Leaving the Amish for Freedom in Christ

3 Comments / What I'm Reading /

I was handed this book by its authors during my recent trip to Canada. They came from Montana to join me in Calgary and I had time to hear part of their story of moving out of the Amish culture and finding greater freedom in Christ. I was amazed at the progress they had made in four short years of finding their way out of that system of religious obligation and discovering how much God loved them.

As our conversation ended they handed me a copy of their book:  Plain Faith: A Story of Tragedy, Loss, and Leaving the Amish by Irene and Ora Jay Eash with Tricia Goyer, is  a fascinating read about truth awakening in the human heart and that putting them in conflict with the religious tradition they grew up in. To be honest, I rarely make through all the books people give me when I travel.  I do look them over and try to discern if the Spirit is nudging me to spend more time them.  As I looked over this one I was drawn into a compelling story of a family first going through the darkest of tragedies, and then risking everything they knew to follow the Spirt as he awakened them to a different reality than one they had been raised in. I had no idea what they had really been through until I read it and I came away all the more amazed at how God draws people to himself despite the tremendous odds against it.

This is an amazing story of a multitude of decisions made over years to follow Truth unfolding in their hearts or to keep falling in line with traditions to maintain their relationships with family and with friends they’d known their entire lives. If you want a good picture of what it takes to leave a system of religious obligation and to be judged and excluded for doing so and the story of triumph as they learned to live freely in a larger world with Jesus, this book is for you.  It also exposes how much damage well-intentioned people can cause when they are more true to their traditions than they are to the truth of Christ.  Legalism always turns love into a weapon that forces conformity or withdraws itself. It is a cruel taskmaster on both sides and shows how destructive even good intentions can be when they are based on ignorance of what is true.

And it’s not just the Amish. Every Christian tradition falls into the same trap.  You’ll find your own story here of chasing between a hope growing in your heart and the safer road of pleasing everyone’s expectations. This is a story of hope, stronger than the loss of children, family, and a way of life handed down through generations.

 

 

 

 

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Stupid Teachings About Prayer

42 Comments / Growing in Trust /
 Just when you think bad theology has exhausted itself, it pokes up its ugly head yet again.  This came in an email this week:

(Can you help me with) the faith teaching that goes down the road of “Don’t claim that!” and “Just repeat God’s word over and over.” and “We don’t confess that!” and all the teaching that makes it sound like we’ve got to muster up all this faith and if we speak it enough we’ll somehow have it and all that speaking will change us and give us power.  This has always bothered me – been there, heard the message, ran the other way a long time ago! But as it’s fresh on my mind thanks to some class notes for an upcoming summer study being left out in the copy room at my office. I’ve looked over them and the meter is screaming in the red.

My response:  As far as your question about prayer, I think this stuff is NUTS!  There is now right or wrong way to pray.  Prayer is not a technique or incantation. Our confidence in prayer is not based on what we are saying or not saying, but the One we are communing with as we simply lean in to being vessels to let his love and power flow through us as HE desires.

Then this came form someone else:

I heard someone speaking the other day about praying for the sick.  He mentioned that he had a sister with cancer, and they prayed, but unfortunately, she still passed away.  He then learned a lot about prayer, and different kinds of prayer, and realized they had been praying the “wrong way”.  He had another sister fall ill with terminal cancer, they prayed for her, and half an hour later, she was healed. The question is.  Do you believe there is a wrong way to pray for people?  Or a way that we can pray that guarantees healing?  It kind of goes against what I feel in my heart, but it’s really twisting my brain. Thought I’d see what you think about it! I’ve been in prayer asking God to show me his heart on prayer.

And now he has a book or ministry to sell with this bait that people can finally get the miracle they want from God by using his secret technique.  I hate this kind of teaching, built of an experience that may or may not even be true, but even if it is, it does not prove his premise. Bad teachings about prayer prey on the most vulnerable among us—those with a desperate need and will jump through whatever prayer hoop someone gives them even if there’s less than a 1% chance it will help.  No one wants to be left out of a miracle if there’s just one more thing they can do that will finally get the answer they want from God.

But this kind of teaching doesn’t draw us into true faith at all.  In fact, it disfigures God by making him our tool to manipulate. Do you remember the kids game we used to play where someone asks for something and says, “Please.”  Then, to be mean we said, “Say, ‘Pretty Please.'”  They do that and then we add “Say, ‘Pretty please with sugar on top,'”  and it continues. Unfortunately that’s how some people view God. He would like to help, but will withhold his blessing until they say all the right words, in the right order, with the right amount of “faith.” And when he doesn’t act, they blame themselves and keep desperately seeking for the formula that will compel him to give us our miracle.

Throw all that baloney out. Anything that makes God a miserly Father making us jump through hoops is absurd. If you think God is more inclined to heal a child’s cancer if one million people on Facebook offer a prayer for him than two or three placing that need before him, you have no idea who the God is. If you’re struggling with a need and think there’s a special way to pray that God will have to answer, then you’re using prayer as an incantation not real communion with him.  You will exhaust yourself trying to earn your miracle and in the process only grow more frustrated with God and yourself.

Jesus taught us that all God needs in prayer is a heart that seeks what’s true, a simple expression of our desire, a persistence that allows your trust in the Father’s care to grow, and the passion to see his glory fulfilled above your own convenience . From there he will do whatever is best for you and that may not be to answer your prayer the way you want.  Just remember, he cares more for you than you do yourself and he has plans unfolding that you cannot comprehend. So if your miracle happens, awesome!  If it doesn’t, then assume something greater is going on than you can see, and just keep walking with him through whatever challenge lies before you.  If there’s something more he wants to show you, trust him to do so without your frantic need to find it on your own.

That’s all any of us need to do to live in the unfolding reality of his glory, whether or not things work out the way we want.  We are deeply loved by a generous Father and that’s enough to take us through anything.

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Ignoring Jesus!

11 Comments / Church Life /

If there are words Jesus spoke that we have ignored more in Western Christianity than Matthew 23, I would have no idea what they would be.  Every day in almost every Christian institution we live as if he never said these words or at least didn’t mean them.

Instead of giving you God’s Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn’t think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend.’

Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. 

Don’t set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title of ‘Father’; you have only one Father, and he’s in heaven. And don’t let people maneuver you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them—Christ.  

Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.  (Matthew 23:4-12 The Message)

Can you imagine what the church of Jesus Christ would like like in the world today if we had just followed these incredibly simple instructions? But we didn’t and instead created another religious system that exists as if Jesus was never here and if he didn’t die on a cross to change the entire relationship between shame-based humanity and the Father who loves us. Our institutions today and those who seek to lead them still violate all that Jesus warned the leaders about in his day not to do.

We still package the life of Jesus as a set of rules and expectations and demand people conform. Our so-called religious leaders still fight for celebrity, take the place of priority among the family, and encourage other people to be dependent on them rather than God himself.  We create an endless set of titles to  maintain the illusion that those who want to lead us are not simply brothers and sisters in a growing family.  And our failure to heed Jesus’s words not only horribly disfigures the bride of Christ but it also keeps people from finding the courage and freedom to find their life in him and to follow him as he leads them!

And it isn’t just the fault of those who set themselves up as experts in the life of Jesus, but those who seek out such experts to tell them what to do, rather than to learn to listen to and follow Jesus as he makes himself known to them.

And your expert doesn’t have to be a pastor, it can also be a popular speaker, author, or podcaster.  There are no experts, only brothers and sisters who serve you well only to the degree that they encourage your own relationship with the Father, rather than make you increasingly dependent on themselves. And those who seek the spotlight don’t really have a clue who he is.

Do you realize all that has been twisted in our Christian institutions would unravel if we only followed the simple things Jesus told us to do?

Why don’t we?

 

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The Latest from Lifestream

Behind the Scenes /

Helping People Find a Better Path

As I write this, I’ve just returned from the east coast, in what proved to be an intense but fruitful time. So many people I met on this trip were in the throes of severe crisis, looking for a way to navigate their need with a loving Father alongside. Some had recently lost children to tragic accidents, one was about to lose her child to a congenital medical condition. Others were battling guilt from past religious experiences, or loneliness after no longer feeling connected to the congregations they used to attend.

No, I don’t try to fix all of that in a few hours or a few days, I simply look for a way to walk alongside people at that point in their journey and encourage them down the better road. If grief is isolating them or turning a couple against the other, I look for that path where grief promotes healing and encourage them to go that way way. If they are trying to earn their healing with one more prayer, or pretending to have “faith”, I help them relax and entrust all that to Jesus’ love for them rather than their own effort.

In every uncomfortable situation we stand at a crossroads. One path leads to greater freedom and life, the other to greater pain and destruction. Sometimes people can’t see the path to life and that’s where we can help point it out to them in simple encouragements. It isn’t always easy to see, but it leans toward trusting God to do in us what we could never do for ourselves.

I just put up a new blog today about handling the truth with love, which is part of my continuing series on The Phenomenon of the Dones.  That dovetails with this encouragement quite well. If you haven’t seen it, you can find it here.

Updates

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Come check out the changes at TheGodJourney.com. Now that The Shack movie is all but completed, Brad is back at co-host and we have re-designed the website for easier navigation and an updated look.  For the last issue we rolled out a new website for Lifestream.org. This month we have just completed a re-design of The God Journey.com d our new website this year, come take a look.  Everything I’m doing is easily accessed from the front page.

Join Brad and I in Israel for TheGodJourney Tour. Because the release of The Shack movie conflicted with our Israel dates, we had to move them to earlier in they year. We will now be headed to Israel January 25 through February 4, 2017.  The pre-trip to Petra has moved to January 22-25.  If you’re interested in joining us you can get all the details here. For those interested in the release date of the movie, it is now March 3, 2017.

The movie of So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore, called Out of the Game, is moving along nicely and stirring up some interest even among Christian filmmakers. We are getting ready to raise the needed capital to go into production. If you’d like to help with this project, either by being an investor in the movie, or through contributions to Lifestream, you will get your chance shortly. Keep an eye on Lifestream.org for details.  (If you’d like to subscriber to the blog, you will receive notifications by email whenever we post news there.

Torrential rains this spring have given us another setback in Kenya with a break out of Typhoid and malaria. Medical teams are in that region now to offer vaccinations and medial attention. If you’d like to help us with this need, you can get more information here.

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.

For the readers out there I’ve recommended eight good books this spring that I think many of you would enjoy. If you’re looking for some summer reading, scroll back a couple of months through the blog. You’ll find books on God’s mystery, discussing sexuality with your daughter, on death and tragedy, and even a book on marriage by a family court judge.

Upcoming Travel:  I’ll be in Alberta Canada from June 3-13, and then on it looks like I’ll be in Nashville and Bowling Green, KY on July 7-12, but that isn’t final yet.  Get all the details on Wayne’s Travel Schedule.  If you’d like to know when Wayne is visiting near you be sure and sign up for our mailing list and include your location so we can send you a notice.

In Case You Missed it…

To get all the latest information as it happens, you can subscribe to the blogs at Lifestream or The God Journey and receive notification in your email whenever we post something new.

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Handling the Truth

11 Comments / Phenomenon of the Dones /

By Wayne Jacobsen Part 12 in a continuing series on The Phenomenon of the Dones.  

When did truth become more important than love?

When I grew up in Christianity I was taught that you had to believe the truth to be saved. Of course loving each other was encouraged, but certainly not with the same passion. So living to doctrine and defending it when challenged was more important than loving others, even though Jesus specifically told us to do the latter. In fact he said our capacity to love would win the world, not our eloquence with the truth.

In fact, truth without love more often destroys people than helps people. Those who explore theology alone and don’t mine the depths of God’s love and character can’t help but be a bit obnoxious. For them it is all about believing the right thing and what they miss is a process of transformation. They are often angry, manipulative and judgmental. On what basis, then, has truth set them free? Are they more gentle, loving, and kind to others who are lost? In my experience? No.

That may be why Jesus and Paul both told us love was more important because they knew that without love people would not be able to discover truth. I’m convinced that truth can travel without love. You speak the truth without it and little good it does. But love can’t travel without the truth. Love always seeks what’s true and then graciously draws people toward the light. We never need to choose love at the expense of truth when we appreciate that love is the most important part of truth and the environment in which people are freest to discover what’s true.

Unfortunately, however, for two thousand years Christians have staked their identity on being right. Battles over doctrine, even down to insignificant minutia, have divided us into innumerable factions, each one believing they have more truth than the others. So that instead of learning to love each other beyond our differences, every difference is a test of who is right and who is wrong. We get sucked into the same game the world plays of having to convince those who disagree with us of how wrong they are.

I see the fallout from that every day in my FaceBook feed, especially as people try to convince their friends that the truth they see is the truth everyone needs to believe. And the more insecure someone is the more they are drawn into the battle over truth instead of learning how to love. We expend far more energy trying to prove someone wrong than we do helping them discover how loved they are.

Often we do it without even thinking. Recently I asked for some input on a book cover design. I got over 300 responses and the majority registered their preference as if it was the only right option. People who didn’t see it the same way were wrong, not just seeing it differently. When we no longer separate preference from fact, we express ourselves in way that is off-putting to others, and closes more doors than it opens.

Nowhere is this more evident today than in the argument about whether or not someone must go to a local congregation to be a Christian. Every one fights for their point of view convinced that anyone who disagrees with them is wrong. One seeks validation of their faith experience, the other demands compliance and both divide the body of Christ not on the basis of Truth, but on personal preference. Much of the angst I’ve seen in those “done” with religious institutions is the need to convince those who meet in those systems that what they are doing is wrong and hurtful, or those inside try to convince those outside that they can’t be part of Jesus’ church without being a committed member of a local institution.

And as I’ve observed over the years, some of those who most ardently defended local congregations when they were leading them are the most damming now that they are on the outside.

If you live by right or wrong, you will condemn others to validate yourself. A lot of that dialog stems from insecurity—people who need the affirmation of others to validate their own conclusions. Both misunderstand the nature of truth and how God wins us into it. Of course this conflict is exacerbated by social media platforms because arrogant, polarizing commentary generates more response than graceful ones. We care more about being right on an issue that we do about being right with each other.

“Truth cannot be compromised,” is the motto of both sides of any conflict and while true enough on the face of it, it doesn’t recognized how much of what we fight for is not truth itself, but only our view of it. How often have you ardently defended something you found out later was based on misunderstanding or misinformation? One of the joys of this journey is discovering that God’s wisdom far exceeds ours on everything and we are constantly growing to understand what’s true and what are only fabrications of our desires. That’s why Jesus wanted us to know that Truth was not the perfect alignment of our doctrinal ducks, but our connection to a Person who is Truth itself. By believing him we believe in all truth, even the parts we don’t know yet, or still have confused.

That’s why one of the telltale signs of someone growing in truth is humility. Knowing they see dimly into God’s reality allows them to hold it lightly and not seek to force it on others.

Their tone expresses that this is the best they see it today, not this is the only way a real child of God can see it. When you hear that kind of language, back away. This is someone who knows doctrine better than they know him. Find those who can discuss difference of opinion graciously, knowing that love, not judgment, is the best way to help people discover truth and that growing in truth has more to do with learning to depend on him rather than amassing intellectual knowledge alone.

None of this is to say, of course, that truth is not important, only that most of our truth isn’t truth with a capital T, but simply our own conclusions based on the comfort it gives us at the time. I’m all for getting our theology straight; I’m not a relativist. I don’t believe everyone gets to decide what’s true. What’s true in the universe is how God designed it to work and created us to live in it. Where we embrace that reality, we get to live freely even in a broken world not immune from its pain, but also not overwhelmed by it. There are only a precious few big-ticket items that provide the basis of life in Christ, and none of them are essential to be loved because love opens the door to truth.

One of Jesus’ most oft-quoted statements is, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free,” (John 8:32). Mostly those words are misapplied as if he’s referring to the right set of beliefs and is used to justify people forcing their point of view on others. What if, however, he was not only telling us what truth could do, but how to share it with others? It is valuable when it sets people free, and disastrous when it seeks to manipulate people to do what we think best.

The ways of the world are all built on lies—lies about God, about ourselves, about success and failure, about what we value and how we engage others. Believe the lies and you become imprisoned by them in long, slow death spiral. Truth is the bright light that penetrates the darkness. Our tendency is not to run to it, but shield our eyes and stay in the false comfort of those lies. Love is what makes the light inviting instead of repelling.

When I read the Gospels, I am increasingly aware of how careful Jesus was with the truth. The truth is powerful stuff. It can blow up someone’s entire world. That’s a great thing when they are ready for it, but it can be horribly destructive if they are not. That’s why he was so mindful how, when, and to whom he shared truth. He sometimes couched it in stories so people who weren’t ready to receive it wouldn’t understand it.

If you’ve ever tried to convince someone that something is true when they don’t want to hear it you know how impossible it is. When Jesus spoke clearly, he was talking to those who were curious. Even then he didn’t talk about truth as a set of theological concepts to believe, but the truth that allows you to see past the lies that ensnare us and set you free to embrace God’s realty. The only time he confronted people with truth they weren’t ready for was when their actions were doing great damage to others and, even then he wasn’t heard. There’s nothing more glorious than truth that brings freedom and nothing more destructive than beating others up with truth we think they should hear.

Fifteen years ago I was riding in a car with my dad when he asked me a question. “Do you enjoy what you’re doing now?” Five years earlier I had been a pastor of a growing congregation in the central part of California. Through a painful set of circumstances I got separated from that group and he wasn’t sure how content I was with the consulting, writing and traveling. I thought he was really asking if I missed being a pastor.

I thought about it for a moment and realized that I had moved from being a leader of a conformity-based system to a brother alongside people seeking to find their freedom in Christ. “Well, Dad I used to walk around with a set of keys making sure everyone was locked into their cells. For the past five years I’ve been wandering those same hallways but this time unlocking the prisons that hold people captive.”

“That does sound good,” he responded.

It is! And this isn’t about whether people frequent a congregation or not. This is about feeling I had the responsibility to conform people to what I thought was best for them instead of freeing them to live in an affection-based relationship with God and letting him change them. I’ve never regretted that choice. And I’ve seen far more fruit rise from helping them live free than I ever did from trying to get them to believe my conclusions or meet my expectations.

I don’t try to convince anyone of anything anymore. I talk to hungry people about God’s reality as I best understand it. When they are ready for it, they respond in ways that liberates and fulfills. When they aren’t, I measure my words more carefully seeking a way to love them rather than try to set them straight. Only the Spirit can prepare them for the truth he wants to breathe into their lives. The more I try to convince them, the more I push them away from the light I want them to see. Instead I want to treat them in a way that will invite them into the orbit of his love where they will be better prepared to see through their deception and embrace what’s true.

That’s why love is the more excellent way.  Without it, truth won’t find it’s way in the world.

__________________

This is part 11 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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Uhh… You Might Have that Story Wrong

4 Comments / Intimacy /

I guess this meme made the rounds on the Internet but somehow I missed it. It was posted as a blog comment yesterday at The God Journey in our spirited discussion about what salvation really means.

Jesus knocks on the door saying, “Let me in.”

The voice from inside replies, “Why?”

Jesus says, “So I can save you.”

“From what?” asks the voice inside.

“From what I’m going to do to you if you don’t let me in!”

I laughed of ten minutes when I read that. I know that world. I grew up in it and how ridiculous that whole story seems to me now! We need to be saved from Jesus or his irate Father? No we need to be saved from the sin and shame that devour our lives and leave us helpless to our own affectations and appetites.

Salvation is real. He saves us from a world of darkness, fear and torment and brings us into a new creation of light, love, and liberty. That’s a better story because it’s a more accurate story.

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Calamity in Kenya

In the World /

If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

The lack of rain that caused such devastation in the land of Pokot, where we have tried to help over the past couple of years, has now reversed itself and this spring excessive rains have brought a new crisis to these beleaguered people.  We have four coaches in the region helping the people take responsibility to better their own lives and with each project they want to do we match 50% sweat equity on their part, with 50% resources from ours. This is a desperate part of Kenya with no government presence or other NGOs to help with this crises. I am constantly amazed that every one else in the world seems to ignore their plight. We have with God’s help provided what little we can to help turn the tide on their conditions. We’ve been blessed by the many people with third-world development experience who have come alongside to assist us and the thousands of dollars of contribution who touched these people deeply.

All was going well until this new calamity arrived brought on by the flooding.  I got this letter the other day from the brothers in Kenya who we work through to help bring new life into Pokot.

Dear brother Wayne, receive more greeting from the coaching team in North Pokot, they appreciate also for there monthly support.  They are doing excellent work. In East Africa , there is a lot of rain even the North pokot has been affected much for the first time with heavy rain. This has contributed more the calamity of many diseases like typhoid, malarial and common cold, so the coaches and the committee has appeal an emergency camp medication for more than ten villages, which are more affected. So brother wayne we have talked with the coaches to pray so that we send this urgent need for medical camping.

So if you can help them with the drugs and help additional of nurses , IGEM volunteers about 14 are ready to go assist for medical camping of two weeks in those ten village. We could not wait to put this in the budget on 22nd but it is urgent need. Many house in kenya are been swept the flood especially in western and Kitale region.

We have called the doctor and have estimated that we need to purchase drugs , fuel transportation, accommodation for doctors and nurses (tents, Blanket and mattress and food).  This is urgent need for now, we need to go there soon as God’s provides.

In the last week we have added an additional $11,000 to meet this need, in addition to the regular support we are sending to help the villages.  Volunteer doctors and nurses from Kitale are in that region now, staying in tents and sleeping little more than three hours a night because the need is so great. They are also trying to get the government to provide mosquito nets to help with the spread of disease.

Here is their report from the first few days on the field:

Our doctor’s and nurse were so busy treating the sick in North Pokot, there are huge number of people suffering with Malaria, typhoid, leumonia, chronic malaria, there is no hospital within this place and from here to reach our hospital is appromately 50KM , which is very far and when outbreak come there is no other way of saving life. The places are in the bush. The community committee which we selected last year assisted by our coaches has paved the way in order to reach there with the vehicle and beyond other interior villages, our volunteers need to walk carrying the supplies.  Right now we are with ten villages which are more affected and the mobile camping need to take place for six months time to curb down the diseases, then from there we will see what God has done. But our volunteers since all of them cannot stay for all of that period, but they have agreed to work in periods to relief others. The challenges we need also to cook for those who are total sick , so that the drugs can work well, so pray with us for the food while we are in the mission field because it force our volunteers to give the food which are supposed to be used by them.

And some pictures:

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Bringing the sick to get help
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Triage
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A lot of interest around that table.

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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Spirituality and Sexuality

1 Comment / What I'm Reading /

Recently Brad and I did a couple of podcasts on the issues of sexuality in our spiritual journeys, Let’s Talk Sex, and No Need to Hide, and discovered just how separated people keep their sexuality from their spirituality. That’s mostly due to the fact that religion attaches so much shame to our sexual appetites and brokenness. And yet many are longing to have that conversation in the gracious space where they no longer have to hide, or doubt, or condemn themselves.

We need more conversation in this area not less and most of that with the Father who loves us. Sexuality is his gift after all, and it is no surprise that the brokenness of this world and the work of the enemy would seek to destroy us by the very thing that touches the deepest part of our soul, our identity, and our connection with another human being. They turn it against us, warping it in ways that damages our souls and becomes a source of great pain and frustration, even inside of a marriage.

God does not think sex disgusting and only he can untwist the way our sexuality gets compromised and exploited by the world we live in. Like so much of the creation, we use it for our own amusements instead of his purposes and in the end get hurt more than we ever dreamed.

In that vain, I want to recommend a new book to you. It’s called unashamed, and yes the lack of caps is intentional. The subtitle is, “candid conversations about dating, love, nakedness and faith” and was written by Tracy Levinson and Anne-Marie Coffee. It takes a fresh look at dating for a new generation of young women.

I got a chance to read a prepublication copy of this book and wrote the following endorsement for the final version:

Unashamed is the conversation every parent wants to have with their daughter, but often finds it too difficult. Frankly and humorously, Tracy Levinson flips over all the rocks that young women would do well to explore to understand themselves, their sexuality, and the choices that will build a better future. Thoughtful, caring, and biblically sound, she walks a glorious line to uphold a young woman’s purity in God’s eyes even as they struggle with temptation and failure. You’ll want your daughter to read this book, and perhaps even join her.

Tracy hopes to encourage you as she shares her grace-infused insight, wisdom, laughter and liberating truth. It’s written for young women, and people in their lives who adore them which can include moms, dads, brothers, grandparents, boyfriends, and church leaders. Tracy candidly explores pivotal questions asked by this millennial generation and draws from her own journey and conversations with her daughters. Some of the questions she tackles include: What if I have already been involved sexually, how do I get a redo? What are the things that bug you about dating in the Christian culture? What does it mean to guard my heart and does it pertain to dating?

This is what Tracy says about her book, “My hope is to help as many women and girls as possible by empowering them to choose wisdom, love and peace, as opposed to making decisions from fear, shame or condemnation.” You may not come to all the same conclusions Tracy does, but your daughters will be all the stronger for you exploring this book with them.

You can order the book at Amazon.com, or from her web page TracyLevinson.com.

If you have daughters you care about and don’t know how to tackle this subject, this is the perfect book for you.  You will thank me.

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The All New God Journey Site

3 Comments / Behind the Scenes /

All new!  Still free!

If you haven’t visited The God Journey website for awhile, now would be a good time.  Brad is back as co-host and we have a full re-design of the website and the podcast to update the look.  Still the same conversations, with new artwork and imagery and it’s still free!

Brad and I continue to explore our journeys and invite others along for the ride. We’re always blessed by the email we receive from people who are encouraged, challenged, or enlightened out of our conversations and thoughts about the journey.

New episodes post on Fridays. There are 532 shows in the archive. Every where I go people tell me how much my weekly conversations with Brad, others, or myself has helped to bring freedom and joy to their journey. We even included on the new page a list of some of the sweet things people have said or written about the podcast.  I’ll also include them here:

“I don’t think you realize what a lifeline the podcasts have been.”
“You articulate what I am feeling. Somehow I don’t feel alone when I listen to you and Brad talk.”
“Your conversations are like a cool breeze on a hot day.”
“It’s simply two real guys talking about life…”
“Keep slinging that freedom all over the place.”
“My entire outlook on life has changed overnight! My life has Life again!”
“The podcasts also gave me language and an eye to see what God was doing inside me.”
“Your compassion for both God and his children is refreshing and honest.”
“Yours is a sane voice in a crazy world.”

Who would have thought when we began recording our conversations 11 years ago, that it would have gone on this long and been helpful to so many?  We are blessed by the continued encouragement we get to record conversations that Brad and I find so joyful even if they were not.

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Our Israel Trip Had to Change Dates!

Lifestream News /

A funny thing happened on our way to a God Journey Tour of Israel… Lionsgate moved the release date of the film version of The Shack while Brad and I would have both been on the tour. Without warning they moved they switched the release of the movie from November 18, 2016, to March 3, 2017. Since they are the whale in the living room we had to scramble to change our tour dates. The tour to Israel has been moved forward one month to January 25, 2017 – February 5, 2017.

I sincerely apologize for having to do this to people who were already making plans to join us. There is still plenty of room if you want to join Brad and I in Israel.  The new dates in Jordan will be before the regular tour, January 22-25.  You can get all the details and register here.

Two years ago I took my wife, son and 40 other people who have enjoyed my writings for an 11-day trip to the land of Israel. We had the time of our lives! Not only did we get to be where so much of redemptive history unfolded, but we also got to share it with people on a similar journey of learning to live in the Father’s affection and exploring more relational ways of finding church. I am excited to return again with Brad and take my daughter and niece on the same trip.  The extended time in Jordan will allow us to visit Mt. Nebo, where Moses viewed the Promised Land, the ancient rock-carved city of Petra, and some added sites in Israel as we come back up to join the rest of those touring with us.

The cost of the Israel Tour will be less than $4000 per person, with double-occupancy and including airfare if you’re coming from the US.  Those of you traveling from elsewhere can just pay for the land tour and make your own flight arrangements to Israel.  If you’d like to join us for the three extra days in Jordan it will cost about $1300 extra.

This land and its people are pivotal in the biblical story and it is here that history will reach its conclusion. No, God is not more present here than he is anywhere else on the planet, but if you’ve never been you have no idea how it will impact you to be in the very places you’ve read about so often and how it will change your reading of Scripture for the rest of your life.

israel3
Can you imagine what it is like…

  • to stand on the shore of Galilee with the water lapping at your feet
  • to climb Mt. Carmel where Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal
  • to look down from the Mt. of Olives at the very place where God’s temple stood
  • to be surrounded by 2000 year old trees in Gethsemane
  • to approach Temple Mount on stone pathways that date to the time of Jesus
  • to be in the very cell that held Jesus the night before He was crucified

My first trip to Israel in 1997 proved to have far more impact on me than I ever thought it could and the one we took two years ago brought some amazing people together and began friendships from around the world that continue to flourish. Join Brad and me for a walk through the Scripture story in the land where it all took place. I’ll be sharing some thoughts at key sites designed to stimulate personal reflection. And as we go along, we will enjoy a joint conversation about how God is revealing Himself in us.

jeruslamewwallThe Israel Tour Company, known for intimate tours that allow people to absorb the culture and history of the land, is taking care of all the details.  They have hosted both my previous trips there and I’m thrilled to be working with them again.

We have chosen to travel in January since the weather is comfortable in the desert locations, there aren’t as many tourists in the country at this time, and we can take a smaller, more intimate group more affordably. The length of the trip is designed to move us through the highlights of the country, still allowing time for reflection and a free day in Jerusalem.

I hope you can join me for an amazing tour of Israel – one that will add so much to your understanding of who God is and how he wants to walk with us.

For more information and registration click here.

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