We all know what it's like.  Life is caving in around us. Everything that can go wrong, is going wrong and we feel as if God is ganging up on us. And mail from a listen invites Brad and Wayne into a discussion about finding that sweet spot of trust where our safety in him is disconnected from the circumstances that surround us.  In Scripture quotes that rarely appear on our refrigerators, God warned us repeatedly that life will be cruel and that trouble is a normal part of living in a broken world, even for his followers. He has offered us a place in him that ensures we are not alone no matter what circumstances we confront. Instead of turning on God at moments of pain, we can stay at rest in him knowing he is working on my behalf through anything, so i don't have to judge him, second-guess myself, or be anxious about uncertainty.

Podcast Notes:

Information on the GJ Trip to Israel

Wayne's Travel Schedule

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The God Journey today announces a new co-host for Wayne. Well, actually it's an old one! Now that his schedule has lightened Brad is returning full-time as co-host of The God Journey and they celebrate that with some listener input before taking an important question from a past blog comments. What must we do to be saved? It was a question Peter was asked at Pentecost and invites us to consider what salvation even means. Is it the get-out-of-hell-free card, many were promised for a trip to the altar and a sinner's prayer? Can any prescribed process guarantee that someone has connected in a meaningful way with God, and if not how do we help someone find life in Christ and allows them to experience eternal life in this world?

Podcast Notes:

Information on the GJ Trip to Israel

Wayne's Travel Schedule

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Wayne and Brad follow up last week's podcast with some further dialog about sexuality, sexual temptations, and how we can let God into that space to bring wholeness to the precious gift of sexuality that he gave us. It's amazing how much sexuality governs our lives and how little we talk about it as part of our spiritual journey. It is often hidden in shame and the lie that no one is struggling with it who really loves God. They discuss whether attraction or even arousal is by definition the lust Jesus talked about in Matthew 5 and if self-gratification is always sinful. But sexual brokenness is rampant and the consequences of misplaced sexual expression so damaging to our own souls as well as those we take advantage of, that we dare not ignore it. But the love of God means we don't have to hide anymore. Finding a gracious space in the Father's heart to discuss our sexual struggles with him as well as with close friends is critical to making any progress against the temptations and religious shame that dominates this arena.

Podcast Notes:

The Many Faces of Dennis Hastert

Information on the GJ Trip to Israel

Wayne's Travel Schedule

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North Carolinians are battling transgendered restrooms. Time Magazine runs a cover story on how pornography ruins sexual intimacy in real life. Ours is a sexually dominated culture to be sure and Wayne and Brad plunge into the issues politically and personally. By viewing our sexuality as an act of personal freedom instead of as a transcendent activity we have devalued and twisted it into its most unfulfilling forms. How can we manage the sexual confusion and controversy in our culture and still offer people life in Jesus? How do we manage sexual temptations ourselves, realizing that God hasn't forbidden expressions of sexuality to keep us from having fun, but to explore a gift without being destroyed by it or destroying others.

Podcast Notes:

Information on the GJ Trip to Israel

We All Need Sexual Healing (Christianity Today, September 2015)

Time Magazine articles are no longer available to nonsubscriber, but here's a link to an article about the article.

Wayne's Travel Schedule

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How far have Wayne and Brad walked from their evangelical past? An article in the April issue of Christianity Today offered a new matrix to define what an evangelical is using four theological statements. It gives Wayne and Brad a chance to check their evangelical roots to see how the last fifteen years has shaped their view. Though they both consider themselves conservative theologically, one thing continued to stand out as they worked through the matrix—it didn't have room for a Living God in the practicality of daily life. Evangelicalism has replaced a living God with the Bible text, and a vibrant relationship for following a set of expectations. As they work through the matrix they discuss the Bible, their purpose in the world, the atonement, and what constitutes salvation.

Podcast Notes:

Wayne's Visit to the Nomad Podcast

Christianity Today Article: Defining Evangelicals

Wayne's Travel Schedule

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It's an often-repeated story... God reveals himself in some unique way and soon people are swarming all over it with the all-too-human need to protect, manage, or exploit it for their own gain. Once we regard his work as a possession of ours instead of a gift to be shared, his presence withdraws and moves on to touch people in other ways. Human ambition has done more to thwart God's work in the world than any other thing and it is tied to our need to find significance outside of our relationship with him and make our mark in the world. Brad and Wayne talk about what it means to be successful in God's eyes and how we can cooperate more freely with him in rest and contentment rather than fear and ambition.

Podcast Notes:

Wayne's Travel Schedule

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It is way to easy to convince ourselves we have God's best interests at heart, even as we're pursuing our own desires. Wouldn't it be great if our own selfishness was as obvious to us as it is to God? It is so easy to deceive ourselves that we're doing something for the glory of God, when it has far more to do with our own needs. Brad joins Wayne again for a conversation about how we pursue God's will, especially in a world where so many others are pursuing their own? Doesn't that set us up to be taken advantage of in the worldly systems that others are exploiting? Learning to live free from our own selfish pursuits and embrace God's reality and his unfolding will is at the heart of our joy and our transformation.

Podcast Notes:

Wayne's Travel Schedule

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As Wayne reports on his recent trip to Ireland and the UK he and Brad end up in a discussion about God's will and how he reveals that to us. Unfortunately many Christians have been taught to follow a set of principles or rituals, rather than how to get to know him, to sense his heart, and to follow his leading as they navigate the reality of their own lives. Each of them share how they sense his leading and how others can as well. This is certainly not an exact science since he speaks in so many different ways. However, we can learn, even in our mistakes, how to recognize his voice and his nudgings. This is where life in him becomes an adventure because we are no longer trying to attain an set of expectations, but learning to recognize and follow his leading through whatever circumstances throw at us.

Podcast Notes:

For encouragement to help you recognize God building a relationship with you, try Wayne's Engage Videos

Wayne's Travel Schedule

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Some say without local church institutions we cannot experience the gifts of elders, teachers, or apostles. They would be wrong. These gifts can actually function more powerfully when unmoored from the needs and processes of an institution. That reality can take expression in a variety of ways, but here's one example. Bob Prater used to be a full-time pastor managing an institution until he could no longer grow in his passions inside of it. Bob and wife Danette give themselves away to people they meet, simply by offering them a meal and a safe place to explore their own journey and connect the dots to God's unrelenting reach into their lives. Wayne explores this amazing expression with Bob as the talk about the heart of the Gospel as God no longer counting people's sins against them, and reconnecting them to the transforming love of a gracious Father. This has taken them into some of the most broken in his community, brought him alongside some of pastors in the city, and even an interesting relationship with a Muslim leader. Enjoy the story and let it encourage you to follow the Lamb wherever he wants to take you.

Podcast Notes:

Email Bob

A Christian and a Muslim Walk into a Studio

Wayne's Travel Schedule

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Especially in the most challenging or devastating of circumstances, knowing we are loved turns the tide from being swallowed up by our circumstances to finding the freedom to navigate them with God's wisdom and grace. Wayne and Brad read some listener responses to recent podcasts and pick up a thread about how our security in Father's affection frees us to live differently in so many circumstances. It is an awareness often hard-won in wrestling with him—and losing! One email demonstrates just how powerful the knowledge of Father's affection can be when he wins us into that space. Knowing we're not orphans but beloved children centers us in his reality and allows us to see more clearly what he offers us. To the same conclusion they revisit an earlier podcast about significance and discovering that our lives matter not by what we can do for God, but by the worth his love settles in us.

Podcast Notes:

Wayne's Travel Schedule

Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at "TheGodJourney"