Obedience...yet another obligation?

OK ya'll. Sorry if I'm boring you, but I just haven't gotten off this train yet. Wayne Jacobsen's book entitled, "He Loves Me! Learning to Live in the Father's Affection" is speaking loud and clear to me these days. Sometimes I'm rather awed and stupefied by how backward my own thinking is. Here are a few excerpts I've been chewing on:

"The motives of conformity do not produce intimacy....We think conformity to God's ways will lead us closer to him, when the opposite is true. If we focus on our own fears and performance, he will seem more distant. It is only by living in the security of God's affection that he is able to transform us."

"I am not saying that the fear of God is wrong, only that it is incomplete. It is the first rung on the ladder to knowing God in his fullness. He said himself it was the beginning of wisdom, but it is only the beginning. Love is the end product of wisdom. If you don't love God, you would be well-served to fear him. At least that might keep you from behaviors that will destroy you and others around you. But once you know how much he loves you, you'll never need to fear him again. In other words, this Father doesn't just seek your obedience, he desires your affection. He can have your obedience without your love, but he knows where he has your love he will also have your obedience."

"One can obey God and yet not trust him, and in doing so miss out on a relationship with him. One cannot, however, trust God and be disobedient to him. For we shall see that all disobedience flows out of mistrust in God's nature and of his intentions toward us."

" 'God is good. You are bad. Try harder!' ...the observations of a fifteen-year-old summing up an evening with her youth group."



God is way bigger than obligation.