The God Journey

Fair warning: The God Journey goes political again as Brad struggles with the proposed mosque in New York City, a few blocks from the Ground Zero in lower Manhattan and invites Wayne into a discussion about whether or not we are to be a force for cultural change in this world. How do we affect life in the world we live in, especially if some are using the conventions of society to force their will on others? Is that what Jesus asks of us? What does it mean to be salt and light in the world? Can any of us enjoy our rights without also sharing responsibilities? How do we blend the call for justice with Jesus’ invitation to love deeply even those who consider you their enemy? Only in God himself does righteousness and peace come together in one incredible whole. He alone knows how to connect judgment and mercy in a world that is so broken by human need.

Following up on last week’s podcast about the church as a family, Brad and Wayne discuss an article written by Kevin DeYoung, who is the co-author of Why We Love the Church. The article is entitled The Glory of Plodding and seeks to encourage people not to give up on institutionalized churches in hopes of finding a more resilient faith or a more authentic community. The article begs the question whether or not there are or can be churchless Christians, and whether our obedience to tradition and our learning of doctrine is more important than learning to live loved by Jesus. Of course the important issue is not whether we gather with others in an institutional way or not, but whether we’ve ended up caught in the religious treadmill, or are learning to live inside a vibrant relationship.

Is the church just an institution with shared doctrine and weekly services, or is it primarily a family that shares life together under the practical headship of Jesus? Helping Brad and Wayne probe that question this week are two brothers from Ireland who were on The God Journey back in April of 2006 in a podcast entitled, Laying it All Down in Ireland. Collin Langran (left) and David Rice (right) have been part of a thriving community of brothers and sisters in Dublin and regions south who have for more than 30 years simply learned to live as God’s people together, sharing life and caring for one another without the traditional congregational structures to manage that life. Their conversation shows how the church can experience life as a family as each believer learns to listen and follow the Head, and grow in loving and caring for each other through the twists and turns of life in this world.

Just when you think you’ve got it all figured out—God appears! And in doing so he rarely fits into the roles or expectations we assign to him. In this podcast Wayne and Brad talk about how principles alone will always fail us at the critical moments in life. We have been offered a relationship with the Father through his Son which can bring wisdom and resource into our lives. Through that discussion, they refer to popular author Anne Rice’s decision to leave Christianity, feedback from a previous podcast on doctrine, a Christianity Today column about suffering as an extension of God’s purpose in our lives, and a poem by poem by Jenny Rowbury, a young woman in England, that provoke us to move toward God in suffering and not away from him. God’s amazing ability to work triumph out of tragedy is the only thing that makes sense in a broken world.

Wayne and Brad dive into the email bag and come out with three amazing stories of people who are learning to live in a greater freedom, even in the face of painful circumstances, because of their growing discovery about how loved they are by the Father. You’ll hear about a father facing a pregnancy with his unmarried daughter, of an adult child engaging parents who raised her in a shame-based home with lots of rejection, and a man who gets to share Jesus with a hungry heart who has been turned off by religious approaches. Engaging even difficult relationships more focused on the other person than our own needs or desires opens the door for some pretty amazing things to happen.

Brad takes Wayne with him through his Jerusalem trip and the experiences, insights, and questions that were part of his time in Israel with a group of Hasidic Jews. Through the additional insights of listeners, they also revisit the learning-to-ride the bike analogy from a few podcast ago as others share their thoughts about growing in trust and going for a ride with God. The theme throughout is something Brad read on base of the Kenesset Menorah. “Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty.” (Zechariah 4:6) We think so much rests in our hands, that really rests in his. Learning to live inside of his working, rather than our own manipulations is at the heart of living as a free child in the earth.

Look who came by. Darin Hufford was in the Los Angeles area and stopped by for a visit while Brad is in Jerusalem. Darin is a good friend and the author of The Misunderstood God: The Lies Religion Teaches About God. Wayne recorded some of their conversation to share it with God Journey listeners. This wide-ranging dialog encompasses helping others discover their freedom in Father’s love, the difficulty of communicating that message to people who find it threatening, and the place Scripture holds in growing to know him. You can find out more about Darin at his website, The Free Believer’s Network.

Sara joins Wayne and Brad this week to share her experiences in England with Wayne. They share about the marvelous journey various people are on to break free of religious obligation and find the freedom to walk in the life and grace of Jesus’ unfolding work in their hearts. Brad and Wayne also read a recent blog posting that is riddled with misunderstandings about what The God Journey is all about, as well as what it means for people to live in the grace of God.

Letters from podcast listeners lead Brad and Wayne to a discussion about the process of learning to live loved, comparing it to learning to ride a bicycle. Unless we’re willing to risk the uncomfortable moments of feeling out of control, we won’t find the depth of the life God wants to show us. Living loved begins when the Father begins to convince us that even with all he knows about us, this Father is deeply endeared to us and invites us on a journey of growing in that awareness. This also leads to a conversation about how to walk alongside others as God is drawing them into living loved as well.

A letter from a listener and a conversation Wayne had recently gives he and Brad the opportunity to talk about how God gives expression to the Body of Christ around us. Both have become convinced that community is not something we get to build, but it is the fruit of lives coming together who are learning how to follow Jesus. Pretense and obligation are two factors that many use to build community, when in fact they produce the opposite results, driving people into greater isolation. It is our task to equip others for discipleship; it is Jesus’ task to build his church in the world.