Living Loved - Letters
From Living Loved • Autumn 2011
Margie in Australia
Thank You for writing the book So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore This book has been so healing and freeing. It has explained my experiences and answered yearning questions I've had for so long. I can't express in words how much it means to be free from the guilt and exclusion. As I type the tears of relief and gratitude to our Father are flowing.
Michael in Massachusetts
Thank you for wrecking my life. There a saying in Alcoholics Anonymous that once an alcoholic get exposed to AA it ruins his drinking. I think the same with you and religion. I long for deep and meaningful relationships, first with Father and then with others, but they can't be manufactured through formula or discipline, tried it many times, always end up back here. Before I only knew the self-indulgent part and religion would get me out of that so I thought. But even that doesn't work anymore, thanks to you!
Markus in Switzerland
I have heard plenty of your stuff, The Jesus Lens, Transition, So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore, He Loves Me, The Shack, etc. At first I could not believe it was real. It would be too wonderful. Then I hoped it was true, and now two years later I have experienced some of this. It's great! A long time ago I felt there is something wrong with my church. It was horribly boring to me and I thought I was just an abnormal guy. Then years later I began to study theology and with the knowledge of Greek, Hebrew, church history and your stuff (books & podcast) things changed. I am now in my last year of studding theology and the funny thing is this: God used all of this as a tool to lose my religion. Now I know God is not a angry monster but a lovely Father.
Josh by email
One year ago this week, a good friend and mentor introduced me to the "Transition" series and God used it to teach me a lot and give me a clearer picture of what it means to follow Him and maybe more importantly, what it doesn't mean. A lot has changed in the past year. I know, love and trust the Father so much more than ever before and I'm more excited than ever about telling others about him. Recently I've begun to listen to The God Journey and already I'm falling in love with this podcast. I love the frank, honest and humble discussion about God, Jesus and the Bible. I look forward to each new upload.
Marryann by email
I just wanted you to know your book He Loves Me was just what I needed. I also read So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore...Oh my. I cried because I stopped going to church a couple of years ago and felt so guilty that I wanted to hide under a rock. The Shack really blessed me and your two books rescued me. As a child I knew some of the things I was being taught in church wasn't a good fit. I thought how could my God be so mean, but say he loves us. I didn't know he loved me, or how much he loved me... sin and all! Your two books have me all shook up.
Sam in South Dakota
Thank you for putting that free book So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore online for free. I can't describe to you how it has helped me and a friend. It's blessed us both so much. I literally just finished reading the book and the only way I can express how I feel is to say that you've opened the door to a room where God was sitting, smiling, waiting for me to come in.
Don in Florida
I read the So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore and He Loves Me. I pastored for 27 years and have shared with my wife what I hear on the podcasts and we have wonderful discussions. We both were brought up in very traditional backgrounds. The other day when she was at work, she said she was feeling very alone. So she cried out to Father, I just wish I had a friend here at work. Father very gently conveyed, I am your friend talk to me. Now she converses with Father and the peace I now see in her life is amazing. I am resigning from my church this Sunday. As a pastor I was too busy to be wowed by Father. Now I get to be wowed every day.
Al in Wisconsin
We were swept up into new life in Christ in the early 1970's during the peak of the Jesus and the Charismatic movements. In forty years we've experienced various attempts at alternatives to church from inner city Jesus people communes, to neighborhood intentional communities, to living in the woods in trailers. In all our experiences there were two extremes that worked against us. The first was authority structures that always appeared sooner rather than later, usually under the guise of following the "New Testament pattern." Second was the arrogance of being the only ones to have true church life that resulted in cutting off fellowship with the rest of the body of Christ.
Patsy via email
Well, I just finished reading So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore and I am stunned, excited, and scared. I initially thought this was going to be about describing how I could be a Christian and avoid going to church. I never dreamed it would be simply about trusting in God to control my life. I was captured by the story from page one and read it in two and a half days. Every question, complaint, accusation I had was addressed in this book. Even some of the comments from Jake were verbatim accounts of my cries to God. The idea of letting go of myself, my control, and just living in God's love with trust.is exactly what I have been crying out for. This book helped me begin to see my need to know who God really is and who I am to him.
Courtney via email
I'm reading He Loves Me and it is giving me a whole new set of glasses to see the Gospel through. What I really love about it is it gives me a hunger to re-read the scripture with my new glasses and I think it is unique for a book to draw people back to the scripture as opposed to replacing them.
Amanda by email
I literally just finished So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore. I am about to turn 25 on Friday and have never been so excited in my life. Saying goodbye to John in the book left me in tears. I'm not much of a crier but the last two books I've read of yours leave me feeling so emotional. Tears of joy once again!
Tammy in Nevada
We (lost) our 12-year-old son last month in a tragic accident. He was a miracle baby we adopted at 11 months of age, addicted to crack and with many medical problems, which God had healed him of completely. He loved Jesus more than anyone and wrote many poems and songs about going to heaven. We just never realized it would be so soon. God has been so faithful to us in so many ways since that awful day. I just wanted to thank you for your teachings on God's love, including your book He Loves Me, and other teachings we have listened to on CD. If we had not had those teachings over the last year, I'm not sure where we would be with God right now. We would have probably been doubting God's love for us and wondering what terrible thing we had done to deserve this severe punishment. This would have thrown me for a loop, but instead, by God's grace, we discovered you and your teachings about a year ago, just in time to "unlearn" so much and get the truth that God has given you to pass along to others.
Nadia in the UK
I grew up in a very 'religious' church. It was always about how to please God, how many prayers to say to earn our salvation, and the threat of going to hell if we did not conform to the angry God of the Old Testament. I always knew deep within me that it wasn't right, and that there had to be more to all this religious stuff, and doing things upon things to get right with God. I never knew for most of my life, that Jesus was God himself. I also never knew about grace. Through all the years of striving and working hard to earn favor, I have only recently become acquainted with the living God, and after reading your book that God, my loving Father, so graciously placed in my hands. I finally feel that I am loved-- loved by a God who wants to be my dad.
Mike in Mississippi
I'm not sure sometimes how to say thanks without it sounding all mushy. I just received Authentic Relationships. You just keep blowing me away with your insight. I wanted to let you know how much your writing has meant to me. You lay it out in a simple, easy to understand, yet very deeply and challenging.
Daniel in Switzerland
I read So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore and the lights went on. Then I read through the protocols of the last leadership meeting (of my congregation) and realized that we spend so much time, money and energy for the institution that we actually don't have the time to think about spiritual things. We believe we work for the kingdom, but actually only maintain an institution. Somehow church replaced our relationship with God and became our spiritual life.
Tyrene by email
I was just introduced to your site and wanted to tell you your Winter 2011 article is probably the best written expression of our Father's heart to us. Build our relationship on loving him and out of that will flow everything else. You were able to get down on paper what has been in our hearts for years.
George in Georgia
Wayne you articulate so well the journey I have been on as God has set me aside and stripped back some of the things I thought he wanted. It is a wonderful and scary journey, but my love for my Daddy God is growing daily as he teaches me and shows me his love.
Neil in Wales
The Father has revealed so much of himself through things you have recorded and written, and I feel so alive and free in my journey. I know even in my immediate friends and family I am not alone in that, so I can only imagine how many more there are around the world whom your gracious teaching has touched.
Jenna in Maryland
I have read He Love Me twice and will do it again. Each time I hear something different. I hear the Fathers heart when you teach. I cried when I finished the book it was like sitting with a friend!
LaDonna by Email
For many years it has been my privilege to lead a small group of friends in a weekly prayer session. We just concluded weekly discussions on your book, He Loves Me! I don't think there was a single chapter that did not at the same time educate, encourage, challenge, motivate and inspire us.
Ed by Email
When I'm doing listening to your teaching I'm facing the Father and not Wayne Jacobsen. In the past, when I've received 'good stuff' from a teacher, I always ended up wanting more from the teacher to 'show me the way'. With you, I am facing the Father to receive from Him as a result of what you're saying!
A Sister in Jamica
I am forever changed because of your book. One of my husband's coworkers told him about So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore, so he emailed it to me. I was overtaken by the true love of the Father. I couldn't stop reading it. It's one thing to read about His love and another thing to feel His love engulf you.
Jennifer in Virginia
I just finished reading So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore and it has rocked me to my core.
David in Virginia
I liked The Shack but I was blown away by So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore. It took me to places in my heart and mind I had never visited.
Susan in Indiana
With The Jesus Lens, I feel like I've been handed a missing piece of my heart.