The God Journey

Of course, true love cannot be weaponized, though religion often does with what it often calls love. Whenever we think love is the prize we receive when we act "good enough", or we withhold it from people who struggle, we are trying to use love as a weapon. But from God's perspective, love is the environment in which healing and wholeness can happen; it's not the reward for it. Brad and Wayne get into this discussion prowling through the mailbag with some interesting stories from listeners of how God is transforming them. They talk about the destruction of self-righteousness and the anguish it causes others. True love seeks us out at our most broken and opens a door into greater life and freedom. Podcast Notes: Wayne's Blog on Weaponizing Love RSS Feeds for The God Journey Wayne's Travel Schedule in early 2018 The latest news from our project in Kenya Add your voice to our question/comment line via Skype at "TheGodJourney"

For those who hate us talking about politics, this may be the podcast to miss. But for those who like to hear Brad and Wayne talk through their differing views while guarding their friendship, this may be right up your alley. This is not about President Trump or partisan politics, but about how the kingdom of God interacts with the kingdoms of this world and the use of political power.Just how redemptive can we be in human political systems? Brad and Wayne couldn't be more at adds in how they view the political landscape nor how they feel God is asking them to interact with it. So, rather than fight over whose might be right and who might be wrong, they struggle to be honest with their perspective while still being supportive of the differing ways God can lead his people. (Warning: This one goes into overtime!) Podcast Notes: RSS Feeds for The God Journey Wayne's Travel Schedule in early 2018 The latest news from our project in Kenya Add your voice to our question/comment line via Skype at "TheGodJourney"

Is transformation a beautiful invitation God has offered us, or his demand to preserve our salvation or to keep him from being offended? How we look at transformation tell us a lot of what we believe about God and righteousness. Following up input from the audience, Wayne and Brad revisit their conversation about character by talking about the way God transforms us as the true liberty we were created for. If we see change coming to our lives either by human effort or to somehow endear ourselves to God, we will fail to find it. If, however, we see the way God wants us to live as his desire for our good, it's a glorious trajectory to live in. Podcast Notes: RSS Feeds for The God Journey Wayne's Travel Schedule in early 2018 The latest news from our project in Kenya Add your voice to our question/comment line via Skype at "TheGodJourney"

At the end of 2016, a group of prophetic leaders called the Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders (Really? Yes, really.) released words of prophecy they had been given for 2017 and what God's people could expect. Now that 2017 is over, we can take a look back and see how well they did. Not too well as it turns out. That draws Wayne and Brad into a larger discussion about prophecy, its value when truly inspired by the Spirit, and the destruction it causes when the prophets need to make a profit, and desperate people find themselves dependent on others for the voice of the Lord. Podcast Notes: Charsima article on 2017: Year of Breakthrough Wayne's Travel Schedule in early 2018 The latest news from our project in Kenya Add your voice to our question/comment line via Skype at "TheGodJourney"

Where are the men of noble character? Where is even the hunger in our society to value character over expediency? The political landscape today, including continued charges of men using their power to abuse women for their own amusement, and the brouhaha over the Judge Roy Moore candidacy in Alabama has demonstrated that people care little about character anymore. If you follow the media it seems the defining "values" of our time is power and not character. But maybe this is just the skewed view of media that celebrates the wrong thing. Podcast Notes: Wayne's Travel Schedule in early 2018 The latest news from our project in Kenya Add your voice to our question/comment line via Skype at "TheGodJourney"

"God only knows what it's doing to our children's brains," confesses Sean Parker who was Facebook's founding president. Facebook designers intentionally made their platform physiologically addictive to give the user a dopamine hit when people "liked" their posting, or responded with a positive comment. They called it the social-validation feedback loop, and not only does it play directly into human brokenness, but it also is behind all social media platforms and many video games. As bad as that is, it's even worse when people don't feel validated by their social media. Sociologists are only beginning to wrestle with the collateral damage to those who aren't popular in social media and credit the problem to increased teen depression and suicide. Wayne and Brad dive into this dilemma and the conversations we need to be having to help ourselves and our children resist this sinister force. Podcast Notes: Axios Interview with Sean Parker, the first President of Facebook Time Magazine article on Children and social media Time Magazine: "Is Your Kid Hooked on Smartphones? 5 Tips for Parents" The latest news from our project in Kenya Add your voice to our question/comment line via Skype at "TheGodJourney"

There was a time, back then, when you knew he was real and that he loved you. When people told you how to grow closer to him you got busy with the duties of being a good Christian, and that sense you had of his presence faded away. Now you're exhausted with trying to please him and unsure he even exists. Was that just my own delusion back there? One of the worst things religious obligation does to us is to diminish our perception of his reality. Going through some listener email Brad and Wayne end up with this story, and how we find our way back into the reality of God-with-us. Podcast Notes: The latest news from our project in Kenya Add your voice to our question/comment line via Skype at "TheGodJourney"

Brad wants to know if Wayne has his bug-out bag ready. With darkness increasing around us, whether it be a growing nuclear threat from North Korea, or the sexual predator scandals exposed in the highest reaches of our culture. All that brings up the question whether the world is just going to grow darker and darker before the return of Christ, or whether the light will continue to shine in our world in a way that shapes society for the better? One thing is for sure, the trajectory of church history has not cooperated with the work of the Father that Jesus prayed for, that love and unity would speak a greater reality to our culture than any sermon or program ever could. How do Christ's followers respond in these troubled times? Podcast Notes: The latest news from our project in Kenya Add your voice to our question/comment line via Skype at "TheGodJourney"

Christianity has taught many of us that salvation is jumping through the right religious hoops to acquire your get-out-of-hell-free card. Then why did Jesus and Peter talk about a different way of living that allows us to escape the corruption that is in the world and allows us live in the freedom and joy of the Father's love and light even in a broken age? Wayne's been focused on the last section of John 12 lately and invites Brad into it as well. There Jesus describes our salvation as a relationship of growing trust that disarms the power of the world and allows us to actually live differently in this age. And yet, so few Christians demonstrate the power of that kind of living? Podcast Notes: NY Times Column about Roy Moore and the Sorry State of Evangelical Politics The latest news from our project in Kenya Add your voice to our question/comment line via Skype at "TheGodJourney"

Why are people so angry in the public dialog... and nasty? From the national political dialog, to those that troll the Internet to rain on everyone's parade, people are so convinced they are right that they can vilify anyone who disagrees with them. That's where Brad and Wayne end up after sharing a bit about their trips to Israel and Western Europe, respectively. How have we become such an angry, arrogant society, and is there any hope that civility can be resurrected in our day? Wayne shares about a new project he's considering to encourage a new generation of people who can speak a language of healing in the world that can bring people together, rather than the voices of hurt and hate that seem to rule the day. Podcast Notes: Baptism Cannonball Helping with Agriculture in Pokot Add your voice to our question/comment line via Skype at "TheGodJourney"

Why do some Christians enjoy a good legalistic flogging every Sunday from their pastor? What does it do for them? That question starts a conversation with Wayne and Brad about transformation. Most Christians seem to believe we were saved by grace through faith, but after that we're supposed to work hard to live better lives. Failing that, we have to have regular times of groveling in shame to be forgiven and wipe the slate clean so we can try again. Except that our efforts at self-reformation never last. Never. Unless we learn how to engage a real relationship with God, we will continually fall into this cycle of failure, guilt, repentance, performance, and failure again. Or we'll just give up and claim the freedom to serve our own desires. Being transformed by his work in us and then participating in his work in the world is the greatest adventure the Gospel offers us. Podcast Notes: Helping with Agriculture in Pokot Add your voice to our question/comment line via Skype at "TheGodJourney"

"Did someone put a hex on you?" Paul asked the Galatians, because they had forsaken the work of the Spirit to try to achieve spiritual maturity by human effort. They had abandoned the Gospel found themselves ensnared again in religious obligation. The Fields Brothers, Jeff and Roger have written a new book called Breaking the Hex: Life with God After the Cross Killed Religion, and Jeff joins Wayne a Brad for a conversation about our freedom in Christ. Jeff is a financial advisor from Lexington, KY, a husband and father, and a long time listener of the God Journey. In rapid fire chapters with a lot of humor thrown in, this book will help you identify where you're slipping into religious obligation and encourage you out of it to great freedom and joy in Christ. Podcast Notes: Order Breaking the Hex from Amazon Fields' Brothers website Helping with Agriculture in Pokot Add your voice to our question/comment line via Skype at "TheGodJourney"

Can you teach someone to use supernatural power with the same methods we teach people how to do surgery or install the plumbing? Someone sent Brad a link about the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry in Redding, CA, which is evidently calling itself the Christina Hogwarts. And what, with "grave soaking", "flame tunnels" and "treasure hunts" as part of the curriculum, it's no wonder. What's going on here? Is this more hogwash than Hogwarts? Wayne and Brad celebrate the desire to see God move in supernatural ways, but also question the wisdom of trying to teach people how to move in spiritual gifts with a five-step process or a Bible school curriculum. And what impact are you having on your community when you use people as lab rats when the ratio of misses to miracles is so high? Podcast Notes: Meet The "Young Saints" Of Bethel Who Go To College To Perform Miracles Helping with Agriculture in Pokot Add your voice to our question/comment line via Skype at "TheGodJourney"

It seems the trend in our broken world is to grab as much power as one can get, then hold on to it at all costs even if you have to compromise your integrity and oppress others. Rarely do people have the grace to recognize the corrupting influence of power and resist it's corruption. What often starts for good ends up getting twisted to serve our own ambitions or personal comfort. In response to a listener email, Brad and Wayne contemplate why this always seems to be true even for the most well-meaning, and how we can as followers of Christ handle power and influence in a way that lifts up others rather than exploiting them. Podcast Notes: PBS Series on The Vietnam War Helping with Agriculture in Pokot Add your voice to our question/comment line via Skype at "TheGodJourney"

As a society have we learned only seem to week out information that confirms our biases? What's our first inclination when we hear a conflicting voice? Is it to research their ideas and see if it reshapes the way I think, or is it to mount an argument to discredit those we consider our adversaries and prove to ourselves how right we are? Learning to listen to others, whether we end up agreeing with them or not, is an important process to learning and growth personally, and finding a pathway to consensus and collaboration in the culture. Unfortunately we're becoming a culture that only preaches with factions that preach to their own choir and becoming increasingly polarized. Podcast Notes: Wayne's Travel Schedule Helping with Agriculture in Pokot Add your voice to our question/comment line via Skype at "TheGodJourney"