What I would like to know from your perspective, is there a clear and growing warp in the teaching on grace that is, overtly or covertly, connotatively or emotively, saying that behavior does not matter? I realize that has been a Gnostic teaching of our history, but I am wondering if it is back in the form of this “free grace” teaching. I believe that if our experience of God’s grace is the real McCoy, our heart, mind, emotional makeup, and behavior will begin a rest-of-our-life change to conform to what we can see in the Man, Jesus. What degree of that progress is by grabbing our own bootstraps and getting going on… that I truly do not know.

My Response: I do not ascribe to any view of grace that suggests our behavior doesn’t matter. As I read Titus 2 a real engagement with grace will “teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.” Those who think grace washes out the impact of our failures on ourselves and others have a very shallow relationship with God and no real concept of sin and how it damages humanity and human relationships.

But, yes, I do know some people who claim to embrace grace, even teach it, and live unapologetically in selfishness and duplicity without a concern as to what their actions do to other people. They claim it does not matter since it is all covered by grace and God will ultimately accomplish his will in the world anyway. So, yes, that seems to be a growing conclusion some people are grasping for in their reaction to religious performance and obligation. But no one growing to know God as Father would ever use grace as an excuse to hurt others, tell lies, or pursue the indulgence of their flesh.

The problem stems from people only seeing grace as a theological concept. They try to parse out their beliefs about grace, sin, and repentance, but it all leads to nonsense outside of a growing relationship with Jesus himself. Grace is the portal to engaging him without guilt or shame. But engaging him brings transformation to our lives. Those who teach a theology of grace that does not embrace a relationship become quite destructive in the world. Finding out God is not holding their sin against them seems to negate the only motivation they had for holiness. How sad is that?

My contention is that if they grow to live loved by the Father, they will begin to learn how to love others around them and that will begin to transform their existence in the world. That’s why I do not talk of “unconditional love”, but of “transformational love”. Living loved will transform you. Embracing a theology of grace without a relationship of love will only mess you up. That transformation, however, does not come by human effort (the ol’ bootstraps) seeking to make itself conform to God’s ways. It actually begins when we lose confidence in our own ability to change ourselves and seek his help. And it is a process that comes over time out of a growing relationship with God that first learns to rest in his love, and then to grow in trust for him and the way he works in the world.

No, I don’t know any way to measure that, but I don’t think it takes a long time in being with someone to sort out whether their passion derives from a theology they only espouse, or whether they are truly getting to know the Father of our Lord Jesus. If the latter, then I give them a wide berth. I know transformation takes time and if I push them to conform to some external principle that isn’t rising out of their relationship I am pointing them down the wrong road.

In my view, our bigger problem today is not those who abuse grace, but those who are captive to shame and condemnation, who are trying to do in their own strength what only God can do. That’s why Paul talked about the righteousness that faith (or trust) produces, and the passion he had for that. And in the same breath he is admitting that he has zero confidence in his own flesh to promote that transformation.

I don’t know how to describe that outside of a relationship with Jesus. In him these things make sense and we find a pathway of growing trust that transforms us in his love. Outside of that we are in the ever-constant search for the illusive balance between legalism and licentiousness and I don’t think we’re good enough to define that on our own terms. Those who truly know God as Father will want to be like him and will find themselves in honest dialog with God as that transformation unfolds.

Yes, there are many who teach a grace doctrine that is only an excuse for their unrepentant living. I see that as much a problem as the legalists who think they can engage God through their performance.

For more information on this series you can check the Transitions page at Lifestream. You can also subscribe to any new audio postings via iTunes.

For more information on this series you can check the Transitions page at Lifestream. You can also subscribe to any new audio postings via iTunes.

Last week I found this email that so resonated with me as well:

It’s funny how when Christian folks find out we don’t attend a church, we kind of become their project to get us into their church. I’m sure I was exactly the same, not too long ago. A couple guys that I have become friends with are very intellectual in their pursuit of God. One attends a Catholic church, the other a Baptist church. Every so often, they will buy me a book to read or CD’s to listen to. I’m reading a book about a protestant who turned catholic and a book about Calvinism. I may have to start turning down their requests to read these books because I feel like I’m all cluttered up, if that makes sense.

Both are very passionate about doctrine. Their argument is that if you don’t have correct doctrine/theology, you can’t really get to know God. I appreciate their passion to know God better, I’m just not so sure of the route. God always amazes me and seems to reveal Himself to us, even when we aren’t “doing it right”, so I believe He will honor the desire of their hearts to know Him. I don’t really know if I’m a Calvinist or an Armenian or somewhere in the middle. I’m not really sure I care what camp I fall into. My focus and prayer for months has been:

• “Father, I want to know you more intimately, the way you want me to know you.”
• “Father, open my eyes and help me to see how much you love me and those around me, and teach me to respond to that love.”
• “Father, when I read the Bible, reveal yourself to me. Help me to see what you want me to see about you.”

Then I get around these real intellectual guys and I think, “is my approach too simple?”. But when I start studying all the heady stuff, I get all clogged up. When I go back to just my simple focus, I mentioned above, there is a rest and peace. I guess that answers my question, huh?

Yes, I think he did!

I know for me when my spiritual journey was more of a head trip than learning to live loved, I was much more enamored with doctrinal positions. While I still believe in the importance of sound doctrine and growing in the truthof who God is, I don’t think he is nearly so complicated as some scholars would have us believe. Learning to live in his love and love those around me, including those who cross my path each day, is far more joyful and far more intellectually challenging than all the other things that use to fascinate me. And his truth emerges in the loving.

I guess that’s what Paul meant when he said “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” Living loved leads to correct doctrine, but rarely does correct doctrine lead to living loved.

Progress continues both on the refurbished structure and the new building. It’s great to see them making such headway. They hope to complete the building before the rainy season makes work difficult.

We appreciate really for your prayers as well as support so that we may complete this wonderful work as you may see it is very big build enough to accommodate the children with some space for caretakers and social workers. This includes a medical clinic. you will get the whole pictures in few days, This work as gone very quick beyond our expectation, our volunteers are so committed to rush the work along. May the Lord bless you we shall be in touch with the updates.

Thanks to all of you who continue to participate here. We’ve been amazed at how early and graciously people have wanted to be included in this endeavor. For more information on our project here, you can read this earlier blog. If you would like to be part of this to support these brothers and sisters and see the Gospel grow in this part of Africa, please see our Sharing With the World page at Lifestream. You can either donate with a credit card there, or you can mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560-1 Newbury Rd #313 • Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

I know many people who wonder about that because religion has taught us to see love as a command, not as a reality. I used to look at love as a standard we have to live up to. It was exhausting, it didn’t work, and I’ve come to believe that love isn’t a standard we need to achieve at all. I’m convinced love is a reality for us to live in. It is the reality that totally defines the God we’re coming to know. He is love, and he responds in love to us. I am convinced the descriptors of love in I Corinthians 13 are not the Ten Commandments of the New Testament telling us how we should act, but a description of God’s love, both as it flows from his heart and in our freedom as we live in that love.

Otherwise we’re just reduced to actors, trying to follow a script God wrote. He invited us into a relationship of love that would transform us. As I grow to know his, I grow in finding love in my heart for others. I don’t conjure it up. I don’t pretend to have it. When it’s there I can live out of that love. When it’s not, I go running to him, sit at his feet, and ask him to teach me more of his love and pray that it will win more of my heart. This has been a fifteen-year journey for me and I feel as if I’m only scratching the surface. But it works. As I relax into the reality of his love I find love in my heart for others, even when they are being spiteful toward me.

So I see love now as a journey. It begins in him, and he invites me into its flow. Little by little, one day at a time, I’m learning to live in that reality. Where I do, my heart is at peace and some wonderful fruit gets borne for others. Where I don’t, I get worn out, self-focused, and anxious. As I sit here today I see the ocean of God’s love as the world’s greatest resort, and there is no better place to live, and that doesn’t require one thing to change in my life except to grow in the reality of his love. But I truly want nothing else. No other trinket or ambition in this world compares to it.

But I’ll grant you the learning curve is fairly steep for those of us who found it easier to live as if we weren’t loved.

We continue to be amazed at the generosity that has overflowed in regards to our project to move 72 orphan children and their caretakers out of a slum and into a safer and more sanitary site. We have received $23,500.00 to date and with our matching grant that means we have $47,000.00. We advanced $53,000.00 to them the last couple of weeks so that they could buy the land, pay all the necessary fees, and begin to get some work done on it. They are overjoyed and overwhelmed by the outpouring of love from so many people they have never met. With every correspondence he tells me to pass on their gratefulness.

I got this email from them after they were able to buy the property: “Glory and honor with praise return to our almighty God. We have gone every step to examine the property along with the advocate. The properties were clear we paid cash 3.7 million Kenya schillings. So property is for the children now. The land is in the Municipal council so transaction is a bit high .So we needed another 72,000 schillings for the transaction, survey and transfer fees to start processing the title deed for the land. I have already hired a guard watchman to see the property. May the Lord bless you so much for all what you did along with your team.”

You are that team. Thanks for your help. For those that don’t know, we’ve had a fifteen-year old high school student from the St. Louis area who began to make and sell hand-made dolls to sell, with all the proceeds going to the orphanage in Kenya. To date she has already made and sold over 100 dolls and is sending over $2,000.00 to add to our total! You can read more about that and even order dolls if you wish further down the blog!

So we are nearly half-way to our goal of $100,000.00, and much is being done in Kenya to secure this land and to begin to refurbish the buildings there. Personally, I’ve been so blessed whenever Sara gives me a new total. We simply made this need available without trying to pressure anyone to give out of obligation or guilt, and the generosity of hearts to help us relocate these kids brings tears to my eyes. I know Kent feels the same. We were among these kids on the last day of our trip there and so touched by their plight and the deplorable living conditions they were in.

But neither of us wanted to respond out of the raw need as well. Since we were in touch with 18 different orphanages, we needed some time to process what we saw, and hear where the Lord wanted us to begin. Both Kent and I are excited about this process and are gratefully for all of you who are carrying this with us.

If you would like to be part of this to support these brothers and sisters and see the Gospel grow in this part of Africa, please see our Sharing With the World page at Lifestream. You can either donate with a credit card there, or you can mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560-1 Newbury Rd #313 • Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

She has sold over $1000.00 worth of dolls and is all caught up with her orders. She’d love to make some more and asked If I would make it available to my blog readers. So, if you would like to order her dolls, either for children you now or to donate them to the orphanage for the kids in Kenya, you may do so at her website.

I am often asked if I know of a retreat or a workshop that will help people find the joy of living loved and connect with the Father, especially for those whose father’s betrayed or abused them in some way. They have never had a flesh and blood example of a loving, trustworthy father in their own lives.

I was just asked that this morning. What I wrote back is something I’d want to say to so many others who struggle with the same thing. They look for a resource to help them find a breakthrough, not even realizing the greatest resource in the world is already in them.

“No, I don’t have any retreats or seminars to recommend to you. To be honest I don’t have much confidence in any formatted ministry to hold what various people might need to make the next step in their lives. God’s Spirit is the best guide I know to help people unlock the broken places in their hearts and free them to know him. So look to him as the primary source of the liberty you seek. See what he leads you to do.

And it may be that he will lead you to one of the best resources God has on the planet—brothers and sisters in whom his life has taken shape. Like “John” in the So You Don’t Want to Go To Church Anymore, they come alongside people who need help with a mixture of questions, encouragement, prayer and love that magnifies God’s reality in the human heart and invites people into freedom. They don’t have a formula to follow here, but are listening with you as the Spirit makes his unique process known that will overturn the darkness in your life and help you learn to trust the Father who will never betray you.

I have no doubt Father has some near you, though you may not even know them yet. Ask God to help you cross the path of one of his “elders” in the family who can help you through this. They will most likely not be a pastor or counselor, but just an older, wiser, brother or sister who enjoy a real walk with God, is at peace in himself or herself, and has a heart to help others who have gotten stuck on their journey.

I’m sure people are going to get tired of me sharing the needs in Kenya. I’m sorry to do that to those of you who just need some encouragement or provision in your own lives these days. And please, don’t feel any guilt whatsoever if God has not put it in your heart to be of help or if you don’t have the means to do so right now. Like anything else, if God wants you involved it will be a joy to do so, not a frustration or a guilted conscinece. But I got this email this morning and these are boys I know, most of them orphans. I was in their home the man who wrote this letter cared for Kent and I over the five days we were in Kitale.

Receive greetings from Kenya. I thank God for the wonderful time we were together with you in Kitale. Your conference has changed people here and teachings has changed people and there is a great change for everybody here. I want to share with you that I have tried to find your email and I am not familiar to communicate through internet but the secretary has helped me to communicate with you. The director and other people went to the northern part of Kenya near Sudan for preaching to the people there who have not been getting the word of God a long time but the problem is that when they were out almost nine children in the children’s home including one of the workers came under heavy attack of malaria and typhoid. I have tried to communicate with the people who went for the mission through phone but I cannot reach them due to heavy rain , the children have been admitted in hospital for three days now including my little child.

The Doctors wanted the initial deposit of 28,000 Kenyan schillings (about $400.00) before they continue with the treatment and I don’t know what to do. I am sending this information without the permission of anybody and the way I know you as a man of love the time I was with you here. The malaria has gone around the country especially this heavy rain season. These are the names of the children who are admitted: Edwin, Mateka, Deno, Brian, Martin, Sammy, Faith, Nelly, and my little child Enos

God bless you so much as I wait to hear from you,

Hassan

In a posting I put up last week, I also shared another need for mosquito nets and food, totally almost $20,000.00. Really, these people truly have nothing. They have never received money from anyone outside Kenya before coming in touch with us and have so few options. The combination of the violence many suffered two years ago the poverty of their region, and now the rains and diseases that come with it continue to pile upon them. Simply these are life and death issues, and they are so used to death.

I continue to encourage them to look to God and not to Lifestream. He is their provider and he wants them to grow in their dependence on him, not me and my friends. But I also know that this is an incredible opportunity for some of our abundance to flow to a need around the world where every dime actually helps someone subsist today and perhaps find a future to take care of themselves.

We will be sending some money over today. If you’d like to help us with any of these needs, from medical to food to mosquito nets, please see our Sharing With the World page at Lifestream. You can either donate with a credit card there, or you can mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560-1 Newbury Rd #313 • Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

Thank you for your consideration and prayers.

What does God’s presence feel like? What do you mean when you say ‘God’s presence came powerfully into the room’? It’s one of those phrases that when people mention it, leaves me empty, because I don’t understand. It makes me wonder if I’m really getting all this God stuff or am doing something wrong. I mean it seems it’s a key thing yet I don’t get it. I think I have the spiritual capacity of a marshmallow!!

I get that question a lot, so I think others might be interested in my answer to her:

God’s presence “feels like” different things to different people, and even different ways in different circumstances. I don’t want to describe it as a feeling, because it goes way beyond that. At its heart it is a simple knowing that something greater than us is making his presence known in the room. That can be accompanied by supernatural events, a simple inner knowing, or the affirmation of what a number of people are sensing at the same moment.

For us at that hospital bed it was a powerful sense of connection with him and each other. It added a lightness to the room that was more spiritually seen than physically seen. It manifested itself in the lightness of heart and trust that we all sensed afterward, very different from when we went in. But it doesn’t always look like that, which is why I hesitate to define it. I find people recognize him less when they are burdened down by expectations of what it should look like. Then we are looking for manifestations, rather than simply seeking him.

For many people it isn’t so much that God isn’t making himself known, it’s that they haven’t yet tuned to his frequency to recognize his voice or his fingerprints in the simple realities around them. I think most of God’s supernatural working appears to be incredibly natural as it unfolds. Looking back we see with greater clarity what he was doing…

I got this email today from Michael, our contact in Kenya. They have been so blessed with the new transportation that many of you from The God Journey helped to provide for them through your contributions. Thank you so much for blessing a brother who is involved in the front lines of both caring for widows and orphans, and in spreading the kingdom throughout the more remote places of Central Africa.

Much appreciations from IGEM members all over for standing with us in this dependable vehicle. We can now move all over even in a rainy season like this. I have tried to reach may parts of Kenya where I have never reached before because of the transportation means. As you may see in the pictures, we went to some areas where there are no roads but people have been using only walking path ways and people live in the bushes but we managed to reach even to the tops of the valleys.

This area called Samia interior places and also the same neighboring called Marachi. we are having the souls over there and we are having interior pastors who have never heard the message of being loved and loving others. It is only tradition, religion there. we had a wonderful time with the native people. We shared the love of Christ of this journey of Transition. My Brother Wayne and Kent, you have left here the legacy of love which is now taking the root. we have more invitations to reach and continue praying for us that this gospel may expand from all over Kenya and in Africa. We have appreciated very much for the kind of love which we have never seen.

Learning to live loved, and to love others

The need here, especially among the widows and orphans is ongoing. If you’d like to help us continue to support these brothers and sisters and see the Gospel grow in this part of Africa, please see our Sharing With the World page at Lifestream. You can either donate with a credit card there, or you can mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560-1 Newbury Rd #313 • Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

Let’s give great room for each other to see these kinds of things very differently, just as Paul admonished us to. But however you celebrate this season I pray it will be rich with the work of God’s redemption at the cross, and filled with the joy of his resurrection, and I pray that resounds in your heart every day throughout the year.

I recently stopped going to church on Sunday mornings and I am loving it! I still have a lot of questions and I am wrestling with what faith looks like apart from a Sunday morning experience. As we approach Easter, I am wondering about how others (you) celebrate Easter in ways that are meaningful and life-giving. The resurrection is such a significant cornerstone of our faith and has implications for our every day lives, but I am wrestling with how to mark the holy day apart from an Easter cantata and rousing sermon! Any ideas?

My answer? The joy of this journey is you still can. If you want to enjoy a cantata or rousing sermon, go ahead! You are free to participate in any of that available in your community. But now I consider every day a celebration of his Resurrection, so there isn’t anything special about Easter for me or my family. That day I’m going to be home with my kids and grandkids and we are going to celebrate his resurrection together just in the joy of our family. Others may gather for a sunrise service, go help in a homeless shelter, or just take a long walk in the woods and have some ‘alone time’ with Jesus. Ask him if he has for you that day and go enjoy it with him.

From Paul in Romans 14:5-18 (NIV):

One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. 8If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. 1You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written:
” ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will confess to God.’ ”
So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way. As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food[b] is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean. If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died. Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.

I want to take this opportunity to thank many of you who have helped with the need in Kenya. Over the past two weeks we’ve taken in over $7,000.00 to help the brothers and sisters in Kenya. Some of that has gone to purchase a dependable car for the ministry and some of that has gone to help widows and orphans. The need is ongoing, and will be for some time. If you’d like to still help, it will be greatly appreciated and be wonderfully used to help so many lives.

I received some pictures and an email from our Michael Wafula, our host there and the man we are working through to share resources with those in need. Here’s part of what he wrote:

On behalf of brethrens from East and Central Africa, specifically Kenya and Uganda, I would like to express our gratitute to you and brother Kent for coming to Kenya. The seeds you planted are germinating. I had a five-hour meeting with brothers and sisters in Kitale who have totally changed through your ministry. We also visited Eldoret and the Holy Spirit is melting the hearts of people through the message of forgiveness and loving one another. In Lugari and Endebess the Spirit of God is strongly working for this gospel of living loved and loving others.

We also held a meeting in a place called Cheptais where almost all the men were slaughtered during the election violence. We were surprised to hold a meeting which comprised over 500 widows with about 50 men. As a result we could not hold back our tears. It is our prayer that God is preparing our small team, which will be able to travel all over the continent to extend this Gospel of living loved and loving others.

I believe God gave us this vehicle at the right time. This is not the one we first thought. On a follow up we discovered that the car was pledged as a security. (God then provided another vehicle, valued at $27,000.00 and he offered it to us for $20,500.00 because he was a friend of theirs.) Brother, this car is very strong and can even go up to Congo, Rwanda, Sudan and anywhere else that one needs to go.

We are still collecting reports from our zones about the widows and orphans and will get a final report about these.

The car many of you have helped us get for them to travel about Central Africa.

This and the two below are from some of the children at various orphanages

If you’d like to help us continue to support these brothers and sisters and see the Gospel grow in this part of Africa, please see our Sharing With the World page at Lifestream. You can either donate with a credit card there, or you can mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560-1 Newbury Rd #313 • Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

Thanks for your consideration of these people. Please feel no obligation to help, nor give out of any speck of guilt. We know that many of you are in dire financial straits these days yourselves or are already helping in other places of the world. Paul encouraged us to give out of generosity (2 Corinthians 8-9). If you have an abundance now, freely share with those in need. If you are in need now, God has ways to provide for you too, and I pray that he does!

Over the past year my wife and I have had some close friends go into deep funks in which they won’t return phone calls, emails, etc. These are folks we have known for some time and fellowshipped with on a pretty regular basis. Each situation is independent of the others and in all cases no one seems to be currently having any relationship with Jesus and are instead showing signs of addictions, depression or…well, funk. Over the past year we have both repeatedly left voice messages and sent emails but have received virtually no response from any one except one who has simply said she would rather feel numb right now than deal with her life.
 
I know that Father has called, or maybe better put, wired me to pastor. I know what that doesn’t mean but I guess maybe I’m struggling a bit with what it does mean. Over the years I (we) have tried hard to simply be friends with people and have positioned ourselves to be in the messes and struggles with them and not control them. We have offered help and input as we were led but steered clear of controlling people or distancing ourselves if they chose not to take our help. 
 
I know this isn’t the end but rather a season and nothing but nothing can separate them from the love of Father. I’m not sure what my question is but hope you can hear my heart and what I am trying to express. I feel like I could have/should have done more for these friends and that I still should. I understand the old saying, ”you can lead a horse to water but can’t make him drink and if you force him to drink it’s called drowning.” But I can’t help but wonder if I had been more authoritative they would all be in a better place right now. As painful as these situations have been for Kim when I express this to her she thinks I’m nuts.

Honestly, I’m with your wife on this.

I’ve had it on my heart of late to spend more time with people who want to help others live loved, than just spending time with folks who want to live loved. I think people have lost all sense of what a true pastor or elder is—someone who knows how to help and encourage others to live inside a relationship with Father in a growing journey of learning to live in his love and share that with others. Your note seems to be a further nudge that direction. I’m not sure how that will work yet, but I know people all over the world who are really gifted as pastors and elders, not in the traditional sense but in the Biblical sense, but simply are unsure how to do it relationally. Without the position, title, or job description they seem to drift aimlessly unsure how to really help others. I want to spend time with people like that, those who are already learning to live inside Father’s love for themselves, and now want to find creative ways to help others. But that’s something God is going to have to show us how to do going forward.

That said, one of the worst things we do to ourselves is second-guess what we could or should have done or said, especially when we are feeling responsible for how someone else is responding. This would have killed Jesus, I’m sure, long before he got to the cross. He invited people to the kingdom, and he didn’t seem to get too freaked out when people missed the open door, and wandered off to spend more time in their self-effort or religious performance. Paul didn’t either. If people weren’t listening yet it was because their eyes were veiled and they weren’t ready to see. Neither of them blamed themselves for not being more authoritarian. The kingdom is an invitation for the hungry not a demand on the complacent. As sad as it is, some times people just need to stew in their mess a bit longer.

Sure an authoritative approach might have gotten them to conform their outward behavior to please you, but the inner life would have been more at risk. Thinking they are doing OK by how they look on the outside, they wouldn’t be dealing with the reality of their mess on the inside. Freedom is all about letting people live inside their choices, even when those choices are hurtful to themselves and others. You can always be lovingly, honest with them, helping them see a better way as God gives us insight and grace. But you’ll come to recognize those who are hungry and want your help, and those who aren’t ready yet and shy away. Don’t think that’s a bad thing. Keep praying and keep loving without badgering them. When they are ready to find healing and life in Jesus, they will fight their way through every obstacle to embrace it.

Perhaps the most difficult part of loving is letting others have the very freedom they are using to destroy themselves. I see the Father of the prodigal son doing exactly that. I’ll give you the freedom to ruin your life, in hopes that the ruin will invite you back to me! That’s more painful loving than the euphoria of welcoming them home when they come.

So don’t be too hard on yourself, Bro! If being more authoritarian wins the day, then I’m not sure you haven’t lost the greater prize for them and you.

As I go, I wanted to leave you with this. I received this email yesterday, and talk about an email that can make an entire day, this is it! I’m thrilled at how this young lady has responded to the books, and even more grateful that they helped rescue her from sliding into the hard legalism of religious obligation. I’ve withheld her name and location because of her age, but how could anyone not be touched by God’s working in this young life.

It reminded me of an email I got some years ago from a man reading He Loves Me to his ninety year-old father on his death bed. He told me that his father came to understand the Father’s love one hour before he slipped into eternity. All if it makes me rejoice that God is making his heart known to all of us—from the youngest to the oldest.

Hi, I’m 13 years old. I want to thank you soooooooo much for your books, He Loves Me! and So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore, and especially for He Loves Me! It’s the most awesome book EVER! A good friend of mine said it was a good book, a really good book, then gave it to me in ’09 for Christmas. I thought I would read it every once-in-a-while because I was still finishing another book. As I read the first chapter, I found myself reading it every chance I got!! Before I knew it, 2 or 3 weeks later I got to chapter 23.

I was reading it with two other friends (one was reading it for the second time). We saw each other every Sunday, and shared our favorite quotes from it. We were amazed at how much God was using this book in soooooooooooooooo many amazing ways! Thank you!

This book meant so very much to me because in the last 4 months I felt guilty about every wrong thing I did. I felt like I had to drown myself in guilt to make Father accept me. I just couldn’t grasp the fact that He just loved me, regardless of who I was or what I did. I felt like I had to make up for all those mistakes, and that God must NOT be bigger than all of them. It wasn’t any major things, only things like wrong thoughts, believing lies, saying the wrong things, not loving others, looking for satisfaction in things that could never give me that, and just struggling, I guess. I felt so guilty! I don’t know. But I struggled in these things again, and again. I couldn’t see Father anywhere in the middle of all this.

I had gotten so caught up in the do’s and don’t's that I had this thirst to know the God–that maybe did love me. I just couldn’t seem to tell at the time. Then I read your book, it got me right at the right time. As soon as I saw the cover, I thought : “That little girl looks so content. She looks loved. Oh! I want that!!” I read it, and one day God showed me in a special way how much He really loved me. I felt so free for at least a few days– but then the lies only came back. My dearest friends could tell me they weren’t true, but I just couldn’t believe them. I’m learning that it’s only Jesus who can free me of the guilt, lies, and the shame. I’m now on that journey you talked about in So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore. By the way–thank you soooooo much for that book too, it’s shown me how far religion goes–or doesn’t go!

So that’s my story. I lived for about 4 months unloved, to the extreme, and then I read your book. Father is working in amazing ways through it!! Thanks for caring about people like me, people who are longing to be free. It means so much. Thanks for caring! Thanks for your book! I’ve told so many people about it, and currently have 3 copies (of He Loves Me!). One’s mine, another is for another great friend, and the other I’m lending out because it’s my lend-out book. Thank you again for your openness and love for Father.

The moment you are aware of your holiness it goes sour and becomes self-righteousness. A good deed is never so good as when you have no consciousness that it is good—you are so much in love with the action that you are quite unself-conscious about your goodness and virtue. Your left hand has no idea that your right hand is doing something good or meritorious. You simply do it because it seems the natural, spontaneous thing to do. Spend some time in becoming aware of the fact that all the virtue that you can see in yourself is no virtue at all but something that you have cunningly cultivated and produced and forced on yourself. If it were real virtue you would have enjoyed it thoroughly and would feel so natural that it wouldn’t occur to you to think of it as a virtue. So the first quality of holiness is its unself-consciousness.

The second quality is its effortlessness. Effort can change a behavior, it cannot change you. Think of this: Effort can put food into your mouth, it cannot produce an appetite; it can keep you in bed, it cannot produce sleep; it can make you reveal a secret to another but it cannot produce trust; it can force you to pay a compliment, it cannot produce genuine admiration; effort can PERFORM acts of service, it is powerless to produce love or holiness. All you can achieve by your effort is REPRESSION, not genuine change and growth.

The Way to Love
~ Anthony De Mello

Wayne I have read your book So You Don’t Want to Go To Church Anymore, and I thought it was something I had written in my sleep. I feel like God has shown me the exact things John was teaching Jake and the others. In my case I had doubts that I was out in left field on this and uncertain I really understood what God had taught me. Your book has more than anything confirmed that I understood it correctly and I am not out of touch on living the life of Jesus. But my question is this – How can we be so certain that we understand it correctly if so many professional pastors and church leaders don’t get it, when they too are convinced God is leading them to do what they do?

I get that question a lot. I’ve had dozens of people tell me that when they went to share with their pastors what they were learning about Jesus, grace, or alternative views of church life were discouraged from believing it. Many were challenged with something like this: “Who do you think you are? If God were really speaking that today, you’d think he’d be showing it to pastors like me, not laymen (or women) like you?”

Wow! Someone doesn’t get it! Even Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent me is in charge. He draws people to me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. Only then do I do my work, puttin gpeople together, setting them on their feet, ready for the End. This is what the prophets meant when they wrote, ‘And then they will all be personally taught by God.’ Anyone who has spent any time at all listening to the Father, really listening and therefore learning, comes to me to be taught personally—to see it with his own eyes, hear it with his own ears, from me, sinc eI have it firsthand from the Father. No one has seen the Father except the One who has his being alongside the Father—and you can see me!”

I love that. Anyone who seeks to crawl between you and your freedom to follow Jesus, doesn’t have a clue who Jesus is. So this is how I answered the man who wrote me this morning:

I don’t know that we’re ever certain. Paul said it was like looking through a darkened mirror. God has not asked us to walk in certainty, but to walk in the integrity of our conscience. I’m convinced these things are true. I’m always open to Jesus bringing in further truth, but I’m comfortable living here because this is consistent with his nature as I understand it, it is consistent with Scripture as best I understand it, and it is in synch with other brothers and sisters I know who really live in a vibrant life with Jesus.

That certain professional pastors and church leaders don’t get it, is not convincing enough evidence in the face of the other three. Plus many of them have a vested interest in not seeing the truth of how religion warps people because they are leading organizations in which people need to conform for them to be successful. It is difficult for people to choose against their own self interest.

Upton Sinclair wrote: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it.” You don’t know how many pastors have said to me, “Wayne I love the things that you’re doing and saying, but I don’t know how to live that way and still get paid.” I understand that. I remember similar thoughts years ago, but what that shows is that they really don’t know how to trust God as provider, so their sense of truth is shaped by their personal expedience. That’s a dangerous place to live and won’t lead us ultimately to truth. You’ll notice in Jesus’ day it was the professionals, Pharisees, scribes and priests who didn’t understand him either and most opposed Jesus life and message.

That said, however, I want you to know that I also know quite a few pastors who are seeking to be a positive influence in a more congregational setting. They do see through the rigors and bondage of religion and genuinely want to help others know the Living God and walk in his life. They would resonate with a gospel of grace, the necessity of freedom and authenticity and disdain religious obligation as a cheap substitute for true transformation. But it is difficult to walk there. It’s hard to get al the work done around the place if you free people not to, and it is difficult to get people to embrace their own spiritual journey when they feel like they are paying someone else to lead them to it. Many of them get fired in time, some walk away. Some find a way to live that out authentically with a group of people who embrace it wholeheartedly…

But we’re called to follow truth not expedience, to let the Counselor guide us into his truth and for us to follow, even when it is not in our temporal self-interest to do so. And always keep an open heart. I’m constantly praying, “Father, if I’m not seeing this the way you do, please change me.” And he does, and still is. We are all brothers and sisters on a journey. No one has the corner on all God’s truth, except the Son himself!

I also wanted to announce that we have just completed a major overhaul of our Lifestream website to make it more functional for the numbers of people visiting us these days. It was just released over the weekend and I think we have most of the bugs all worked out. If you find anything that doesn’t quite work right, please let us know.

Mostly everything is in the same place, but the navigation and look are much cleaner and simpler. So, if you haven’t visited in a while, come to our ‘open house’ and have a look around. There’s lots of free stuff to read and listen to, and our hope is that it will encourage you on the incredible journey of living solidly in the love of the Father, and discovering the joy of loving others the same way we are loved.

Most images I had of God growing up were scary. They were never engaging or inviting. Jesus, was the good guy. He’d fixed things with Father, or so I was told, but that didn’t make him any less scary. If I was going to be around God, I wanted to be hiding behind Jesus’ robes.

Paul, however, had no such image of God. He understood that the cross fundamentally changed how we get to view God—no longer as terrifying judge, but now for who he really is, Abba Father. “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15) As I’ve said many times, Abba is the safe connection a little child has with his or her dad.

After our Mother’s Day family get-together, my daughter sent me this picture. I don’t know when she took it. It’s a tender moment between my granddaughter, Aimee, and me. When I saw it, my heart leapt, not only because I loved having that moment captured in a photo, but because it drew me to think of my own relationship with God the Father. This picture screams Abba, even though I’m not really her dad! This is the image Jesus died to secure in our hearts—Father’s lap is the safest place for us to be, even at our most broken.

When you consider God’s demeanor toward you, I hope you something like the image below in mind, rather than the one above. If not, there’s more work for his Spirit to do in you. And I pray he does it.

Such are the adventures of living in the freedom of God’s unfolding purpose. You never know where you might end up. When I travel I usually let the people who invite me plan whatever they want. I’m happy to fit in anywhere people want to explore what a life lived love looks like. (That’s a lot of ‘ls’.) And I find that God does things I’d never think to plan or suggest. And when I remember the kind of person I used to be, I can’t believe I can live in that space now with such freedom. It truly is a work of grace.

Two people over the last two days have sent me today’s reading from Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest. I used to read that every day for years, but haven’t it a while. I love how relationally he thought about God. This reading expresses well what I see God want to set us free in. Our flesh wants to live in the false certainty of our plans and schemes. God invites us on an adventure where he is our certainty, not our schedules.

Our natural inclination is to be so precise— trying always to forecast accurately what will happen next— that we look upon uncertainty as a bad thing. We think that we must reach some predetermined goal, but that is not the nature of the spiritual life. The nature of the spiritual life is that we are certain in our uncertainty. Consequently, we do not put down roots. Our common sense says, “Well, what if I were in that circumstance?” We cannot presume to see ourselves in any circumstance in which we have never been.

Certainty is the mark of the commonsense life— gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, not knowing what tomorrow may bring. This is generally expressed with a sigh of sadness, but it should be an expression of breathless expectation. We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God. As soon as we abandon ourselves to God and do the task He has placed closest to us, He begins to fill our lives with surprises. When we become simply a promoter or a defender of a particular belief, something within us dies. That is not believing God — it is only believing our belief about Him. Jesus said, “. . . unless you . . . become as little children . . .” (Matthew 18:3 ). The spiritual life is the life of a child. We are not uncertain of God, just uncertain of what He is going to do next. If our certainty is only in our beliefs, we develop a sense of self-righteousness, become overly critical, and are limited by the view that our beliefs are complete and settled. But when we have the right relationship with God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy. Jesus said, “. . . believe also in Me” (John 14:1 ), not, “Believe certain things about Me”. Leave everything to Him and it will be gloriously and graciously uncertain how He will come in— but you can be certain that He will come. Remain faithful to Him.

A college student asked me Sunday night how someone could know what their calling is. I had answered that the best way to know our calling is to simply wake up every day in the love of the Father, and then let that love spill out of us through the day as we respond to the opportunities that cross our paths. Eventually we’ll find ourselves smack in the middle of what gives him and us so much pleasure. We mostly know our calling by looking back and seeing how God has fulfilled himself in us, rather than figuring it out in advance and setting a strategy to get there.

At least that has been true for me. I’ve taken to telling people now the surest way for me not to be where God wants me six months from now is for him to tell me. If he does, I’ll try to get there by my own strength and reasoning, and what results is way too man-made. But if I just follow him today, and wake up tomorrow and follow him again, six months from now I’ll be exactly where he wants me to be on this journey. I love that!

But in their first session as Bob Johnson, a renowned media analyst who was going to brief them on new strategies to exert pressure on the media and to take back the culture for God, started to speak a bright light suddenly appeared over the lectern and many reported later that a voice spoke out of rafters: “Pastors, pastors, why are you persecuting me?”

Observers say everyone sat spell-bound in their seats for a moment. Nothing in the room moved. Soon many of them began to weep and fall to the ground confessing the error of their ways. Some confessed to dividing the body of Christ by competing to be the biggest and best church in their area. Some admitted that they had supplanted Jesus in the lives of their followers by teaching the people to follow them instead of following him. Others said they had lived lavish lifestyles on the backs of those who lived in need. Still others confessed to manipulating people’s need for approval instead of freeing them to live as loved children of God, to providing a public persona different from the reality of their own doubts and struggles, to being in love with power and influence instead of the simple reality of the kingdom.

After nearly two hours of soul-purging confession they read together Matthew 23, admitting that they had created the same realities that Jesus had warned the Pharisees about. By unanimous acclimation they agreed to abandon their plans to form a new denomination, and instead go home and tell the people the truth, apologize for their short-sited ambitions, dismantle the institutions that blinded people to God’s reality and start living in the honesty of their own spiritual journey.

In what might be a related story, scientists that have been observing the fires of hell from the Haney Terrascope buried deep within the earth outside Lubbock, Texas have observed strange white matter appearing on the surface of hell’s lake of fire. “It looks like ice,” one scientist said, “though I know that doesn’t make any sense. We’ll have to run more tests to be certain.”

We are in an age of religious complexity. The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found amoung us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations, and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart. -A.W. TOZER-

I know it’s been a while since I’ve written here, and I apologize for that. This last two months have been crazy and we’ve been horribly busy on so many fronts. What extra time we had, we grabbed to enjoy our children, grandchildren and friends. While this new year has been incredibly difficult at the outset for a number of reasons, I think God is clearly giving us a way forward. I continually live amazed at God’s ability to adapt his purpose and plan even through the most confusing and distressing of circumstances. Even when our lives are in turmoil, he stays constant—always present, always moving forward, always caring deeply for his children.

This weekend Sara and I have begun our third move in the last eight years. Crazy, isn’t it? My parents lived on the same farm for over 40 years. But it seems God has led us to move on yet again. Over the next few days we will be moving 15 miles south from our present home in Moorpark. We will now be residents of Newbury Park just a couple of miles off of the infamous 101 Freeway that runs up the coast of California. In some amazing ways God opened the door for us to get this home at the end of a very quiet street that borders some open space. I am really grateful since this former farm boy has always found city life in Southern California a bit claustrophobic. This will be a lovely setting for spending time with fellow-travelers on this journey, and hopefully an inspirational spot for the writing I hope to do in the coming years.

We will also be much closer to Brad and Kelly and their family, since our initial podcast adventure has taken us down other roads together we never saw coming. So all will be quiet here over the next week as we get moved and settled. Then we’ll be ready to start this new year and see where Father might lead. Of course, the podcasts continue, of course, if you want to keep up with us there.

We often pray for those being touched by the things I’ve written. In the last few weeks we have a lot of email from people in very desperate circumstances who are finding fresh hope again in the love of the Father. May that be true for you as well, wherever you happen to be on this journey.

Yesterday I wrote to our friend in Kenya and asked how they were doing since I hadn’t heard in awhile. My friend there notified me that the need persists and that they have recently had contact with brothers and sisters in a region of the country that are still suffering great need from the tribal conflict that erupted last December. He said there was an immediate need for $3000.00 US to help with emergency relief for food, bedding and shelter. I assured him I would make this need available to those who frequent these pages.

To date we’ve given almost $18,000.00 to help and have been really blessed by the generous and thankful spirit of those who have been on the receiving end of those gifts. I am simply putting the call out there again for any who would like to pray for them or send money to help with this great need. Every dime sent to us will go directly to those who need it. Nothing will be taken out for administration on this end or that one. If God puts it on your heart to send something, please go to our Invoice Page and click on the ‘Pay Invoice’ button. You can then list “Donation for Kenya” and the amount you’d like to give. If you use the ‘Donation’ button you will need to also send me an email letting me know you wanted this to go for Kenya and not for Lifestream. All donations to this cause are tax deductible.

Or, if you prefer, you can also send a check to Lifestream • 7228 University Dr. • Moorpark, CA 93021.

Thank you for giving this need your time and attention and I’m sure the brothers and sisters there would also appreciate your prayers. May God make himself known in extraordinary ways in the ongoing frustration of human survival. May he demonstrate his glory in great tragedy and open doors to people’s hearts to see his grace and mercy.

Wayne, I enjoy your books and perspective of “church.” (However), as I read your blog and comments from others who have found the freedom in God outside of the institution, they make it sound like they were dying on the inside.

I am on the inside as a pastor and the intimacy with the Lord I feel is tremendous. I don’t chase programs I love the Lord and let Him love me. The people are encouraged in this same manner. They know to look to Jesus not a pastor. The institution is not killing me and it NEVER will. It CAN’T because Christ gives me life not the institution and it wouldn’t kill others if their focus would be on Him and not the church. They find freedom outside of the church because for the first time they connect with Father on a personal basis.

If they are dying in the church I feel it is their fault not the institution. The Holy Spirit is continually speaking to their spirits we know this to be truth. They will not stand before God and be able to blame an institution for their lack of intimacy with Father their own hearts will bear that out. It is really not that hard to love Father or let Him love you whether a person is inside or outside the institution.

Here’s how I responded:

This is the other side of the story isn’t it? I agree with much of what you wrote here, but it all has to do with context doesn’t it? I know there are congregations like you describe that keep the priorities clear and encourage people to an incredible life in Jesus. But how many do you think do this well? When I ask most pastors or congregants who are excited about their fellowship, how many other churches in their community have a healthy life together, I rarely hear a figure above 5%. While they may be thrilled with what theirs is experiencing, they also realize it is not always the norm. There are also very harmful congregational dynamics that can be hurtful to people.

I hear from both and not surprisingly most are from people who felt crushed or overwhelmed by the demands, politics and performance/guilt messages of the fellowship they attended. And that really isn’t always their fault. I know of many groups that operate like a machine that easily slide into messages of your not good enough or not trying hard enough to be a successful Christian that are incredibly harmful to people who don’t get this journey. Could believers thrive in the life of Jesus even in a hostile climate? If they knew Jesus well enough, of course they could. But if they don’t, they are not probably going to discover his life and grow in maturity in that environment.

So I try to make room for both. There are healthy expressions of church life among traditional congregations. I applaud them whenever I hear of them. And there are not-so-healthy expressions that prove destructive to people. That’s why we’ve got to not make rules but let people have their own journey—both those who leave an abusive or innocuous system to secure their faith, and those who participate in one to share theirs.

I hope for a better day when there are far more healthy expressions of vibrant community among believers in local settings rather than so many ones that may even unintentionally be more of a distraction to the journey than a help. Let’s keep doing what we see Jesus asking us to do to help the Body of Christ reach greater healthy all over the place.

What else is there except to simply live in the fullness of his affection and follow him wherever he leads us?

The lead article is titled The Power of Living Loved and provides three snapshots of what it means to live in the love of the Father and how it transforms how we live on the earth.

There is also a lengthy announcement about some of the changes my life is undergoing in the aftermath of all the opportunities that the success of The Shack has opened to me. It also explains why you’ve not seen a new BodyLife since last September. There’s also some wonderful letters there from many of our readers who are also on some amazing journeys, as well as some new announcements of things going on around Lifestream.

We hope this issue encourages you to keep to the journey God has put before you and draw you into his life and grace.

I would just like to thank you so much for helping to write The Shack. I had all the questions Missy’s daddy did. I almost quit reading the book several times, because my heart just raged like his: Why? Why? Why? I didn’t realize (and I have been a committed Christian for 30 plus years) that I had so much bitterness, so much rebellion, so much unbelief in my heart!! I knew, in an intellectual way, that I had problems relating to the Father because of my relationship with my earthly father. And he wasn’t even a “really bad father”. He had anger issues he had never resolved, and they “rolled over” onto my mother and my brother and me”, but he was a wonderful provider, and he loved us. I just never knew what his hands were going to do: hit or embrace. I never felt (until mid-adulthood, and by then my thought patterns were set) unconditionally loved. And so, I never could believe, when I prayed, that God really loved me all the time.

All the way up to chapter 15 of The Shack, I was muttering and getting madder and madder. And then, something broke in me and I sobbed through the rest of the book. I still have questions about some of the things theologically and I want to think about those and explore them further: (for instance, I can’t wrap my mind around there being no “heirarchy” in the relationship between Father and Son, and none in our relationship with each member of the Godhead…) but all I know is, I have been set free from a deep-seated distrust of God’s purposes—his motives concerning me, my children, etc.

I know, that as a result of something divine that took place in me during the reading of that book, that I will never doubt His love for me and mine again. And that has affected my whole life. I can’t tell you in words, how the depth of that healing has altered my spirit. I thought I had forgiven my father, but now I know I have, and I am able to love him so much better. I don’t care about the theological questions. I am just so awed, so blessed, to have been truly reconciled to the Father.

Do you think Adam and Eve’s need for physical covering is the same need the people of Israel experienced in their desire for Moses as mediator between them and God? The people of Israel, full of sin, thus shame, felt they needed something (or someone) between them and God. Is it this shame, which we religiously call a “covering” that keeps us from being in true relationship with a God we don’t yet understand? I had never considered that in Adam & Eve’s covering, they were inhibiting a transparent relationship with God and each other. In which case, is it possible that a jargon like, “you need to be under a spiritual covering” is nothing more than a manipulative statement meant to scare us into believing God is full of wrath and we are sinful, so stay covered! Is a “covering” not a place of safety after all, but a place of hiding and in reality- bondage? Does our current Christian culture’s concept of “covering” (nice alliteration, huh?), parallel Israel in their fear and shame? Could it be God desires for us to throw off our “covering” and begin real relationship?

All I have to add is, “YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! And YES! You’ve got it, Sis, on all counts!”

The cross was about God blowing up our need for a covering by resolving our shame in himself. If people really lived in that reality, they would find all this talk of a need for covering to be absolutely irrational. Covering from what? God? The one I want to know and the one who knows me at the core of my being.

“McKenzie, even if you had been to blame, her love is much stronger than your fault could ever be.”

What a way to start the day! I must have missed this little nugget in the eight or nine times I’ve read through this book. Or, at least it didn’t hit me in the same way, because I don’t recall seeing it before. Sure it’s talking about a daughter’s love for her father, but doesn’t this also reflect the love the Father has for each of us? Isn’t that so often missed in our religious attempts to get people to feel guilty or to work harder?

God’s love is much stronger than our faults could ever be!

Think about that. There is no failure, no place of brokenness in our lives that can separate us from the love that is so much stronger, so much more fathomless than any of us can conceive today. If we really, truly knew that we would know how to simply live in him today and enjoy his presence with us! I’m pretty sure that’s all he wants.

OK, I am in trouble. I discovered you and read two of you books and started the 3rd just this week. Oh, how your writings resonate with something deep inside of me. I know what your saying is true—I just know it intuitively. My wife and I are weary of the institutional system of doing church. We so want to separate ourselves. We are tired of the professional class and lay separation, the need for enormous amounts of money to keep the machine operating with the appeal to tithe, trying to reconcile law and grace…

Our story is long and tangled, but the short of it is that I am running into resistance from leadership which I sense will be escalating, using the tactics that you are so very familiar with. I have already been ask, “how do you interpret the scriptures that tell us that we should submit to leadership and our “covering?”

Please help us get beyond this initial hurdle—it is a big one. Thank you, my new found friend and brother.

Thanks for writing. I certainly hear your heart and am grateful for the journey you’re on, even if it may get painful in days ahead. It sounds like you’re moving from the disillusionment of religion, into the reality of real relationship with him. I’d like to tell you that’s all glorious, and it will be in the end, but the process can be a bit disorienting and painful. That’s why many talk of it as ‘de-toxing’, because there is a bit of withdrawal involved from our dependence on religion. And, there’s the reaction of others that won’t understand what he’s doing in you and will make harsh judgments about you.

First, let me encourage you to take a deep breath and slow down. If this is all fairly new to you, you are probably far more ready to react than you are to simply respond to him. You don’t have to be in a hurry here. Let your desires draw you closer to him so that he becomes more real to you than those you fear. So many who first see these things react by attacking the ‘system’ or the ‘institution’, before they even understand how Father wants to work in them. They want everyone else to understand their new insights, and end up like the proverbial bull in the china shop, upsetting things God doesn’t want upset. If he asks you to leave, leave. Don’t try to drag others along. Don’t make a final stand affirming that you have the truth and they are all in error. Just, go quietly and let him lead you on. If he has others he wants you to talk to, he’ll arrange that.

How do you do this? One step at a time. Each day wake up and ask Father what he has for you, and follow him as best you see him. Walk in the integrity of your conscience, with humility and graciousness to everyone you meet. Always doing what is in your heart to do and take on whatever consequences result, whether it be the angry accusations of others, or the guilt for not doing what others expect of you. It is often those very consequences that show us next steps and open doors to what God has for us in days to come. But, yes, they are painful too!

Yes, people will try to get you back in line by claiming that Scripture teaches us to submit to our covering. Simply ask them where? The only covering in Scripture, that I know about other than the head-covering for women is the fig leaves in Genesis. I’m not sure covering there as a positive thing. They were trying to hide from God and each other, remember. Who needs a covering from God when we have all been washed in his forgiveness. We can boldly come before him now without any need for covering. But, there is no way to scripturally convince people there isn’t a call for covering who are convinced there is. Leadership is never viewed as a covering in the New Testament, and leadership ‘over’ was forbidden by Jesus to his followers in Mark 10:42-45. The only passage people point to is Hebrews 13 about submitting to our leaders, and which King Jimmy translated as to ‘those who are over you in the Lord.’ But that is not the correct translation or interpretation of this passage. The translators added it to embellish ‘church’ authority. This passage is simply about yielding to those who stand before you in the Lord and keep watch for you. That’s brothers and sisters who have your bests interests at heart, not obeying the systems managers of religious institutions.

The overwhelming weight of NT Scriptures talks about each one of us having an anointing to know truth and error, of not needing anyone to teach us, for all will know him. The glory of the new covenant is that we all get to know him and that Jesus makes himself known to each individual surrendered to him, not through any kind of leadership hierarchy. I know some worry that will lead to anarchy, but folks who are growing in relationship to Jesus and his Father will know how to treat others with love and know how to work with each other when he calls them together. But don’t expect those who have a vested interest in the power or money of authority positions to affirm that, and free people to live in it. It just doesn’t happen until God opens their eyes.

I’d just encourage you to walk graciously in the light God has given. Love people but never compromise your conscience to go along. Folks will not understand that and say horrible things about you to marginalize your life from ‘infecting others’, which is exactly how Jesus said they would treat us in Matthew 5 at the end of his blessed-are-you statements. So just keep following him. As graciously as you can explain to those who ask what you see God teaching you, but never try to convince them. By trying to, you’ll only make them defensive and push them deeper into the cave in which the are already hiding… And that just won’t be helpful.

In it all you will learn to depend on him in the rich joy of a love relationship, and that will carry you on to incredible expressions of life in him and body life with other believers, that you cannot even conceive at this point in the journey.

Do you have a brief opinion about whether or not Christ followers should be evaluating people they meet as either “safe,” or “unsafe” to hang out with? I was recently surprised at the number of Christians who subscribe to this thinking. Wouldn’t that be considered “shunning?”

Don’t you hate it when people turn something into another excuse to judge people and draw lines between those who are like them and judge those who are not?

The reason there is so much talk of this is because of an excellent book written a few of years ago by Cloud and Townsend called Safe People. There is a valuable reality, especially for young believers and people who have suffered abuse, to have a sense of who in their lives are ‘safe’ people with whom they can freely share their lives and know they won’t be manipulated, shamed or exploited. That can be very helpful in knowing who to open up their lives to and who to keep at arm’s length.

Is that the same as shunning? It depends on what we’re doing with the information. If I have a sense of safe or unsafe people around me that can be helpful, to the degree I’m right about them. If I’m wrong, I could be cutting myself off from people who in fact love me, perhaps just not in the way I want to be loved. But discussing my conclusions with others and communally identifying some people as ‘unsafe’ would be problematic from a number of perspectives. It would be gossip. It could lead to a groupthink about someone they do not deserve making it incredibly divisive and hurtful.

And wouldn’t it be true that the freer Jesus makes us, the less we’d need to be concerned about ‘unsafe people’. If I’m easily manipulated by people putting shame on me, it would be best to give that a wide berth for a season. However, as Jesus wins me to who he is and how he views me, I’d become far less affected by people’s attempts to shame me and then I wouldn’t have any problem being around them and look for ways to love them that would free them from their shame as well. So even our sense of safe or unsafe is contextualized by a number of factors our own make-up being key there.

Honestly I don’t hear a lot of people talking in these terms, except those who have been hurt in the past by abusive personalities. And for them, I think it an especially helpful tool in finding people who can help them heal in Christ instead of being wounded over and over again by abusive and manipulative personalities.

If others would like to help us translate this book into other languages, please let us know. We’d be happy to grant permission and to make your work available on our website.

The lead article is titled Windblown: What Life in Jesus Looks Like and is an extended look at what Jesus was trying to communicate with Nicodemus the night they met to discuss the kingdom. Living in the fullness of Christ is not a matter of embracing theology ritual, or ethics but to engage him by the Spirit and follow him wherever he leads. There’s also some wonderful letters there from many of our readers who are on some amazing journeys, as well as some new information on new things going on around Lifestream.

With this issue we also include two different downloadable PDF files—one for printing and one for viewing. We hope this issue encourages you to keep to the journey God has put before you and draw you into his life and grace.

Wayne, I am reading once again He Loves Me! This must be my third or fourth reading of it, the last time being a couple years or so ago. I “noticed” it the other day in my stack of books and today I went to pick it up once again, and wanted to share something that you wrote in it that is what God wanted me to see. I can’t seem to get past this part.

First, earlier in my morning He has shown me how He has called me to Himself to relieve me of my orphan spirit. He knows how much I need Him, my Father. A real Father. Sitting there soaking that in was/is wonderful. After a time, I recalled my “noticing” it and went to read it once again.

In the very beginning, where you wrote how you come to meetings early to mingle and get into conversations with the people, and how they are restful and relaxed in your presence until, that is, they find out that you are the speaker/author. You go on to write how God has that same problem with us, and how He had to disguise Himself as a man in order to have us relaxed enough after we get through the awkward stages of beginning to know someone enough to be ourselves. (pages 18 – 20)

I am seeing. He is revealing Himself to me, His good intentions toward me, and most of all, it’s HIS idea to be in relationship with me. This changes everything! Oh, I so hope to be growing in being loved. That’s all I want, to be loved, and know it, and if there will ever be a testimony that I carry around, that this would be it. Not out of my mouth but just because I am living loved.

This time, it’s different. These aren’t just words I am reading, something going into my mind that I can agree mentally with. No, this time these aren’t just words alone, for along with them I am hearing my Father’s Voice. His Voice! Just a day or two ago, I realized there is a Voice! …and now I am hearing Him while reading this book.

It’s not just “reading” I am doing though. He is cradling me in His arms or something as I go along in it, and ..I can’t describe this at all. This is more than just having a witness of the Holy Spirit in me, or having my spirit respond. No, there is perhaps, love? Surrounding me? Compassion?

A Voice. His Voice. Until two days ago, I don’t know if I ever heard it. Now, while in your book (and I’m only on p. 45). His Voice of Love is here speaking to me, all around me. Oh, I hope that His Voice becomes stronger!

I see now due to what you wrote, that I am getting past the angry God I thought He was, and even beyond the Powerful God that He truly is, and coming to this place, this place that is His true Voice, the Voice of Love. It’s getting past being in awe of Him, and I don’t mean that disrespectfully, but to honestly be in conversation with Him. It’s been so slow, but I am reminded of what you wrote, that this is what I can look forward to the rest of my time here on earth and, most likely, beyond.

I am helpless in that. Only HE can, and He has not given up on me, and now that I have more of a taste of a true Father’s love, I so want to know more. I don’t want to live as an orphan anymore. No, not at all. Thanks for helping me. The Holy Spirit has used your talents many times to bring me out of that orphan mentality and spirit.

Wow! I am so thrilled at what Father is consummating in you in this season of your life. I am blessed that my book has been part of that, but I think it is just the symptom of a greater work he is doing? Why is my book different this time? Because of the work he has been doing in you all along. Now, you’re getting to see some of that fruit in renewed relationship with him. But I’m not silly enough to think my book can produce that; it can only help identify it. What God does in us takes a long time. It mostly goes on where we can’t see it, and then one day somehow the veil gets pulled back and we see what he’s been doing all along to draw us closer to his side and set us ever-more free in his life.

Even though we talk about God loving us, most believers grow up as unloved children, trying hard to perform the way they think God expects of them. What amazes me so much about the Gospels is that Jesus came talking about a Father who loves us, who invites us into his house so that he can transform us. This transformation only happens in people who are secure in their Father’s affection for them. I think this is the biggest battle that must be won in our hearts to experience the life of Jesus. We have to stop living to appease him as live as the loved children we are. Nothing will transform us faster.

And because we don’t know how to live as beloved children of his, we have no idea how to relate to our brothers and sisters. Often we act like competitors, tearing each other down to feel better about ourselves or trying to get to the top of the authority pyramid so we can lord it over others. Beloved children don’t live that way. They don’t need to. In living loved, they will love in return and experience the fullness of New Testament community without the need for rules and rituals. That’s why I am convinced that getting our relationship with God right is far more important than finding a right way to do church. If we do the former it will bear the fruit of the latter. If we don’t do the former, nothing we ever do will truly look like his church on the earth.

That’s why I’m excited today to post a teaching I gave over a year ago that lies at the heart of everything we share here at Lifestream. Sharing The Father’s Affection was videotaped and we’ve been able to put it into a file that people can stream over the Internet. Though this isn’t my favorite kind of venue, it did allow us to get this recorded in video. And this is the most important stuff I share with people who want to discover what fullness in the life of Jesus looks like.

As with most video files, broadband is recommended or great, great patience and a good dial-up connection. And for those without either, we’ve also included it in an audio-only version.