Charted

What is Charted?

Like a master surveyor, Jesus gives us clear directions to find a fulfilling, purpose-filled relationship with Himself - a map to the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Charted is a daily devotional written by the junior class at Fountainview Academy (Class of 2019). Based on the book Steps to Christ, this book explores the path to the Originator and Provider of Genuine Joy. We don't have to be confused about the way. The certainty is in the journey: divinely Charted.

The warfare against self is the greatest battle that was ever fought….
The government of God is not, as Satan would make it appear, founded
upon a blind submission, an unreasoning control. It appeals to the
intellect and the conscience. – Steps to Christ, pg. 43
It was a miniature-flip-mirror-thingamajig that seemed to
resemble some type of spy equipment, and I wanted it. However, there
was one thing forbidding it from being mine: it belonged to my majestic
older sister. This tragic fact left me only dreaming of getting my
sticky fingerprints all over the plastic creation, longing to add it to my
extravagant collection of spy gadgets. One afternoon when my sister
and I were caught up in a frenzy of stuffed animals, Legos, and Beanie
Babies, something on my sister’s desk captured my eye. The gizmo
that I so coveted lay there—no friends, no home, just lonely and alone.
Suddenly, I bounced up and left the room, subtly abducting
the tiny toy. Once in the hall, I jumbled around ideas: What should I do
next? Then popped up Mevil. You could say she was a gathering of
all my evil. With her came Mangel, and most would agree she was my
good side.
Mangel spoke first: “You should put the thingamabob back,
Miclain; it’s not yours!”
Mevil stood closely by, rolling her eyes and sighing in disgust:
“Ah, I did all this work to get you to take it, and now you’re thinking
about putting it back?”
Confused, I looked at her. “Wait, you were the one who told
me to take it?” I queried.
This experience made me realize what the apostle Paul was
say when he wrote, “For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I
do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want
to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it”
(Romans 7:19-20 NIV).