JOURNAL 3


JOURNAL #3

RICK       Lord, do you love me”

JESUS    Look at the sand beneath your feet. Hear the gentle lapping of the waves along the shore.Hear the gulls laughing. See the little shore birds as their little legs carry them back and forth with the ebb and flow of the tide. How does it make you feel?

RICK       It makes me feel peaceful.

JESUS    Why does it make you feel peaceful?

RICK       Because all of these sights and sounds speak peace to my heart. I feel at rest.

JESUS    But why does in make you feel peaceful and why does it make you feel at rest?               

RICK       Because You made it all and you live in me

JESUS    So, why did I point to all of these things instead of just saying “Yes, I love you?”

RICK       Is it because You know I love the sea?

JESUS    Well… yes, but it is also where you feel most comfortable expressing your love for Me. You see My love from a different perspective when you walk and talk with me by the ocean’s roar.

RICK       Why would that be Lord?

JESUS    It is because many times religion has muddied up your relationship with Me. Guild, confusion and dead works have dogged your steps. You associated me with those things and so even though you loved me in a way, you also resented Me.

                Here at the ocean you feel me in the wind and hear me in the roar of the breakers. You feel my infinity in the vastness and my warmth in the sand. My humor you perceive in the laughing of the gulls and in the blur of the shore bird’s tiny feet.

RICK       And I love You.

JESUS    And so do I love you… and I would have created all of this just for you.

RICK       You really do know me Lord. You know I have a hard time believing that you really love me. I have a hard time seeing Your face or seeing Your smile of approval… too many years of legalism I guess.

JESUS    People often get law before love. Many cannot fathom that I actually crave their friendship. They spend so much time trying to earn my love instead of sitting at My feet. There have been so few…Enoch…Abraham… David… Paul struggled with it theologically. He finally got it but it took time. He had to overcome his self-inflicted guilt for persecuting My children.

RICK       Where do you see me in this struggle Lord?

                JESUS    You have made big changes in the last few years. The things you used to do to earn my favor you now do out of love. Still, I am calling you out of the boat to walk with me on the water. The things I am calling you to do will be impossible without My power. You must learn to walk in it. Our friendship will become a partnership. Faith and love must always be at the heart of all you do. My grace will be sufficient for you.


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