Waiting for Revival

12 Comments / Phenomenon of the Dones /

By Wayne Jacobsen in a continuing series on The Phenomenon of the Dones.

I hear it everywhere I go.

“I believe we’re on the verge of a great revival.” People say it with that far away look in their eyes as they gaze deeply into the spiritual ether.

I have no reason to doubt their sincerity or their hopes for I used to be one of them. As a pastor of a local congregation I knew that something was amiss. While some amazing things happened in our fellowship over the years, there was an unsettling undercurrent that tore at my heart: the ridiculous expectations, the burdensome program, the political bickering, and the soul-numbing routine that was not often as life-giving as I’d hoped. To add wisdom to injury, every time I would read the Gospels I was reminded that Jesus never got caught up in those things.

And I’ve been hearing people pine away for this coming revival for over fifty years. It’s the same people too, that keep telling themselves it’s just “right around the corner.” Regardless of how you feel about Pensacola, Toronto, or Redding, none of them grew beyond their own borders or the celebrities they spawned, nor did they move beyond the kind of miraculous encounters that are easily replicated by group dynamics and the power of suggestion. That’s not to say that God didn’t touch people in some marvelous ways, but none of these proved to be a widespread revival folks have hoped for.

When I try to pin people down to what that revival looks like, most hearken back to the Welsh revival, Charles Finney, or even the Jesus People days of the early 70s. They describe people being overwhelmed with conviction and coming to the Lord in repentance, or an outpouring of supernatural power that draw the media and swell attendance at local congregations. In all cases they paint the image of a stadium-sized crowd caught up in an ecstatic experience. Almost no one describes what it would look like in the world.

My more cerebral colleagues wait less for some kind of supernatural encounter, but they do hope for a new structure will emerge from the current dissatisfaction that will make the church more relevant in this century without compromising the authenticity of the Gospel once delivered to the saints. Every year a new onslaught of books promises to offer new structures that will carry the church further in the 21st century but in time they all fade away to be replaced by a new set of books offering yet more possibilities.

Perhaps nothing exposes the emptiness of our religious pursuits more than waiting for this revival, or the endless search for a better structure. Underneath both is the tacit admission that what we currently see falls short of what we hunger to experience and that has help to drive the growing surge away from religious institutions. We want an active God, overturning the culture with the coming kingdom, just like Jesus did and a Gospel that engages people and transforms them in a way the world cannot ignore. What does that search say except that God isn’t already doing all that he can to engage this world and unfold the kingdom among us?

If you think God has stopped doing those things and is waiting capriciously for some future date to finally give us all the good stuff, then you may want to reconsider. What kind of God would that be? Jesus already told us that his Father is always working. Could it be true that while we’re waiting for the revival we seek, we miss what he’s already doing around us?

That turned out to be true for me. In my days of waiting for something incredible that would infuse our congregation with a fresh dose of passion and power, I only grew increasingly frustrated. Our endless prayer meetings seemed to make no difference. I begged him and he seemed silent. It wasn’t until years later that I discovered he hadn’t been silent after all. He’d been nudging me down a road I couldn’t see because I was so focused on him doing what I thought best.

But I only discovered that after I found myself excluded from the congregation I had helped to plant due to a contest of power I didn’t have the heart to engage. Though I was offered numerous pastoral jobs elsewhere, I was not interested. I figured I would find my way back into another congregation at some point, but wasn’t in a hurry to do so. During that time my wife and I began to discover that the renewal we had hoped for was already happening outside the walls of the traditional congregation.

We saw God at work in people all around us and a began to taste of the worldwide phenomenon of people who were all spontaneously and simultaneously moving outside the traditional congregational mode to learn to live in the Father’s affection and freely share it with others. It captures our hearts and allowed us to embrace a depth of community with others that wasn’t distracted by structures and programs. It’s made me wonder that we don’t see it encased in a building or a conference anywhere because the moment it is, it begins to wither under human control. Honestly I couldn’t have seen it as long as I was focused on the religious system we had built and prayed so hard for God to revitalize.

I know that’s threatening to those who think the only place God can move is in a sanctioned institution, but that is only because they haven’t looked elsewhere. I was shocked by the people I met outside those structures that where passionate about following Jesus, loving others, and sharing his life with the world around them. I often tell people who are so condemning of people outside that they have no idea what they would see of God’s reality if they set aside all their institutional engagements for two years. It takes some time for the fog to clear, but many discover that God was at work in many ways they just can’t see when they were focused on the endless activities, political wrangling and corporate needs of an institution.

Even people leaving may be part of the very revival those who condemn them are praying for. Some have tagged them the “dones”, but what many of them are craving is a simpler more authentic faith that becomes part of the fabric of their daily lives. It’s the routine and obligations of an institution that lull many to spiritual slumber. The reason I no longer pray for revival is because I’m already living in the reality I hoped it would bring. The reason I don’t seek a new church model is because I discovered that it wasn’t important. God moves among people not systems and while he can move in and around any system we devise it is not his priority to revive systems, but to revive people.

That’s already going on around you and if you miss it it’s because your eyes aren’t focused on what he is doing, but on what you want to see him do. Jesus warned us that those who sought miraculous signs would most likely miss them when they came because they don’t come the way we think they should or in the places we want to see it? Maybe it’s not what’s happening down at the altar under the bright TV lights that matters, but in the woman sitting in the balcony crying by herself. Perhaps it isn’t in the conference or revival service, but a co-worker you’ve never even had the courage to get to know, a neighbor who hides behind their front door, or the person sitting next to you on the subway.

Jesus didn’t share our preoccupation with large-scale revivals or even crafting more relevant structues. While he did miracles and healed the sick he didn’t use them to start a movement or draw the crowd. In fact he downplayed them more than not because his compassion was directed at people not visibility. Even Jesus’ brothers questioned why he did these things in Galilee rather than going to Jerusalem and become a public figure.

Perhaps Jesus explained it best when he talked about leaving the ninety-nine sheep to go seek the one that was lost. That’s where the Shepherd works, not with ninety-nine who thinks themselves secure, but with the one who knows they are lost. His larger point just may have been that ministry happens best one at a time. That is why he told us to, “Love one another,” not to “Love everyone.” Love is best applied in the singular, the next person in front of you rather than trying to draw a crowd or change the culture.

While Jesus taught crowds on occasion, his most compelling moments came on boat trips with his disciples, spending an afternoon with a woman at well in Samaria or he having lunch with Zaccheus when the streets were lined with people who wanted to see the miracle-worker from Galilee. Something gets distorted in crowds that make it more difficult for us to see what God is doing. We are easily distracted by fame and by the identity of a crowd while God is more interested in the heart.

That’s why I scratch my head now when I see people who are willing to fly around the world to pray for a revival when they wouldn’t walk across the street or even across the aisle on a Sunday morning to engage someone desperately in need of love. We’d rather go to a strategy meeting to reach the lost than strike up a conversation with a person we’re sitting next to on a plane. We are so busy seeking the crowd, the large-scale, attention-grabbing events, that we miss the way Jesus works behind the scenes to touch people every day. The more I get involved in the needs and struggles of individuals the more I see how he intervenes and rescues the people in incredible ways. Isn’t this how he asked us to love?

Almost daily I hear of some amazing things God is doing to share his love with people. I am excited by the way he draws people into his life and addresses their deepest needs with his power. That’s why when I hear people pining away for a future revival I want to shake them and say, “Don’t you see what is already happening around you?” God is alive and moving in the world in ways that astound me.

This quest for revival is a focus on the ninety-nine, and not on the one. Revivals begin with the people to love, not with outpourings or structure changes. It’s not programs that need reformation but enough people to embrace the perspective that loving “one another” is the currency of this kingdom and whether we gather in buildings or not, it is the loving that will change the world and it can only happen one life at a time. Revivals aren’t contrived by prayer rallies, celebrity leaders, or human program; they merely result from people discovering and sharing God’s love as freely as he shares it with them.

Whatever revival we see in the coming years won’t be the result of a long-awaited divine intervention. Remember he is always working, and that includes today. Rather than praying for a revival or a better way to do church, we might just ask him to show us what he is already doing around us and participate with him there. Who is he giving you to love today? How does he want to touch that life and how is he asking you to care for them.

If any larger scale revival is in the wings, this is where it will begin anyway.

_________

This is part 15 in a series on The Phenomenon of the Dones by Wayne Jacobsen who is the author of Finding Church and host of a podcast at TheGodJourney.com.  You can read the first half here and subsequent parts below:

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When Life Frustrates You

8 Comments / Encouragement /

Life rarely gives us what we want. How many of us have dreamed of things that bring us great joy but can’t find any way to fulfill them in this age?  We look at others who have the job we want, a better marriage than the one we struggle in, or with opportunities we wish we had. We see people getting the “lucky breaks” while it seems like everything we try seems to turn to dust.  It is easy to think that God is against us, or at least life is. The longer we live the more frustrating our disappointments can become.

I ran across this quote by C. S. Lewis yesterday:

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

I love that thought. Sure some of our dreams and desires are fleshy and fulfilling them wouldn’t bring any of the joy we hope it would. But many of our deep-seated desires will never be fulfilled in this age, not because God doesn’t love us, but because this world cannot fulfill them anyway. I have often been comforted in the face of such desires knowing that they may be drawing me into a truer space, where the flesh no longer harasses us and where joy is untainted by human greed and competition.

It is easy to forget that our 70-80 years of life here is so fleeting. Scripture says it is like the dew on the grass which dries up in the morning sun. Real life lies beyond a veil we can’t see beyond. I often think of all of our life in this world like standing around in the lobby of a great play or concert, waiting for the doors to open.  You weren’t created for the brokenness of this age; you were made for a richer destiny in realities that your mind has not even thought of yet.

But we do have tastes of it—moments where love seems so rich and nourishing you’d think you’d die in its beauty, of joyful abandon when the cares of the world are swallowed up by pure bliss, and even where a dream exhilarates your heart with the hope of, “If only…”

So don’t let the brokenness of this world define your hopes. Why wouldn’t God fill us with hopes and desires that are for the main show, not the lobby? Why wouldn’t you hunger for things that you may only glimpse in part in this world but will someday be completely fulfilled in ways you don’t know?

So rather than let your disappointments frustrate you, let them draw you closer to the Father who gave them to you and bask in the hope that someday, perhaps sooner than we all think, they will be fulfilled in ways that make even glimpses of them here seem like a paltry shadow anyway.  Wait until the real glory comes!

 

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It’s Where Love Took Us

2 Comments / In the World /

“You have changed the lives of people who could not be able to feel or experience such great love… ”  You can read more in the letter below, but first let me set the stage.

If you keep up with this blog, you know that we accidentally stumbled into a huge need in Africa. And I mean stumbled. We didn’t begin as a missions organization and don’t consider ourselves one now even though 66% of our expenses this year have gone to Kenya because of an amazing series of events.  If you want the backstory on our work in this part of Kenya, you can read this blog that gives a short view of God’s work in linking us up with their need, and people in the U.S. who are ready to us help meet it. It’s an amazing story of God putting pieces together while we simply responded to what God had in front of us. Not only did we get linked to some believers around Kitale who suffered tremendously in the tribal violence post-election violence of 2008, but through them to an even more impoverished group of 120,000 in Pokot whose nomadic economy had shut down two years ago due to a prolonged drought. They were dying of malnutrition and disease and there was no government presence or NGOs in that region to help them. Truly they were a forgotten people.

So we helped them with food, medical, and water for six months, then a year ago began a five-year strategy designed to help these villagers take ownership of their own future and work together to employ their creativity and local available resources to address for water, food, health, education, and income generation. We are one year into a million dollar process to help those villages build an economy that is sustainable and easily shared with others nearby.  We just received a glowing report from the folks at Global Hope Network who have a project nearby and have been incredibly helpful in training the Kenyans we know to implement this strategy in Pokot. We have four full-time trainers from those villages who are in turn coaching the villagers.  Everything we do involves 50% sweat equity on their part to 50% resources from us.

Admittedly it has been scary to send so much money overseas and trust that it is being used for the purposes for which it has been given. We don’t have a presence there to administrate the fund but are working with local Kenyans. Fortunately God has given us enough personal relationship there to take the risk, but it is an outstanding joy to get outside verification that the project is in great shape and on target to complete in five years.  My heart has overflowed with gratefulness this past weekend looking over all God has done her and the gentle way he invited us into this huge need simply by the power of love. We fell in love with some people, who fell in love with some other people, and sharing their need touched many of you to help us provide the donations necessary for this process.  Within three days of us sensing God wanted us to target one million dollars to help them, one group in Texas called to say They’d contribute half of that.

Here are some excerpts from the recent reports and you can we will also post photos below:

“Your men seem to be starting to grasp and teach the fundamental ideas that it’s about how much the village can do, not how much the donors can do.  They saw the start of several good low-cost efforts by the village to transform their condition.”

The communities are being taught about health care, e.g causes of Malaria and prevention measures, Typhoid and Marasmus, Kwashiokor, cholera , Tracoma and others . in summary almost all Diseases are caused by dirty environment and poor hygiene, in this lesson he put more emphasizes on constructing toilet, pits and utensil rags, washing hands before eating and on side of malaria, he said that the villagers/community need to be taught the need for clearing bushes and drive the stagnant water to prevent the mosquito from laying eggs / larva. He added that pregnant women and children should sleep in treated mosquito nets, it’s the work of the committee to have one voice and go to the health office and ask for the nets.  They did. They also got solar power added to there school room from the government,, so they are learning to make their needs known and draw from other resources.

The also visit the toilet constructions. They said the toilets are good and will help prevent and reduce the cause of cholera, worms, tapeworms, ring worms and typhoid and other disease.  Our coaching team are teaching and training the community on health issues and are doing a good job.

Their current need now is to build a small irrigation system so the well can water the crops they are starting to grow for their own food.

The team from Global Hope went to the villages ands saw the work and they were very happy and joyful as our teachers.  They were happy to see toilets, utensil rag and other things, which are good for the health of the community, they encouraged us to keep it up and comment that we are doing well. They saw that we are in a pretty good process to complete this project in five years.

We also learned many things which we help the community to be self-sustaining.  Through coaching and educating the community on health and business as well as development,they will be transformed to a better future, hence fighting poverty among the community.  We also learn that when the community come together to identify their Health and spiritual needs and then organize to meet there needs.   Apart from that we learn that the community to develop and the need to be solved we must see and find the available materials and facilities –to make it not expensive. We also learn different types of sickness and how we can prevent, since most of the sickness from the community come as a result of poor hygiene. So the community to prevent it , they must wash hands before eating , drinking clean water and they must be clean, in addition to that we learn that some of the sickness is a result of poor feeding and diet , they said that especially the breastfeeding mom and the children they must at least  eat  three food group, eg a) Body building food ( b) Energy giving food (c) protective food , this food group is challenge to other families , but during the training session as they ask question we find that it is not difficult since most of the nutrition are available in the community but  it is just understanding.

The first training has really help us to distribute the funds effectively compared to the previous time when we had not have the knowledge of holding the community, since the previous time we were using a lot of funds but now we are doing 50% by 50% which is not expensive as before –we thank God for using you to connect us with GHNI (Brother Wubshet and Habiba) this two people has become a great blessing to our community here.

And after all of this I received a letter of thanks for the work God has done here.  I know it is aimed at me, but it is really intended for all of you who have prayed for these Kenyans, holding them in your heart as well as those who have given money to help us meet this need:

Dear Wayne,

Greetings in the most powerful name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Thank you very much for your great sacrifice that we may able to learn more and acquire more skills and experience. We marvel at how God used Lifestream as a mustard seed to us here and it has become a great blessing to thousand of our brothers and sisters through touching life and imparting the life of Christ as we start with Living Loved Children Care Centre. Many lives has been changed forever and some are now working helping there relatives, this is so great to us. Some of the student who have joined university and collages are seeing there dream are coming true through this compassion ministry. Wayne you may not know since you are far away but the prayers you receive from every individual here it has become the smoke of cloud before the throne of the Almighty daily.

You have changed the lives of people who could not be able to feel or experience such great love, many religion are here but what we have learned through you and Global Hope is really amazing. It has come as a surprise, the growth of this work beyond our imagination.  Even we didn’t expect that you would extend care for years. We thought that may be it will end up in one year. But since the needs are great you didn’t want to leave them on the way but to extend the support so that they may be able to stand for themselves. Actually the extension of five year for these four villages will leave this village with self-sustainable and transformation to many people forever.

They have experienced what mankind has never thought about them since they were from the bushes.  Remember since we started working in this village they have never quit or migrated like they have before.  They have settled getting and accessing there resources nearby.  When you go to the village now the old people and the brestfeeding mom has get good health and the death rate has decreased and the outbreak of diseases has also reduced even more. On the training side it has really helped us and we have now the new experience now how to use simple and available materials for development  Through our coaching and the committee and community has the vision and know that they are the owners of the project, so they can support and protect it.

It is now so easily than the way we started doing for the first time. Because they were looking to us as the people who bring the solution to the community. But now they see that the solution is through God and themselves.  This is so great. So we appreciate the people from Global Hope who have helped us with this experience and skills. We had with very wonderful time with Global hope coach.  This time they have added the material that they feel that it will help us in future to train and add more skills and knowledge to extend more training to the committee and the community. We thank you also for helping us to buy new tires and service the vehicle and also for paying our expenses during training and expenses for the Global Hope instructors.

Yours,

Brother Michael Wafula

This has all been such an incredible experience, and we have done very little here except to love the people God put in front of us and it took us to places we would never have considered. As we began to help where we could, others piled on to add to that help and what a story this has be come. Yes, there have been times of frustration–feeling overwhelmed and completely out of our element, but God kept opening doors just when we needed them. I’m dumbfounded every time I think about what a small connection point has accomplished in the world and how readers of this website and listeners to our podcast at The God Journey, jumped in with such joy. Whenever I think of all this my heart is overwhelmed with awe at the great work and planning of our God to take some people in the West and connect them with a growing need in Africa that we were not even aware of. He knit the pieces together and it has become an amazing story of the way God can work.  All we need to do is follow him as best we know how.

The need continues here and if you have some extra funds that can help them you can direct it through Lifestream as contributions are tax-deductible in the US.  As always, every dollar you send goes to the need in Kenya.  We do not (nor do they) take out any administrative or money transfer fees.  If you would like to be part of this to support these brothers and sisters and see the gospel grow in this part of Africa, please see our Sharing With the World page at Lifestream. You can either donate with a credit card there, or you can mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560 Newbury Rd Ste 1  •  Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

Photos:
childrenatwell
Children gathering at the well for water.
wubshetnteam
Wubshet (top row middle) from Global Hope with our coaches enjoying
the progress and helping them with new ideas.
utinselstand
“Utensil rag” to keep dishes clean and prevent the spread of disease.
training
More training for our coaches so they can help the people of Pokot.

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The Best Kind of Friend

4 Comments / Encouragement /

Love this quote and thought I’d pass it along today:

When we honestly ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.

Henri J. M. Nouwen  Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life

As always when I share stuff like that, I’m not thinking, “Wow, I’ve got to find friends like that,” but rather, “That’s the kind of friend I want to be.”

Unfortunately more people seem to want to have friends rather than be friends. That’s why there’s a dearth of amazing friendships in this broken world.

Find someone to love today and love them well.  See what God does.

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“He Cannot Love Me”

7 Comments / Encouragement /

After I sent out the our Lifestream Update for Fall about God’s enjoyment of us as his kids, I got a few emails back from some individuals certain that was not true for them.  One had the title I’ve used above.  “He cannot love me!”

The reasons in each email vary.  If I only understood the choices they had made, the abuses they had suffered, the troubles they had faced, and the feelings they didn’t have, I would agree with them. Their conclusion were all the same “I am damaged, or cursed, or ignored by God, if he exists at all.” Certainly God would not enjoy them.

I don’t read such emails lightly.  They shatter something in my heart. But I’m glad they are at least reading and interacting with what I wrote. There is hope still. Their heart wants to embrace what their head tells them they can’t. It is a horrible darkness indeed to feel as when you cannot believe that God loves and desires you. There is no greater lie whispered in the universe than that God does not enjoy you and does not want you to know him.  He does. Regardless of what evidence you feel you have to the contrary, it is a deceptive web spun in your head and heart. To think that you are too damaged for God is like a child who feels their diagnosis of cancer leaves their parents too disgusted to love them. The diagnosis doesn’t make you less loved, but even more endearing to the One who made you and cares about you so deeply.

How can he help but love you even more than I love my own granddaughter (above)? This world is incredibly cruel and horrible things happen to people. We are all tempted into actions and attitudes that we may even find contemptible. But when God looks at you he sees who you really are underneath all that has sought to twist you or destroy you. Remember, God doesn’t have love, he is love! It defines his very nature and that is focused on you as much as anyone else in the world.  No one that’s existed was unloved by God and not invited into the knowing of him as an endeared child. The great horror of the Fall was not just that Adam and Eve had disobeyed God, but even more that in their disobedience they considered themselves no longer worthy of God’s affection.  Shame drove them to the dark place of seeing God as their enemy, when Father’s love for them never waned.

That’s what God wants to win in us. His love, even at our most broken and destitute, is the flash of light that opens the door to a wider world. I know that isn’t easy to see from many people’s vantage points. The pain, guilt, or fear is so deep that we can’t see him when he’s right in front of us. “But couldn’t he make it more clear?” I’ve been asked. Of course not. Wouldn’t he make it as clear as possible to everyone? It’s fear and shame that feed the darkness and seem to affirm the lie. But it is nonetheless a lie.

You are deeply loved by the God who fashioned you. That doesn’t mean he loves all that we do or think, or the choices we make. He just doesn’t define us by those things. He looks on the heart to know who we really are and it’s that unique son or daughter in the middle of the brokenness that he loves and that he invites out of the darkness into his light. You may not hear that now or recognize it yet, but it is growing inside you. He speaks and though it may go unheard by your physical ears the truth settles deep in your soul first and then it will become more obvious. Just keep coming, asking, and in hope against hope believing.

Two people sent me some poems that encourage them when they felt they were too damaged to be seen and pursued by God  Both are incredibly powerful and I hope you take the time to read the entire poems.  The first is from Then the Whispers Started by Jenny Rowbory, a young woman who’s faith and courage inspires me.  The words are God talking:

I will tell you of the wonders I see within you,
I will tell you again and again and again
until you come to believe the truth
instead of the lies.
For I love you
I delight in you
and I say that you are good.

Then someone else sent me David Whyte’s poem, Everything is Waiting for You.  What a powerful look into the pain of our loneliness and how to find a way out:

Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone…
Too feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings…
Put down the weight of your aloneness
and ease into the conversation…
Everything is waiting for you.

This is how his reality overtakes ours. It’s rarely a white knight riding in on a white horse changing all our thinking with the flash of a sword, but a God who continues to unfold himself in the recesses of our mind, and the revelation of Creation around us. The process may seem slow and less obvious that we’d want him to be, but I am convinced that God is reaching out to us in the best way imaginable, and it just takes time for us to see it and embrace it. What helps most is someone else who will reflect God’s love in the world. Find someone like that, and if you know his love be someone like that so that others still lost in the darkness might find a connection through you to the Father who delights in them.

One more thing, I read an article last week about how God created our brain and explains perhaps better than anything I’ve ever read what the renewing of the mind (Romans 12) looks like inside.  It explains why transformation takes time as God rewires our brain to think differently.  Of course, the article doesn’t have God in it, but I see his hand in this process. I’ve told people for years that moving from a performance-based, fear-based relationship with God to learning to live in his affection takes many years.  We just don’t have the synapses yet to contain a different story than the one pain and shame schooled us in.  But all of that can change and I’m grateful the Holy Spirit is involved in the process. The article is here:  Good News: If You Keep Your Brain Active, It Will Continue to Grow Long Past Your 20s.  Brad and I talk about it on the podcast that will release Friday at The God Journey.  Here’s an excerpt:

BY DAVID EAGLEMAN FROM THE BOOK FROM THE BRAIN: THE STORY OF YOU

A baby’s neurons form two million new connections every second as they take in information. By age two, a child has over 100 trillion synapses—double the number an adult has.

This peak represents far more connections than the brain will need. The incredible blooming is then supplanted by neural “pruning.” As you mature through the teen years and into your 20s, 50 percent of your synapses will be pared back.

Which synapses stay, and which go? When a synapse successfully participates in a circuit, it is strengthened; synapses that aren’t used are weakened and eventually eliminated. Just as with paths in a forest, you lose the connections that you don’t use.

By age 25, our brains appear to be fully developed. But even in adulthood, the brain can form new connections…

If you’re having trouble believing that God would enjoy and desire you, you are not alone. Take hope!  He is winning this place in your heart. Just dare to believe in whatever small way you can, that you just might be wrong, and that God doesn’t look at you like you think he does. That will give you enough space to go on a different journey and see just how loved you really are!

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Lifestream Update – Fall 2016

8 Comments / Living Loved Newsletter /

Does God Enjoy You? 

The Westminster Shorter Catechism of 1646 said that the chief end of man “is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” What a great statement and those words have resonated with many believers in the ensuing centuries.

The God most Christians know, however, is not one to be enjoyed.  Most people associate fear or reverential awe with God’s presence and usually try and to please, appease, serve, or surrender to him without even thinking of enjoying him.

The fact is that none of us can truly enjoy him until we know how much he enjoys us. Now, that’s a mind bender for many.  Even if we are to enjoy God, they think it is something we have to make ourselves do in spite of how holy and demanding he presents himself to be. And yet, Jesus wasn’t like that when he came in human flesh. He seemed to enjoy being around his creation, even those still lost in sin.

Now, I used to believe he could enjoy me when I could finally get my life together and do all the things he desired that would bring glory to him. I’m 63 and that hasn’t happened yet, even if I did pretend back in the day that I was at least doing more than most others I knew, so he must have thought himself fortunate to have a son like me. His love and freedom has allowed me to see my life in more honest terms, knowing the cracks and frailties I still have.  And yet he seems to enjoy me, much like I enjoy my grandkids.  I don’t think they’re perfect, and even when they are being completely obnoxious, I still love the little dears with all my heart. I may not enjoy what they are doing at any given moment, but I am no less delighted in them as people learning to find their way in a difficult world.

These days I hear many authors and sociologists using a new definition for friendship that includes enjoyment.  Your friends are those you enjoy being with. When you know you’re going to meet them, your heart anticipates that time with joy. And friendship is best defined where your friends enjoy being with you as much as you enjoy being with them. Doesn’t that make sense? Aren’t those the people you treasure most and bring the most joy into your life?

What if it were true that you delight God’s heart even more today than I delight in my grandkids?  What would it change in you if you truly believed it.  Somehow God finds us humans quite endearing, even when we are lost in the pain and brokenness of a fallen world. He delights in you even in the midst of your doubts, fears, temptations, and failures. He does not see us as the summation of our brokenness, but as the person he made you to be that is being swallowed by those other things.

He delights in you, not in what you do! And he knows that the more you enjoy him, the more you’ll find freedom from the things that twist you. Transformation grows out of our knowing that God enjoys us and that we can enjoy him as a gracious Father.

(I sent this article out a few days ago to my mailing list and have had a number of fascinating responses.  Some were greatly encouraged, others wrote me to tell me they didn’t believe it was true for them, that God cannot enjoy them.  In a day or two I’m going to follow this up with some thoughts for those who feel as if God does not enjoy you. It is the greatest lie in the universe.)

 

News Briefs:

Join Brad and I for TheGodJourney Tour of Israel. We had a couple of people drop out, so we can smash in a couple of more. We are headed to Israel January 25 through February 4, 2017.  The pre-trip to Petra will be on January 22-25.  If you’re interested in joining us you can get all the details here.

Getting the Latest Updates from Lifestream, whether you want to subscribe to our blogs or get updates via FaceBook, here’s the way to do it.

The on-line book discussion of Wayne’s Finding Church continues in our new forum.  Come join us if you’d like to discover how to embrace the church that Jesus is building in your own corner of the world.

Upcoming Travel:  I will not be traveling as much to get to some writing I’ve been wanting to do, but still praying about the possibility of going to Eastern Tennessee, Michigan (near Flint and in the U.P.), Wisconsin, and the central Coast of California.

 

Upcoming Travel

We are still working on some details for this fall, but this is how it looks like it’s shaping up so far.  These could change. Check our Travel Page to make sure or sign up for Travel Updates sent to your email here.

  • California Central Coast – September 22-24
  • Evansville, Indiana – October 7-9
  • Louisville, Kentucky – October 9-11
  • Eastern Tennessee – October 21-30
  • Appleton, Wisconsin – November 11-12
  • Escanaba, MI  – November 13-16
  • North Branch, Michigan – November 18-20

In Case You Missed it…

 

Lifestream Update – Fall 2016 Read More »

Our Progress in Pokot – One Year Out

9 Comments / Uncategorized /

A year ago we offered to see if we could find a million dollars over five years to help the people of Pokot build some infrastructure and seed some businesses that will help them build an economy out of the drought-riddled villages.  We received half of that almost immediately from a single source, and we rejoice that the money continues to come in and the progress that has been made in the villages. Next week our coaches there will receive additional training through Global Hope Network International in Kenya to fine-tune our approach to helping these incredible people. Through it all the Gospel continues to spread in that region as well. Above are pictured some Pokot warriors who came out of the bush to find out what was going on. They listened with great interest as they told their story of their rescue and shared the Gospel with them as well.

Last month Sara and I watched Poverty, Inc. on the recommendation of a friend. (Brad and I also discuss this movie on the current podcast. It’s an eye-opting movie that everyone ought to see about the poverty industry and how worldwide it is structured to benefit the first world far more than the people who actually need help. It shows how our governments and agri-business use compassionate motives to unload our products overseas while destroying the local economy of those we claim to help. It is well worth your time to see it if you care about charity and poverty in the third world.  I am grateful that God provided just the right people over the last two years to help us understand that just giving aid will not benefit people in the long-run, but instead we must work with them to help them find creative, low-tech solutions to their needs and involve them and their creativity in solving the problems they face. We are still learning, but excited at the opportunity we have to affect this corner of the world.

The story that has unfolded here has been amazing, both in the generosity of people to give and to pray for the people in Pokot and our contacts in Kenya. None of this would have happened without you.

Recently we received this report and pictures from them reporting the slow but steady progress of helping a people find their own solutions:

Thank you very much for your support. It has really help us to purchase materials and construct 15 toilets , so far we have cmpleted about 65 toilets. Our coaching team are continuing coaching people the importance of having toilets and they are doing good job, since many hold are working hard to have one. The toilets has really help to curb down the diseases that are caused by lack of hygiene. That is great.  The villagers have embrace this vision and every household are trying to do their best to do their part.

latrine

New latrine contracted by the villagers.

On soft loans, they are doing well as new businesses are starting up. This one is very successful as she is now she is able to get food and pay for medication for her children. Our team always goes around to see how they are going and support their work.

store2

store

Loans have helped these two ladies set up their own store.

Also our volunteering team of nures and doctors , sensitizing the villagers the importance of using safe clean water for drinking and the importance of disposing the waste product to the pit. This also has curb down disease which are caused by micro-organism from dirty environment.

medication-camping

Nurse prescribing the medicine for the villagers.  The number of sick people is reducing, not like the first time. Thank you for the great suppor

So this month the committee together with the villagers and volunteers who went round for treatment has also confirmed that this month they need also to go round for medication and also to construct other latrines which is about 16 in number.

Next month we are expecting our brothers from Isiolo to visit us for one week and add coaching on our team of 9 people including Michael and me.

Yours,

Thomas and Michael

We are excited about the progress our coaches there have made over the last year. These are all indigenous Kenyans, helping other Kenyans build a culture in a forgotten corner of an impoverished land.  To date there is little government assistance or other NGO presence in this area. They are not only helping in practical ways, but sharing about the love of Jesus for them as well.

If you want the backstory on our work in this part of Kenya, you can read this blog that gives a short view of God’s work in linking us up with their need, and people there who are ready to help meet it. If you have extra to pass along for the people of West Pokot you can direct it through Lifestream as contributions are tax-deductible in the US.  As always, every dollar you send goes to the need in Kenya.  We do not (nor do they) take out any administrative or money transfer fees.  If you would like to be part of this to support these brothers and sisters and see the gospel grow in this part of Africa, please see our Sharing With the World page at Lifestream. You can either donate with a credit card there, or you can mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560 Newbury Rd Ste 1  •  Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

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Reaching Across the Growing Divide

11 Comments / Phenomenon of the Dones /

 

By Wayne Jacobsen in a continuing series on The Phenomenon of the Dones.  

According to the latest statistics thirty-one million passionate followers of Jesus regularly attend a Sunday gathering, many of those believing local congregations are the only place a true believer can engage the church of Jesus Christ today. And we have thirty-one million passionate followers of Jesus who no longer belong to a recognized congregation, many of them believing that corporations are a poor reflection of the church Jesus came to build.

So, who is right?

Neither.

And the fact that they both think they are and look down on the others tears the very fabric on which the church of Jesus Christ is sewn together. Nothing in Scripture, including Hebrews 10:25, obligates us to arrange ourselves in institutional settings, and nothing in Scripture says that God can’t be among those who do, to share his glory and invite them into his reality. So whether you “go to church” or whether your friend doesn’t is not important to God and the sooner it no longer matters to you, the freer you’ll be able to love whomever God wants you to love and walk with.

How we define the church is not of first importance to Jesus, but whether we are engaged with him and his work in the world. Arguing over church issues is like two teams showing up in the aftermath of a landslide to rescue those who re trapped and instead of jumping to the task at hand they begin to argue over who has the better brand of equipment.

Senseless isn’t it?

Paul said, “the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love.” (Galatians 5:6) The Galatians fought over circumcision, we do it over Sunday attendance. In the end neither matter. What does, is a growing trust in our Father expressed by the love we share for others. Participating in a local congregation does not save you, and not participating in one does not damn you, even if others claim so. There are lots of ways to get quality teaching, find meaningful fellowship and participate in the kingdom coming in the world and doing it through a local congregation is only one of those. If you find it helpful and meaningful to your faith, be there, and if not, look for other ways to connect with people more relationally.

But now more than ever we need to reach across whatever we think divides us and do the one thing that Jesus asked us to do as his followers: Love one another as he loves us and that includes people with whom you have differences. In fact loving others has mostly to do with our differences it’s easy to love people who think like we do. We fall into the same trap Jesus’ disciples did when they saw others doing miracles that weren’t part of their discipleship group. Jesus warned them to have a more expansive view of the kingdom and a more generous view of people: “Whoever is not against us is for us.”

We’ve been divided long enough by brand names, rituals, doctrine, and denominational structures. Isn’t it time we found a different reality to recognize the church Jesus is building around us? Even if you attend a local congregation, you would miss a lot of what God is doing in the world if you think it the only expression of Christ’s church in your community or the world, or that they are the only people God wants you to know.

For the past twenty years as I’ve walked alongside people who’ve lost connection and hope in institutional Christianity. They haven’t, however, lost their faith in Jesus, their passion for real community with other disciples, or their desire to touch the world around them. They are discovering that church life doesn’t require an institutional component. During that time, I also kept up friendships with people who swear by the necessity of those local congregations. I have close relationships with people who are elders, pastors, and committed attenders, who have provided great encouragement and wisdom for my journey. I have been involved with a number of outreaches to the poor and marginalized in the communities in which I’ve lived, some sponsored by denominations and others by individuals with a passion to serve their community.

The body of Christ has become so much larger and far more diverse for me, filled with people who wouldn’t agree with everything I believe, but they do share a relationship with the same Father I know. What draws us together is not our theology about church but finding ourselves alongside each other in the river of the Father’s affection. In that connection the sheer silliness of whether or not someone attends a specific meeting regularly is seen for what it is. When we make doctrine or religious practice the basis of church life we only add to the division. Most of those differences are not based on the essentials of who Christ is anyway, but on our varying interpretations of obscure passages that become less important in the face of love.

All I need to have fellowship with you is have the slightest inkling that you are getting know the Father I know. I recognize that by the love he’s pouring into your heart both for him and for others, especially those who don’t see the world the way you do. Are you learning to be generous and kind, or becoming more judgmental, demanding that others agree with you? You can be one day old in this faith with all kinds of doctrinal suppositions askew, and no idea how to live in his reality and yet we can share life because that life is in him, not the correctness of our doctrine. In time he will bring you and me to what’s true. That’s why I don’t regard conformity a condition for fellowship or collaboration. All I need to see is a Father’s love growing in your life. I trust him to take care of the rest.

Sara and I have been reading a fascinating book called The Soul of Shame by Dr. Curt Thompson, MD, who uses brain science to show the devastating effects of shame in disconnects our brain functions internally as well as our relationships externally. Shame, whether in the form of self-pity or arrogance, shatters the creation and isolates us from others. “Shame has a way of translating different into better or worse. To the degree that shame has a foothold in my heart, I can unconsciously react to difference with judgment directed either at the other or myself.”

If love were the most important thing we would be able to walk together and put his love in the world without being threatened by people who live out their faith differently than we do. I’m not suggesting by that, that there isn’t right and wrong thinking about God, because there is. I’m just harkening back to Romans 14, where Paul invites us not to try to shape each other’s journey, but trust God’s Spirit to do that. “If there are corrections to be made or manners to be learned, God can handle that without your help.” (Romans 14:4, MSG) And the best environment for that to happen is where people are being loved and cared for, while they are being encouraged to get to know Jesus better.

A long time ago I gave up the need to classify someone by their denominational affiliation or lack of it, or even use it as a gauge of the depth of their spiritual passion. Love doesn’t require it and doing so only chokes the hope of relationship. Scripture does not empower any entity called “the church” to determine who is a part of God’s kingdom and who isn’t. We have too long worried about drawing the lines to determine who belongs to God and enforcing those lines with a vigor that snuffs out the smoldering wick, and snaps off the bruised reed.

Paul entrusted that work elsewhere. “God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: The Lord knows those who are his,” (2 Timothy 2:19). If he knows we don’t have to. Jesus had already warned his apostles that if they tried to separate the wheat from the weeds they would destroy the wheat in the process.

What would happen if all we looked for in each other was a growing participation in the reality of his love and sharing it with others? Wouldn’t we find better connection with brothers and sisters around us regardless of what group they belong to or what doctrinal differences we had? Wouldn’t this be the fruit of the Spirit Jesus encouraged us to look for rather than some man’s wisdom, or some woman’s seeming miracle-working power?

If we’re going to be the people in whom Jesus’ prayer for “complete unity” is fulfilled, we’re going to have to put him and his love in the preeminent place and nothing else. We’re going to have to get over being threatened by people who see life differently and worry less about those who claim we can’t be followers of Christ because we don’t jump through whatever hoop they think is essemtial.

We respond to his Spirit as he knits the church together by pursuing those relationships he puts on our heart. For local church advocates, they would be blessed to reach beyond the borders of their own institution and connect with Christians in other institutions and share fellowship with those who don’t attend at all. For those who’ve stopped attending you’ll be blessed to have connections with those who still do, if they will allow it and not despise your journey.

Jesus’ family in your locale is so much bigger than the ways we’ve divided her up. How much more would we demonstrate the kingdom if we loved and cooperated beyond our different views of church or our doctrinal distinctions? Love can do that. Nothing else can.

Of course not everyone is going to see the church this way. Many will hold to their rituals, and doctrines as hills to die on, judging harshly those who do not to the same. But what we need an increasing number of Jesus followers learning to love generously, reaching across our imagined lines of demarcation and loving and serving alongside others Jesus has invited us to know.

If we let this relational reality that love allows define the church it will free us to love other followers of Christ with open hearts and hands. Recently I was invited to dialog with a group of pastors about my book, Finding Church and those who see church beyond the local congregation. At the very end one pastor spoke up, “I know a ‘done’ who used to be a close friend and elder but left my congregation five years ago. How should I treat him?”

My heart melted at the question. I’ve been a pastor. I know how painful it is to have good friends leave the fellowship. Most don’t even mean it personally, but that doesn’t mean we don’t take it that way. It always felt like a personal rejection of me, my message, or at least the friendship we shared together. But this man wanted to reach beyond that pain and see if the friendship was still there.

I found myself responding, “If he cared about him them, why wouldn’t he be your friend now? I’d take him out for coffee and just reconnect, focusing the conversation on Jesus instead of church.” He did exactly that. By the time I’d driven the two hours it took me to get home, I had a voice mail from that pastor. He’d called his friend right after the meeting and since he was available then he drove straight to a coffee shop to meet him. They hadn’t seen each other in five years, but his voice cracked as he shared the amazing conversation they had. “I have my best friend back.”

Wouldn’t it be great if our friendships could grow regardless of what we might be doing differently on Sunday morning? More than nailing down the holes in someone else’s doctrine, or spending countless hours in religious activity, we would simply learn to live in the ever-growing reality of his love. If fellowship really spreads like this our tribal distinctions will become meaningless and Jesus’ prayer that all his followers will be one would be answered.

It may only take a phone call, but in such moments the kingdom of God grows in the world.

 

______________________________

This is part 14 in a series on The Phenomenon of the Dones by Wayne Jacobsen who is the author of Finding Church and host of a podcast at TheGodJourney.com.  You can read the first half here and subsequent parts below:

If you’d like to subscribe to this blog and receive future posts by email you can sign up at the top of the right-hand column of our home page.

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Getting Updates from Our Websites

4 Comments / Behind the Scenes /

But first, I came across this quote the other day by Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt from his book, Everyone Belongs to God.  Immediately my heart resonates with this, but I realize how it is polar opposite to the way I used to think when I was younger. The hope then was to go from seeming powerlessness and helplessness to acquiring the knowledge and power to be able to fix things for myself and others.  But time and reality has won me away from such misguided notions.

You must learn to accept your weakness, your own poverty, and your own limitations, especially when the going gets rough. It is just through your weakness that our Savior can do his work (2 Cor. 12:9). He can manage what you cannot!…It’s often better not to get too involved in other people’s affairs, wanting to have a say in everything, because most of the time we don’t really know what the right step is. In the end, only God can work things out. Especially where there is sickness, poverty, or strongholds of temptation, you will have to realize your helplessness. You don’t need to be a knight in shining armor who is all set to kill the devil – no, we must learn to step back in faith and hope and keep the power of Jesus firmly in the center.

Brad and I discuss this quote on last week’s podcast because I wanted to know how he would think of it.  I now think we are at our most powerful when we put no confidence in our own abilities and can then allow God’s grace and strength to shine through our weakness.  If not, we become the annoying fix-it person who is out to get everyone else to do their bidding.

Now an important note about updates from our websites:  FaceBook has made it more difficult for you to view feeds from pages like Lifestream.org, TheGodJourney.com and FindingChurch.com. It is part of their strategy to increasing access through advertising and to create an addictive environment so that you will find it difficult to avert your eyes from FaceBook. What began as a way to connect people is now a full-fledged advertising venue.  Talk about mission creep!

However, if you’re missing these updates, you can restore them by going to the corresponding FaceBook pages: Wayne Jacobsen (Lifestream), The God Journey, or Finding Church, clicking on the “Liked” tab (see picture above) and in the drop-down menu click on “First” instead of using the default.  If there are updates on those pages, they will now show up at the top of your feed.  You can do this with any pages you want to follow and with the profiles of your friends and family by finding the drop-down menu under “Friends.”

It’s your feed, you ought to get what you want to see, not what FaceBook wants you to see.

You can also subscribe by email to the blogs on all three of those sites, so that when a new blog is posted you’ll receive it in your inbox. Just look at the top right hand page on those websites for the box to enter your email address.

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When Our Prayer Life Changes…

10 Comments / Encouragement /

This process of inner transformation is fascinating to watch, in my own life and others. It’s disorienting for many when their age-old religious practices start to shift. I know it was for me.  One day you’re doing a regimen of Bible reading and prayer, feeling good about yourself for ticking all the boxes. Then, they seem lifeless, or at least ineffective. Part of you says keep doing it no matter what, another part invites you down a journey away from religious obligation to discover what a real engagement with the Scriptures or God might be. I enjoy stories of those who take the road less traveled, and risk moving away from the lifeless status quo to discover a real relationship with God.

Transformation comes slowly. We may even been a bit naughty at the beginning since we’re not doing the things we’re “supposed to do.”  But what many of us have found on the other side is that prayer and Bible reading become so much more real inside a growing relationship, rather than as a rote exercise out of obligation.

I got this from someone today in that very process:

I’ve been contemplating something this morning….  I have a hard time with journaling now for a few days.  I was an avid journaler as that’s where I communicated with God.  I have a hard time “speaking prayers”…  I can say “help me God” but most of the time all that’s there are the thoughts within.  I don’t speak out much in the “dear God” prayers.  I’m not overwhelmed with guilt because I think of the Spirit groaning and Jesus interceding and since Jesus lives in me I believe that my thoughts and aches are translated in intercession to the father.  I’m not worried that I don’t have words because I know how I feel with my own children. Sometimes my son will come out of his room and just sit in the living room, yes, often on his phone… 🙂  But he’s in the living room with me.  I don’t care that he’s not talking.   I’m just happy he’s in the room with me.  If he wants to say something he can, if he doesn’t it’s ok.  He’s with me.

I know that there’s been such a huge distortion in regards to prayer for me as I often just don’t want to “talk” to God.  For one, it was displayed as an act of allegiance  to stay in right standing with God.  For two, so many of my prayers were about me getting what I thought was best for me.  An example: my broken-down car.   The way I would approach it  was to start to pray… and gather as many people as I could to pray.  We would all ask God together to cause the car to be an inexpensive fix.  That was the best thing for me, right.  I would pray constantly asking God to make it an inexpensive fix.  When the call came telling me it was a transmission there would be a deflation…. Why didn’t God give me “the best thing” and inexpensive repair.  What about “whatever you ask for in His name will be given to you”?  I had used Jesus’ name and asked over and over again, believing.  What happened there?  As a parent I would do that for my child, why wouldn’t he do that for me?  What kind of love is that?

Somehow I believe I have equated prayers answered the way I wanted with love, attentiveness, and care.  I got to the point that I stopped asking for things because what was the point, I rarely get what I pray for anyways. Answered prayer became some type of symbol of his love.  When it wasn’t answered the way I had prayed the indications were that something was really wrong, with God’s care for me of maybe with my value to Him.  I think somehow this distortion has hidden His love.   I think of the scripture that talks about “if a child asks for bread would he be given a stone.”  I often felt like I was being given the stone when God wouldn’t give me what I “so desperately needed”.. (of course I was determining what I needed)

So much has been distorted in the 50 + years of religious teaching that I sat under.   So nowadays I don’t say much in the ways I once did with words of “dear God”… I don’t ask for much.  I don’t journal much.

This is an incredibly healthy process. For me, when I realized that most of my prayers came from anxiety and that led me to always ask God to do what I thought best, my prayer life took a dive as well. No he doesn’t bless me from my agenda, he saves me from it.  He’s not the fairy Godfather turning our pumpkins into chariots. He’s with us in the reality of negotiating a broken world and all the while inviting us to know him better. As love began to win me, my prayer life too a real shift. First it seemed to die, then something more real and rewarding began to emerge.

His love built greater trust in me and I learned the power of prayer that rises from growing trust.  They weren’t “fix this” or “fix that” prayers; they were honest pleas for him to help me see what he was doing in the circumstances I was in and how I could be a part of that.  So instead of turning my anxiety into prayer requests, I just began to pour out my anxieties to him, knowing that love needed to win me into safer space. “God, why am I so anxious about this?” “Father, what do you want to show me of yourself.” “How do I keep my attitude free with the frustration of a broken car, or because someone else forgot an appointment, and how might you redeem this situation for your glory?”

I began to look toward him in everything and now pray more confidently for those things that God seems to nudge me towards.  Transformation is a great process.  Isn’t it fun to discover new things, to see movement in our journeys, to lose the religious habits of the past and find a real way to relate to him?

I love all that stuff and I love that it is happening in this woman as well.

What an amazing season when you risk the illusionary safety of the status quo and begin to let Jesus show you just how real this journey was meant to be.

 

When Our Prayer Life Changes… Read More »

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