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Jon Ortberg writes, "God is the happiest being in the universe." God also knows sorrow, but the sorrow of God is a temporary response to a fallen world. The sorrow will be banished when the world is set right. Joy is God's basic character. Joy is God's eternal destiny. God is the happiest being in the universe." Perhaps few things are more essential for the life we long to live than the essential of joy. An unexplainable, uncontainable, contagious and outrageously overflowing joy that doesn't require a changing of my circumstances, or a looking away from pain. It's a joy that comes in spite of the hard.

So perhaps throughout this episode and after it, our simple prayer would be "God give me that joy, overflowing joy!"

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At the heart of every Jesus apprentice is a growing passion for Jesus. A growing certainty that there is none greater than Jesus. A Jesus apprentice, ultimately lives like everything is worth-less than knowing Jesus. Anything that comes between Jesus and me is a loss. No matter what it takes, I want to know Jesus. So ask yourself, "What's keeping me from following Jesus with all my heart?" As I will share in this episode, sometimes what we treasure most about ourselves is the very thing that's keeping us from the Jesus Way.

So I want to invite you to come and see...

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Don't miss this one! It's a bit different because this last week was our CWOW Sunday and snowmegaddon! I know she's my wife, but Lynn has an amazing and authentic relationship with Jesus and in her conversation with Pastor Stacy, she shares about what that relationship "conversational intimacy" looks like. It's a bit different than my regular episodes, not a lot of scripture, not a lot of me, but a lot of Holy Spirit inspired story of a life lived, chasing after Jesus.

Listen all the way through, the end is pretty powerful!

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As I was working on this episode, I couldn't get a song out of my head. It's a simple song that I learned in church as a kid. "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine..." In John 1 we find that Jesus is not only the Word of God, He is the light of the world. And when His light shine the darkness cannot win. But if you can get past the grand metaphors and visions of light battling darkness, at the heart of John 1 is a messy love story.

In the midst of our darkness and our mess, he relentlessly pursues you. Even as you walk the Jesus way, His heart is relentlessly pursuing you.

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Ask yourself this question, "Whose words do I love? Who gets my ears?" I can't love Jesus' words if I'm never in His Word (the Bible). So how much of it have I read? How often did I read it this week? Do I treasure it? Do his words saturate my soul? Do I let His Words convict me? Guide me?

Here’s the deal, I can’t be an apprentice of Jesus if I never listen to the word. In other words, the first step is as simple as, open the book. This may take a little planning. The good news is that God will meet you wherever you are at, whatever your plan. But you have to open the book. It's hard to walk in His ways, if I don't listen for His voice!

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I don't actually say those three words often in this episode. In fact maybe I don't say them ever. But as you listen to me describe the way of Jesus that we find in John's gospel. I hope you hear those three words over and over again, "You are invited." You are invited to follow Jesus. You are invited to become more like Jesus and do more like Jesus. You are invited to be with Jesus. You are invited on this journey of the Jesus way. You are invited by me, but more importantly we are invited by Jesus!

I hope you join us!

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The Gospel of John is a masterclass in the Jesus way. It is not just a record of what Jesus did, but an invitation into how Jesus lived, loved, related, discerned, and moved through the world. If the other Gospels give us the story of Jesus, John opens a door into the inner life of Jesus—so that anyone who reads it can learn to live from the same center, with the same Father, in the same Spirit, for the same purposes.

For this journey, think of John as an apprenticeship manual disguised as a story. And we start with the question, "What is my most urgent hunger?"

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Today at Calvary we started a new series, a 50-Day Journey called "The Jesus Way." There's even a devotional guide that goes with it. If you aren't a part of Calvary, you can download it online at https://www.calvarycwow.org/resources -- This is the first message in the series and in-between messages, I'm going to do something in the gospels. For the next 50+ days it's all about Jesus and the Jesus way.