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Yes, that is my two-year old granddaughter above.

From the whole bunch of us here at Lifestream, we’ve been incredibly blessed to be part of your lives this year, and to be a voice that encourages you to listen and follow Jesus into the life that truly is life! We are also overwhelmingly grateful for those who have encouraged us this year with gracious words, with much-appreciated prayers, and with finances whether it was in buying some of our books or CDs, or gifts that allow us to make so much of what we do freely available to people all over the world.

This is my last post of the year. I’m going to take a break from all my web content over the next couple of weeks as I celebrate this season with my family and also put my heart and head to some new projects Jesus is stirring in my heart. I’ll look forward to communicating with you in the year ahead, and pray it will be one filled with God’s glory for you in ways you cannot even fathom yet.

Special Notice: Our offices will be closed from Wednesday, December 20 through Monday, December 25. We will not be able to ship any books or CDs during this time. Orders receieved by noon on Tuesday (12/19) will be shipped that day. If you want to receive them by Christmas you will need to phone our office so we can send them Priority Mail which will cost a few dollars more. We are sorry for any inconvenience our holiday schedule creates for you.

Need a laugh this weekend?

Someone just sent me this, and so I’ll include it as the second You Tube video we’ve listed here. This does not have near as much redeeming value as the last one I referred to, but it is an hilarious look at what can happen in a baptistry when somone doesn’t fit into the accepted order of things.

Check it out!

I came across this verse in a recent reading of Colossians 4 in The Message:

Be gracious in your speech. The goal is to bring out the best in others in a conversation, not put them down, not cut them out.

I love the simple freedom of being in a conversation looking to bring the best out in someone else, rather than getting my agenda all worked out. And it puts the focus not on what we say so mcuh as how it is responded to. They key is to ensure that it comes to them with grace. What does that look like? The same day I read that in a morning time of reading, I got an email from someone I’d crossed paths with on a recent trip. She wrote later to thank me and I loved what she wrote:

Thank you for talking with me the other night. I went home and thought about everything we discussed and somehow felt a little more at peace with my situation. I went to work with a different attitude and had a much better day. I felt as if God told me that He intends to answer my prayers in a little while, to hang on, that He has been working it out.

This journey is so amazing. I have grown to not know what to expect. I assumed that God was being silent in some areas of our life and yet in talking with you guys it’s clear that it’s not the case. I felt so loved and treated like a more mature person instead of a baby Christian. I am getting meat and a lot less milk. I hadn’t thought of it that way and it’s given me more freedom. It’s caused me to heighten my attention to His leading and teaching…

When people try to convince me that fellowship is an obligation, I think of moments like this. Who needs to be obligated to share this kind of life together? This is what fellowship is at its essence—the chance to help each other see Jesus a bit more clearly and understand what he is doing in our lives.

If that’s what fellowship does in someone’s life, who wouldn’t crave it every chance they had?

Living this journey isn’t an always thing to get since most of us have been brought up in religious environments where our lives are based on obligation instead of friendship with him. Learning to live in freedom and watch him do things in far better ways than we ever could on our own is one of the great joys of this journey. I got this email from a friend of mine who lives in Canada. I love what he is discovering and how he expressed it. He’s learning that our evangelistic efforts and our living as demonstrations of his reality in the world are two very different things. And they are.

When evangelism is an obligation where we need to convince others how wrong they are, we are only pushing people away because of our religious agenda. But when the Gospel simply flows from our lives in the simplicity of how we live, some amazing things can happen. As you read what, he’s learning, watch too at how he’s learning. He’s responding to those nudgings on his heart and watching what the Spirit can do through him is more incredible than anything our own efforts can achieve. That’s how the Spirit wins us into living freely in this kingdom by convincing us that he works in ways our own efforts can’t fathom.

Also, thought I’d quickly share a bit of what Father’s been doing in my life. Towards the end of this past summer, as I began to think about upcoming commitments and scheduling for this fall and winter, I felt Father prompting me to scale back the commitments on my time. In past years, I found myself at times swamped doing things I didn’t always enjoy. Looking back, I could see this was robbing me of time for enjoying simple fellowship and relationships. Anyway, I knew something had to change for this fall/winter, and I felt increasing peace about freeing up my time. I didn’t have any idea what specific things Father was going to do, but it was on my heart to just spend time with whomever God brought across my path and build relationships with people.

Suffice to say, I have enjoyed some tremendous times with different people and can only stand back in awe at how Father connects people. I have also begun to experience the simple pleasure and freedom of relationships. Real stuff happens because of relationships!!! I am so convinced, like no other time in my life, that relationships are what it’s all about. And it’s because of Father’s revelation to me as I’ve experienced this in my own life. There’s such a freedom in just getting to know and love another person only for who they are. Not as a “candidate” for salvation or because I can “get something” from them.

A neat example is this guy I met golfing in the summer. He’s in his mid-50’s, single, (not a believer) and has had a variety of health problems over the years (including drug and alcohol addiction). Anyway, I began to spend some time with him and have continued to do so. In the past, I would have felt a guilt or burden to “witness” to him in some way. But Father has slowly changed me in that area, and I don’t feel any pressure at all. As a result, we’ve had some interesting discussions about God over time, but it’s on his accord. And I’m finding that I don’t have any agenda in that regard, but just a simple love for him that I know doesn’t come from me!!

One time he said something that really encouraged me. He told me that when we first met, he immediately sensed something “spiritual” about me in the way I was. This was such an encouragement to me, as I’ve always struggled with “not saying enough,” especially since I’m not the most “evangelistic” or outgoing person. It was as though Father was telling me that I don’t have to do or say anything, that I can just rest in the fact He lives in me and his light will not be dimmed. But to just trust him—that I don’t always need to “see” the results to verify God’s work! Needless to say, I feel blessed at what Father is doing not only in my life, but in those around me. What a journey! I’m excited at what he has in store!

For regular listeners, and those who haven’t found The God Journey yet, we wanted you to know that we have updated the entire site with a new look and new features. Please stop by and visit some time.

And, if you’d like to let others know that you’re on a God Journey of your own, we have new images for people to add to their blogs and websites encouraging others to find out about The God Journey themselves. Check it out!

I found out a few weeks ago that we were running out of So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore, and have spent the last few days getting that manuscript back to the printer with some corrections made and a new publisher logo on it. Hopefully we’ll get those back before we run out of our existing supply.

One of the valuable things we did on that book was put quotes on the first few pages from readers who were impacted by it. We have heard over and over again how much those encouraged others to dive deeply into the book.

We want to do that with the next edition of He Loves Me, which we will also have to print in the next few months because we are running out of those as well. If any of you would like to write a blurb for that book for us? We need short, pithy comments about the book, much like you find in the early pages of the Jake book, talking about how it impacted you. We wanted normal folks, not celebrities to let others know what they think of this book.

You can either email those directly to me or leave them here as comments. Please include your first name, a two or three word descriptor of you (electrician, university professor, father of two, high school student, unemployed musician, mother of 18, something like that) and your hometown. That will make you seem like a real person and that we didn’t make those up here one afternoon. We can’t promise to use them all, but will use those we think best taps the hunger of future readers. Thanks for the help. Blessings!

Care to read over my shoulder again? I got this today and I just love emails like this one. Nothing excites me more than seeing Jesus bring this kind of freedom into someone’s heart.

God’s timing is awesome. I have listened to the audio version of the Jake Colsen book a couple of times now driving back and forth between work and home. I cannot even begin to describe how accurate that book is, at least for me. Especially the chapters dealing with “house church”. I am Jake Colsen!!

I had left the institutional approach for a better pattern of church. It was a rather rational decision. IC wasn’t working, so I must be getting something wrong. I needed to be more like the early church. But, I was missing the most important thing. I was focusing on an “it” rather than “Him”. Thanks for helping me sort this out.

I did an interview yesterday with a Canadian Christian TV show, and we found ourselves on this theme a lot as well. This is one of those places in my life, I never saw coming. I spent 20 years trying to find the perfect ‘it’ that would contain Jesus and his life. I never found it and was finlly won over to the idea that Jesus did lot leave us with a system to perpetuate the church, but with his Spirit who would let us live deeply in his life…

Is there any other way to really live?

I have told this story quite a few times on various teachings, but someone recently typed it up from the Transition series and sent me a copy. I have never seen it in print. It is not original to me, and if I knew who came up with this joke, I’d sure give them credit. But it makes a wonderful point nonetheless…

A member of the clergy arrives in heaven and is greeted at the gate by Peter, Jesus’ disciple. “Well hi, how are you?”

“Fine,” the man answered. “Do I just walk in?”

“That depends,” Peter answered. “How many points you got?”

“Points? What points?”

“You know, points for doing good things.”

The man didn’t look too concerned. “I’ve done a lot of good things,” the man answered.

“So, how many points do you have?”

“I have no idea. How many points do I need?”

“You need one hundred points to get in,” Peter answers.

“One hundred points? Is that all? That shouldn’t be too tough. I worked at the soup kitchen for 20 years will that…?”

“Certainly. I can give you a point for that.” Peter answered.

“A point for each time?” the man asked hopeful.

“No, a point for the whole thing.” Peter seemed a bit preturbed.

“Only a point?” The man was shocked. “Well, I was a pastor for 40 years.”

“Hmmm,” Peter thought a moment. “I guess I can give you a point for that too.

The man was dumbfounded. How could he possibly get enough points at this rate? While he was thinking of enough ways to get points, a businessman that he knew while on earth walked by, waving at Peter. “Hi, Pete. How are you doing?”

Peter waved back with a smile. “I’m doing great. Enjoy yourself.” And with that the man just walked through the gates.

The cleric looked confused and turned to Peter. “You mean that guy has a hundred points?”

“That guy?” Peter asked pointing over his shoulder. “He’s not playing this game.”

The ride home was as scheduled, 10 hours from door to door! I love it when it works that way. When I got home the wildfires were out around Moorpark, though there’s some smoldering going on because we can smell the smoke in the air. Eight homes were lost in our town, some not too far from here.

I loved the comments on my last blog, especially from those who were part of our times there and wanted to share what they learned with others. Evan added some comments about the weekend on his blog and Brent shares some of the rewriting going on in his heart on his 12/04 blog.

And for those hoping for a trip to Nashville, you may get your prayers answered. I’ve just been invited to attend a small-group working session with the First Amendment Center, the ACLU and the Council on America’s First Freedoms to see how public schools are dealing with issues of religion and religious liberty, and what can be done to address the remaining issues. That happens the first week of March, so I may come in early and hang out with some Nashville folks…

I read this the other day in Colossians, and it just rang in my heart. For the past 12 years I have been part of an international dialog with people about what life in Christ and what life in the body can truly be in our day. Hundreds of books have been written. Thousands of web pages have been added to the dialog. I’m one who appreciates intellectual study and discussion, but it’s good to be reminded that such things are incredibly limited. The only way to learn to live this life is to (how do I say this?), live this life!

My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Jesus Christ, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do waht you’ve been taught. School’s out; quite studying the subject and start living it! Colossians 2, the Message

I love that. Of course, if you’re new to this dialog and don’t yet feel rooted in him, don’t take this the wrong way. There is a season to learn to live in him and get let him switch our priorities around. But for those who just keep reading and studying and discussing, hoping to find an answer ‘out there’ somewhere, don’t forget this is a life to be lived, not a life to talk about endlessly. The Way and the Truth and the Life already dwells in you. Follow him day by day, step by step.