Spoke in church yesterday about Gods love for us. I used the example of John the Evangelist, who identifies himself five times as the disciple whom Jesus loved at very crucial occasions in the life of Jesus. You can see that from his relying on the love and acceptance from Jesus comes a very secure, stable, trustworthy man of faith.
Today at our weekly devotional I focused also on Peter, who is more the type of guy relying on his love for Jesus – the other way around. Interesting to see these two man close together in four of the five crucial occasions mentioned before: they were probably very good friends. Also interesting to see that by relying on his own strength, Peter made it many a time hard for himself. Jesus even has to take him apart to restore their relationship, and to again ask him to follow. It suddenly struck me that one verse ahead (John 21:20) it says that John was following them – voluntarily.<\/p>\n
Both are great men of God, and have been used mightily, although in very different ways. Probably each one of us identifies more with either Peter or John, but the lesson I learn from this whole thing is this: God loved us first, so it’s best to start there. Makes life a lot easier!<\/p>\n
Read my sermon outline here<\/a> (in Dutch). Spoke in church yesterday about Gods love for us. I used the example of John the Evangelist, who identifies himself five times as the disciple …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-algemeen"],"aioseo_notices":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Mark","author_link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/author\/admin\/"},"featured_img":null,"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"post-thumbnail":false,"bravada-featured":false,"bravada-featured-lp":false,"bravada-featured-half":false,"bravada-featured-third":false,"bravada-lpbox-1":false,"bravada-lpbox-2":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Mark","author_link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Spoke in church yesterday about Gods love for us. I used the example of John the Evangelist, who identifies himself five times as the disciple …","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["algemeen<\/a>"],"unlinked":["algemeen<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Geplaatst 21 jaar geleden","modified":"Bijgewerkt 21 jaar geleden"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Geplaatst op 17 oktober 2005","modified":"Bijgewerkt op 17 oktober 2005"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Geplaatst op 17 oktober 2005 22:09","modified":"Bijgewerkt op 17 oktober 2005 22:09"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p63Qy-4r","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":124,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2004\/04\/26\/who-is-jesus-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":275,"position":0},"title":"Who is Jesus? (1)","author":"Mark","date":"26 april 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Show me your bookcase, and I tell you who you are. \" A famous saying, that does not fit Jesus. He did not write a book, He did not found an organisation, He was not a political or business leader... and still, nobody had a bigger impact on society as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/c\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1274,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2010\/10\/12\/cape-town-2010-thoughts-on-ephesians\/","url_meta":{"origin":275,"position":1},"title":"Cape Town 2010: thoughts on Ephesians","author":"Mark","date":"12 oktober 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The bible book of Ephesians is the focus of the Cape Town 2010 devotionals. Here is my contribution to that conversation. I once heard the story of an American general (apparently the only one) that was made POW during World War II. He was imprisoned in a Japanese camp in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/c\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/lausanne-capetown-2010-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":615,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/24\/understanding-grace\/","url_meta":{"origin":275,"position":2},"title":"Understanding grace","author":"Mark","date":"24 september 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It happened last night: watching someone really understand grace is a beautiful thing. We know that everything in the Law was written for those who are under its power. The Law says these things to stop anyone from making excuses and to let God show that the whole world is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "algemeen"","block_context":{"text":"algemeen","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/c\/algemeen\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":203,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2004\/12\/07\/the-exemplary-evangelical\/","url_meta":{"origin":275,"position":3},"title":"The exemplary evangelical","author":"Mark","date":"7 december 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote a very intruiging column on the 'exemplary evangelical'. He suggests it is not Jerry Fallwell or Pat Robertson, but someone like John Stott. I guess he is right, at leat about Fallwell and Robertson. The thing I like the most though, is the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "algemeen"","block_context":{"text":"algemeen","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/c\/algemeen\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1064,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2010\/04\/19\/good-news-to-the-poor\/","url_meta":{"origin":275,"position":4},"title":"Good news to the poor","author":"Mark","date":"19 april 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday I met him again, my friend Nermin. Originally from the Balkan, now living in Almere in a beautiful part of the city. His place has 6 bathrooms, a huge pond and a basketball court. The only problem: it has no roof. And actually, the bathrooms are the public ones\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/c\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/armeko-100x100.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":162,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2004\/08\/26\/high-touch-an-answer-to-high-tech\/","url_meta":{"origin":275,"position":5},"title":"High touch – an answer to High tech","author":"Mark","date":"26 augustus 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Hanspeter N\u00fcesch, Director of Campus f\u00fcr Christus Switzerland, lectured on societal developments and the christian response to it. Here are some of his remarks, mixed with some of mine: We live in a high tech, fast moving, information-overloaded, pluralistic society. 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–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"