righteousness

What Others Are Saying about JUST LOVE

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Today, you can secure your copy of Just Love, available at Amazon. In a few weeks, we will have copies available through Lifestream so people can order bulk quantities at significantly reduced costs for those who want to share with friends or host a book study. Here’s my invitation:

 

If there isn’t a viewer in your email, you can click on this link.

 

We had a few advance readers take an advance look at Just Love, and here’s what they said about it:

The most significant book on theology I have read in the past 30 years. This book offers insights in why faith gets stuck in a perpetual cycle of not righteous enough or far too righteous. These issues in this slender volume have the deepest roots and the most profound consequences. A great read for anyone who hopes for a better tomorrow.
—Ron Vincent, retired high school teacher in California

Stunning! Absolutely life-changing! Not since Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to the door of the Church or the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the turn of the century has there been such an important rediscovery of truth. It’s amazing how one unfortunate mistranslation of an essential part of the Gospel can be so breath-takingly simple and yet so transformative. This changes everything!
—Brad Cummings, co-author, publisher, and movie producer of The Shack

I could barely make it past the first page before I was overcome with emotion. From the very beginning, the presence of Abba’s heart is unmistakable—woven into every word with tenderness, truth, and divine intention. This book didn’t just move me; I was undone in the most beautiful and transformative way. It reached places in my heart I didn’t even realize were waiting to be touched, leaving me both humbled and profoundly changed. This is not just a book you read—it’s an encounter you experience. I whole- heartedly give it a 15 out of 10.
—Daron Maughon, musician in Nashville

A phenomenal read—justice written on our hearts! Perhaps the most important book written for our time. The reality of justice found within properly understood love resets Scripture to its original intent, revealing the purpose and trajectory of love, justice, and the Kingdom of God.
—Mike Rea, title agent in Florida

Just Love beautifully expresses the transforming power of love, a love so personal and metamorphic that it brings actualized justice and “expresses the kingdom of God” in this messy world. When I read that God “is the most endearing presence in the universe and the ultimate source of our provision,” I wanted that truth to sink so deeply in my mind and soul that I would never forget it.
—Tracy Levinson, former atheist and author of Unashamed-Candid Conversations about Dating, Love, Nakedness, and Faith

A most helpful, readable, wonderful book, providing a refreshing look at what it means to be a Christ-follower in this age of religious overdrive. You thought you knew it, but in Just Love, Wayne and Tobie offer eye-opening insight into the layers of God’s justice and love. No more faith in our religious performance, traditions, or personal piety. We can come with arms wide open to a God who has loved us from the start and place our faith in His just, life-giving hands.
—Dr. Stephanie Bennett, communication professor and author of Within the Walls, and Relationships on the Run

Just Love is at times a scholarly lexicography, and at others a thought-provoking personal journey of two men. Many paragraphs beckoned long pondering. Love within us is Christ’s call to us. Blessed are we to be loved and love. Thank you, Wayne and Tobie, for further reasons to let God lead our ways.
—Marty Beert, former school district superintendent

I’ve no doubt Just Love is God’s call today to the Body of Christ. The Reformation was a response to radical shifts in politics, tech-nology, and access to information when the Body of Christ had moved away from the heart of the Gospel. Just Love brings the same invitation to us in similar circumstances. It both confronts those who have abused power and need to be humbled, and it lifts up those who have labored under oppression. This is an invitation back to our roots—to the love we need to receive from God, and then how that love flows through us to the world.
—Tom Stephen, pastor, Monte Vista Presbyterian

In He Loves Me, you helped to define love. In Just Love, you redefine the justness of Father, and how the fullness of his love lets us share his passion for justice. I am soaking up this book. It is thrilling to read, but it’s messing with me. I cannot get past the statement, “Established by a ruler-king yet to come, his kingdom would not be predicated on the justice of a written law but the justness of love!”
—Jack S., retired pastor in South Carolina

Concise, easy to read, and soaked in love, Just Love is a significant work with a transformative message. By replacing ‘righteousness’ with ‘justice’ in our English translations, Scripture becomes so much more accurate, understandable and life-giving. Why all this is true is the reason you will want to read this book. Wayne and Tobie brilliantly attest that becoming morally perfect is not the goal of the Christian life, but rather it is about embracing God’s love—and when you do that you naturally become a vessel of God’s love and justice in the world.
—Sean Kennedy, author of Church Uncorked: Leadership That Releases Our Potential

Just Love is as timely and potent as anything I could imagine. Its resounding message of personal righteousness vs. justice for all our neighbors is akin to an asteroid hitting the planet. I’m not sure there’s been a more important spiritual discovery during my time on this earth. Prepare to be challenged and hopefully, changed. This is the book that each and every Christian needs to read and ponder. And it might very well be what your heart and spirit have been longing for your entire life.
—Bob Prater, co-author of A Language of Healing for a Polarized Nation

This little book is so good; it’s an invitation to a lifelong exploration in the best and most transformative way—to encounter the love of God and to be changed from the inside out. Living within this love, I am becoming a woman who is willing to be in the mess of life, not having to fix everything, but to have the courage to let him meet me, hold me, and change me even through heartache. And living this way, God will invite others through us into this sacred way.
—Dana Andreychen, poet and mother

This is far more than an explanation of how “righteousness” in the New Testament is actually “justice.” It is a call to live justly, to move from the idea that we can be “righteous in God’s eyes” and still hate our enemies. It charges us to love as we are loved, to be just because He is just. Treating others as you would like to be treated is Jesus’ definition of justice. It reflects Father’s unconditional love for us. Justice is a call to action. Righteousness is the state of being that results from being just. Justice comes first.
—Phil Hinton, vascular surgeon

If you only read one book this year, make it this one! This book uncovers and clarifies a truth your soul needs! Just Love is a key that unlocked areas of my spiritual journey and practical living while simultaneously giving me a new way to hear God throughout the Bible. Buy a few copies; you’re going to want to give some away so others will understand what you’ll soon be unable to stop talking about!
—Samantha Schmeltzer, mother and entrepreneur

Love is the living fountain within us, and justice is its overflow. Humanity needs to wake up to this. To live in Just Love is a high calling, offering each reader the quiet, supernatural work that opens a human heart. Approach these pages the way Paul prayed for the Ephesian believers, “that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened… that you may know the love of Christ which passes knowledge.” This little book is best received with deep humility, seeking revelation and surrender to the love of a Father who is love. In that posture, something lasting can happen, not inspiration that fades, but transformation that settles into bone and breath. —Dr Stephan Vosloo, occupational medical practitioner

We are printing copies now and will offer bulk discounts on Lifestream when they arrive, hopefully by the end of the month. We do not have an audio version of this book available now, but we will be putting one together in the next couple of months.

"Just Love" - How One Mistranslated Word Distorted the GospelJust Love:
How One Mistranslated Word Distorted the Gospel
by Wayne Jacobsen and *Tobie van der Westhuizen
174 pages
Trailview Media
Available from Amazon, Tuesday, March 3
in Kindle ($10.99)
or in Paperback ($16.99)

 

*Tobie, Wayne’s coauthor, is a former pastor and holds a PhD in Higher Education. In addition to his work overseeing a private school in Bloemfontein, SA, he writes at JusticeofGod.com and answers questions on the Bible and spiritual matters at quora.com/profile/Tobie-28.

Hear Wayne, Tobie, and Kyle discuss their new book on the most recent edition of The God Journey.  

 

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I Will Miss You, Tony

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Tony Campolo passed away last week, and though I’m a bit late, I want to acknowledge his powerful contribution to Christian thought around the world and to my own life personally.

I never had the chance to meet him or hear him speak in person, but decades ago, his books and recordings challenged and inspired me. If you’ve never heard It’s Friday But Sunday’s Coming (the whole thing is sermon is powerful, but the story I’m referring to begins at 50:20) or The Kingdom of God Is a Party, don’t wait any longer. Any of his books are a great treat as well.

As you’ll see, Tony Campolo was among the most humorous speakers ever. Inside that humor was a constant challenge to be mindful of the poor and to realize that our calling as followers of Jesus is to lay down our lives for the needs of others. Many evangelicals didn’t like him, calling him a “liberal” as a way to dismiss his message. Indeed, I didn’t agree with everything he taught, but that’s true of most people. I have no problem enjoying the chicken and spitting out the bones. He coined the term, Red Letter Christians, to help Jesus followers take seriously the words of Jesus in the Gospels about visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, and reaching out to those in prison.

Since we’ve been talking about the focus of justice and righteousness on The God Journey before we had to take a hiatus, I’m freshly aware of the link between the Kingdom of God with God’s kind of redemptive justice for the broken, the marginalized, and the wounded and how skewed our preoccupation with personal holiness rather than the injustice in a fallen world.

I know no better illustration of that than how Tony Campolo addressed many chapels at Christian universities. He would often begin his talk with a statistic about how many children died the night before from malnutrition and related diseases around the world, numbering in the thousands.  Letting it sink in, he would then add, “And most of you don’t give a sh*t.”

Of course, the room would be scandalized at such a coarse word in their imagined holy place.

When the room settled, he would point to the heart of the problem. “What’s worse is that you’re more upset with the fact that I said ‘sh*t’ than the fact that thousands of kids died last night.”

He wasn’t always invited back. In my more legalistic days, I would have been more concerned about his use of a bad word than I would have been about a hunger problem that seems too large for me to fix. That wouldn’t be true today. Justice is holding a bigger heart for the poor and deprived. Policing the word ‘sh*t’ is just a misplaced, legalistic preoccupation with righteousness.

Of course, we can care about injustice at the same time we watch our mouths, but Tony was making a point here.  I hope you don’t miss the larger issue as well. People concerned with their piety are often disengaged from how their lives impact others. That’s why they can profess Jesus while viciously fighting a culture war with a moral superiority that leaves no room to love their “enemies.”  It’s why some can think of themselves as holy; they don’t use “bad words,” but they still gossip about others to destroy relationships.

That’s why I’ve come to see, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice…” (Matthew 6:33) as a better translation than the word righteousness. We can seek righteousness and not always get to justice, but you can’t seek relational justice and not become more godly. Treating others the way we would want them to treat us is where the kingdom of God advances in the world. Of course, they are not unrelated, but one fixates on our good, and the other focuses on the fulfillment of God’s heart by being a beacon of his compassion in a broken world.

Tony, we will miss you here, and yet the joy I’m sure you’re finding there is beyond compare. Rest in peace, my friend. You served him well in this world.

______________________

As for a personal update, my back continues to heal from fusion surgery, and though I still have to be careful while it heals, I’m almost pain-free there. I’ve been on a lower dose of chemo the last two weeks, so I have some really good days of late, but next week, they are going to be ramping up the dosage, and I’m not sure how I’ll be doing then.

Sara joins me on today’s episode of The God Journey podcast to share how our current challenge has also affected her journey. It’s called Expectations, Disappointment, and Hope.

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The Prayers of a Just Person

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Most of you will be familiar with James 5:16, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

What springs to mind when you think of this Scripture? Doesn’t it seem that our sinlessness is a pre-condition to having an effective prayer life? But that doesn’t make any sense if the process of transforming us is a lifetime adventure.

What if it said instead, “The prayer of a just person is powerful and effective.” If so, it is no longer about how good I’ve been but whether or not my heart is united with God’s purpose to restore justice on the earth. In other words, am I just praying for myself, or are my prayers inclusive of the needs of others? Am I praying for my benefit at someone else’s expense or in an attempt to co-opt their will?

If you’re following this blog or the series of podcasts titled This Changes Everything at the God Journey, you know I’ve been drawing down a rabbit hole of biblical proportions. A newfound friend from South Africa, Tobie van der Westhuizen, sent me some of his research on how the word ‘righteousness’ does not appear in Scripture. Oh, it’s in our English translation, but he argues it’s a mistranslation. The Greek word is ‘justice’ or ‘justness.’ By focusing that word on personal piety, devotion, and discipline instead, we gutted the gospel of its purpose. God didn’t want to just declare us “righteous” in Christ but to populate the world with a company of just men and women who have been converted from the narcissism of self to the joy of others-focused loving.

Sara and I have been taking this thought for a test drive in our Bible reading together. What a difference it makes if he is right, and I am quickly becoming settled that he is. This verse from James has begun to reshape my prayer life with a different tone as I think more about his justice and purpose. Why would our prayers be more effective there? Because they wouldn’t be tainted by your personal comfort or privilege but looking out for others as well. That’s where you’ll sense his heart better and engage him inside his larger purpose for all humanity.

That’s what God’s love does when it takes residence in our hearts. By filling us with the life of God, we don’t have to draw life from other people or manipulate circumstances for our survival, but to embrace kindness, fairness, justness, and generosity. Could that be what it means when Jesus wanted to justify us? He didn’t just want to declare us righteous; he wanted to transform us and make us the kind of men and women who can influence the world through the power of love. And that’s the only way this works—we experience love, then live out of that love to others. This is where the fullness of life in Christ exists in the flow of his love to us and through us.

This Saturday, we are hosting a God Journey After-Show with Tobie so others can ask questions about this. It will stream live on The God Journey Facebook page at 11:00 am Pacific Daylight Time and be available afterward for those who want to hear it. If you’d like to participate in the Zoom room conversation, please email Wayne in advance to get the link. The room is getting pretty full, so I’m sure not everyone will get their questions in, but we can use it as a beginning.

Finally, we are nearing our goal of completing work on rescuing the orphanage we built fifteen years ago from torrential rains. In the photo at left, a government inspector checks the repairs already made and is pleased with the progress.

Thanks to all who have generously contributed to this project. We still need a few thousand more if this is on your heart. If you can help us, please see our Donation Page at Lifestream. As always, every dollar you send goes directly to Kenya. We do not take out any administration or transfer fees for Lifestream. Just designate “Kenya” in the options or email us and let us know your gift is for Kenya. You can also Venmo contributions to “@LifestreamMinistries” or mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560 Newbury Rd Ste 1  •  Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or, if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

Let’s see if we can find the full amount they need.  Thank you for your consideration.

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