…Peter…walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid… —Matthew 14:29-30

Judge not, that you be not judged. —Matthew 7:1

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends….I have called you friends… —John 15:13, 15

Jesus does not ask me to die for Him, but to lay down my life for Him. Peter said to the Lord, “I will lay down my life for Your sake,” and he meant it (John 13:37). He had a magnificent sense of the heroic. For us to be incapable of making this same statement Peter made would be a bad thing— our sense of duty is only fully realized through our sense of heroism. Has the Lord ever asked you, “Will you lay down your life for My sake?” (John 13:38). It is much easier to die than to lay down your life day in and day out with the sense of the high calling of God. We are not made for the bright-shining moments of life, but we have to walk in the light of them in our everyday ways. There was only one bright-shining moment in the life of Jesus, and that was on the Mount of Transfiguration. It was there that He emptied Himself of His glory for the second time, and then came down into the demon-possessed valley (seeMark 9:1-29). For thirty-three years Jesus laid down His life to do the will of His Father. “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16). Yet it is contrary to our human nature to do so.

If I am a friend of Jesus, I must deliberately and carefully lay down my life for Him. It is a difficult thing to do, and thank God that it is. Salvation is easy for us, because it cost God so much. But the exhibiting of salvation in my life is difficult. God saves a person, fills him with the Holy Spirit, and then says, in effect, “Now you work it out in your life, and be faithful to Me, even though the nature of everything around you is to cause you to be unfaithful.” And Jesus says to us, “…I have called you friends….” Remain faithful to your Friend, and remember that His honor is at stake in your bodily life.

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Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord,
You know that I have been “in process” for a while now. The process of realization that I’ve been lied to. I’ve been lied to by my country … I’ve been lied to by my church. Some things that I’ve believed as facts, are being revealed as lies. So, since I’ve learned the value of curiosity over the last few years, I’m trying to just stay curious. If all these things I’ve believed are not true… What else might not be true? What will be the next “truth” to unravel? Dont get me wrong, I’m not devastated, In fact, this adventure has some excitement to it. I agree with Socrates, when he said, The unexamined life is not worth living. I understand that this type of examination will either drive me closer or further from You. So far it is driving me closer, but I’ve seen friends who responded differently. I am really thankful for my friend and our safe space at CO2. I am getting it that you are OK and even glad that I am examining all things and I won’t be kicked out for being a heretic.

Yes, I desire all my kids to examine their beliefs in a healthy way. As you keep coming to me, I will help you sort the true from the false and what you have left will be pure gold. You can trust me. I will never leave you or forsake you. You cannot fully trust any human or institution … because they are all fallible. Even if they want to give you their purest and best, they are still fallible. So come to me and I will help you. I will sort you out and help you sort out your beliefs. Remember that not everything that is true is important for you to dwell on. I will guide you in that as well. Remember also that the things that you were told were not all devious lies. Some of them were just the best that those people had at the time.

I’m not sure which is easier to accept with curiosity… a purposeful lie or an ignorant lie. Initially the purposeful lie has more emotion attached. Anger and a desire for retribution, “justice” and all. Ignorant lies seem easier to forgive. But after a bit of reflection, they both blend together as things to stay curious about, to see what else you will reveal and what else will happen next. Thank you so much for the refuge that Curiosity has become for me.

Also…add to your faith… —2 Peter 1:5

Come to Me… —Matthew 11:28

Where sin and sorrow stops, and the song of the saint starts. Do I really want to get there? I can right now. The questions that truly matter in life are remarkably few, and they are all answered by these words— “Come to Me.” Our Lord’s words are not, “Do this, or don’t do that,” but— “Come to me.” If I will simply come to Jesus, my real life will be brought into harmony with my real desires. I will actually cease from sin, and will find the song of the Lord beginning in my life.

Have you ever come to Jesus? Look at the stubbornness of your heart. You would rather do anything than this one simple childlike thing— “Come to Me.” If you really want to experience ceasing from sin, you must come to Jesus.

Jesus Christ makes Himself the test to determine your genuineness. Look how He used the word come. At the most unexpected moments in your life there is this whisper of the Lord— “Come to Me,” and you are immediately drawn to Him. Personal contact with Jesus changes everything. Be “foolish” enough to come and commit yourself to what He says. The attitude necessary for you to come to Him is one where your will has made the determination to let go of everything and deliberately commit it all to Him.

“…and I will give you rest”— that is, “I will sustain you, causing you to stand firm.” He is not saying, “I will put you to bed, hold your hand, and sing you to sleep.” But, in essence, He is saying, “I will get you out of bed— out of your listlessness and exhaustion, and out of your condition of being half dead while you are still alive. I will penetrate you with the spirit of life, and you will be sustained by the perfection of vital activity.” Yet we become so weak and pitiful and talk about “suffering” the will of the Lord! Where is the majestic vitality and the power of the Son of God in that?

…seek, and you will find… —Luke 11:9

Everyone who asks receives… —Luke 11:10

Ask if you have not received. There is nothing more difficult than asking. We will have yearnings and desires for certain things, and even suffer as a result of their going unfulfilled, but not until we are at the limit of desperation will we ask. It is the sense of not being spiritually real that causes us to ask. Have you ever asked out of the depths of your total insufficiency and poverty? “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God…” (James 1:5), but be sure that you do lack wisdom before you ask. You cannot bring yourself to the point of spiritual reality anytime you choose. The best thing to do, once you realize you are not spiritually real, is to ask God for the Holy Spirit, basing your request on the promise of Jesus Christ (see Luke 11:13). The Holy Spirit is the one who makes everything that Jesus did for you real in your life.

“Everyone who asks receives….” This does not mean that you will not get if you do not ask, but it means that until you come to the point of asking, you will not receive from God (seeMatthew 5:45). To be able to receive means that you have to come into the relationship of a child of God, and then you comprehend and appreciate mentally, morally, and with spiritual understanding, that these things come from God.

“If any of you lacks wisdom….” If you realize that you are lacking, it is because you have come in contact with spiritual reality— do not put the blinders of reason on again. The word ask actually means “beg.” Some people are poor enough to be interested in their poverty, and some of us are poor enough spiritually to show our interest. Yet we will never receive if we ask with a certain result in mind, because we are asking out of our lust, not out of our poverty. A pauper does not ask out of any reason other than the completely hopeless and painful condition of his poverty. He is not ashamed to beg— blessed are the paupers in spirit (see Matthew 5:3).

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Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord,
We could really use some clarification about asking. How to, when to, how specific, etc. Because we have plenty of experience with asking somehow incorrectly. Perhaps the request came from our own lusts or as Chambers says, “the blinders of reason.” It “seemed logically” like the right thing to ask for… Perhaps by getting too specific, we stop holding the issue in the “open palm” and remove ourselves from letting you be God and surprise us with your perfect answer? But, here, in Luke 11 the man asks specifically and with audacity and gets what he came for.

5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity[e] he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

We are then admonished to ask, seek, & knock, and encouraged that our Heavenly Father will answer our requests better than we do as earthly parents …but at this point specific answers to specific requests, like bread, is replaced with “the Holy Spirit.”

13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Are you saying, just ask for the Holy Spirit and He will take care of our specific requests? Or should we make the specific requests and let you sort them out? Like when you added, “Nevertheless, your will be done?” Maybe if we, “Seek ye first…” it will all work out? As you can see, we need your help here.

Dont feel bad, it’s normal for humans to not get it. You are using worldly thinking while I am offering heavenly answers (which are bigger than the world and include the world and all that is in it, including the physical answers.) Notice what I said to the woman at the well?

John 4:10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

So take the same advice that I gave her. Ask for the Living Water. It will contain the H2O that you need.

Come to me, and keep on coming and you will be satisfied. Do you seek the answer first and then me? Or me first and then the answer. If you truly seek me first, the answer will be clear. So seek me first. Ask, Seek, Knock, and know that the answer is in me.

If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. —John 13:17

He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” —Hebrews 13:5

What line of thinking do my thoughts take? Do I turn to what God says or to my own fears? Am I simply repeating what God says, or am I learning to truly hear Him and then to respond after I have heard what He says? “For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say: ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’ ” (Hebrews 13:5-6).

“I will never leave you…”— not for any reason; not my sin, selfishness, stubbornness, nor waywardness. Have I really let God say to me that He will never leave me? If I have not truly heard this assurance of God, then let me listen again.

“I will never…forsake you.” Sometimes it is not the difficulty of life but the drudgery of it that makes me think God will forsake me. When there is no major difficulty to overcome, no vision from God, nothing wonderful or beautiful— just the everyday activities of life— do I hear God’s assurance even in these?

We have the idea that God is going to do some exceptional thing— that He is preparing and equipping us for some extraordinary work in the future. But as we grow in His grace we find that God is glorifying Himself here and now, at this very moment. If we have God’s assurance behind us, the most amazing strength becomes ours, and we learn to sing, glorifying Him even in the ordinary days and ways of life.

The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him… —Psalm 25:14