I’m off to Germany to share God’s life and love there. Three of my books have been translated into German, He Loves Me as Loved, So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore as The Call of the Wild Goose, and Authentic Relationships as Authentic Relationships. I’m glad they kept one of my titles! And, in the last few years I have gotten a lot of email from Germany from people who are excited about living more relationally in the life of Jesus. I’m looking forward to meeting many of them and hanging out discovering what Father has been doing among them to teach them how to live in his love.
I often hear people refer to what I write and teach as the Grace Message or the Love Message. I know people often need a simple tag to put on things, but a part of me cringes whenever I hear the sum of my life being reduced to a message. I have to choke down those internal screams that want me to to pound that table and shout, “It’s not a message, it’s a way to live!” The joy of this journey comes not in convincing ourselves that God loves us but in actually learning to live as one of his beloved children in the earth!
I have the same reaction when anyone refers to marriage as an institution. My marriage is not an institution. It’s a relationship of growing love and respect that yields the incredible fruits of deep joy, hilarious laughter, insightful conversations, and a consistent friend and partner through the joys and trials of living in this age. This relationship has been hard won and grace-filled over 35 years of learning to care for her more than I care about myself. (I’m still learning that one!) She is the greatest joy I have in this age.
That’s why when people talk about what I share as the the Grace Message, I want to pull my hair out. If this was only a message, how empty would it be? Jesus has not invited me to teach a doctrine about God’s love or his grace. He has asked me to help people experience the reality of a growing relationship with him deeply centered in his Father’s affection for us. That is not just an intellectual proposition; it is a revelation that allows us to know him in increasing reality.
And as you grow to know him, you’ll realize that he is not a “warm fuzzy” grandpa in the sky. He is the transcendent, holy, all-powerful God of the universe who has offered to be my Abba, the most affectionate term that a first century toddler would call his or her dad. Yes, his affection is outrageous. But that affection also seeks to win me into increasing arenas of light so that I can be transformed by truth, not just coddled in my deceptions, lies, and broken coping mechanisms. That’s why I rarely use the term “unconditional love”, not because I think God’s love has conditions, but because the reference is so static. God’s affection is transformational, allowing me to know him and also changing me at the core of my being.
The invitation to live loved is not to buy into a new doctrine but to embrace a new way of living. I can increasingly live inside the Father’s affection instead of all the fears, anxieties and ambitions of my flesh. It is both joy and freedom of the highest order. And so can you! It is not something you turn on or off in a moment; it is a lifetime journey of being shaped a bit more every day as you learn to live at home in him. Go, live loved! Ask him to help you because this is way above what any of us can produce on our own.
By the way, the picture above is courtesy of some dear friends of mine whom I saw recently in Minnesota. They gave me a Living Loved graphic for my wall that Sara and I love. I asked them if others could get one if they wanted it and they told they could. You can get just a graphic for your wall, or you can order one on a tile like the one above. If you’re interested in having something like this in your home, or giving it as a gift, you can visit their website for more information.
I am glad that you will visit germany again 🙂 … although like the last time we also will not meet this time. I would like to “see you face to face” 😉 some other year … not to hear “your message” but to meet the real person Wayne Jacobsen.
I heard a lot of your teachings, read some books and I am still listening to The God Journey podcast. And you are right there is a wide difference between just hearing somone talk about love and the experience of daily living in gods love. Some how it seens to be easier to listen and enjoy the love which others are experiencing, than to live it by my own. But I do not only want to see life in others! I do not want to look at life from outside! I want to live it by my own! I want to be inside HIS life and inside HIS love.
The change of my own heart and the laying down of my own life in HIS loving hands, costs more than reading a book or listening to a message. Although I feel like I am on the very beginning of this journey I also know thee is no other way to HIS heart. It is worth it! It already is worth it 🙂
I hope you will meet some people with whom you will share life and not words.
God bless you brother and may the life in you (it is Jesus’ life) flow in to the hearts of others.
guido
(an Austrian living in Germany)
Welcome to Germany, Wayne!
See you there.
Christian
I am glad that you will visit germany again 🙂 … although like the last time we also will not meet this time. I would like to “see you face to face” 😉 some other year … not to hear “your message” but to meet the real person Wayne Jacobsen.
I heard a lot of your teachings, read some books and I am still listening to The God Journey podcast. And you are right there is a wide difference between just hearing somone talk about love and the experience of daily living in gods love. Some how it seens to be easier to listen and enjoy the love which others are experiencing, than to live it by my own. But I do not only want to see life in others! I do not want to look at life from outside! I want to live it by my own! I want to be inside HIS life and inside HIS love.
The change of my own heart and the laying down of my own life in HIS loving hands, costs more than reading a book or listening to a message. Although I feel like I am on the very beginning of this journey I also know thee is no other way to HIS heart. It is worth it! It already is worth it 🙂
I hope you will meet some people with whom you will share life and not words.
God bless you brother and may the life in you (it is Jesus’ life) flow in to the hearts of others.
guido
(an Austrian living in Germany)
Transformational affection of God. THAT is so fantastic. To be honest I as I hear the terms “the grace message” or “the love message” I switch off as to the content of them. Must be my short attention span. I just love that term – transformational. This is not something you get and understand once, and that’s it. I have heard a million messages like that. I get it, I understand it and I forget it. The transformational affection of God. This ongoing daily waking and walking and growing and learning and leaning.
Welcome to Germany, Wayne!
See you there.
Christian
Transformational affection of God. THAT is so fantastic. To be honest I as I hear the terms “the grace message” or “the love message” I switch off as to the content of them. Must be my short attention span. I just love that term – transformational. This is not something you get and understand once, and that’s it. I have heard a million messages like that. I get it, I understand it and I forget it. The transformational affection of God. This ongoing daily waking and walking and growing and learning and leaning.
Well said. I know many people who are into the “Grace Message”, yet I don’t know too many who talk about entering into relationship with Father. For many the “Grace Message” can be the avenue in which they can enter into relationship. I know for me it helped me along that path, but Wayne you were the greatest influence to enter in and learn living loved. My greatest concern is that they won’t enter into that relationship and the “Grace Message” will become doctrine with no life or power.
Say “Guten Tag!” to Germany for me. It is a long time dream of mine to visit there one day.
And once again, I love what you wrote today, Wayne. You are such a blessing to us.
Well said. I know many people who are into the “Grace Message”, yet I don’t know too many who talk about entering into relationship with Father. For many the “Grace Message” can be the avenue in which they can enter into relationship. I know for me it helped me along that path, but Wayne you were the greatest influence to enter in and learn living loved. My greatest concern is that they won’t enter into that relationship and the “Grace Message” will become doctrine with no life or power.
Say “Guten Tag!” to Germany for me. It is a long time dream of mine to visit there one day.
And once again, I love what you wrote today, Wayne. You are such a blessing to us.
Wayne,
I just want to say “thank you” for being the navigator who helped me get on the path to the greatest, on going journey of my life. The joy and freedom of learning to live in an Abba Father’s affection, continues to transform my heart bit by bit.
You share so much more than just a message. You help us discover and open the door of His heart, whereby our journey begins, and we can emulate his love in the world. You are a blessing…thank you.
Wayne,
I just want to say “thank you” for being the navigator who helped me get on the path to the greatest, on going journey of my life. The joy and freedom of learning to live in an Abba Father’s affection, continues to transform my heart bit by bit.
You share so much more than just a message. You help us discover and open the door of His heart, whereby our journey begins, and we can emulate his love in the world. You are a blessing…thank you.
Transformation…
That has been a key word, a key hunger for us as we have walked alongside so many people in our “patch” struggling with poverty – in multiple ways – with relationship [hungry for relationship but not able to live in relationship] and all this leads to all sort of addictions.
I long to see Jesus come to them in ways that transform them from the inside out – from the relationship they enter into with Him.
And we see some. I think of some of the “little ones”, people others see as of little account and yet I see His work in their lives, words that come from deep inside them that surprise and you realise He is in them. They are are encouragement.
But I long to see much more! I’m hungry, for more of His transformation in me [but thank Him for all that He has done] and for more in the people around and to affect the community around.
So thanks for sharing your heart – as you say it is not a message, and idea but a relationship with a person and what a person is our God!!!!!
Blessings in Germany – 2 of our children have spent time studying there and through them we have gained friends there too!
Richard
Transformation…
That has been a key word, a key hunger for us as we have walked alongside so many people in our “patch” struggling with poverty – in multiple ways – with relationship [hungry for relationship but not able to live in relationship] and all this leads to all sort of addictions.
I long to see Jesus come to them in ways that transform them from the inside out – from the relationship they enter into with Him.
And we see some. I think of some of the “little ones”, people others see as of little account and yet I see His work in their lives, words that come from deep inside them that surprise and you realise He is in them. They are are encouragement.
But I long to see much more! I’m hungry, for more of His transformation in me [but thank Him for all that He has done] and for more in the people around and to affect the community around.
So thanks for sharing your heart – as you say it is not a message, and idea but a relationship with a person and what a person is our God!!!!!
Blessings in Germany – 2 of our children have spent time studying there and through them we have gained friends there too!
Richard
These words were such a refreshment for me today. Thank you… and have a ‘ball tearing time’ (aussie speak for fun) in Germany.
These words were such a refreshment for me today. Thank you… and have a ‘ball tearing time’ (aussie speak for fun) in Germany.