Wayne Jacobsen

I got this email the other day. I love the journey this dear sister is on, even if it is a bit disorienting at the moment. Listen to her heartbeat. There are so many like her and I’m blessed that God is waking us up to find greater life and freedom in him, wherever he places us:

My parents gave me your book He Loves Me and I have been listening to your podcasts. My parents are currently finding a lot of freedom from guilt-based living after many years of service in a traditional church.  Its exciting to see their passion for Christ reawakened after the burden of religion has been lifted.

For me, I am in a very wounded place, but I appreciate your message as it seems at its core it is simply the Gospel message. I have spent the last ten years in the organic church movement, thinking I had found somewhere where we were all passionate about the true message of Christ and were free from the religious abuse of programmatic church.  Now I find that its simply religion without a building, another system, only it just doesn’t look like one.

I appreciate that you are advocating for Christ, for love, for simple Gospel message. I really thought that it is what we were about.  I feel more wounded coming out of that setting than I ever felt in a traditional church setting.  In fact, now I find myself back in the traditional church where I grew up, feeling guilty for participating in “religious church,” but realizing that i have a lot of friends there, a lot of relationships.  I feel like I am always looking back and forth, wondering who is God, have I really lost the faith by returning to a traditional church, will I inevitably become a Pharisee by hanging out there, was I really one before? I don’t know.  

I listen to your podcasts and you talk about living by God’s love and grace and I that is how it began with our little group, then it was about the movement, about the sacrifice, about the five fold leadership, and somewhere in there I lost that simple Christ message.  But I see it everywhere; its in individual people, people in a Baptist churches, in Episcopal churches, in Orthodox churches, sometimes I even seem to see a glimmer of it in people who claim to be atheist.  And religious striving… I find it everywhere too.  I wasn’t half the Pharisee I was in a traditional church as I became trying to escape it.  Oh, to return to that simple faith of a child…  washed white as snow.

I loved this statement: I wasn’t half the Pharisee I was in a traditional church as I became trying to escape it.” I’ve seen people struggle with that same reality. Whenever we give ourselves to movements and look down on others who don’t share what we do, we are in danger of even being more captive to our hope for revival, than we were even to our religious obligation systems.

And I pray she finds real peace in him and lets go of the guilt and second-guessing. Then she can find the real joy and contentment wherever God chooses to place her to engage his people and his life with freedom.

Sara and I are wandering around New England at the moment and will be up in Maine over the weekend with a host of believers. But I couldn’t wait to tell you about Bo’s Café that came to me a year ago in manuscript form. It was a bit rough, but I fell in love with the characters and their story and the lessons of grace that lace each page. I found myself weeping at the end in a climatic conversation that touched me deeply. Then we got a chance to work on it with the authors who wanted to make it a Windblown book. Brad and I helped shape the story a bit and edit them in a final re-write. I love how it came out.

Bo’s Café was released last week. It was written by the authors of Truefaced, John Lynch, Bill Thrall, and Bruce McNicol. This amazing story chronicles a young man whose life is being torn apart by his own anger, and confronts the reality of grace that unfolds in a way that takes him by surprise and makes him face the darkest corners of his heart. It’s available everywhere at the moment.

This is NOT a marriage book, but I still want to offer this warning. Guys, read this book before your wife does. If she reads it first she’s going to beg you to read it. If you don’t she’s going to put it on your nightstand and threaten not to have sex with you again until you do!

OK, that might be a bit overstated and I don’t sanction anyone holding sex expression hostage to getting their own way, but if you let the content of this story sink into your heart. You’ll be a better husband, or wife, or friend, or colleague, or brother or sister. Grace can change us in ways that law and performance never will. God knows that. He wants you to know it too!

Pick it up. You won’t regret it. We did an interview about the book four our podcast last week with the authors. If you haven’t heard it, you might want to give it a listen.

Tomorrow morning I leave for Canada, Toronto to be exact. I’m connecting with some old friends and new ones up that way.

On Saturday I will be doing an interview with Drew Marshall on his radio show that runs throughout Canada. He has been a real fan of THE SHACK and my SO YOU DON’T WANT TO GO TO CHURCH ANYMORE book. I have been on his show by phone a few times. I’m looking forward to spending some time in studio with him. You can listen live on line if you like. I’ll be on Saturday 4:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, or 1:00 Pacific Daylight Time. They also podcast the show and archive it if you want to listen later.

On Monday I’m moving on to Maine for a week with friends from throughout New England. Sara will be joining me for that part of the trip.

If you tried to get on the Lifestream-related websites today, you already known we were hacked. I have spent most of the day just getting things back to normal. That included the Lifestream site as well as The God Journey site. It has truly been a mess. So if you had a difficult time navigating our sites or saw the disgusting splash page put up on The God Journey blog, you have my sincere apologies.

I’m even more convinced today that hacking, virus-creating and spamming ought to be capital offenses. They cause no end of time, expense and hassle, all because people want to make mischief, mostly for their own amusement or ranking in the dark side of the Internet.

The Internet is an environment that is totally man-created, not subject to any of the sicknesses and disease that wage war against our bodies. And in this pristine environment some have found joy in creating diseases, hacking people’s efforts, and trying to hijack other people’s work for profit or amusement. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? If sin hadn’t brought sickness into the world, then surely we would have done it to ourselves. Doing harm to others, exploiting people’s vulnerabilities, and creating hardship for self-gain is where the seamier side of human nature sinks.

So the next time you’re tempted to blame God for all the evil, sickness and pain in the world, maybe you might want to consider that it isn’t God’s doing at all. This is what human nature allows and what it thrives on. We don’t always do it in such overt ways as the Internet junk squad, but every time we think of ourselves above the people around us, treat our needs as more important than the person next to us, or wittingly or unwittingly create hardship for others we add to the brokenness of our world.

Conversely, whenever we put others above ourselves, act in kindness toward another person or seek to heal the brokenhearted we participate in God’s unfolding kingdom in the world. See Luke 4:18-19, where Jesus reads from the prophet Isaiah. There’s two very opposite spirits at work in the world. He is not the destroyer; he is the redeemer.

For folks in the Southern California area who are interested, I’ll be speaking at GRACE HARVEST (formerly Moorpark Vineyard Community Church), which currently meets at The Lighthouse Christian Fellowship 4823 Mira Sol Dr. • Moorpark, Ca 93021. Service starts at 9:00 a.m., so you have to get up early!

Last weekend when I was in Raleigh, NC, I was interviewed by the Open Heaven website folks about my writing and sharing around the world. Some of you might find that of interest. You can find the article here.

A couple of months ago I wrote a post about watching the International Space Station and Space Shuttle arch across the sky. Well, for those in the Southern California area the next three nights offer very similar views. It will appear as a bright light moving from west to east and brighter than any star and moves quite rapidly arching from horizon to horizon in about three minutes.

There’s a great pass on Saturday evening between 8:05 PM and 8:08 PM (depending on your location, the times might be slightly different).

There’s another pass on Sunday evening, from 8:30 PM to 8:33 PM.

And another on Monday, 7:19 PM to 7:24 PM.

For details you can visit, visit http://www.heavens-above.com/

I read this yesterday and loved it:

The good-hearted understand what it’s like to be poor;
the hard-hearted haven’t the faintest idea. (Proverbs 29:7, The Message)

I guess the difference is having been there and not forgetting what it was like, nor others who are there today. I guess the hard-hearted either haven’t been there, or have blocked it out of their mind in pursuit of their own expedience. Where you have extra, you will naturally give to help others. And remember, there are lots of ways to be poor. It’s just not financial, but to be poor in health, spirit, emotional need, spiritual encouragement, etc.

Keep your heart tuned to the poor and you’ll find yourself having a heart for all kinds of people in all kinds of struggles. That will keep your heart soft, your perspective clear, and your mind engaged with Father’s work in the world.

Look what question appeared in my inbox today:

Wayne I have read your book So You Don’t Want to Go To Church Anymore, and I thought it was something I had written in my sleep. I feel like God has shown me the exact things John was teaching Jake and the others. In my case I had doubts that I was out in left field on this and uncertain I really understood what God had taught me. Your book has more than anything confirmed that I understood it correctly and I am not out of touch on living the life of Jesus. But my question is this – How can we be so certain that we understand it correctly if so many professional pastors and church leaders don’t get it, when they too are convinced God is leading them to do what they do?

I get that question a lot. I’ve had dozens of people tell me that when they went to share with their pastors what they were learning about Jesus, grace, or alternative views of church life were discouraged from believing it. Many were challenged with something like this: “Who do you think you are? If God were really speaking that today, you’d think he’d be showing it to pastors like me, not laymen (or women) like you?”

Wow! Someone doesn’t get it! Even Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent me is in charge. He draws people to me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. Only then do I do my work, puttin gpeople together, setting them on their feet, ready for the End. This is what the prophets meant when they wrote, ‘And then they will all be personally taught by God.’ Anyone who has spent any time at all listening to the Father, really listening and therefore learning, comes to me to be taught personally—to see it with his own eyes, hear it with his own ears, from me, sinc eI have it firsthand from the Father. No one has seen the Father except the One who has his being alongside the Father—and you can see me!”

I love that. Anyone who seeks to crawl between you and your freedom to follow Jesus, doesn’t have a clue who Jesus is. So this is how I answered the man who wrote me this morning:

I don’t know that we’re ever certain. Paul said it was like looking through a darkened mirror. God has not asked us to walk in certainty, but to walk in the integrity of our conscience. I’m convinced these things are true. I’m always open to Jesus bringing in further truth, but I’m comfortable living here because this is consistent with his nature as I understand it, it is consistent with Scripture as best I understand it, and it is in synch with other brothers and sisters I know who really live in a vibrant life with Jesus.

That certain professional pastors and church leaders don’t get it, is not convincing enough evidence in the face of the other three. Plus many of them have a vested interest in not seeing the truth of how religion warps people because they are leading organizations in which people need to conform for them to be successful. It is difficult for people to choose against their own self interest.

Upton Sinclair wrote: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it.” You don’t know how many pastors have said to me, “Wayne I love the things that you’re doing and saying, but I don’t know how to live that way and still get paid.” I understand that. I remember similar thoughts years ago, but what that shows is that they really don’t know how to trust God as provider, so their sense of truth is shaped by their personal expedience. That’s a dangerous place to live and won’t lead us ultimately to truth. You’ll notice in Jesus’ day it was the professionals, Pharisees, scribes and priests who didn’t understand him either and most opposed Jesus life and message.

That said, however, I want you to know that I also know quite a few pastors who are seeking to be a positive influence in a more congregational setting. They do see through the rigors and bondage of religion and genuinely want to help others know the Living God and walk in his life. They would resonate with a gospel of grace, the necessity of freedom and authenticity and disdain religious obligation as a cheap substitute for true transformation. But it is difficult to walk there. It’s hard to get al the work done around the place if you free people not to, and it is difficult to get people to embrace their own spiritual journey when they feel like they are paying someone else to lead them to it. Many of them get fired in time, some walk away. Some find a way to live that out authentically with a group of people who embrace it wholeheartedly…

But we’re called to follow truth not expedience, to let the Counselor guide us into his truth and for us to follow, even when it is not in our temporal self-interest to do so. And always keep an open heart. I’m constantly praying, “Father, if I’m not seeing this the way you do, please change me.” And he does, and still is. We are all brothers and sisters on a journey. No one has the corner on all God’s truth, except the Son himself!

I got this email the other day and loved it. This comes from Connie, and I’ve posted some of her thoughts before as she struggles through the transition of thinking religiously to thinking relationally. I like the humor and honesty in her words and journey. The subject of the email was “Amused and Annoyed.” I love what this unpacks:

I hope all is going well for you. I catch your podcast now and again and it sounds like you’re havin’ fun and experiencing God.

I had a funny thing happen the other day I thought you’d get a kick out of hearing. I’m in the middle of a mid-life crisis right now. Yeah, I’m only 33 but that is how it feels. I’m having to make a career decision and am very much torn as to which career path to choose.

I finally got away to talk with God about what He would like me to do (or so I thought). Though I knew both choices were good, one of them must be better. After my long-winded explanation, of which I know He already knew, I sat and silently waited for Him to tell me what to choose. Do you think He told me?

Our conversations always begin with Him telling me how much He loves me, to which I roll my eyes and ask Him to get on with it already. So then He tells me that I will change lives and bring His Kingdom into both situations. Anything I do, even beyond my two scenarios, will be good. He just wants to be right with me, enjoying me, while I live my life. (annoying huh?) So then He turns the question around and asks, “So Connie, what is it that you want to do with your life?”

That’s when my crisis began! What do I want to do? Me? He was supposed to tell me what to do, not hand my free-will over to me! Ha! I’ve never in my life stopped and asked what I want to do with my life. Somehow within all the church-going years I’ve adopted the concept that once I am a Christian I can no longer have any goals or life-dreams. God now owns me and whatever He wants of me I’ll do. I must detach all personal identity, be void of opinions and desires and for sure not use my brain!

I guess for years when I read Paul describes himself as a bond-slave of the Lord, I half-way believe that Paul did not want to do what he was doing, but was somehow forced because…well… you just can’t argue with God. Now I’m realizing, it’s not that Paul’s in chains (not literally obviously), but that he’s so in love with the Father, he can’t help but share in whatever situation he is in. It’s a relationship of love. God could actually care less (so to speak) what I “do” as long as He gets to be with me. ‘Cause when He’s with me and I remain in Him, we can affect change at the grocery store even! What a striking contrast to the Master and Servant role I began with, eh? Funny also how so much of me (that Pharisee is strong in there) would very, very much like Him to tell me the answer. Err, unfortunately for my good-girl, box-thinking nature, God is not about dolling out a list of demands.

So now I have to look in the mirror and figure this out. Gosh I’d much rather the non-relational, controlling method sometimes! That method, however, does not enhance relationship, which is most likely what He’s all about!

Anyway, I’m 30% annoyed and 70% amused. He’s a funny guy, that God!

Yes, there are times God has a specific will for our lives and by embracing it we die a bit to our selfish nature and find ourselves smack-dab in the middle of something we never thought we would have wanted. And some times God just indicates he can go either way here. And as far as a vocational choice, “What do you want to do with your life?” sounds like a great question.

Someone pointed out to me a year or so ago the incredible joy God must have had in letting Adam name the animals. God had created them but he wanted humanity to name them. How cool is that? God would call them whatever Adam called them. He didn’t have some secret name for each animal that Adam had to figure out over hours of prayer and agonizing. He just began to give them names and that’s what they were.

Following Jesus is not meant to be an arduous chore. Sometimes he has a specific thing for us to do and let’s us know that. At other times we get to wander in a pretty wide space with him, because he is all about the relationship and the joy of knowing you and watch you come free in his reality, not trying to squeeze you into some box that makes you miserable. And he knows that when you find freedom in the relationship, you’ll be the best reflection of him in the world no matter where you are or what you’re doing!