Search Results for: Friends and friends of friends

Friends and Friends of Friends - Living in the Relational Church - Part 11

Friends and Friends of Friends: Living in the Relational Church – Part 11

Living Loved, Living Loved Newsletter / /

By Wayne Jacobsen
BodyLife • September 2007

Since I first wrote The Naked Church twenty years ago now, I have searched for a definition of the church that encompasses her majesty and yet explains in simplicity who she is and how she functions in the world. At first I thought that could be answered in structural ways as I moved from the mechanics of large institutions into more relational structures, like cell groups, home groups, and house churches.

But it didn’t work out that way, for which I am incredibly grateful. Defining the church structurally has two problems. First, the life of the church is found in the affection and cooperation of people who are living in Christ. No structure guarantees that reality. In fact, smaller groups who practice performance-based religion are even more dangerous than larger ones who do. Second, these definitions were inherently divisive – excluding brothers and sisters who met in different structures and inculcating a false sense of superiority in those who think they have finally recaptured ‘the secret’ of New Testament church life.

All the while, my relationships never reflected the reality of the definition for which I groped. I had close fellowship with brothers and sisters who gathered in a variety of expressions, all the way from large institutional gatherings to those who just live relationally alongside others. I wanted a definition that transcends all the structural ways we tend to see church.

This summer, however, I stumbled upon a definition that expresses the life of the church better than any I’ve yet run across. It crystallized in my thinking at a worldwide gathering of believers this summer and it has grown on me more ever since. Its application to a variety of settings seems to bear witness to its clarity as well as practicality. What is that definition? Simply I am coming to see the beauty of the church of Jesus Christ emerge in this day as “friends, and friends of friends.”

Now, I realize that needs a bit of explanation, so let me try.

An Example In Ireland

Those who read my blog or listen to The God Journey know I was part of an incredible gathering of believers this past June in Ireland. It was hosted by a number of people who have been living relationally around Dublin for almost 30 years. They were in the midst of forming a congregation in the 80s when God made it clear he hadn’t asked them to do so. They stopped meeting regularly, but continued to share the life of Jesus together as friends living alongside each other. They rarely all get together for a meeting, though it would also be rare if on any given day a number of them weren’t together in one way or another – sharing their journeys and helping each other.

This summer God brought together people from all over the world who are learning to live relationally in his family for a week of sharing life. People came from 10 different countries including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the United States and other countries in Europe. Most of those who came did not know each other beforehand, and many had never even been to Ireland before.

We spent the week together, beginning with a picnic on a Sunday in a field and ended in the same field the following Saturday with a barbecue. Nothing was planned beyond the meal for both of those occasions and the rest of the week we did not gather as a large group except to take a bus tour of that part of Ireland. But throughout the week in various homes and other venues pockets of people got together for meals, recreation, and conversation. By the end of the week we were blown away by all Father had accomplished without planning or scheduling any ‘ministry’ times. Friendships blossomed, deep issues discussed, insights shared and questions answered. We prayed together, cried together, and laughed together all the while watching Jesus emerge among us. Significant time was spent helping individuals through rough spots on the road through prayer and counsel. Friends and friends of friends could be together for a week and Jesus could accomplish all he wanted through that simple reality.

Most of those who gathered during this week, I had previously met in my travels. Watching friends of mine meet and enjoy other friends of mine was an absolute delight. I was blessed at how simply a web of connections expanded to encompass other people and how so many reported that they had time with were just the people they needed to know and could already see ways God might connect them in the future.

At one level, none of this surprised me. Most of my life is spent with friends and friends of friends that the Spirit is knitting together. I had similar times this summer in smaller groups whether it was on the beach at Lake Tahoe, in an old fellowship hall in Stratford, Ontario, or in a home in Naarden in the Netherlands. So many of the tasks Jesus asks me to do these days couldn’t be done without a network of other people, each supplying their part. My life has become an endless sea of relationships, some long-term, others just for a season. But I am convinced that the environment of growing friendships is where family flourishes, not in the rigid routine of an institution.

What amazed me in Ireland was that these same dynamics were visible on a larger scale with such diverse people. This is where I have been told it cannot work. People say friendships are fine for getting together locally, but it will not allow the body of Christ to function on a global scale. They are wrong. I’m convinced it’s the only way it can function globally. Institutions constantly fight over control, doctrine and money. But where Jesus builds friendships there is no end to the assets and resources he can bring together to accomplish his purpose. Nothing is wasted in political struggles or maintaining machinery. All the dynamics of body life in the New Testament apply better in growing friendships than they do in all our attempts at group building.

Jesus-Style Friendships

I know of no managed system large or small that can guarantee real community will emerge when it is implemented. Body life does not grow out of any management system, but out of the quality of a growing friendship with Jesus, linked together by people sharing that friendship with others. Even if you are part of a large institution, your quality of life in it will be found far more in the friendships you cultivate and how they stimulate you to live more deeply in Christ, than anything the corporate meeting alone can produce. Read the Gospels again and you will see just how much of Jesus’ mission was fulfilled in simple friendships, whether he was befriending weary fishermen returning in an empty boat, a greedy tax collector over lunch, or Mary, Martha and Lazarus in Bethany. He was persistently accused of being the friend of sinners, and enjoying their company. At the end of his life, he clearly stated to those early disciples that what he wanted from them was not the obedience of slaves, but the affection of friends (John 15:15).

Perhaps friendships may sound like too casual a word to describe the wonder of our connections to him and to each other, but that’s only because we look at friendship in human terms. Most friendships are built on a delicate balance of mutual benefit. As long as people provide something for us, we consider them friends. When they no longer do so, we move on. Because of that most of us have only known very shallow friendships that can be as fickle as the weather. And too many of us have tasted the bitter pain of betrayal when a good friend decides they have more to gain by leaving us out.

Thus, many of us shy away from deep friendships thinking we can protect ourselves from future disappointments. That is why we find it easier to trust the managed relationships of institutions than to risk the spontaneity of real and growing friendships. But that is to our loss.

Friendships as Jesus viewed them were not the what-can-I-get-out-of-you style of relationship, but the willingness to lay down our life for someone else. Until you know how he does that for you, you will never know how to do it for others. But once you’ve tasted it in him, you can’t wait to give it away.

That’s why real friendships don’t grow out of institutional rules and guidelines, but out of people connecting in a real way with Jesus and then with others. As we grow in the freedom of not needing to exploit others or be exploited by them we can begin to taste what real friendships are all about. These friendships are the building blocks of the New Testament community.

This is the kind of friendship I have shared with those who gathered in Ireland and the friendship that grew between others that week. I am convinced that this is how the bride takes shape in the world as the Spirit connects the body through affectionate and caring friendships. Friends and friends of friends, living, sharing and tasking alongside each other as each contributes what the Lord gives them. This is our engagement with the Body of Christ and will open the door to all the ways in which Jesus wants us to share his life together.

Growing Friendships

Obviously joining a group and becoming part of a growing circle of friends are two very different things. Most of us only know the former and the latter can seem threatening at first because there isn’t any place you can go to sign up for a real friendship. We can’t orchestrate them. They emerge as we recognize and invest time in those Father is asking us to walk alongside in a given season. Thus they begin the only place they can begin, not with others but with him!

First, learn to be friends with Jesus. He is the only source of life. Body life is the fruit of our walk with him not the means to gain it. Let your relationship with him grow. If you don’t know others with a similar passion, just lean in close to him and keep your eyes open. He may want you to himself for a time so that you will only be dependent on him. Eventually he will connect you with others.

Second, pursue friendships with those God puts in your path. The building blocks of body life are not found in groups, believe it or not. Jesus specifically pointed to the value of twos and threes coming together in him. Small conversations are where we truly get to know each other and recognize the life of Jesus in one other. Sitting in a meeting won’t do that. I’ve even been to home groups that have been meeting for prayer and Bible study for over 20 years who are not friends. They claimed to be the church, but there was no affection among them and no understanding of what it means to share life together. They were just committed to their weekly meetings.

Find ways to share a meal, an evening or an outing together. When you cross paths in a store don’t rush on with your day. Hang back if only for a moment and enjoy each other’s company. Relationships grow best in small conversations. Trying to form groups is a poor substitute for that, and often a structured way of trying to build friendships unwittingly subverts the process itself. Friendships flourish only in real conversations where people are growing to know and care about each other under Father’s love.

Now, watch the connections grow. Out of these twos and threes a marvelous network of friendships will emerge. As some of my friends get to know other of my friends the body takes shape around me. This web of interconnected friendships offers unlimited possibilities as to the ways the Spirit might connect us and show them how to cooperate together in doing what he asks. Gatherings of various groups will take shape, not because they are trying to have a New Testament meeting, but because they want to learn together, work together or in some other way express God’s work in the world. People who live like this learn to value every connection God gives them.

Those who played a part in facilitating what happened in Ireland and other places I go are those who have invested years in growing friendships. They aren’t trying to manage groups or form structured networks, but have simply let Jesus connect them to others and made time for those friendships to grow. And they have generously shared those friendships with their other friends.

That’s how the church takes shape locally, regionally and globally. I love seeing some of my dear friends become friends themselves. When I was in the U.K. this summer, I met a young couple that had just immigrated to the UK from South Africa. They knew a couple I’d spent some time with when I was there, who in turn knew an elderly couple living near them outside London. That couple connected them with some friends hosting my visit this summer. They came down to join us the weekend I was there. A week later I found myself sitting in Ireland with the couple from South Africa who started it all and the couple from London that passed it on. What a fun family – friends and friends of friends finding fellowship and life together, helping each other on the journey.

Do you hear the clicking of the Spirit’s needles as he knits the family together?

The Wider Family

What a joy it is to watch the church take shape not as the result of the vision of some man, or group of people scheming to create an organization to contain it, but seeing it as a reality than transcends all of our attempts to control it. Thus the church takes expression through millions of simple acts of friendship in response to Jesus’ leading and the wonderful fruit that flows from doing so. No human could ever control it and in the end there is no all-encompassing institution to be managed, financed, fought over or divided.

Expressions of the wider family are in his hands alone as we respond to him. That’s the church he is building. It permeates everything and ever place and no matter how we gather in groups with other believers, those moments of twos and threes, and eight and tens are the most important. It is where relationships grow, where people truly share their journey, and where we’ll find ways to do together what he might ask of us

As I sat in Ireland I couldn’t help but wonder how many other pools of interconnected friendships fill our globe. How easy it is for the Spirit to connect them when he is ready. Only two people have to cross paths for separate bits of the family to find each other. It is such joy to meet people who have no desire to manage God’s working – to pressure others with their pet doctrines or need to organize them for any desired outcome (or income). Living loved and sharing that love is really more than enough to give expression to this incredible family. Isn’t that what Jesus told us? (John 13:34-35)

A Fruitful Life Together

Seeing the family as an ever-expanding fellowship of friends, and friends of friends helps see the church as she really is. It also allows us to appreciate the organic growth that happens through friendship, rather than the imposition of any structured model that forces people into friendships that haven’t grown naturally and most likely won’t grow in that environment either. This view fulfills so much of what the New Testament teaches and demonstrates about the life of the church.

It keeps the focus on relationship. Instead of trying to build a corporate life on doctrine, programs, rituals or structures, people are focused on their friendship with Jesus and finding others who share that same friendship. The more your friendships grow the more involvement you have in the family. And those that have a hard time connecting relationally, can be befriended and helped by those who have found freedom to do so.

It is not meeting-focused, but relationally lived. Sharing life in the body of Christ does not happen by attending a meeting, but by growing in friendship with Jesus and our spiritual siblings. Of course the body will get together in a variety of ways as it celebrates those friendships. But it will do so as people want to be together with a specific purpose in mind, not just to follow an artificial routine. Until then our focus can be where Jesus put it – on connections of twos and threes as our friendships grow. And when our gatherings happen out of friendship they won’t be a static program put on by a few to entertain the others. lsbl.sept

It answers the dilemma of how much structure we need. We won’t want structures to attempt to manage friendships, because that will only prevent people from dealing with their differences and growing in the process. The structures we can embrace are those that facilitate what God is doing among a specific group for a specific season. We won’t need to start ministries or perpetuate groups for their own sake, but simply learn how to care about each other, stimulate each other to grow in him and do together whatever he asks us to do.

It resolves conflict without the appeal to power. Institutions have to provide clear decision-making authority, creating an environment based on who holds the power to make decisions others have to follow. Friends sort out conflicts not by deciding who is in charge, but through honesty and openness looking for God’s highest good and no one assuming they will know that for others. But a connection of relationships in agreement will have far more meaningful impact on others than any council making rules.

It can give proper place to the weaker believer. One of the Scriptures that always bothered me as a manager of an institution was Romans 14-15 where Paul talks about the stronger giving way to the weaker. There is absolutely no application of that in an institutional setting. Instead the stronger must take control over the weaker or chaos will result. In a family of relationships, however, those weaker in faith can be loved, extended the grace to be where they are in the journey and encouraged to move on to greater freedom, all in the context of friendship.

It allows leaders to truly be servants, helping others to grow rather than maintaining machinery. It also prevents those who are immature from aspiring to false leadership while hiding behind their personal charisma, eloquence or intellectual knowledge as a way to lord over others. True elders will simply be those a bit further down the road helping others find friendships as well.

It allows for wider connections, both in meeting new people and cooperating together in various efforts. When we think of the church as a specific institution who share a specific location, ritual or doctrine, we cut ourselves off from other relationships that God might want to arrange for interconnecting his family or touching the world.

The Power of Connections

I’ve been blessed over the last few years to be part of some amazing connections with individuals and networks of friends that God brought together for a specific season. The Ireland gathering was like that. It was a specific event whose ongoing fruit will only be measued by the friendships it produced. Almost everything I do now brings together friends in Christ each doing their part and results in something far more wonderful than any of us could accomplish alone. Perhaps the most amazing has been my experience with a new book a friend of mine wrote.

After unsuccessfully approaching on his behalf a number of publishers to print The Shack, we finally concluded that this was something God wanted us to do together. When we started pursing that direction we had so many missing pieces. But over the days and weeks, through friends and friends of friends we connected with people who could help us put it together.

Our biggest concern was how to get it out as broadly as we thought God wanted. Imagine our shock at selling out the first printing of 11,000 copies within four months of putting it on a web site, and talking to our friends about it. As friends passed it on to their friends the book just took off. Without one advertisement and without being in any bookstore, it spread like wildfire. Today some influential members of the national media have it in hand and the stories of how it has touched lives – especially those who have suffered great tragedy – continue to melt our hearts. We have been contacted by major book chains and distributors that we had no access to when we began. And we have turned down two top-tier Christian publishers who had rejected the book a year ago and now wanted to take it over.

I could tell you so many more stories of the simple joy and fruitfulness of people connecting with each other. Almost every where I travel now one of the great results is people who live in the same area who didn’t know each other before, get to meet each other. I get email long after I’ve returned home of the friendships that have grown and how people can now walk alongside some others as Jesus directs.

I could tell you of people in foreign countries living a life of expanding friendships that is giving great testimony to the reality of Jesus in the most brutal circumstances by simply loving and forgiving as they have found it in him. I do believe this is what he meant when he said the world would come to know him by the love we share one for another.

If you want to be part of that, just remember, the joy of living as friends, and friends of friends, does not come out of a desperate attempt to find friends for yourself, but by simply being a friend to whomever Father allows to cross your path. No, you cannot befriend everyone, but you can take the time to invest in those Jesus asks you to, whether they be a believer yet or not. And when you take the risk to cultivate that friendship, you’ll never know where it might lead.

Living Loved is published periodically by Lifestream Ministries and is sent free of charge to anyone who requests it. For those with email we recommend our web-based version so that we can hold down costs and get it to you much more quickly. This is especially important for international subscribers.

© Copyright 2013 Lifestream Ministries

Permission is hereby granted to anyone wishing to make copies for free distribution.

DOWNLOAD VERSION: PDF (115 KB)

Previous Issue of Living Loved                 Next Issue of Living Loved

Articles in Chronological Order | Articles by Content

Friends and Friends of Friends: Living in the Relational Church – Part 11 Read More »

More Friends, and Friends of Friends

Uncategorized /

I love how Father intersects people. Just a few moments ago I received this from a man named Sam, with whom I’ve corresponded in the past. He’s preparing to leave for Uganda to help with the thousands of Kenyans fleeing the country into Uganda. Here’s what he wrote:

I wanted to let you know that I am about to leave for Jinja, Uganda. The situation in Kenya is already affecting Uganda with thousands crossing over into Uganda. Food and fuel has doubled in less than a few days in Uganda. A pastor friend of mine in Mombassa says that food and water are becoming scarce. The stability of Kenya has grave impact on most of eastern Africa. I would ask that you pray for me and our team already in Uganda. I will be teaching young pastors and businessmen on forgiveness and on various relationship issues. I am going with an organization called Next Generation Ministries whose emphasis is on relationships.

I am certain while I am there I will be able to meet some the Kenyans and I will give you a report if you like. Many organizations like yours are sending money and aid which is greatly needed. This situation appears to be such that unless God intervenes Kenya and much of eastern Africa could be devastated. It is times like these that I wonder about how effective we have been at communicating the real gospel. I am re-reading you book He Loves Me and I hope I can communicate His love as well as you do in the book. At 55 years old and 30 years in ministry, I am just now beginning to walk in his presence and feel his love. Thank you for who you are and your work.

More opportunities to pray and perhaps another door to get some funds on the field where they will most impact our brothers and sisters….

More Friends, and Friends of Friends Read More »

Friends, and Friends of Friends (continued)

6 Comments / Uncategorized /

I appreciate the way the Internet allows people to interact with things I write. Others add some great observations to this process. I’ve received some emails since the release of the new BodyLife and its lead article about Friends and Friends of Friends. It’s interesting that these both focused on fear and control as the reason we won’t trust Jesus to connect us the way he always desired to do.

This came from a long-time friend that has continued to look in a number of places to find some form of effective church life in a number of institutions:

I don’t know where to begin….was so impressed by what you had to say in the new newsletter. I have struggled with this issue for years and like you it was in front of us the whole time. Can’t tell you what a release I felt (and my wife as well). It is so hard to move away from the institution and the hold it can have on you. I recently watched a documentary on the Catholic Church in its attempts to deal with the sexuality of both male and female clergy, and the conclusion was simply that it was all done and justified on the basis of control, no matter what and that it will never change. It almost appears that the institution will do anything to keep people from fellowship with Jesus and with one another because of its fear of losing control even though lives will be destroyed. I can’t thank you enough for taking such a courageous stand.

And this came from a newer friend who has only recently left the institutional he served in for years. He was recently invited back to attend a ‘Defending the Faith’ class so he would know better how to “evangelize” young believers.

Why can’t we love people well enough that we just share our life with them in relationship instead of treating them as a project for coercion? You know why? It is because of fear. We are afraid we won’t know what to say. We are afraid that our not having an answer to their question will render them to eternal damnation. We are afraid we will say something wrong which make them walk away from Christ and they won’t ever pass that way again. We are afraid that a lot of their salvation is based on what I do.

But perfect love cast out all fear. If it really was about loving the people that Father puts in front of us each day, there is no fear of what to say, or what the results will be. I feel for those coercion projects that will soon be the victims of a new group of graduates from the “Defending the Faith” class. But then Father can make good of that too.

it’s amazing what Father uses. It really is! I’m grateful for how many times he’s used my immature ramblings to touch someone’s life and draw them closer to him. But like many of you, I’d much prefer Jesus flow out of my life because of how I’m responding to him, not in spite of it.

Friends, and Friends of Friends (continued) Read More »

Chapter 21: And Then the End Shall Come

5 Comments / It's Time / / , , , , , , ,

(Note:  First, I am thrilled to announce that we’ve secured the necessary funds to rescue the water enterprise in Kenya. Thank you for your generosity once again.  And now, here’s the last chapter of It’s Time: Letters to the Bride of Christ at the End of the Age. Whether he comes in the next fifteen years or the next one hundred and fifty years, how do we live in light of his return? We have already released the first part of this book in print, and now we will combine it with the last part. You can also access the previous chapters here.)

 

_________________________________

It has been 2,000 years since Jesus promised to return. How do you keep your hope up that he will? Do you ever wonder whether we’ve missed something here? Since I don’t have a clue when he might come, I don’t see how it’s relevant to the decisions I have to make today.  

Janine, office manager and grandmother in Ireland

Hi Janine,

That has been my dilemma most of my life. In my younger days, people talked about him coming before I would graduate from high school. I dreaded the idea of judgment, and I didn’t want my life cut short here. As so many predictions of his return came and went without effect, the hope of his coming fell into the background, irrelevant to how I lived.

If we knew he was coming in two years, wouldn’t we make different decisions than we would if we knew it wasn’t going to happen for another fifty? Perhaps that’s why we don’t know. Anticipating his return is a matter of the heart, hoping in the final resurrection, rather than information for financial or career choices. I’ve known many who thought they had it figured out, only to make horrible choices that ruined their lives.

As these days have darkened with growing polarization, global conflicts, natural disasters, and environmental challenges filling every news cycle, his coming now seems almost a necessity to rescue us from ourselves. Now, I cannot wait for the moment when the same Jesus who walked the hills of Galilee, surrendered his life to the cross, rose victorious over death, and revealed himself to countless people throughout history, will bodily reappear on planet Earth. He, whom we’ve only known by presence, will become materially present, and we will know him as fully as he has always known us.

At his coming, Jesus will expose the dark powers that rule the earth, and the old order of those who compete for influence and power will dissolve into nothing. Kings, presidents, prime ministers, dictators, and CEOs will all lose their power, national identities will be obliterated, and suffering will cease at last. Though I have lost sight of it at times, I’ve never doubted that he will yet come.

That’s when God’s work of redeeming Creation will reach its climax. In the blink of an eye, all we have known will be reconstituted into a new heaven and new earth that will abound with his love and life. What we’ve known in glimpses, we will see in fullness when sin, fear, and pain are abolished.

Creation has longed for it since humanity crashed into the wall of its waywardness. The day of his coming is why the Psalmist pictures the trees singing for joy, the seas resounding, and all Creation rejoicing: God is coming to judge the world (Psalm 98). I know many of us were taught to fear his judgment, but Creation doesn’t, and I don’t anymore. On that day, he will set right all that has been corrupted on this planet.

The end of this age will also be the beginning of a new and better one. Jesus will take his rightful place as Lord of all, and Creation will thrive in a justice born of love and tenderness. The oppressed will go free, sickness gone, the lies we’ve believed will dissolve in the light, and we will forever be with him in his eternal kingdom. To those who find their fulfillment in the world, that day may be tragic. But for those who have found their home in Jesus, it will fulfill every unmet desire and unsatisfied dream.

 

Why Is He Waiting?

One of the great mysteries of human history is how slowly God appears to move by our perception. God’s purpose seems to unfold at a painstaking pace. People have navigated the darkness of human fallenness for centuries, and Israel bore 1500 years under the weight of a law they could not keep. The early followers thought his return was imminent over 2000 years ago. Even in the Incarnation, God was not in a hurry. Jesus came to rescue the world as an embryo in the womb of a maiden, then spent thirty years as an infant and young man before he began to share the glory of his kingdom and prepare for his atoning death.

All we’re told is that he came “in the fullness of time” (Galatians 4:1-5). Paul didn’t explain all that meant, but he compared it to children under a tutor who had become heirs and no longer needed to be schooled. Jesus didn’t come the first time at some arbitrary date, but only when events on the earth allowed the Incarnation to play out to maximum effect. Perhaps human culture had to grow in its capacity to appreciate grace for him to open the door of salvation. Before that, God used law and punishment to control humanity’s destructive instincts. And yet today, many who claim to be Christians still struggle to embrace his love as the transforming power of the universe.

I suspect his second coming will also come in the “fullness of time.” I doubt he is waiting for a prescribed date, though, by his foreknowledge, he would know it. I’m sure there are many factors that will determine when this planet is ready for the final act of redemption. Peter told us that any delay is a sign of his great patience to redeem as many as possible (II Peter 3:8-9). Perhaps the world must grow darker yet, or he’s waiting until our only hope is in him, not what we can do to fix the planet.

Jesus must reign, Paul writes (I Cor 15:25-27), until all his enemies have been subdued under his feet. Then he will abolish all rule, authority, and power and present the kingdom to his Father. Does that just happen at the end of the age, or is it a work he’s been doing behind the scenes? Honestly, I don’t know, but it does seem the forces of evil still prevail in human history.

Or it may be that the Bride herself has something to do with it. What if he stands at the door of the world even now, waiting for an invitation from the redeemed to step across the threshold? The bullies have taken over the house, and the world is in chaos. They know that those final days will be filled with pain, but they invite him anyway. “Lord Jesus, come quickly.”

I wouldn’t be definitive about any of this. We make a grave error when we assume we know the motives of God. Paul reminded us not to judge each other’s motives because we often don’t even know our own (I Cor 4:1-5). How much more difficult would it be to guess what motivates God beyond the fact that he loves us deeply and is taking the surest route to redemption?

 

Revival First?

Many of my friends are anticipating a worldwide revival before his appearing, like the Great Awakenings of old. They will chase all over the world if they hear any sign of one.

Am I looking for a revival? Not in the same way. While I would love to see a fresh outpouring of his Spirit to draw people to himself, I have no preconception of what that might look like. Most of what we call revival is people groveling in the shame of their failures through public repentance, rather than coming alive in his love. It’s easy to forget that all movements of God go to die in the structures we create to contain them.

Where I see people focused on revival through prayer networks and prophetic words, the life of Jesus is mostly absent. Their focus is largely on their own success and their efforts. They manipulate obscure passages of Scripture to bolster their hope and exploit crowds of people with false comfort. They find comfort in outlandish “manifestations” that are easily manipulated by crowd dynamics. I’m reminded how wrong the Jewish messianic expectations were when Jesus first came. Looking back, we can see how clearly Scripture mapped out these things, yet we often forget that we do so through the benefit of hindsight.

Jesus told us not to seek revival somewhere else. “The kingdom of God will not come with observable signs. Nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is,’ or ‘There it is.’ For you see, the kingdom of God is in your midst” (Luke 17:20-21).

I already see a fresh wave of God’s Spirit inviting people to a deeper touch with Jesus. Those he is stirring are not looking for a man to follow, a certain type of euphoric gathering, or the political power to dominate the culture. Instead, they are coming alive to God’s presence within them. They are learning to rest from their own labors, either to draw closer to God or to become more righteous. They are growing confident in his love and talk of Jesus as a real presence who is leading and guiding them.

This work of God is decentralized and lies beneath the radar of those looking for outward signs. These people are rising simultaneously all over the world because it is a work of the Spirit, not a fixation on a human leader, author, or influencer. As the Spirit of God draws them back to first love—how deeply they are loved by God—they become more at rest in him, freer to love others and more attuned to his voice as their life unfolds.

There’s a huge difference between being led by the Spirit and living by principles, no matter how good they may be. Seek revival, and you’re guaranteed to miss him because he will come in ways you won’t expect. Follow him, and you’ll find yourself an increasing part of God’s redemption in the world.

 

Living in Redemption

How do we live in anticipation of his return? I’ve seen too many people, focused on the immediacy of his second coming, forgo college, quit their jobs, and abandon their responsibilities because they think they won’t matter. That may be why God doesn’t reveal the time of his Son’s appearing. If he did, we would make poor choices based on our own presumptions rather than following his lead.

Anticipating his coming doesn’t fix on a date. The early Christians were invited to live that way thousands of years ago. Expectancy about his coming helps us hold on to him in the unfolding circumstances of our lives, to endure the unendurable, and to find his calming voice in times of trouble. It is less about our material concerns than it is yielding to his kingdom growing in us. Embracing the assurance of his ultimate victory will sharpen our priorities in the present.

Many seek to promote fear with false conspiracies and geopolitical predictions. They know how easily they can manipulate our fears to seek vengeance for the “other” and to seek retribution for those we perceive as our enemy. However, the end of the age is not about vengeance from God’s perspective; it’s about redemption. Give in to vengeance against evil, and it will blind you to God’s love, replacing it with hatred for those who aren’t like you and make you a party to the us vs. them theatrics that are tearing our world apart.

Redemption can happen wherever God’s love encounters the chaos of a fallen world. That’s what Jesus did in his living and his dying. If you truly anticipate his redemption at the end of the age, you will embrace it as it appears in your life today. You’ll wake up looking for ways God’s love in you can touch the agony of human failure and pain around you.

So, instead of trying to control the chaos of darkness or even defeat it, you can leave that to Jesus, whose task it has always been. Yours is to learn to live in the chaos, looking for ways God wants to make his love known in us and through us. Who is he giving me to love today, and how can I support them as they traverse the chaos? Where is he asking me to lay myself down to help alleviate the sufferings of others so that love can do its work?

For most of my life, the only strategy I had in facing the chaos of darkness was to ask God to fix it, whether that meant healing my diseases, changing my misfortunes, or punishing those who caused me grief. When he failed to do so, it was easy to question his love for me or if I was doing enough to merit the fix I wanted.

Now, I’m learning to negotiate the chaos around me inside his redemptive purpose. Isn’t that what Jesus did? He didn’t fix all the chaos around him, but submitted to his Father’s purpose in the lies of the Pharisees, the brutality of Roman rule, and even the betrayal of his closest friends. So, now I ask, how does loss draw me closer to him? How does my pain open a wider door into my dependence on his love? How do the unjust actions of others reveal the darker places still in my heart?

Yes, I talk to him about healing my cancer. I would love that. But when he hasn’t done it yet, I ask how he wants to walk with me through it. He can heal it at any time, but I have lived long enough to know that his miracles are not at our beck and call, and he has many other ways to love us when we are tormented by darkness.

That kind of love rearranges our hearts from the inside, making us more loving, gracious, and a comfort to others. Watching for his redemptive hand around me each day has become an adventure that sets me at ease in crisis and shows me how to sit with others in their pain. I don’t have to fix them; I just get to be present as love does its work.

And I anticipate with joy the day when all the chaos and conflict will be overturned by Jesus’s final redemption. I also look for that in every circumstance I encounter. Where does love lead me, and how will gentleness and kindness help me discover the better version of me?

I now understand that the work of redemption cannot be reduced to institutional programs or political agendas, where we strive to impose virtue on the reluctant. Jesus didn’t use such tactics, nor did he teach his disciples to do so. Those who seek to dominate this world in his name have no idea who he is. His kingdom is an invitation, never an imposition. People emerge from the darkness when they experience a love greater than themselves. You don’t learn that from books or in seminars, but only by facing your challenges with the love, courage, and wisdom of the Spirit.

I don’t know how he will sort out his redemption in the world. I don’t know how he works out justice in the life to come. I don’t know how he will make up for the incredible damage some people have suffered at the hands of others. Not all accounts get squared in this life, that’s for sure. How does the villain find his justice, and his victim her recompense?

But I know him, and I entrust all my unanswered questions to the Father I love and to Jesus, who will get the final word on everyone and everything. He is loving, kind, and fair in ways I could never imagine. I look forward to the day that all of this will finally make sense. What was life all about here, and what will eternity look like when chaos is no more?

 

Come, Lord Jesus!

Janine, we began this book with the call that it’s time for the sons and daughters of God to be revealed. Whether Jesus’s second coming is just around the corner or still a hundred years out is not in my purview. But it is for me to live the redemption I hope for in the way I treat people today.

Won’t you join me?

These pages carry a gentle invitation to draw into the deep places where our love and trust in him aren’t based on us getting what we want, but the simple and profound magnificence of his presence in us. This is how Jesus prepares us for whatever may come. Too many followers of Jesus are playing the world’s games, thinking they are following Jesus. They have been deluded by the lie that the kingdom comes by coercion. Their wounded hearts look to lash out at their perceived enemies. Their only hope is to be loved back into life, where the tactics of darkness hold no sway.

Throughout my preparations for this book and its writing, I have been gathering twice a month with a team from across the world. We gaze with him at the world as he invites us to learn love more deeply and share it generously, especially with people we have mistakenly seen as our enemies. We hope many others are doing the same.

We are learning many of the things you’ve read about in this book. We are continually drawn to the great need in our world for followers of Jesus to be more deeply tuned to his Spirit, finding their direction not from human reasoning, but by catching the wind of the Spirit. His victory is coming, and his grace will be sufficient for every challenge we face.

We share Creation’s joy for those who reflect God’s glory in the world. The time of his coming may be at hand; the time for us to reveal his love definitely is.

“Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.” (Revelation 22:20)

That phrase makes my heart soar in a way it hasn’t before. I’m convinced we live in the moments before the dawn. Certainly, darkness seems to rule everywhere we look, but for those with eyes to see, the skies have already begun to brighten ever-so-slightly on the eastern horizon.

_________________________________

Order Part 1 of It’s Time from Amazon in Kindle or paperback, or read previous chapters online.

Chapter 21: And Then the End Shall Come Read More »

Chapter 20: Stand By

4 Comments / It's Time / / , , , , , , , ,

Chapter 20: Stand By

Note: This is the twentieth in a series of letters written for those living at the end of the age, whenever that comes in the next fifteen years or the next one hundred and fifty years. We have already released the first part of this book in print. You can also access the previous chapters here.  If you are not already subscribed to this blog and want to ensure you don’t miss any of them, you can add your name here.

_________________________________

I was hoping you would give more practical advice about what we need to do if this age is coming to an end. We can’t just sit around and wait. Don’t we have to do something?
Tyson, a farmer and father in the plains of Iowa

Hi Tyson,

Let’s imagine two warhorses in a pasture. Both are equally strong, but one stands quietly, grazing on the grass at his feet. Every so often, he raises his head and looks around, ensuring all is well. Then, he continues eating. The other stomps his feet on the ground and snorts into the morning air. He’s agitated and nervous, running one way, then another.

Which will be most valuable to his master when he comes for him?

Obviously, the first one. He does not need to bluster because he knows what he is capable of doing. He stands ready for whatever his master might need and does not wear himself out with his fears and insecurities.

My Greek professor in college told me the Greek word for meekness is a word picture of a warhorse at rest. Strong and fearless in battle, he is calm and controlled outside of it. Xenophon, the Greek warrior-philosopher, used that word for warhorses, not referring to their toughness in battle but rather to their standing calmly when they’re not. Meekness is not weakness; it is incredible strength without aggression, arrogance, or anger.

No wonder the meek will inherit the earth. That’s the way Jesus was. Though he held all power in his hands, he was gentle and tender, never having to prove it. I’m sure it took more strength and character to stand before the false accusations of the Pharisees and unjust tortures of Roman guards than to level them all with a legion of angels.

When the Time Comes…

That’s the picture I want you to have, Tyson, as we talk about those alive at the end of days. They will be like warhorses at rest in the company of their Master. They will act when he directs, not lash out in fear or anxiety.

This seems particularly important when Scripture talks about the end of time.  After a series of visions that revealed a broad sweep of the future, right up to the end of the age, Daniel was overwhelmed. “When will these things be?” Daniel asked the angel who had appeared to him, and what was he to do about them?

The angel answered, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are rolled up and sealed until the time of the end. Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked . . .  But as for you, go on your way until the end. You will rest, and then you will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days.” Daniel 12:8-13

It’s a constant refrain throughout Scripture—don’t fret about the days to come, especially the last days. There wasn’t anything Daniel could do about it at the time, and he needed to entrust it all to God. Whatever part he had at the end would be revealed to him when the time came.

There’s immense curiosity about end-time prophecies, and many want to understand what they need to do before he comes. They want instructions and provisions well in advance of when they are necessary, I suspect, to reassure themselves. But God doesn’t work that way. It seems our trust is more important to him than any advance strategy. We talked about this in the last chapter—living with enough of Jesus on the inside that we’re free to roll with his leading as life unfolds. That will serve us well now and in the days to come.

Be Ready in the Moment

That’s what Jesus told his followers.  “But before all this, they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. This will result in your being witnesses to them. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.  You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. All men will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. By standing firm, you will gain life.” (Luke 21:12-17)

All of that certainly happened to the disciples in the first century. It isn’t always easy for us in the Western world to remember that this is happening today and is likely to grow even more so as the age comes to an end. So, what can we do, according to Jesus?

  1. “Make up your mind not to worry beforehand.” Anxiety is such a part of the human experience, especially when we confront potential difficulties of the unknown. But we can decide not to go down that road and bring ourselves back to confidence in him whenever we feel the tentacles of worry reach out for us. By focusing on him and his power, we can lean out of anxiety into trust.
  2. Don’t be shocked when close friends and relatives betray you. Most humans cannot muster faithfulness to a relationship when their personal expedience is at stake. Now is the time to practice doing so whenever people treat you unfairly or accuse you falsely.
  3. Stand firm in him and what you know to be true against every onslaught of darkness, regardless of what others might say about you. He will protect you, and in doing so, we’ll find his life and joy coursing through our veins.
  4. Let the words you need come to you in the moment. You do not need to practice what you’ll say to defend yourself. He will give you words that will be irresistible and incontrovertible. If we have already planned our answers, we won’t hear his. I know it’s hard, but we’ll be better armed in difficult moments if we trust him to show us the way, rather than scripting our words in advance.

We don’t have to wait until the end of days to develop these spiritual muscles. Practice them now in whatever circumstances or challenges you face today. Since we have no idea what will unfold or what our part in it might be, preparing for specific events is impossible. But we can cultivate a relationship with God strong enough to hold us through anything that comes.

We have a great heritage of previous generations of followers of Jesus who stayed true to him despite persecution and threats. His grace and presence have always proved sufficient for the darkest days. It’s why Paul was singing in a Roman prison after being unjustly beaten, and it opened the door for God’s love to flow to the jailer and his family.

To stand firm means we trust the truth we know about Jesus and his love for us, no matter what our circumstances or emotions may be telling us. We all have those moments where angst tries to displace our trust in God. Returning to what we know to be true by relying on the Holy Spirit will ground us in trust. It means risking everything that God is who he says he is.

We Have to Do Something

When the Egyptian army bore down on the children of Israel with chariots and weapons after letting them go, Moses encouraged the people of Israel. “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Exodus 14:13

How hard was that? They could have panicked and fled for their lives, but the Egyptians would have slaughtered them. Standing still before the approaching army would allow them to participate in God’s plan to free them and demonstrate his greatness in the face of overwhelming odds. That lesson was critical for them if they were going to trust God enough to lead them into the Promised Land.

Scripture often encourages us to stand firm and wait for God to act rather than resorting to our own devices and ingenuity. That’s not easy for many of us, preferring to do what we can see to do, which often makes matters worse. Busyness and activity give us the illusion of productivity and safety, but that’s all. If we trust his love enough to wait until he calls us to act, we will find options we never would have contemplated.

The urge to do something, in the face of threat or fear, is one of the most significant deterrents to our life in Jesus. So many bad decisions happen in that moment between feeling threatened and God revealing his solution. Some of the worst things I have ever done on God’s behalf started with someone saying, “Well, someone has got to do something.” Immediately, that focuses on ability and wisdom, rather than standing firm until God reveals his. Beware the person who preys on that impulse by giving you things to do on God’s behalf instead of waiting for him. Follow Jesus, not your frustrations.

Life at God’s Pace

To help my wife heal from the traumas of her childhood, I’ve had to learn to live at Sara’s pace, which is much slower than my own. While pulling weeds one day in Sara’s garden, I hurriedly reached for a weed that was just out of reach. I didn’t realize that, however, until I lost my balance. Moving my foot to keep from falling, I stepped on a stalk of beautiful irises and crushed it. Knowing how much she loved those flowers, I felt I had crushed something in her.

“You need to slow down.” The words crossed my mind instantly. That’s where God began to teach me that my rapid pace wasn’t helpful to Sara’s freedom. Since then, “Life moves at the speed of Sara” has become part of my vocabulary. It applies to everything I do, from driving to preparing dinner to our conversations. I discovered I actually like living at a slower pace, making me more attuned to what’s happening around me or what others are feeling.

Slowing to her pace also helped me recognize how much I outpace God. I’d already noticed that he seemed to move slower than I would like, and many of my prayers were trying to get God to catch up to my ambitions or hopes. Learning to live at his pace, which is even slower than Sara’s, took some time. Waiting on the Lord isn’t a test of patience; it’s the recognition that we move more rapidly than he does.

When we’re having trouble seeing God or listening to him, maybe it’s because we are rushing ahead of him. Have you noticed he is far slower at doing things than any of us would like? His work is much more deliberate, incubated in love, not fear, in trust, not anxiety. He’s doing real work inside while we try to get him to plaster cosmetic fixes on the outside. Jesus invited us to follow him, which means we must walk a pace behind him. You can’t follow from in front. Then we can do what we see Father doing, just as Jesus did.

That’s why we’re told to be still and know that he is God (Psalm 46:10), and to discover “the unforced rhythms of grace.” (Matthew 11:29 MSG)  Both require us to slow down and enjoy his pace.

In the Meantime…

So, how do we live with the end of the age in mind? Some have encouraged people to sell their goods and move into communities off the grid. I know people who have quit their jobs and gone on an evangelism binge because they think the time is short. But none of these ever bear fruit unless they come at his leading. We don’t know when the end is coming, so don’t make life-altering decisions until it is clear what he’s asking of you.

Like the warhorse at rest, we don’t need to be anxious about the days to come or devise a plan to cope with what might happen. Jesus indicated that those who would be most ready are not those focused on the date, but simply living in his goodness each day. That means loving your spouse and others around you, caring for your family and for others who cross your path, and growing in God’s goodness while encouraging others to do the same.

When you live at rest in God’s goodness, you’ll find the renewal that will keep you ready whenever God has something for you.

  • Actively look for ways to engage others near you—family, co-workers, neighbors. Practice hospitality, generosity, graciousness, and getting to know others, and all the more as the world convulses in the final birth pangs. People will need help with fear and uncertainty. Getting to know them now will make it easier to help them then.
  • Find the rhythm that lets you marinate in his love, recognizing it through your struggles and resting in the growing confidence that he will care for you.
  • Practice learning to listen to his thoughts and nudges in the challenges you face.
  • Let him keep untwisting what sin, the world, and trauma may have done to you. Discover the growing freedom that trust will lead you to experience, and how it will demonstrate his glory to the world around you.
  • Pray for other followers of Jesus that they will not be led astray by those who want to “do something” or are intimidated by others’ voices. Pray they will have the courage to trust what they hear, even if it contradicts the comfort of their friends and family.

Tyson, you don’t need specific instructions on what you should do if this is the end of days. He will show each of us what our part is when the time comes. He is preparing a bride for what is not yet. Now we need to learn to stand by, waiting for his instructions.

So, come sit with Jesus often and gaze with him at world events as the future unfolds. There’s no better place to bring your heart to stillness in the face of the unknown and to ready your heart to respond to him whenever he calls you.

Confident in his wisdom and power, you can be like the warhorse at rest until the time comes. Fearless about what may come, you’ll be quick to respond as redemption reaches its fulfillment.

_________________________________

Order Part 1 of It’s Time from Amazon in Kindle or paperback, or read previous chapters online.

Chapter 20: Stand By Read More »

Gayle Erwin and the Servant Heart of Jesus

Behind the Scenes / / ,

In the last few years, I’ve used this page to express my appreciation for the older brothers in Christ who helped shape my life. They’ve included Dave Coleman, who helped me write So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore, Kevin Smith from Australia, Jack Gray of New Zealand, Tom Mohn of Tulsa, and my own father. Last month, Gayle Erwin, best known for his book, The Jesus Style,  though he wrote many others about the nature of God, passed away at 86.  Sitting at his celebration service this weekend, I thought of all the older men God had placed in my life throughout my journey. Each added something profound and transforming to my understanding of God and trusting him. They also shared their love and friendship with m.  There’s only one of them left, then I will no longer have seniors on this journey, only peers.  I miss them all, but I am so grateful to have lived when I could have known these men.

Gayle Erwin was not only a gifted teacher but also a fantastic storyteller with a rich sense of humor that allowed truth to be carried to otherwise well-defended places in our illusions. He had an amazing view of the servant nature of Jesus and his others focused life. You can discover more at GayleErwin.com or watch his videos on YouTube.

I met him over thirty years ago, at a prayer breakfast in Visalia, CA, where I pastored. He was not supposed to be the speaker but was subbing for someone who had taken ill. Though I had no idea what he looked like, I had been told for years at every YWAM base I taught that I needed to meet Gayle Erwin.  I had read The Jesus Style and loved it, though I had no idea how our paths would ever cross. Then one day, I walked into the prayer breakfast that morning, greeting familiar faces, and there was one I didn’t know. When I approached him to introduce myself, I noted his name tag. As he stuck out his hand to shake mine, I pointed to his name tag and said, “The Gayle Erwin?”

He looked at my name tag and responded, “The Wayne Jacobsen?”  I shook it off with laughter because I was not nearly as well-known as he was. It turns out that wherever he traveled, people were telling him he needed to meet me.  We had a good laugh and got to know each other. I had no idea it would begin a thirty-year friendship and how helpful he would be to me as I transitioned from pastoral ministry to writing and traveling. Over the next few years, he generously shared all he had learned about travel, publishing, and the integrity of ministry on the road. He helped shape my heart in so many ways. We shared lots of laughter as well as insights about God’s nature. He was staying in my home the day O.J. Simpson was in the white Bronco running from the LAPD.

The most significant thing I learned from Gayle came in a conversation after watching him do yet another Jesus Style seminar.  I was absolutely amazed how he could work through that material with such insight and humor as if he were sharing it for the very first time. I told him how stunned I was that he could do that without growing weary. I then added that when I used to teach three sermons on a Sunday morning, I would stick to the same theme but often change the illustrations and Scriptures around so I wouldn’t get bored.

With a laugh in his voice and a twinkle in his eye that disarmed my defenses, he responded, “So then, ministry is still about you.” It was the gentlest rebuke I’ve ever received. When it sunk in, I shook my head at the stupid thing I’d just said. Then he added, “Once you see Jesus touch people through your words, you could repeat the same silly sentence every night with sheer wonder and joy.” His words proved not only accurate, but they also set an internal compass that has guided my heart throughout the years since.

I am so grateful to have had a friendship with Gayle, and somehow, through our many travels, we could share a friendship that has lasted three decades. I miss knowing he’s a phone call away.

Whenever someone I know dies, my first thought is, I wish I knew what they know now. Someday, I hope to sit under a tree somewhere and celebrate again the friendship Jesus gave us and the grace he poured into both of our lives.  And I will introduce him to some of the others I listed above, if he hasn’t already met them in eternity.

Relationships make us rich, and older brothers and sisters on this journey who know him well are some of the greatest treasures of all. I hope you have people like that in your life. If not, ask God to reveal some to you.

 

Gayle Erwin and the Servant Heart of Jesus Read More »

Free of Shame and Full of Love

1 Comment / Behind the Scenes / / , , , , , , ,

Due to the fact that Sara and I will be leaving soon, we’re doubling-up on our study of He Loves Me. This weekend we’ll be tackling two more chapters. Chapter 20 is about living free from shame in our relationship to the Father though Jesus’s work on the cross.  Chapter 21 is about swimming in the river of love, and how when we are loved well by God, we will love well in the world.

These two freedoms lie at the heart of living loved and will change how you naturally live in the world. Can you imagine living in this kind of freedom without forcing yourself?

You will soon find that your security in God’s love and your awareness of his unlimited patience with you will redefine the other relationships in your life.

Instead of demanding that others conform to what you think is right, you will find yourself letting others have their own journey. By no longer manipulating them to what you think is best you can allow them the same freedom God gives you. You will let them choose their own course based on nothing but the clarity of truth as they understand it and the willingness of their conscience. It is the task of the Holy Spirit to convict, not yours.

Instead of despising people who are broken by sin you will be touched by the depth of bondage that holds them captive. You will also see better how the Father responds to them and then know how you can as well. Sometimes that means you’ll stand back and let the consequences of sin take their course as the father did with his prodigal son. At other times it means you’ll jump into the mess with them and help them find God’s way out.

Instead of saying what you think people want to hear, you’ll look for ways to be gently honest with them. Human love seeks people’s comfort at the expense of truth. God’s love seeks people’s comfort in the midst of truth. He doesn’t avoid the difficult moment or hold his peace just to be nice. As you experience that in your own relationship with him you’ll find yourself unable to be disingenuous with people.

Finally, by looking to God as the resource for your needs you will find yourself not overloading your friendships with expectations that are easily disappointed. By vesting all of our hope in God’s ability to meet our needs we will not need to force our friends to do it. I know God will often use other believers to extend his gifts and graces to me, but now I also know I don’t get to choose the vessel he uses. In other words, I always look for how God is revealing himself to me through other believers, but I don’t trick myself into thinking it has to come from the specific person I want him to use.

Disappointed expectations destroy relationships because we look to others in ways God wants us to look to him. Such expectations set us up for enduring frustration. However, when we give up our expectations of people, we’ll find God uses some of the most unlikely people to lend us a hand. Our frustration will yield to gratefulness however, whenever, and through whomever God uses others to touch us or us to touch others.

We’ll be talking about all of this at our next gathering of the He Loves Me Book Club, which will meet this Saturday, March 23, at 11:00 am Pacific Daylight Time.  This is two hours earlier than previously announced because of a schedule conflict. I apologize for the inconvenience.

We will be focusing on chapters 20 and 21. This is our second-to-the last gathering but even if you have not joined us before, you’re welcome to join us tomorrow and process how you can live more freely in love as well.

If you want to join us in this Zoom conversation, you can get details and the link by liking the Facebook Group Page, or if you are not a member of Facebook, you can write me for a link to be sent each time we meet. For those who just want to watch, we stream them live now on my Lifestream Ministry Page, since a new glitch in Zoom is not allowing us to post them to my Facebook Author Page. I will, however, post it to the Author Page once the conversation has concluded. You will be able to view it there along with  all the previous discussions we’ve had about He Loves Me.

Free of Shame and Full of Love Read More »

To the Eclipse and Beyond . . .

3 Comments / Behind the Scenes /

Sara and I will soon be packing up the RV and heading out again with our two dogs—the first trip for our new puppy.

The total solar eclipse on April 8 is the catalyst for this trip. I saw one in 2017 with my son in Wyoming as I was helping him move to Denver. It was one of the most moving experiences I’ve had in nature and promised to get Sara to this one, since it is the last one in the U.S. in our lifetime. A favorite author of mine, Anne Dillard wrote a piece about an eclipse she witnessed years ago, and in it she captures the feelings I had myself.  She wrote, “Seeing a partial eclipse bears the same relation to seeing a total eclipse as kissing a man does to marrying him.” There’s nothing like that moment when the sun seems to go out. The stars appear; the earth cools; the birds go silent. It is surreal in its truest sense, and I can’t wait to get Sara to this one.

We’ll be heading south from here, through the southern end of Arizona and New Mexico in the first part of April, finally settling around Wimberley, TX for ten days. We will also be meeting with friends in that area and perhaps some from San Antonio.  From there, it looks like we’re going to make our way to eastern Mississippi along the gulf coast.  If you’re along that route somewhere and want to pull some people together, please let me know.

We’re not sure where we go from there; it will depend on where the Spirit blows us, where the early spring weather will allow us to go, and where there is hunger for us to visit. This is what travel looks like for me now. I spent many years mostly flying alone all over the world to meet wherever hungry hearts invited me for some conversation about living loved, finding the Church Jesus is building, and sharing life together. I usually stayed in people’s homes and enjoyed so much the connections God gave us. But now, since we are now dealing with the aftermath of Sara’s trauma, she likes me to be alongside her in the nighttime hours. So, we go together now, which allows Sara to be a part of it all as well as have some private space to process her journey. This has allowed us to have some amazing conversations with people in homes, restaurants, and parks as we explore the life of Jesus together.

So, if something is on your heart about touching base with us on this trip or a future one if we’re not coming near you, please let me know. For those who have done that for our previous trips, there is no need to, as we keep those on file in case we find ourselves in your area.  We look forward to seeing what God might have in mind for us on this, our third RV trip.   And if you just want to know if we happen to be having a gathering in your locale, you can sign up for my Travel List. Sign up here and make sure to include your physical address so we can contact you if we’re going to be nearby.

And for people we are not traveling near, I also do a lot of Zoom conversations to help small groups (or large ones) process their journeys of living inside Father’s affection, answer questions from my books or podcast, or help in any other way I can. All you have to do is ask, and then we can pray together and see what God might have in mind.

Lifestream Mobile

 

He Loves Me Book Club Meets this Saturday, March 2

We’ll continue our conversations about He Loves Me this weekend by delving into chapters 16 and 17 this weekend on Saturday, March 2 at 1:00 pm Pacific Standard Time.  We will be focusing on how the death of Christ gives us a basis for growing trust in the Father’s care and how we find freedom from religious performance so we can be transformed by his love.

If you want to join us in this Zoom conversation, you can get details and the link by liking the Facebook Group Page, or if you are not a member of Facebook, you can write me for a link to be sent each time we meet. For those who just want to watch, we stream them live now on my Lifestream Ministry Page, since a new glitch in Zoom is not allowing us to post them to my Facebook Author Page. I will, however, post it to the Author page once the conversation has ended. You can see it there as well as all the previous discussions we’ve had about He Loves Me.

 

Thank you on behalf of Kenya

Thanks to those of you who have given to help us restore an agricultural project there that was destroyed by brutal winds. It provided water and sustenance for an entire tribe in the region.  To date, we’ve taken in about $8500 of the $12,796 that we needed.

If you can help us raise this money, please see our Donation Page at Lifestream. Just designate “Kenya” in the “Note” of your donation, or email us and let us know your gift is for Kenya. As always, all of your contributions go directly to Kenya; we don’t take out any fees for administration or for transferring the funds. You can also Venmo contributions to “@LifestreamMinistries” or mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560 Newbury Rd Ste 1  •  Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or, if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

 

To the Eclipse and Beyond . . . Read More »

Misunderstanding the Atonement

2 Comments / Behind the Scenes / / , , , , , , ,

Today, Sara and I head off for some gatherings in San Diego this weekend. We are looking forward to what Father has there.  Let me leave you with this as we go:

One of the greatest misunderstandings people have of Scripture is that God needed a sacrifice to love us. Jesus came in his humanity to offer the sacrifice God wanted from us that we could never give. While that expresses some Old Testament thoughts about sacrifices it misses the larger through-line of Scripture. God was shifting humanity’s view of sacrifice. All of the false gods that humans created were angry, vindictive deities, needing to be appeased by sacrifice—gifts and offerings at first, but for many, eventual human sacrifice.

The message God gave to Abraham when he tried to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice was that God didn’t want or need our sacrifice. He would be the sacrifice we need to re-engage him as our trusted friend. Jesus didn’t die to satisfy something broken in God (e.g. his need for justice), but Jesus died to satisfy something broken in humanity (our shame in sin and our fear of him.)  This is how I wrote about it in He Loves Me.

At Mt. Moriah God foreshadowed to Abraham what he would literally accomplish some three thousand years later on another hill not far away, Golgotha. It would not be the act of appeasement to an angry God by any sacrifice we could give, but an act of a loving God to sacrifice himself for those who were held captive in sin.

Far from being a blood-thirsty sovereign demanding sacrifice to satiate his need for vengeance, the Living God spends himself to bring back the banished son or daughter. He did not need a sacrifice to love us, for he already did.

We needed a sacrifice for our shame so that we would be free to love him again. At the cross, God provided the undeniable proof of just how much he loves us. For those who understand that, it opens the door for us to do what Adam and Eve could not do that fateful day in the Garden—totally entrust our lives to the Living God.

If we misunderstand the atonement, we will spend our lives trying to keep God appeased by earning his favor with our effort. When we understand what Jesus accomplished on the cross, we will be safe with God even in our most broken moments and be able to explore what it means to live in his love. That’s how important it is that we see Jesus’ death for what it was.  It was to rescue and redeem us from the power of darkness and invite us into the warmth and tenderness of his life and love.

This is what the third section of He Loves Me is all about—the undeniable proof that we are loved by God and invited into a relationship with him of growing friendship.  It’s also the theme of Transition, a set of recordings designed to help people move from an appeasement-based view of God and the cross, to an affection-based one that will allow you to connect with the redemption Jesus wanted for you.

If you want to talk more about this, we will be doing so in our next meeting of The He Loves Me Book Club, which will convene on Saturday, February 3 at 1:00 pm Pacific Standard Time.  We will focus on Chapters 12 and 13. If you want to join us in this Zoom conversation, you can get details and the link by liking the Facebook Group Page, or if you are not a member of Facebook, you can write me for a link to be sent each time we meet. For those who just want to watch, we stream them live on my Facebook Author Page and leave the recording up after the conversation for others to hear. (You can find past ones by scrolling down on that page.)

Misunderstanding the Atonement Read More »

He Loves Me – Chapters 2 and 3

4 Comments / Behind the Scenes /

Don’t let the demands of legalistic Christianity blind you to the incredible friendship that a Loving Father and his Son want to have with you.

The friendship Jesus shared with his disciples was the model for the relationship he extends to you. He wants to be the voice that steers you through every situation, the peace that sets your troubled heart at rest, and the power that holds you up in the storm. He wants to be closer than your dearest friend and more faithful than any other person you’ve ever known.

I know it sounds preposterous. How can mere humans enjoy such a friendship with the almighty God who created with a word all we see? Do I dare think he would know and care about the details of my life? Isn’t it presumptuous even to imagine that this God would take delight in me, even though I still struggle with the failures of my flesh?

It would be so if this were not his idea. He’s the one who offered to be your loving Father- sharing life with you in ways no earthly father ever could.

Excerpt from Chapter 2 of He Loves Me

The next meeting of the He Loves Me Book Discussion will be this Saturday, September 9, at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. We will be covering Chapters 2 and 3. Bring your questions and observations…
You can find the link for this conversation on the Group Page on Facebook, or if you are not a member of Facebook, you can write me for a link.  The conversations are held and recorded on Zoom.
I am sorry that this is not a convenient time for those in Asia and Australia, but so far, we’ve had only one interested person from that part of the world. If there are more, please let me know, and we will hold a different conversation for that part of the world. 
If you can’t join us for the discussion, catch the conversation on the Wayne Jacobsen Author Page on Facebook. You can see a replay of our conversation about the Introduction and Chapter 1 here. 
Our RV Tour will take us to Golden Colorado next week if you’d like to join us for a Monday night evening conversation on September 11. You can find details here.

He Loves Me – Chapters 2 and 3 Read More »

MENU