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The title of this issue is, Betrayal, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation, and talks about how we respond when relationships go bad. Living loved in a broken world, means others won’t share that same love for you. If we don’t learn how to deal with others who regard relationships expendable, and whose brokenness sometimes spill over into our our own lives, we won’t know how to have healthy relationships with those who are not healthy themselves. What is the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation, and what is our part in that process when others hurt us. Does reconciliation mean we have to trust again? Drawn from the lessons of Scripture as they’ve been hammered out in Wayne’s experience, you’ll find this article an encouragement to your relational blow-ups and knowing how to navigate those moments when love between brothers and sisters does not win the day.

Also you’ll find a book recommendation that Wayne is excited about and that many people have thanked him for recommending, letters from other readers that will encourage your own journey, and the latest information about what we’re doing here at Lifestream.

You can read it online, or print your own downloadable version. We hope it inspires your own journey in drawing closer to Jesus and reveling in his life.

For the next three days we are going out to the countryside to meet with believers from this area and beyond who are in various places of learning to live loved and know who the Father is. I thought you’d enjoy reading something they have written about themselves. This is the group I’ll be spending time with here in Russia:

I thought the below might give you a beautiful glimpse into the heart of our gang. It’s a little hand out meant as a reminder to love and respect one another as we gather together….

We are very different!

Among us are those who worship in evangelical churches, and there are those who are more charismatic. Some meet Sunday morning in the walls of an Orthodox cathedral, and others in the Lutheran or Catholic sanctuaries. Some identify themselves as a church community, and others are together in home groups. We sing different songs, say different prayers…

We are so different!

But we have one Father, and we are brothers and sisters, so at our gathering, we will rejoice together in what unites us, and we will respect our differences.

We will appreciate (hey, let’s even celebrate!) the uniqueness of each person and their special relationship with our Father.

We respect the manner in which faith is expressed in one another, even if the form is different from that to which we are accustomed to.

We are indeed very different!

BUT…we have ONE Father who wants His children to love one another (Jn.13: 34.35) and be in unity with one another (John 17: 21).

God loves harmony not sameness. All of us in different places and sometimes by different means are learning what it is to know the Father through the work of Jesus and be transformed by it. If we could all embrace this reality the body of Christ would be a healthier family. We are all different, and we don’t have to be threatened by those differences, nor stake out a claim that our way of doing it is better than someone else’s.

Paul’s words in Romans 14 are powerful indeed. These are from THE MESSAGE translation:

Forget about deciding what’s right for each other. Here’s what you need to be concerned about: that you don’t get in the way of someone else, making life more difficult than it already is. I’m convinced—Jesus convinced me!—that everything as it is in itself is holy. We, of course, by the way we treat it or talk about it, can contaminate it. (v 13-14)

So let’s agree to use all our energy in getting along with each other. Help others with encouraging words; don’t drag them down by finding fault. You’re certainly not going to permit an argument over what is served or not served at supper to wreck God’s work among you, are you? I said it before and I’ll say it again: All food is good, but it can turn bad if you use it badly, if you use it to trip others up and send them sprawling. When you sit down to a meal, your primary concern should not be to feed your own face but to share the life of Jesus. So be sensitive and courteous to the others who are eating. Don’t eat or say or do things that might interfere with the free exchange of love.

Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don’t impose it on others. (v 19-22)

I love how the New Testament presents the life of Jesus as a process. God’s work unfolds in us as we learn to respond to him each day. You cannot follow him by meeting a list of expectations and obligations. You can only only follow him by… (wait for it!), following him! He wants to show all of us how to know him, listen to him, follow his nudges and watch the process of his glory unfold in us. Yesterday, I read Paul celebrating that process in the Thessalonian people.

We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. 2 Thessalonians 1:3-4

Notice he doesn’t point out where they fall short, but where trust in God and love for others is growing in them. That’s a very different view that measuring their failures, or telling them what they need to do better. He saw their faith increasing even the midst of persecution and suffering. He also saw their love for others growing. Was it perfect? Probably not, but that is precisely not the point. God is not looking for perfection today. He is simply looking for hearts willing to know him. As you grow to know him you’ll find your trust in him growing and your capacity to love people around you as well. That’s how you gauge whether or not you’re in his process, or simply trying to perform on your own.

I love living in the process of his working, rather than the rigid expectations of religion. And I’d rather live my life in his unfolding purpose, rather than the strategies I can figure out on my own. I seem to be in one of those unfolding processes as I write this. I will soon be on my way to Russia to spend a week in St. Petersburg and then make a stop in Holland on the way home. At the top you can see a copy of the Russian version of HE LOVES ME, which is due to be released in a print version about the time when I arrive. The cover design is a detail from Rembrandt’s painting, “The Return of the Prodigal”, the original of which is in a museum in St. Petersburg. I’ll get to see the original soon, as well as take in some of the other sights of the city. And more importantly, I’ll get to know some Russian people who are learning to live in the reality of his love.

This is the second of my books that have been printed for the Russian people. At right you can see the other, SO YOU DON’T WANT TO GO TO CHURCH ANYMORE, which was done some years ago. These are both in Russian because some Russians who knew English wanted them available to their people. Voluntarily they painstakingly translated the books out of love. One was a housewife who had not translated anything before. She gave countless hours to make a version available that we have had on as a PDF download on our International Page for years. Others have added to it, tweaked the translations and have now gotten two of them into print. Amazing.

But there’s more. While I am excited about this trip for a number of reasons, one that is critically important to me is the place this country held in my older brother’s heart for decades. In the late 60s my brother went to the university to double-majored in Russian and Biblical Studies. His hope was that one day the iron curtain would fall and he would have the opportunity to share God’s love with the Russian people. He prayed for that opportunity for over thirty years. However, by the time the iron curtain fell, my brother was battling multiple sclerosis, complications of which eventually took his life just a few days shy of his 49th birthday. I don’t know how God sorts out all of that, but I’ve no doubt my brother’s passion will have some fulfillment in eternity. And we have no idea how much his prayers shaped God’s work in that country. So in part, I am going for him as a celebration of his life and passion, and some day I hope to tell him all about it.

At the time my brother talked about going to Russia, I never imagined that I’d visit countries around the world, helping people sort out what it means to live loved and free in the life of Jesus. I grew up on a vineyard in Central California and never thought of leaving the state, much less the country. And I would never have conceived of having the kinds of conversations I get to have with people that help them begin to see how God is making himself known to them. My whole life has been a process and I’ve long ago given up any need to know what’s ahead. It is more than enough for me to simply follow the Lamb wherever he wants me to go.

Tomorrow it is Russia!

I’ve even heard people teach that elders and pastors will know your heart better than you know it, and even when you disagree with them, you should do what they say.

Let me say this as clearly as I can: Any man or woman who tells you they know God’s will for you better than you do yourself, proves by doing so that they are a false teacher. Flee from him or her!

At the heart of the New Covenant lies this reality: All of us get to know him and listen to him. He didn’t invite us to follow his book, follow his rules, or follow one of his designated representatives. He invited us to, “Come, follow me.” Anyone who gets in the way of that relationship hasn’t a clue who Jesus is or how he works in the world.

Yes, there are lots of examples of crazy people who claim God told them to do the most destructive and bizzare things. But some of those have even been members of the clergy. But even if others fraudulently and maliciously claim that God told them to do what he has clearly not told them to do, does not negate his desire to speak to you and lead you by his Spirit.

I was with a man last month in New Zealand who listens to God as well as any man I know. He has pastored churches and traveled the world for decades encouraging others to live deeply in Jesus. He told me, “I have never believed, even for a moment, that I can hear God for someone else more clearly than they can hear themselves.” He never presumed to tell someone what God wanted them to do.

That’s the kind of person I recognize as a true elder among the body of Christ. They don’t hear God for you; they help you learn how to listen to for yourself because they wouldn’t think of robbing you of the most precious gift God has to give–an intimate friendship with him!

What he said was, people create institutions in an attempt to pass on their contributions to future generations. Therefore at the outset they are an attempt to grasp an illusion of immortality by creating a system designed to perpetuate itself. For it to do that it has to offer an air of infallibility, so that its aims and methods go unquestioned by subsequent generations. In essence, our religious institutions by projecting immortality and infallibility actually become false gods that people are asked to serve instead of teaching them how to follow the Living God.

And like any false god, the institution will occasionally needs a human sacrifice to keep up the illusion. Challenge its priorities or methods and you must be ejected immediately and discredited so everyone else will be afraid to do so. If you dare to question those who feel called by God to manage such institution, you will be considered a threat and forced from the group. How many of reading this have been that sacrifice? Even formerly close friends will ostracize you and gossip about your “rebellion” or “bitterness” to make sure you are marginalized as an example to others.

It reminded of Israel’s desire for a king and God’s warning that putting power in the hands of a king would mean that he would take the best of everything that they had for his own benefit. God knew how power corrupts the human heart and anyone with absolute power would think he should have all the best for himself. He’d said their sons to war, steal their daughters for himself, and take the best of their crops and herds. Even a man with a heart like David’s thought himself special enough to rape Urriah’s wife and then have him killed in battle when he refused to come home and sleep with her so that he would think David’s baby was his own.

Notice how this entire process can begin with the purest of motives but still end up exploiting and manipulating people in a way that is incredibly destructive. I’ve seen it happen over and over again to people and those who think they lead the institutions have no idea how much it has disfigured them. While being otherwise generous and gracious people, they become hurtful and destructive in the name of protecting what they mistakenly to be God’s gift.

Do all institutions have to end up like that? Can people find ways to cooperate together without falling victim to an institution’s need to perpetuate itself? I believe it can, but in honesty the examples of that are thin indeed. Almost all begin by a group of loving people who want to share a vibrant life in Jesus, but over time become those more concerned with protecting their turf rather than continuing to love the way Jesus loves them.

And I’ve been with so many incredible people in the last two decades who became the human sacrifices the institution needed when they recognized it had look forsaken God’s priorities for its own. Maybe that’s why Jesus told us to love each other, not to create systems we think will outlive us.

Resurrected Man walked the planet for the first time. Jesus had overcome death and now lived beyond it so that we too might see and know and feel and hear him as he comes to live in everyone who invites him to do so. That’s the heart of the Resurrection, not just that he overcame death, but that he lives inside each of us today and wants to share an even deeper relationship with each of us than he was able to by living in the flesh alongside Peter and John, and Mary and Martha.

Today millions of people will gather all over the world to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus. They will sing songs and hear sermons on the Resurrection. Then too many of them will wake up tomorrow morning and live like he isn’t in the room. They won’t look for him, listen to him, or follow him. Has religion reduced the fact of the Resurrection to an icon we can celebrate once a year and still miss its very reality each day?

Religion always takes something that is real and makes an icon of it to empty it of its power. Instead of worship being the way we live under Father’s care, it’s a song service we attend. Instead of communion being a meal of rich fellowship and remembrance of him, it becomes a shot class and a dried wafer tacked onto a formal service. And instead of church being the living community of people who are encouraging each other to follow him, it is merely a weekly gathering in a building in which we are more spectator than participant.

Celebrating the icon is not at all the same as embracing the reality. The Resurrection of Jesus is not best celebrated in fancy-dress religious gatherings, but in waking up each morning with an eye and an ear turned toward the Living Jesus who wants to make himself known in you today and lead you into the ever-increasing freedom and joy of knowing him.

When truth gives way to icon, it’s best to reclaim the Truth again even if that means abandoning the icon. He is risen indeed and because of that I am not alone today to fend for myself in my sins, doubts, trials, or fears. He is with me and I with him today, and he is making all things new!

One of the undercurrents to our time was reconnecting with old friends and reconciliation between people who’d been caught up in some painful conflicts. One of the couples that had been part of our painful departure from a fellowship in Visalia, which I’d co-pastored for fifteen years and from which I was “resigned” by what I thought was one of my best friends, while I was speaking at another fellowship elsewhere. This couple had connected with Sara and I before the weekend even began in hopes that their coming wouldn’t be awkward for us. We were able to work through misunderstandings and unresolved issues from over 17 years ago and were able to renew a friendship that had been lost. What incredible joy to find myself once again in the midst of a friendship that had been lost in those confusing days.

One of my favorite conversations of the weekend was on Sunday morning as we talked about betrayal by close friends, and the process by which forgiveness and reconciliation can truly happen.

Betrayal happens when a close friend decides to lay your life down to achieve something they want for themselves. They don’t mind hurting you to get what they want. It happens often in this broken age. When Jesus told us that there was no greater love than one laying down his life for another, he meant our own! Walking all over someone to get even what you think God wants for you is the darkest of deceptions. It is exactly the opposite of how he asks us to live.

Forgiveness is a unilateral process where we can truly take our foot off the throat of those we consider to have wronged us. Forgiveness does not exonerate the betrayer; it frees the victim from the ongoing pain of the other’s actions and opens the opportunity for us to find healing inside and the freedom to move on with what God has for us. But forgiveness is not just a choice of the will; it is a process where we bring out hurt and pain to Jesus and he works us through them to a place of true release and forgiveness. It may take a few months or even years, but don’t stop short of it being complete. Just keep it discussing it with Jesus as he untangles your hurt and leads you into a real forgiveness of others.

Reconciliation, however, is a bi-lateral process that can only happen when both parties are ready to sit down and honestly explore each other’s story with a spirit of compassion and humility. It cannot be forced and can only happen when all parties truly value the relationship over anything else. It recognizes that the most important thing Jesus asked of us is to love each other as we are loved by him.

Reconciliation, too, is a work of the Spirit to prepare each heart to truly listen to each other’s story, laying aside our own assumptions and judgments, admitting our mistakes, caring about each other’s pain, and resolving any outstanding issues by God’s grace and mercy. Reconciliation heals the relationship and allows a friendship to grow onward.

However, neither forgiveness or reconciliation requires us to trust the one who betrayed us. It allows us to love them again, but trust, once violated, can only be won back by the demonstration over time that the person values the relationship above his or her own self-interest. We are never told to trust someone beyond our conviction that they will lay down their lives for us in moments of conflict.

What a weekend this proved to be! When people have asked me if I am reconciled to those who were part of our painful departure from a church we help plant, my answer has been with all but four of the couples who were part of excluding Sara and me. Today, I can say all but three, and Sara and I now have the joy of another friendship, restored even more closely than it had been before those painful days.

Reconciliation is just the best! In the past four months I’ve had the blessing of being part of two reconciliations of important friendships that were cut off in days of pain and betrayal. Both lasted over 15 years and have now come to healing again. I wish it hadn’t taken so long, but this isn’t a process we control. I think broken relationships break our Father’s heart more than anything else that goes on in our world. It is the result of sin and competing for things the Father has not given us. What absolute delight it is to work through the pain, misunderstandings, and confusion that caused the disconnect, and celebrate the grace of God that triumphs in all of us, even in our failures and mistakes.

That’s what God has sought since the fall in Eden with each of us. It’s what he celebrates when his children find a way out of their pain and selfishness to reconnect in a renewed friendship.

Here are some pictures that capture a bit of our weekend in Clovis, California:

More than 50 people gathered with us over the weekend

Conversations that matter with people who care

As always, some of the best stuff happens in more personal conversation–the twos and threes.

Two college students drove me back to Christchurch from Fairlee to catch my flight north. I love it when young people have such a hunger for God’s things. The questions they were asking and the discussion we had warmed my heart. Toward the end, the twenty-one year old medical student leaned forward from the back seat and said, “You know, what I’m beginning to wonder is if living loved seems difficult because it is far simpler than we dare to believe!” Wow! Go down that road. That’s a great one.

In another conversation a world-known documentary film director was telling me about the discipleship program he grew up in. After five years in jail he was walking the streets of a city one night looking for a bridge he could sleep under. Me met a man just walking the street at God’s leading to help rescue someone. That man invited the former prisoner home and told him a bit about Jesus. The next day as he left for work, he said he’d be back later and this man could ask him any question he wanted to. That’s how he came to Christ and learn to follow him, not by anyone’s curriculum, but simply being able to ask questions with someone who cared enough to try to answer them. Loved it! Best discipleship program ever!

One group in a city I overnighted in was trying to form a fellowship around a nonprofit coffee shop they had designed to help the poor in their community and to bless a leper colony overseas. They mentioned that once a year they cancel their weekly meeting for six weeks and always find the things that happen without the meeting to be far more fun and fruitful than anything they do in their meeting. Loved it! Then they started talking about the fact that they had just started up the meetings again. “Whoa!” I said. “Let’s go back a bit to that other road you were talking about. Go down that one and see where it leads.”

Why do we think meetings will bring the kingdom of God. As John Beaumont told me in Rotorua, “If meetings could bring the kingdom we’d have brought it by now. If organizational structures could bring the kingdom we’d have it by now. If seminaries and pastors’ seminars could bring the kingdom, we’d have it by now!” Our generation has seen more of that than any other, and yet many people in those things are some of the most spiritually impoverished people you’d want to meet.

Love it! And if you want to hear some of our larger conversations in Auckland, the group that hosted me there has posted them on line. You can find them here.

This weekend I’ll be in the Central Valley of California meeting with people from all over my spiritual past, including folks I used to “pastor.” Can’t wait to see what kind of journeys they are on today and why they want to meet with me. Then later in April I’ll be off to Russia, for the first time, and a re-visit to Holland.

If I could only figure out how Phillip got around in desert the book of Acts, I wouldn’t have to spend so much time in tiny airline seats.

The man who organized my time in Auckland wrote, “Thanks again for the wonderful time that we had with you. You have given us enough to “work on” (probably not the right terminology, but you know what I mean), for the next 10 years. However, I hope that it is not that long before we see you (and Sara?) again.”

As much as I enjoyed the larger conversations on this trip, what really captured me was the more personal conversations with twos or threes that spontaneously emerged as days unfolded. I had gone to New Zealand to meet personally with two men whose journeys I truly admire, but God also put me in the midst of a number of intense situations in people’s lives, many too personal to even disclose, and then revealed himself in marvelous ways to bring hope and healing. It makes me smile with joy today just thinking back over the trip. It was so much fun to be alongside Jesus as he was doing his work.

I have felt for some time he has been encouraging me to spend more time equipping those who want to help others live loved, especially those who feel they have a calling to help equip others on this journey. I will still spend time helping people learn to live and connect relationally, but know it is time to equip others to do what I do, consistent with what God is doing in them. I see the tendency such people have to create systems, garner an audience, or push themselves using the conventions of men to hopefully end up helping others. But often, it is more about THEIR ministry, than it is about genuinely helping people. And I think that often happens because they don’t see how else they can truly equip others in this journey.

Before I do that with what I see, I sense God wanting me to facilitate a larger conversation with those who’ve lived such lives over decades. I want to see what they see and learn from what they’ve learned as we sort out the best way to pass on this life to subsequent generations without burdening them with new structures, curricula, or methodologies. Relationship with Jesus runs so much deeper than that and the tools of human effort never reach to the heart. What do we say and do that genuinely encourage people into a meaningful relationship with him, and in doing so connect in meaningful ways with other believers that truly allows the kingdom of God to grow in the world?

One of the great treasures I have received in the past 20 years are the relationships I have with older brothers and sisters around the globe who are on their own relational journeys and many of them far longer than me. I have gained greatly from their wisdom and passion. Over the past few months I’ve sensed that God wants me to have some conversations with these dear people aimed at what they would pass on to a new generation of brothers and sisters on this journey. What do they wish they’d known sooner? What has helped them continually to grow over a life time in their own knowing of God?

Two of those brothers are in New Zealand and I’m going to get some time with both of them. And then there are many others I want to bring into that conversation over the next two years looking to answer a set of questions that will hopefully provide some wisdom as to how we encourage a new generation of pioneers to learn how to live loved and equip others to live loved, too, without being tricked into creating schemes and programs that cannot bear the glory of a real, growing relationship with Jesus.
You can help me in this if you want. If you had the opportunity, what would YOU ask these brothers and sisters about their journeys? What do you think would help others find their way into a meaningful relationship with Jesus and encourage them in discovering how to embrace the church Jesus is building in the world. If you want, you can leave your thoughts in the comments below. I will incorporate those I can. I’m not looking here for the questions about your own desire to live loved, but how we might be able to encourage people who want to help others live loved. It should be an interesting conversation that I will give regular updates on here and at The God Journey, even if we find out there’s nothing we can pass on. Perhaps this is only a work Jesus can do.

Finally, I did a podcast with the Family Room Media guys a few weeks ago, and they just posted it today. It takes a look back at some of my journey in recent months and the inklings I have on my heart about what God has put before me. You can listen to the podcast here. They are involved now in a new project called Jeff’s World, a theatrical movie about a disillusioned evangelical pastor sorting through the difference between following his heart and fulfilling the obligations that have controlled his life. It’s a light-hearted comedy with the subtitle, “Caught between the flock and a heart place.” Cute. Very cute! You can find out more here, and you can be involved if you want.

As I look out my window in every vista I see winter giving way to spring—-the daffodil and forsythia are in bloom, the tender shoots on my vines are just starting to swell. Rarely does my own spiritual season match the one outside. This year it may. I have been through a long winter season spiritually, drawing into a quiet place to let the Father cut back the myriad of opportunities that confronted me to the few, simple things he has asked me to do well. I am more settled on what that is and excited to let go of those things that will be no longer be fruitful for me.

I’m not ready to talk about all of that yet. There’s still some clarity yet to come. But it seems like the perfect time to share with you the next chapter from my latest book, In Season: Embracing the Father’s Process of Fruitfulness. If you haven’t read them earlier, you can read earlier parts of the book here:

• Introduction
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2.

Chapter 3: The Seasons of the Vineyard

There is a time for everything, and a season
for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot.
Ecclesiastes 3:1

Who led you to believe that every day should bring a harvest, or that fruitfulness is borne out of days of great joy and ease?

Those who do not understand the life cycle of a vineyard seek to live in the illusion that all days should be the same, that life should be one continuous harvest, or that a life of blessing is a life free of challenge and pain. They grow easily frustrated when their circumstances don’t fit their carefully laid plans, as if God and heaven have conspired against the journey.

But there is no way to comprehend life in a vineyard without an appreciation for the seasons that govern its life and the process God uses to bring a vine to fruitfulness. It takes all four seasons to bring a harvest. One is not more important than the other; each has a purpose in the glorious process. Without the bitter cold of winter, the branch cannot be pruned. Without the hot days of summer, the fruit will not ripen.

My computer works the same whether it’s a January morning or a July afternoon. If I type, it responds. But that’s not true of the grapevines growing on the hillside beyond my window. For them the seasons make all the difference. Winter gives way to an explosion of spring, spring to the overbearing summer, summer to the gentle autumn, autumn to winter’s chill. It has been so since that first dawn and it will continue until the last. Our globe circles the sun with a spectacular tilt that lets the sun be shared in the course of a year over the widest possible area of the globe. This carefully chosen orbit produces in each hemisphere an unending cycle of seasons. As the sun spreads its beams over the Northern Hemisphere we experience the hot days of summer, while the southern part of our globe endures winter. Our days are longer, theirs shorter. But in June the sun begins its southern retreat. Our days diminish in length as theirs grow. As much as people love the days of summer, winter is no less important to the fruitfulness of the vine.

At every moment, what the farmer does in the vineyard is dependent upon these seasons. If he tries to gather grapes in spring he will find only the smallest beginnings of a harvest yet to come. No one will eat these grapes. If he tries to prune in summer he will only destroy the vine he cares for. The seasons control everything the farmer does in his vineyard. Anyone who has walked with God for any length of time recognizes that God works with us at different times in different ways. At some moments our lives seem to bubble over with joy and ease. At every turn we see God’s hand moving, and when we open the Scriptures the words seem to leap off the page with insight and meaning.

At other times the joy we experience is far deeper as we endure painful or distressing circumstances. During such times recognizing God’s voice is not easy. Needs press us from all sides. We may find ourselves repenting far more often than rejoicing. If we don’t understand God’s working in seasons, we’ll make the mistake of assuming that the moments of euphoria are what Christianity is meant to be, and anything less is proof of his displeasure.

Look at the life of Jesus. His life was marked by seasons when he was overjoyed and by those when he was deeply troubled, only able to offer up “prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears.” We see him in crowded moments with great numbers of people clamoring for his attention, and at others alone on the hillside taking time to be alone with his Father. We see him making wine for a young couple’s wedding, and later driving out moneychangers from the temple.

Jesus was not afraid to embrace the changing spiritual seasons of his life and those around him. He didn’t follow a rigid code that could direct him through every circumstance he faced. Rather, he flowed with whatever he saw his Father doing, responsive in each moment to his purpose in ever-changing situations. We would do well to follow his lead. Our spiritual growth demands an ever-changing climate where God’s work is tailor-made to our present circumstances. The sun does not control these seasons. They are controlled by the Father as he spurs us toward fruitfulness. These seasons will bring us a healthy balance of both joyful and challenging moments, of diligent effort and renewing rest.

Each season offers something that the vine needs for its continued growth. Spring brings the needed rain and softened days to help stimulate growth without crushing it in the searing heat. Summer offers enough sun to bring the grapes to maturity. Autumn offers the opportunity for harvest undaunted by rain and a chance for the vine to restore itself before winter. Finally, winter brings a much-needed rest and the opportunity to restage the vine for a new season of fruitfulness. Without these changing seasons there would be no fruit.

The same is true for our spiritual journeys. Fruitfulness emerges out of God’s process to shape our lives for his purpose through our daily struggles. We aren’t always meant to live in the joy of harvest. Fruit matures in the difficult days of challenge and perseverance. If we don’t understand these shifting seasons we’ll find ourselves fighting God’s work instead of embracing it.

Faulty religion teaches people that their efforts can induce God to fill their lives with comfort and favor. If we do good, pray the right way, or work the disciplines hard enough we can get God to do what we want. Without saying it overtly, religion seeks to teach people that they can manipulate God to do their will. Those who believe this lie end up in despair when their circumstances don’t change the way they want. They think either God is failing them or that they just can’t do what it takes to please him.

To engage God’s process of fruitfulness we should spend far less effort trying to change our circumstances; and thus we will find far more freedom in learning to respond to God as we go through them. What he shapes in us becomes far more important than our own comfort. Each season we will receive something needed for continued growth. If we could remain in any one season continually fruit would never grow. By responding to God in whatever season we’re in, we can embrace his work and we can let go of even those things we love when the seasons shift. All of it is part of making us fruitful.

We can enjoy the benefits each season brings and also endure in the challenges for the greater work in our lives. And each has its challenges. The dangers brought on by weeds and invading insects can be overcome, but they cannot be resisted. Without the pruning of winter and the discipline of spring, nothing will grow. The same is true of the long, hot days of summer that ripen the fruit.

Jesus’ example on the cross teaches us that life can be celebrated in the midst of pain. Not all suffering is harmful. It can produce the very fruit that brings great pleasure to the Father. Though he never delights in those things that hurt us, he does realize how necessary some of them are to bring us into the fullness of his glory.

We will begin our journey in spring and continue to walk through the vineyard in its various seasons. As we see what the vine is going through, we’ll look for parallels in our spiritual lives. Seeing God’s hand through these moments will leave us more equipped to recognize his working in us and less anxious trying to get God to change our circumstances to make us more comfortable.

As we begin however, let me highlight one important distinction between seasons in the vineyard and seasons in our lives. In the vineyard, all vines endure the same climatic realities together. They are all pruned in the winter, cultivated in the spring and summer, and harvested in the fall. You will soon discover that this is not true of our spiritual lives. God deals with each branch on the vine individually, giving special care to its own unique growth. And since our seasons are not controlled by external elements of our environment, they may not line up with anyone else around us. I may be enduring the restaging of winter while someone near me is enjoying the fun of harvest.

That is why Scripture warns us repeatedly not to compare ourselves to others, and why when we do, we end up confused (2 Corinthians 10:12). Often when we compare ourselves with someone else, we compare the best thing going on in his life with the worst going on in ours. Instead of looking at the rest and refreshment that God brings through my spiritual winter, I instead focus on the circumstances that surround it: diminished activity and fresh wounds from the recent pruning. When looking at the person who is in the middle of a fruitful harvest, I highlight their joy and acclaim, and forget the risk and cutting that go on in those days as well. What is even more ironic in this scenario is that while a wintering branch may covet the harvest, the branches in the busyness of harvest will long for the peace and serenity of winter!

All of God’s branches would be far better served if they stopped looking around for something better and instead embraced the present work of God.

God is always working. Jesus assured us of that (John 5:17). It may not seem like it sometimes, since we may have missed his hand in the distractions or challenges we’re facing, or because he isn’t doing what we think he should be doing. Instead of comparing or complaining, I am better off looking for the way God is working in my life at that moment. That’s the key to walking with God. He determines the seasons of our lives, such as when to prune, when to feed, or when to harvest our fruit. We are his followers, and he wants to teach you how to follow him.

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This is Chapter 2 of my new book, In Season: Embracing the Father’s Process for Fruitfulness. Copyright 2011 by Wayne Jacobsen and used by permission. Available from Lifestream.org

I realize that some people will abandon a collaboration as soon as they get their benefit out of it. When anyone needs to control the fruits of the collaboration and ceases to continue celebrating it as a gift among friends, it will turn incredibly painful. It has often been said that so much much more would get done if people were not concerned with who gets the credit. Unfortunately, there will always be those who will consider the credit more valuable than the friendship.

While that’s tragic it doesn’t sour me on the joys of collaboration. The truth is most of the people I’ve collaborated with on various projects stay true to their word and continue to share the fruits as they did the labor. Simply, I believe the things we talked about in our podcast on The Collaborative Life, namely that God exists in a community and he is all about bringing selfish, independent humans into that community and then teaching them how to share it with others. When humble hearts work together a greater wisdom shows through than anyone can produce working alone.

But that doesn’t mean I would say the pain of it going bad is worth it. It never is. It is always devastating when people betray others in their own quest for independence. But isn’t that the reality of the broken creation? Many have endured the betrayal of a spouse, the dishonesty of a business partner, or the manipulation of a colleague at work or “in ministry”. I hear those stories all the time and hurt for the victims. And I shake my head at the excuses some use to justify their agenda.

The truth is, promises are cheap. They are only valuable when they are fulfilled, especially when it isn’t easy and when others say they aren’t really that important. Character is demonstrated when people actually honor them. Fortunately I know lots of people like that too. Just because some might cheat on their spouses or dishonor their own word doesn’t mean I still can’t feast on the joy and faithfulness of my marriage, and the tastes of community and collaboration that God might still want to give me in this life. It’s also why I continue to encourage others to embrace the reality of community even if it painful at times.

If the abuse of something makes you discount it, then you’ve lost something beautiful. Just because someone uses a hammer to hit me over the head, doesn’t mean I can’t use that same hammer to build a bridge.

What’s more, he was at the Sundance Film Festival a couple of weeks ago and happened to sit next to a screenwriter he didn’t know who happened to be reading that book. What are the odds of that? So, we are discussing having her take first pass at the screen play and she wants to work collaboratively with me in making sure we get the story right. Pretty cool. We are moving slowly here, so don’t expect a constant stream of updates. He’s already involved in a movie now and is thinking this might be “what’s next” for him.

As part of our dialog, however, he shared an illustration with me that I loved. He shared that one of the greatest challenges that people face on this journey is that they gt caught up in trying to sort out college level and beyond concepts and ideas, when we haven’t even begun to focus on or even master 3rd and 4th grade material:

“For instance”, he said, “one of the biggest lessons that Christ gave, I believe, is to ‘First take the plank (or log) out of your (own) eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from you brother’s eye.” If we were all to focus on just this one lesson, I believe the world would be a much different place. A lot of our fights seem to occur at the college level material and beyond. While it’s fun and even worth while to question whether Heaven is ‘this’ or ‘that’ or whether the afterlife is like ‘this’ or like ‘that,’ it’s like trying to fully understand calculus without any knowledge of algebra. Once you learn algebra your relationship and understanding of the words that describe calculus change, evolve and take on different meaning. So trying to understand the spiritual with only the religious or the heart with only the intellect or the experiential with only the concrete can be provide quite the difficulties.”

I’ve thought about it a lot sense. I used to have a profound curiosity about the great theological questions of eternity, eschatology, and God’s sovereignty. I have found over the last few years that my growing engagement with Father has lessened my hunger to sort out those things, or even to engage in the ongoing debates about them. Spiritually I’m still in the third grade trying to understand how to love the people around me each day in the same way I am loved by Father. And I am loving that. There’s a reason Jesus passed over the disciples’ incessant questioning on such matters. “No one knows the date but the Father himself.”

If that’s spiritual calculus, and I’m still years away from spiritual algebra, then I don’t have to waste my time figuring out those things that are best left to him. That’s why in The Jesus Lens, I talked about being certain where Scripture is certain, and being ambiguous where Scripture is ambiguous. I know that isn’t easy, especially when someone in spiritual first grade is expounding on their theological convictions and you find it a turn-off. You might feel embarrassed that they seem to know something you don’t know until you realize that they don’t know it either. And their need to convince you how right they are is all the proof you need to know they aren’t really sure themselves.

Let’s learn to live loved-—by him, and then out of that love with others. If we learn to do that well, who knows we might someday get into a bit of algebra!

Two years ago Kent and I stood in the pathetic conditions these kids lived in. Standing ankle deep in mud, with open sewage flowing just a few feet away. Due to your generosity we completed this orphanage about a year ago and have paid for the expenses and staff of that school through it’s first year. Thank you so much for being a conduit for God to bless these children and give them an opportunity to have a new chance at life. Just over a year ago they were living in horrid conditions, begging on the street to find enough to live, and not being educated. Now all that has changed.

I give great thanks to God for letting me be involved in this project and for putting it on many of your hearts to help. Kent and I stood there and it touched our hearts. I’m so blessed that did not have the same experience but still felt a tug on theirs to help out. Enjoy these pictures:

The students at play

Learning in the classroom

The younger students outside their schoolroom

We continue to pay staff fees and cover expenses, which total about $2500.00 per month while we hope to find a way this year to invest in an income-generating opportunity that will provide for the Center in coming years. If you feel called to help us support these children either with a one-time contribution, or a monthly donation, that would really be a help. If you want to know more about this project or the AIDs recovery home we also support in South Africa, you can 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.

He begins with an assignment to pastor at the Dolores Mission in Boyle Heights, and ends up creating Homeboy Industries to give gang kids their first jobs, teach them how to work, remove their tattoos and give them a reason to live beyond the wasted world of gang life.

Now I know some of you are going to get a bit cheeky because it was written by a Roman Catholic priest and you’re going to get all bothered by what your disagreements with Catholicism. That will be to your loss. There isn’t much Catholic theology here. This is a Jesuit who ended up assigned to a parish in the heart of LA right in the middle of its two biggest gangs and found a way to love the people there that will make your heart thrill. This isn’t a bunch of religious gobbledegook, but a man living the reality

Some of you are going to be bothered by the coarse language as he captures the vocabulary of the barrio he lives in. That will be your loss as well. It is not gratuitious, but an important part of the story as he reveals Jesus’ ability to make himself known at the most brutal edge of human brokenness.

This is a great love story of transformed kids, told with humor and realness in ways that will inspire you to love the people around you. It is also filled with failure and tragedy as he buries some of the 168 who died in the senseless violence of a gang-riddled neighborhood. And there isn’t a taste of guilt in it for people who aren’t doing what he’s doing where he’s doing it. Seemingly this is not his assignment; it is his joy.

Here are just a few excerpts:

I will admit that the degree of difficulty here is exceedingly high. Kids I love killing kids I love. There is nothing neat in carving space for both in our compassion…

Isn’t the highest honing of compassion that which is hospitable to victim and victimizer both?

Jesus says if you love those who love you, big wow (which I believe is the original Greek). He doesn’t suggest that we cease to love those who love us when he nudges us to love our enemies. Nor does Jesus think the harder thing is the better thing. He knows it’s just the harder thing. But to love the enemy and to find some spaciousness for the victimizer, as well as the victim, resembles more the expansive compassion of God. That’s why you do it.

To be in the world who God is.

Here is what we seek: a compassion that can stand in awe at what the poor have to carry rather than stand in judgment about how they carry it. (p. 66)

Jesus’ strategy was a simple one: He eats with them. Precisely to those paralyzed in this toxic shame, Jesus says, “I will eat with you.” He goes where love has not yet arrived, and he “gets his grub on.” Eating with outcasts rendered them acceptable. (p. 70)

Jesus was always too busy being faithful to worry about success. (p. 178)

This book is a graduate school course on loving others. It made me want to love more freely the people around me in the simplest ways. Unloved people do the most destructive things to themselves and others. It’s the most basic cry of the human soul and what is most unmet in a culture that lives by independence and personal expedience. So many people have no idea what it means to be loved by someone and that alone sparks the potential for great transformation. What’s so real here is not the extraordinary place he is doing it in, but the potential we all have to love the people God has put around us.

One thing I notice about people who seem to end up in extreme places of loving others is they got there quite naturally as they simple lived out their faith. Rarely do I find effective people off to wild corners of the earth because they felt God demanded it of them, but because they fell in love with people there and couldn’t let them go through their painful existence alone. I love that. The message is: love where you are and see where God takes you, not go find some despicable place to love the most difficult people on the planet.

As an added bonus, you will never listen to “O Holy Night” again without finally understanding what “the soul felt its worth” actually means and its power to transform even the most twisted life into something, lovely, beautiful and holy!

You can also subscribe to any new audio postings at Lifestream via iTunes.

He invited us to follow him, not follow a set of rules or rituals. We can only do that where a growing relationship with him is helping us begin to sense his whispers in our hearts and his nudges toward the people or things he wants us to engage, and those we can pass by without obligation. The longer I walk this journey the more clearly I see that daily following him defies any set of guidelines we try to force on any particular situation.

I know some will take that too far and toss out any principles of righteous behavior that will help us see and test what he is saying to us. I wouldn’t go that far. Principles of love, kindness, justice, and grace give us a moral compass in which we can recognize his impulses in our lives. Having a righteous heart will mean we won’t cheat on someone we love, we won’t gossip to tear down another person, we won’t lie just to get something we want, and we won’t betray close friends in our own self-interest. We are willing to do the difficult thing, rather than the easy thing. We’d rather give up our lives that manipulate someone away from there. Morality matters. Those who live without a moral compass easily justify the most obscene behaviors for their own personal gain and leave in their wake a host of broken hearts. What’s more, they won’t even care about those people so sold are they on their own personal happiness or survival.

But those principles alone will not tell us what to do today. The problem with trying to live a life by Godly principles alone is that you arbitrarily try to implement something that is true into a situation where it does not fit.

Many does not live by bread alone, but by every word that God breathes. Don’t look for another program to tell you how to live. Stop trying to find the principle to apply in your situation today that will turn the tide on your relationship with your spouse or kids, or bring you the life you hope to have. Instead, find those things that stir your heart to know him and in knowing him to recognize the smallest breath of a whisper he puts in your heart. Follow him today, as best you sense him and that will be enough.

Last week I received this email from Michael, the brother God has given us to work with there. His gratefulness and blessings go to all of you who have been part of this amazing relationship with us:

Dear brother Wayne and the entire team of the saints around the world,

I would like to take this opportunity to send my gratitude to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who has joined us together to build up the body of Christ and also to be a vessel to touch the lives of brothers and sisters in order for them to know who is really Christ, the people would not see Christ until they would see the image of Christ in us.

The church of God in Africa, has walked only with the doctrine and the judgmental message for long time and it was my long time cry to see the transformation from the hearts changing the way of focused in the church of God in Africa. These are the brothers and sisters for whom Jesus died and they must see the light with supernatural power to touch and to change the lives of every individual. This truth has been hidden for so long but our Lord Jesus Christ had a plan to work on His way to help the church of God in Africa to come out from human understanding to spiritual enlightenment.

So I thank God that my spiritual eyes have been opened to know the mind of Christ towards his people and I would like to thank God through you brother. I am not thanking you because of the resources that you have been sending alone. That is part of it, but spiritual enlightenment as well that I can realize the purpose of Christ to choose to sacrifice His life that we may be redeemed once more and have the fellowship time after time in daily life. This must become lifestyle—walking with Jesus. This is beyond the Sunday service, or certain fellowship or human structure/schedule.The transformation is taking place, it is my great joy people to come out from traditional religion which have bound brothers and sisters for so many generations that it has become routine and practice for many generations.

I can remember in the book of Acts Paul was sharing with the brethren that as he had read an inscription on one of their idols, “to unknown God”. Paul was emphasizing that he had come to share with them to the same God which they had been worshiping as the unknown God. So I thank God for the wisdom which God has given you. The time you first step in Kenya with brother Kent, you could see a lot of errors in Africans church, these inclusive hierarchy, title, positions, structures, institution which people called the churches. You didn’t judge us or point fingers but you shared the message of love and through that, that word had became a medicine to heal the entire continent just with the small group you began with.

You practice faith with action, along with your brethren over there to feed the hungry, to cloth the narked, to put the shelter to the homeless, to help the widows, to the rescue the orphans, to educate the needy and to help those who were oppresses, those are the key which has opened the gospel of Christ to get breakthrough and to change the lives of people from the small group to the Nation and even to Nations.

So it is our prayer that God gives you wisdom and understanding revelation that we may reach the entire world with the Gospel of love. We don’t have anything that we can give you, but I can just only pray for you and give you the below encouraging words and verses along with your family and sends these message scriptures to the entire brethren who have prayed and give out the gifts whether in financial or any other help:

Matthew 10:42 – And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”

2 Corinthians 9:13 – By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others.

Proverbs 19:17 – Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed.

1 Chronicles 29:11-12 – David praised the Lord before the entire assembly: “O Lord God of our father Israel, you deserve praise forevermore! O Lord, you are great, mighty, majestic, magnificent, glorious, and sovereign over all the sky and earth! You have dominion and exalt yourself as the ruler of all. You are the source of wealth and honor; you rule over all. You possess strength and might to magnify and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give thanks to you and praise your majestic name. “But who am I and who are my people, that we should be in a position to contribute this much? Indeed, everything comes from you, and we have simply given back to you what is yours.

2 Corinthians 9:8 – And God is able to make all grace overflow to you so that because you have enough of everything in every way at all times, you will overflow in every good work.

Galatians 6:9-10
So we must not grow weary in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not give up. 6:10 So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who belong to the family of faith.

2 Corinthians 9:10-15 – Now God who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will provide and multiply your supply of seed and will cause the harvest of your righteousness to grow. You will be enriched in every way so that you may be generous on every occasion, which is producing through us thanksgiving to God, because the service of this ministry is not only providing for the needs of the saints but is also overflowing with many thanks to God. Through the evidence of this service they will glorify God because of your obedience to your confession in the gospel of Christ and the generosity of your sharing with them and with everyone. And in their prayers on your behalf they long for you because of the extraordinary grace God has shown to you. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.

ROM. 12:11-13 – Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Our prayer also goes to the girl (Jesus knows her name) who made the dolls to help raise money towards Living Loved Christ Hope Education Center. The children are praying for her. I shared the message with the kids and they want her picture. Our prayer also goes to the donation of the students who are orphans in different schools whom you have been helping for the education in past years, our prayers also goes to those who stood in the side of relief, medication, microfinance, in widows program, single mother both in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania,

Thank once more for having the trust for me,and trusting my hand to guard the gift as on behalf the church. In Africa we have thousands of believers who could do better and are more well- educated. Why God has chosen me to carry the gift of the saints, I count as his gift and I promise to remain a good stewardship for his Body.

May the lord bless you and bless you much to stand with African church in this time of drought and famine that has swept up so many.

The needs in this part of Kenya are overwhelming, and the need continues. We feel like God has asked us to help out in this corner of the world and will continue to pay for the staff at the orphanage, assist students in their school fees, and be part of a continuing effort to salt that part of the world with the invitation to live loved by the Father. If you have some extra to share with these projects, or if you want to know more about this project or the AIDs recovery home we also support in South Africa, you can 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.

The premise was brilliant. An unemployed young man, living at home with his mom begins to have dreams that appear to be from God. When the dreams come true, the Christians rally around him as a prophet. Then, the foretelling dreams begin to hit closer to home and the celebrated prophet becomes a pariah in the Christian community. There was so much about this set-up that I enjoyed, not the least was having God visit someone who wasn’t living a stellar “Christian life.” I liked the beginning conflict with those who had more vested interest in the status quo than in what God might actually be doing. The author is an engaging storyteller, making me believe the story and endearing me to its characters. I was hooked, until I got about 60% into the story. That’s when it all went wrong.

AT that point the characters surrounding our hero became horribly stereotyped, as did the liberal agenda that began to bleed from the pages. The dreams turned out to be less about God inviting people into a transformation with him and more about Christians become more politically liberal. Here’s where the author’s agenda really turned me off. I do think God would have us to be more loving especially to the poor and downtrodden, and I wish believers were more committed to good stewardship of the planet, but to have the story end there really cheapened what was going on in Peter, the protagonist in the story.

I have rarely been this unsatisfied with the ending of a story that started out with such promise. As I read the early portions I was intellectually salivating with the possibilities of how this story could turn out. In the end it didn’t satisfy any of them. Now, I don’t know Jeff, and his whole purpose in writing this story may have been fulfilled by its ending. I don’t begrudge him that. But in the end, it is not a book I’d recommend to others here. So, I guess I won’t be making that commitment again any time soon.

I love what he wrote and as I looked at the picture I, too was captured by it and reminded that God’s purposes in the world are so much bigger than any of us. Who of us can cap the great force of his love or direct its flow. We certainly don’t control it and dare not presume to claim ownership of anything God does in or through our lives. All that’s good in the world is simply God’s life and love spilling over onto kids, in whom he delights. Is it not enough that we simply revel with him in the moment, and not be tempted into thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think?

This may be what Jesus meant when he said, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3) Participating with God in our world has less to do with personal achievement, but simply being willing to watch for the flow of his love, and play in that reality as circumstances unfold around us. There’s great hope and peace in that.

Chapter 2

I am the vine; you are the branches.
If a man remains in me and I in him,
he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
JOHN 15:5

I was born into a family of farmers. My father owned and lived on a vineyard, as did his father before him. I grew up among rows of grapevines that stretched toward the horizon. I have worked in the vineyard during the heat of summer and the frigid cold of winter. It was in the vineyard that I began my spiritual journey.

This is why John 15 is one of my favorite passages in Scripture. In it Jesus uses the metaphor of a vineyard to teach his disciples how they could follow him into a relationship with his Father that would make them fruitful and fill them with his own special brand of joy. As a farmer in a vineyard, a student of Scripture, and someone who has been on a life-long adventure of growing to know the Father, I want to invite you into the vineyard with me to learn what so many have missed. Jesus really did offer each one of us a relationship with his Father that is more real than the breath we take and more natural than we dare believe. My favorite time in the vineyard is the waning days of winter.

It is still only mid-February, but in the short winters of California’s San Joaquin Valley, spring is just around the corner. The ever lengthening days are already clawing at winter’s grip. In the late afternoon the long yellow rays of the setting sun have surrendered to violet-tinted shades of pink. Though it was a warm afternoon, the evening chill comes quickly. I zip up my coat against the light breeze, pulling the collar up around my neck and thrusting my hands into the pockets. Lights from distant farmhouses have already begun to twinkle against the fading landscape, and out of the diaphanous shroud of evening ground fog that obscures the horizon, rows of grapevines curl over the hills and completely surround me.

The vines are all neatly trimmed, their branches gently twisting around the wire strung from the posts that stand as sentinels beside each vine. The hard work of winter brings surrealistic order to the vineyard. Should anything in God’s creation be so tightly clipped and neatly arranged?

The vineyard is at rest, waiting patiently for the glory of springtime and another season of fruitfulness. I guess that’s why I like this time of year so much. In the moments just before darkness settles in, the wispy fog and the neatly trimmed rows combine to grant me that marvelous gift of secluded peace. Except for the softened whine of a few cars far away, the only sound I hear is the crunching of dirt clods underfoot.

Only a few months ago the air was filled with dust, voices, and churning of tractor engines that mark the frenzied drive of harvest to get the raisins in before the first rain. A few weeks from now those same noises will fill the air as the process of fruitfulness starts all over again. But now it is quiet. And though a glance from a distant farmhouse might lead someone to believe that I am alone, it is not so. I have come here at this time to walk and talk with the Father.

This has been my cherished prayer closet since I was a young boy. It is a sanctuary of greater reverence than I’ve known in any cathedral built by human hands. No place on earth more quickly draws me to him, because it is here that we first met, and here we have met so often. This is where I began my spiritual journey.

This is my father’s vineyard—a thirty-five-acre ranch in the heart of California’s Central Valley. For almost all of his first sixty-five years he lived and worked within a mile of this very spot. The farthest he ever traveled, interestingly enough, put him in another vineyard, this one in northeastern France, where he was wounded in battle just before New Year’s Day 1945.

After the war he purchased the farm next to the one on that he was reared. This vineyard provided for his family, but more importantly, also provided the opportunity to teach his four sons about God and his ways. I’ve learned more about God in this vineyard than in all my years of Bible training and study. I learned from the lessons Dad taught us and that he backed up in the integrity of his own life and experience. I learned about the cycles of the seasons, of God’s faithfulness, of overcoming adversity, and of surrendering to his will. Most of Dad’s lessons came from Scripture, but many others came from his lifetime of growing grapes.

And I grew to know God in my long walks through the vines, usually at dawn or dusk. I read Scriptures and learned to voice my concerns to him, telling him my deepest secrets. Eventually I began to hear him respond—simple stirrings, gentle insights, and eventually deep convictions; the voice of God superimposed over my own thoughts. I could know what was on his heart in the same way I was letting him know what was on mine.

I remember the first time I touched a presence bigger than myself. I wasn’t more than eleven or twelve years old and had gone for a long walk. I was standing in a row of vines some distance from the farmhouse and made a simple request. “God, if you’re real, would you show yourself to me?”

Honestly, I didn’t mean at that exact instant, but in the next moment a soft breeze wafted through the vines. My skin began to vibrate as I sensed something or someone was coming close. I looked about anxiously to see if any of my brothers had followed me out into the vineyard, but they had not. The air became rich and clear and my mind filled with thoughts about the God I’d always wanted to know.

He seemed to surround me and flow right through me. My heart pounded, the hair on my neck stood straight out. At first it was pure delight, but the more I questioned what was happening, the more fearful I became that a voice would speak or a vine would suddenly burst into flames. I wasn’t ready for that. Eventually the fear overwhelmed me and I ran back to the farmhouse as fast as I could.

What had I touched? It was a presence undeniably distinct from my own. It felt wonderful and scary all at the same time.

And though I promised myself I’d never do that again, I would soon find that my desire for him would overrun my fears and I’d find myself again praying that prayer. He didn’t ever show up like that again, but he continued to make himself known to me in ways that endeared my heart to him as I continued to grow.

That’s why the vineyard has always been my special place, and it is no wonder to me that when Jesus wanted to reveal the reality of living in his kingdom he made rich use of farming and, in particular, vineyard illustrations. No other metaphor offers such a rich source of instruction, encouragement, and challenge. The passages of Scripture that deal with vines and grapes are among my favorite. I have not only studied them but also lived them, and they have changed my life. The vineyard of my childhood is not so different from those that Jesus would have walked through with his disciples and spoke of in stories.

On that last night before his impending trial and excruciating execution, he wanted to prepare his disciples for life with him beyond his death and resurrection. Where did he take them? He brought them to a vineyard to teach them their last lesson. Among those vines he spoke of a greater vineyard beyond space and time—his Father’s vineyard. He told them that he alone could make them fruitful and in doing so would put his joy in us so that our joy might be full.

Fruitfulness and fulfillment are the themes of the vineyard. Who doesn’t want joy and peace deep enough to hold us through the worst circumstances, and a sense of purpose that comes from knowing our lives make a difference in the world? For many, however, these promises remain only an elusive mirage. Though many things in this world promise fulfillment, they only bring moments of happiness that quickly fade to emptiness. None of them offer the enduring joy and peace we were told they would give us. So people are not surprised when religion’s joy seems fleeting as well, when the joy of salvation quickly gives way to the rigors of discipline.

Sadly, most think they are the only ones who feel that way. They look around not knowing that others are pretending as well. Even those Christians who try to convince others that they have found the secrets of fulfillment and fruitfulness often prove by their own personal stress, immorality, or spiritual emptiness that they have not. Religious activity will never lead to the fruitfulness and fulfillment Jesus promised his followers. When Jesus led them to a vineyard he wanted them to know that the way to the fullness of life lies through the reality of a relationship—not the dictates of a religion.

I have long since left the ranch and moved to more urban settings. My days are no longer filled with vineyards but with computers, automobiles, and other machinery of our technological age. It is easy to be seduced into the mistaken notion that spiritual growth lies in carefully observed principles and rituals, rather than the more organic realities of a growing relationship.

We are organisms, not machines. Our spiritual growth patterns have more in common with the four grapevines growing today in my backyard than they do with the computer on which I am typing. That is why when it comes to spiritual growth, Scripture makes such vivid use of the images of a vine growing in a vineyard and the ever-shifting seasons that influence its growth.

Let’s go to the vineyard together, you and I. Let’s walk the rows with the Father of the vineyard and watch his vines grow and bear fruit. We’ll even get to stop, pull back the leaves, and behold the marvelous process of bringing a vine to fruitfulness. Let him teach you the lessons of the vineyard and show you the secret of finding the fullness of joy and fruitfulness that he promised to every believer—including you!

___________________

This is Chapter 2 of my new book, In Season: Embracing the Father’s Process for Fruitfulness. Copyright 2011 by Wayne Jacobsen and used by permission. Available from Lifestream.org

I also did an interview for the Encouraging Others Through Christ Podcast with Cliff Ravenscraft, which you can access by clicking on the link above.

Finally, last week a friend of mine quoted a Martin Scorsese interview with Fast Company magazine about how much support creative people need. I chuckled when I read the quote since it had never crossed my mind before and it seemed like a strange thing to say. Then almost immediately I realized why. The reason I’ve never felt the need for support is because I’ve had so much of it over the years. I have never known the lack of it. Sara has always been so encouraging about most of the scatter-brained ideas that run through my head, especially those that led us down this Lifestream trail. My family and extended family have also encouraged the creative side of my life. And though I get angry letters now and then from people who would prefer that I shut up, I get far more emails and comments from people that encourage me to keep writing and speaking the things that are God has put on my heart. These days that support and friendship literally comes from all over the world.

Thinking through all that, I found myself undone by the incredible people God has placed around my life. No doubt this road has not been easy and there have been seasons filled with pain. I’ve been betrayed by people who take my help, then turn around and lie about me. I’ve been forced out of relationships with people that I dearly loved through gossip. We have watched a lot of work washed away by the selfish actions of others. But God has continued to open other doors, offer us other friendships, and we seem to always have more opportunity than time to do it all. And through it all I have been able to enjoy the beauty of long-term friendships with people who have had a profound impact on my life.

So as we arrive at year’s end, I want to express my gratitude to so many of you who continue to hold a place in your heart for Sara and me and the tasks Jesus has asked of us. For the people who have prayed for us, sent us notes of encouragement, given us your counsel and wisdom, welcomed us into your homes and lives, supported us, sent us financial gifts, loved us, and simply maintained a friendship with us, thank you. Without you we would not have been able to be a part of the incredible things Father allowed us to participate in this year:

We are blessed by our relationships with so many people. We are grateful for all God has allowed us to be part of this year, and look expectantly into a year ahead. And, we want to bless you and your family. May his love overwhelm you now and in the year ahead and grant you all the support you need to journey on in him and do what he has asked you to do in the world.

And if you missed our Christmas card, scroll down to the next post. You won’t regret it!

With all our love and prayers,

Wayne and Sara.

To all those who read these pages, to our friends and fellow-travelers around the world, we are so grateful for the lives God has linked us to around the world. May you spend treasured days with loved ones, and laughter and joy enough to fill your heart. May you know the riches of his love and the joy of friendship from others on this journey as you celebrate the most awesome act of God in his Creation—sending his Son among us to redeem the world from its enslavement to darkness.

A light came into the world, and we have beheld his glory! And one day his kingdom will triumph over all.

May you and yours have a joyful and peaceful Christmas and a blessed new year.

Here are some of the recent comments from my emails:

“I was expecting a coffee table type of book with great pictures and a few words. The pictures turned out to be brilliant but the retelling of His story is way more engaging than I had expected. Much more than just great artwork to be admired.”
Mike in Florida

“I just received your new book, “A Man Like No Other”, and it takes my breath away. Not only is the art work stunning, your story telling brings tears to my eyes and joy to my heart, as you bring out deep truths. I wish I could give one to everyone on my Christmas list. I am being blessed by this beautiful work of art.”
Renee in Oklahoma

After we opened to the first page and felt goose bumps, we’ve chosen to savor each page and only read one page a day. The artwork is a feast for the eyes and the accompanying article helps us ponder the gospel in a fresh way. What a treat for our souls and spirit! Bravo!
Otto in Europe

My wife & I have been enjoying the thoughts conveyed and the conversations that are spawned between us as we read together through “A Man Like No Other”.
Gary by email

“The Miracle Worker” wrecked me tonight & left me in awe of Jesus… humbled, reflective, & deeply grateful for his mercy, patience, forgiveness… his love, compassion, & healing touch in my life. There’s no adequate way to thank him. but I tried. My favorite picture of Jesus in the book is the one on page 35. Its unreal what this picture does to me. Truly. I love ending the year on this book.
Renee in Texas

A Man Like No Other
The Illustrated Life of Jesus
By Wayne Jacobsen, Brad Cummings, and Murry Whiteman
128 pages, Windblown Media, $24.99 • 128 pages • 8.5 x 11.5 • Hardback

Available from Lifestream.org

This has not been an easy journey and it didn’t end up where either of us thought it would, but it has ended up in real freedom and life. This is part of an email he sent to me the other day:

Dear Wayne,

Father is so good as I can sense that through His love and patience he taught me about just relaxing in to His love. I really can’t explain it, but through this long and sometimes seemingly brutal process, I have experienced His faithfulness and love. I’m okay each day, and enjoy each day.

Over these last 10 years I’ve been kinda expecting Father to bring restoration. A restoration of a new wife and family, a home, my finances, job, etc. Well, He hasn’t done that, but I believe He has brought a spiritual restoration. Now this is what I can’t really explain. In the simplicity of my life—-one day at a time, one moment at a time–it is filled with laughter and the security of His love and faithfulness.

I have been working part time at Home Depot now for almost a year now. Father has provided this job and I know it is what He has for me now. I am renting a room fairly close to work, and have been blessed with some amazing friends who are “church” to me. It makes me laugh, because I see many things differently than they do as we are quite diverse. I understand that Father is pulling me into being with those who passionately love Him and seek Him, even as they are at different places in their journey. I mean really, Father? I know I’m supposed to be with them right now and it just makes me laugh. They are passionately studying the “Torah”, and doing the Messianic Jewish thing. Really??? Yes… really.

Right now my life consists of going to work and coming back to my room and getting to spend time with Father. Very restful. A reclusive hermit (smile). I’m getting the sense that a lot of things are happening around us, and some amazing things are about to happen. In fact the sense is very strong. And a lot of what I’m seeing and experiencing seem to support this. However I reserve the right to be totally wrong. I’m comfortable to wait and watch what unfolds.

There are a lot of things I would like to do other than being a part-time flooring assistant at Home Depot, but Father will reveal what His agenda for my life is in time. I’m thinking all that I’ve gone through is getting me preparing me for the next step in His plans. In the meantime, I’m just enjoying each day that He gives me, rejoicing in the simple things. this has been very humbling, but freeing. I find I don’t have to prove anything anymore. So I’m a “failure” in life. Yes, and so what? I’m poor, yes, and your point is? I no longer have to compete. I can just be me. Beloved son of my Abba. No one fights to be least and last. It’s freedom. Really gaining my identity as the adopted beloved child of God. I used to talk about this but it becomes more of a reality when all the other things that I could base my identity were gone. Status, career, reputation, education, intellectualism, and being a “spiritual kind of guy”. When I come to the end of myself, I’m free to be just “His Beloved Child”.

Not sure what tomorrow brings, other than I go to work, allow the Holy Spirit to live in me, love those around me, and do what He has put in front of me–one day at a time. He is faithful. Deep down I used to wonder what I was doing wrong that my life has been the way it has. Maybe when I get “it”, then I’ll get all the stuff that will make me satisfied and happy. I think I’m finally beginning to get that when you know His love, it can be enough. One day at a time. I can trust His leading, because He is faithful. I sure enjoyed the interview with Mike Steele. Really related to it.

Anyway…. I’m looking forward to where He leads next, and who I get to see next. Looking forward to when Abba crosses our paths. It’s always fun.

No, you don’t have to lose everything to learn to live loved, but when you do lose everything, isn’t it nice to know a love deeper than our circumstances. I’m so blessed at where this friend has landed through a very rocky journey.

I heard from another old friend a few days ago. He told a very painful story of the last few years of their journey, which involved some legal hassles and starting a new business and then losing it. He went back to school in his late 50s to learn a new vocation and now works at a hospital. As I commiserated with him about all he had lost and could not even imagine how he was coping with his new job, he said, “You know, with all we’ve been through and how unfair it was, I know today that I am exactly where God wants me and I couldn’t be happier.”

Wow! Love that! Joy rarely resides in getting what we want, but in finding his purposes unfolding in the reality of our lives. If we look for him in our unfolding lives rather than withdrawing into the cocoon of our own frustration or bitterness, God has some extraordinary things under his sleeve.

Someone asked me this weekend why I do this if I don’t love traveling. I’m going to let someone else answer that question for me. A couple of weeks ago someone gave me the following thank-you note that sums up why I do what I do. I know (perhaps better than anyone else) that the work she describes is not what Wayne does, but what God does in a heart. She was summing up what God had done in her life over the past couple of years of reading, listening, and crossing paths in the world both in her city and mine:

So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore was a life-changing book for me. Reading it was like putting glasses on and looking at something I’ve looked at all my life, but never really seen.

As a teacher, writer, and friend you’ve helped me to see beyond

Beyond religion, the church, and the law.

Beyond the system, the building, the hierarchy, the leader.

Beyond fear and shame.

Beyond the program, the rituals, the schedule, the weekly meeting.

Beyond obligations and expectations.

Beyond “a thing with a name that has to be maintained.”

Beyond the need to fix, the need to do, the need to solve and the need to prove, the need to know, the need to carry, the need to be heeded.

And beyond all these I’ve found rest, joy, adventure, engaging relationships and unfolding seasons and the reality of living loved.

Thank you!

“Seeing beyond” is exactly what I hope our books, articles, podcasts, and other resources do for those who visit here. I couldn’t put any words together to better express the hope I have for people with whom I get to spend time as I travel about.

I so enjoy watching people’s countenances change from their white-knuckled attempts to be “good Christians” to a relaxed follower of Jesus, confident in his work in them. I know these things express what only Jesus can do in the human heart. Unfortunately these things don’t happen in a weekend, but from a process of God reshaping our thought-patterns from the exhaustion of religious obligation, to the simplicity and power of living loved by the Father.

The reason I travel around a bit when I sense he asks me to do so, is to be a cheerleader for others as his work unfolds in them, helping them have courage enough to see the process through and not give up when it takes longer than they hoped and when they can’t yet see the fruit of the incredible work he is already doing in their hearts.

But the Kenyans I know are never far from my heart. These are not just brothers and sisters, they are my friends. Weekly I hear of their struggle, their hopes, and the pervasive need for the simple things of food, clothing, and shelter that they face every day, and even more so the end of this year as the effects of last spring’s drought continues to overwhelm their lives. I am constantly reminding them to look to God as their provider, not Lifestream, but I also know this is a corner of the world where God has asked me to be involved, so we continue to support his people there.

I am excited by the transformation we are seeing in them as they are learning to live loved. Two months ago we shipped them 24 copies of The Jesus Lens DVDs to help equip those who are wanting to help others learn to live loved as well. With each email I receive, I see forward progress in their thinking, their lives, their ministry to others.

This year through the generosity of many of you we were able to build an orphanage. Since it was completed in March we have also been underwriting the expenses for staff and food even though contributions have slowed to a trickle. Our commitment to them was to do so for another fifteen months in hopes that by then they will have a way to fund it on their own. We’re also looking for ways to help these kids move into homes and be loved, rather than stay in orphanages.

I just wanted to remind many of you that this is an ongoing need and we are looking to Father on their behalf, seeing how he will provide for them. If you have any extra in this season, or simply feel called to help us support them either with a one-time contribution, or a monthly donation over the next fifteen months, that would really be a help. If you want to know more about this project or the AIDs recovery home we also support in South Africa, you can 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.

To start with, kids deal with the same flesh we all do, and growing up in a broken world provides opportunities none of us can control Besides, God gives kids to rookies. Our only experience in doing it, is when we’re actually doing it, and I don’t know any parent that hasn’t made his or her share of mistakes. That doesn’t mean we can’t do the best we can, but you’re still growing, too. I wish I had raised my kids back then with the knowledge and freedom I have now. No, I still don’t think they would have turned out perfectly, but perhaps they would be less encumbered with the obligations of religion and would have had a better chance to know a Loving Father.

So when I read this a few weeks ago on the Lifestream Journeys list, one that we provide for those who are being touched by some of our things at Lifestream and want to learn from others, I knew I wanted to share it on my blog. So with permission from Pamela, it’s author, I want to share with you this perspective of parenting. She has been at it awhile, raising her children in a religious construct and now loving them as adults. I love the humor, the honesty, and the reality that loving adult kids involves a lot of apologizing for the ways in which we complicated their lives and journeys. If it helps you relax a bit more today in your own parenting and realize that you are never going to get it all right and that parenting is a lot of doing your best when they’re younger, and apologizing when they are older, then it will have served its purpose.

Pamela was responding to another parent who was struggling with raising her own young children:

Truth is, I don’t think there is a parent anywhere who doesn’t–at some point or another–feel completely overwhelmed and incompetent. I know I’ve banged my head on the floor more than once, and cried out to my Dad “What in the world were you thinking to give me children??!! Hello! I am clueless here!”

And, then you have those moments of brilliance when you think “I’ve got this parenting thing down!” I said that to myself after my first-born was about 2 years old. Then, the second child was born. And, nothing I did with the first worked with the second. By the time I got to the fourth…well, the head-banging was almost a daily ritual. Perhaps God gives us more than one child just to keep us from getting cocky… or to keep us on our knees, admitting our powerlessness.

Have you seen M. Night Shyalaman’s movie “The Village”? Oh, my! It’s an amazing depiction of parents’ desire to protect their children from evil, and the lengths to which they will go to that end. I have watched so many loving parents erect a border of “yellow flags” around their children, believing that if they can just keep them “contained” in a “safe zone”, then no evil will be able to get to them. But, as others have pointed out, the evil is in our human nature. Of course, that doesn’t stop the powers that be from telling us “if you will just dress ‘em right, take them to the right places, don’t let them go to the wrong places, keep them in Sunday School and Children’s Church, don’t let them watch TV, put a bad-word bleeper on the TV, nothing but G-rated movies, have them memorize Scriptures, have family devotions, pray before every meal, say bed-time prayers, go to church some more, only have church friends, only play sports with church leagues, read the Bible, teach them to tithe, go to church some more, don’t let them go to public school, only send them to Christian school… thennnnnnnn you will get perfect children who are angels and never make bad choices and never sin and never get in trouble and never make you look like a bad parent and will go to heaven and won’t go to hell”

And I’ve had my share of well-meaning family members pointing out that my children’s bad choices was because of something I did. When my oldest son was struggling with addiction, and had attempted suicide, my sister said “I just feel like God wants me to tell you that all of this is happening because you took him out of the presence of God.” (i.e. left the congregation she was in.) Whew! That one knocked the wind out of me. At the time, I was so traumatized by everything that was happening that I figured she was probably right. (By the way, Father tells me that it’s not even POSSIBLE for me to take anyone out of His presence! Remember that whole “if I make my bed in hell….” thing!)

The thing is, as broken and messed up as we all are, it’s a wonder that any child survives. My husband and I are on a mission of repentance with our children. As Dad makes us aware of the mistakes and bad parenting, we go to our children and repent to them, and ask their forgiveness. My husband has apologized for specific things so frequently that our oldest son has told him “Dad, you don’t have to apologize anymore.”

Tony responded “Yes, I do…because I have to own this stuff, and I can’t get better until I do.” The coolest thing is that as we respond to the awareness His Spirit brings us with contrition, it is healing our family! To tell you the miracles we watch everyday in our children would take a book!

And yes, seeing them make unwise choices, knowing the painful consequences that are coming their way, is very hard to watch… agonizing, actually. But, my Shepherd just gently reminds me that He is THEIR Shepherd, too, and He loves them way more than I do, and He’s been known to leave the “ninety and nine” to go retrieve that ONE foolish little lamb and bring him safely back to the fold.

Most people didn’t start out that way. They will tell you of their early days of faith when God first captured their hearts. At the beginning, they knew they were loved and they began each day with fresh excitement and anticipation. Soon, others began to teach them what it meant to be a good Christian, and they began the long, slow descent into the rules and regulations of a religion called Christianity. The religion eventually erased their joy. They became content merely to plod along, unconsciously becoming obedient to human obligations instead of faithful to Jesus. This is not the life Jesus offered his followers.

On the night before he went to the cross he told them that his desire for them was “my joy might be in them and that their joy might be full.” That doesn’t sound like laboring under the onerous demands of religious practice. Jesus showed them that his Father was the most endearing personality in the universe and that he loved them more than anyone else on the planet. He invited them into a relationship that would fill them with unknown depths of joy and lead them to completely fulfilled and fruitful lives.

Jesus didn’t come to inaugurate a new religion complete with rituals, principles, and obligations that only serve to wear us out. I’m convinced he came for quite the opposite reason. He came to fill up the space in the human spirit that chases after religious ritual in order to satiate guilt. He wanted to set people free. He did not take his disciples to the temple to teach them this lesson. He took them to the vineyard.

What a strange night it had been! As Jesus served the Passover meal he made ominous comments about the bread being his broken body and the wine his spilled blood. He said that before the morning sunrise one of them would betray him, one of them would deny him, and the rest of them would abandon him. He told them not to be afraid and warned them that he was going somewhere they could not go. Judas fled the room for reasons none of them understood. They left the safe confines of that upper room and headed through the darkness into the Garden of Gethsemane. Suddenly Jesus took the conversation in an unforeseen direction.

I am the true vine.

Eyebrows must have popped up as they looked incredulously at one another. Vines? Why is he talking about vines? Perhaps Jesus had spotted a small stand of vines in the garden. I can imagine him walking over to a grapevine, affectionately taking one of the canes in his hand. He might even have squatted down near its trunk, inviting his disciples to gather around him as he launched into one of the more tender metaphors of his ministry—one he reserved for his closest friends.

He compared himself to a vine, his disciples to branches, and his Father to a gardener. He spoke of the seasons through which his Father would care for them, producing the most amazing fruit. Why was he telling them this story? “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

What an unlikely group for such an incredible promise! Take a look at the men sitting around that grapevine. Which of these eleven men deserved it? Four years earlier, which would you have chosen to dine with a king, much less the Creator of the universe? None of these men had been to state dinners at Herod’s palace, and none were likely to be invited to one in the future. They weren’t outcasts necessarily, but most were nondescript people who you would pass on the street and not give a second thought to. He found some of them on the docks, frustrated fishermen who had worked all night and come up empty. One he found in a tax office, and another
was sitting beneath a fig tree.

Who would have thought such a promise would be given to people such as these? Certainly their friends wouldn’t have, or the Pharisees. Cultures only reward a sliver of people they consider special, and it usually comes down to those with the right talents, backgrounds, breaks, or achievements. These men, however, were ordinary people who demonstrated the same weaknesses we do—anger, jealousy, greed, and incredible thick-headedness—-and Jesus extended to them the amazing invitation to absolute joy.

He paused in that small vineyard on the way to the olive grove in Gethsemane to teach these men—and through them all of us—-how to embrace joy at a far deeper level than their circumstances would ever allow. Joy is not mere happiness—-that temporal feeling of satisfaction resulting only from favorable circumstances. This is a joy that springs from the deepest part of your soul with a knowing that he is with you and his purpose is being fulfilled even in the most difficult times.

Discovering joy is the heart of the lesson of the vineyard. You may seem as unlikely a candidate as the eleven men who surrounded Jesus in that garden, and unless you are convinced that the same offer is yours, you will never pursue it with the fervency necessary to apprehend it.

I’ve met many people who couldn’t imagine that such a treasure could be theirs. Through the hollow glare in their pain-filled eyes they all ask the same questions: “What hope do I have of ever knowing joy? Can God help me find the same fulfillment in Christ that you have?” Some were brought to that point through years of abuse or abandonment, others through the brokenness of sin or after years of disappointed spiritual pursuit.

One such person came to me recently. Everyone who had ever been close to Judy, from her birth parents to her adopted parents, had rejected her. She was a real-life Cinderella, but without the carriage and glass slipper. She believed in God, but believed that God had made her only to help expose the sins of others; her personal pain mattered not a whit to him. She reached this conclusion only after her many pleas for healing had seemingly gone unanswered. Everything she tried had failed, and she was left to the bitter throes of loneliness and bulimia.

Was there hope for her? And just as importantly, is there hope for you? You’ve tried to find a vital friendship with Jesus any number of times, but your experience, like Judy’s, may never have lived up to the promise. Let me assure you at the outset that the promises made in the vineyard are as certain for you as the sun rising tomorrow. God has no favorites; he loves all his children equally. Jesus offered the promise of joy not only to the eleven in the garden that evening, but also to rich young rulers, hardened Pharisees, lonely beggars, and brazen prostitutes. Not all took his offer, but those who did never expressed disappointment.

You need to let go of the past with all its unanswered questions and give yourself a fresh start. It is a process and it will take time as God untwists your distorted thoughts and shines light into your dark places. It will challenge you, but you don’t need to shrink back from him in guilt or unworthiness.

His touch is tender and his love is certain. He did not come to condemn you for the places you got stuck, but to rescue you from them and set you in his glory. All you have to do is keep coming to him with the simple request that he reveal himself to you. There is no brokenness he cannot mend, no pain he cannot heal, and no person he does not invite to the fullness of his life. He desires an intimate friendship with you, and he wants to help you engage in a conversation with him that gives wisdom and comfort to your heart.

That’s why he told the story of the vineyard to a group of people about to face the greatest trial of their young lives.

__________________________________

This is Chapter 1 of Wayne’s new book, In Season: Embracing the Father’s Process for Fruitfulness. Copyright 2011 by Wayne Jacobsen and used by permission. Available from Lifestream.org

First, the Parable of the Virgins: Ten virgins are awaiting the bridegroom, but his coming is delayed longer than five of them had planned. They just had enough oil enough to get to midnight, and when the groom came later they had no reserve with which to light their lamps. The conclusion: Those who live for his coming as if it is immediate, will lose out when he delays. Live for the long haul and whenever he comes you’ll be ready.

The Parable of the Talents: At first blush it looks like those who work harder are rewarded more than those who do little. At a closer look, however, we see that it is really a parable about fear. The one who feared God as an exacting taskmaster is the one who made all the wrong decisions and ended up empty at the end. The lesson: Those who live loved have the freedom to be fruitful. Those who live in the fear of not being fruitful, will find themselves fulfilling their own fear.

The Parable of The Sheep And Goats: Those who were truly about the Father’s business had no idea they were. They were simply loving whomever God put before them. Those who sought to do good as a qualification to enter God’s kingdom missed what it meant to love the people right in front of them. Doing their works for him, meant they missed his opportunities for them.

Those who learn to live loved and cease to strive in their own efforts, will know the joy of the Lord and all that it means to be fruitful. Those who seek to suck up to God to earn brownie points are so lost in their self-effort that they miss him in the simple realities of life. I used to see all these parables completely the opposite of what he intended, and though they made me work harder, they didn’t lead me to true fruitfulness. How could they? My attempts to fulfill them were too self-centered. I’ve said it before. The only thing worse than unrighteousness is self-righteousness. The latter leads to pride and arrogance that only spoils the world around us.

But as I’ve been learning to live loved I’ve been less conscious of trying to do what I think he wants, and freer to embrace what he gives me each day. Who knew it would lead me to the better things he had for me, than those things I thought I should do for him? Learning to live loved will lead us to a righteousness that our growing trust in his love produces. We’ll find ourselves blessing others when we’re not even aware of what we’re doing. That will make us a far sweeter fragrance in the world and a far better follower of his.

I’ve also been getting notes back from people who are already reading A MAN LIKE NO OTHER. It seems to be touching people as deeply as I hoped:

From a lady in Canada:

I received “A Man Like No Other” yesterday and have finished a quick reading of it this evening. What a beautiful portrayal of the love of Father and Jesus both in painting and prose. I was deeply blessed and will be ordering several books as Christmas gifts for friends stuck in a concept of a distant God. I myself am in a growth process out of that stuck space, and I hope to take a few more steps away from that place as I immerse myself in the love portrayed in this book. Thank you to all of you for the work you put into it to bless hearts like mine.

By the way, are you aware that there is a steamy romance novel with the same title selling on Amazon? I don’t know copyright laws for book titles. I hope this doesn’t create problems for you down the road. Having grown up in a vineyard myself, I am eager to receive “In Season” when it becomes available.

Yes, we knew about the steamy romance novel. I hope people don’t order that thinking they’re getting our version, but the two books couldn’t be more different so I doubt anyone will get confused. There are no copyright laws for book titles. People are free to use whatever they want.

And then this came this morning from a woman in Austin:

I started reading A MAN LIKE NO OTHER tonight… and the tears began streaming just a few pages in. I’m gonna move slowly through this one. Just sit with God and take my time. Murry’s artwork is amazing. I feel like I’m there.

That’s what we hoped people would gain from this re-telling of a very familiar story, but one that usually shrouds Jesus’ life with a religious veneer that makes it uninviting for many. We wanted to show him as the personification of God’s love in the world and how he invited others into a similar relationship with his Father. I’m deeply blessed it is touching others in the way we hoped it would.

If you have thoughts about either of these books, it helps tremendously to have people post even brief reviews on Amazon or their own blogs and websites. And if you’d like to interview me on your podcast about either of these books or THE JESUS LENS, I’d be happy to do so as a way to get the word out. Also THE JESUS LENS DVD are now available at Amazon as well. Search in “All Departments.”

But for those who are Kindle-enabled, In Season is now available at the Kindle store. We will also be posting it with Barnes and Noble as well as have downloads from our own site later next week. Everyone uses a different format, unfortunately, so it will take some time to get them up in all the right places.

But before I go, let me leave you with another spread, with text following from A Man Like No Other:

Who Would Have Imagined?

God very God. The King of the Universe. The Creator of all. He who was before anything ever was. He could have come into this world in any manner he chose. He could have come in all his glory with guns blazing, demanding submission, demonstrating his power, and commanding our
worship.

Instead he chose to come in the womb of a willing teenager. Though Mary was a descendant of the line of King David, Israel’s most celebrated king, she did not exactly come from one of the more noble branches of that family tree. She was a simple, young teenager, betrothed to a humble carpenter.

One day God sent the angel Gabriel to her. Even though she was still a virgin he told her she would become pregnant and give birth to a son. His name would be Jesus, and he would be called the Son of the Most High. He would be the promised Messiah.

“How can these things be?” Mary asked. The angel answered, “It will happen by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Mary knew what was at stake. This was an invitation to certain ostracism. Her reputation would be ruined. Would anyone believe her? The angel may have greeted her as the “Favored one,” but that was about to end in everyone else’s eyes. What would her parents think? What would Joseph, her fiancé, think?

Nevertheless, in spite of all her concerns and fears, she said, “Yes, I am your willing servant. Let it happen as you have said.” Thus the God of the Universe entered into his creation as a single cell. He who is Life itself spent nine months growing in a womb. He was part of the struggle and pain of childbirth, a baby gasping for his first breath. A cry pierced the night, and “God” was comforted by the love of a young couple. Tiny, helpless, and utterly dependent, he was cared for by two first time parents with little more to their name than what their donkey could carry. This was his grand entrance, a baby in a stable, in a small forgotten town on the backside of all that mattered.

If any of us were God, would we have done it that way? Wouldn’t it have been far more spectacular to rend the Heavens and come in full glory on top of the Temple Mount, perhaps with a legion of angels in our wake?

God chose something different. Even in the face of a world perishing in the corruption of sin God did not overwhelm the planet. While the salvation of the world hung in the balance, he was not in a hurry. Instead, he embraced all that is human with a steady, slow deliberation as if savoring each moment. In doing so he celebrated the ordinary—the miraculous among the mundane. He would not skip ahead to the good stuff. This was the good stuff and he was not about to miss the joy of growing up in his own creation.

Matthew 1-2, Luke 1-2,

A Man Like No Other
The Illustrated Life of Jesus
By Wayne Jacobsen, Brad Cummings, and Murry Whiteman
128 pages, Windblown Media, $24.99 • 128 pages • 8.5 x 11.5 • Hardback
Now available at Lifestream.org

And coming from the category of when-it-rains-it-pours, we have also learned that copies of Wayne’s newest book, IN SEASON, will be arriving by truck tomorrow. So we’ll be shipping those orders as well. Pray for Sara. There were an awful lot of pre-orders of both titles.

We are also finishing up the e-book files for IN SEASON and will soon have it listed on our website as well as at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

And if you like what you see and want to buy them as gifts for Christmas, or any other reason, we will be announcing bulk pricing and full-case prices over the next few days. If you are interested in that now, you can call our office for more details. (805) 499-7774

You can order them from Lifestream Ministries as well as the new JESUS LENS DVD. We sent two dozen copies of THE JESUS LENS to our brothers and sisters in Kenya and have been greatly encouraged by the reports of how it has touched the people there. There are over nine million believers involved in the network of believers that we have been working with. They have sent those copies out to numerous countries in the region and are busy copying them to share even wider.

These three projects have taken a lot of my time this year and it is wonderfully rewarding to finally make them available and get early reports from people that they are as touched by these resources as we were in producing them.

A Personal Time Warp

I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.
But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and
straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14)

I’ll admit I have a problem. I can’t just rerelease another edition of a book without tinkering with it.

I see life as a journey, and any book, audio, or article is just a snapshot of that journey. So while what I wrote twenty years ago was the best I knew then, God’s work has continued to shape my life. I would not write the same book today. So putting out a new edition of a book I wrote in the distant past, even if it was one of my favorites, is not as easy as simply sending it to the printers again.

I knew the book needed to be changed. What I wasn’t prepared for was how much it needed changing. As I read it over I knew printing it as it was would be like posting my high school photo on my home page. Sure the resemblance is there, but I don’t think anyone would see that photo and know immediately that it was me. I have changed a lot since high school. And I have changed a lot since I wrote the first edition of this book.

I’ve often wondered what it would be like to have a conversation with a younger me. What if I could warp time, go back twenty years, and sit down in my old pastor’s office with the person I was back then. Would we even like each other? Would we be able to communicate? Would the younger me recognize the current me?

While I was rewriting this book, I had the chance to experience a bit of that sort of time warp. Much of this material was originally published in 1991 in a book called The Vineyard. That book was republished in a couple of different formats. Some of it was put into a coffee table book titled In My Father’s Vineyard and some of it was repackaged in a book titled Tales of the Vine. Those books have been out of print for some time and many people have been asking if I was going to republish my material on the vineyard. As I started through those books again, I wasn’t prepared to meet the Wayne of twenty years ago who wrote and thought very differently from the Wayne I’ve become in the intervening years.

While still embracing the content of the book I wrote, I had to cringe when I read my own words. They sounded more like the fiery preacher of my former days—the one who talked down to my listeners from a pulpit. I was constantly setting a high bar and pushing them toward it (as if our own human effort could ever bear the fruit of our Father). I hope that now after some reworking, it tenderly encourages you to find Jesus in the reality of your life today and find the grace to follow him as he shapes your life to be fruitful and fulfilled in him.

As I reworked this material, a powerful theme emerged that highlighted the seasonal element of our spiritual journeys. We tend to conform our lives to obligations that do not fit what he is asking of us, instead of appreciating the process of fruitfulness that allows each of us to be free in our journey to follow Jesus as each day requires.

Many believers I know live as though it is always supposed to be harvest time and they grow frustrated when their lives are not as fruitful in other seasons. If harvest is our only expectation, then we’ll despise the days when Jesus shapes our lives in the relative stillness of winter, or holds us in his hands while we face the heat of summer, bringing maturity to his fruit in us. Vines are never frustrated with shifting seasons. Each one is essential to the cycle of fruitfulness that God invites us to embrace.

As a farmer’s view of John 15, this book touches on the deepest themes that have defined my life, while also drawing from the fondest memories I have of growing up on my father’s vineyard in central California. That may sound more spectacular than it was in actuality. Today vineyards are marketed as romantic tourist destinations, but for those who live on them they are a lot of hard work.

During summer it is hot and dusty as the farmer cares for the vines or harvests the crops. In winter the labor can be cold and menial as he prunes one row of vines after another. Nonetheless it was in those fields that my young life was shaped. It was in my father’s vineyard that I learned so much about God and life. There I learned the nobility of an honest day’s work, of the joy in a job well done, and what character and integrity really mean. All of these lessons have served me well in the forty years since I’ve left that farm.

It took far longer to rewrite this than I had planned, but I hope the result will set you free to live deeply in the Father’s life and flow with his working, whether he is pruning you in the rest of winter or developing fruit in you that he can share with so many others.

Who knows, I may have to rewrite it again in twenty years and take more of the old me out yet again.

In Season will be in hand on November 8. In fact, they were just printed this morning. If you’d like to order your copy, you can do so here.

Now I’m off to Omaha for the weekend. Looking forward to what God has in store there.

Money doesn’t change anybody, it reveals them. Same with success.”

I know it often looks to us like people change whenever they come into money or some measure of success, but perhaps he is right. I like to think character (or the lack of it) runs deeper than our circumstances. So if people become arrogant, deceitful, or unfaithful when their circumstances in life change, maybe that’s who they truly were before. They just didn’t have the opportunity to show it.

Certainly money and success present people with very different options than they had before and that’s why it is often more a trap than a blessing. I think character is best displayed by how we’re willing to treat people when we most think we are right. If we are less than loving, gracious, or self-sacrificing in such moments, it only shows us there is more work to be done by the only one that can shape our character—-Jesus himself!

And didn’t he say that if someone is faithful with something small, they will continue to be faithful when they have more. In the end, our character really does matter more than our circumstances!

And during this busy season it has been a joy to be on the end of hosting travelers, instead of being the one crawling on the airplanes! Last week we had a mother and daughter visit us from Visalia, and a couple from Colorado Springs stay with us for four days. Last night I met with a local group of believers who are part of a church plant in the area. They have been reading SO YOU DON’T WANT TO GO TO CHURCH ANYMORE and wanted to ask some provocative questions about all that in light of what they’re involved in. What a delightful group of people and a wonderful evening.

This afternoon a young couple arrives from Indiana to stay with us a few days. Then it’s the grandkids coming to Camp Grandma on Saturday night! That will be lots of fun. Then next weekend I’m off to Omaha, before returning in early November. Then we’ll have another wave of visitors coming from Sacramento, upstate New York, Texas and England. Wow! It’s nice to have some folks come this way for a change. I don’t always get the chance to intersect with people who come to the area, because of my travel schedule and other meetings out here, but it’s always nice when it does work out.

Then Sara and I are going into stealth mode to sneak into Green Bay, Wisconsin to catch a Packer game at Lambeau Field for the first time ever. We are also looking forward to meeting the folks that invited us. Then it’s Thanksgiving with family before I’m off to Louisiana to hopefully end my trips for the year. And in the meantime I’m working on a book for THE JESUS LENS book and finally giving some time to the FINDING CHURCH book, which I’ve been playing with for a number of years.

I know many people have been loaded up with religious ways of reading Scriptures that brings guilt and condemnation. But that’s what we have added to it to distort its power and simplicity. When you understand the story of how God made himself known in the world, you’ll never again see it through the religious spin that obligates you with fear and guilt to follow principles. Instead you’ll let it equip you to listen to Jesus and follow him with joy.

Today we get to announce the opening of our newest web page, TheJesusLens.com. Here the videos have been posted on-line for free viewing by those who prefer the video to the audio. Also you can download study guides, Powerpoint slides, and further resources to help you engage Scripture as an active part of your own spiritual life. You can also order the DVDs through Lifestream from that site as well.

I hope it helps you recapture the wonder of God’s revelation of himself over human history until it culminates in the Jesus himself!

“I simply want to deeply apologize for all that happened. I know that I hurt you and was in the wrong.”

Our friendship had been shattered by a very painful season in his life and a confusing time in ours. Despite my repeated attempts to work through it years ago, he wasn’t ready. My joy does not come from hearing him admit fault. I honestly don’t care who is at fault in these kinds of things. We all make mistakes in relationships especially at very painful times in our own life and also misunderstand others as they often misunderstand us. What caused me to rejoice was the crack in the door he offered for relationship to begin again. That has brought me more joy than I can tell. I find myself smiling all the time now in grateful joy that God could bring back together what the enemy had cut asunder.

We have exchanged a number of emails since and even a long phone call that was rich with love for each other that had been cut off too long ago. We found that same love, respect, and affection that we had back then was still alive today. Though I can’t give you all the details, because this is a personal matter, the door opening with him has also opened doors to others that Sara and I have long-loved and long-missed. The prospect that these relationships may find resurrection delights us, too.

Does God know any greater joy than seeing broken relationships in his family mended? I’m thinking this is a miracle of the first order, because something that was dead is coming alive again and if you ask me, that’s more amazing that most people think. Sin and selfishness creates all the divisions and factions among humanity, and it is our self-focus that robs us of relationships with others. I didn’t want this one to go away when it did. I have grieved the loss of that and now get to celebrate the joy of its return.

There are just too many broken relationships in the world, and mostly our pride keeps them that way. I don’t think God wants us to pester people who are not open to reconciliation, but simply be ready to embrace it when the opportunity comes. When it came this week, I was ready to jump in. There are enough damaged relationships in the world, especially among brothers and sisters, without us adding any more to it. I couldn’t imagine anything worse than my own kids breaking faith with each other and cutting the other one out of their lives. But if they did, I couldn’t imagine any greater joy in knowing they found a way back together again.

Please don’t try to guess who this is. You don’t know. It’s nothing I’ve spoken about publicly or written about, but it does give me hope that God can touch the remotest heart and open the door to restore what the enemy has devoured. It’s amazingly easy to open that door. All you have to do is open your heart, be open and honest and see what God will do. How simple his words were, and yet they opened so wide a door.

God’s heart is always for reconciliation. Wherever you can participate in it, jump in. Life is too short to dodge damaged relationships.

This book is called In Season: Embracing the Father’s Process of Fruitfulness. I retell Jesus parable of the vineyard to show how God works in different ways in us depending on the season we are growing through. Each season has a particular and valuable place in the development of a vine. It cannot be fruitful all the time, and if it doesn’t get refreshed in winter, it will not bear fruit again.

This book will be released on November 7. This should coincide with the arrival of the other book I’ve been working on, A Man Like No Other. So if you want to order them together, we’ll ship them together. You can pre-order both books here. The cost for this book is $13.99 and we’re working now on the e-book for those who prefer it that way. Hopefully it will be ready about the same time. I’ll let you know.

Here’s the cover and back cover. I’ve been working with a new designer, Nan Bishop out of Tulsa. I love her work and appreciate how the layout for this book has come together. And it’s as pretty on the inside as it is on the outside. Yes, if you want to, and if you want to order it alongside A Man Like No Other, go ahead. We’ll ship them together.

Trailview Media • 208 Pages • Paperback • $13.99