Diving Into the Father’s Love (#770)

He Loves Me is the flagship message for most of what we talk about here at The God Journey. A couple of weeks ago Jeff Andrechyn's asked Wayne to join his book group online after they had  completed their study of that book. They recorded it so Wayne asked if he could share it here because many of the topics they cover will be an encouragement to others. Specifically, their conversation centered around we we can have an engaging view of Father if our own earthly dads were abusive or absent.  They also talk about the favor line, the prodigal son parable, and what people are hesitant to respond to the immediacy of God's presence.

Podcast Notes:
He Loves Me!
Past Podcasts with Jeff
Can You Help Us One More Time in Kenya? 

 

25 Comments

  1. So many salient points delivered on the heart of God and his radical love for us. If anyone would like to have a Zoom call about this book please invite me ?

    • I am thinking about that! What a super way to get my mind focused on the Master Potter’s work instead of the damage I experienced, i.e., the letter of the law kills. Boy it sure does!

      I do have my own Zoom account, but I am quite tech challenged! I am going to start today reading the book again. It is so marked up though.

    • Hi Jeff,

      The more I read here, as new comments are posted, the more I want to invite everyone here to a Zoom weekly chat of sharing, encouraging, praying, i.e., functioning as a “pocket” group, much like a an in-home house church, of the Body of Christ. I suppose we could do it on Skype, (just thought of that). Have you ever visited an authentic house church? I have. I loved it!

      We each have so much to dedicate to the edification of all here, after we found “He Loves Me”. However, I am not aware of how the technology works, to use Zoom that way…so I am going to attempt starting a group just for practice, trial and error, for learning as I stumble with strong dyslexic tendencies in everything I attempt. Sigh.

      This whole thread is so rich.

  2. I really need to read the book, He Loves Me, again. I want to be in a group with that book as the basis. I was so in bondage to legalism when I first found that book in my hands. I say that because I don’t know how I got it…probably someone gave it to me ten years ago. I think what I am currently going through might be the end of “self”, i.e., the old man of sin. I was hooked in a cult for decades where old covenant law was the focus…Sabbath, holy days of Leviticus 23, and all of the law, as David called it in Psalm 119:165. I strongly feel that I am at the very end of my Self. I have even had thoughts of suicide…but I cast them down in Jesus’ name.

    • Lindy

      Your story is the same as Pauls in the New Testament. He was born under the law, learned it well and was damn sure everyone else lived under it’s curse… But one day Jesus shows up and everything changes and he became a champion of grace and what Jesus did for us on the cross. Because he knew the law (and how it did not bring him closer to God) he was able to safe guard the church’s from leaving grace and going back under the law. You are so needed in this fight Lindy to safeguard first your own heart and to help any others who God brings your way who might have questions. If you ever get that book club going count me in. Much Love to you Jeff

      • You are very encouraging. I have often wondered, as many have, what was Paul doing for over a decade after the encounter when he was struck to the ground, blind. He was one loaded legalist. And you are so right, at times I think I am from “Galatia”.
        I have no first-step idea of how to start a group based on “He Loves Me”. I guess it could be a Zoom “class” but a facilitator I am **not** .
        Where have I seen your name before?
        By the way, the cult that I was in was so pharisaical that they preached against the truth that Christ lives in the human heart…and mocked the “give your heart to the Lord” phrase. I believed for decades, based on Jeremiah 17:9 that my heart could not be trusted. I never realized until just this year, that the verse was taken clear out of context and had to do with the whole story in the previous few chapters. They had become very wicked in heart. But I was so very vulnerable and believed what I was taught.

        • Lindy

          One of the best resources I’ve ever heard on the heart was called The Good Heart by John Eldredge. You can find and listen to it by going to wildatheart.org and going to ‘Store” on top then typing in on the search button The Good Heart. I love the journey your on, keep going! You are now first in my prayers sister.

  3. Being at the end of self is a good thing, but I’m concerned about its connection to thoughts of suicide. I’m glad you’re able to cast them down, but I pray God will get to the core of it. Yes, you were caught in a cult, and yes, people taught you things that weren’t true, just so the could control you. BUT NOW, Jesus is giving you light. He is reshapping our thoughts to live in his light, to find his joy, and to be able to be a conduit to that for others around you. This is the great adventure that makes life in a broken age worth living. My heart goes out to you, Lindy, and my prayers to God for the fullness of his joy to continue to crowd out the lies and regrets of a false religion.

    • Oh Wayne, you have brought me to tears. Thank you, so much. I had really fallen into flesh living, just floating in comfort zones…despair. I will begin to say aloud, “I am **privileged** to be on this path by God’s grace, His mercy, journeying to fullness of Light. He has fully accepted me, as is, in the Beloved Body.”

    • Wayne, I never have received the email about Sue and me connecting. She tried to email me, but I never can receive it. She sent one today, but it never came. Hmmm….I checked both of my email accounts.

      Lindy

  4. Thanks Lindy and Wayne for your words. Lindy…I have sent an email….if you choose to, you are welcome to email me (Wayne sent us both our emails) Praying He bless you Lindy as we see Him unfols His life.

  5. Oh dear….if Wayne included you in the email sent to both of us, would you like to send one to me and then I can respond? I know that in technology, wires can get crossed : )

    • I would like very much to send you an email…. ? but I never got your email address. Are you on Facebook? You can find me there. My photo on there is my gray cat…

  6. I am back Lindy.,, I will try once more to send to the email I was given. I’ll send an email now and then in about 30 minutes check if this time is working. I am not on facebook but your picture sounds nice : )

  7. Hi Lindy, no email from you yet….wondering if you’ve had time to check….or if this is “unfixable” ?

    • Ya know, I think maybe Wayne just might have misspelled my email address. I have not yet received the email from you. 🙁

    • I have no idea why this has gotten so complicated. I just tried to send you both another connecting email, but Sue, the email address you use for blog postings came back as undeliverable. So, you both need to send an email to waynej@lifestream.org from the email address you want to use with each other. I will try yet again.

  8. Thank you Wayne….I am sending you an email and hope this works for both Lindy and me.

  9. I remember well the last day of 7th grade school and the principal was saying goodbye to each of us as we exited the school for the last time that year. I said to him “Mr Robertson, I’ll try hard to be a good boy next year (meaning a better boy) to which he tilted his head and said to me “Bobby, you’re already a good boy”. I didn’t know what he meant and obviously couldn’t accept that he was referring to me. Some of these horrible dysfunctional lies are engrained so deeply in many of us that even coming to know Christ wasn’t and isn’t a magic pill that makes us feel better about ourselves or feel forgiven or accepted by a heavenly Father or hopeful, or a part of. Thoughts of suicide pervaded my nearly everyday thinking especially after my own alcoholism began to come out of hiding. I was 11 years sober, 7 years back in the “church” when I picked up a book, “He Loves Me” and slowly scales began to fall from my eyes. I still took me almost 5 more years to finish the book because the statements in it and the truths it spoke were so foreign to my mind that it just took that long to finish it. I am exploring this more deeply every day and every day (some more so than others, LoL!) I am living a life with a loving Father and sharing it with others who still struggle with being “good enough” for God to love. Thanks Wayne. Bob

    • Bob

      Principle Robertson is one of your early hero’s in your story. He saw you and called you out for who you really were. A good friend of both Wayne and I is an older gentleman Tom Mohn. Tom says “in the spiritual realm we’ve been given great authority in Christ. We could ask a demon to leave our presence in the name of Jesus and he must go… but worse than a demon is a well placed lie.” The question in your story (and in all our story) is who told you that you were not a good boy. This is the work of God to set the captives free and its an on going process… its a journey and that’s the way God designed it. Look at the transformation of the saints throughout scripture starting with Abraham and it was a process. We even mention in the podcast Paul at the end rope thinking they were going to die only to come out trusting Father even more. Stay on the journey Bob, there might be some things to recover from your youth, some truth that can bring wholeness to living as an older man now. Thanks for writing such a beautiful response to the podcast.

    • So glad, Bob, you’ve found your way to a better journey. I love stories where someone was speaking the heart of God to us, even if we missed it, or they were unaware. That principal was outstanding. Call out the good, don’t condemn the weakness. I wish everyone would get that from their parents. It may have taken a long time for that seed to bear fruit, but that it was on your mind for so long, shows it had an amazing impact. So blessed to hear He Loves Me was part of the reaping of that seed, but all the glory belongs to God. I love how gracious he is to keep coming to us. Thanks for sharing all of this.

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