Wayne Jacobsen

Our latest edition of The God Journey entitled Accept No Substitutes! has just been posted on our sister website thegodjourney.com.

Why would we ever think we’re safer following the crowd, or following another human being, when the King of Kings wants to be our shepherd and lead us into the true freedom of God’s life? He alone is the way, the truth and the life. Learning to live dependent on him rather than our own performance or the false security of so-called experts, will allow him to unravel our religious ways of thinking and free us to go on the journey with him that opens the door to the real thing—life in his kingdom!

Isn’t she lovely??!?!?! Of course the kid is, but I don’t know about the get-up. My wife and daughter think it’s to die for. I don’t know! I don’t think I understand a lot of the hoopla surrounding Christmas. I do know this. If your life is in a good season when Christmas rolls around, it makes a great time to celebrate with family and friends. But if you’re going through painful struggles, or you’ve recently lost someone you love deeply, this season can multiply the pain geometrically.

I have just posted our Lifestream Christmas greeting on the website. It is called The Two Faces of Christmas, and we hope it encourages you however you find life facing you in this season. We are so blessed by all the connections that Father has given us in his incredible kingdom and are so grateful for all of you who have touched our lives this past year. May God overwhelm you with his grace and joy, in whatever you might be going through in this season of your life, and lead you ever closer to his heart.

In an unrelated note, I have on good authority that a new chapter in the Jake Colsen story has just been posted at jakecolsen.com. The last chapter will be posted on Christmas day.

David, who describes himself a church planting missionary in Thailand sent me a great question the other day. I figured there would be others interested in the answer, so here it is:

As I looked over the letters I couldn’t help but notice that EVERYONE had ONLY positive comments to make about the site. But, I was wondering, why don’t you post the negative letters that you receive? One of the things that I really enjoy about the site is the feeling that you are trying to be “honest” in your approach. As a word of constructive criticism please let me say, you make yourself look much less “honest” by not also sharing the letters from folks who are against what this web-site is all about.

Here is my response: Thanks for your email and your input and I do appreciate your perception of what we’re trying to do here and your concern. Let me try to answer you as honestly as I can.

The Letters we use in BodyLife are designed to encourage people on the journey or help them see how others are finding encouragement on the Lifestream site. I have never considered running negative letters there because people I’m want to encourage already hear the negative voices from people around them. That section is really meant to ‘build up’ people with positive encouragement to pursue the work God is already doing in them.

That said, I do not often receive negative email about my site. Most of the negative comments come secondhand and thus they are unusable. The negative comments I do receive directly usually fall into two categories—(1) vitriolic rants by people who are incredibly destructive, and (2) honest questions or struggles with something I’ve written or espoused. Let me tell you how I have handled both of those. I respond personally to the first group, assuming they are someone who has been badly burned by some Christian experience, and with gentleness reach out to their concerns. Most I never hear back from, but occasionally some engage an email conversation that opens some real doors in their heart to see past people’s failures to God’s reality. I don’t consider posting those anywhere because I don’t know who they would help.

I also respond personally to the second group, but if I think their concern would be shared by a number of others, I post that exchange (anonymously, of course) on the blog, with my response to show how I processed it. So that is where you would find the negative comments or struggles with my content. More often, however, differing viewpoints appear in the comment sections of the blog. I do not delete negative responses unless they are intellectually dishonest or resort to false accusations or name-calling. In the 21 months I’ve had the blog I have only deleted one comment due to these concerns.

So the disagreeing dialog is there, it just isn’t in the BodyLife “Sharing the Journey†section, because I want that to be encouraging to others just embarking on this journey. Perhaps that will change in the future, who knows? This is (or better said, I am) a work in progress and what we do here will continue to unfold. Please be assured that I deeply appreciate people who take the time to let me know how we might do this better or more honestly. And those suggestions often shape what I might do in the future.

I write this at the Boise, Idaho airport at 5:30 a.m., waiting for my flight to leave for home. They have free wi-fi here! It would be great if more airports allowed it. Usually it costs something like $8.00 even though you’ll only be there an hour or so. Really, not worth it!

I just spent an incredible weekend, however, with a broad spectrum of folks from the Boise area. I touched base with four different pockets of believers up here over the five days I was in the area. I am always blessed by the people I meet who hunger to know the Living God and are willing to follow that hunger even when it pushes them away from the safety of the status quo. I even got a chance to prune some grapevines yesterday and let others see what it looks like when God prunes up our lives to make us more fruitful.

One of the things that has kept coming up in this trip is that routine is the death knell of relationship. Whether it is our spouse, God, or the body of Christ, whenever we find more comfort in the safety of a routine rather than live in the spontaneity of the moment, relationships begin to die. Routine and ritual is the language of religion. Relationships are just too organic for such things. So if you think things are getting stale in your relationships, break out of the box a bit. Learn to see your God, your spouse and others through fresh eyes and respond to the moment rather than stay to the comfort of past routines.

His mercies really are new every morning. In the uniqueness of your life and this day may the creative God inspire you today with something fresh from his heart and may you follow him today to places that you’ve never gone before…

Our latest edition of The God Journey entitled Meet the Wives, Again has just been posted on our sister website thegodjourney.com.

We got them started, and now we’re not sure we can get them to stop! After our last podcast, Sara and Kelly were still talking about some of their issues in living outside the system. We turned the microphones back on and thought you’d appreciate the issues they’re facing today as they talk about their feelings regarding corporate worship, their children, and finding fellowship with other people, especially other women, as their journey’s continue. Those of you who asked for more of Sara and Kelly had your prayers answered before you asked them.…

I had lunch at an interesting place today in Eagle, Idaho. As you can see from the photo it looks like a building many Christians use for Sunday morning meetings. Look closely, though and you can see something is amiss. It used to be a clubhouse for the Baptists, but it isn’t any longer. Observe the sign in the front that says Rembrandt’s. (Yes, I know it is a bit small to read… sorry!) Inside, the entire facility has been converted into an upscale combination coffee shop and art gallery. The food was amazing and the ambiance delightful.

But wait, there’s more. A group of believers went together to buy the building, refurbish it and open it as a commercial establishment. But the proceeds from this restaurant/gallery go to support a youth center nearby that is an old converted fire station. Here kids can find tutors, recreation and people who care about them.

What an amazing combination. I was blessed to hear the story and inspired by those who were so proactive about their faith, their generosity with the community and their creative way to finance a youth center that doesn’t have to rely on donations.

And this has become one of the most popular eating places in town, with a full parking lot when we arrived at 11:30 on a Thursday. I think I want to nominate this as best use of a previously owned religious establishment for 2005. Any other nominations?

As I was clearing up so old files in my office the other day, I came across a quote I had cut out of a Leadership Journal almost 25 years ago now. I remember being captured by this quote when I first read it and it is as fresh and true today as it was then.

These words were written by Father John McKenzie, a Catholic scholar back in the 1970s, which gives rise to a few of questions: First, why would someone who says such things still travel with the title ‘Father’? And second, why didn’t anybody listen to him? And finally, why didn’t I actually believe these words when I first read them? They would have saved me years of grief. For I have found out in the years since that it is exactly true. Until we give up all the false places where we’ve tried to control God’s people, we won’t know the reality of the church of Jesus Christ as she has existed down through time outside the walls of our own institutions.

I guess it is easier to speak words of that ring of truth, or jot them down in journals, than to actually heed them.

We are no longer able to maintain our blog at the site where it has been generously hosted for us the past 20 months or so. We need to convert it and bring it onto the Lifestream site, which may take a bit of work over the next few days. If the site is not functional during the next few days, please understand why and bear with us.

Ahh… the growth curve! I hate the growth curve! But then growth doesn’t happen without, physically or computerally!

Thank you.

I can’t believe I didn’t get a new blog entry up here between the last podcast and this one. But it’s been a bit nuts around here, especially with the holiday week and some family events that coincided with all that. But I thought you’d want to know that our latest edition of The God Journey entitled Systems and Structures has just been posted on our sister website thegodjourney.com.

When people begin to see through the illusions of organized religion, many have the tendency to through out all structures, thinking they are inherently evil. Are they? Some feedback from Wayne and Brad’s podcast on George Barna’s Revolution and some listener questions regarding structure and associations give them an opportunity to sort through this issue, considering where structures can be a blessing by helping to facilitate Gods’ working, and where they supplant it and distract people from the simple joy of living out of their relationship with Jesus.

If you’d like to post comments or questions about this show, please do so on the God Journey Blog so that others can read them there as well. Thanks! I know it is sometimes easier to respond here, but then others on that website don’t get to interact with your comments or questions. Thanks!

Our latest edition of The God Journey entitled The Freedom Not To Have It All Figured Out has just been posted on our sister website thegodjourney.com.

As Wayne and Brad respond to a recent flood of reader comments and letters, they wander into a discussion about the challenge of living in Jesus without having all the details figured out or having the results of our circumstances guaranteed. Our safety is not found in our plans being fulfilled but in our growing friendship with Jesus. When our confidence is vested in him alone we will be able to navigate the ruggedness and uncertainty of the journey with his wisdom and grace.

If you’d like to post comments or questions about this show, please do so on the God Journey Blog so that others can read them there as well. Thanks! I know it is sometimes easier to respond here, but then others on that website don’t get to interact with your comments or questions. Thanks!