The God Journey

You Might Want to Read It Again

waynej@lifestream.org (Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:14:58 +0000

Wayne is back from South Africa and shares insights of his trip with Brad, especially how people are learning to break free of the fear of appeasement and are learning to live loved by the Father. Also included is a brief interview with Stephan Vosloo to update how their journey has gone since telling us The Ladysmith Story back in 2005. One theme seems to recur in the dialog—how easily our old patterns of religion keep us from embracing the fresh life and freedom God has given us in the Son. It is easy to think we’ve been changed because we’ve read something we liked or because we can vocalize a concept that hasn’t yet transformed our heart.

Living Freely in God’s Love

waynej@lifestream.org (Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:03:40 +0000

Brad and Wayne interviewed Darin last week on the release of his newest book, The Misunderstood God: The Lies Religion Teaches About God. They held him over for a second week to find out more about his personal life, what makes him tick and where his passions are in encouraging the body of Christ. He has an interesting story moving from a staff pastor at a mega-church that his wife grew up in, to an encourager of people who are discovering the joy of living loved. You can find out more about Darin at his website, The Free Believer’s Network.

The Misunderstood God

waynej@lifestream.org (Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:45:11 +0000

Wayne and Brad have enjoyed a growing relationship with Darin Hufford and are now helping him bring his newest book to print through Windblown Media. The Misunderstood God: The Lies Religion Teaches Us About God is a reworking of Darin’s earlier book, The God’s Honest Truth. In this compelling read Darin probes the question as to whether God, in claiming to be love itself, meets his own definition of love in I Corinthians 13. He concludes that religion’s definition of God does not, and though they call him the Loving God they have ascribed to him the personality of the devil. Darin joins Wayne and Brad in this podcast to discuss his book and his own discovery about learning to live in the reality of the Father’s love. You can find out more about Darin at his website, The Free Believer’s Network.

The Tyranny of Our Wants

waynej@lifestream.org (Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:36:38 +0000

Wayne is off to South Africa and before he left he started a discussion with Brad about our endless fascination with speculation and controversy, in sports as well as in theology and human relationships. And those keep us from living in the adventure of learning to discern him and follow him in each unfolding moment. Instead of speculating on what God should do to make me happy, we can discover what he is doing, even in the pains and trials of life in a broken world.

Special Notice: Archive Disc 5 is now available, which includes the broadband version of podcasts from November 2008 through August 2009.

Get Off the Dock

waynej@lifestream.org (Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:39:39 +0000

If we’re ever going to sail in the joy and freedom of this journey, we have to learn again how to live out of hearts where God interacts with our Spirit, rather than trying to live out of intellect and emotions. That’s not to say our intellect or emotions are unimportant, but both have the capacity to lead us astray. Wayne and Brad talk about how God wants to make himself known in our hearts and the dictates of religion more often than not dull our sense of knowing him and responding to his nudges in our life.

Special Notice: Archive Disc 5 is now available, which includes the broadband version of podcasts from November 2008 through August 2009.

A Family Without Fences

waynej@lifestream.org (Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:37:08 +0000

Who are real pastors and elders among the Body of Christ today? That’s not where Brad and Wayne start their discussion, but it is where it ends. A letter from a senior pastor to a former member of his church launches a discussion about those who seek control over others by fear and intimidation because they have a program to manage. Real elders and pastors among the body of Christ are not those who build fences to claim part of the flock as their own, but those who encourage and equip others to live freely and deeply in the love of the Father. And there are many of those throughout this incredible family!

Flourishing in Trials

waynej@lifestream.org (Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:37:59 +0000

What did Jesus mean when he promised his followers abundant life? We’ve been taught that it means a life of ease and our selected list of creature comforts. But does it? Through the letters of a few of their listeners Wayne and Brad dive into this topic with a daughter disaffected from her family, a lady who found herself becoming more of a Pharisee in the organic church movement than she did within, and the father of a pretty special set of twins! Only in him will we discover true fullness and be able to embrace the glorious adventure of living loved and loving others as each day unfolds.

Walking Alongside

waynej@lifestream.org (Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:36:10 +0000

One of the great freedoms of living loved is no longer feeling the compulsion to manipulate others to see what you see. When you find that grace you can now be alongside someone in a way that reflects how God does it with us and that opens doors into the deeper kinds of conversations that genuinely help others along their journey while you give them the space to grow.

Bo’s Café

waynej@lifestream.org (Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:09:17 +0000

Wayne and Brad were in Denver with the authors of the newly-released novel Bo’s Café, John Lynch, Bill Thrall, and Bruce McNicol. This amazing story chronicles a young man whose life is being torn apart by his own anger, and confronts the reality of grace that unfolds in a way that takes him by surprise and makes him face the darkest corners of his heart. The podcast also gets behind the scenes of how this book came to be and the process behind the shaping of the story as a new title from Windblown Media.

You can find out more about our guests at their website and hear the earlier podcast with them here.

Hear, Trust, Follow

waynej@lifestream.org (Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:09:14 +0000

If you don’t relax, you’re still trying. Brad and Wayne spend some time dipping into the ol’ mail bag and find some fascinating stories from people who are transitioning from thinking religiously to learning to live relationally. People share some great insights and passionate moments as they are learning to live loved rather than to work a religious system. One man asks about those who have never been in religious settings and then answers his own question better than we could. In the end, for all of us, it is simply about hearing, trusting and following what Jesus makes known to us.

Certainly Not!

waynej@lifestream.org (Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:10:36 +0000

How can we communicate with others our heart-felt passions, even political positions, without destroying our relationship with them? Recent comments about the health care debate in the States brought a host of responses from listeners, many of which wanted to divide up sides and diminish those that disagreed with them. The pretense of certainty and our desire to convince others how right we are actually destroys both relationship and dialog. Wayne and Brad talk about the community people most often seek, they actually subvert by these tactics. It is often true that those who scream the loudest are the least certain of their grasp on truth or freedom.

Our Work or His?

waynej@lifestream.org (Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:35:31 +0000

How do we know the difference between God asking us to labor alongside him in some task, and employing the arm of flesh to try to do something for God? Wayne and Brad wade into those waters as they talk about the futility of flesh, but the power of cooperating with God in those things he wants to share with us. The difference is not always easy to tell, but there are some clues that might help. In the end, it’s not about manipulating others to the response we want from them, but about living a life so full and free in him that others want to feast from the same plate we are.

Faith In Uncertainty

waynej@lifestream.org (Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:42:48 +0000

The people who seem to enjoy the journey they most are those who have learned the secret of enjoying Godâ€™s grace in the face of uncertainty, not those who try to remove uncertainty from their lives. Wayne and Brad dip into the old mailbox as they discuss our attempts to manipulate life and even how some manipulate their spouse all in an attempt to fulfill their own well-being. In the last part of the Podcast they revisit their discussion about national health insurance after some listeners ask some very pointed questions about the politics of compassion and entitlement.

What Really Needs To Change

waynej@lifestream.org (Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:56:32 +0000

Brad comes back from vacation a bit riled up about what lies behind our national rancor over nationalized health care and Wayne quotes a few of dead guys from stuff he’s been reading lately to shed some perspective on the brokenness of our culture and our human attempts to remedy it. Our political leaders are creating a culture of entitlement to foster people’s dependency on the state and to solidify their political power and ambitions. At the core of this struggle is the fact that human nature craves its own expedience at the expense of a common good, and if we don’t let God change that there is no hope of community or personal freedom.

The Wonder of Real Community

waynej@lifestream.org (Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:39:55 +0000

Wayne and Brad catch up with some listener email and find themselves contemplating the wonder of real community when followers of Jesus find each other and encourage each other to live in the light, without manipulating or trying to fix each other. They talk about the power of fear to sidetrack that reality and end up asking the question whether or not the church is the source of God’s life among people, or whether it is the fruit of people already drawing from God as their source. If you want to watch Fester S. Koots yourself, try this YouTube link.

The Gospel as Commodity?

waynej@lifestream.org (Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:31:11 +0000

Wayne and Brad are back from the International Christian Retailing Show with some questions and concerns about the intersection of the gospel and economics in our day. Fed by a listener’s question about whether we making the gospel a commodity by hiring pastors to teach what we want to hear, their conversation takes an interesting detour through the conflicts between God desires and Mammon’s demands, the overwhelming need for the systems we create to be fed by our hard work and resource, the mistaken notion that we have to figure it out before we can follow him, and the difference between grabbing all we can get and living inside the Father’s generosity.

Living Authentically In a Two-Faced World

waynej@lifestream.org (Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:34:24 +0000

Wayne and Brad are in Denver with the authors of Truefaced: Trust God and Others With Who You Really Are, Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol and John Lynch, for a conversation about the wonder of living in grace-based relationships. We all seek a safe place where we can be known for who we are and loved as we encourage each other along the journey of being transformed by God. They talk about the value of that community and fighting for relationships first when misunderstanding and pain sets in.

Bill, Bruce and John are also the authors of Bo’s Cafe, a new title being released this September by Windblown Media. You can find out more about our guests at their website.

Relaxing Into His Love

waynej@lifestream.org (Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:03:27 +0000

Some listener feedback from the parenting podcasts start Brad and Wayne off by revisiting that topic, but they soon push on with other listener email to discuss how it is that people learn to live inside of the Father’s love. Learning to live loved is not a doctrine we have to be convinced of, nor a discipline we can achieve; it is a reality we relax into. That’s what Jesus wanted his disciples to know, to live by what Father gives, instead of always trying to get from him what we think we need. The blog and audio clip Wayne refers to during the podcast can be found here: Relaxing Into a Life Live Loved.

You can also you can check out the new Freedom Slingers, a graphic contributed by someone who spends way too much time on Photoshop! And yes, this is a joke, you cannot order any action figures!

Honest to God

waynej@lifestream.org (Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:31:59 +0000

Wayne’s read a new book and can’t resist sharing it with Brad. Though not a Christian title, per se, Mistakes Were Made (but not by me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts, is an exploration of how human relationships are destroyed by our own need to be right. Self-justification is the process whereby we excuse our own failures and turn on others instead of living in honesty and compassion. If we do not maintain a love for the truth, even when it costs us, we only set ourselves up to love deceived and isolated from others. It’s a great read!

Rightly Treasuring What Matters

waynej@lifestream.org (Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:15:15 +0000

Finally Brad and Wayne have a chance to catch up with all the email and traveling they’ve been doing over the past few months. They begin by rehashing some of the conversation about parenting in the previous two podcasts, then talk about some of the lessons and joys in their travels, the joy of relationship they celebrated on Father’s Day, and some of the things that have been touching their lives these days. At the heart of it all seemed to be the recurring theme that all of us do well to treasure those things that matter most and not get lost in the issues that don’t.