Wayne Jacobsen

From Dublin

We have come to the last stage of our journey, and I doubt I will have time to add more before I return. I do appreciate those who have prayed for us during this journey.

We ended our time with some wonderful people in Drogheda. We felt like God was opening some fresh doors among them, even with new sight and victories over past, long-term situations. There was a freshness of God’s glory shining into hearts who have faithfully clung to him over some difficult seasons.

On our last day there we tried to play golf, but the winds were howling and we just didn’t have the equipment to take it on. But the course was a seaside links course of exquisite beauty and we regretted not being able to let it make fools of our golf games. But that allowed us some opportunities to see a bit of the area and spend some more time with the people there. We also went to New Grange to see a burial mound built 500 years before the pyramids, and perfectly aligned with the winter solstice so that the first rays of the morning sun on December 21 penetrates to the heart of the chamber and illuminates it as if the rocks were glowing. It was an amazing structure and it makes one wonder what would have driven people 5,000 years ago to build such a huge, ornate, and astronomically aligned site… Was it the shame of falleness, or the need for a ruler to prove his superiority or something else? No one knows.

Now we have arrived in Dublin with an extensive group of people who live relatedly in Christ’s life, but are not centered on meetings. We gathered with a few last night and will do so with a number of the youth this evening to talk through a bit of the journey. It should be great fun. Then tomorrow we’ll head for Wicklow, south of here for most of Saturday and Sunday, though we are coming back for a Saturday night meeting in Dublin.

It’s amazing to embrace the variety of God’s family here in the Emerald Islands. Each pocket of folks are doing things a bit differently, but have similar hearts for the reality of God’s presence among his people and demonstrated in the world.

On the downside, my iBook travel computer is officially dead for reasons I do not understand. The screen is black, even with a new battery. It may be that something dreadful has happened inside. It is only fourteen months, too, so that is a bit frustrating, but God will use this to further his glory somehow, because he is amazing at such things.

But that bit of writing I was going to do on the way home will not happen now. I cannot access email or the website from it now, so if you have email waiting for me, I’ll have to see it when I get home. I am sorry for any inconvenience this delay might cause. Today Sara will be checking for book and CD orders and look to get those out as quickly as possible.

All told this has been one incredible trip to taste a bit of God’s working across the length and breadth of Ireland. This country has been so shattered by religious conflicts and war and yet there are hungry hearts growing in God’s life and passionate about seeing his glory thrive here. Please hold them up in your prayers as God might lead you to do…

From Dublin Read More »

From Drogheda

Patrick (that’s him and me at left on the bluffs outside Kinsale) got in on Saturday night in Tralee and we spent the evening continuing our discussion on the cross and met in the morning with some of the saints in Tralee for a wonderful time of fellowship and then some goodbyes as we headed off toward Cork.

When we first sat down to table in Cork on Sunday afternoon three continents were represented. Along with these two Americans we were joined by an Irish woman and her Australian husband. When we got to the meeting later that night we were also joined by people from Nigeria, Zimbabwe and the Philippines. Isn’t Father’s family the most amazing thing? From every tribe, tongue and people and nation he is calling us together to live as his children in the earth. We had an awesome sense that we were getting a taste of that reality in Cork.

We gathered in a wonderful home ovelooking Cork City and shared about Father’s invitation into an intimate friendship with him and how we live that out, not by our human effort, but by learning how to rely on him. The people were incredibly gracious with us and opened their hearts wide to us.

I’m sorry it has taken so long to get this posted, but I’ve had a host of computer problems here which has limited my access. Then yesterday on the train to Drogheda while I was typing the next blog my computer screen suddenly went on the frtiz. The screen suddenly had some nasty lines shoot through it and now it will not boot up at all. Can you believe it? The computer is just 2 months out of warranty, so we hope the problem is not major. We’re going to have someone look at it tomorrow in Dublin, but in the meantime we’ve had to live off of other people’s computers.

After an incredible train ride we have arrived in Drogheda north of Dublin where a group of brothers and sisters have been meeting in homes together for some time. We had some time last night to focus on how we will not be able to love others freely until we allow ourselves to be loved deeply the way Father loves us. We cannot give what we have not received.

The real stories of the last few days, however, is the opportunities we’ve had with individuals who were at moments of breakthrough in various aspects of their spiritual lives. I can’t give you the details of those, but it is an awesome thing to see how Jesus touches people with an individuality that bears great testimony to his incredible nature.

In contrast to that we are in an area now where the Protestant/British conflict with the Catholic/Irish have resulted in thousands of deaths over hundreds of years. We’ve read stories of those who prepared for battle through prayer and worship only to go out and slaughter the opposition, seize their lands and torture any survivors. It is a sobering reminder that the greatest atrocities of humanity have come from religious people who thought their cause was sanctioned by God and they thought that killing their opponents was a great cause to celebrate before God. It has bred deep-seated and long-enduring resentment between people and it is no wonder people reject the gospel when it has been used to such horrible ends.

May God reveal his power, love and glory and deomonstrate to the world that he is the awesome God and loving Father that invites his children into love and live and freedom.

I’ll try to post again in a couple of days if computers and connections allow…. Tomorrow (Thursday) Patrick and `i head into Dublin for the weekend and the last leg of our incredible adventure in Ireland.

From Drogheda Read More »

Greetings from Tralee

Thanks to all those who have responded about my trip with words of blessing and prayers for my journey and the work God wants to do through my being here.  I think I could enjoy this blogging…


After 22 hours of driving and flying from my home in Oxnard, I arrived at Stuart and Marie’s home in Tralee in Ireland.  There were half a dozen or so folks waiting to greet me and we had a brief time of fellowship together before I found my way to a bed and 10 hours of much needed sleep.  I only slept about 3 hours on the plane coming here and was hardly able to string coherent thoughts together.


Awaking the next morning, Stuart and I headed for a cross-country tour to Killarney and a national park near there.  What a beautiful trip through the mountains and coastal villages of southeast Ireland. We passed lots of golf courses too, but I didn’t bring my clubs, nor have time to play.  The trip gave us lots of time to talk and I love how God has brought this group of people into the simple joy of living as his people together.  You can read a bit about them at a web site they are just starting to put together at: http://www.saintsintralee.net


Last night we gathered in Tralee to talk through the power of the cross and how it frees us from sin and shame to live deeply in the friendship God wants with each of us.  We’re going to continue that discussion this evening (Saturday night) as well.  But first we’re going on a bit of a road trip. Stuart will be dropping me off in Ballybunion to meet with some new brothers and sisters there while he drives on to Shannon to pick up Patrick who is flying in today from the States. 


Tommorow (Sunday) we will gather with the saints here in Tralee and then make our way down to Cork in southern Ireland to meet with some other believers there.  Your prayers for us are most welcome.

Greetings from Tralee Read More »

Leaving for Ireland

In less than an hour I will be leaving for the airport on a two-week trip to Ireland. I met the folks there over a year ago during an all-to-brief swing through the region. I’m going back to spend some time in five different places. Accompanying me on the trip is Patrick Mcbane from Youngstown, Ohio.

We are just starting a blog here, so I’m not too sure how this is going to work. But while I’m in Ireland I’m going to try to give some regular updates of what we’ll experience there. If all goes well, you’ll see some updates appear here from time to time. If not, you’ll know I couldn’t figure it out and we’ll start fresh when I get home.

Hopefully you’ll be able to respond to these posts as well. Please be patient with my learning curve here as we try this more direct way of communicating.

Leaving for Ireland Read More »

Arranging our Schedules

Isn’t God amazing?

I am constantly in awe at the things God arranges. I can’t believe I spent so much of my life frustrated that God wouldn’t do things my way or trying to manage a schedule that did more to keep him out than let him in. I don’t know how much I must have missed that he wanted to spill into my life because I was so focused on getting him to do things my way. In the last few years he has won me over. His ability to connect things at exactly the right moment far exceed my ability to do so. And it is so cool.

On my recent flight to Hawaii to teach at the YWAM base in Kona, God put me next to a woman who was on her way to Hawaii to make some medical decisions for her hospitalized father who had suffered a stroke. She was a new Christian and struggling with the choices she would have to make alone for her father’s care. It was such a blessing to be able to sort through some of those things for her both at a personal and theological level. We talked for over half of the journey about her situation and the choices ahead before she settled into a nap and I into some reading.

At the end she couldn’t have been more grateful. I stayed in touch with her through the week and her father passed away Tuesday night. Isn’t it amazing how God can arrange just the conversations we need when we need them most? But we both could have missed it so easily. If we’d just sat quietly ignoring each other as most do on airplanes, we would never have known.

If I hadn’t shown an interest in why she was going to Hawaii, and if she hadn’t taken the risk to tell me the real reason none of this would have happened. It’s a great reminder to take a bit of an interest in what’s going on around you. You’ll never know how God will use it to encourage another brother or sister, or to let the world get a glimpse of him in you.

I’m also going to Ireland next week with a brother from Youngstown, Ohio who I only met a few weeks ago. Patrick Mcbane, is an Irishman who has never been to Ireland. He contacted me a few weeks ago about visiting their group. I was already set to be nearby in Western Pennsylvania, but didn’t have a hole in my schedule to arrange anything with them. But God knew better. He shuffled some things around so I had a piece of the weekend unexpectedly free. Not only did I get to meet some delightful brothers and sisters in Youngstown, but God also connected me with a brother to share this journey to Ireland. I’m not sure what all he has in mind with that, but I’m freshly reminded that Jesus has his body well in hand and connects us with others at just the right time.

So be ready! Who knows what God might want to do with the next person who crosses your path!

Arranging our Schedules Read More »

The Nut Test

BodyLife Archive • September 1997
By Wayne Jacobsen

“You mean I’m not nuts!” No statement has been spoken to me more often by such a wide variety of people than this one.  Sometimes it’s a question. Sometimes it’s spoken with great joy, other times with quiet relief. I’ve heard these words in virtually every state of the union, and from countries half way around the world. Every time, I hear them, I am blessed to be there.
Because for a long time, I wondered if I was nuts, too. I had hungers in my heart toward God that life in today’s Christianity never satisfied. In fact I would say most church activity did more to negate my hunger than satisfy it. There were too many substitutes for the living God and too many people missing out on the sheer joy and freedom of knowing him and depending totally on him. Whenever I tried to talk about it people accused me of being nuts.

Well, that’s not exactly the words they used. They said stuff like: You’re too idealistic. Can’t you just accept it the way it is! If that’s what God wanted to do in the church today don’t you think he would speak to our leaders about it.

The only reason you’re not happy is because you’re too independent and unsubmitted. But every time I read the Word and took a look at church life, I couldn’t relate the two. The promises far outweighed the reality. It seemed to me that only a few people were really discovering what life in Jesus was all about. The rest were just cogs in the machinery of religious institutions.
For the most part these were good people, mind you. They were diligent in their commitments and responsibilities, believing they were fulfilling God’s purpose by doing so. But they never seemed to engage a joyful, transforming relationship with a loving Father.

I know that sounds judgmental. I don’t mean it to be. I’ve talked with many of them always working hard, but always feeling empty. Like me they wondered why they didn’t experience the depth of spiritual life they saw in the Word. They were grieved by the focus they saw on buildings, programs, money and superstar leaders, and the hurt caused by the pursuit of those things.

Ten years ago I wrote some of those observations in a book called The Naked Church. That’s when the letters and phone calls started. It seems that I was not the only one afraid they were nuts. I discovered lots of other believers whose hunger for God left them disillusioned with the priorities of our religious systems. They too had experienced persistent questioning of their sanity. Many of these had served in leadership positions in a variety of denominations. Many had been pushed aside with accusations of being arrogant or rebellious when they started asking the questions that made others uncomfortable.

When they talked to me, they didn’t say things like, “Wayne, you opened my eyes to things I never considered before.” Instead they said, “Wayne, you put into words what I have felt for so long, but could never express.” That someone else was asking the same questions and sharing the same hungers made them feel like maybe they weren’t nuts after all.
Unless, of course, we’re all nuts. Which in all fairness might be worthy to consider. But nothing sums up the passion of this ministry than that simple discovery. We exist to help people discover and enjoy a vibrant relationship with the living God. Sometimes all we have to say is, “I think God is leading you. Feel free to follow him and not worry what others think.” Sometimes we’re the only voice saying that to them.

Relationship not Religion

“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”

These are the words Jesus prayed in the Garden, shortly before his crucifixion. He didn’t die to give birth to another religion, but engage people in a relationship with him and his Father. It has always bothered me that institutional Christianity doesn’t look any different to the world than any of the other religions. We who allegedly walk with the living God have the same traditions, obligations, shrines, sacrifices and ceremonies that they have. Oh, we call them by different names and tell them we are different. But it certainly doesn’t look that way to outsiders.

Christianity is not another religion. It is not a code of ethics. It is not participation in ceremonies or signing some creed. Christianity is a relationship to the Risen Christ, his Father and the Holy Spirit. It is intended to be a relationship more real, more loving, more transforming than any other we’ve ever known in this life. He wants to be at our side when we waken in the morning and walk with us through every step of our day. He wants to be the shoulder we cry on when we hurt, the resource we count on every moment, and the ever-present guide that teaches us how to walk away from the bondage of self and embrace life as Father knows it to be. Then we can be like him in the world, loving others as we have been loved.

It is called relational Christianity, because it is only caught up in loving him and loving others. Period. That’s all he asked us to do, and it is what religion has most failed at over 2,000 years. We are committed to helping people discover the depth of that relationship in him and then discover healthy ways believers can relate together without contempt, manipulation, expectation and the arrogance of setting themselves above others. That’s not only the way we’ll treat other believers, but unbelievers around us as well.

Freedom not Conformity

That kind of relationship however doesn’t grow where people are burdened down with religious obligations and duties. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

Paul encouraged the church at Galatia to that freedom, even though he warned them not to use it as an excuse to run off and appease the flesh. But even when people did, he didn’t revoke the freedom of those who were growing to know Father. His letters defined that freedom even as they warned that false leaders would come to take that freedom away. He knew believers would only grow in an environment of freedom.

 

  • To live in the love of an awesome Father, free to respond to him as he leads you, even if that means you make mistakes now and then.
  • To walk without guilt or condemnation. Recognize that transformation is a life-long process that Jesus
  • works in us by our security in his love, not something we do for him out of fear.
  • To be real. To feel what you feel; to ask what you need to ask, to be wrong where you are wrong, and to extend that same freedom to others.
  • To be liberated from accountability to human leaders who seek to take the place of Jesus in the church by telling others what they think he would have them do.
  • To love other brothers and sisters freely, serving them the way Jesus leads you and not trying to conform to their expectations of what a ‘good Christian’ should do for them.
  • To live free of bitterness and hurt, even where religious institutions (and those who run them) have failed you. We’ve all got plenty wrong with us, so there can be no end to the generosity we can extend others in their weakness.

 

Those who do not understand this freedom, have lost touch with the head and deny the power of the cross. When that happens people end up lording over others, seeking to conform them to their standard of Christian behavior. Enduring transformation, however, can never come that way. It can only spring from within as the fruit of our friendship with Jesus.

 

Inside Out Not Outside In

Jesus didn’t mince words. “Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.”

Religion always tries to change people from the outside in, because it has no power to affect the inner life. Religion finds its reason for being in sustaining traditions and ceremonies, meeting people’s needs and demanding behavioral and philosophical conformity. We talk alike, act alike, think alike! We must be OK!

And because we’ve learned to be ‘nice’ on the outside, we think that God’s work is done. The only problem is that nothing has changed on the inside. We forget that the same system that made Paul “a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee as for legalistic righteousness, faultless” was the same system that made him the “chief of sinners.” When he fixed up the outside, he only drove the sin deeper inside.

What he was on the inside was frightful. Even though outwardly perfect by his standard, by his own words he was a “blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man.” It’s amazing what horrors external righteousness can produce where it really counts.

In Christ Paul found motivation that absolutely transformed him. He came face to face with a love so powerful, that Jesus’ love for him was the only motivation he needed. He didn’t need the fear of hell. He didn’t need accountability to men. He only needed to know how much he was loved. There Paul could die to everything he aspired to for himself, and could enter into the freedom of living in the power of God.

I find no greater joy in my life than to help people discover the depth of that love for themselves, and see how it transforms them by the shear power of his love. This is no external righteousness, it flows from the depth of our being, the freedom to no longer live with self at the center.

So, Are We Against The System?

If by system we mean Christians gathering together (even if it is the same time every week) for prayer, worship and teaching.  Absolutely not! In fact, I go to places like that quite frequently. But if by system we mean the bondage of religious conformity, where people become passive believers in the machinery of a system that wants to use them to feed itself, then yes!
It amazes me that no one is even bothered by the fact that Jesus never once gathered his people in a ‘service.’ He never ‘led worship’ as far as we knew. He never set up a Sunday School. He never launched into a 10 week study of anything beginning at 10:00 on Saturday or Sunday morning. Yet today, we cannot imagine Christianity without those things and judge harshly those who feel like those thing don’t benefit them.

Hear me clearly here. If you are involved in such a gathering that truly stimulates you to greater depths of relationship with God by all means enjoy it! Wonderful things can and do happen when believers get together like that.

But if you find that environment too passive, or even hurtful because of what’s being taught or how people are treated, feel free not to go too! There are many people today who deeply love God and are finding the joy of gathering in much more informal settings, learning as families to share the life of Jesus together in their homes. They don’t go to church, but are learning to live as the church by sharing his life with others and with the world. There’s nothing wrong with that either. In fact, I think it’s a lot closer to what Jesus modeled for his disciples than many of us would care to admit.
Statistics continue to show that the most significant moments in people’s spiritual growth come not at church services, but through personal relationships and in small home studies. Church statisticians tell us that the fastest growing segment of church life today is home groups, Bible studies and house churches. In fact the most effective discipleship and mission work is done by loosely-affiliated small groups of believers learning to share the life and love of Jesus together as a real part of their every day lives.

Personally, I love that kind of body life. Certainly it is more challenging than meeting in managed services, but I find it a far greater growing environment for the whole family. But our purpose at Lifestream is not to advance any system over another. Actually any system (including home churches) can be exploited by people looking to serve themselves instead of live in Father’s love. And any time our idea of church becomes a substitute for a living relationship with Father it becomes destructive.

Love Him, Love Each Other

Relational Christianity is so simply summed up it seems almost trite to say it. Love him with everything you are, and love others the same way you have been loved by him.
We want to help people experience the depth of that relational life in all its facets. We provide writing and teaching to encourage that process in people’s lives. We meet with a wide variety of groups who want to discover what it means to walk with him and experience Godly relationships with other believers.

And once in a while we’ll be a burr in the saddle of institutional religion, not because we enjoy raining on other people’s parades, but because a lot of people fall out of that system hurt and disillusioned. We want them to know that though the system will fail us all at some point, that is only so that we might come to trust Father and him alone.
Jesus didn’t leave his disciples with a system to mass produce throughout the world. He gave them the Spirit, so that we might depend on him. That is true freedom and the source of limitless joy that can conquer any circumstance life hurls at us.

Learn that and you’ll discover the church as God sees it not our cloistered groups meeting in a specific building under a creed some weekend morning. You will see his body scattered throughout your community and the whole world. He knows those who are his. He is able to be the shepherd and hold them in his care. He is able to link them for fellowship and ministry in ways you never dreamed.

We simply aspire to be a part of Jesus doing that wherever he sends us. We’ll keep talking about this wonderful Father and how we can grow to know him better. We’ll keep talking about ways the body of Christ can share life together that doesn’t hurt or manipulate, but encourage us to greater trust in him.
And we’ll keep telling people they’re not nuts. Unless, of course, we think they are!


Download Version:


© Copyright 2009 Lifestream Ministries
Permission is herby granted to anyone wishing to make copies for free distribution.

The Nut Test Read More »