In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. —Romans 8:37

Paul was speaking here of the things that might seem likely to separate a saint from the love of God. But the remarkable thing is that nothing can come between the love of God and a saint. The things Paul mentioned in this passage can and do disrupt the close fellowship of our soul with God and separate our natural life from Him. But none of them is able to come between the love of God and the soul of a saint on the spiritual level. The underlying foundation of the Christian faith is the undeserved, limitless miracle of the love of God that was exhibited on the Cross of Calvary; a love that is not earned and can never be. Paul said this is the reason that “in all these things we are more than conquerors.” We are super-victors with a joy that comes from experiencing the very things which look as if they are going to overwhelm us.

Journal DJR
Good morning, Lord. We liked the wording … “A saint doesn’t know the joy of the Lord in spite of tribulation, but because of it.” And the word picture of the experienced surfer thrilling at waves that would terrify the beginner. I suppose the only way to get to be like that surfer is to face bigger and bigger waves? Bigger and bigger challenges in life?

You can never gradually build up to all of the challenges that will come your way. You may build up your trust in one area but there are so many different challenges that may come… you will never be able to build up to all of them. And besides… the analogy kind of breaks down, because the surfer is gradually building trust in HIS ability, not mine. Rather what you need is to build your belief that whatever the circumstance, that, “I’ve got this.” I’ve got you covered. Covered with my love. My grace. Regardless of the physical circumstances that may look bad or good, just believe that I’ve got this.

Romans 8:28(NLT)

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.

Images like these and stories like Paul rejoicing in prison, are good for you to practice the way you look at life. Just remember that the goal is not to rely on your own increasing abilities. But that “I’ve got this” no matter what happens. Then you can be filled with joy regardless of yucky circumstances.


(From Kayak Session Short Film of the Year Awards 2015)

Feed My sheep. —John 21:17

This is love in the making. The love of God is not created— it is His nature. When we receive the life of Christ through the Holy Spirit, He unites us with God so that His love is demonstrated in us. The goal of the indwelling Holy Spirit is not just to unite us with God, but to do it in such a way that we will be one with the Father in exactly the same way Jesus was. And what kind of oneness did Jesus Christ have with the Father? He had such a oneness with the Father that He was obedient when His Father sent Him down here to be poured out for us. And He says to us, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (John 20:21).

Peter now realizes that he does love Him, due to the revelation that came with the Lord’s piercing question. The Lord’s next point is— “Pour yourself out. Don’t testify about how much you love Me and don’t talk about the wonderful revelation you have had, just ‘Feed My sheep.’ ” Jesus has some extraordinarily peculiar sheep: some that are unkempt and dirty, some that are awkward or pushy, and some that have gone astray! But it is impossible to exhaust God’s love, and it is impossible to exhaust my love if it flows from the Spirit of God within me. The love of God pays no attention to my prejudices caused by my natural individuality. If I love my Lord, I have no business being guided by natural emotions— I have to feed His sheep. We will not be delivered or released from His commission to us. Beware of counterfeiting the love of God by following your own natural human emotions, sympathies, or understandings. That will only serve to revile and abuse the true love of God.

Journal DJR
Good morning Lord,
So we are to “Feed your sheep” That works for me as I get joy and satisfaction from encouraging people and sharing what I’ve been given. But details of how and who and where and what I feed which sheep…. leaves lots of room for “error”
It becomes clear that I cannot make feeding sheep into a method, complete with policy and procedure manuals, org charts etc. Well, I could, and I have, but when I did that, I was “leaning on my own understanding”

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.

Trusting and submitting are things that you can do to a person… Or you can trust and submit to methods and lists or even a manifesto or constitution. But the results won’t be the same. Trusting and submitting to a person allows for a customized relationship, especially for you in your circumstances. A method or manifesto cannot do that. Methods and lists are “one size fits all” The list is the list. Don’t get me wrong, lists have value, but only a personal relationship can customize and maximize that value. The “Method” of living that I have led you to…. Surrender, Connection, Curiosity and Obedience only works in Relationship with me. Usually I will lead you to something that may have been on your “List” anyway, but it will be the right choice at the right time and place. And sometimes I will lead you to something that wasn’t on the list, something that is outside the box and breaks the rules. It is safer to stay in the box and follow all the rules. But I didn’t. And I’m calling you out of the safe box with the safe methods and rules, to “Feed my sheep” with my customized plan that I will reveal to you step by step as we go.

He said to him the third time, “…do you love Me?” —John 21:17

Have you ever felt the pain, inflicted by the Lord, at the very center of your being, deep down in the most sensitive area of your life? The devil never inflicts pain there, and neither can sin nor human emotions. Nothing can cut through to that part of our being but the Word of God. “Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, ‘Do you love Me?’ ” Yet he was awakened to the fact that at the center of his personal life he was devoted to Jesus. And then he began to see what Jesus’ patient questioning meant. There was not the slightest bit of doubt left in Peter’s mind; he could never be deceived again. And there was no need for an impassioned response; no need for immediate action or an emotional display. It was a revelation to him to realize how much he did love the Lord, and with amazement he simply said, “Lord, You know all things….” Peter began to see how very much he did love Jesus, and there was no need to say, “Look at this or that as proof of my love.” Peter was beginning to discover within himself just how much he really did love the Lord. He discovered that his eyes were so fixed on Jesus Christ that he saw no one else in heaven above or on the earth below. But he did not know it until the probing, hurting questions of the Lord were asked. The Lord’s questions always reveal the true me to myself.

Journal DJR
Good morning Lord,
Today, JD and I both doubted that we have had an experience like Peter’s described here. But we wondered if Peter even knew the depth of this short exchange with Jesus until after the fact, looking back, perhaps many years later when he realized that in “feed my sheep,” Jesus had used him to lead the start of the church that “turned the world upside down.” We then were tempted to compare our (lack of) experience with Peter’s and feel like “sub-standard Christians” But we’ve walked with you long enough to know that you don’t use guilt with your kids. So we pretty much reject any notion that is packaged with guilt, whether it comes from the pulpit, a theologian, pop culture, or our own mind. We will stay open to having an experience like Peter’s… but mainly we will focus on what you’ve shown us… Staying surrendered, striving to maintain and tighten our connection with you, staying curious, and ready to be obedient to whatever you show us. We’ll just live out of those simple basics and avoid controversies, whether theological, political or whatever else people find to argue and divide over. One blogger recently said that if we take that approach, we won’t get hired or published or elected. That’s probably true and we’re OK with that.

But what if I want you to be hired or published or elected? Somebody’s got to be published and elected.

Good point. OK, if you show us you specifically want one of those things… we’ll go for it with all we’ve got. But you’ll have to show us. We don’t want to go there from what we’ve come to call the Big Four. The four motivations of the normal human being without God’s interruption. To look good, feel good, be right or be in control. We’ve come to suspect those motivations creeping in to our thought streams and are getting better at bringing them quickly to your cross and trading them in for your direction .

Do you love Me? —John 21:17

“What do you want Me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, that I may receive my sight.” —Luke 18:41

Is there something in your life that not only disturbs you, but makes you a disturbance to others? If so, it is always something you cannot handle yourself. “Then those who went before warned him that he should be quiet; but he cried out all the more…” (Luke 18:39). Be persistent with your disturbance until you get face to face with the Lord Himself. Don’t deify common sense. To sit calmly by, instead of creating a disturbance, serves only to deify our common sense. When Jesus asks what we want Him to do for us about the incredible problem that is confronting us, remember that He doesn’t work in commonsense ways, but only in supernatural ways.

The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw [water] with, and the well is deep.” —John 4:11

Have you ever said to yourself, “I am impressed with the wonderful truths of God’s Word, but He can’t really expect me to live up to that and work all those details into my life!” When it comes to confronting Jesus Christ on the basis of His qualities and abilities, our attitudes reflect religious superiority. We think His ideals are lofty and they impress us, but we believe He is not in touch with reality— that what He says cannot actually be done. Each of us thinks this about Jesus in one area of our life or another. These doubts or misgivings about Jesus begin as we consider questions that divert our focus away from God. While we talk of our dealings with Him, others ask us, “Where are you going to get enough money to live? How will you live and who will take care of you?” Or our misgivings begin within ourselves when we tell Jesus that our circumstances are just a little too difficult for Him. We say, “It’s easy to say, ‘Trust in the Lord,’ but a person has to live; and besides, Jesus has nothing with which to draw water— no means to be able to give us these things.”

And beware of exhibiting religious deceit by saying, “Oh, I have no misgivings about Jesus, only misgivings about myself.” If we are honest, we will admit that we never have misgivings or doubts about ourselves, because we know exactly what we are capable or incapable of doing. But we do have misgivings about Jesus. And our pride is hurt even at the thought that He can do what we can’t.

…though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved. —2 Corinthians 12:15

Natural human love expects something in return. But Paul is saying, “It doesn’t really matter to me whether you love me or not. I am willing to be completely destitute anyway; willing to be poverty-stricken, not just for your sakes, but also that I may be able to get you to God.” “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor…” (2 Corinthians 8:9). And Paul’s idea of service was the same as our Lord’s. He did not care how high the cost was to himself— he would gladly pay it. It was a joyful thing to Paul.

The institutional church’s idea of a servant of God is not at all like Jesus Christ’s idea. His idea is that we serve Him by being the servants of others. Jesus Christ actually “out-socialized” the socialists. He said that in His kingdom the greatest one would be the servant of all (see Matthew 23:11). The real test of a saint is not one’s willingness to preach the gospel, but one’s willingness to do something like washing the disciples’ feet— that is, being willing to do those things that seem unimportant in human estimation but count as everything to God. It was Paul’s delight to spend his life for God’s interests in other people, and he did not care what it cost. But before we will serve, we stop to ponder our personal and financial concerns— “What if God wants me to go over there? And what about my salary? What is the climate like there? Who will take care of me? A person must consider all these things.” All that is an indication that we have reservations about serving God. But the apostle Paul had no conditions or reservations. Paul focused his life on Jesus Christ’s idea of a New Testament saint; that is, not one who merely proclaims the gospel, but one who becomes broken bread and poured-out wine in the hands of Jesus Christ for the sake of others.

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

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

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, I am reminded of Thomas Edison who said, “These are not failures. I have learned 2000 ways how to not make a light bulb” Perseverance and getting on with a happy attitude, unhindered by past mistakes, is the lesson here. But also it’s important to be persevering on the right track (your track.) If we are following your lead thru surrender, connection, curiosity, and obedience as you have been teaching us…. we can get up after an unlimited number of “failures” and move forward. Perseverance by itself, driven by plain human desires can run amuck and then Edison-like perseverance will only make it worse. Adolf Hitler persevered a long distance down the wrong road.

You are right, it is important to learn to hear and see what Father and I and the Holy Spirit have next for you. We give you nudges and signs and tools, but you have to choose. The stories, like you mentioned about Thomas, and the stories I told that got recorded in the Book are helpful. Also the tool of visioning and imagination will help you live in today unencumbered by yesterdays failures. If you will make a vision and invite me into it, I will come. Like for example, what your brother has shared, picturing boxing up your issues and bringing them to the foot of my cross.
I will step into that picture and enrich your life TODAY.

I am also reminded of Hero, my dog who is absolutely sure that today is the best day of his life. He is sure of that every day and every time he sees me coming. I think there is a lesson here. Something about a “dog’s life” at least that part of it. Is not a bad way to live.

So help us leave the past and seize today and receive it as a gift, and together with you, “Get up, and do the next thing.”