el desafío

or, "the challenge" according to an online translator. The 21 day challenge is still underway so I thought I'd post some thoughts from the latest reading.

As I've been reading John, I'm continually being struck by how Jesus was so much about God. I know this sounds pretty simple, but when I think about it in my life, I have this view of Jesus in mind a lot of the time as a rule-keeping, rule-teaching guy who is pretty lame and doesn't do much except frown and say "follow God" and "for God so loved the world..." The more I read John, the more God continues to show that Jesus was simply and wholly about God. God Himself. The real, living and active God. The One He continues to say is who we should love, and honestly, might just find we want and need to love Him anyway. Not some set of rules or certain actions.

So I was reading John 10 with that in mind. Jesus is talking about sheep and the master. A couple things that hit me

The sheep know their master's voice.

Just like Jesus has been saying that the ones who will choose to follow Him are those who are really desiring to know, love and experience the presence of the living God. He keeps telling the Pharisees that the reason they don't recognize Jesus as being from God is because they don't really have any idea what God is like. They haven't really desired to experience and love God as much as earn some sort of recognition for good works that God claims to despise.

The shephard lays down his life for the sheep.

I'm not sure I have(I don't know if I ever will) ever understood Jesus' sacrafice. I can't put a theological statement around it and I can't seem to fit words together that describe what it means. Every time I return back to His willingness to die for His sheep, I find something else to consider. Is this what people mean when they say the "depth of His love"?

This time I thought about His death. I thought about it in the context of the recent loss of my sister and last week of my grandma. It's not a secret to anyone ever that it hurts really bad when people die. It makes me wonder as I'm typing this just how much pain God felt about His Son dying.

The sheep flee from other voices

Jesus describes His sheep as being those who recognize their master's voice. They are able to distinguish between the real master and the other voices.

Do I know my Master's voice? Do I really recognize God when He speaks or moves or acts? What does He sound like? How do I hear it? Am I listening? After writing these questions that came from my journal, I thought of another question--How can I listen better?

I think my prayer right now is that God would just help me in the midst of all my doubts, questions and challenges to hear His voice and know Him above everything and everyone else.

have an awesome night!!!
-dave