#wayne jacobsen

[azurechanel]

Okay everyone (and by everyone, I mean thesearethingsthatilike), here is a video of me reading a chapter of a book, as requested!

I apologize in advance for the wonky start; my camera spazzed a little. I also apologize for the loud humming; my computer's fan was running high the whole time.

Thanks for watching :]

[patricia-pantana]

"Jesus didn't leave us with a system; He left us with His Spirit. A guide instead of a map. Principles alone will not satisfy your hunger. That's why systems always promise a future revival that never comes. Systems cannot produce community because they are designed to keep people apart."

[chorandopoesia]

Acho que preferia só ser feliz!!!!

Wayne Jacobsen

[mygraceglasses]

God sees something redemptive even in letting us fail. He seems less concerned about our mistakes than how we respond to them. Do they lead us away from trusting in our own strength or wisdom, to seek what it means to put our trust in him? If so, then he finds our failures worth the pain they cause.

-Wayne Jacobsen

[mygraceglasses]

Fear cannot lead us to life-long transformation, but only a momentary reformation of behavior. Instead of inviting us to enter into relationship with the Living God, it pushes us away with feelings of inadequacy and repetitious failure.

Wayne Jacobsen, “He Loves Me: Learning to Live in the Father’s Affection”

[mygraceglasses]

Love in earthly terms is invariably tied to self-interest. That’s why people talk about falling in love, or out of love. What they mean is that they feel affection for someone when they bring some benefit to them. However, when they no longer provide benefit, or become more of a burden than a joy, we don’t feel the same way about them. Haven’t we all had what we thought were close friends, who turned on us the minute we no longer served their interests? Haven’t we done the same to others?

-Wayne Jacobsen, "He Loves Me: Learning to Live in the Father's Affection"

[18happythoughts]

Raising the bar

Coaches don't train young high jumpers by putting the bar at world-record height and challenging them to jump it. They put it at a height their charges can successfully achieve and then, over the course of time, slowly raise the bar to allow refined technique, practice, and conditioning to help them jump higher.

But Jesus didn't do that here. Responding to the rich man's request, Jesus put the bar forty feet in the air. Jump that! And the rich businessman did exactly what any athlete would do:he went away discouraged, knowing the task was impossible.

The man understood the lesson but missed the point. Jesus wasn't trying to be mean to him. He raised the bar beyond the man's ability to get over it precisely because Jesus wanted him to stop trying. The gift he offered the man was to be free of the incredible burden of having to earn God's love by his own efforts. He was caught in his own doing and Jesus was trying to free him.

He was hoping the young man would look him in the eye and say, "I can't do that!" To which Jesus might have answered, "Good, then stop doing all the other silly things you're trying to do to earn God's favor. Stop striving, stop pretending, stop trying to earn that which you can never earn!"

Jesus didn't want him living any longer under the tyranny of the favor line, but he knew how difficult it is for people of great resources to find their way into his kingdom. Such people tend to feel they can earn it or pay for it. They are too focused on their own efforts and resources to receive the simple beauty of God's gift.

The businessman's dependence on his own resources was robbing him of the life he sought. No matter how much he could do, such efforts would never cover the empty place in his heart that sought God's approval. For only in realization can we discover what it really means to be approved as God's children and find security in his love for us.

That's not to say that as we love him he won't bring us greater freedom from our possessions and show us the joy of generosity for he will. But that will rise not out of our attempts to earn his favor, but as grateful responses to the favor he already offers us.

Even when Peter started to boast that he and the others had left everything to follow him, Jesus reminded him that none of them had left anything that we wouldn't replace with far more and far better. The fact was, they had left their stuff not to earn eternal life, but because of a relationship with Jesus that had captured their hearts.

Sadly, we don't get to see the end for this young businessman  My hope is that Jesus' words finally worked through his heart. But whether they did or didn't, Jesus still offered him an incredible gift-the secret to God's favor.