We are no longer able to maintain our blog at the site where it has been generously hosted for us the past 20 months or so. We need to convert it and bring it onto the Lifestream site, which may take a bit of work over the next few days. If the site is not functional during the next few days, please understand why and bear with us.
Ahh… the growth curve! I hate the growth curve! But then growth doesn’t happen without, physically or computerally!
Thank you.
I can’t believe I didn’t get a new blog entry up here between the last podcast and this one. But it’s been a bit nuts around here, especially with the holiday week and some family events that coincided with all that. But I thought you’d want to know that our latest edition of The God Journey entitled Systems and Structures has just been posted on our sister website thegodjourney.com.
When people begin to see through the illusions of organized religion, many have the tendency to through out all structures, thinking they are inherently evil. Are they? Some feedback from Wayne and Brad’s podcast on George Barna’s Revolution and some listener questions regarding structure and associations give them an opportunity to sort through this issue, considering where structures can be a blessing by helping to facilitate Gods’ working, and where they supplant it and distract people from the simple joy of living out of their relationship with Jesus.
If you’d like to post comments or questions about this show, please do so on the God Journey Blog so that others can read them there as well. Thanks! I know it is sometimes easier to respond here, but then others on that website don’t get to interact with your comments or questions. Thanks!
Our latest edition of The God Journey entitled The Freedom Not To Have It All Figured Out has just been posted on our sister website thegodjourney.com.
As Wayne and Brad respond to a recent flood of reader comments and letters, they wander into a discussion about the challenge of living in Jesus without having all the details figured out or having the results of our circumstances guaranteed. Our safety is not found in our plans being fulfilled but in our growing friendship with Jesus. When our confidence is vested in him alone we will be able to navigate the ruggedness and uncertainty of the journey with his wisdom and grace.
If you’d like to post comments or questions about this show, please do so on the God Journey Blog so that others can read them there as well. Thanks! I know it is sometimes easier to respond here, but then others on that website don’t get to interact with your comments or questions. Thanks!
Joshua from Virginia wrote in response to my recent Breaking Free blog, show how that process has not been easy for him. I love the issue he raised and how he responded to what I wrote. Grace is not something we get for a day or two, it’s something we need for life. We will stumble and fall but as you can see in this exchange, God transforms us faster when we keep relishing grace, not as we stew in condemnation.
It’s a nearly unbearable heartache to go through this again. I mean, I know I have nowhere else to turn but Jesus, but I hate the thought that I’ll have another spiritual catharsis, write you a letter like that guy did, and then be spiritually sick again in another four or five months. Can you offer any words of encouragement? I feel broken and down – and the kind of irritating thing is I probably will not feel so bad in a couple of hours – then I’ll probably do something stupid again later on today and wonder whether I’ll ever have a stable Christian life. This is not healthy.
Here’s how I responded to him: This journey can be complicated some times, can’t it? I’m sorry you’ve gotten sidetracked again somehow, but anyone on this journey knows what that is like. Yes, it seems we make great headway for a season, then find ourselves marooned again on our own self-pleasure and wonder what it is all about.
The letter you read is not a momentary catharsis. I am in touch with the man who wrote it and some wonderful things are going on in his life that I’m certain will bear fruit years down the line. But I guess time will tell us for sure. One thing I know is that this growing in Christ often has times of fits and starts and distractions and falls and the people who find freedom and fruitfulness are the ones who keep getting back up, going to God accepting his forgiveness and drawing near 40 times a day if need be.
It seems guilt might be overriding you in failure. It makes you feel bad for a while, then lets you up and then slaps you down again. That’s pretty consistent. Somehow God needs to make it real for you that he is your partner in sorting out this bondage, not your critic and judge waiting for you to get it right. Invite him in, even at the moment of failure and let him do what he needs to do in you to set you free.
He’s really good at this; we are not. He just wants you to get to the end of yourself, so you won’t keep trying to do what only he can do. I don’t know anything more encouraging than that!!!!
You go, Bro! This is what the journey is like at times. Discouragement only ensures the cycle. Receiving his affection at the place of our brokenness is what breaks it. I’m praying for the latter in your case…
I loved what he wrote back:
I’m going to get back up and trust Jesus. I’m going to trust that He’s not just a nice one of us, that His grace truly is sufficient. I’ve been believing in an insufficient grace lately – a grace that stands aloof, arms crossed, wondering when I’m going to pull myself together. That’s just not true. Thank you for being a gasp of fresh air for an oxygen-deprived mind.
This was posted on the Lifestream List the other day and I thought it was a fabulous reminder about what fellowship is really all about and I also think it is the best way to spill into relationships with others. The author is Lynette from New Zealand. Sara and I spent some time last summer with her, her husband, and their two children in Wellington. She hosts Unveiling where she posts some wonderful articles encouraging people to a deeper life in ther reality of Christ.
Someone had just shared how difficult it was for them to find fellowship with people on this journey and asked others where they were finding fellowship. Here’s what Lynette wrote:
So I can see that the place He has you in, that very quiet time, is a very, very special and precious time when He can draw you aside and have your whole attention and teach you about true fellowship with Him! Fellowship doesn’t mean just meeting with others, it means communion and partnership and how many people can we be a partner with? Usually only one! And this One is in partnership with each of us so that we are in partnership/fellowship with many through One! Enjoy your partnership, communion, intimacy (in other words fellowship with Him!
All fellowship flows from the Son. Learn to live in him and you are in fellowship with every member of his body all around the world. That’s the reality of this kingdom. And Jesus is able to connect you with those he needs you you at any given moment and can do that in a variety of ways. We participate in that best when we’re resting in our relationship with him, and miss it most when we’re anxiously trying to make it happen ourselves.
Opening my email every day is an adventure. I’m want to share with you two of them I received yesterday from brothers in Africa because they give us an incredible perspective of what God is doing elsewhere in the world. The first is from South Africa and some people I stayed with one weekend in August. I met the woman in this report. She had been born and raised in a satanist cult as a breeder of human sacrifices and escaped a couple of years ago and became a follower of Jesus. But they never let go easily of those they claim as theirs:
She went to our brother-in-law, who cut the handcuff off. She incurred some bruising from this. It is wonderful to see the church of Jesus working together in the work of the kingdom. Then this sister, at my brother-in-law’s request, prayed for a man who was mightily delivered from demonic possession and oppression, when Jesus supernaturally revealed to her the source of his problem. There is still a road to be walked as Jesus revealed that there were problems back at his home. Continue to pray for us – we know that there is more to come as God opens doors. We have again been humbled by the grace of God. I have been praying this whole week for breakthrough and just want more – come, Lord Jesus, come!
This email came from a brother in Ghana in a response to my Jake Colsen site:
There is one passage of Scripture that God continue to speak to my heart. It is from Romans 10:13-15 which reads, “For anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them? The Lord is placing more burden in our hearts to go to various places and share the gospel. Such a burden is on my heart more and more lately for the whole world to hear the Gospel. My soul cries because I know that there are so many souls that are not saved.
Somewhere around here there have been killings in the night. Last week, a man was killed and dumped in the sea. At least not less than three people included a pregnant woman had been killed since last week. This act is usually attributed to Voodooist fishermen who use human blood sacrifices to get a lot of fishes. And evidently, last week market day on Thursday there were a lot of big fishes caught by the fishermen, such that we have never seen since our stay here in Ghana. Everywhere in the market was full with fishes! And it was sold at a very cheaper prices! Many immediate locals that were aware of the killings and the acts of the fishermen refuses to buy the fishes, but a lot of people also buy the fishes.
This is one of the terrible things that happen frequently over here. More so, as the end of the year approaches, a lot of people that belongs to cult and traditional evil groups usually uses human beings for rituals and sacrifices to their gods. I just want you to be aware of this things, I think this may sounds strange to you. Well, our God continue to be our shield from the evil ones. Please pray that the Lord would grant us wisdom and favor as we seek to spread the good news of Jesus Christ to those around us. May the peace of God continue to dwell within your hearts; may you forever be strengthened in His might; and may the Holy Spirit make a straight path for you. Extend our greetings, love and thanks to your family and all the brethren there. Please write when you are able as we long to hear from you. Alfred & the brethren here
I’m sure your prayers would be appreciated for both of these groups of brothers and sisters…
Our latest edition of The God Journey entitled Barna’s Revolution has just been posted on our sister website thegodjourney.com.
Is there a revolution afoot in the body of Christ. George Barna seems to think so and in his latest book, Revolution, he describes a large and growing group of committed Christians who have given up on the traditional congregational model of Christianity. And instead of calling this an unhealthy trend that needs to be reversed, he embraces it as a movement that will in the next 20 years radically alter what we call church. Wayne and Brad examine the contents and conclusions of his book, recognizing both the encouragement it can provide for those thinking outside the box, and the dangers it offers to reorganize something in human terms, that only God can accomplish.
If you’d like to post comments or questions about this show, please do so on the God Journey Blog so that others can read them there as well. Thanks! I know it is sometimes easier to respond here, but then others on that website don’t get to interact with your comments or questions. Thanks!
Perspective
Those of us who live in the developed west have such a skewed view of the world and its reality. I find lists like this to be extremely helpful in seeing things more the way God does, than our own national interests ever let us do.
If you could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, there would be:
One of the things that astounded me while touring the Apartheid Museum in South Africa was how 20% of the population could actively discriminate and oppress the other 80% in their own land. They had all the wealth, health care and benefits while people across the street had virtually nothing.
Look at these statistics again. How is that not true now of those of us who have adequate (dare we say abundant) housing, education and health care? How would God have us live financially in a world so devastated by need and where resources are distributed so unfairly? What are our responsibilities help others who do not have the advantages we do? Surely our world is horribly out of synch with the heart of the Creator, and what a great day it will be when he comes to set right all that has tormented the people he loves.
I know this is an uncomfortable perspective for us (see yesterday’s blog), but sometimes that’s good exactly what will bring us perspective. I don’t share it to provoke guilt, which would be worthless anyway. But in view of all that the Scriptures teach about looking out for the poor and oppressed, this might be a perspective we desperately need as we pray and listen to Father’s heart and see how he would have us to live in the world with generosity toward others.
One of the lists I subscribe to on the Internet is the Daily Dig, from the Bruderhof communities. It offers a thought-provoking quote every day and most of them are incredible. I got this one today. Can you imagine Plato sharing something so brilliant?
Afraid of the Light?
Plato
One can easily understand a child who is afraid of the dark. The real tragedy of life is when grown men and women are
afraid of the light.
As I read that this morning, I thought back through the Gospels and how many people came face to face with the light of God in the glory of the Son. some embraced that light and all it would reveal in them. Others stole back into the shadows not willing to see God for who he really is, nor to comprehend his work in them. The Pharisees refused to answer Jesus’ question about John’s authority because they were unwilling to face the anger of the crowd. Yet, Zaccheus embraced it even when his thievery would be clear to all.
Isn’t it incredibly odd that we find more comfort in the dark, where our illusions can live, rather than love the light and whatever it might reveal? I even think many theological arguments are ways to spin the darkness rather than come face to face with God. But when this God is your loving father, there is nothing left to fear, even our temptations and failures.
The test of discipleship is not how much we can keep up with all the disciplines nor all that we think we can do for God. The real test of discipleship is loving the light enough to keep crawling into it against our inclination to retreat back into the fake safety of the darkness.
Our latest edition of The God Journey entitled Children Unplugged—The Squel has just been posted on our sister website thegodjourney.com.
They couldn’t resist! Brad and Wayne had so much feedback from their previous podcast on being involved with children outside the box, that they wanted to share some of it with you and continue the dialog. As you will see, this is not just an issue for parents, but for all of Father’s family. Responding to children as a vital part of our lives and our engagement with the body will not only enrich them, but ourselves as well.
If you’d like to post comments or questions about this show, please do so on the God Journey Blog so that others can read them there as well. Thanks! I know it is sometimes easier to respond here, but then others on that website don’t get to interact with your comments or questions. Thanks!