My dad used to say that most people only get enough of God to be miserable. The longer I live, the more I am convinced he’s right. If you only think of God as a meddlesome deity who demands that you follow his rules to live in his good graces, you’re probably one of those people. If the thought of having God with you during the day causes your stomach to churn with feelings of failure and inadequacy, you’re probably one of those. And if your Christian experience is nothing more than following a set of rituals, rules, and obligations that you think makes him happy, then you’re also probably one of those people.

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

In Matthew’s twenty-fifth chapter, Jesus tells three of his parables that are most often used by those who drive the performance treadmill to make people work harder to try and earn God’s favor. And, not surprisingly they are some the enemy uses in his accusations that we may not be “doing enough” for God. But in each case, the conclusion of the parables are anything but the “try harder” explanations that religion gives. As I was reading through them the other day, here’s what caught my eye:

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.

Good news! The IN SEASON books arrived today after a virtual comedy of errors by our printer, including the truck breaking down that was supposed to deliver them yesterday. So once again we’re filling backlogged pre-orders. But now we have everything in stock.

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.”

Unfortunately the In Season books that we were promised by Friday did not arrive. Our usually dependable printer had some issues with equipment breakdowns, so we’re not going to get them until Tuesday. My apologies to those of you who will have to wait just a bit longer. On the plus side Sara got all the pre-orders for A Man Like No Other out, so they are on their way.

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

Just released from customs, A MAN LIKE NO OTHER has arrived at our offices, and Sara is busy getting out all the pre-orders. This is an amazing unveiling of the life of Jesus in both art and prose. I have enjoyed carrying my advance copy with me on my two recent trips and watch as people thumb through it and are captured by the paintings that Murry Whiteman created. If you missed our earlier blog that showed some of the layouts, you can see them here. I am excited to finally share this project with you and hope that it will be another tool to help you know who Jesus is and how he came to engage us in a transforming relationship with his Father.

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.

Working on In Season: Embracing the Father’s Process of Fruitfulness over these past few months proved to be an incredible experience for me personally. Since I was working with material that I wrote over twenty years ago it gave me a glimpse of the process God has used in my own life. I thought I had so many answers back then, but soon discovered I wasn’t even asking the right questions at the time. I express that in the Introduction I wrote for this edition.

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.

A friend sent me this quote yesterday. While I don’t usually turn to Johnny Depp for wisdom, he said a mouthful in a recent Larry King Special.

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!

It is so good to get all the new resources finalized and available to people. I’m excited that THE JESUS LENS DVDs are out, and so is the video on-line for those who want to view it for free. A MAN LIKE NO OTHER has arrived at the docks in California, now it’s just a matter of getting them through customs, which is not an easy process these days. And IN SEASON is at the printer’s with a promised date of November 7, while we’re working on getting the e-book made for that. The number of pre-orders for both of those books have really surprised us.

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.

Words really do have the power to destroy or to heal. Today I’m getting to experience some healing words indeed and the ramifications of that have filled my heart with boundless joy. In fact, the words that came into my inbox this week were completely unexpected. And they might just be the most powerful words any of us could ever speak. Someone who had been a good friend of mine for many years and with whom I’d had no contact for more than a decade, sent this note to my inbox a few days ago:

“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.