…The sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them.

Did you catch the apparent contradiction in that passage? Jesus just declared to his sheep that they would hear his voice—and then his audience didn’t hear his voice. So what does that tell us? One observation: we can recognize his voice, not understand it, and still be his sheep. He doesn’t give up on us when we read the Bible and don’t get it—when he tries to speak through life’s circumstances, and we’re too dull to get itHe doesn’t abandon us to the wolves. Instead, as he did with the original little flock, he tries again:

So…Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

A little flock of us my friends, nine men strong, took 12 months to take a close look at what it means to abide in Christ. We shared an intimate dialogue with each other provoked by The Journey, a course created by Rocky Fleming’s Influencers organization. While the curriculum was useful, there was another underlying component of our times together. There were always four T’s at work, building the foundations of our little community. They were: being together, truth, time and transparency. As we took the time to be together we became transparent and the truth found its way into our hearts—as it is apt to do when the Holy Spirit moves among two or three gathered in his name.

From the light generated in our two-or-more gatherings, at least one common theme emerged—a hunger for intimacy with God. Alongside that same hunger were also varying degrees of frustration that this coveted intimacy seemed out of reach (possibly waiting around the next corner?). Maybe you can relate to this.

I believe this sense of separation from God is a primary symptom of Religiously Transmitted Diseases (RTD’s)—something that Adam and all of us Eden-evicted decedents carry.

Because it is a common frustration I hear among my brothers, I addressed this letter to them.

Dear friends,

As I look at this morning’s Blue Book scripture on the theme of Listening To God, I’m thinking about one of our recent discussions. 

I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. (Jesus speaking in John 10:15-16)

you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became a partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree…..you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree…a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (Paul from Romans 11)

I think we are suffering from an RTD-symptom if we feel like we are God’s afterthought instead of his dream. A key symptom of this dis-ease is a loss of hearing at certain frequencies. Those ranges of sound that contain radically good news about us are lost in transmission. Here is an example of the type of truth that often goes un-received…

The Lord your God is in your midst (more precisely—in our hearts as…)
A victorious warrior.
He will exult over you with joy… 
He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.

The scriptures, particularly the NT, are a prescribed remedy for this malady. What the scriptures say may be counterintuitive to our feelings or beliefs, but we must ultimately side with God against ourselves (also know as repentance) and agree with his scandalously high opinion of us. Today, having lived with an RTD for three decades, I now stand boldly in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy.”

My point? It’s not important how we got here; it’s only important that we are here (by sovereign decree), living in the care of the good shepherd, whose love and care for us is beyond the dimension of our best finite, linear reasoning.

Blessings,
Rob

Many who are freed from this condition report that their hearing improves dramatically, and, because his words are the words of life, they regularly report greater levels of abundant life.

Father, may the full gale force your grace rush mightily through our hearts, finally sweeping them clean of all the religious debris. Exchange our self-doubt and strife for implicit trust and rest, which is our destiny. May our identities become so firmly grounded in you that we no longer remain the easy targets of Satan’s fiery missiles of condemnation. Help us to strengthen and hold fast to our profession as the children and friends of the King of Glory. Amen.

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