Jesus never taught us to put our trust in others, only in him. Our attempts to trust others will only poison the relationships we hold dear.
Newsletter from LifeStream – Living Loved. Includes downloadable PDFs, and translations to other languages.
View Articles grouped by TopicTo Trust or Not to Trust
February 4, 1996Why Settle for Anything Less?
April 6, 1996How God’s love can be our only motivation, and why we always find cheap substitutes for that incredible gift.
Going to the Root
June 11, 1996A summarization of a book that just might change forever how you view the church of Jesus Christ.
To Be Free of God??!!?!?
September 11, 1996Enjoying the freedom of becoming absolutely dependent upon God, and why we resist it so.
The Father’s Delight
November 11, 1996Learning to live in the love of the Father.
What About Him?
January 20, 1997Competition and how it affects our relationships with other believers.
Once In a Lifetime…
March 23, 1997A trip to the Holy Land and lessons on trusting God with our lives.
What’s In it For Me?
May 28, 1997How the pursuit of our own self-interest leads us far afield of God’s best work in our lives.
Welcome Home!
July 26, 1997The invitation God makes for us to be related to him and why our trust in him is so critical to that process.
The Nut Test
September 19, 1997Learning the difference between relationship and religion and what relational Christianity looks like.
Why Are You So Afraid?
November 19, 1997Learning to fix our eyes on Jesus, not the circumstances that assail us, and our own inabilities to do much about them.
The Most Exciting Days in History
January 10, 1998A look at God’s working in our day and how we can appreciate it, written by Kevin Smith a friend from Australia.
The Businessman and the Beggar
March 9, 1998Why our pursuit of trying to earn God’s favor must end before we’ll ever be able to experience the reality of his life in us.
Every Day, Every Moment
May 17, 1998A call to a daily relationship with the Risen Christ that can transform our lives with his glory.
By Every Word
July 16, 1998Intimacy with God can only be lived out as we learn to listen and follow his voice through the ups and downs of everyday living.
Getting on Father’s Page
September 12, 1998Instead of inviting God to bless our work and show up where we are, maybe it would be better for us to live everyday where he is.
Painting Outside the Lines
November 20, 1998What God is doing today in the lives of his people, may not always fit between the lines of our religious institutions.
Rekindling Passion
January 3, 1999God has called us to live every day in an all-consuming passionate love for him. Here’s how we lose it from time to time and how we can recapture it.
Daisy Petal Christianity
March 8, 1999God doesn’t ever want you to doubt again the immense depth of his love for you; nor for you to miss how to respond to it in a life-changing way.
Signposts On The Journey
May 3, 1999What markers can help us determine if the voice you’re hearing is really Father’s?
Living in the Relational Church – Part 1
July 10, 1999What would happen among believers who really saw the church in the same way God sees her?
Living in the Relational Church – Part 2
September 10, 1999A continuation of our look at the church as God views her and how we can truly participate in its life.
The Hen and Her Chicks
November 14, 1999The magnificent work of God at the cross that forever secured our redemption in him and our relationship with him.
The Same Old Story
January 10, 2000What God is doing to set people free from the tethers religion imposes on us and to soar to the heights of what it means to participate with him in his work in our world.
In Exactly the Same Way
March 5, 2000The secret to loving like God loves, is to know how much you are loved by him.
Freedom is Only the Beginning
May 9, 2000Two recent experiences brought some fresh images of God’s Fatherhood into my own life. Hopefully they will touch you in a similar way.
Snapshots of Father’s Love
July 1, 2000Two recent experiences brought some fresh images of God’s Fatherhood into my own life. Hopefully they will touch you in a similar way.
The Spirit of Family: Living in the Relational Church – Part 3
September 8, 2000Why we don’t experience more family life with other believers and what we can do about it.
Giving and Generosity: Living in the Relational Church – Part 4
November 8, 2000Tithing is only a shadow of a greater reality that Jesus invited his followers to experience in giving.
The Deepest Freedom
January 10, 2001Finding freedom from legalism, religious obligation and the expectations of others is only the beginning. The tyranny of Self is what most keeps us from the joy of walking in Father’s life.
Reasons to Run: Living in the Relational Church – Part 5
March 2, 2001What do you do when relationships with other believers become a drag on your journey, instead of an encouragement?
Why I Don’t Go To Church Anymore: Living in the Relational Church – Part 6
May 4, 2001Questions and answers about the nature of the church in our day and how it is that we can relate it with life and vitality.
Questions About Body Life
August 7, 2001Look in on some of Wayne’s correspondence as he helps people wrestle with the implications of relational Christianity.
Lessons from the Rubble
November 10, 2001Thoughts on the terrorist attacks, their implications in our culture and how they can spur us on to every greater depths of relationship with Jesus.
Why House Church Isn’t the Answer: Living in the Relational Church – Part 7
February 14, 2002Those who look to House Church as a panacea for what ails the church may be sorely disappointed when they get there. What do we really have to fix for church life to be productive and powerful?
The Joy of Letting Go
April 1, 2002If we grab for security on our own terms, we’ll always find ourselves falling short of the passion in our hearts for God. Here’s how to let go and see God’s hand transform your life.
The Third Road
June 6, 2002Why walking in religion can’t take us to the heights of God’s joy and how the road to relationship not only leads us to righteousness, but to healthy body life as well.
It’s So Worth It!
September 26, 2002Many who start out on the journey of relational life with God, get lost or discouraged in the process. Don’t let that happen to you.
We Already Have a Shepherd! Leadership in the Relational Church – Part 8
December 12, 2002How did Jesus intend leadership to function in his incredible family.
Shared Dependence: Living in the Relational Church – Part 9
April 10, 2003Unless our dependency is squarely on Jesus and not on each other, we’ll never know the beauty of church life.
Sharing the Journey
July 22, 2003An excerpt from Wayne’s newest book, co-written with his brother Clay, this chapter shows how pooling our wisdom can add great joy and wisdom to the journey.
Thriving Outside the Box
October 13, 2003If freedom only gets you out of religious obligation and not into Father’s life at a whole new level, it will be your ruin, not your release.
Living in Two Worlds
February 1, 2004Eternal life is not just our distant hope. It is also our present possession and keeping focused on it will help us live in the world without being captured by it.
The Call of the Shepherd
May 19, 2004Finding safety and purpose in the presence of Jesus and the courage to follow his voice wherever he leads us.
What Is God Asking Of You?
September 16, 2004Learning to recognize Jesus’ voice in our lives and having the focus and courage to follow him in the simplest things he asks of us will turn our spiritual stagnation into life and fulfillment. This article also includes ‘That Lot’ in Fairlie, an amazing story of a group of believers in New Zealand.
Breaking Free
November 11, 2004A real-life demonstration of what it means to break free of religious obligation and break into the relationship God has always desired for us.
The Church That Jesus Builds: Living in the Relational Church – Part 10
December 20, 2004Unless Jesus is our focus and passion we’ll never discover what life can be like between believers who are sharing that passion together. Here are ways you can connect with the church Jesus is building around the world.
A Couple Struggles with Pornography
April 15, 2005This is the exchange I had with a young wife and mother struggling with her husband’s addiction. I think it is important for all sides to see how …
The Struggle for Sexual Freedom
April 15, 2005These two letters come from brothers I know personally and i thought their stories might be an encouragement and help to others. I know that God does not …
Sexual Struggles on the Relational Journey
April 15, 2005Dealing with sexual temptations and failures in the context of our spiritual growth, and finding fulfillment in the gift of sexuality as God gave it to us.
Feasting on the Tree of Life
August 8, 2005Until we truly die to the right to decide what is good and not good for our own lives, we’ll never find ourselves basking in the absolute joy of life as Father always meant us to know it.
Tree Town – A Parable For Our Times
November 15, 2005A young man finds a book and makes all the wrong conclusions, until he discovers the key that unlocks the mystery.
The Real Question
March 1, 2006How might we respond to the conflict between those who attend traditional congregations and those who look for more relational expressions of church life, that builds up the family, rather than further fragmenting it.
Reveling in the Freedom to Follow
July 14, 2006Jesus invited people to come and follow him. So why does religion do more to discourage people from that than freeing them to follow him and discover the life in him that he wants for each of us.
The Language of Community
September 10, 2006Highlighted excerpts from So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore, focus on the kind of things we can say to others to encourage them on the journey of living deeply in Christ.
Windblown: What Life in Him Looks Like
February 5, 2007Living in the fullness of Christ is not a matter of embracing theology ritual, or ethics but to engage him by the Spirit and follow him wherever he leads.
Friends and Friends of Friends: Living in the Relational Church – Part 11
September 10, 2007Participating in the Life of the Church has less to do with rituals and doctrine as it does relationship. Here’s a way to define the church that transcends all the organizations in which people try to contain it.
The Power of Living In Love
June 13, 2008Has Jesus called us to live by strategic planning, or by the unfolding consequences of simply loving others in the same way we are loved by him?
Bait and Switch
May 6, 2009How Christianity traded the invitation into an intimate relationship to God into the rituals and rules of religion, and how we can find our way back.
How Do I… ?
March 4, 2010Whenever we are frustrated that God is not opening doors for us it might be a sign that we’re focused on the wrong doors. The kingdom grows in our heart through the organic reality of living loved and following him, not by finding the right strategy.
The Jesus Lens #16 – How It All Got Started
July 31, 2011The sixteenth audio in our new series about the wonder of Scripture and how to read and interpret it through the revelation of Jesus. The Jesus Lens #16: …
Quiet Lives of Profound Consequence
September 23, 2011The people who have most influenced my life over the years are not authors or podcasters, but men and women who have been down the road a bit further than I had and knew how to encourage my journey without overrunning it.
The Church Jesus is Building
December 27, 2011What will the church of Jesus Christ look like ten years from now? Wrestling with that question will tell us a lot about how we view the church Jesus is building in our world, and how we can be part of it as it unfolds.
Betrayal, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation
March 25, 2012Talks about what we do when relationships go bad. If we don’t learn how to deal with others who regard relationships expendable, and whose brokenness sometimes spill over into our our own lives, we won’t know how to have healthy relationships with those who are not healthy themselves.
The Narrow Road
January 8, 2013Learning to live in the love of the Father is not the result of one grand commitment, but the fruit of a long series of choices that leans away from the world’s way and listens to the gentle nudges of the Spirit as to how to live differently.
The Phenomenon of The Dones
December 8, 2015Thirty-one million people, or 1/7 of all adults in the U.S., once attended a local congregation but do so no longer though they continue to follow Jesus and are looking for other avenues of community and mission. What are we to make of this group and how can we be a constructive part of this conversation?
Lifestream Update – Fall 2016
September 8, 2016Does 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 …
Far Better Explored Than Explained
March 20, 2019When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. (John 16:8) Some things in life are better explored than explained such as an …
Only the Hungry
September 24, 2021Living Loved – Fall 2021 Note: this is a copy of my infrequent newsletter, sent out Wednesday. When I returned from Australia a couple of decades ago, having …