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Baker Publishing Group - Melody Carlson

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98 pages

English

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Teen girls are already devoted followers of Melody Carlson's fiction series. From the thousands of personal letters she's received, she knows they want more. They're looking for substance and spiritual guidance that can make a difference in their lives.Always offers readers a fresh way to encounter Jesus's words for their own personal inspiration and practical application. Carlson shares with her faithful young readers the life-changing message of Jesus, giving them something to lean on in the turbulent time of adolescence. This 90-day devotional will strengthen teens' faith and help them understand and love the words of the Savior.

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Philosophie et théologie

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	01 octobre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781441213006
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0346€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

ALW YS
A TEEN DEVOTONAL
W ords 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 means-for example, electronic, photocopy, recording-without 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
Introduction
1. The Only Way
2. One and the Same
3. Humble Entrances
4. Earth-Shaking Faith
5. Miracle Key
6. On Second Thought
7. Our Helper
8. Messes Welcome
9. Never Alone
10. Mismanagement
11. Love Driven
12. The Cornerstone
13. Teachable
14. Priorities
15. Gentle Reminders
16. Priceless Peace
17. Simple Laws
18. Love s Example
19. The Hypocrite Trap
20. Good Hurts
21. Spiritual Family
22. Fruit Connection
23. False Religion s Reward
24. Hang Tight
25. Wrong Expectations
26. In Sync
27. Impressions
28. Stay in Love
29. What s Next?
30. Real Joy
31. Grim Warnings
32. Sacrificial Love
33. Everyone s Chance
34. True Friends
35. Troubling Times
36. Chosen
37. Don t Be Tricked
38. Citizens of Heaven
39. Earth s Final Day
40. Our Example
41. Be Aware
42. No Excuses
43. Distractions
44. Forever Friend
45. Be Prepared
46. Hold On!
47. Always Ready
48. Change Is Good
49. When No One s Looking
50. Perceptions
51. Responsible Faith
52. Timing Is Everything
53. Full Disclosure
54. Eternal Investment
55. Coward s Reward
56. Before the Dawn
57. Pain to Joy
58. Love in Action
59. Just Ask
60. Best of Both Worlds
61. Love Connection
62. Coming Back
63. Like a River
64. With Open Arms
65. Attention!
66. Jesus s Gift
67. Incomprehensible
68. All-Out Love
69. Family Ties
70. Prayer Power
71. Lifetime Membership
72. Communion
73. Betrayal
74. Wake Up!
75. Complete Joy
76. Safekeeping
77. Rags to Riches
78. The Mission
79. Amazed by Grace
80. Unity
81. Reputation
82. Heavenly Hopes
83. Love Letter
84. Caught by Surprise
85. Spiritual War
86. No Secrets
87. God s Plan
88. Forgiveness Road
89. Forgive and Forgive
90. Always!
Introduction
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 couldn t get enough.
Then, many years later, I felt somewhat saturated by the Bible and Christian teaching and theology in general. I felt like someone who d sat at Thanksgiving dinner too long-I 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, doesn t a good Christian read her Bible every day?
That s when I got a redlined Bible, in which all the words of Jesus are written in red ink so they stand out. I decided that s all I would read-just the red lines.
I quickly rediscovered that those words (Jesus s words) were packed with wisdom, truth, and life. And why wouldn t they be? So that s 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 Jesus s earthly life-including some powerful prayers and strong words of encouragement. One of the major themes of Jesus s 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 nothing-no storms, earthquakes, droughts-can shake you loose.
1 The Only Way
Words from the Rock
I am the way, and the truth, and the life. The only way to the Father is through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father, too. But now you do know him, and you have seen him.
John 14:6-7 NCV
Sometimes it s hard to grasp how tightly connected Jesus and God are-so intricately intertwined that they are inseparable; they are one. Maybe you re wondering, if they are one, why do we need both? Basically it s because God wanted to get our attention and we weren t listening. In fact, the human race had kind of tuned God out.
To understand this better, imagine you re a beekeeper. Okay, it s 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 don t 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 don t understand you. Or maybe they re not listening, or maybe they re 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, it s a bit like God s 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 God s 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 gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall 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! So why are you asking me to show him to you? Don t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do.
John 14:9-11 NLT
What do you think you d 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 you d go on some wild spending spree and live large. Or you might take some time to be alone to contemplate. But before long, you d probably want to focus on people and relationships. You might need to tell someone you love them or that you re sorry, or you might need to forgive someone. You d probably want to really talk to the ones you love the most-to speak openly and from the heart.
If you knew your days were numbered, you d probably want to connect on a much deeper level with anyone who meant anything to you, especially with the people you truly love. You d want to make sure that your friends and loved ones understood who you were and what mattered to you, and in the same way, you d want to understand them. Most likely, you would want to leave this world knowing that your relationships were in super good shape.
The verses above are words Jesus speaks just days before his death. You can hear the urgency in his message. More than anything, he wants to be sure his loved ones really know him. He wants them to understand how tightly connected he is to God so that when he s gone, his followers will realize that their connection to God is because of Jesus. He wants them to know that it s a connection that cannot be broken.
Those words are spoken to you too. Jesus invites you-in the same way he invited his disciples-to become partners with him and his Father.
My Prayer
Dear God, It s easy to take relationships for granted. Please remind me of the importance of having a good one with you, and how it impacts my relationships