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SUMMARY: What if you lived every day with the end in view? What if you fast-forwarded the film of your life to the end, to that day when another will speak at a memorial service to eulogize your days on earth? What if you envision when you stand before God to give an account for the entire life he loaned you for the 70, 80, or 90 years of your earthly pilgrimage? Whatever you want said of you at the end of your life, whether by another person or, more importantly, by God, means that you must rewind the tape to the present and begin to live now with the end in view. My friend, you would be among the wisest to live with the end in view! God Speaks—I Obey // Proverbs 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads to death.
The end. I hate to break this to you, but the end is coming faster than you think! As the famous tombstone reads, “This is what I expected, just not so soon!” Given that reality, what if you lived every day from here on out with the end in view? What if you fast-forwarded the film of your life to the end, to that day when another will speak at a memorial service to eulogize your days on earth? What if you envision that time when you stand before the Righteous Judge to give an account for the entirety of the life he loaned you for the 70, 80, or 90 years of your earthly pilgrimage? Whatever it is you want said of you at the end of your life, whether by man or, more importantly, by God, will require you to rewind the final tape of your life to the present, then begin to live that way now. In other words, you must begin to live today with the end in view. So, here’s a critical question for you: What do you hope will be said of you in the end? Your life will end! Then you will be eulogized by others. So, be careful of the material you leave them that will tell your life’s story! Dr. Ray Noah The end is nothing more than a compilation of the motives, thoughts, attitudes, habits, words, and actions that have issued from your head, heart, and hands, moment by moment, throughout all the days of your life. They add up. They count. They form a pattern. They create the narrative that is your life. They tell your story. They are your destiny. Be careful, then, with the material you give them, because in the end, everything will come out! Yes, there is a way that SEEMS RIGHT to a man, but in the end, it produces only death. On the other hand, there is a way that IS RIGHT — right in the sight of God — that in the end, leads to life. We are all headed for the end, that’s for sure, so let’s make sure the reputation that gets there ahead of us will be celebrated by both God and man. As Ecclesiastes 7:8 says, “Endings are better than beginnings. Sticking to it is better than standing out.” The end! Choose You This Day: If you knew that you had one week to live, what would be the first five things you would put on your “To Do” list? Why not go ahead and do them? “I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” Stephen Covey 
SUMMARY: As we passionately pursue God’s purposes, God has passionately committed himself to fulfilling his purposes in us. No matter what things may look like — horrible circumstances and hateful people notwithstanding — God will never abandon the work that he has lovingly and painstakingly invested in us, and he will ultimately bring that work to perfect completion. No way—you can’t stop God from doing what God does! God Speaks—I Obey // Focus: Psalm 138:8 The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O LORD, endures forever—do not abandon the works of your hands.
“God will perfect everything that concerns you.” (Psalm 138:8, NKJV) I have heard my wife use King David’s phrase many times in her public prayers. I like that thought, don’t you? Nothing will stop God from fulfilling his purpose for my life—nothing! That was the essence of David’s thinking in this psalm. Nothing could get in the way of what God had in mind, that is, God’s perfect will for David’s life—not even his own fleshly desires. That’s the caveat to this truth: the perfecting is of that which is according to God’s will, which of course is what ought to concern us more than anything else in this life. The New Testament writer Jude captures the essence of this truth in his benedictory prayer when he wrote, “To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” (Jude 1:24-25) Likewise, the Apostle Paul wrote similar words in Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” How comforting and empowering to know that if we are passionately pursuing God’s purposes, God has passionately committed himself to fulfilling his purposes in us. No matter what things may look like—horrible circumstances and hateful people notwithstanding (Psalm 138:7)—God will never abandon the work he has lovingly and painstakingly invested in us, and he will ultimately bring that work to perfect completion. What David had discovered was that when we are for God, and when God is for us, we cannot lose! 2 Chronicles 16:9 reminds us of this profound truth, “For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” Wow! God so desires to fulfill his purposes in this world that he is actually scouring the earth looking for fully devoted people in order to release his enabling power in their lives. Is your heart fully committed to him? If it is, then God will find you, and sooner or later you will come into the greatest joy that anyone can ever experience in this life: God fulfilling his purposes for you and through you. Yes, God will perfect that which concerns you! In other words, There’s no stopping God! Choose You This Day: What are the obstacles standing in your path to pursuing God? According to Psalm 138:8, God will repurpose those stumbling blocks into building blocks. Try praying a thanksgiving prayer for everything that seems to be impeding your progress. Then ask God to empower you to work with him to use those very things to perfect you. Pray this risky prayer: “God, use this to shape me.” “To know and believe in God is the best thing that can happen in your life because He can turn what appears to be the worst event into the best. He can transform your struggles into your learning. He can turn your suffering into strength. He can use your failures to bring success.” Nick Vujicic 
SUMMARY: Relax about trying to be righteous and morally perfect! Jesus did it for you. God accepts Christ’s efforts on your behalf as good enough, so you don’t have to be good enough. All you have to do is accept it, believe it, and conform your life to it! God Speaks—I Obey // Romans 10:9-10 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
Your good works cannot save you. Period! No matter how hard you try, your “good” is not good enough for the perfectly holy and completely righteous God. Nor can you be saved through an alternative, less stringent means, for only through God is eternal salvation possible. Moreover, you cannot be saved by your moral perfection—no matter how moral you are or how close to moral you get. As the Old Testament prophet Isaiah pointed out, your righteousness is about as good as a “snot rag”. (Isaiah 64:6). I have actually cleaned that up a bit, because the Hebrew words for filthy rags, ukabeged ehdim, literally mean, “like as rags of menstruation.” Sorry if that disgusts you. It’s Scripture—so blame Isaiah. The point is that both our acts of righteousness and the quality of righteousness we hope they produce are disgusting to God. So, if you are disgusted by Isaiah’s language, think of how God is repulsed by your efforts to get him to save you. Then what hope is there for our salvation? Well, no hope resides within us. None whatsoever. Ephesians 2:1 says, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.” All a dead person can do is lie there and be dead, let alone try to be righteous before God. “All a dead person can do is lie there and be dead, let alone try to be righteous before God. No, our righteousness comes from Christ alone.” Dr. Ray Noah No, our righteousness—and let’s be clear, we do have to be righteous to be acceptable to God—comes from Christ alone. You see, God sent his Son to die on the cross—he literally became our sin—in order to pay the just punishment for sin that we deserved. That is our only hope: that Jesus became sin—our sin—and in so doing, he likewise became our righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says it well, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” How dishonoring to God’s grace and Christ’s atonement when we therefore try to save ourselves by our acts of righteousness and our efforts at moral perfection! The sooner we realize that, the sooner we will discover salvation by grace alone through faith, as Paul spoke about in Philippians 3:8-9, “I consider everything a loss compared with the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them [our best efforts] rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him—not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” It is only through the power of Christ’s resurrection and our death to self (Philippians 3:10-11) that our heart—the core of who we are; that which represents every fiber of our existence—will get transformed. And it is only out of a God-enabled transformed heart that our tongue can truly confess Jesus is Lord. Then, and only then, are we saved. So relax about trying to be righteous and morally perfect! Jesus did it for you. God accepts Christ’s efforts on your behalf as good enough, so you don’t have to be good enough. All you have to do is accept it, believe it, and conform your life to it! Choose You This Day: This week, meditate on Romans 10:1-21. Rehearse Romans 10:9-10 each day this week: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.”
“When the will of God crosses the will of man, somebody has to die.” Addison Leitch 
SUMMARY: God planned me, built me, watches over me, can steer me back on track when I wander, will keep me safe until the Divinely allotted numbers of days ordained for me are up, and then take me to the next life that he has prepared for me. My life will be over when God says it’s over! God Speaks—I Obey // Focus: Psalm 139:16 All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be
How many days do I have left? I don’t know—although I know my number of days decreases with each passing year. But the fact is, neither you nor I know how many more days we have before our exit from life on Planet Earth. No one does, except God. He knows the exact number of years, days, hours, and seconds that I will occupy my address on Planet Earth; the exact moment that my death will occur. Now that may not seem like a cheery thought to you, and in fact, most people would find that sobering, at best, and frightening, at worst. Not me. I find great comfort and security in knowing that God has my life so ordered that I will neither die a day sooner nor live a day longer than what has already been recorded in his book. You see, life and death are far above my pay grade, so I will happily let Father God take care of that department, thank you very much. “I find great comfort and security in knowing that God has my life so ordered that I will neither die a day sooner nor live a day longer than what has already been recorded in his book?” Dr. Ray Noah So, if I truly and correctly understand this profound truth, then I am freed from the fear of death to fully live the life that God has planned for me in this present life. I can enjoy an intimate walk with the One Who was intimately involved in each minor detail of my day: “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. (Psalm 139:1-4)
Who never lets me out of his sight: “You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.” (Psalm 139:5-8) Who guides my every move with his Fatherly hand: “If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast “ (Psalm 139:9-10) Who is not limited by my circumstances: “If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.“ (Psalm 139:11-12). In fact, God is so involved in my life that he was even there at the moment my mother and father conceived me in love, and he superintended even the most infinitesimal details of my physiological and temperamental formation: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful; I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:13-16) God knows me! He knows everything about me. He planned me, built me, watches over me, and can steer me back on track when I wander from his purpose: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)
All that to say, I can completely trust God with all the details of me in this life and completely trust him to keep me safe until the Divinely allotted number of days ordained for me are up. Then, at that point, I can completely trust him to take me to the next life that he has prepared for me. The psalmist says, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand” (Psalm 139:6, NLT), but while it is way beyond my comprehension, that won’t keep me from enjoying this day and praising the One who is in charge of it! Why? Because I trust him! Choose You This Day: Throughout the day, declare, “God is in charge of me!” Then live like it’s true—because it is!
“I believe God is managing affairs and that He doesn’t need any advice from me. With God in charge, I believe everything will work out for the best in the end. So, what is there to worry about” Henry Ford 
SUMMARY: God is over history. The biblical record over thousands of years proves it. The story of thousands of years of Christianity bears it out. Our faith affirms it. God is sovereign over the affairs of this world. He is in control of all things, and he is in charge of you! So go with God—always, in everything, and in every way. You will be on the right side of history. GOD SPEAKS — I OBEY // Joshua 24:2-5, 14 Joshua said to the Israelites, “The Lord your God says to you…‘you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands. I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you—also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow. So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’ Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.” These are the final words of General Joshua to the people of Israel. He is passing the baton after four decades of extraordinary leadership and victory after victory—a conquest for the ages. And he is recounting the activity of God for the people, reminding them of the sovereign hand of God in the entire history of Israel. God is over history. It was God who selected their idol-worshipping ancestors out of a pagan culture and made them his own. It was God who sent Abraham, then Jacob, into Egypt. It was God who brought the nation back out of Egyptian slavery with great signs and wonders. It was God who fought for Israel during their wilderness journey, destroying each enemy nation that stood in their way. He provided food and water for them in the desert; he formed them from a collection of slaves into a mighty nation. It was God who drove out the inhabitants of Canaan and brought them into the Promised Land — “a land flowing with milk and honey.” God did it for them. God is over history. So let us, thousands of years later, never forget what Joshua was so clear about: God is over history. That was true for the Israelites — proven over the several hundred years between Abraham’s call and Israel’s conquest of Canaan; that has been true over the two thousand years between Christ’s ascension and this present moment. And that will be true between now and the Second Coming of Christ. God is over history. “If God is over history, why would we not serve him in faithfulness? When you think about it, any other choice but loving obedience to the Lord our God doesn’t make any sense. So go with God. Get on the right side of history.” Dr. Ray Noah We may not see the hand of God in the everyday details of our world, or of our lives, but history proves that God is over history. That is why Joshua’s charge to the Israelites is a charge that is valid for God’s people today — including you and me: Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt and serve the Lord.”
If God is over history, why would we not serve him in faithfulness? Why would we depend on any other source for provision and protection? Why would we worship the gods of our culture — fame and fortune, power and pleasure? Why would we not wholeheartedly follow the one and only God, the God over history? When you stop and think about it, any other choice but loving obedience to the Lord our God doesn’t make any sense. God is over history! So go with God. Get on the right side of history! CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY: Are you leaning on any source other than God for security, success, or significance? Put God first! Repent where you have allowed allegiance to other gods to creep in and declare your undying loyalty to the God who is over history. “Guidance, like all God’s acts of blessing under the covenant of grace, is a sovereign act. Not merely does God will to guide us in the sense of showing us his way, that we may tread it; he wills also to guide us in the more fundamental sense of ensuring that, whatever happens, whatever mistakes we may make, we shall come safely home. Slippings and strayings there will be, no doubt, but the everlasting arms are beneath us; we shall be caught, rescued, restored. This is God’s promise; this is how good he is.” J. I. Packer 
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