Jason Clark's Blog, page 19
November 30, 2022
JASON GRIMSLEY / CROSS STITCHED
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“Whether I’m high or low, in heaven or hell, nothing can ever separate me from God’s love.” Jason dives into a memoir he helped his friend, baseball legend, Jason Grimsley, write. They guys talk about Jason’s wild and unbelievable life. This conversation is part storytelling, part revelation, and all testimony of the love of God.
Jason shares about several hardships he’s faced, including a botched suicide attempt and the near destruction of his marriage. The guys shared insights and wisdom for the highs and lows of life. And all along the way, they highlighted the message of the book. Cross Stitched displays the very real and present love of God and the abundant life He offers us when we surrender to Him.
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Podcast intro and outro music by Wilde Assembly
Jason Clark is a writer, speaker, and lead communicator at A Family Story ministries. His mission is to encourage sons and daughters to grow sure in the love of an always-good heavenly Father. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children. FollowFollowFollowFollowFollow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY BUY NOW!
YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… GOD IS NOT IN CONROL / SOVEREIGN LOVE with JASON CLARK by A Family Story | March 31, 2021 | Crisis of Identity, Faith, God Is Not In Control, Intimacy, Leadership, Relationship, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, Sovereign Love Series, The Fathers Love | 2 Comments
What if control is a flawed word to describe God’s sovereignty? What if there is an infinitely better word, a greater revelation, LOVE! Through a fresh look at God’s sovereignty, Jason invites you into a transforming encounter with the love and goodness of our heavenly Father.
Read More KRISTIN DU MEZ / JESUS AND JOHN WAYNEby A Family Story | May 26, 2021 | Faith, Interview, Leadership, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two | 1 Comment
Patriarchy, authoritarian rule, the nature of power and privilege in America and the Church, the deconstruction movement, Christians in politics; in this podcast, Professor and Historian Kristin Du Mez, examines the impact of perhaps the most influential subculture in this country, white evangelicalism. This conversation explores how evangelicals have stepped away from the Jesus of the Gospels, from sacrificial love. “But what was once done, can be undone.”
Read More WINN COLLIER / WE BELONG TO ONE ANOTHERby A Family Story | August 4, 2022 | Faith, Interview, Leadership, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season three | 0 Comments
The thread through all Winn Collier’s work is delight in the God who exists as the blazing center of everything that is good, beautiful, and true; and you feel that in this conversation. In this podcast, Winn and Jason talk about God’s hope and heart for all creation to know we belong to one another. The guys dive into wholeness, cruciform love, and what it means to be fully human.
Then Winn talks about his friendship with Eugene Peterson, writer of The Message Translation. Winn shares about the biography he recently released on Eugene’s incredible life, A Burning In My Bones, and on their shared heart for pastors and the church!
Read More NAEEM FAZAL / REIMAGINING GODby A Family Story | June 30, 2021 | Interview, Intimacy, Life, Prayer, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, The Fathers Love | 5 Comments
Naeem Fazal, founding pastor of Mosaic Church, and author of Ex-Muslim, talks about deconstruction or reimaging God. Naeem talks about the importance of being able to recognize God outside of our personal context, how to view sin, how to approach scripture, and a beautiful gospel that’s not just about a Jesus who saves but about a Jesus who is restoring humanity and all creation.
Read More 5Q – THE FIVEFOLD WITH BRANDON KELLYby A Family Story | September 1, 2022 | Faith, Interview, Leadership, Life, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season three | 0 Comments
Derek and Jason dive into the fivefold (APEST) typology of ministry as articulated in Ephesians 4:1-1 with Brandon Kelly, the co-director at 5Qcollective. APEST stands for the Apostolic, Prophetic, Evangelistic, Shepherding, and Teaching intelligence that Jesus gifted to his body.
The guys discussed the fivefold in connection with the nature of God as non-hierarchal and inclusive, laced throughout creation and culture, reconstituted and perfectly exemplified in the life and ministry of Jesus, embedded into the very foundations of the Church, and subsequently expressed through the lives of the countless saints that make it up.
Read More THE DE/RECONSTRUCTING PARENT WITH SARAH TURNER & KAREN CLARKby A Family Story | April 21, 2021 | Crisis of Identity, Faith, Intimacy, Leadership, Relationship, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, The Fathers Love | 0 Comments
Sarah Turner and Karen Clark take the hosting reins to share their de/reconstructing faith journey and how, primarily through parenting, they began to rethink who God is and their approach to scripture, church, and ministry.
From Harry Potter and the college years to church life – the good, the bad, and the ugly, they talk about how parenting for connection and living an honest relationship with a loving God, is the most transformative thing we can do in our lives, our kids lives, and in ministry.
Read MoreThe post JASON GRIMSLEY / CROSS STITCHED appeared first on A Family Story.
November 23, 2022
AN EMMAUS ROAD DECONSTRUCTION WITH MATTHEW HESTER
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The Kingdom within, relational intimacy, a triune God reconciling the world to Himself, faith like Abraham, hermeneutics, and an Emmaus Road Deconstruction, in this podcast, Jason talks with his friend Matthew Hester about his new book, Leaving and Finding Jesus. “Repenting is a de and reconstruction all in one,” and in this conversation, the fellas talk about an Emmaus Road walk with Jesus where He gently and definitively reveals the Cornerstone of faith, God in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself.
This was recorded for Matthews; The Kingdom Is For Everyone PODCAST. You can find more episodes from Matthew at:
Anchorfm/Thekingdom4everyone.com
For more on Matthew Hester
www.hesterministries.org
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Podcast intro and outro music by Wilde Assembly
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Derek Turner
Follower of Jesus, in love with @sarahjturner, father to @caro.turn & @kaaatters, owner of Milo, pastor @rivercharlotte. Amazed by Grace www.rivercharlotte.com FollowFollowFollow Jason Clark is a writer, speaker, and lead communicator at A Family Story ministries. His mission is to encourage sons and daughters to grow sure in the love of an always-good heavenly Father. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children. FollowFollowFollowFollowFollow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR / LIFE, LITERATURE, & GOD by A Family Story | April 27, 2022 | Crisis of Identity, Faith, God Is Not In Control, Hell, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season three, Sin, The Fathers Love | 0 Comments
Karen Swallow Prior is a Reader, Writer, and Professor. In that order, which was discussed in this conversation along with the power of language, the Word becoming flesh, the connection of imagination with logic and reason, empathy, trauma, the theodicy of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and love being the center of our conversations. Karen also shares about getting hit by a literal bus and how she grew in her understanding that her life is in God’s hands.
Read More AN EMMAUS ROAD DECONSTRUCTION WITH MATTHEW HESTERby Jason Clark | November 23, 2022 | Faith, Interview, Intimacy, Leadership, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, The Fathers Love | 0 Comments
The Kingdom within, relational intimacy, a triune God reconciling the world to Himself, faith like Abraham, hermeneutics, and an Emmaus Road Deconstruction, in this podcast, Jason talks with his friend Matthew Hester about his new book, Leaving and Finding Jesus. “Repenting is a de and reconstruction all in one,” and in this conversation, the fellas talk about an Emmaus Road walk with Jesus where He gently and definitively reveals the Cornerstone of faith, God in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself.
Read More FAITHFULLY CONNECTED WITH DEREK TURNER & JASON CLARKby A Family Story | July 20, 2022 | Crisis of Identity, Faith, Intimacy, Leadership, Life, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season three, Sin, The Fathers Love | 5 Comments
Matt Chandler, pastor, and writer, recently used the phrase “a sexy fad” when describing the deconstruction movement. Derek and Jason highlight his statement to dive into the nature of their own de/ and reconstruction. This podcast dives into sin, grace, reconciliation, and God’s love for all His kids, the church deep and wide. Ultimately, the guys kick off season three embracing Rom 8:38-29 That nothing… “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Read More WINN COLLIER / WE BELONG TO ONE ANOTHERby A Family Story | August 4, 2022 | Faith, Interview, Leadership, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season three | 0 Comments
The thread through all Winn Collier’s work is delight in the God who exists as the blazing center of everything that is good, beautiful, and true; and you feel that in this conversation. In this podcast, Winn and Jason talk about God’s hope and heart for all creation to know we belong to one another. The guys dive into wholeness, cruciform love, and what it means to be fully human.
Then Winn talks about his friendship with Eugene Peterson, writer of The Message Translation. Winn shares about the biography he recently released on Eugene’s incredible life, A Burning In My Bones, and on their shared heart for pastors and the church!
Read More RANDALL WORLEY / BRUSHSTROKES OF GRACEby A Family Story | April 28, 2021 | Faith, Interview, Intimacy, Leadership, Popular, Relationship, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, Worship | 2 Comments
“The two greatest myths that we, as humans, believe, are the myth of separation and the myth of scarcity.”
Grace, empathy, spiritual maturity, identity, destiny, purpose, and a sense of our eternal significance and worth; in this podcast, Randall Worley dives headlong into the measureless transforming and reconciling mystery of the love of God.
Read More WHEN LOVE COMES TO TOWN / with DEREK TURNERby A Family Story | April 2, 2021 | Faith, Intimacy, Relationship, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, The Fathers Love | 0 Comments
He came and he walked beside us, He said, “I will never leave you, I will never forsake you; you are not alone, you belong.” When we discover this love, we are transformed and we begin to love like He does. On Palm Sunday Derek speaks about the cross and how we are invited to live surrendered and sure in love. He talks about laying down our loves, loving our enemies, and seeing the kingdom come.
Read MoreThe post AN EMMAUS ROAD DECONSTRUCTION WITH MATTHEW HESTER appeared first on A Family Story.
November 16, 2022
BRIAN ZAHND / WHEN EVERYTHING’S ON FIRE
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“I felt like the Jesus I knew deserved a better Christianity than the Christianity I knew.” In this podcast, Zahnd shares about the Christian faith in alignment with Jesus and the journey he’s taken in discovering this good news! De- and reconstruction, a non-violent, non-retributive God who is reconciling the world to Himself, hermeneutics, hell, and the wonder of church deep and wide, in this conversation, the guys discuss a much richer, wider faith. The guys dive into Brian’s book, “When Everything’s on Fire,” a conversation that invites us to move beyond the crisis of faith toward the journey of reconstruction.
QUOTES
“I was having a crisis of faith but not regarding Christ… I felt like the Jesus I knew deserved a better Christianity than the Christianity I knew.”
“Christians should never say that Christianity is the absolute truth, they should say Jesus is the Truth.”
“Jesus is the only perfect theology.”
“The Bible by itself cannot sustain the pressure that is put upon it… Often, in any fundamentalist form of Protestantism, the bible become Christianity… the Bible by itself cannot sustain the pressure that is put upon it…”
“What the Bible does perfectly, and inerrantly, is point us to Jesus.”
“All scripture finds its fulfillment in Christ.”
Please rate, review, share, and subscribe!
For more on Brian Zahnd
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Podcast intro and outro music by Wilde Assembly
Derek Turner Follower of Jesus, in love with @sarahjturner, father to @caro.turn & @kaaatters, owner of Milo, pastor @rivercharlotte. Amazed by Grace
www.rivercharlotte.com
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In this podcast, Psychotherapist Kim Honeycutt addresses shame, blame the trauma of rejection. She brilliantly highlights our intrinsic worth, our identity in Christ, and the journey from rejection to acceptance.
Read More RANDALL WORLEY / BRUSHSTROKES OF GRACEby A Family Story | April 28, 2021 | Faith, Interview, Intimacy, Leadership, Popular, Relationship, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, Worship | 2 Comments
“The two greatest myths that we, as humans, believe, are the myth of separation and the myth of scarcity.”
Grace, empathy, spiritual maturity, identity, destiny, purpose, and a sense of our eternal significance and worth; in this podcast, Randall Worley dives headlong into the measureless transforming and reconciling mystery of the love of God.
Read More HAROLD & LINDA EBERLE / THE NEW APOSTOLIC REFORMATIONby A Family Story | March 10, 2021 | Faith, Interview, Intimacy, Leadership, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, Sin, The Fathers Love | 2 Comments
Harold and Linda Eberle share about the catalytic love of God that is transforming our western understanding of the church. They speak on victorious mindsets, kingdom thinking, the myth of separation, reconciliation through the death of Jesus, and salvation through his life; plus old elephants! This is a power packed interview full of profound insight.
Read More SEXY DECONSTRUCTION? WITH DEREK TURNER & JASON CLARKby A Family Story | January 5, 2022 | Intimacy, Life, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season three, The Fathers Love | 0 Comments
Matt Chandler, pastor, and writer, recently used the phrase “a sexy fad” when describing the deconstruction movement. Derek and Jason highlight his statement to dive into the nature of their own de/ and reconstruction. This podcast dives into sin, grace, reconciliation, and God’s love for all His kids, the church deep and wide. Ultimately, the guys kick off season three embracing Rom 8:38-29 That nothing… “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Read More KATHRYN LYNN CIENIEWICZ / LOVE IS THE LONG GAMEby A Family Story | February 24, 2021 | Crisis of Identity, Interview, Intimacy, Leadership, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, The Fathers Love | 2 Comments
Salvation, hell, justice, equality, the bible, and the unconditional transformative always good Love of God; in this insightful interview, Kathryn talks about her spiritual deconstruction and the journey of rethinking God. She brilliantly addresses the sin of certainty, newfound feminism, and a Love that casts out all fear.
Read More THE CROSS with DEREK TURNER & JASON CLARKby A Family Story | January 6, 2021 | Crisis of Identity, Faith, God Is Not In Control, Intimacy, Leadership, Relationship, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, The Fathers Love | 3 Comments
In this first episode of season two, Jason and new host Derek Turner dive into the wonder of what Jesus revealed about our Father and humanity through the cross and resurrection.
Read MoreThe post BRIAN ZAHND / WHEN EVERYTHING’S ON FIRE appeared first on A Family Story.
November 15, 2022
Baby Hitler, Time Travel, and Retributive Justice?
The other day, at a party, I played the time-travel game with friends, which eventually became an in-depth conversation about justice, as all time-travel games do.
You know how it goes. Someone in the room starts the game by asking, “If you could go back in time just once, what would you do?”
After several obvious statements about buying stock in Apple and Google, and after the obligatory Flux Capacitor reference, and a joke about avoiding that street taco in Mexico City, and how I regret the hour and a half I gave to the movie God Is Not Dead, someone, let’s call her Angela, got altruistic and asked the question, “What about baby Hitler? Would you kill baby Hitler?”
There it is—a thoroughly enjoyable conversation hijacked. Suddenly the lives of over 70 million people are in our hands. Before I can say anything, there is always one guy, let’s call him Dwight, who blurts out too quickly, “Absolutely, wouldn’t think twice.”
Then Angela says what everyone is thinking, “But Dwight, he’s an innocent baby.” Everyone nods thoughtfully as the conversation stumbles into a debate about morality and innocence.
Then, Dwight clears his throat, “While infants are born morally innocent, since it is impossible for them to be born any other way, all men have chosen to be sinners from their youth, so…” But everyone in the room quickly yells down Dwight’s internet-stolen, sin-counting diatribe, even before he could retrieve the Scripture verse he’d memorized to prove his case.
Why? Simply put, this party is made up of people who have neither bought into total depravity nor approached Scripture transactionally in years. Also, anyone who has ever held a baby or has even a spark of a soul, knows there is no Scriptural minutia or moral manipulation that justifies killing one.
Even Dwight knows this, if he’d just shut up long enough to think about it.
Then someone, let’s call him Kevin, voiced a brilliant idea, “We can go further back and kill Hitler’s abusive father!”
For a moment, everyone sighs in relief. The problem appears solved until, of course, someone else—let’s call her Pam—asks a new but obvious question. “But why was Hitler’s father so abusive?”
Dwight nods decisively and then states the next obvious conclusion, “We’re gonna have to go even further back and kill Hitler’s grandfather.”
And there it is! Time travel exposes the flaws of retributive justice like nothing else.
You see, Hitler’s father was once an innocent baby, and so was Hitler’s grandfather, and so on, and so on. The problem with the type of “justice” that advocates retribution is that it creates a cycle of injustice, a cycle of child sacrifice, and the loss of innocence.
The kill-baby-Hitler-to-save-humanity time-travel-game? It doesn’t end until we have traveled all the way back to Adam. Then, of course, we realize that Jesus already did this at a cross—except Jesus didn’t go all the way back to Adam to kill him, and He didn’t go back seeking retribution. No, He went all the way back to Adam to restore, heal, transform, reconcile and make him whole.
Buy on Amazon Buy on A Family Story“Father, forgive them,” Love said as He transcended time and space.
“It is finished,” Love whispered as He reconciled the beginning and the end, the before and the after, the in-between and the forevermore.
The fact is, the kill-baby-Hitler-to-save-humanity time-travel game doesn’t work, because retribution is a distortion of justice. Retribution is simply the fruit of an earlier injustice.
I’d like to suggest that a retributive understanding of justice is too small because it only focuses on the moment of injustice. It is a finite punishing approach to sin that condemns for eternity.
Conversely, Jesus, on a cross, revealed God perfectly as reconciling love, which is measureless and timeless. And so, reconciling love is the ultimate time traveler. He exists in every moment, all at once.
Therefore, His justice spans the entirety of our days, as well as everything before and everything after.
You see, bullies have been bullied, oppressors have been oppressed, and Hitler had an abusive father. Therefore, God’s justice must be expansive enough to restore and reconcile the bullied and the bully, the oppressed and the oppressor, the abused and the abuser, the five-year-old and the fifty-year-old, because, over the course of time, it’s the same person.
If justice isn’t about restoration, it isn’t justice. It’s revenge. And while most of the world is obsessed with that Tarantino flick, and while much of the Western church seems devoted to that atonement theory, retributive justice is nothing like Jesus.
The fact is, since before the beginning and after the end, God has always been and will always be like Jesus—there is no love that is greater.
Jesus, Measureless Love, before the very foundations of the world and after the sun has set, is on a cross demonstrating and delivering justice by laying His life down for His friend and restoring and reconciling all things. And that same Jesus is also risen! And from Him, and through Him, and for Him are all things.
Suddenly, another fella at the party—let’s call him Jim—has a brilliant thought and says it out loud, “What if God’s justice is better than we think it is? What if God’s justice is restorative? What if we partnered with Him in this type of justice? What would that mean for our families, churches, cities, and nations? What could that look like in our world?”
“That’s a good thought, Jim!” I replied. “Maybe the next time we all get together at a party, we should play that time travel game.”
This article is excerpted from my book, Leaving and Finding Jesus
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Jason Clark is a writer, speaker and lead communicator at A Family Story ministries. His mission is to encourage sons and daughters to grow sure in the love of an always-good heavenly Father. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children.
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Everything is a matter of perspective. If we perceive light through unhealthy eyes we will see darkness. If we perceive truth through unhealthy eyes we will see lies. God is love and His love is sovereign, but if we see love through the lens of control we will experience striving and desperation.
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“Given that we start with God’s power…we end up giving God the kind of capabilities that make God culpable; in other words, morally responsible for not only causing but allowing bad things…I think there are good biblical reasons to object to that standard view of Gods power.” Thomas Jay Oord
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I have learned that this journey we are all on is about one simple thing, believing He loves us.
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“Christianity is not a religion: it is the proclamation of the end of religion. Religion is a human activity dedicated to the job of reconciling God to humanity and humanity to itself. The gospel, however – the good news of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is the astonishing announcement that God has done the whole work of reconciliation without a scrap of human assistance. It is the bizarre proclamation that religion is over – period!” Writes F. Robert Capon.
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November 10, 2022
Dear Church, Welcome To The Revolution!
Elim Bible College is a beautiful campus nestled in the hills of western New York. Some of the buildings are 150 years old.
Historic, ordered, with a felt sense of community, Elim’s campus is a place where hearts and minds have been formed in God’s love since before my grandparents attended. It’s not only where I met the girl but also a peaceful place where I grew in my relationship with Jesus—a holy place where righteousness, peace, and joy were experienced.
So, the graffiti on the water tower overlooking the campus seemed out of place. You could practically see it from anywhere—crude, impudent, and offensive. In bold red spray-painted letters, it read, “Welcome to The Revolution.”
Revolution is “a momentous change in a situation.” Two thousand years ago, Jesus birthed the greatest revolution the world has ever seen. I think today’s Deconstruction Movement is an iteration of that revolution, a crude, out-of-place, impudent, offensive graffiti.
This movement is full of sons and daughters, the church deep and wide, changing our minds and surrendering our hearts to Greater Love. Yes, there is an abundance of reaction, but there’s also authentic response; a search for the kindness that leads to repentance. And there’s transformation.
This movement is bold, red, spray-painted letters prophetically confronting the church’s infatuation with retribution, a beautifully obnoxious sign declaring, “Wake up!” Wake up to the image and likeness of God with us, God within us.
We are in the midst of a great repentance, a de- and reconstruction, a changing of the way we think, a re-aligning with the kindness of God revealed through Christ’s reconciling work of the cross.
This movement is a messy, passionate, obnoxious, authentic search for certainty; for the Greater Love Cornerstone so many within the church have rejected. It’s a crude, impudent, and offensive declaration that there is no death love hasn’t defeated, no hell love hasn’t invaded, no delusion love hasn’t infiltrated, no darkness love hasn’t illuminated—there is nothing that separates us from reconciling love.
Dear church, this 2000-year-old Deconstruction Movement is part of the reformation we’ve longed for, the revival we’ve prayed for, the billion-soul harvest the church has prophesied, a people in search of kindness. It’s a repentance movement full of sons and daughters growing sure in love—and fathers and mothers growing confident in reconciliation.
Dear church, welcome to the revolution!
This article is excerpted from my book, Leaving and Finding Jesus
Buy on Amazon Buy on A Family Story Jason Clark is a bestselling storyteller who writes to reveal the transforming kindness of the love of God. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children, Madeleine, Ethan, and Eva. FollowFollowFollowFollowFollowFollowFollowFollow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… JOHN MARK MCMILLAN / A WORSHIP RECORD FOR ATHEISTS by A Family Story | May 20, 2020 | Art, Faith, God Is Not In Control, Interview, Music, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season One | 0 Comments
“I am building bridges between my friends who are atheists, my friends who are fundamentalists, my friends who consider themselves progressive or any end of the spectrum. Because gratitude is the one place we all come together.” John Mark McMillan
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I would like to suggest that our questions, longing, insecurity, and identity are forever answered, settled, satisfied, and secured in our revelation of God as Father.
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Your completeness in Christ is not a remote goal but our immediate reference!
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“You know, I could control you, Ethan. I could force, manipulate or straight up shame you into obedience, you’re only ten. I can make him behave. But someday my boy, you will be a man and beyond my ability to control. But more importantly son, I don’t want to control you, I want you to control yourself. I want you to value freedom as the Holy Spirit does. Do you understand?”
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God creates order from disorder and we have been invited to co-create with Him. In the midst of chaos, “we associate peace with answers. God associates peace with Union.”
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The romance is in the truth that God always loved me, before my co-operation or obedience. Long before I put my trust in Him, He was passionately in love with me. I have always been the apple of His eye! “I was in Him before I was in Adam!” And the incarnate Christ redeemed the glory that I already was!
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The post Dear Church, Welcome To The Revolution! appeared first on A Family Story.
November 3, 2022
We Had Thought He Was the One
…“We had thought He was the one.” That’s how the fellas introduced Jesus to the Stanger on the Emmaus Road. And the Stranger confronted them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe…”
The Stranger’s correction provided an opportunity for the fellas to rediscover God in Christ, a God infinitely better than they had thought He was. The Stranger’s correction confronted the lie of distance and separation. It rebuked every punishing, transactional, hierarchal, thought about love.
It set the table for them to rediscover Jesus as other-centered, self-giving, reconciling, non-controlling love; A God who wins by laying down His life.
…And a humanity who wins in the same way.
“We had thought He was the one.”
It was also a confession; one every follower of Jesus has or will make at some point in our relationship with God; if we’re being honest. It’s a humble recognition that our certainty can be flawed, our ideology broken, our theology incomplete.
But the gospel good news is Jesus never leaves. The Emmaus Road Stranger walks beside every person on every step of our journey, often in ways we don’t recognize, under names we don’t know, so He can reveal Greater Love within us.
You see, “We had thought He was the one.”
And He is!
And it’s always way better than we had thought…
Some of this article is excerpted from my forthcoming book, Leaving and Finding Jesus
CLICK HERE to Pre-Order
Jason Clark is a bestselling storyteller who writes to reveal the transforming kindness of the love of God. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children, Madeleine, Ethan, and Eva.
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With humor and authenticity, Lloyd talks about the finished work of the Cross, how Jesus fixed the problem of separation, and our invitation to awaken to our union.
Read More 7 Things to Do During a Time of Shaking and Disruptionby Pete Scheller | March 25, 2020 | Articles, Faith | 1 Comment
…Reconnect with our Father by recalling that He is good, He is love and He is for us (Romans 8:31)! Remember that He has already promised to make all things work together for good (Romans 8:28) including the current circumstances you are facing…
Read More icuTalks / End The Stigma With-In The Churchby Jason Clark | June 5, 2022 | Articles, Books, Faith, Hell, Intimacy, Leadership | 0 Comments
Last month I had the opportunity to speak at icuTalks on the topic of Ending Stigma in the Church.
I was incredibly honored and took all 26 of my 25 minutes to talk about a reconciling God in a church that often perceives him through the lens of retribution. If you’re curious about the new book I am finally wrapping up, Leaving & finding Jesus, this is a good introduction.
Read More Fathers and Sons / Culture of Honorby Jason Clark | September 8, 2011 | Articles, Faith, Friends, Leadership, Reviews, The Fathers Love | 4 Comments
Danny’s book “Culture of Honor” did this. It revealed identity. Danny gave vernacular to my journey. More than that, his writing helped to settle the insecurity experienced on the journey. You see, Danny revealed my heavenly Father in a new way and the better you know your heavenly Father, the surer you are as His son.
Read More Who Do You Say That I Amby Jason Clark | July 8, 2013 | Crisis of Identity, Faith, Life | 1 Comment
Jesus pressed his disciples asking, “And how about you? Who do you say I am?”Peter said, “You’re the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Read More Why Can’t I Experience God’s Love?by Jason Clark | February 19, 2020 | Articles, Faith, Life, Popular, The Fathers Love | 4 Comments
“How do I experience God’s love?”
Because I write and speak on the always good love of our heavenly Father, that is a question I am asked often.
The post We Had Thought He Was the One appeared first on A Family Story.
October 5, 2022
A Hard Teaching & Burning Hearts
“Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” That visceral word picture capped a message Jesus gave to a large crowd of followers. On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” “This is the hard stuff,” they thought.
But it wasn’t the hard stuff—just the opposite. It was a prophetic invitation to communion, a description of our participation in union, an invitation to consume and embody Christ within us. The words Jesus spoke, as He went on to explain, were “full of Spirit and life!” (11) The disciples just didn’t understand them—yet.
Jesus’ message revealed how Measureless Love reconciles and restores all humanity to Himself. Jesus’ words contained an invitation for the disciples to leave their limiting certainties and lean into faith. It was an invitation to engage with the Emmaus Road burning that cries out from deep within, “We knew eternal life in our hearts even when our heads heard cannibalism.”
“Does this offend you?” the Emmaus Road Jesus asked His disciples. For many, it did, and understandably so. “From this time, many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed Him. ‘You do not want to leave too, do you?’ Jesus asked the Twelve.”
Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that You are the Holy One of God.’” (12)
How had Peter and the remaining disciples come to believe that Jesus was the Holy One of God? That’s a good question.
In hindsight, we know their belief wasn’t extra-biblical, but neither, at that moment, could they have referenced chapter and verse. So, they hadn’t “come to believe” based on their current understanding of Scripture–nor was it because Jesus broke down His systematic theology. There was no biblical exegesis, just the Word who became flesh speaking to burning hearts.
This was not an exercise in literal inerrancy. Rather, this was about faith. The disciples had come to believe and know that Jesus was the Holy One of God because, in the context of relationship, they recognized eternal life as the nuclear explosion burning within them when The Word made flesh spoke to them.
“You have the words of eternal life,” Peter said, trusting a measureless love that transcends dimensions of time and space, as well as finite understanding. Because they stewarded the burning, the disciples were not put off by their inability to understand Jesus’ offensive words.
They had “come to believe” God was better than their best understanding and current biblical interpretation. It’s called faith. This faith is discovered in the One who laid His life down for His friends, and this burning is the only way we can know God and truly interpret Scripture.
When our experiences and understanding seem like hard stuff, cruciform love can be trusted. And where we can trust, we don’t have to understand.
“…Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you…” There was literal error in Jesus’ words, but because the disciples were in a growing relationship with Greater Love, even though they literally heard Jesus preach cannibalism, their hearts knew Jesus wasn’t preaching cannibalism
This article is excerpted from my book, Leaving and finding Jesus
CLICK HERE to Pre-Order
Jason Clark is a bestselling storyteller who writes to reveal the transforming kindness of the love of God. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children, Madeleine, Ethan, and Eva.
FollowFollowFollowFollowFollowFollowFollowFollow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… Religion vs. Graceby Lloyd Clark | January 28, 2022 | Articles, Faith, God Is Not In Control, Intimacy, Lloyd's Corner, Popular | 0 Comments
“Christianity is not a religion: it is the proclamation of the end of religion. Religion is a human activity dedicated to the job of reconciling God to humanity and humanity to itself. The gospel, however – the good news of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is the astonishing announcement that God has done the whole work of reconciliation without a scrap of human assistance. It is the bizarre proclamation that religion is over – period!” Writes F. Robert Capon.
Read More BRAD JERSAK / CHRISTOLOGYby A Family Story | March 31, 2020 | Faith, Popular, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season One | 0 Comments
Brad discusses high Christology and gives insight into how our early church fathers thought about God and how they read and interpreted scripture. He also discussed what the wrath of God means in scripture.
Read More Where is God?by Jason Clark | August 8, 2018 | Articles, Faith, Life | 0 Comments
We had less than ten dollars to our name, mostly in loose change, and we had about a gallon of gas in the van. Karen is amazing, her faith stunning. She is well acquainted with our Father’s good love and made a statement that highlights it: “We have food in the fridge. We are blessed and God is so good.”
Read More Betrayal and Loveby Lloyd Clark | January 20, 2021 | Articles, Crisis of Identity, Faith, Intimacy, Lloyd's Corner, The Fathers Love | 0 Comments
“This is my body, broken for you! Boys and girls, you are not abandoned, I will not leave you orphaned…”
Read More I’m Not A Sinnerby Jason Clark | July 9, 2012 | Articles, Crisis of Identity, Faith, Prone To Love | 4 Comments
This is an excerpt taken from, Prone To Love There were two trees in the garden of Eden. Well, there were probably thousands of trees in the garden, but there were two particular trees God went out of His way to acknowledge. First, the tree... Read More ROD WILLIAMS / UNION WITH DISTINCTIONby A Family Story | February 2, 2022 | Faith, Interview, Life, Prayer, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season three, The Fathers Love | 0 Comments
Union, a Triune God, mutual indwelling others-centered love (perichoresis) approaching scripture to discover Jesus, and communion are some of the themes Rod Williams dives into. What if “all” means “all” and God isn’t distant? There is no distance, no separation in God and this conversation is a beautiful invitation to awaken to that discovery and our union with Him.
Read MoreThe post A Hard Teaching & Burning Hearts appeared first on A Family Story.
September 26, 2022
Panic In The Backseat
When Karen was five, she had her first and only panic attack. It was on a Sunday, after church. She had a tummy ache and, with it, a sudden terror. What if she died? She began to hyperventilate, so Dad and Mom put her in the car, where she sat in the back seat between her grandmothers as they raced to the hospital.
In that moment of paralyzing fear, when five-year-old Karen thought she was dying, she told her grandmothers she wanted to ask Jesus into her heart—and she did.
Shortly after she said the prayer, the only panic attack she’s ever had subsided. They never made it to the hospital. Instead, they turned the car for home and celebrated a small miracle.
And it was. Jesus met Karen in her five-year-old terror and saved her with His great loving-kindness, but for the next 40 years, Karen told her salvation story through the lens of her evangelical upbringing as though it were cute. We’d smile about that because Karen has always been cute—and because God has always been good.
As we have grown in the love of our heavenly Father and discovered a goodness beyond what we knew yesterday, and through raising our kids—as well as some healthy deconstructing—that story is no longer cute. You see, in the last few years, Karen has realized what happened. That morning, in Sunday School, she’d likely received some version of the typical salvation message—the one with which many of us have grown up. Remember? It’s the one about punishment that often-included hell trains and the gnashing of teeth, forever, etc., etc., etc.
When she looks back on that salvation prayer now, she recognizes the kindness of God, the sweetness of loving family, and the reconciling wonder of the good news. At the same time, she recognizes how her little five-year-old heart was exploited and how her innocent and sincere desire for Jesus was manipulated by religious fear-mongering.
There is no bitterness in Karen. Kindness marked her formative years and continues to transform our families. She believes those who likely shared the sin counting, hellfire, Western evangelical salvation message were good, well-meaning people doing their level best; but because of kindness, she has deconstructed any salvation message that leverages hell and a cruel and punishing God to manipulate hearts of any age, because it is abusive and nothing like Jesus.
This article is excerpted from my book, Leaving and finding Jesus
CLICK HERE to Pre-Order
Jason Clark is a bestselling storyteller who writes to reveal the transforming kindness of the love of God. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children, Madeleine, Ethan, and Eva.
FollowFollowFollowFollowFollowFollowFollowFollow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… Father Abraham, Tacos, and God’s Goodnessby Jason Clark | December 9, 2020 | Articles, Faith, Life, Popular | 0 Comments
If Facebook existed during Abraham’s day, I imagine he would have been angry at my thoughts about God’s goodness.
Read More This Will Be Our Finest Hourby Brent Lokker | June 3, 2020 | Articles, Faith, Intimacy, Leadership | 0 Comments
Though it has felt just the opposite during this quarantine time, this has been one of the greatest times of personal growth and Kingdom advancement for the body of Christ.
Read More There is No “Us” and “Them”by Jason Clark | May 27, 2020 | Articles, Faith, Leadership, Popular | 12 Comments
Many long to go back to the early days of the church, viewing those first few years as the high-water mark of what a church is meant to be. They weren’t. Not even close!
Read More Deconstruction: Dear Church, Welcome to The Revolutionby Jason Clark | January 5, 2022 | Articles, Faith, Intimacy, Leadership, Popular, The Fathers Love | 0 Comments
I remember the first time I heard the term ‘deconstruction.’ While I grasped the metaphor, the word didn’t resonate with me.
I’ve certainly done some spiritual deconstructing in my life, but I am inclined to use a descriptor more in line with ‘reconstruction.’ This is partly because I’m a ‘glass half full’ guy; at least, I want to be. But also, my spiritual journey has been less about what I tore down, and more about what replaced it.
Read More You Are A Spiritual Giant!by Jason Clark | April 8, 2020 | Articles, Faith, Leadership | 0 Comments
I absolutely love our gatherings, I’m a preacher who loves to preach. But I am leaning into this season as I believe God is raising our perspective to see as He sees. I believe God is changing our powerless small thinking and inviting the church to live powerfully in any room we might find ourselves in.
Even now, when fear is doggedly knocking at my door, I’m hopeful. Hope is my now and my future. And when it isn’t, I repent.
by Lloyd Clark | May 20, 2021 | Articles, Faith, God Is Not In Control, Lloyd's Corner | 0 Comments
Love sets us free to be everything God created us to be. Religion and shame have no power to accomplish that! So, speaking the TRUTH in LOVE is NOT shame-based. It’s NOT about exposing and confronting your brother’s sin! It’s about helping your brother or sister get a revelation of their true value and helping them see the truth about how our Father sees us! God is Love! Mercy triumphs over judgment!
Read MoreThe post Panic In The Backseat appeared first on A Family Story.
September 20, 2022
The Adventures of a Dyslexic Map Reader
Everything in this next story is true, metaphorically…
One day I summited a mountain. While taking in the stunning view, I discovered a systematic friend had also just arrived and was enjoying the same vista. We embraced and then, filled with wonder, reveled in our shared awe of the landscape – it was Revelation.
As we pointed out the beauty, we experienced a shared sense of eternal life. Then, mesmerized by our perspective, we each told our story; the highs, lows, wonder, confusion, epiphanies, and all the ways we found ourselves here, now. In every story, we referenced an everyday resource, a shared treasure. The Map.
We both loved The Map and gave it great authority over our journeys. So, it was amazing to hear my friend give his insights into The Map. He’d gone to Map School, had studied many years, and become an expert Map reader. I learned much from him. And have much still to learn.
But I noticed whenever I spoke of The Map he became distracted and uncomfortable. I’d seen it before; with other Map experts. I thought about telling him of my Map school days but knew from experience that conversation would likely become hyper Map focused and I’d eventually lose interest.
You see, I have a Map reading learning disability. So, even on my best day, I will only and ever be a novice Map reader. When I was younger and insecure, I tried to hide my relational disability from my systematic friends. But I’m growing surer in love.
I’m also older and have learned that when connecting with my systematic friends, it’s best to get my learning disability out in the open quickly.
“I’m a dyslexic map reader,” I told him.
“What do you mean?” He asked.
“I tend to read The Map backward,” I responded.
“What does that mean?” He queried with growing discomfort.
“Well, I can’t truly comprehend it until after I’ve taken the journey and seen the view,” I answered, pointing at the view.
“But that’s the wrong way to read The Map,” he said, strangely ignoring the view.
“So I’ve been told,” I responded, laughing.
But he didn’t think it was funny. Concerned, he asked, “How did you even get here then?” emphasizing “here” as if he suddenly doubted my presence.
I smiled. “Same way as you, I imagine. By the grace of God.”
That answer conflicted with what he’d been taught at Map school and would have received a failing grade. I know this because I too went to Map school. It’s where my dyslexia first showed up, though I didn’t have a clue what it was in those days and thought there must be something wrong with me.
His demeanor changed. Where once we’d shared wonder, now he was full of educated doubt, informed concern, and systematic dissatisfaction. Then he did something odd. He turned his back on the view, the Revelation, picked up his Map, thrust it out, and insisted, “Show me the route you took.”
I glanced at The Map, pointed to the Emmaus Road I’d taken, and saw him shake his head. “That’s a slippery slope.”
I laughed again, “No, my friend, the footing is sure.” Then I pointed to the view—the revelation I was still reveling in. But for him, everything had become secondary to the Map.
“I’m telling you; you’re reading the Map wrong!”
I shrugged, “Maybe, but good Lord, check out this vista!”
This article is excerpted from my book, Leaving and finding Jesus
CLICK HERE to Pre-Order
Jason Clark is a bestselling storyteller who writes to reveal the transforming kindness of the love of God. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children, Madeleine, Ethan, and Eva.
FollowFollowFollowFollowFollowFollowFollowFollow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… Seedby Lloyd Clark | September 25, 2019 | Articles, Faith, Lloyd's Corner, Relationship, The Fathers Love | 0 Comments
Take your desires and plant them in your heart, meditate on them. You don’t have to know how it works, you just need to know that it super-naturally produces like a seed.
Read More The Lawn Mowerby Jason Clark | January 14, 2009 | Art, Articles, Funny, Short Story | 0 Comments
In those movies, Mel Gibson’s character was constantly pulling his arm out of the socket and it was humorous and very entertaining. However, I remembered that in one of the movies, he put his arm back in its socket by slamming his shoulder against a wall.
Read More The Thorn…by Jason Clark | September 14, 2012 | Articles, Faith, Intimacy | 4 Comments
Here is a thought, the grace that was sufficient for Paul was the same grace Jesus operated in; the same grace in which Jesus become poor that His rich power would be available to all of us. It’s the same “grace of God that brings salvation” Paul wrote about in Titus 2:11. Could it be that the power of this grace is the whole point of Paul’s message? Of course, it is!
Read More Dream Like An Old Man: Part Four, Heaven On Earthby Jason Clark | October 26, 2012 | Dreaming, Faith, Leadership, Parenting, Prone To Love, The Fathers Love | 4 Comments
A true dream, one that is birthed in the heart of “old men dreamers,” carries with it authority and power. Only a person who has experienced the death of vision, who has nailed vision to the cross, has access to the power of resurrection. When he dreams again, he dreams the dreams of heaven. And a dream that’s birthed in heaven has power to transform earth, it can change a family, a neighborhood, a city, a nation, it grows exponentially and has eternal significance.
Read More Unraveling The Universeby Jason Clark | April 27, 2015 | Articles, Faith, God Is Not In Control, Prone To Love | 3 Comments
When it came to a particular chapter in Prone To Love, one of my pastor friends raised an alarm regarding my thoughts about the sovereignty of God. I had written an entire chapter under the title, “God Is Not In Control” and that thought bothered him. He felt it was an incredibly flawed idea. He was also concerned it would cause distress and confusion in my reader. He suggested that promoting the idea that God is not in control would be the equivalent of “pulling the string that unravels the universe.”
Read More All God’s Stories Have Good Endingsby Jason Clark | July 3, 2019 | Articles, Faith | 2 Comments
David experienced the valley but the valley was never God’s heart for him. Jesus went to a cross. But the cross was never His focus. Death is never the focus with God, He is always and only about resurrection. Jesus said He came to give us life and life more abundantly (John 10:10). Jesus—the Father revealed—was focused on the joy of resurrection life.
Read MoreThe post The Adventures of a Dyslexic Map Reader appeared first on A Family Story.
September 15, 2022
Tattoos, The Trucker Life and a Better Jesus
Dave was gruff but authentic and full of life. I learned a lot from him. He introduced me to the long-haul trucker life, which included CB slang, the rules of the road, the best truck stops for a quick shower, the life and music of Johnny Cash, and the wonder of steak and eggs for breakfast.
Most of our tours were up and down the East Coast, though some tickled the Midwest.
All our West Coast tours involved a smaller crew and a King Air. These were exciting flights for an 18-year-old. Phil Driscoll would pilot the take-off and then trade spots with me so he could catch up on sleep. I’d sit with his co-pilot, Dennis, and ask a million questions until I was convinced I could fly it, if needed.
“Hey Scott, trade seats with me,” Phil would say. He called me Scott for the first three months I roadied for him and his Mighty Horn Ministries.
At the time, Phil was a lot of things—a trumpet player, singer, pilot, businessman, and worshiper leader; but above all, he was a superstar who had run with Dylan, Blood Sweat and Tears, and Joe Cocker before he gave Jesus his heart. Back then, after you gave your heart to Jesus, you had to stop playing clubs and start playing churches.
“His name is Jason,” our soundman Robert corrected more than a few times.
“Right, sorry, Jason,” Phil would say.
Eventually, I just responded to Scott. It was easier that way.
I loved flying in the King Air, but most of my time was spent with Dave in the Mack Truck. We traveled the 500+ member church circuit, mostly. We’d leave Cleveland, Tennessee, days early, arrive at the venue the day of the show, meet the crew of earnest volunteers, and set up sound and lights. Then Phil would fly in and play the gig.
I ran the light show most nights. It was cool—and so were the concerts, in the most contemporary Christian sense of the word.
If I were the name-dropping type, I’d tell ya about how I had dinner with Carmen and shared backstage with Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, Out of the Grey, Kim Hill, Mylon LeFevre, and a couple of Gaithers. I’d probably mention my brush with Pat Robertson and my fantastic conversation with Ricky Skaggs. I’d definitely tell you about when I met Ronald Reagan and Dolly Parton at a star-studded Amway Convention in Indianapolis. But I’m not one to brag.
Most of my time was spent on the road with Dave. He was a good man–rough around the edges but kind and a friend of God who’d seen a lot, both before and after he knew Jesus. Dave didn’t talk much about life before Jesus, but you could learn indirectly by studying his tattoos when he wasn’t looking. I’m of an age where tattoos on Christians meant one of two things; either the person had a wild past before Jesus or, at some point, backslid. Either way, that person was cool and not in the contemporary Christian sorta way.
Just a side-note, if you’re under 35, tattooed, and love Jesus, you need to find some older tattooed Christians and thank them. They pioneered a great work for you.
Dave had the kind of tattoos that let you know he had one hell of a former life. Some of them were rated R and made my 18-year-old virgin face blush.
While Dave didn’t talk much about that life, he absolutely loved to talk about Jesus. That’s all we did – when we weren’t eating steak and eggs.
After Dave got saved, he became a bouncer for Benny Hinn, or was that a catcher for Benny Hinn? I think he did a little of both.
Every Charismatic has heard of Benny’s book, Good Morning Holy Spirit. It greatly impacted me as a young man, and I recommend it to this day. But the rest of the world knows Benny from his white suits and David Copperfield-like presentations of signs and wonders.
Dave had stories supporting Benny’s showmanship and the authentic supernatural encounter with the Holy Ghost. When people fell under the power of the Holy Ghost, Dave caught them, and when Dave fell under the power, well, Dave was a big man. The way he told it, when he was bowled over by the Holy Ghost, he cried and laughed the whole time. “It was powerful, beautiful, transforming, and amazing,” he said with a sincerity that fascinated me. Dave loved the Holy Ghost, Jesus, and our Father. I did too. And I loved hearing Dave’s thoughts about the Trinity.
Dave was a Christian, and Jesus was his best friend. Mine, too. Truly. But when we talked about Jesus, Dave’s thoughts were fuller and better than mine. We both used the same words to describe Jesus, but Dave’s interpretation was deeper and more complete. Dave’s understanding of God’s goodness was also better than I understood it.
Dave’s Jesus was kind, patient, and loved everyone.
My Jesus was also kind, but a stickler for rules, patient if you obeyed Him, and loved everyone, even those He was against.; even those Hhe sent to hell.
The Jesus Dave knew saved everyone. All were in Christ—
The Jesus I knew? He wanted to save everyone, even though, as I was often taught, we were unworthy, depraved, and all like Adam, prone to wander—even those of us who no longer rode the hell train.
You know about the hell train, right? That metaphorical Freightliner I was taught about in Sunday School? The locomotive all humanity is riding; all humanity except for those who prayed the prayer. You know, the Iron Horse to eternal damnation? The Death Diesel we must convince sinners to deboard before they pass that last station?
You haven’t heard of this train? Seriously? Dave hadn’t heard of it either, which was strange because, based on his tattoos, he’d ridden it hard.
My point? Dave was a returned prodigal. He’d discovered our Father’s kindness in his darkest of days, and it led him home. He knew the wages of sin; he knew about hell too, which wasn’t metaphorical. He also knew the embrace of reconciling love; he’d tasted the measureless “Father, forgive them” nature of Jesus. (1) He knew grace wasn’t earned or balanced; it was received. Dave didn’t have my 18 years of older brother indoctrination. He didn’t know about striving for the Jesus who saved us from a sin-counting Father who demanded a gruesome payment in blood and death.
Dave seemed to know God in a way I didn’t. His faith was practical, easy, authentic. No striving, just being. No trying to love, just loving.
Dave was an Emmaus Road in my life, a radical de-, and reconstruction. He was a GPS recalculation. I grew up knowing Jesus loved me, and I grew up knowing Jesus as my best friend, but in those six months I roadied with Dave, I awakened to a Greater Love and rediscovered Jesus in ways I never knew Him.
And Johnny Cash, too…
This article is excerpted from my book, Leaving and finding Jesus
CLICK HERE to Pre-Order
Jason Clark is a bestselling storyteller who writes to reveal the transforming kindness of the love of God. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children, Madeleine, Ethan, and Eva. FollowFollowFollowFollowFollowFollowFollowFollow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… Finding Kingdom Come by Jason Clark | January 11, 2019 | Articles, Faith, Friends, Worship | 0 Comments
I am convinced that our true inheritance as believers has nothing to do with money, land, or possessions of any kind. It’s simply our Father’s love revealed.
Read More You Don’t Have to Be a Sinnerby Jason Clark | November 8, 2018 | Articles, Crisis of Identity, Faith, Popular, The Fathers Love | 8 Comments
“Mercy by itself isn’t enough. Jesus didn’t just come to set us free from sin; He came to empower us into righteousness.”
Read More BRAD JERSAK / CHRISTOLOGYby A Family Story | March 31, 2020 | Faith, Popular, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season One | 0 Comments
Brad discusses high Christology and gives insight into how our early church fathers thought about God and how they read and interpreted scripture. He also discussed what the wrath of God means in scripture.
Read More He Loves Me Best: For the Joy Set Before Himby Jason Clark | April 26, 2019 | Articles, Faith, Intimacy | 5 Comments
John had a revelation of God and described it as a uniquely shared love that was only available between the two of them. Essentially, what John communicated through his gospel was that as far as he was concerned, he was Jesus’ favorite. Jesus loved him best.
Read More AWAKENING! with DEREK TURNER & JASON CLARKby A Family Story | June 2, 2021 | Crisis of Identity, Faith, Intimacy, Leadership, Relationship, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, The Fathers Love | 0 Comments
An infinite love, the nature of revelation, a kindness that changes our minds, the joy of our salvation discovered as we awaken to the resurrection, the risen Christ within us, in this podcast Derek and Jason discuss how all creation is awakening to the transforming certainty of sacrificial love and resurrection life.
Read More If God Is Good…by Jason Clark | January 15, 2018 | Articles, Faith, Life, Popular | 15 Comments
If I type into Google’s search bar, “If God is good…” Google will finish my search with the following suggestions: …Why is there suffering? …why do bad things happen? …why is there evil?
Read MoreThe post Tattoos, The Trucker Life and a Better Jesus appeared first on A Family Story.
