Love’s Antidote to Obligation (#480)

affectionThose who think Jesus builds his church on obligation and accountability have yet to experience the church that rises out of his love. After last weeks' podcast on obligation, Wayne sorts through some emails and blog posts that share some of the lessons and insights others are finding on this journey. While breaking free of religious obligation can be a lonely and painful road it will only lead to emptiness and self-indulgence unless we are captured by a greater reality, that for which our hearts have longed since birth. Finding our way into Father's affection and learning to share it with others is the greatest of all possible journeys and the place where we find the freedom he wants for us and the connections with others that bring life. He also talks about continuing to embrace freedom even when difficult people want to drag us back into guilt and performance

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6 Comments

  1. O wow…..this podcast resonated so loud in my heart..I am outside weeding my first round of weeds spring has bestowed in my flower garden, while listening to this podcast. Just finished this one and the newest..LOVE both!! A great warmth was stealing all around and in my heart while listening to these words that are resounding so loud with what my Dad has been showing me.. Even tho i was weeding nasty thistles, I couldnt help but smile the whole time..lol I have never been a person that has felt unloved by God, not since I was 17..He has been my best friend! But what I have discovered lately..and am still in the process of, this glorius unfolding..has lifted my heart to places in his arms I hadn’t discovered yet!! God grew!! Lol..Or at least I got smaller.. It was sooo…painful at first, as I had been experiencing him, and felt loved and my life was changing for the better..it was so confusing to all of a sudden feel this shift..made me question even my relationship with him! But I knew that what was of God would endure any shaking, so I waited and struggled, and waited and struggled and cried…a lot. Until I finally started to attempt to relax back in the very places that felt so scary, and I would get a little light…this continued for a while, each time a little bigger and bigger piece, until finally…I was held. Held closer then I had ever been before. And I felt known…and relized that while I felt like I was failing him worse then ever, I was really being his little girl…He didnt see me the way I saw myself..He didnt pick me up so he could check out my flaws, he just wanted me. Wanted me!! Not for who I could be…but for me. ME…Living in this place, feels vulnerable to a great extent, but I

  2. Whoops…didn’t mean to do that..To finish the thought…Living in this place feels very vulnerable, at least it does right now…rather like a new calf finding his legs, or a toddler taking its first steps..But I am becoming less shaken when I trip and fall, and increasingly aware of of the warmth and safety my hand and heart feels in my Fathers. I have always relied on the fact that I knew I loved him, and to the best I knew, there was no corner in my heart I wouldnt let him go, and tho thats not bad. .but He said it wasn’t good enough for his girl..He wants me to rely soley on His love for me, not my love for him. I feel rather like Eustace in Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis when he has been struggling to peel off his dragon skin, only to have it keep growing back. And finally gives up and lies flat on his back and lets Aslan peel it off. It hurts like Billy..he says at first.. (with a chuckle) But only for a moment, then it became perfectly delicious!! What he was wanting to remove, was the thing that had me trapped, and feeling like a dragon..a sorry sad dragon..And he removed my scales..to reveal his child. Still shaking my head…soooo excited and curious and delighted to see where I get to go with my Dad next..And even if it hurts sometimes..I bet its gonna be delicious!!!!!;)

  3. I wonder if the reason our beloved God allows the time it takes to move us from obligation to freedom, from death to life to be so long, is because a deep work cannot be accomplished in a nanosecond, nor in a week or a month, not even by the God of the universe.
    Maybe this is because he did not create robots, automatons that parody his words and actions. He created family, beloved children, human beings with complex emotions and joys and sorrows. People he deliberately gave free will to, so that we could chose our path, our journey, our God.
    We spend years wrapping ourselves and being wrapped in jargon, in rules and lines not to be crossed. So many years being hurt and hurting, building an Impostor, a false self that is so impressive and large that we fool even ourselves that this impostor is real, is our true self.
    Jesus surely knows better and digging down through all the many layers of this impostor takes time, not least because it is scary finding out that most of what you believe to be real and true is just a fabrication, a lie you built your life on. That certainly was the case for me.
    If you are willing, our Beloved does the excavating, gently but with persistence and joy beginning to reveal the most beautiful, precious, utterly beloved and accepted child within. Your true self, the you that is inextricably joined with Him. Embrace this time, for a deep work is worth participating in, is worth waiting for.

  4. Thanks again Wayne for helping me stay excited about my journey through your podcasts. Knowing there is a whole community out there seeking the truth is so comforting.

    Patience with the process. It has taken me some time to realise this and have patience, even though you want to rush out and fix it all and everyone, including myself! ( which would be disastrous) I do not care what others think and want only what Jesus does of me. It is hard watching what I was like when I am with the others from my former church. I see how hollow they appear with their scriptural jargon. My former leader seems so small and sad without the Spirit. They can see their words have no effect on me and I let the Sprit say what needs to be said at the time, not what I would like to say ;)!. It is interesting that no one especially the leader ask what I am doing now and what is going on in my life. It is like they are scared that anything else is possible, that what they are doing could be the wrong way. But they do answer to a “leader” not Jesus.

    Love the people not the lie.

  5. Thank you for sharing Anne McGowan!! I enjoyed it very much…the last two lines really stood out to me in the moment I read them, needed them…Perfect..

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