Press the arrow to listen to Third Day as they tell the story behind their song “Call My Name” just before performing the song.

Scripture
I have cared for you since you were born.
Yes, I carried you before you were born.
I will be your God throughout your lifetime—
until your hair is white with age.
I made you, and I will care for you.
I will carry you along and save you. Isaiah 46:3-4

Observation
Back in 1986 in Sindelfingen, Germany a Mercedes-Benz was born. A factory worker adjusted the hood ornament, and a white gloved driver maneuvered a 300E onto a waiting transport ship bound for the USA. Twenty-two years have passed. The old Merc has a few nicks and scrapes. The antenna doesn’t work. The odometer got stuck at 139K. But the two-decade-old classic is mine, bought and paid for. In the glove box there is a number for Mercedes roadside service. I was stuck somewhere in eastern Colorado and gave them a ring. Not only did they solve my problem, but they chatted about the history of my car and sent me a birthday card for its anniversary. Somehow as I drive my old classic I feel that white-coated Mercedes technicians are in the backseat with me.

God gives to us more than a lifetime guarantee. He who has been with us in the womb, walked with us to school, and was there when we lost our job, is the same God who will walk with us when we shuffle behind our walker and close our eyes to see him at last. There is a secure feeling of being packed in bubble wrap at the thought of his consistent and persistent attentiveness to our condition. God is there and that is more than enough.

Application
The Father does more than care for me, he will carry me. He will do more than just send kind thoughts. He will become personally involved. I’m watching this at the moment as my parents have moved into a retirement community. They threw their hearts into the kingdom in their 63 years of marriage, always putting Jesus first. Never have they lacked for a home, even now. In fact, just a week after we moved them from their home into the unit, their house sold. God is faithful to bring us through until the end.

Prayer
Today, Father, help me to walk like one who is loved. Amen.

Press the arrow to listen to Mercy Me sing “I Can Only Imagine” while reading today’s devotion

Scripture

“Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.” Matthew 12:30

Observation

What Christian would want to be known as someone who works against Jesus?
Who would want to be known as someone who stands in the way?
Who would want to be responsible for uprooting what Jesus has planted?
Worst of all, would want to be someone who picks a fight with the Lord?

Who would do such a thing? The answer is anyone who forgets the word “with”. It is just a four letter preposition, but living with the word “with” makes all the difference. There is a subtle temptation to go on our own, even if we have followed Christ for some time. Perhaps a prayer is answered and we say, “Thanks for the help, I’ll take over from here.” Maybe we hear the voice of the Shepherd calling and we answer “just a minute.” The degree of separation is slight but substantial, for just a few degrees of separation now can mean hundreds of miles of distance on the future flight path.

Leslie and I walk two German Shorthaired Pointers at night. Lucy is seasoned with age and knows to heel without being told. Jose, however, beats with a puppy’s heart. The world is so interesting and she soon forgets the master’s voice. Normally, Lucy walks on the left and Jose on the right with Leslie and I in the middle. But I experimented the other day by putting the dogs in the middle and Leslie and I on the outside. The measured stride of the old dog Lucy settled the rambunctious young dog Jose. Something of one rubbed off on the other.

I find one of the best ways to remember to keep close to Jesus is to journey with those who have learned to lean well on the Lord. There is a scampering puppy inside of me; I like the old dogs that keep me close to Jesus. There is something about their spirit, that without spoken word, seems to say, “Stay close.”

Every Thursday I receive a phone call from my old friend Larry. Larry is a Berle Ives lookalike, with a cheerful laugh and a warming smile that reaches right into the core of his being. The cadence of his voice, even more than the words that he speaks, set a pace for me in his phone calls that keep me close to Jesus. I hope, one day, to become an old dog myself who steadies others on their journey.

I think Lucy knows the secret of walking with Jesus, but she’s not telling. It’s something about seeing my life as an extension of the Master’s walk, for though Lucy never looks up, I somehow sense she is with me heart and soul as we walk along the road. She is not distracted by birds or passing dogs. She’s with the master and that is enough.

Application
It was James Thurber who wrote about the dog who walked his master. There are so many times I am calling to Jesus and asking him to follow me instead of waiting to follow him. My journey is really the Lord’s journey; if I am to be with him I need to let him walk through me.

Prayer
Jesus, keep me close. Amen.

Press the arrow to listen to Michael Card and Phil Keaggy sing “The Poem of Your Life”

Scripture
“Naomi took the baby and cuddled him to her breast. And she cared for him as if he were her own. The neighbor women said, ‘Now at last Naomi has a son again!’ And they named him Obed. He became the father of Jesse and the grandfather of David.” (Ruth 4:16-17).

Observation

God is the author of each life story. That clear from the first biography God ever wrote – the book of Ruth.

Ruth as a book is perfectly balanced.

The introduction and the conclusion have the exact same number of words. The novel starts bitter but ends better.

There are four main sections that pull the reader along.
Each section has an introductory sentence that introduces segment.
Each chapter starts with a problem that is answered and leads to the next problem.

There is balance between selfless Ruth and selfish Orpah and between selfless Boaz and the selfish relative.

The story starts with a picture of Naomi an empty a widow with two dead sons.
The fairy-tale ends with a picture of Naomi now filled with a baby in her arms.

And in the first biography in the Bible everyone lives happily ever after in the end.

Why is the book of Ruth so perfect? Ruth is not beautiful just because the writer spun a good tale but because the Lord was the author of her life. The book of Ruth is beautiful because Naomi had a God-written life. The book is a masterpiece because there was a master-plot planned by the Master Himself. Remember, God is the best selling author of all time.

Every human life is like a story. Some are tragedies. However, lives given to God are stories authored by the Almighty Himself. If my life is in Jesus then my life is a story written by God. No matter the character, the plot, the scenery, every life-tale under God’s control ends better than it began.

Some like Naomi want to stop reading the story of their lives too soon. At the start of the book Naomi tried to stop the story of her life. When her husband and sons died she thought her story had come to an end. But it was really the beginning of a brand new story.

Application

My life is like a book, being written by God every day. It all takes longer than I think it should sometimes. Writers are notoriously slow. I heard James Mitchner wrote just 3 pages a day. God takes his time working out the plot of our lives.

Our lives are like a book, a plot written day by day. Many pages are senseless. Some seem to have temporary purpose only to be lost in the next chapter. But Jesus is the author skilled at turning bad beginnings into better endings.

In all of the Bible, any human life participating with the Lord has ended better than it began. Jesus wants to dip his pen into my life to inscribe his eternal purposes. My choice is, will I scrawl an autobiography, with each chapter written by me, struggling to find meaning. Or will I let Jesus story blend with my own story so that I can inscribe eternal purposes?

Prayer

Father, here’s a pen, here’s my life, please write your story all over me. Amen.

Worship as you read this devotion by pressing the arrow.
Song: Mercy Me Word of God Speak

Scripture
The Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that the Israelites were approaching on the road through Atharim. So he attacked the Israelites and took some of them as prisoners. Then the people of Israel made this vow to the Lord: “If you will hand these people over to us, we will completely destroy all their towns.” The Lord heard the Israelites’ request and gave them victory over the Canaanites. Numbers 21:1-3

Observation
When life goes badly is God against us?

Many think so. Their motto is: “Life bad equals God mad; life good equals God glad”. That is the human race’s most basic theology. The crippling motto transcends every culture and religion. Even Jesus did battle with that corrosive thought. Such a theological proposition sounds plausible enough, but it is deadly wrong. This page from the desert journals of the Jews enables us to leapfrog over this pathetic concept.

Why use the word “pathetic”? Because when we take hard life circumstances as a reflection of God’s face toward us, we freeze in place afraid to move forward lest we cop it more. Instead of moving forward, using the strength God has given to us and the love he showers on us, we grovel in suspicions of the Lord’s intentions toward us. We who are favored sons and daughters of the Most High, behave as the friendless and fatherless. That is pathetic.

The Israelites were still in shock from a hit and run raid by their enemies. Blitzkrieg snatched up friends and family. At that point the people could have given into their feelings of vulnerability. It had been a rocky road through the desert. They had littered the wasteland with grumbling. There was ample evidence that they had ticked God off. They could have huddled in their tents like children afraid of daddy coming home. Instead, they stepped beyond their fear of God’s intent toward them and trusted his love enough to bargain.

Their deal was this: if God would put their enemies into their hands they would in turn scrape the map clean of every town they inhabited. They would have their loved ones back and God would have for himself the beginning of space to create a new nation. God liked the deal and delivered.

To make that deal with God the Jews had to step over the shriveling theology of God’s displeasure. The people risked rejection by probing God’s heart to find out his heart for them. It seemed as if God were against them, but they dared to ask for more. In the asking they discovered what is true for us: God is for us.

We will not discover the smile of God by stalling in the dust of our disaster. We must move beyond setbacks and ask in the road ahead if God will indeed open doors.

Application
There have been tough days in my life when I have believed the criticisms of those who had no interest in my progress and have taken their words as the voice of God. As I reflect over the past I see that God’s eventual blessings proved them all wrong. You loved me…and them…far more than I imagined. I have discovered that when life is bad, God is still good. Faith is the ultimate act of bravery to open the door and to see who is on the other side. The risk of asking a little bit more can open to us kindness brighter than we could ever imagine.

Prayer
Father, no failure is final, including mine because your Son is my Savior. Give me the courage to step past the barricades erected by the fearful and to join where you are fighting for my future. The precious words today are “with” and “for”. God is with me. God is for me. That is reassuringly enough. Amen.