who surrounded Him. Problem is, most Jesus projects just take you from Bible story to Bible story, glossing over the humanity and backstories of all these characters.

So when I started creating a TV show that explores Jesus through the eyes of the people around Him, I found myself getting moved and excited. I was experiencing Him in the way they did, and the reaction to the Christmas special pilot episode about the birth of Christ from the perspective of the shepherds confirmed we were on to something. We kept hearing, Ive heard this before but never in this way.

As we wrote episodes and this devotional, we explored the backstories of Simon Peter, Matthew, Mary Magdalene, Nicodemus, and a few of Jesus miracle recipients. We couldnt help but identify with their recklessness, rough past, religious piety, and desperation for life change and ultimately, their redemption.

Again, why a new TV show about Jesus?

So that we can go deeper, and hopefully this book will help with that. None of this matters if it doesnt compel you back to Scripturenot only so you can experience Jesus the way His followers did, but also so you can change and grow the way they did.

So please, if youve chosen (no pun intended) to dig into this material with us, make full use of it. Jesus followers were students (its why they called Him Rabbi and Teacher). Be a student. Write stuff down, pray on what youre reading and writing, and celebrate the fact that youre chosen to be an ambassador for the one who created the world.

Let me be clear: The project in front of you is connected to the TV show, yes, but only in the sense that were compelled to show and tell in order to revive your passion for Scripture and the one who inspired it. We hope watching the show enhances your experience with this book, and we hope engaging with this book enhances your experience watching the show. But we didnt create this to capitalize on the show; youll see plenty in here that isnt covered in our episodes. This would exist even if the show didnt.