The God Journey

What happens when something God gives us to share becomes entangled with the need to promote it, monetize it, or make it successful? Kyle and Wayne reflect on twenty-two years of The God Journey and the early decisions that allowed it to remain a free-flowing conversation rather than a product shaped by advertisers, audience metrics, or the pursuit of influence. Whether creating a podcast, returning to the classroom, or simply learning to abide in his presence, perhaps the invitation is the same: receive what God is giving, share it without manipulation, and trust him with where it goes. When the gift itself is enough, we are free to remain authentic. They also explore Paul’s invitation to let the message of Christ dwell richly within us. Fullness does not mean attaining some imagined spiritual capacity; it means allowing God to fill the capacity we have today.

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The post When Gift Becomes Product (#1046) first appeared on The God Journey.

After a brief conversation about how AI is helping out at Lifestream, Kyle and Wayne turn to a deeper question: What did Paul mean when he described us as “children of wrath?" Rather than people destined to receive God’s anger, could he have been describing those formed by a world of fear, hostility, and vengeance? That distinction opens a wider view of God’s character and invites us to reconsider how we read Scriptures' most troubling passages. They also consider the challenge young people face in a digital culture shaped by betrayal, comparison, and the relentless pursuit of approval. How do we become grounded in the Father’s love rather than the judgments of the crowd? In a world steeped in wrath, Jesus is forming a people who know how to live as children of love.

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The Jesus Lens - how to read Scripture through the revelation of Jesus.

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The post Children of Love in a World of Wrath (#1045) first appeared on The God Journey.

Wayne and Kyle reflect on the Just Love Conversations recently held in Kansas City through the eyes of those who gathered there with Wayne and Tobie. They do so in the context of considering how easily spiritual truth becomes information to collect, perform, promote, or even monetize without ever transforming the way we think and live. Real change does not come from mastering better ideas, or even sharing them, but from learning to live inside the love of God until we no longer need to extract life, approval, or significance from those around us. The question is not whether we understand love, justice, and grace, but whether those realities are becoming visible in the way we parent, serve, lead, and live.

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The post Knowing Is Not Living (#1044) first appeared on The God Journey.

Wayne and Tobie van der Westhuizen, coauthors of Just Love, reflect on the Just Love Conversations they hosted last weekend in Kansas City. Their recap includes knowing God’s love from the inside—not merely as a truth we believe, but as the very substance of salvation and the source from which we live. They explore how desire can lure us outside the present moment, reaching for possessions, experiences, or relationships to satisfy an ache they were never meant to fill. But as we learn to receive the love and life already given to us in God, we no longer need to take from others to secure our own well-being. Living from fullness frees us to become distributors of life—people whose growing contentment in God expresses itself in generosity, compassion, and the kind of justice that helps set the world right.

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The post Contented in His Love (#1043) first appeared on The God Journey.

What happens when fear no longer drives our faith, and we finally become safe enough to rest in love? What if the God we have learned to fear is not the God Jesus came to reveal? A recent article on neuroscience suggests that fear-based images of God activate the brain’s threat responses, while love-centered images foster connection, empathy, and resilience. For Kyle, that opens old memories of trying to stay off God’s radar and performing well enough to avoid his displeasure. For Wayne, it echoes a thirty-year journey of learning that God is not waiting for us to clean up our mess before drawing near. He is already present in our shame, our ache, our tears, and our disorientation, inviting us to discover that tenderness is not weakness and vulnerability is not failure.

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The Neuroscience of Encountering God

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The post At Rest in His Love (#1042) first appeared on The God Journey.