Lift Up Your Day
Lift Up Your Day with Pastor Rodney Coe — a 5-minute Christian devotional podcast for the heart that needs lifting.
Every Take 5 episode is a true story from history and Scripture about ordinary people God used to do extraordinary things. Pastor Rodney Coe — author of 5 books, devotional writer, and pastor — tells the stories warm, well-paced, and pointed at the part of your day that needs the most lifting.
You'll meet missionaries saved by angels (John Paton), a watchmaker's daughter who forgave a Nazi guard (Corrie ten Boom), a Tennessee farm boy who took a hill in the Argonne (Alvin York), a Senate chaplain who wasn't ready (Peter Marshall), a man who walked with God at 4 a.m. (George Washington Carver), and more.
Each episode ends the same way: "And that, friend, is how God lifts up your day."
Free 7-day devotional When Worry Won't Let Go at rodneycoe.com/worry-devotional. Books and blog at rodneycoe.com.
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Lift Up Your Day
John Wesley: The Boy Pulled From the Fire
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Just before midnight in 1709, the Wesley family's rectory in Epworth caught fire.
Samuel Wesley counted his children in the freezing yard and came up one short. Five-year-old John was still upstairs, trapped above the flames. There was no time for a ladder. One neighbor climbed onto the shoulders of another, reached the window, and pulled the boy out just as the roof caved in.
His mother Susanna gathered her son and refused to call it luck. She named him with a phrase straight from the Bible. A brand plucked from the burning.
"Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?" Zechariah 3:2.
That little boy grew up to ride a quarter of a million miles on horseback, preach more than forty thousand sermons, and help ignite a revival that crossed an ocean. He was John Wesley.
You may have your own brush with the fire. An accident that nearly happened. An illness that turned. Look again. Psalm 138:8 says the Lord will perfect that which concerns me. The God who spared you did not do it by accident. You are still here because He is not finished with you yet.
Keep looking up,
Pastor Rodney
February 9th, 1709, just before midnight in the village of Epworth, England. The Wesley family is asleep in the rectory when sparks catch the roof on fire and the house goes up in flames. The cry goes up. Samuel Wesley herds his children out into the freezing night and counts heads. One is missing. Five-year-old John is still upstairs, trapped, as the fire eats through the house. The father tries to climb the stairs. They collapse in flames. He drops to his knees in the yard and commends the boy's soul to God. And then at an upstairs window, a small face appears. Stay with me. You're gonna want to hear the rest of the story. Welcome to Lift Up Your Day, a five-minute devotional, short stories with a biblical heartbeat. I'm Rodney Coe, and today, the night a little boy was snatched from a burning house and the purpose is stamped on him forever. Little John Wesley had woken to a room full of smoke. He climbed onto a chest by the window and pushed his face into the night air. Down below, neighbors saw him. There was no time for a ladder. The roof was about to fall, so one man climbed onto the shoulders of another, reached up, and pulled the boy out the window. Seconds later, the roof caved in. The whole house collapsed into the fire. If they had been a moment slower, John Wesley would have died that night, and history would never have known his name. His mother Susanna gathered her rescued son and never forgot what God had done. She began to call him by a phrase straight out of the Bible, a brand plucked from the burning. It comes from the prophet Zechariah 3, verse 2, where the Lord rescues a man from the fire as a picture of grace. Susanna Wesley believed that God had spared John for a reason. She gave that boy special care and special prayer, convinced the Lord had reached into the flames and saved him for some great purpose. She was right. That little boy grew up to become John Wesley, the preacher whose ministry helped spark a revival that swept across England and America. He rode a quarter of a million miles on horseback. He preached more than forty thousand sermons. He launched a movement that still carries millions of people today. The brand plucked from the burning set the world on fire for God. Here is what I want you to carry with you today. There was a night when you should not have made it, and you did. Maybe it was an accident that almost happened, an illness that turned, a road you nearly went all the way down, and somehow you came back. You have chalked it up to luck. Susanna Wesley would tell you to look again. Scripture says in Psalm one hundred and thirty eight eight, the Lord will perfect that which concerns me. The God who spared you did not do it by accident. You are still breathing because he is not finished with you. There is a purpose on your life, like a brand plucked from the burning. Whether you have seen it yet or not. John Wesley spent the rest of his days knowing he had been saved for something. Live like that is true of you too. Because it is. And that, friend, is how God lives up your day.