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It’s finally here.  We’ve been planning this for over a year and I can’t it is now time to go.  This trip fulfills a promise to Sara after I was there seventeen years ago when she couldn’t go and it was always a dream for her to do so.  We decided to take along some of our friends, so tomorrow Sara and i will depart for Israel and join 39 others from around the world for a ten-day tour of Israel.  We’ll not just be viewing the sights, but we’ll also be sharing all that God has done here to invite men and women into a growing trust in a loving Father and why it was so important of all the places in the world to do it in the land we know as Israel. 

Here God made himself known through the patriarchs and prophets of Israel and then through the Incarnation of his own Son.  Throughout the whole story of redemption, God keeps trying to rescue humanity out of the brokenness of a fallen creation and humanity either resists him or continually seeks to exploit him by creating religious rules and rituals that diminish his reality even as they profess to honor him.  In that sense Israel is a land of great contrasts.   We will be at the tomb where the patriarchs were buried, the caves where David hid from King Saul, the mountain where Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal, on the Sea where Jesus calmed the storm, the garden where he prayed, and in the prison cell where he spent the night before his crucifixion.  But we’ll also see the arrogant, excessive, and soul-numbing intrusion of religion in this landscape, where every religious group in the world seeks to have a presence and in the name of celebrating the God of the universe fight each other with firm resolve.  We will see in stark terms the emptiness of religion and the glory of God being revealed in the earth in the new creation Jesus inaugurated when he was here. 

And where will we see that new creation best?  Will it be at the garden tomb or the Wailing Wall?  The Mt. of Beatitudes or along the Jordan.  I don’t think so.  The new creation makes its way into the world in the hearts and lives of people who are discovering who God is.  This new creation will be evident in conversations on the bus, over meals, and in the scores of locations we’ll visit.  Knowing those who are coming and the journeys they are on I anticipate the new creation emerging in the relationships that people from four different continents will share over the course of these ten days.  New friendships will form, insights and encouragements will be shared, and God will make himself known in the diversity of people he brings together affirming the wider work he is doing in the world that includes us all.  

I wish everyone reading this could join us, but that would have taken a really, big bus and been completely unmanageable.  Honestly, I’ve put off doing this for years because I didn’t know if I knew enough people who could afford the time and expense of going.  I’m glad these were able to pull it off, some having saved for years just for such an opportunity.  I hope all of you find a way to come sometime.  It’s more than you’d ever dream. God is no more present there than he is in your home, but to actually stand where some of the major events in God’s redemptive history took place will change something in you and help your understanding of Scripture come alive.  

You can follow our itinerary here.  We’ve got some gifted photographers along and we’ll try to share some of those photos on this blog and on the Lifestream Facebook Page when we get a chance.  That depends, of course, on time available as well as wi-fi access.

People are already asking if we’re planning to do this again next year and my answer today is I don’t think so. My daughter is already pressing for me to do it again when her kids are a bit older and she can go, but I don’t want to be that guy that leads an Israel tour every year.  I’m much more interested in helping building up the church all over the world where people are learning to live in his life.  But you never know.  If this turns out to be a powerful time helping people make connections that bear the fruit of his kingdom, I’ll may consider doing another one somewhere up the road. 

I do enjoy watching God draw lines of connection and relationship in his body, especially internationally.  That’s a lot of why I do the travel I do.  So as we celebrate these days with a small slice of the church, we will be thinking of that larger body that is emerging all over the earth as people learn to live in the love of a gracious Father.  

I thought others of you would be interested in this little exchange I had the other day.  The only reason I’m posting it is because I get this question often as it’s a very real part of our journey and the shift in thinking that happens when we move beyond religion to live in the Father’s affection. 

Mark:   I have a quick question for you. How do you respond, when people that you used to attend church with ask what’s going on in your life?  I don’t want to begin arguments and I don’t want to come across in a negative way, but how do I share this new understanding with those who don’t yet have it.









  


 
Its so odd because Church in America is always touted as being a place filled with love and acceptance, but the moment that you walk away from that organization you are labeled, ridiculed, and often belittled by the very people that claim to have unconditional love for you. When I try to share that I left church to draw closer to God, I find that the response is condescending, accusatory, or skeptical. Yet, at the same time many still in the church will say that church is not required for salvation, but, the sad truth is that being part of an organized religious group is required in their minds. For many in America, Christianity is more about membership within a congregation than about adoption into the Kingdom of Heaven. If you can lend me any advice I would greatly appreciate it.

Me:  Don’t you remember being there too, looking suspiciously at people who had withdrawn from a congregation you thought was essential to your own spiritual growth? That’s what gives me patience with others who are still there. They can’t see what they don’t see, and my trying to convince them isn’t helpful.  I simply engage such people with friendship, finding out how they are doing and, where appropriate, the things I see Jesus doing in my life that I hope will encourage them.  I don’t get into the “going to church” thing or why I’m not there anymore. I’m just interested to see if the friendship is bigger than whether or not I’m part of the same club with them and at the end I want them to know they are loved whether or not they are in a place to love me back. Don’t worry so much about what they are thinking, and you’ll be able to see how Jesus wants to love them through you.

Mr. M:  What a great answer!  Thank you for helping me to remember.

Escaping the conformity confines of religion doesn’t make us immune from its tentacles.  Because that system is built on our approval needs it leaves in a conversation more aware of what others think of us than we are what it would mean to love them and perhaps by grace open a door to a wider space for them to know God.  Any time our personal wellbeing rests on what someone else is thinking, feeling, or saying, then we have no option but to try to figure out a way to change them or make them stop.  In doing so we become like them and if we keep living there we will get lost in relationships because we will have to control them and when we seek to control we are not loving. 

You cannot turn on the news today and not be confronted with the images of Nelson Mandela as the world mourns his passing and celebrates the legacy of healing that he fostered in South Africa.  Since my first visit there, I’ve been deeply touched by his story.  Everyone I met in South Africa, both black and white, talked about Mandela with such awed appreciation for his leadership and his compassion in bringing South African out of the dark, dark days of apartheid.  At the airport I purchased his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom and devoured it on the nineteen-hour flight back home so I could better understand what he and that country had gone through.  It still remains one of the best books I’ve ever read. 

Risking his life to battle the oppression of apartheid he was captured, tried, convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the government, and sentenced to life imprisonment.  How easily it would have been to fester in bitterness at the white settlers that had ravaged his country for themselves and repressed the indigenous people. Whites comprised only 10% of the population, but held all the power and wealth and had to resort to brutal policies to do so.

What would happen if blacks were to be empowered in South Africa? Would they seek vengeance and terrorize the whites as had happened in other areas of Africa?  Nelson Mandela had already considered these questions with his colleagues in prison and came to some surprising conclusions.   Having spent most of his adult life in prison at hard labor he emerged from that experience not seeking vengeance, but knowing that for South Africa to survive he had  “to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor both.”  He knew both were robbed of their humanity when human freedom was restricted. 

When he had every reason to lead a movement that would have violently taken power and wealth from the white community, he had a broader view of freedom.  “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”  He was instrumental in shaping post-apartheid South Africa through reconciliation between blacks and whites based on truth and forgiveness and became its first democratically elected president.  He truly is the father of contemporary South Africa.

I heard a newsman say last night in a story about Nelson Mandela’s death, that he was the last, true hero and that made me sad.  I hope that isn’t true, but I certainly don’t know of an international leader that does not use power to polarize people, rather than invite them to reconciliation and collaboration.  Perhaps our next Mandela is now sitting in a prison somewhere forging his views of humanity and leadership. 

I find myself overwhelmingly grateful today that Nelson Mandela lived among us, especially for my South African friends.  He was undoubtedly one of the most transcendent figures of our time and left us with a powerful example of how former enemies can find a way to live together in peace.  We do well to celebrate his life and his courage to do what few others would have done. Honestly, it will not be easy for me to watch world leaders over the next few days glom onto the Mandela legacy as if they share his values and passion.  None of them do.  They will bask in the glory of his accomplishments so they won’t actually have to follow his lead in risking power for a greater common good.     

I submit that we celebrate his life best when we actually embrace the ideals he lived by:  The best change comes from honesty, forgiveness, and reconciliation rather than using whatever power we have to benefit ourselves at someone else’s expense.  No one is truly free until we all are free and it is all of our responsibility as people on this planet to fight for the freedom and opportunity for others that we most want for ourselves.  

Contentment.  She’s a great gift.  You can have a lot and not be content with it, always scheming for more and envious of those who have it.  And you can be content in the valley of the shadow of death, because you know you’re not alone even there and that better days and better times are still to come.  Even death is not final.

Contentment rises from the growing conviction that I am deeply loved and my whole life is in the hands of a loving Father.  Nothing is going on in my life today that escapes him and no matter how tragic circumstances might be, he can still work good in my life through it.  It means I don’t have to be afraid of the unknown and I don’t have to be in control to feel secure.  It embraces the reality that what is most important in life is the simple things in reach of us all—the hug of a loved one or a glimpse of beauty in the Creation.  It makes the best of what I already have and doesn’t waste time worried about what I don’t.   

Contentment lets me savor every joy, celebrate every friendship, enjoy each moment, and be grateful for the things that matter most.  It is an act of defiance for those advertising executives who want me frustrated with my existence so I’ll spend more money to try to find joy where joy cannot be found.  

Today in the States we celebrate Thanksgiving, a day to acknowledge God with gratefulness.  It used to be more meaningful to me when thanksgiving was a discipline I practiced.  Somehow I lossed that along the way.  Gratefulness surfaces in my heart now multiple times per day as a spontaneous awareness of God’s hand in the course of my day.  It’s not something I have to work at anymore.  It is just there now that I have lost my frustrations with life as I wanted it to be, and simply embraced it as it is.  I don’t expect life in a broken world to be fair. I no longer assume that living with integrity will get me ahead of those who lie and cheat, and that everyone who pretends to be my friend really is.  Call it cynical if you want, but losing my expectations and the naiveté that went with them didn’t leave me jaded, just willing to take life as it is and not demand all my desires be fulfilled in it.  As somone said, expectations are only resentments waiting to happen.     

No, all my days are not filled with joy and glitter.  Some are dark and painful, but I have come to discover that no matter how dark the day there is enough love, grace, and joy in it when you look beyond the darkness and realize something more important is going on than my temporal comfort or well-being.    

It now seems a bit silly to give a day to thanksgiving.  So I don’t think I’ll be more thankful today than I was yesterday, but I will enjoy a day and a home filled with people I love who get the day off to hang out with each other.  I hope your day has much joy in it as well and that you, too, are discovering the joy of contentment—the gift that keeps on giving!  

-Last year I recommended an e-novel that a friend of mine was working on.  It was called Within the Walls and actually was the first book of a trilogy.  You can read my review of the first book here.   This trilogy chronicles the life of Emilya Hoffman Bowes Brown—technological genius, collaborator in the newest wave of “tek” enhancements to hit the market, and creator of virtual vacations. In book one Emilya finds information that leads her on a journey to a community of dissidents who have chosen to live without technology, exposed to nature and the elements—something that was supposed to be impossible.

Book two, Breaking the Silence is the story of Emilya engagement with those people living outside the technological demands of the new world and talk about things like “faith” and “soul.” That disturbs her since her training suggests that humans are just biology and electricity.  Complications pile up for Emilya as she tries to deal with aspects of love and friendship that defy her carefully constructed idea of what it means to be alive.  Her life-long dependence on technology is shaken and with it the hope that we can achieve perfection and happiness in the safe, sterile environment technology provides.  But how much is she willing to risk, and will the protectors of the technological world find her and expose her new-found friends.

I love the tale Dr. Bennett spins as Emilya continues her journey caught between the rigid world of technology and the calling of the transcendent.  This is an engaging, thought-provoking, and deeply satisfying story of one woman’s struggle to define her life.  I enjoy how Dr. Bennett, a professor of communications, exposes the constant battle between the relational life we all hunger for and the desire to find safety in fitting into social norms that undermine that very hunger.  The application here goes far beyond technology and relationship, to the deeper issues of religion and faith.  And what’s more she throws in a bit of Jacques Ellul’s ideas and writing as part of Emilya’s unfolding story.

I hope you enjoy these books as much as I did.  I look forward to how she wraps this all up in the yet-to-be-written third story in the trilogy.

Both books are available now by e-book or by printed copy, though the printed copies are in such small quantities that they are a bit pricey.

Order it from Amazon.com

Order it from Wildflower Press

Sara and I are having another incredible time on this trip to the UK.  We spent a couple of days out on the westend of London with some new friends and some we’ve met before.  Then we drove up to Scotland, stopping in two different places in northern England to gather with people who wanted to spend some time with us.  Now we are spending a few days in Scotland—our first time.  We are in St. Andrews and enjoying a wonderful break just with each other, though tonight we’re off to meet some more folks on this journey and see what Father might have for us together.  It should be fun.  

I am always so inspired by the journey people take to be true to the Spirit within them when it moves them beyond the expectations and even demands of others.  For no other reason than that they sense something too deeply inside to ignore, they make choices that even their closest friends and family can’t understand.  And even when they are judged wrongly, or encouraged to get back in line, they continue to follow the leading within.  Even if it takes them to lonely places for a season they continue to follow.  It’s just unbelievably amazing to me.

But one of the hardest realities I deal with are those who want to be on such a journey and can’t find the traihead.  They hear about a relationship with Jesus that is alive and vital, want it for themselves, but go year after year feeling ignored, isolated, and abandoned.  Yes I’d love to give them three things to do that are guaranteed to work every time, but I know of no such things.  I know finding our way into a meaningful relationship with Jesus is a work he does as we learn to relax in him.  But the latter part isn’t easy for us.  Our expectations and demands get in the way and the more we focus on what we don’t have and try to blame ourselves, the easier it is to miss the gifts he has given.  It’s like trying to go to sleep in the middle of the night when sleep won’t come.  The more we try to find sleep the more it elludes us.  The more we panic about that as time passes, the more difficult it becomes to relax.  

It is hard to tell people to be patient because I’m sure it sounds like a cop-out.  But relationship with him is not something we control, nor is it something we have to earn.  But there’s something that has to happen in us as God untangles what sin and religion have twisted in us that opens the door to the part of our hearts that recognizes him and responds to him.  Unfortunately that can take a long time for some.  I honestly don’t know why, but I know people get discouraged and feel as if God is either not real or doesn’t care about them. But that isn’t true.  He’s no less present with them even if they can’t see it yet.  Many think they are so damaged they will never see and the harder they try the more it seems to ellude them.  

How I wish everyone could just embrace that reality with a few quick steps, but it isn’t so.  I think God is content just to get there with us in this life, whether it takes a year or two, a decade or two, or even a lifetime.  He just wants to win the day and show us he is bigger than all that this life could throw at us to separate us from him.  That’s why this email touched me so deeply.  I’ve corresponded with this sister before, as she alludes to, in the throes of pain and the feeling that somehow she would be passed by. This has gone on for years, but finally the light has dawned in her heart.  I am so thrilled for her, and I hope it encourages somd of you who are in the same part of the journey she was in.  God will make himself known to you.  Don’t miss the last sentence of her letter.  It is a profound truth, and one hard-won for her.  

Over the last 5 years I’ve emailed you a few times in total angst about a very painful past. The messages I’ve heard from you in you’re replies and through your podcast and books; has been patience. WHAT AN AWESOME DAY IT HAS BEEN!  I GET IT NOW! 

(So she wrote a letter to God to express her joy and gratitude.  Here it is:)  I’ve begged and I’ve pleaded and bargained and fought tirelessly and wearily against you! I’ve half heartily and doubtfully prayed for you to reveal yourself to me. I see parts of you this morning and I am in total awe…..there are no words. I’m driving with my sunroof down. One arm on the steering wheel and one outstretched to feel even more of you. Tears stream down my face. I turned off the Christian radio station that I longingly listen to daily in attempts to force feed me into believing in you. Longing to feel and trust the words sung so beautifully.  I can’t even describe in words my feelings. My thoughts of your greatness are beyond the most beautiful melodies. 

We call you him, he, and you, but wow! “You” are so much more than that! “You”” ARE everything! You are everywhere I look. The rocks, trees, birds, people,dogs. Even the darn, little creepy bugs! Please keep revealing yourself to me!  I pray to you, not so that you will know me, but that I may know you. If this is the beginning and only a glimpse of what is to be reconciled in me I am nervous and as excited as I’ve ever been. You well know my anxious spirit but I remain calm in you right now. My father….I won’t even say Heavenly.  Father because you are here with me… Oh my ABBA!  I got a glimpse of you today and I hear the birds singing the notes you have woven together just for them, just for this moment. 

In all the business of trying to find you…. I  couldn’t see you were already there.

I know it came as a shock to me, and judging by your emails to many of you as well.  The deadline to sign up for our February 5-16, 2014 trip to Israel was this past Sunday.  Unfortunately that date had completely gotten past me and I know many of you were considering it who were not able to get everything nailed down by that date.  So, the tour company has graciously given us another two weeks for anyone still interested to sign up.  We already have plenty of people going, but there are six spots remaining and if you’d like to join us you now have until October 1, 2013 to register.  You can get all the details and register here.  They are treating us very well because the tour coordinator is a good friend and interestingly enough was my first editor at Harvest House years ago when I wrote The Naked Church and The Vineyard.  

For those concerned about security issues while in Israel, we’ve received this notice from the tour company:   “Safety is always the primary concern for The Israel Tour Company. ITC groups travel under the care of an Israeli land operator, guide, and driver who are well-informed and up-to-the minute in terms of daily security conditions and concerns.  The US State Department is not discouraging travel to Israel at this time. The warning for Israel that currently exists is on par with the worldwide warning in place for Americans traveling anywhere in the world since 9/11.  As of now, the security situation is stable and tour cancellations are unlikely. A tour cancellation would most likely be precipitated by a change in the US State Dept. Advisory. For the full text of the US Advisory you may go to their website. 

For those that haven’t decided whether or not they want to come, you have no idea how much being in the land where God made himself known to the world will affect you and add huge dividends to your Bible reading as you picture the actual sites in which history happened.  In addition to being all about Jerusalem (with visits to the dungeon under Caiphas’ house, a private part of the garden in Gethsemane, the traditional site of the Crucifixion and Resurrection, the site of Solomon’s Temple and excavations back to the time of Jesus, we will also be in the second most-mentioned site in the Bible after Jerusalem—Capernaum, which is situated along the shores of the Sea of Galilee. It is definitely one of the most amazing places you’ll be visiting around the Sea. Some of the great Old Testament stories will also be a part of your experience as you explore Israel. You will see the caves where a young David hid from King Saul at the springs of Ein Gedi. You’ll view the location of Jericho where the Bible says the walls came down. You’ll walk through the place where King David looked over onto Bathsheba’s rooftop. You will stand where his son built the First Temple. From the top of Mt. Carmel, you will look over the Valley of Armageddon as Elijah did when he challenged the prophets of Baal. We”ll also visit Masada and the Dead Sea.

We hate to waste these last six slots if there are any more folks that would like to come.  You’d be more than welcome to join me and 33 of my friends for a wonderful tour of Israel.  

The first time I heard it was after it had come out of my mouth.  But I’ve been thinking about it a lot since.  I was asked to speak at a local fellowship in Boise on Sunday morning last week.  I asked them if they’d be more open to a conversation instead of a lecture, and though they hadn’t done it before they were game enough to give it a try.  You gotta love their courage.  In the course of that conversation about learning to live loved I was asked a question about overcoming sin.  And I said something to the effect of, “I’m coming to see sin as a coping mechanism for not knowing we are loved by God.”  I’ve talked about that idea with a number of people since and it seems to resonate with people, even a main-line denominational pastor here locally with whom God is giving me a growing friendship.  He told me later he almost quoted it last Sunday in his sermon. 

I don’t know if it’s a great definition for sin, but what I like about it is that if it’s a coping mechanism then we there’s no way we can consider trying to fix it by strength of will alone.  If it is what we do because we don’t know we’re loved, then growing to know we’re loved is the only thing that love fills up the empty space than sin so poorly tries to fill.  At least that has been my experience.  I navigated most of my life as if I was not loved by God and thus had to earn his favor every day.  Since I’ve been growing in the awarness of his affection for me, I find that the same old temptations and motivations have been displaced somehow. They just aren’t there any more, and I’m the one who is most surprised.  That doesn’t mean I’ve got it all figured out and live flawlessly now.  Just ask some of the folks closest to me if you doubt that.  But I am not the same person I used to be and that gives me how that he is still changing me.  

In the past I was taught to attack sin by overcoming it by sheer strength of will.  I could do that for most things.  But I found like Paul the Apostle did, that self-righteousness is not righteousness at all. While it doesn’t  violate as many of the commandments, it only channels our sinful heart to religious arrogance, where we seek spiritual status above others and condemn those who do not perform as well as we do.  Paul reminded us that legalistic righteousness makes us the worst of sinners because of how destructive we become to others.

When love displaces sin, there is no room to boast in our own works. Not only does that love begin to transform us from the inside out, but it also leaves us more gentle and compassionate with others who do not yet know how deeply loved by God they are.  

When you see your sin the way God does, you are not filled with shame and contempt.  You see it as something damaging to you and people around you, but you know only he can set you free from it.  His love does that.  Grace is not an excuse not to be concerned about our sin and the damage it causes, but it is a portal into the relationship with God that can set us free from it’s power.  When you know that, you’ll resist what you can, but you won’t put your hope in your performance.  It is Christ in us that gives us hope that our lives can bear his glory in the world.  

I come away from every encounter with him having a greater desire to know and to rely on the love he has for me, and share it as freely as I can with the world around me.  

(The latest Engage Video talks more about dealing with sin inside a relationship of affection with God.  It is not what many of us have been taught about God and our sin. It’s called What About Sin? and you can find it toward the bottom of this page.)

•   •   •   •   •   •   •  

In other news, I’m two and a half chapters into my next book, Finding Church: What If There Really Is Something More?  and I couldn’t be more excited as to how this book is coming together.  As I’ve shared bits of it with some people, I have appreciated the feedback and excitement I hear in their voices.  So, I’m keeping my nose to the grindstone this fall and trying to get it done as soon as possible.  That means I’ll be limiting my travel this fall and not doing as many podcasts.  

There are seven slots left for our February trip to Israel.  If you are still considering it, now is the time to jump in.  You can get all the details here.  I know many people have security concerns with all that’s going on in the Middle East these days, but we are with a tour company that takes this into consideration all the time. Each morning the get briefings on the situations around Israel and even reroute the itinerary if there are potential hotspots.  And, if it is not deemed safe to go at the time we’re planning, we will reschedule it for a better time.  Tour groups like this are in Israel all the time.  Everyone in the region understand that tourism is a major driving force in the economy for all concerned and have not been targets for violence in the past.  I wouldn’t be taking my wife there if i wasn’t certain that it will be safe and secure for all.  

The Sunday morning presentation I referred to earlier in the blog can now be found here.  If you want to hear a Q & A presenation I did for the Aphesis group on Saturday night when I was in Boise, you can find it here.  

During my first trip to Israel, I was a little put off by how some of the people on the tour were trying to convert your Jewish guide, Abraham.  They kept making snide asides to him as to why he didn’t accept Jesus as the Messiah.

On the last day I found myself alone with him by the bus as we were awaiting others to bring their bags from the hotel.  I fell into a conversation with Abraham and was able to ask if he’d been personally offended by some of the comments. 

He passed it off with wave.  “Not at all,” he answered.  “I’ve been doing this for twenty years. Everyone tries to convert me to their religion—Catholics, Pentecostals, Baptists, Reformed Jews, Conservative Jews, Mormans, and Muslims—everyone.”  Then he looked up at me with a smile, “Do you want to know why none of them convince me?”

“I would!” I replied.

“Come with me,” he said as he led me around the front of the bus and to the edge of the road.  “Do you see that building down there with the Star of David on it?” 

“Yes.”

“That’s ours.”

“Do you see that steeple with the cross on it across the way with the cross on it?”

I nodded.

“That’s yours.”

And then he pointed me toward the dome of a mosque on a hillside not far away.

I nodded.

“That’s theirs.”

I smiled trying to imagine what he’d say next.

“Take off the Star of David, the cross, and the dome and underneath aren’t they really all the same thing?   You would think if one of us were serving the Living God, it would look very different.”

He was right.  Christianity doesn’t look any different from the outside as any other religion.   It doesn’t surprise me that all man-made religions would have the same components at its core. The shame of the fall draws us into religious activity that seeks to appease an angry deity and to try and please him with better living.  That’s why they are laced with fear, defined sacred space, calls to sacrifice, and are led by a local, holy-man guru-type, who officiates at rituals that are meant to at times to comfort the faithful, and at other times to threaten them for not doing enough. 

If one of us were serving the Living God, it would look very different.  I think it would.  Nothing better has expressed my lifetime quest to discover what real life in Jesus would look like today, both for the individual and for the redemptive community that unveils God’s reality in the world.  How did we go from “believing what we hear”, to observing a religion more preoccupied with doctrine, ritual, and ethics?  Could it be that what we mostly see in Christianity today is a religion that well-intentioned people have created out of the teachings of Jesus, and that many of us have yet to see the church that Jesus is building in the earth? 

In the last few years I have come to the end of that quest.  I’ve been able to taste of the life of the church that is “not made with hands” all over the world as I have seen Jesus quietly knitting together a family so rich and real that it doesn’t need the religious conventions.  Surprisingly it wasn’t where I thought it would be, and far closer than I’d ever dreamed. 

For those on a similar quest I would love to help you see it too. 

Excerpt from Finding Church:  What If There Really Is Something More?

By Wayne Jacobsen, an uncompleted manuscript

(Special Note:  Abraham will also be our guide on the trip Sara and I and some of our friends will be taking to the Holy Land this February. There’s still room if you want to join us.)