Featured Book: A Language of Healing for a Polarized Nation

As we approach the end of the calendar year we thought it would be good to highlight a few of Wayne’s books available here through Lifestream, and we’re offering a couple ways to save a little bit, too. Over the next few weeks we’ll highlight a couple books per week, and offer bulk discounts on each of those, and a coupon for a 25% discount on any order over $75.


Today we’re featuring A Language of Healing for a Polarized Nation. For the next week, this book will be 50% off, or you can order in bulk, and save even more (Box of 10, or Box of 20). In addition, through the end of the year, use the coupon code 25off75 when you checkout to save 25% off any order over $75. Merry Christmas early from Lifestream!


A Language of Healing for a Polarized NationAre you tired of the animosity and vitriol that fill our society at every mention of politics or religion, dividing us into two hostile camps on every possible issue?

So are we. We’re looking for others who want to change the dialogue from the rhetoric of polarizing animosity that is destroying the social fabric of our nation to a language of healing where honest differences don’t have to destroy friendships. Then we can seek a broader common ground based on mutual respect and compassion.

The Language of Healing will help you learn how to . . .

  • See disagreement as an opportunity for growth and discovery.
  • Change the temper of a hostile engagement or walk away.
  • Share mutual respect even beyond our deepest differences.
  • Become a peacemaker in your network of friends and family.

With another US election in our recent past, it’s likely we all have friends or family who are either elated or irate, and not playing nicely with “the other side”. Seems like good timing for a book that offers language for healing!

Ordering Options:

Other purchasing options such as Amazon, Kindle, Apple Books (all without special pricing), are available on any of those linked pages above. And if you’d like to order more than the Box of 20 option, email us your order and we’ll get you a custom price.


This post was written by Greg Campbell for Wayne Jacobsen and Lifestream.

Hi, I’m Greg Campbell. Wayne often calls me “[his] Web Guy” probably because I have been helping him with all his “web things” for about 20 years now. While Wayne is recuperating from his recent surgery and taking chemo, we thought it might be a good use of this space to remind people of some of the amazing resources Wayne has made available through Lifestream. Would you like to help? Perhaps something Wayne has written or said has been particularly meaningful in your own life. Would you be willing to share it as a way to encourage others who might be in a similar place in their journey. Perhaps there is a blog series, book, podcast, or audio recording (e.g. Transitions or Engage) that Jesus used to help you on your journey. Here’s the request: Would you mind writing a paragraph or two about it? We’ll make it available here on the Lifestream website. Thanks!

Featured Book: A Language of Healing for a Polarized Nation Read More »

Featured Book: Live Loved Free Full (365 daily reflections)

As we approach the end of the calendar year we thought it would be good to highlight a few of Wayne’s books available here through Lifestream, and we’re offering a couple ways to save a little bit, too. Over the next few weeks we’ll highlight a couple books per week, and offer bulk discounts on each of those, and a coupon for a 25% discount on any order over $75.


Today we’re featuring Live Loved Free Full, 365 daily reflections to draw you deeper into the desires Jesus has for you. For the next week, this book will be 25% off, or you can order in bulk, and save even more (Box of 10, or Box of 20). In addition, through the end of the year, use the coupon code 25off75 when you checkout to save 25% off any order over $75. Merry Christmas early from Lifestream!


Live Loved Free FullIsn’t it easier to awaken each morning pressed by the demands of life rather than aware of Jesus’s presence and his perspective to carry you through the day? This book was written to flip that narrative.

As you relax into his affection, you will find it easier to recognize his fingerprints in your circumstances and his whispers in your heart. That’s where you will discover the peace of living loved, the joy of living free in his desires for you, and the power of living in his fullness.

These nuggets represent the best insights Wayne has had during the last twenty-five years of his journey to live loved. Each offers an insight that will inspire your confidence in God and focus your heart on what he is doing in you. By knowing him, you’ll have a better perspective to navigate your life with greater wisdom, confidence, and peace, no matter what circumstances you face.

Ordering Options:

Other purchasing options such as Amazon, Kindle, Apple Books (all without special pricing), are available on any of those linked pages above.


This post was written by Greg Campbell for Wayne Jacobsen and Lifestream.

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How Do You Withdraw Love?

I’ll provide a health update after I share this brief quote that crossed my computer this morning and stirred my heart. This is a more profound treasure in the mine of love. You cannot fairly hope in God’s gracious love towards you in your brokenness if you also don’t share it with those who haven’t “earned” yours.

Love the Person You See by SØREN KIERKEGAARD

 

We foolish people often think that when a person has changed for the worse we are exempted from loving him. What a confusion in language: to be exempt from loving. As if it were a matter of compulsion, a burden one wished to cast away! If this is how you see the person, then you really do not see him; you merely see unworthiness, imperfection, and admit thereby that when you loved him you did not really see him but saw only his excellence and perfections. True love is a matter of loving the very person you see. The emphasis is not on loving the perfections, but on loving the person you see, no matter what perfections or imperfections that person might possess.

Real love continues no matter how much a person changes.

Love is not an obligation nor obedience; it is a different way of living in a river of love that comes from the Father’s heart and flows through us to touch the world.  Loved by him and then loving with him is where his glory dwells.

And of course this does not mean we have to maintain contact with people who are abusive or toxic. We can still love them, though, even from afar without letting ourselves continue to be a target for their anger and vengeance, in hopes that one day his light will dawn in their darkness.

 

Health update:

Thank you for all the emails, comments, notes, and calls expressing your love and prayers for us in this season.  I am now three weeks from my back surgery, and the pain has lessened appreciably. I still have much to deal with there, but I have greater freedom of movement and have even been able to take some short walks (really short!) with Sara. I have begun treatments for the underlying cancer, and we are very hopeful that this will mitigate further damage. However, this is a long and challenging regimen, and it will be some time before we know its true impact.

So, my time, energy, and focus are limited. I can respond to some emails and enjoy phone calls with friends, but I’m only doing what God seems to inspire me to do each day. I am not worried about trying to keep up with any workload; this will continue to be a time of healing for the foreseeable future. Through it all, Sara has been God‘s greatest gift to me, though I know it is also taking its toll on her. Pray for her strength to endure these days and the wisdom to know when to take a break and care for herself. Hopefully, as I can do more, she will not be so taxed.

In all of this, Sara and I are not without hope—that our God reigns, that every breath we take is in his hands, and that the works of darkness will not thwart his purpose in us. I am grateful to be his son and to live in his growing grace and revelation. Kyle and I may even record a podcast next week, strength permitting, to process some of what I’m learning in this stretch of the journey for those who are interested.

In our prayers for my condition, I always remember Jenny, a friend from the UK who has been suffering longer and far more deeply than me. Whenever I am before the Lord for my health, I am before him for hers, too. I’ve written about her on this blog as a gifted poet finding real faith amid desperate need. She needs some significant help right now if you have some means to help her. And please pray for her too as you pray for me.

How Do You Withdraw Love? Read More »

Taking Some Time to Heal

For all our best laid hopes and plans, it’s the things you don’t see coming that have the most profound impact in how life unfolds

Sara and I have a few detours thrown our way over our lifetimes, which has helped us to live feely in the present and not too dismayed when times turn a bit darker. Over the past few weeks, we have been caught in an ever-declining health situation that came on rapidly and will leaves it imprint for some time to come. I know most people don’t read this blog to hear about my health situation, and I don’t want to share all the details hear for the world to read. At the same time, I have a world of friendships and I just can’t keep up with all inquiries more personally.

I woke up on September 14th with severe pain in my back. I have had some back trouble from time to time, so that wasn’t a huge surprise, but as we prayed and sought treatment, the pain only increased to excruciating levels. Nothing seemed to slow it down, not an epidural, targeted injection, or physical. The scans we had didn’t unveil a cause worthy of the pain.

Nearly passing out from pain one day, Sara finally took me to the ER, early last week. During their rigorous tests they found a suspicious lesion on one of my vertebrae in the middle of my back. It was decomposing. The next day, I was on the operating table to remove the vertebrae for a biopsy, rebuild that part of my back and then fuse it to hold together.

The larger issue is what caused the deteriorating vertebrae. The biopsy has indicated multiple myeloma which is which is a cancer in the white blood cells. Fortunately, it is treatable, and the prognosis is good to manage this condition in the future. We’ll begin that today and hope that in the next two to three months we find the right combination of drugs to restrain this disease while my back heals from the very brutal surgery it just has endured.

So, quite quickly we entered a new season of our journey, learning to embrace Jesus’s love, light, and healing in these new challenges. He has been part of all of this from the beginning, leading us by his goodness and putting together the medical team we needed. We have no idea how long this stretch of our journey might demand all of us, whether it will be a few weeks, months, or longer. That’s not in our hands. It could also just go away tomorrow. We are not looking forward any of it, but we’re not afraid of it either. God works some of his special triumphs out of desperate situations.

We managed to return home Wednesday after my eight-day hospital stay. What’s evident now is that this medical battle ahead of us is going to take significant time and energy. It takes almost all we have each day just to get work though my treatment demands and navigate the pain. Recovery has already been arduous with pain and complications. Who’s to say what the next days and weeks will contain?

It is obvious now that this medical need is going to take almost all our time, energy, and resource for the foreseeable future. Thus, I’m going to be taking a leave of absence from writing, email, and podcasting as I give my full attention to what my body needs. We’ve tossed all our plans into the wind and we trust that God will show us the way forward.

How are our hearts through all of these? They’re great, well-covered by Jesus and his love for us. We are both so glad we have each other to lean on at a time like this. Our faith in the Lord stands resolute, confident that in his ability to work good out of tragic circumstances, and that pain is only another lens to see his beauty in the word.

We appreciate your prayers, concerns, and friendship. We will also appreciate your patience as we need to expend our resources closer to home these days. I know most people don’t read this blog for updates on our personal needs, but it is also true that Sara and I have a family that covers the whole world. So, we will provide some updates here in general terms. Our internet/messaging load is already greater than we can keep up with.

We are taking this one day at a time. We could wake up tomorrow completely healed and that may allow us to get back to those things God has asked of us. Or, that my happen over a few months. At this point and we are making no assumptions. We wake up each morning seeing what he has before us and what we need to do that day to deal with our circumstances and still find ways to put his love in the world. Sara has been a rock through this season in caring for me as well as sorting through all the medical information. She will need continued strength, rest, and joy to hold her. Please pray for her.

In the end, nothing has changed. Every day, every breath is in his hands, no more today than it was before all this began. We are confident that he has a way through this and that we will be here to accomplish his purpose for us in the earth. So, I guess we’re on a new journey together not just Sara and me but the Lifestream and God Journey families. So, buckle up. Let’s see how God glorifies himself here and anticipate with gratitude his power to do all things well.

Taking Some Time to Heal Read More »

Chapter 10: Only One Thing Matters

Note: This is the tenth in a series of letters written for those living at the end of the age, whenever that comes in the next fifteen years or the next one hundred and fifty years. Once complete, I’ll combine them into a book. You can access the previous chapters here.  If you are not already subscribed to this blog and want to make sure you don’t miss any, you can add your name here.

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In your last letter you wrote, “The performance-based approach to God blinds us to the relational journey.” Can you unpack that more? Every day, I succumb to temptation, when I know better, struggle to apply godly disciplines, and feel his disappointment far more than I feel his love. I’ve been at this for over twenty-five years and want to find my footing on an authentic journey with Jesus.
Leo, surgical sales rep, and father of two in Tennessee

Thanks for writing, Leo. Your email makes my heart sad because I hear it so often. As much as Christianity teaches that Jesus has “paid the price for our sin” or “met all the requirements of the law,” it still loads us up with behavioral expectations that keeps us focused on our failures and blinds us to his love growing in our hearts. 

Even those who believe Jesus declared them righteous still labor under the obligation to appease him. Intuitively they know that the cross had to be about more than perpetual immunity that lets us live by our own desires without consequence. However, all our solutions to mitigate that put people back on the performance treadmill, which fails to yield the fruit Scripture says are ours—love irresistible, life in abundance, peace through trouble, and fullness of joy even in desperate times. Then we’re left to wonder where we went wrong or how God failed us? 

Let me see if I can help you get off that treadmill, Leo. It is well-designed to keep us so preoccupied with our personal righteousness that we miss the only thing that matters. Like the serpent’s lie in the garden, it preys on our best intentions. Who wouldn’t want to be like God, which is what our preoccupation with trying to be righteous seeks to do? It just doesn’t work because it depends on our effort.

 

A Different Way of Living

 

Jesus showed us how to live differently and then gave us everything we needed to walk as he did. He was not preoccupied with sin or living in fear of God’s punishment. He didn’t pursue personal piety or think himself excluded from God by the lack of it. 

But he was God, some might argue, so he didn’t battle the same temptations we do. Scripture tells us he did. Though he never gave into sin, it came for him unrelentingly, in ways we could never imagine. He experienced every temptation we do, and yet they couldn’t win over him. Why? Was he just strong enough to resist? Or did he hold a place inside his Father’s heart where temptation lost its appeal? 

I’m convinced it is the latter, and that is exactly what he offers us. Trying to gain personal righteousness is the greatest distraction I know to true discipleship. Those who focus on sin, especially those who work to abstain from it, will find themselves in a perpetual whirlpool of failed effort and its resulting shame, or they will pretend to have success in “major” sins as they seek refuge in the delusion of self-righteous arrogance. The second of those is far worse than the first. 

Both scenarios completely miss the point of God saving us from wherever our lives got twisted or broken. The salvation Jesus offered is to give us freedom from darkness and invite us into his life. By making it about heaven and hell instead, we emptied the cross of its power. We were taught that a “sinner’s prayer”, a commitment of faith, inviting Jesus into our heart, or being baptized, seals the deal. Having our eternal destiny secured, knowing his love became optional and no longer connected to the essence of salvation.  

You can’t live long in Christianity without being plagued by a call to righteousness and the competitiveness and comparisons it engenders that pit fellow believers against each other. And when we tie God’s favor to that, it gets even more destructive. If we do enough, he will bless us, answer our prayers, and keep us from harm. So, any time we endure hardship, we can blame ourselves for falling short of his righteousness, which leads to endless self-effort and second guessing our motives, or God’s. 

That’s why people can campaign for a biblical morality even as they treat people around them with indifference, anger, or deceit. The religious view of righteousness cannot produce a life of love. Perhaps Paul himself is the greatest example of that. Even though he was faultless as to the law, he became the “worst of sinners” by murdering God’s people. 

 

Aren’t We Supposed to Seek Righteousness?

 

Given all that Scripture says about righteousness, these may be difficult words for many to swallow. Christianity has landed on a fixation with righteousness that produces the opposite of what it intends. Personal godliness is not the goal of our faith; it is the fruit of a life lived inside God’s love. If you’re not living in that love, nothing you do externally will make any difference for you or for God. 

I have long known that our preoccupation with personal piety and trying to fight temptation is the greatest distraction to people experiencing the love and life of Jesus and the fruit that bears. And yet, the quest for righteousness fits so well into our religious paradigm. Of course, God wants us to be holy. So, we think that means we must work against sin by devotion, commitment, and accountability. And while those can help us overcome specific sins, they will not lead us to his fullness. 

What if the word ‘righteousness’ is not even in the Bible? I know what you’re thinking, and I thought it too when I first heard that from a South African theologian. His email couldn’t have been timelier, since I was already well into this chapter when I got it. Even still, it took a while for me to understand what he was saying. At first, I was ready to delete the email, thinking this was yet another nutjob spouting some weird doctrine. Of course, righteousness is in the Bible. I could think of at least fifteen verses mentioning righteousness just off the top of my head and knew there were dozens more. In fact, it is difficult to talk about the Gospel or Christianity in our day without using the word righteous. 

But what if it is a mistranslation of a Greek word? That’s what Tobie van der Westhuizen from Bloemfontein, South Africa had concluded after eight years of study. The more I read, the more convinced I became that he was on to something. His research could have profound implications in what the Reformation left incomplete. With his permission, I share a bit of it here. 

How did he come to such a conclusion? Part of it was by reading Plato’s Republic in Greek. More than three hundred-and-fifty-times Plato uses the word our Bibles translate as righteousness. But reading Plato’s book with that in mind, it made no sense. Then he found English translations of that text that used ‘just’ and ‘justice’ instead of ‘righteous’ and righteousness’. Except for a few exceptions, only in the Bible is this word translated as ‘righteousness.’ 

Tobie began to read the Scriptures substituting the word ‘justice’ and ‘just’ for ‘righteousness’ and ‘righteous’, and it made much more sense. As I read the Scriptures that way, I realized God’s love had already won me into that reality even though I hadn’t had this language for it. We are currently airing some of my conversations with Tobie on my podcast at TheGodJourney.com. 

Any Bible scholar will tell you that righteousness and justice are related words, and most Greek dictionaries use justice as one of its definitions. However, justice offers a wider lens than our popular ideas about righteousness. Whatever you love about God’s righteousness is already inside justice, though justice expands it to include how we treat others. That’s why Jesus could say that love will fulfill the whole law. You can’t lie about or steal from someone you love. 

To most people, righteousness speaks of sinlessness, personal piety and devotion. Focusing on those things is a valuable tool for the religion we’ve sculpted around Christianity, but it puts people on the religious treadmill, striving for something they can never attain. It keeps them guilty and in fear, and thus much easier to manipulate. The only way to survive guilt is to take Martin Luther’s tack that our righteousness is imputed in Christ. Thus, we are declared righteous, no matter how we live. It allows people to live under a perpetual immunity at an abstract level, while still captive to darkness of their flesh. 

 

God’s Kind of Justice

 

That’s why people focused on righteousness never experience the life of God growing inside them. Jesus’s kingdom was not about a declaration; it was about a transformation. If God is focused on justice in an unjust world, it changes the emphasis throughout Scripture. Jesus’s new command to love one another as we are loved by him makes more sense. Instead of being focused on our personal piety, the gospel becomes relational—experiencing his love for us and sharing it with others. 

If you’re equating God’s justice with human justice, you’ll still misunderstand my point. Many think of justice as a legal proceeding often wrapped in vengeance—people getting what they deserve. But God’s justice is not about law at all, and no law could ever bring it about, even his own. God’s justice is laced with love, forgiveness, and mercy as he is more interested in setting things right by resolving our injustices through love. 

Think less about legal systems and more about the power of a just man or just woman living in the earth. I like to think of the “justness” of God—always for what is true, right, and fair, but in a context of mercy and grace. The outworking of forgiveness is not amnesty or immunity, but the opportunity to make right what damage we have caused another. That’s why God’s justice could never come through a system of law one can fulfill by checking the boxes. 

Take three verses for example, substituting justice for righteousness: 

  • Matthew 5:20-21 – For I tell you that unless your justice surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven…
  • Matthew 6:33 – Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice and all these things will be added to you.” 
  • Romans 1:17 For in the gospel the justice of God is revealed—a justice that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The just will live by faith.” 

Do you see how the emphasis changes? As our hearts are shaped by his love, we find ourselves empathetic for others instead of using them to our benefit. That’s why Jesus said that doing to others what we would have them do to us would fulfill all the law and the prophets. This is how we participate in God’s justice—putting ourselves in the place of the other and treating them the way we would want to be treated if you were them. We all hate being treated unfairly but so easily miss when we do it to others. 

Of course, our preoccupation with justice can be just as much a distraction as a quest for righteousness, especially when we do it by our own effort. God’s justice flows out of a heart won into his love. Thus, our passion for God’s kind of justness fulfills itself in growing closer to him, not trying to act better. So, we seek justice by reveling in his love and watching it flow out of us to others. In the end, our preoccupation is with the Father, Son, and Spirit from whom all love and justice flow. Only by seeing how God sets things right in us with his love can we joyfully share that mercy, wisdom, and grace with others. 

In the end, it’s all about love. Give up thinking you can earn God’s, or that your struggles with sin negate it. God’s love is not something we attain; it’s a reality we relax into. It is the very essence of the Gospel itself. That’s why Paul wrote: “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” Galatians 5:6. 

All other preoccupations are decoys, and religion has given us many. When we focus on personal piety, missions, pleasing a religious leader, or our calling in the world, or even how the church should function, we lose sight of the Head. All those things are simply the fruit of a life of growing trust in God’s love that manifests itself in caring for others. 

Leo, I know this is going to sound strange, but if you are seeking to find the essence of godliness, don’t focus on righteousness or trying to abstain from sin. It won’t lead you to God or his life. What will do that is your awareness of his magnificence and discovering how deeply he loves you.

If our forebears had understood that, they would not have wasted all the time, money, and effort creating religious systems to try to manage people. Our focus on love would have engaged the world even more than our arrogant piety alienated them. Imagine a world where everyone is treated fairly and one that champions mercy above sacrifice. Is it possible in this fallen world? I hope so, but it is possible for me and you to do it in our corner of the world. Our wisdom and generosity can make up for the injustice others have suffered, as is true of God for us. 

 

Making Disciples

 

Wouldn’t this completely alter the way we try to make disciples? By focusing primarily on theological knowledge, disciplines, or sinlessness, religion draws us back to the Law, even if cloaked as “New Testament principles.” Conversion, according to Tobie is not believing the right set of doctrines; it is an engagement with love that converts us from slavery to our narcissistic flesh to an others-focused life of love and mercy. 

Thus, the kingdom Jesus envisioned is not an enclave of like-minded religious thinkers cloistered away from the world while holding fast to doctrines and rituals for comfort. He saw a growing company of just men and just women who would embody his love in the world, living as ambassadors of God’s kingdom in a world gone mad. 

What would discipleship look like then? It would most certainly be less about disciplines, rituals, checklists, and accountability to stop from sinning. It would mean coaching people to recognize and yield to the revelation of Jesus’s love in their own hearts and how to embrace that love as it renews their mind. Then it would encourage them to discover how to share that love freely with people they encounter. And where we struggle, we know that God’s love has still more to teach us. 

That’s it. It may be hard to believe but engaging that kind of love will change your life, freeing you to live inside God’s nature. You’ll discover the Scriptures are a valuable resource to help you know him, learn to engage God in prayer, and discover the conversations of community that will nurture our journey, but you will learn it relationally, not just as an obligation. 

That’s where you will find the connection you seek, Leo. Learning how to participate in his love will accomplish all that the law and prophets were meant to do, and it will happen where it does not depend on human effort. Slowly, you will find yourself living differently in the world because this love will change you at your core. It’s not an excuse to hide your dishonest and selfish ways but will increase our empathy for others so that we can no longer use them for our benefit or watch them suffer unjustly. That’s how love and grace will teach you to say no to fear, selfish ambition, and vain conceit. 

Then you can embody his kingdom in the world by living out easily and freely what Hosea said God wanted.  

And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8) 

Let love teach you the power of living justly, the wonder of sharing mercy, and the gentleness of walking humbly, just as God does with you. There is no greater joy than discovering that freedom and no greater purpose than being a light for justice and fairness in a world desperately craving for both. When the end of days comes upon us, those are the people who will bear his light and love in the darkness.

 

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You can access previous chapters here.  Stay Tuned for Chapter 11.

Chapter 10: Only One Thing Matters Read More »

The Prayers of a Just Person

Most of you will be familiar with James 5:16, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

What springs to mind when you think of this Scripture? Doesn’t it seem that our sinlessness is a pre-condition to having an effective prayer life? But that doesn’t make any sense if the process of transforming us is a lifetime adventure.

What if it said instead, “The prayer of a just person is powerful and effective.” If so, it is no longer about how good I’ve been but whether or not my heart is united with God’s purpose to restore justice on the earth. In other words, am I just praying for myself, or are my prayers inclusive of the needs of others? Am I praying for my benefit at someone else’s expense or in an attempt to co-opt their will?

If you’re following this blog or the series of podcasts titled This Changes Everything at the God Journey, you know I’ve been drawing down a rabbit hole of biblical proportions. A newfound friend from South Africa, Tobie van der Westhuizen, sent me some of his research on how the word ‘righteousness’ does not appear in Scripture. Oh, it’s in our English translation, but he argues it’s a mistranslation. The Greek word is ‘justice’ or ‘justness.’ By focusing that word on personal piety, devotion, and discipline instead, we gutted the gospel of its purpose. God didn’t want to just declare us “righteous” in Christ but to populate the world with a company of just men and women who have been converted from the narcissism of self to the joy of others-focused loving.

Sara and I have been taking this thought for a test drive in our Bible reading together. What a difference it makes if he is right, and I am quickly becoming settled that he is. This verse from James has begun to reshape my prayer life with a different tone as I think more about his justice and purpose. Why would our prayers be more effective there? Because they wouldn’t be tainted by your personal comfort or privilege but looking out for others as well. That’s where you’ll sense his heart better and engage him inside his larger purpose for all humanity.

That’s what God’s love does when it takes residence in our hearts. By filling us with the life of God, we don’t have to draw life from other people or manipulate circumstances for our survival, but to embrace kindness, fairness, justness, and generosity. Could that be what it means when Jesus wanted to justify us? He didn’t just want to declare us righteous; he wanted to transform us and make us the kind of men and women who can influence the world through the power of love. And that’s the only way this works—we experience love, then live out of that love to others. This is where the fullness of life in Christ exists in the flow of his love to us and through us.

This Saturday, we are hosting a God Journey After-Show with Tobie so others can ask questions about this. It will stream live on The God Journey Facebook page at 11:00 am Pacific Daylight Time and be available afterward for those who want to hear it. If you’d like to participate in the Zoom room conversation, please email Wayne in advance to get the link. The room is getting pretty full, so I’m sure not everyone will get their questions in, but we can use it as a beginning.

Finally, we are nearing our goal of completing work on rescuing the orphanage we built fifteen years ago from torrential rains. In the photo at left, a government inspector checks the repairs already made and is pleased with the progress.

Thanks to all who have generously contributed to this project. We still need a few thousand more if this is on your heart. If you can help us, please see our Donation Page at Lifestream. As always, every dollar you send goes directly to Kenya. We do not take out any administration or transfer fees for Lifestream. Just designate “Kenya” in the options or email us and let us know your gift is for Kenya. You can also Venmo contributions to “@LifestreamMinistries” or mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560 Newbury Rd Ste 1  •  Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or, if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

Let’s see if we can find the full amount they need.  Thank you for your consideration.

The Prayers of a Just Person Read More »

Oops again!

I am really embarrassed to say that the God Journey After-Show we had scheduled with Tobie van der Westhuizen from South Africa next weekend has had to be delayed another week. He informed me yesterday that he had an irresolvable scheduling conflict that would prevent him from joining us that day. He was profoundly sorry and asked if we could move the session to September 28.

I know. That does seem a long way off, but it will give you three more podcasts exploring my conversation with him.

Tobie is our current guest at The God Journey in a series of podcasts exploring the idea that a mistranslation in our English Bibles replaced the word for justice with the word righteousness and, by doing so, has obscured the nature of a love-based Gospel and how the kingdom of God becomes visible in the world.  If you’re not up-to-date on this conversation, please see my blog on September 5 and the podcast series that began on September 5.  We had planned to meet with Tobie in a live Zoom chat next Saturday, September 21.

So, now the After-Show with Tobie will be held on September 28, 2024. It will stream live on The God Journey Facebook page at 11:00 am Pacific Daylight Time and be available afterward for those who want to hear it. If you’d like to participate in the Zoom room conversation, please email Wayne in advance to get the link. I’ve sent an updated link for those who have already emailed me, but the one previously sent will work as well.

I’m sorry to do this to you, but perhaps such things remind us all that flexibility is a helpful tool to navigate the shifting circumstances that affect our lives. I’m looking forward to seeing many of you on the 28th.

________________________________

As to Kenya, we sent another $10,250.00 to complete work on rescuing the orphanage buildings and grounds and need an additional $6,000.00. Every little bit helps us get to our goal.  If you can help us, please see our Donation Page at Lifestream. As always, every dollar you send goes directly to Kenya. We do not take out any administration or transfer fees for Lifestream. Just designate “Kenya” in the options or email us and let us know your gift is for Kenya. You can also Venmo contributions to “@LifestreamMinistries” or mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560 Newbury Rd Ste 1  •  Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or, if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

Oops again! Read More »

Thank You, Thank You, and Oops!

I’ve got two quick things to update you on.

First, we are so grateful for those who have responded to the need in Kenya to rescue the orphanage we built fifteen years ago. Torrential rains have caused the land to shift, and without your help, the government would have shut it down. In just a week, we received $25,02500 of the $41,430.00 we needed and have sent it on so they could get started. We are still looking for the remaining $16,405.00.

If you can help us raise the remaining $31,430.00, please see our Donation Page at Lifestream. As always, every dollar you send goes directly to Kenya. We do not take out any administration or transfer fees for Lifestream. Just designate “Kenya” in the options or email us and let us know your gift is for Kenya. You can also Venmo contributions to “@LifestreamMinistries” or mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560 Newbury Rd Ste 1  •  Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or, if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

The work begins…

 

And now the oops!

The email notification for the blog last week had a typo. I gave out the wrong date for our God Journey After-Show regarding my last blog and the current podcast about a mistranslation of the Greek that may have significantly altered our understanding of the Gospel Jesus preached. We continue that discussion in upcoming podcasts as well. Unfortunately, the email notification announced the date as September 14 when it should have said September 21. I apologize for the error and any inconvenience it caused. In any case, the After-Show will be held on September 21, 2024, and Tobie will join us from South Africa. It will stream live on The God Journey Facebook page at 11:00 am Pacific Daylight Time and be available afterward for those who want to hear it. If you’d like to participate in the Zoom room conversation, please email Wayne in advance to get the link.

 

Thank You, Thank You, and Oops! Read More »

Living Loved on Steroids

It feels like someone walked into my office and unfurled a treasure map on my desk. “There’s gold there,” he said, waving his hand across the aged parchment.

It was more a puzzle than a map. There were no hills, rivers, or oceans but words, images, and symbols. It looked familiar, but I couldn’t see the gold.

“You’ll need the code to understand it,” he added.

“There’s a code?”

He smiled. “The word ‘righteousness’ does not appear in the Bible.”

Now I was really confused. What kind of nonsense is this? Of course, it does, and what did that have to do with the map I was now holding? Off the top of my head, I thought of a dozen verses with ‘righteousness’ in them. He watched me getting ready to raise an objection.

“What if it’s a mistranslation?”

“How could that be? It’s such a critical word to the whole Bible story?”

“Then why is it that the Greek word we use for  ‘righteousness’ not translated that way in any secular books from that time?”

“How is it translated?” I couldn’t believe it.

“Justice.”  And with that, he took the map out of my hand, turned it ninety degrees, and my eyes lit up. There it was! 

      *         *         *        *

It didn’t quite happen that way, but that’s an excellent metaphor for what happened to me a few weeks ago. I received an email from someone I didn’t know named Tobie van der Westhuizen from Bloemfontein, South Africa. He calls himself a “reclusive philosopher” but has been on a path that unveils an interpretation of the Scripture that may be more complete than traditional Protestant theology has yet seen. Here is my introduction to Tobie:

My theological world came to a standstill eight years ago because of a single sentence that captivated me and would not let me go: The word righteousness does not appear in the Bible

Whilst that may sound as crazy as saying “The word ‘God’ does not appear in the Bible,” I believe it to be true and also confirmed it over and over again during eight years of near-obsessive study and reflection on the topic. In fact, I have been so overwhelmed by this simple sentence and its implications for my life and theology that I have found it difficult to teach it to others in the way I have been teaching the Bible for four decades.

During this time I have been reminded, quite regularly, of Neil Postman’s analogy of Native Americans communicating via smoke signals but finding it impossible to discuss deep philosophy this way. “The form excludes the content,” Postman says.

His words perfectly captured my feeling that the form of theology, as we know it, is inadequate for conveying a revelation of this magnitude—in essence, a revelation of life that is as different to the theory as the romantic exploration of newlyweds is to a monk reading a dreary textbook on the physiology of the human body.

I was pretty sure I’d just gotten an email from a loose cannon on the deck of the body of Christ. But I kept reading what he had sent me, and he got into my head and heart. I couldn’t stop thinking about it and tried his premise as I read Scripture:

  • Matthew 6:33: Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things will be added to you.”
  • Matthew 5:20: For I tell you that unless your justice surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
  • Romans 1:17: For in the gospel, the justice of God is revealed—a justice that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The just will live by faith.”

Any Greek scholar will tell you that the word justice is inherent in the Greek d-k words that we translate as righteous and righteousness. And yet, in our day,  righteousness has come synonymously with personal piety, sinlessness, and morality. It turns our hearts inward when an invitation to live in his justice would impact every human interaction we have. Scripture became fuller and richer. Treating others as we want to be treated makes us part of how his kingdom reveals itself in the darkness of our world. It is still living loved, but on steroids. This is an entire flow of love, from the heart of the Father into ours and from ours to how we engage the world. 

This may very well complete what Martin Luther began in the Reformation. Yes, it is salvation by grace, but it is not primarily to resolve our eternal destiny or for us to work toward personal piety. Engaging his love transforms us so that we become outposts of justice alongside other followers in a world of selfishness. This is the kingdom come! 

You’re likely to hear a lot more about this in days to come. I’m letting you know because tomorrow, Kyle and I, along with Tobie, will begin to unpack his thoughts on the next episode of The God Journey. If you no longer listen to the podcast, you might want to return for the next few episodes. This may be the most important content we’ll share on the podcast this year. And for those who listen, we will host a God Journey After-Show on September 21, 2024, with Tobie. It will stream live on The God Journey Facebook page at 11:00 am Pacific Daylight Time and be available afterward for those who want to hear it. If you’d like to participate in the Zoom room conversation, please email Wayne in advance to get the link.

I’m so excited to share this treasure with you and give you a way to explore it yourself because this is one of those realities that is far better explored than explained.

Living Loved on Steroids Read More »

Devastation in Kenya Continues

The torrential rains that destroyed the crops in North Pokot a few months ago now threaten to wash out the original orphanage we helped to build in 2009.

If you remember the story, we helped rescue 45 orphans from a slum near Eldoret who were living in their sewage. Thanks to your generosity, we built an orphanage and a petrol station so the profits from the petrol station would sustain the orphanage. That worked well until the last storm three weeks ago when an adjacent culvert was washed out.  Now, the buildings are threatening to slide down the hillside.  Here is an inspection report they received just yesterday:

HEALTH INSPECTION REPORT FOR LIVING LOVED CARE CENTRE
REPUBLIC OF KENYA

During our inspection, we discovered that many structures at The Living Loved Care Centre were in bad condition, making it a high risk for children to use. The damage was caused by heavy rain, which is taking place across the country. During our assessment, we found that the drainage overflows and runs towards the building, weakening the structure and causing some to develop big cracks

To create a better and safer environment for children and the community, we have given the work three weeks from 25 August 2024 to be completed.
We shall continue doing our routine inspection on weekly basis for more advice and directive.

Note: Failure to our recommendation the Centre will be closed down, operational permit withdrawn, and the law wil take its course for risking the life of the children and the community.

This is the request we have received from Michael and Thomas who oversee the orphanage:

It has been 15 years since we started this orphanage, and we have never experienced what is happening in Kenya due to climate change. The damage has affected hundreds of families, and many buildings have been damaged. Some have collapsed, leaving the family in great distress.  However, the engineer who built the Living Loved Care Centre says we must put strong protection, concrete culverts, pavement, and floors inside the buildings.This is not renovation because we do that yearly using profit from the grain enterprise. 

So we appeal to you to help us once again to rescue this situation. The estimated budget to repair the damage, secure the hillside, and clean the septic system will cost $42,930.oo. We have collected $1500.00 and are trusting God for $41,430.00.

If the Living Loved Care Centre closes, it will affect the future of these children.  I believe these children and those in the Forkland community now understand what it means to be loved when they didn’t feel they deserved it.  They are worried and stressed to see that the Centre is in danger of closing and wonder where they will live. Please continue praying for us.

As we contemplated this request yesterday, a check for $10,000 came in for our “Kenya Mission” when I had yet to tell anyone about this need. So, the need is already down to $32,420.00. I would appreciate it if you could help us reach our goal with large or small contributions. As always, every dollar you send goes directly to Kenya. We do not take out any administration or transfer fees for Lifestream.

If you can help us raise the remaining $31,430.00, please see our Donation Page at Lifestream. Just designate “Kenya” in the options or email us and let us know your gift is for Kenya. You can also Venmo contributions to “@LifestreamMinistries” or mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560 Newbury Rd Ste 1  •  Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or, if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

Thank you for considering this desperate request. We only have a week or so to make a difference.

One of the condemned buildings

Children help in clearing debris

Devastation in Kenya Continues Read More »