Thots on Wayne Jacobsen’s Book

HE LOVES ME

www.john2031.com/harbingers/wj/hlm.html

As chocolate is essential to chocolate fudge, so man’s fellowship with God is an essential ingredient of human wholeness. It is there, that we receive the identity, security and sense of well-being that we otherwise strive to find in unwholesome ways. We understand how that fellowship was lost through sin, much better than we understand how it was won back through our Lord Jesus Christ.

In HE LOVES ME, Wayne Jacobsen passionately describes the Father’s love and how our believing and receiving that love impacts us. He says it produces in us the freedom to return love to the Father, which includes the desire to please Him and is followed by the abundant life that we have so longed for!


Obeying Jesus out of love for Him rather than fear of Him, gives a whole new understanding to the "If you love Me you will keep my commandments" thing in John 14:15, with its deeply touching promise of intimacy in v21-27. We no longer need fear, as a motivation to do right!


We can live in the assurance of His love in the best part of our good days and the worst part of our bad days. He loves us the same, always. This sets us free from the performance-based mindset that most of us have known. We are released from the sense of God's anger against us when we don't do well. We know that when we sin we distance ourselves from the sweetness of intimacy with Him, but His warm smile and forgiving spirit beckon us to come back close to Him.


We come boldly into God's presence, without fear, to worship Him and to receive His I Peter 2:24-25 healing and restoration. It's the Heb. 4:16 (14-16) and 10:19-25 thing. We find wholeness there that empowers us to love Him more; to cheerfully keep His Word; and to more fully follow Him in all of life.
We are freed to acknowledge our vulnerabilities/failures/sins and to grow in relationship with Him, knowing that it is a life-long process and He is there to help us every step of the way. He certainly disciplines us but not harshly and not as an angry father. He does it not to punish us but out of His love for us and His knowledge of what it will take to bring us back into sweet fellowship with Him.


Trusting God in the hard times, and when we are tempted to sin, is also part of our love relationship with Him. We will believe that He has our best interests in mind and that trusting and obeying Him is for our good. The more we believe that, the more attractive godliness will become to us - - and the greater disdain we will have for sinful stuff. Wow!


I see myself in the puppies that Jacobsen describes in Chap. 5, "Welcome Home," p43. His wife Sara is a soft touch for stray pups and somehow many have made their way to the Jacobsen home. Wayne tells of the desperately needy stray that is reluctant to come to him because of fear. Self-preservation keeps it at a safe distance at first, but little by little it begins to trust. Only when the puppy finally decides to trust them can its needs be met. I do that too in various areas of my life as I learn to trust God more and more. His rewards are immeasurable.


Do you ever wonder what it would be like to live without the fears and insecurities that drive us to crave the approval of others? And to over-indulge in food, hobbies and even work? And to act harshly, even toward those we love? How do you think it would feel to never ever doubt that God loves you? Do you ever despair about yourself and your ongoing vulnerabilities and failures?

Why do the John 10:10 abundant life; the John 7:37-38 rivers of living water; the "greater works" and "ask what you will" of John 14:12-15; the R-P-J of Rom. 14:17; the Gal. 5:22 fruit of the Spirit; the virtues and "blesseds" of Mt. 5:3-12; the maturity of Eph. 4:13;and the fullness of God of Eph. 3:19 (read 14-19) so often escape us?Oh wow - so much of the freedom and Life that God has for us is on the other side of a choice to believe in and receive His unconditional love! To live as though we are loved, as Wayne says.
The connection between loving God and loving others is stated many times in I John. As love flows back and forth between God and us we are set free from our self-centeredness and are released to love others, which confirms that we are truly Jesus' disciples! John 13:34-35. Love has come full circle then, when this testimony draws others to the love of the Father and they too receive His gift of Eternal Life.
HE LOVES ME has 22 relatively short chapters. If we read one a day, or even five a week, it will take about a month. I have bought the second edition in print, but the first edition is available free here. You can read it online, download it to your computer or other electronic device, or print it off. The downloaded/ printed version is much easier to read than the book you can buy because of wide margins and larger font.
HE LOVES ME would be an excellent resource for personal, SS, small group or other study. Questions for each chapter are at the end of the book. Chapters 14-16 are rich in insight but theologically heavier than the rest, but after that it is gets lighter again. I might have some books printed locally which would only cost a few dollars each.


I see the relationships that HE LOVES ME presents as being wonderfully invigorating and liberating at this time but crucial to our thriving, and even surviving, in the days ahead. (As discussed in my Harbingers Series Premesis Page, on the Harbingers Series Main Page; and elsewhere on www.john2031.com.) Also, click here for more Wayne Jacobsen books and resources.

If you do pursue this, please be prepared to resist push-back from our enemy as Truth confronts the untruths which have diminished your freedom to abide in God's love, to love Him back, and to then walk in the abundant and fruit-producing life which follows.


Your fellow pilgrim!


Ken Stoltzfus

Feb. 21, 2015


See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. I John 3:1
We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. I John 4:16

Ken Stoltzfus, P.O. Box 228, Kidron, OH 44636 USA

- Tel. 330-857-6312 - Cell 330-464-5817

Long links:

HE LOVES ME download - www.lifestream.org/sites/default/files/--pdf/he_loves_me_1st_edition.pdf

Harbinger’s Series, Main Page - www.john2031.com/harbingers/main.html

Harbinger’s Series, Premesis Page - www.john2031.com/harbingers/premesis.html

Other Jacobsen books, resources - www.john2031.com/harbingers/church.html