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Working on In Season: Embracing the Father’s Process of Fruitfulness over these past few months proved to be an incredible experience for me personally. Since I was working with material that I wrote over twenty years ago it gave me a glimpse of the process God has used in my own life. I thought I had so many answers back then, but soon discovered I wasn’t even asking the right questions at the time. I express that in the Introduction I wrote for this edition.

A Personal Time Warp

I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.
But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and
straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14)

I’ll admit I have a problem. I can’t just rerelease another edition of a book without tinkering with it.

I see life as a journey, and any book, audio, or article is just a snapshot of that journey. So while what I wrote twenty years ago was the best I knew then, God’s work has continued to shape my life. I would not write the same book today. So putting out a new edition of a book I wrote in the distant past, even if it was one of my favorites, is not as easy as simply sending it to the printers again.

I knew the book needed to be changed. What I wasn’t prepared for was how much it needed changing. As I read it over I knew printing it as it was would be like posting my high school photo on my home page. Sure the resemblance is there, but I don’t think anyone would see that photo and know immediately that it was me. I have changed a lot since high school. And I have changed a lot since I wrote the first edition of this book.

I’ve often wondered what it would be like to have a conversation with a younger me. What if I could warp time, go back twenty years, and sit down in my old pastor’s office with the person I was back then. Would we even like each other? Would we be able to communicate? Would the younger me recognize the current me?

While I was rewriting this book, I had the chance to experience a bit of that sort of time warp. Much of this material was originally published in 1991 in a book called The Vineyard. That book was republished in a couple of different formats. Some of it was put into a coffee table book titled In My Father’s Vineyard and some of it was repackaged in a book titled Tales of the Vine. Those books have been out of print for some time and many people have been asking if I was going to republish my material on the vineyard. As I started through those books again, I wasn’t prepared to meet the Wayne of twenty years ago who wrote and thought very differently from the Wayne I’ve become in the intervening years.

While still embracing the content of the book I wrote, I had to cringe when I read my own words. They sounded more like the fiery preacher of my former days—the one who talked down to my listeners from a pulpit. I was constantly setting a high bar and pushing them toward it (as if our own human effort could ever bear the fruit of our Father). I hope that now after some reworking, it tenderly encourages you to find Jesus in the reality of your life today and find the grace to follow him as he shapes your life to be fruitful and fulfilled in him.

As I reworked this material, a powerful theme emerged that highlighted the seasonal element of our spiritual journeys. We tend to conform our lives to obligations that do not fit what he is asking of us, instead of appreciating the process of fruitfulness that allows each of us to be free in our journey to follow Jesus as each day requires.

Many believers I know live as though it is always supposed to be harvest time and they grow frustrated when their lives are not as fruitful in other seasons. If harvest is our only expectation, then we’ll despise the days when Jesus shapes our lives in the relative stillness of winter, or holds us in his hands while we face the heat of summer, bringing maturity to his fruit in us. Vines are never frustrated with shifting seasons. Each one is essential to the cycle of fruitfulness that God invites us to embrace.

As a farmer’s view of John 15, this book touches on the deepest themes that have defined my life, while also drawing from the fondest memories I have of growing up on my father’s vineyard in central California. That may sound more spectacular than it was in actuality. Today vineyards are marketed as romantic tourist destinations, but for those who live on them they are a lot of hard work.

During summer it is hot and dusty as the farmer cares for the vines or harvests the crops. In winter the labor can be cold and menial as he prunes one row of vines after another. Nonetheless it was in those fields that my young life was shaped. It was in my father’s vineyard that I learned so much about God and life. There I learned the nobility of an honest day’s work, of the joy in a job well done, and what character and integrity really mean. All of these lessons have served me well in the forty years since I’ve left that farm.

It took far longer to rewrite this than I had planned, but I hope the result will set you free to live deeply in the Father’s life and flow with his working, whether he is pruning you in the rest of winter or developing fruit in you that he can share with so many others.

Who knows, I may have to rewrite it again in twenty years and take more of the old me out yet again.

In Season will be in hand on November 8. In fact, they were just printed this morning. If you’d like to order your copy, you can do so here.

Now I’m off to Omaha for the weekend. Looking forward to what God has in store there.

A friend sent me this quote yesterday. While I don’t usually turn to Johnny Depp for wisdom, he said a mouthful in a recent Larry King Special.

Money doesn’t change anybody, it reveals them. Same with success.”

I know it often looks to us like people change whenever they come into money or some measure of success, but perhaps he is right. I like to think character (or the lack of it) runs deeper than our circumstances. So if people become arrogant, deceitful, or unfaithful when their circumstances in life change, maybe that’s who they truly were before. They just didn’t have the opportunity to show it.

Certainly money and success present people with very different options than they had before and that’s why it is often more a trap than a blessing. I think character is best displayed by how we’re willing to treat people when we most think we are right. If we are less than loving, gracious, or self-sacrificing in such moments, it only shows us there is more work to be done by the only one that can shape our character—-Jesus himself!

And didn’t he say that if someone is faithful with something small, they will continue to be faithful when they have more. In the end, our character really does matter more than our circumstances!

It is so good to get all the new resources finalized and available to people. I’m excited that THE JESUS LENS DVDs are out, and so is the video on-line for those who want to view it for free. A MAN LIKE NO OTHER has arrived at the docks in California, now it’s just a matter of getting them through customs, which is not an easy process these days. And IN SEASON is at the printer’s with a promised date of November 7, while we’re working on getting the e-book made for that. The number of pre-orders for both of those books have really surprised us.

And during this busy season it has been a joy to be on the end of hosting travelers, instead of being the one crawling on the airplanes! Last week we had a mother and daughter visit us from Visalia, and a couple from Colorado Springs stay with us for four days. Last night I met with a local group of believers who are part of a church plant in the area. They have been reading SO YOU DON’T WANT TO GO TO CHURCH ANYMORE and wanted to ask some provocative questions about all that in light of what they’re involved in. What a delightful group of people and a wonderful evening.

This afternoon a young couple arrives from Indiana to stay with us a few days. Then it’s the grandkids coming to Camp Grandma on Saturday night! That will be lots of fun. Then next weekend I’m off to Omaha, before returning in early November. Then we’ll have another wave of visitors coming from Sacramento, upstate New York, Texas and England. Wow! It’s nice to have some folks come this way for a change. I don’t always get the chance to intersect with people who come to the area, because of my travel schedule and other meetings out here, but it’s always nice when it does work out.

Then Sara and I are going into stealth mode to sneak into Green Bay, Wisconsin to catch a Packer game at Lambeau Field for the first time ever. We are also looking forward to meeting the folks that invited us. Then it’s Thanksgiving with family before I’m off to Louisiana to hopefully end my trips for the year. And in the meantime I’m working on a book for THE JESUS LENS book and finally giving some time to the FINDING CHURCH book, which I’ve been playing with for a number of years.

Words really do have the power to destroy or to heal. Today I’m getting to experience some healing words indeed and the ramifications of that have filled my heart with boundless joy. In fact, the words that came into my inbox this week were completely unexpected. And they might just be the most powerful words any of us could ever speak. Someone who had been a good friend of mine for many years and with whom I’d had no contact for more than a decade, sent this note to my inbox a few days ago:

“I simply want to deeply apologize for all that happened. I know that I hurt you and was in the wrong.”

Our friendship had been shattered by a very painful season in his life and a confusing time in ours. Despite my repeated attempts to work through it years ago, he wasn’t ready. My joy does not come from hearing him admit fault. I honestly don’t care who is at fault in these kinds of things. We all make mistakes in relationships especially at very painful times in our own life and also misunderstand others as they often misunderstand us. What caused me to rejoice was the crack in the door he offered for relationship to begin again. That has brought me more joy than I can tell. I find myself smiling all the time now in grateful joy that God could bring back together what the enemy had cut asunder.

We have exchanged a number of emails since and even a long phone call that was rich with love for each other that had been cut off too long ago. We found that same love, respect, and affection that we had back then was still alive today. Though I can’t give you all the details, because this is a personal matter, the door opening with him has also opened doors to others that Sara and I have long-loved and long-missed. The prospect that these relationships may find resurrection delights us, too.

Does God know any greater joy than seeing broken relationships in his family mended? I’m thinking this is a miracle of the first order, because something that was dead is coming alive again and if you ask me, that’s more amazing that most people think. Sin and selfishness creates all the divisions and factions among humanity, and it is our self-focus that robs us of relationships with others. I didn’t want this one to go away when it did. I have grieved the loss of that and now get to celebrate the joy of its return.

There are just too many broken relationships in the world, and mostly our pride keeps them that way. I don’t think God wants us to pester people who are not open to reconciliation, but simply be ready to embrace it when the opportunity comes. When it came this week, I was ready to jump in. There are enough damaged relationships in the world, especially among brothers and sisters, without us adding any more to it. I couldn’t imagine anything worse than my own kids breaking faith with each other and cutting the other one out of their lives. But if they did, I couldn’t imagine any greater joy in knowing they found a way back together again.

Please don’t try to guess who this is. You don’t know. It’s nothing I’ve spoken about publicly or written about, but it does give me hope that God can touch the remotest heart and open the door to restore what the enemy has devoured. It’s amazingly easy to open that door. All you have to do is open your heart, be open and honest and see what God will do. How simple his words were, and yet they opened so wide a door.

God’s heart is always for reconciliation. Wherever you can participate in it, jump in. Life is too short to dodge damaged relationships.

I promise, this is the last one this year. Yes, I have been busy getting some projects done that have been on my heart for some time. I am pleased to announce that I have finished a new book that was built off of my former books called The Vineyard, Tales of the Vine and In My Father’s Vineyard. All of those books have been out of print for some time and people continue to ask where they can access some of my teaching on Jesus parable of the vine and the branches. I grew up on a grape vineyard, so this is actually a farmer’s view of John 15 and what it means to remain in the vine. This contains some of my greatest memories growing up on a vineyard, as well as the most tender metaphor Jesus used to invite us into the fullness of his life and the fruitfulness that he produces in us out of that reality.

This book is called In Season: Embracing the Father’s Process of Fruitfulness. I retell Jesus parable of the vineyard to show how God works in different ways in us depending on the season we are growing through. Each season has a particular and valuable place in the development of a vine. It cannot be fruitful all the time, and if it doesn’t get refreshed in winter, it will not bear fruit again.

This book will be released on November 7. This should coincide with the arrival of the other book I’ve been working on, A Man Like No Other. So if you want to order them together, we’ll ship them together. You can pre-order both books here. The cost for this book is $13.99 and we’re working now on the e-book for those who prefer it that way. Hopefully it will be ready about the same time. I’ll let you know.

Here’s the cover and back cover. I’ve been working with a new designer, Nan Bishop out of Tulsa. I love her work and appreciate how the layout for this book has come together. And it’s as pretty on the inside as it is on the outside. Yes, if you want to, and if you want to order it alongside A Man Like No Other, go ahead. We’ll ship them together.

Trailview Media • 208 Pages • Paperback • $13.99

I’m on my way home today after an amazing 8-day swing through St. Louis, Kansas City, and Wichita. I’ve met hundreds of new people and had long, lovely conversations with people I have crossed paths with before. It has all been wonderful, even our last three days hanging out in a barn with a wide-ranging group of people in all stages of this amazing journey. I am always amazed at the conversations that people on a real spiritual journey share with each other.

I got to the airport early and have free-wifi at Wichita. (Thank you, Wichita. No one should charge $8.00 for a one-hour connection. Highway robbery!) Anyway, I’ve been reflecting on Steve Jobs recently. The founder of Apple and its high-profile CEO died on Wednesday. I have been a dedicated user of Apple products through my entire computing life. I have savored how his innovations made my writing so much easier. And I have watched him give speeches of new products to see if they were going to be of further help to me. I felt a sadness in my own heart when I heard of his passing.

If you haven’t already heard his 2005 Commencement Speech at Stanford University, you might enjoy giving it a listen. I have no idea what kind of faith journey he was on, but so much of what he said that day resonates deeply with me. Even on that date he knew he had pancreatic cancer and it was probably going to shorten his lifespan significantly. He died this week at 56.

During his Standford commencement speech he talked about dropping out of college, of being cheated out of Apple by some of his best friends and how it came back to him later. He had some marvelous things to say about overcoming even the unfaithfulness of others to flourish in that which your heart draws you toward. When I read this, I don’t so much think of my heart and what I want, but I did think of the dreams God has planted there and how easily we let ourselves be talked out of his purpose in us by those who think in the box of human intellect.

I posted part of this speech previously in a blog a long, long time ago. I wanted to post some of it again today. Here’s how that speech ended:

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life.”

“It is life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.”

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.“

You can read or hear the entire speech here. Good stuff!

BodyLife has now become “Living Loved.” Our latest Living Loved Newsletter has just been posted at the Lifestream website. We will still deal with church life issues and concerns from time to time, but the newsletter has always been about so much more. The latest issue has just been posted at:

https://www.lifestream.org/current-issue.php

(If this URLs does not show up in your email as a link to our site, just copy and paste it into the window of your browser and hit ‘return’.)

The title of this issue is, Quiet Lives of Profound Consequences, and talks about the crying need in our world for men and women who have learning to live loved by the Father in their own lives and are now ready and willing to help others learn to live in that reality as well. These are true elders in Christ’s body and there is a crying need throughout the world for people who can help others embrace this journey with grace and wonder.

Also you’ll find information on three new resources by Wayne that Lifestream will be releasing this Fall. The Jesus Lens is an 8 hour DVD series designed to help people read Scripture with greater joy and wisdom. A Man Like No Other: The Illustrated Life of Jesus, a book co-written with Brad and framed by paintings from the Gospels by Murry Whiteman. And finally, In Season, Embracing the Father’s Process of Fruitfulness, which is a re-packaging of Wayne’s look at the parable of the vine through his formative years growing up on a vineyard. You’ll also find letters that will encourage fellow-travelers, a book recommendation for parents of prodigals, and other Lifestream News.

You can read it online, or print your own downloadable version. We hope it inspires your own journey in drawing closer to Jesus and reveling in his life.

We have just received the first order of The Jesus Lens DVDs. And hopefully we’ll soon have the sit active that will post those videos as well. We’ll announce when that is read.

Right now we’re going to fill the orders for so many of you who ordered in advance. You should be receiving your DVDs over the next week or so. If you haven’t ordered it yet you may do so from our website.

You can also hear the audio and read more about this project here.

Here’s what some people are already saying about The Jesus Lens:

THE JESUS LENS material is excellent. Fresh, relevant and anointed.
David, retired teacher from Ireland

I love everything about it, especially what you said about the Bible
being a love letter. This has breathed new life into my Bible reading!
Julie, mother of three in California

These sessions opened up a fresh way of looking at the Scriptures as
God’s unfolding love story through the lens of His Son, Jesus.
Barry, retired military in Virginia

I feel like I’ve been handed a missing piece of my heart. (The Bible
has often been just another source of shame. Now I can see how God is
restoring it to its proper and useful place in my life.)
Susan, former slave of shame

THE JESUS LENS is an incredible look at the Scriptures. Having read
the Bible all of my life, this teaching has endeared me in a whole new
way to the amazing story of my loving.
Dawn, a member of the studio audience

I am so excited! Just this morning I received my advance copy of A Man Like No Other: The Illustrated Life of Jesus. Brad Cummings and I co-authored this book about the life of Jesus to put words to the incredible paintings of a friend of ours, Murry Whiteman, an award-winning commercial artist in the entertainment industry. The result is a full-color book that is a visual feast as well as a powerful tool for personal reflection or reading together with your spouse and family. On your coffee table it will become a focus of conversation with visitors. Our hope is that it will make people hungry to know the Jesus of Scripture and see him as the most engaging person that has ever lived.

The other copies are on a boat headed for California. We are hopeful to get these in hand to distribute by early November, but that will depend on border security and a lot of other circumstances we don’t control. But it will be here in time for the Christmas holidays and I can’t imagine a better gift to share with family and friends.

A Man Like No Other
The Illustrated Life of Jesus
By Wayne Jacobsen, Brad Cummings, and Murry Whiteman
128 pages, Windblown Media, $24.99 • 128 pages • 8.5 x 11.5 • Hardback

Available around November 7, 2011. You may now pre-order it from Lifestream for $24.99 Please do not include other books or audio in your order unless you want us to ship those when A Man Like No Other arrives. Our shipping prices are only configured for one shipment.

Here are the first two spreads:

Text:

Before the beginning they were always together celebrating life in a community of love and light far grander than anything mere mortals could ever conceive. One day their joy erupted into the darkened void of chaos with a proclamation of profound consequence, “Let there be light!”

And there was!

Text:

Father, Son, and Spirit gave birth to a new reality,what we know as our universe. Father proclaimed and the Son brought his words to life—creating light, stars,planets, oceans, land, and animals. Everything that was created, the Son created. This was his world teeming with life and beauty and it reflected His magnificent glory. And as the crowning glory of creation, they made a man and a woman in their own image and gave them the earth to live in and care for. And God made Himself known to them by coming each day and walking with them in the cool of the day.

For a time all was well and the earth was at peace. But it did not last.

One day a deceiver appeared in the garden and seduced the first two humans into thinking they knew better than the God who made them, and they chose a course that seemed more pleasing to them. Wanting to know good and evil outside of their relationship with God, they rejected his counsel and by doing so plunged themselves and their world into another chaos. Selfishness, shame, disease, and war began to rule the world, marring them and the creation.

Yet God continued to come to them seeking to rescue what sin had destroyed. Darkened in their understanding the people retreated in fear whenever God approached them and misunderstood his attempts to rescue them as the brutal punishment of an offended deity. They could no longer see who He was, nor how passionate He was to redeem them out of their brokenness and restore them to his glory. But He persisted, continuing to prepare His people for a day of greater revelation and the inauguration of a new creation.

In the fullness of time, God spoke again into the chaos of darkness. This, too, was a word of creation and light, but this time it was not in a voice, but a baby—-the Word made flesh now inside the creation. God sought to prove he was not distant and uncaring, by becoming one of us, embracing all that it meant to be human. Here he lived, he loved, he taught, he healed. He came to set us free, to invite us into the life-giving relationship that he himself enjoys with the Father.

He willingly gave up his life so that we and this world could be redeemed back to God. He came as a Son that he might reveal to us the Father. His life–who he was, what he did, and how he related to others—exactly reflected of God’s nature. If you want to know what God is like, we have only to look to him. This is the story of that man, Jesus – a man like no other!

Genesis 1-3, John 1:1-12, Galatians 4:1-4, Hebrews 1-5:3, 2:14-18

I don’t put YouTube videos on my blog very often. If memory serves me well, I think I’ve only done it twice. And I’m probably very late to this one since it has been viewed over three and half milliont times But this one touched me very deeply. Yes, you have to sit through a cheesy ad and it is from a pop TV show, but watch the story unfold. Incredible!

I know many don’t like the words to the song, but the sum total of this story and song struck a deep chord in my heart as I listened to it this weekend. No, I don’t agree with all the words of the song, but I do agree with the theme of it. God does want a world without war and will one day make it so. And there is perhaps no one better to proclaim that truth than someone who has been so impacted by it. I don’t know if I can tell you to enjoy this one, because if you’re like me you might need a box of Kleenex nearby. But its end your heart will feel triumphant as the purpose of God unfolds in our world. This is as close to God’s heart as anything I know. Only the selfish, greedy heart of broken humanity keep this from being a reality. Lord Jesus, come judge the world and set right what sin has so twisted!