{"id":1078,"date":"2018-06-27T08:03:25","date_gmt":"2018-06-27T16:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1078"},"modified":"2018-06-27T08:03:25","modified_gmt":"2018-06-27T16:03:25","slug":"devotion-john-316-finding-the-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1078","title":{"rendered":"Devotion      John 3:16      Finding The Way"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"yiv0273909345ydpc2a27e8cMsoNoSpacing\"><b>John 3:16\u00a0<\/b><i>\u201cFor God so loved\u00a0the world that he gave\u00a0his one and only Son,\u00a0that whoever believes\u00a0in him shall not perish but have eternal life.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv0273909345ydpc2a27e8cMsoNoSpacing\">Below, in italics, is taken from a friend\u2019s Facebook share.\u00a0 Following is my answer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv0273909345ydpc2a27e8cMsoNoSpacing\"><i><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">A man is driving down the road and his car breaks down near a monastery. He goes to the monastery, knocks on the door, and says, &#8220;My car broke down. Do you thin<span class=\"yiv0273909345ydpc2a27e8ctextexposedshow\">k I could stay the night?&#8221; The monks graciously accept him, feed him dinner, even fix his car. As the man tries to fall asleep, he hears a strange sound. A sound unlike anything he&#8217;s ever heard before. The Sirens that nearly seduced Odysseus into crashing his ship comes to his mind. He doesn&#8217;t sleep that night. He tosses and turns trying to figure out what could possibly be making such a seductive sound. The next morning, he asks the monks what the sound was, but they say, &#8220;We can&#8217;t tell you. You&#8217;re not a monk.&#8221; Distraught, the man is forced to leave. Years later, after never being able to forget that sound, the man goes back to the monastery and pleads for the answer again. The monks reply, &#8220;We can&#8217;t tell you. You&#8217;re not a monk. &#8220;The man says, &#8220;If the only way I can find out what is making that beautiful sound is to become a monk, then please, make me a monk.&#8221; The monks reply, &#8220;You must travel the earth and tell us how many blades of grass there are and the exact number of grains of sand. When you find these answers, you will have become a monk.&#8221; The man sets about his task. After years of searching he returns as a gray-haired old man and knocks on the door of the monastery. A monk answers. He is taken before a gathering of all the monks.&#8221; In my quest to find what makes that beautiful sound, I traveled the earth and have found what you asked for: By design, the world is in a state of perpetual change. Only God knows what you ask. All a man can know is himself, and only then if he is honest and reflective and willing to strip away self-deception. &#8220;The monks reply, &#8220;<\/span><span class=\"yiv0273909345ydpc2a27e8cezo\">Congratulations<\/span><\/span><span class=\"yiv0273909345ydpc2a27e8ctextexposedshow\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">. You have become a monk. We shall now show you the way to the mystery of the sacred sound. &#8220;The monks lead the man to a wooden door, where the head monk says, &#8220;The sound is beyond that door.&#8221; The monks give him the key, and he opens the door. Behind the wooden door is another door made of stone. The man is given the key to the stone door and he opens it, only to find a door made of ruby. And so it went that he needed keys to doors of emerald, pearl and diamond. Finally, they come to a door made of solid gold. The sound has become very clear and definite. The monks say, &#8220;This is the last key to the last door.\u201d The man is apprehensive to no end. His life&#8217;s wish is behind that door! With trembling hands, he unlocks the door, turns the knob, and slowly pushes the door open. Falling to his knees, he is utterly amazed to discover the source of that haunting and seductive sound&#8230;&#8230;But, of course, I can&#8217;t tell you what it is because you&#8217;re not a monk<\/span>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv0273909345ydpc2a27e8cMsoNoSpacing\">I know what it is! I have heard the call since I was a child. I did not know what it was. The call haunted me and I had found no rest. Then the cause of the call brought many people into my life to help lead me to the source of the call. It is the call that was sent out since before the beginning of time. The call persists, never diminishes, and never grows stronger. It never grows stronger because it was perfect from the start.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv0273909345ydpc2a27e8cMsoNoSpacing\">Finally, I also could no longer resist and so I yielded. The doors were doors within. The keys were guarded, but shared, by those who knew the source of the call. The keys were created by the eternal one. The keys were all made of the same composition. Miraculously their composition were pieces of His love that had taken on the form of the physical. All the keys were uniquely shaped to fit in unique locks. The shapes of the locks could be matched together to form one grand lock. The keys likewise were like a huge interlocking puzzle and the result of putting them together formed one grand key. The grand key opened the opened the grand lock. When the grand lock was opened using the key made from love, then the purpose and goal of all mankind was discovered. It was one I had heard about but had resisted. The answer to the call was simple and manifest to all. In fact it was found to be in all the world that surrounds mankind. It was found in what sustains mankind. The locks had been made from what had been my hard heart. The keys were formed from the love of the one who loves.\u00a0 They opened the locks to bring me to the one who loves.\u00a0 The one who loves knows where the complete peace and calm of my soul resides.\u00a0 It is with the one who perfectly love.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv0273909345ydpc2a27e8cMsoNoSpacing\">Perhaps I should not have shared all the story, but I have only revealed the source, but have not completed the journey for you.\u00a0 All must heed the call, the cry, from He who loves.\u00a0 All must follow the call and travel one\u2019s own path.\u00a0 Anyone can tell you to follow the call and to travel the path, but the Answer is found only at the end of each one\u2019s individual path.\u00a0 I will give you the name of the One who loves.\u00a0 It will cause some to run to the One.\u00a0 Others, will stop and walk away. \u00a0The name at the end of those who heed the beckoning call is Jesus, the Son of God.\u00a0 He calls to all.\u00a0 Some will hear and come to Him.\u00a0 Sadly, most will not.\u00a0 So the testimony of my life is for all to hear, to listen, and to let His love be the key that opens the locks, or the lock.\u00a0 The locks for those of us who hear, but want to resist and only to come later.\u00a0 Or the lock for those who hear and at once use the big key to find the One who loves.\u00a0 You see my friends, Jesus is always the answer!<\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv0273909345ydpc2a27e8cMsoNoSpacing\"><b>John 3:16\u00a0<\/b><i>\u201cFor God so loved\u00a0the world that he gave\u00a0his one and only Son,\u00a0that whoever believes\u00a0in him shall not perish but have eternal life.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<div><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/div>\n<div><b>Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0<i>Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n<p class=\"yiv0273909345ydpc2a27e8cMsoNoSpacing\"><b>Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0<i>But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv0273909345ydpc2a27e8cMsoNoSpacing\"><b>Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0<i>He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John 3:16\u00a0\u201cFor God so loved\u00a0the world that he gave\u00a0his one and only Son,\u00a0that whoever believes\u00a0in him shall not perish but have eternal life.\u201d Below, in italics, is taken from a friend\u2019s Facebook share.\u00a0 Following is my answer. A man is driving down the road and his car breaks down near a monastery. He goes to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[100,94,17],"class_list":["post-1078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-john","tag-micah","tag-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1078"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1079,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions\/1079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}