{"id":4143,"date":"2011-03-01T06:13:14","date_gmt":"2011-03-01T14:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wordpress\/?p=4143"},"modified":"2011-03-01T07:19:12","modified_gmt":"2011-03-01T15:19:12","slug":"the-piercing-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=4143","title":{"rendered":"The Piercing Question"},"content":{"rendered":"

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March 01. 2011<\/div>\n
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Do you love Me? \u2014John 21:17<\/a><\/div>\n
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Peter\u2019s response to this piercing question is considerably different from the bold defiance he exhibited only a few days before when he declared, \u201cEven if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!\u201d (Matthew 26:35<\/a> ; also see\u00a0Matthew 26:33-34<\/a>). Our natural individuality, or our natural self, boldly speaks out and declares its feelings. But the true love within our inner spiritual self can be discovered only by experiencing the hurt of this question of Jesus Christ. \"\"<\/a>Peter loved Jesus in the way any natural man loves a good person. Yet that is nothing but emotional love. It may reach deeply into our natural self, but it never penetrates to the spirit of a person. True love never simply declares itself. Jesus said, \u201cWhoever confesses<\/em> Me before men [that is, confesses his love by everything he does, not merely by his words], him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God\u201d (Luke 12:8<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Unless we are experiencing the hurt of facing every deception about ourselves, we have hindered the work of the Word of God in our lives. The Word of God inflicts hurt on us more than sin ever could, because sin dulls our senses. But this question of the Lord intensifies our sensitivities to the point that this hurt produced by Jesus is the most exquisite pain conceivable. \"\"<\/a>It hurts not only on the natural level, but also on the deeper spiritual level. \u201cFor the Word of God is living and powerful . . . , piercing even to the division of soul and spirit . . .\u201d\u2014 to the point that no deception can remain (Hebrews 4:12<\/a>). When the Lord asks us this question, it is impossible to think and respond properly, because when the Lord speaks directly to us, the pain is too intense. It causes such a tremendous hurt that any part of our life which may be out of line with His will can feel the pain. There is never any mistaking the pain of the Lord\u2019s Word by His children, but the moment that pain is felt is the very moment at which God reveals His truth to us.<\/p>\n

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March 1, 2011<\/p>\n

Journal Entry for Today-JDV<\/p>\n

Lord I know I love you and want to be obedient and transformed into your likeness. And for a while I can and will look back and notice not only your provision; day by day, but the transformation that I see \u00a0taking place day by day\u2026and then\u2026..I fail miserably. \u00a0My pride or lust or fear gets in the way and I think or do something that makes me wonder if I have been transformed at all.<\/p>\n

And God says\u2026\u201d There is no perfection in you\u2026.yet. There are trials, struggles and persecutions that can and do help shape you. They will continue until you are perfected \u2026here in heaven. You will notice every scar; wound and piercing that we, you and I, have endured also serve to make us who we were and are to become. \u00a0Your wounds, scars and piercings are testimony to your love and obedience, and many are developed as your walk is corrected. You demonstrate your love for Me when you live in Me AND when you return to Me after your failures\u2026\u2026.If you love Me you will live in Me and after your failures return to Me\u2026.until your day of perfection\u201d.\"\"<\/a>
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1 John 1:9\u00a0(The Message)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

8-10<\/sup><\/strong>If we claim that we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins\u2014make a clean breast of them\u2014he won’t let us down; he’ll be true to himself. He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we’ve never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God\u2014make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March 01. 2011 Do you love Me? \u2014John 21:17 Peter\u2019s response to this piercing question is considerably different from the bold defiance he exhibited only a few days before when he declared, \u201cEven if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!\u201d (Matthew 26:35 ; also see\u00a0Matthew 26:33-34). Our natural individuality, or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4143"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4143"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4154,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4143\/revisions\/4154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}