Melody Carlson - Always. A Teen Devotional

ALWYS

A TEEN DEVOTONAL

Words from the Rock

MELODY CARLSON

2010 by Melody Carlson

Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.revellbooks.com

E-book edition created 2010

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

ISBN 978-1-4412-1300-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Scripture marked CEV is taken from the Contemporary English Version 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society. Used by permission.

Scripture marked ESV is taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked Message is taken from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson, copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked NASB is taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture marked NCV is from the New Century Version. Copyright 1987, 1988, 1991 by Word Publishing, a division of Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked NIV is 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

Scripture marked NLT is taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Contents

J esus is the Rock, and a relationship with him will rock your world. At the age of fifteen, I did a major 180-degree turnaround when I went from devout atheist to Jesus freak. Hungry to find out more about God, I began to devour the Bible. I started in the New Testament and read and read. I memorized entire chapters. I participated in Bible study groups. I read books about the Bible. I attended conferences. It was like I couldnt get enough.

Then, many years later, I felt somewhat saturated by the Bible and Christian teaching and theology in general. I felt like someone whod sat at Thanksgiving dinner too longI was stuffed. So for a while, I went on a diet and abstained from reading. To be honest, I felt a little guilty about that. I mean, doesnt a good Christian read her Bible every day?

Thats when I got a redlined Bible, in which all the words of Jesus are written in red ink so they stand out. I decided thats all I would readjust the red lines.

I quickly rediscovered that those words (Jesuss words) were packed with wisdom, truth, and life. And why wouldnt they be? So thats why I wanted to write a devotional series that primarily uses just the words of Jesus.

Always is the third and final book in this series (following True and Life). This devotional is special in that it features Scriptures from the last days of Jesuss earthly lifeincluding some powerful prayers and strong words of encouragement. One of the major themes of Jesuss final teachings was the need to hold tightly to him. No matter what comes your way, Jesus wants you to stay linked to him. In the same way a branch clings to the trunk of the tree, to sustain life and grow fruit, Jesus wants you to cling to him. He wants you so connected that nothingno storms, earthquakes, droughtscan shake you loose.

1
The Only Way

Words from the Rock

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. The onlyway to the Father is through me. If you really knewme, you would know my Father, too. But now youdo know him, and you have seen him.

John 14:67 NCV

Sometimes its hard to grasp how tightly connected Jesus and God areso intricately intertwined that they are inseparable; they are one. Maybe youre wondering, if they are one, why do we need both? Basically its because God wanted to get our attention and we werent listening. In fact, the human race had kind of tuned God out.

To understand this better, imagine youre a beekeeper. Okay, its a stretch, but just go with it. Now imagine you own the only beehive in the world, but you know that all your bees are going to be wiped out by a rare disease. Your bees make great honey, and you really love them and dont want them to die. If only they would listen to you, they could change some of their bee habits and survive. So you stand over their hive telling them over and over what they must do to prevent their doom, but they dont understand you. Or maybe theyre not listening, or maybe theyre as busy as bees and totally oblivious to any danger. How do you communicate to them? How do you keep them from perishing?

What if you became one of them? What if you had the power to transform yourself into a bee? Then you could go inside the hive and talk directly to the bees. Speaking Bee-glish, you could make them understand your concerns.

Now, as silly as this bee metaphor sounds, its a bit like Gods decision to send Jesus to earth. Jesus was part of God, and God knew that if he became one of us, he could get our attention. Jesus became Gods ambassador, the way to connect us to God. So how connected do you feel? How much more connected would you like to be?

My Prayer

Dear God,
Help me to grasp that you and Jesus are one, and that you poured yourself into Jesus so you could pour yourself into me.
Amen.

Stone
for the Journey
God and Jesus
are one, and
they want to be
one with me.

Final Word

For God so loved the world that he gavehis one and only Son, that whoever believes in himshall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16 NIV

2
One and the Same

Words from the Rock

Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! Sowhy are you asking me to show him to you? Dontyou believe that I am in the Father and the Fatheris in me? The words I speak are not my own, butmy Father who lives in me does his work throughme. Just believe that I am in the Father and theFather is in me. Or at least believe because of thework you have seen me do.

John 14:911 NLT

What do you think youd do if you had only a week to live? Maybe your first response would be to do something crazy and reckless, like skydiving or bungee jumping or drag racing. Or maybe youd go on some wild spending spree and live large. Or you might take some time to be alone to contemplate. But before long, youd probably want to focus on people and relationships. You might need to tell someone you love them or that youre sorry, or you might need to forgive someone. Youd probably want to really talk to the ones you love the mostto speak openly and from the heart.

If you knew your days were numbered, youd probably want to connect on a much deeper level with anyone who meant anything to you, especially with the people you truly love. Youd want to make sure that your friends and loved ones understood who you were and what mattered to you, and in the same way, youd want to understand them. Most likely, you would want to leave this world knowing that your relationships were in super good shape.