As Wayne has watched God's work of redemption inside Sara's trauma, he's been keen to observe that the soothing safety of Father's love that untangles the darkness, and the anger, threats, and blame make it worse. That is as true of our sin as it is of trauma. Why then does God use so much shame and threats of punishment in the Old Testament to try to get people out of the darkness? Or, does he? Wayne invites Kyle to consider how the prophets saw into God's agony and misinterpreted his words, and so do the literalists of our day.

Podcast Notes:

• The video recording of this podcast
• Video of Wayne and Sara sharing their trauma story at the Barn Brothers gathering

We don't use this often to ask for help, but it is desperately needed in Kenya at the moment. Torrential rains and wind have severely damage the well/agricultural projects we built for three tribes in North Pokot a few years back. These are their only source of food and water.  You can read more here, but we need $79,000 to help with food and water relief and to get the wells up and working again. If you have anything extra these days, would you please consider helping them in this devastating time?  We would be most grateful.

If you can help us rescue these tribes in North Pokot, please see our Donation Page at Lifestream. Just designate “Kenya” in the “Note” of your donation, or email us and let us know your gift is for Kenya. You can also Venmo contributions to “@LifestreamMinistries” or mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560 Newbury Rd Ste 1  •  Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or, if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

Thank you for your consideration.

Kyle is back and has some questions for Wayne about the process of emotional maturity and finding healing from those emotions that fire from the unhealthy side of our brains. What is the arc of emotional freedom and how do we deal with your failures during that process? This conversation also includes dealing with anger and frustration, disruptions in our established rhythms, the tyranny of the urgent, and how we can lean into tenderness to find the unforced rhythms of his grace.

Podcast Notes:

• The video recording of this podcast

In the mid-1100s, Bernard of Clairvaux, a mystic and monk in France, considered how we experience the love of God. He published a devotional called the Love of God, in which he identified four degrees, or progressions: (1) loving ourselves for our own sake, (2) loving God for our own sake, (3) loving God for his own sake, and (4) loving ourselves for God’s sake. In a fascinating conversation, Wayne and Sara ponder these progressions in their individual relationships with God and in their relationship with each other, before the revelation of Sara's trauma and after.

Podcast Notes:

• Sorry, there is no video recording of this podcast.
• The Love of God by Bernard of Clairvaux

During Wayne and Sara's recent stay in Austin, he sat down to catch-up with a good friend, an occasional guest on The God Journey, and author, Tracey Levinson. They discuss an email she sent to Wayne in the trial he faced two years ago and get into a conversation about having an unrelenting passion for what's true because of God's unrelenting love toward us. To see what's true about ourselves and about God is the doorway into a life of freedom.

Podcast Notes:

• Sorry, there is no video recording of this podcast.
• Past podcasts with Tracey
• Tracey's website
• Tracey's book unashamed: candid conversations about dating, love, nakedness, and faith

At the start of their transcontinental trip to Virginia and back, Wayne and Sara pause in Austin, TX, to catch-up on Sara's journey and the continuing work of freedom Jesus is doing from her early childhood trauma. Recently, Sara's counselor affirmed the rare passion she demonstrates to discover the truth about herself and it has served her well in the process. Sara talks about the tools that have been built in her life to give her the courage to stay in that pursuit.

Podcast Notes:

• No video was made of this recording.
• Redeeming Love Podcasts
• Try Softer by Aundi Kolber
• Color Wheel of Emotions

If you aren't playing with God, you're probably not doing as much for him as you think. In this last podcast before Kyle takes a brief hiatus and Wayne and Sara head out for a trans-national trip, they revisit some of the important themes that have been on the podcast so far in 2024. Through listener emails, recounted conversations, and their own personal journeys, they talk about the destructiveness of dishonesty, active listening, praying for the bride, why religion love our imposter selves, the value of learning to play again, and the importance of not dividing between spiritual and secular in our daily lives.

Podcast Notes:

• The video recording of this podcast.
• The second chapter of Wayne's new book: Is This Really Where it Ends?

"Not my will, but yours be done."  We are familiar with the words and it's easy to tack them on to the end of our prayers as a token to submission. However, the power of these words come not as a tagline but when we let God melt our hearts enough in the whatever situation we find ourselves to choose his past, rather than making it about ourselves. Kyle and Wayne explore the journey of wholeheartedness that wanders through the ugly places where God makes his wonder known in life-transforming ways when we lay down what we think is best to choose what God knows to be.

Podcast Notes:

• The video recording of this podcast.
• The second chapter of Wayne's new book: Is This Really Where it Ends?

"Truth has been weaponized by the enemy to shift the focus from Jesus. The ‘truth’ as many believers see it has been removed from Him who is truth; it’s a talk about Him and His truth rather than with Him in love." Those words in an email from a listener's own journey came at a propitious time in Wayne's life, and processing it with Kyle takes them further into what it means to gaze with God at the events of the world. It has led Wayne to pray for the Bride of Christ and talk to her like he did to Sara in the days of there separation. Kindly and tenderly, is the way God reaches into our delusions to open the way for truth and love to find a home in her heart. 

Podcast Notes:

• The video recording of this podcast.
• Agreeing with God episode of The God journey
• The first chapter of Wayne's new book: A Call for the Bride

"What are you most afraid of in your life right now, and who taught you that fear?" That is a key question to unmasking your false identity and help you discover who God has created you to be on the earth.  Wayne introduced Kyle to a podcast where Jamie Winship, the author of a book called, Living Fearless, was the guest. The podcast rocked Kyle's world and spilled out into two of his classrooms where he helped students process their personal identity and in his words, "Jesus showed up"—in a secular classroom.  They unpack some of Jamies thoughts about identity and worldviews that can help us all live freer and more connected to what ps going on around us.

Podcast Notes:

• The video recording of this podcast.
• Podcast with Jamie Winship

"What is the strange calculus of greed that causes it to catch up with even the most cautious, best-intentioned person?" This is one of four provocative questions one reviewer said are asked by the Academy-award nominated movie, Killers of the Flower Moon. The others are: Why does guilt drive some people to remorse, and others over the edge?  What is the power of a lie, that it can blind a person to a truth staring him in the face? How is it that what seems to be a blessing often turns out to be a curse? Wrestling with  those existential questions seemed to fit so well into the ongoing conversation Wayne and Kyle have been having this year about delusion and freedom and why even the best of us can be easily sidelined by darkness.  They also discuss whether or not every negative emotion is an invitation into transformation.

Podcast Notes:

• The video recording of this podcast.
• Podcast with Jamie Winship
• The review about Killers of the Flower Moon, from which Wayne drew these questions, does not seem to be posted publicly on the Internet any more.  My apologies.
• Storm damage in Kenya. Can you help us restore one village's water supply?