Do you love Me? —John 21:17

Peter’s response to this piercing question is considerably different from the bold defiance he exhibited only a few days before when he declared, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” (Matthew 26:35; also see Matthew 26:33-34). 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. 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, “Whoever confesses 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” (Luke 12:8).

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. It hurts not only on the natural level, but also on the deeper spiritual level. “For the Word of God is living and powerful…, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit…”— to the point that no deception can remain (Hebrews 4:12). 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’s Word by His children, but the moment that pain is felt is the very moment at which God reveals His truth to us.

Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord, As usual, Chambers makes a universal statement, or at least gives me the feeling that his description of how you bring exquisite pain to us, is “always” the way you work in our lives. Of course you are bigger than any box we can contrive… and are free to work in our lives any way you want. Although we need to reject all boxes that Chambers or any teacher or system try to pigeon hole you into… we still must seek the kernel of truth in whatever they are saying. i.e. don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. That is what we are doing a lot these days as we are learning new aspects of you and your love. Richard Rohr mentioned “Transcend and Include” as a guide to finding new truth. Don’t reject our older truth, the truth that got us this far… but integrate the part that is true in to our new bigger picture. The metaphor of the blind men each experiencing an elephant by touching different parts is helpful. Perhaps we had known the elephant as tree by touching a leg. Now we touch the tail and find it rope like. But the tree likeness of the leg is still true. So help us integrate all of our past insights with what you are showing us now, and in the future.

Back to your question, Do you love me? I would say like the man you asked if he believed… Yes Lord I love you, but help my lack of love. Perhaps as we bring that love and lack of love into focus I will experience that “exquisite pain” that Chambers refers to and Peter felt after his denial. It seems like that intense experience only needs to happen once in a lifetime, or rarely???

Don’t over analyze it. It will happen as much as it needs to and you will allow. I mean as much as your surrender and connection and vulnerability will allow. If you don’t build walls of systematic theology that I need to fit into… More things can happen than you expect. Aspects of my love that you don’t even conceive of. So keep on coming on the path you are on. Know that there will be opposition, from religious systems, people and even your own love to be in control, have it figured out, be right etc.

Got it. BTW, did you wrestle with the same Big Four that we do? Look good, Feel good, Be right and Be in control.

Yes, it came with the package. When I agreed to enter this dimension in Bethlehem, I left what you might call my Super Powers and Exemptions and took on a full package of Humanity. Satan wouldn’t have tried the temptations that he did if he didn’t think he had the possibility of being successful. But just as I said, No thank you… Actually I told him what was written, you also can rely on what is written, even when it doesn’t seem to be true. You can rely on my love even when you don’t feel it. Just as I relied on Abba’s love, when I would have liked another way. I knew that regardless of the short term pain, it would all wind up good in the end. You can arm yourself with that same knowledge. It may seem PollyAnna to some and even yourself at first… but when this peace that passes understanding is proven and real, it will be compelling to them and you !! Then you will really believe.

Matt 26:39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes everything to work together[a] for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

“By this we believe….” Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?” —John 16:30-31

Where then do You get that living water? —John 4:11

“The well is deep” — and even a great deal deeper than the Samaritan woman knew! (John 4:11). Think of the depths of human nature and human life; think of the depth of the “wells” in you. Have you been limiting, or impoverishing, the ministry of Jesus to the point that He is unable to work in your life? Suppose that you have a deep “well” of hurt and trouble inside your heart, and Jesus comes and says to you, “Let not your heart be troubled…” (John 14:1). Would your response be to shrug your shoulders and say, “But, Lord, the well is too deep, and even You can’t draw up quietness and comfort out of it.” Actually, that is correct. Jesus doesn’t bring anything up from the wells of human nature— He brings them down from above. We limit the Holy One of Israel by remembering only what we have allowed Him to do for us in the past, and also by saying, “Of course, I cannot expect God to do this particular thing.” The thing that approaches the very limits of His power is the very thing we as disciples of Jesus ought to believe He will do. We impoverish and weaken His ministry in us the moment we forget He is almighty. The impoverishment is in us, not in Him. We will come to Jesus for Him to be our comforter or our sympathizer, but we refrain from approaching Him as our Almighty God.

The reason some of us are such poor examples of Christianity is that we have failed to recognize that Christ is almighty. We have Christian attributes and experiences, but there is no abandonment or surrender to Jesus Christ. When we get into difficult circumstances, we impoverish His ministry by saying, “Of course, He can’t do anything about this.” We struggle to reach the bottom of our own well, trying to get water for ourselves. Beware of sitting back, and saying, “It can’t be done.” You will know it can be done if you will look to Jesus. The well of your incompleteness runs deep, but make the effort to look away from yourself and to look toward Him.

Journal DJR
“I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.”
Mark 11:24 -NLT

I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls… —2 Corinthians 12:15

The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve… —Matthew 20:28

Be still, and know that I am God… —Psalm 46:10

Perseverance is more than endurance. It is endurance combined with absolute assurance and certainty that what we are looking for is going to happen. Perseverance means more than just hanging on, which may be only exposing our fear of letting go and falling. Perseverance is our supreme effort of refusing to believe that our hero is going to be conquered. Our greatest fear is not that we will be damned, but that somehow Jesus Christ will be defeated. Also, our fear is that the very things our Lord stood for— love, justice, forgiveness, and kindness among men— will not win out in the end and will represent an unattainable goal for us. Then there is the call to spiritual perseverance. A call not to hang on and do nothing, but to work deliberately, knowing with certainty that God will never be defeated.

If our hopes seem to be experiencing disappointment right now, it simply means that they are being purified. Every hope or dream of the human mind will be fulfilled if it is noble and of God. But one of the greatest stresses in life is the stress of waiting for God. He brings fulfillment, “because you have kept My command to persevere…” (Revelation 3:10).

Continue to persevere spiritually.

She has done a good work for Me. —Mark 14:6

Arise, let us go from here. —John 14:31

Daydreaming about something in order to do it properly is right, but daydreaming about it when we should be doing it is wrong. In this passage, after having said these wonderful things to His disciples, we might have expected our Lord to tell them to go away and meditate over them all. But Jesus never allowed idle daydreaming. When our purpose is to seek God and to discover His will for us, daydreaming is right and acceptable. But when our inclination is to spend time daydreaming over what we have already been told to do, it is unacceptable and God’s blessing is never on it. God will take the initiative against this kind of daydreaming by prodding us to action. His instructions to us will be along the lines of this: “Don’t sit or stand there, just go!”

If we are quietly waiting before God after He has said to us, “Come aside by yourselves…” then that is meditation before Him to seek His will (Mark 6:31). Beware, however, of giving in to mere daydreaming once God has spoken. Allow Him to be the source of all your dreams, joys, and delights, and be careful to go and obey what He has said. If you are in love with someone, you don’t sit and daydream about that person all the time— you go and do something for him. That is what Jesus Christ expects us to do. Daydreaming after God has spoken is an indication that we do not trust Him.

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Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord. Thank you for bringing us the understanding of dualistic thinking that categorizes everything right or wrong, in or out, for me or against me. And it’s alternative, unitive thinking or whatever we are going to call it…. that accepts paradox and mystery and sees all sides of a situation… Now that we see these two ways of perception, Chambers’ first sentence jumps out and self identifies as dualistic. His very last sentence is also pretty black and white. As are a lot of his sentences, in all of his devotions. That is not to say they don’t contain truth and good concepts to think about. But from where we now stand, we have the tools to at least attempt to separate out what you are saying to us and for us today (CO2MannaToday) from Oswald Chambers’ own ideas that reflect where he was at his time in history, speaking to his intended audience. Is thinking this way, being able to see all sides, and accept the paradox and mystery and seeming contradictions, what Paul was talking about when he said,

Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus….

Yes, and it’s a good example of where unitive thinking is essential. For starters, don’t take things out of context. Read the sections before and after that. That will help you see the different aspects that are all being referred to in that verse.

2 …by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Thank you for the parallel reading that we are doing over on Richard Rohr’s site. The teaching here from Chambers in the last few days can be summarized as, “daydream or meditate until you hear God’s will, then get up and get going” Which is good but leaves us a little short on exactly how to do that? Daydreaming by itself can last and last and (seemingly) never get anywhere… flitting from thought to thought to thought. We seem to need a little guidance in our daydreaming, or it may stay just daydreaming. Inviting you into it is our obvious first step, but Rohr and his guest writers have been giving good guidelines in “Centering Prayer” meditation.

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For those interested, here is today’s devotional from Richard Rohr’s site.

http://email.cac.org/t/ViewEmail/d/FFED809E5B5A458C/09AC516D97B73F6DF6A1C87C670A6B9F

If you find it helpful, there is a link to subscribe to receive it daily by email.

Rise, let us be going. —Matthew 26:46

In the Garden of Gethsemane, the disciples went to sleep when they should have stayed awake, and once they realized what they had done it produced despair. The sense of having done something irreversible tends to make us despair. We say, “Well, it’s all over and ruined now; what’s the point in trying anymore.” If we think this kind of despair is an exception, we are mistaken. It is a very ordinary human experience. Whenever we realize we have not taken advantage of a magnificent opportunity, we are apt to sink into despair. But Jesus comes and lovingly says to us, in essence, “Sleep on now. That opportunity is lost forever and you can’t change that. But get up, and let’s go on to the next thing.” In other words, let the past sleep, but let it sleep in the sweet embrace of Christ, and let us go on into the invincible future with Him.

There will be experiences like this in each of our lives. We will have times of despair caused by real events in our lives, and we will be unable to lift ourselves out of them. The disciples, in this instance, had done a downright unthinkable thing— they had gone to sleep instead of watching with Jesus. But our Lord came to them taking the spiritual initiative against their despair and said, in effect, “Get up, and do the next thing.” If we are inspired by God, what is the next thing? It is to trust Him absolutely and to pray on the basis of His redemption.

Never let the sense of past failure defeat your next step.

Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord, The last three days entries fit together well – and bring a necessary message to humans like me who blow it, and get depressed or despair from time to time. “Let the failures go into the grace of the past. Don’t beat yourself up. And get up and do the next thing…probably a simple thing, but make sure it is the inspired thing, instead of my own self help thing.” This is good advice and good news, but it seems difficult to implement consistently. At least in my experience. Am I missing something?
As usual, the companion or counterpoint devotional that JD and I are reading this year gives a valuable perspective. This week’s summary of Centering Prayer gives some tools and perspective on how we can walk more consistently… out of despair, out of depression, and on to the next thing, inspired thru our connection with you. Here’s a link for those interested.

http://email.cac.org/t/ViewEmail/d/D65F57DDC0BDE329/09AC516D97B73F6DF6A1C87C670A6B9F

Thank you Lord for the juxtaposition of both daily devotionals. It is providing an “iron sharpening iron” effect when we mix both of their inputs plus our own and (hopefully) your overriding input. The message that boils down out of it all is amazingly consistent. And is leading us ever more toward a simple, and as Dietrich Bonnhoeffer called for, “a religionless Christianity” One where we simply surrender our will, ego, Big Four needs to look good, feel good, be right and be in control, and through Connection with You, we can stay Curious, see what you are saying to us, and just live out of that. With this type of living, the only thing worth striving for is maintaining our connection with you. And that striving isn’t really striving. It’s more like releasing, letting go, self emptying and falling into it. Sometimes, like this week, one devotional provides a “what” and the other fills in the “how.” Thank you for your love and grace. We couldn’t make it without you.

Arise and eat. —1 Kings 19:5

The angel in this passage did not give Elijah a vision, or explain the Scriptures to him, or do anything remarkable. He simply told Elijah to do a very ordinary thing, that is, to get up and eat. If we were never depressed, we would not be alive— only material things don’t suffer depression. If human beings were not capable of depression, we would have no capacity for happiness and exaltation. There are things in life that are designed to depress us; for example, things that are associated with death. Whenever you examine yourself, always take into account your capacity for depression.

When the Spirit of God comes to us, He does not give us glorious visions, but He tells us to do the most ordinary things imaginable. Depression tends to turn us away from the everyday things of God’s creation. But whenever God steps in, His inspiration is to do the most natural, simple things— things we would never have imagined God was in, but as we do them we find Him there. The inspiration that comes to us in this way is an initiative against depression. But we must take the first step and do it in the inspiration of God. If, however, we do something simply to overcome our depression, we will only deepen it. But when the Spirit of God leads us instinctively to do something, the moment we do it the depression is gone. As soon as we arise and obey, we enter a higher plane of life.