JASON CLARK / PRONE TO LOVE
The conversation revolves around Jason Clark’s book, Prone to Love, the first in a trilogy that Prone to Love that invites the reader to deconstruct fractured beliefs about God and His love.
Jason shares his personal experience of going through a season of feeling distant from God and how it led to a deeper revelation of union. He talks about the importance of embracing tests and challenges as invitations to a greater revelation of God’s nature.
Jason also discusses trust and its relationship to love and boundaries. He emphasizes the need to earn and maintain trust while still extending love to others.
In this conversation, Jason and Bryant explore the concept of grace and its connection to bravery. They explore the idea that grace is not a dualistic concept but rather an invitation to live in the reality of union with God. They also touch on signs and wonders in the charismatic world and how they can be integrated into a holistic understanding of the Kingdom of God.
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Podcast intro and outro music by Wilde Assembly
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JASON CLARK / UNTAMED
In this conversation, Jason and Brooke discuss Jason’s book ‘Surrendered and Untamed’ and the journey of writing it. They explore the themes of radical faith, surrender, and living untamed. Jason shares his personal experiences and encounters with God that shaped the book.
This podcast discusses the process of writing, radical obedience, discovering and embracing ‘calling,’ a relational approach to surrender, themes of hope, identity, and union, and rethinking favor. Brooke and Jason explore the concept of separation and how it affects our understanding of God and our experiences in the church. Jason also touches on the themes of dismissal, rejection, and the spirit of prostitution within the church.
The conversation concludes with a discussion about tacos and an announcement of a book study on ‘Untamed’.
Takeaways
- Living surrendered allows us to live untamed
- Writing style can evolve and become more direct over time.
- Encounters with God can shape and inspire creative work.
- Relationship with God is more important than knowledge.
- Challenges can lead to growth and transformation.
- Surrender is not just about obedience but about entering into a deep friendship and relationship with God.
- Hope is not just a mental exercise but a tangible feeling of expectancy and anticipation.
- Discovering our true identity comes from encountering the Father and seeing ourselves through His eyes.
- Union with God is the foundation for living an untamed and fulfilled life.
- Running after promises and dreams is important, but it is even more important to find ourselves in the lap of the Father. The book ‘Untamed’ explores Jason’s journey of rethinking God and the church.
- Separation is a key theme in the book, affecting our understanding of God and our experiences in the church.
- The church often operates in transactional ways, leading to dismissal, rejection, and even prostitution of people’s gifts and anointings
- The concept of favor is redefined in the book, highlighting the unconventional ways God works.
- A book study on ‘Untamed’ will be held, providing an opportunity to delve deeper into the themes and engage with Jason.
The conversation explores justice and dismantling paradigms, removing accusations, and living in our true identity. It concludes with a discussion on universalism and the long game of love.
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Podcast intro and outro music by Wilde Assembly
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THE POLAR EXPRESS WITH JASON CLARK
“It’s Christmas Eve, and instead of dreaming of the best day of the year, the boy is in his bedroom agonizing over the universal question: Does God…sorry, I mean Santa Claus, really exist?”
In this final podcast of 2022 and season three, Jason shares a story from his first book about the Polar Express, and faith. Whether you’re tired or wide awake, full or empty, lost or found, sick or whole, you are loved by Triune God who walks beside you, will never leave you, and invites you to awaken to His affection and love. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, and goodwill toward men!”
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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Podcast intro and outro music by Wilde Assembly
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Don’t Forget About the Ocean
“I stood on the edge to see what I could see. Told my heart to never forget Your Spirit birthed in me”
When Eva was two, we went on a beach vacation. Weeks before the trip, the whole family told her about the ocean. “It’s the biggest swimming pool ever!” Maddy informed her. “The waves are awesome!” Ethan explained. The entire drive to the coast, we regaled her with tales of the sea. She was primed for big water.
After checking into the twenty-five-story beachfront condo, we immediately went out onto our balcony eighteen stories up to finally show Eva the unending body of water. Her eyes took it in and she finally understood. The ocean is big.
If you have been on a beach vacation with small children, then you know it can easily take an hour from the moment you decide to go swimming to the moment you actually leave the condo. Especially if you have Anglo-Saxon skin. The process seems endless: putting on bathing suits, gathering boogie boards, collecting towels, selecting beach toys, packing the cooler, and lathering sunscreen on in generous amounts upon every surface that could even possibly see a moment of sun and few spots that shouldn’t, just in case.
Along the way, the kids become almost unbearable. Their understanding of “be patient” is waiting three minutes between asking, “When are we going to the beach?”
While we prepared, Eva got caught up in her older brother and sister’s euphoric expectation. The kids would run to the balcony and look at the “osen,” as Eva called it, and laugh. Then Ethan would exclaim he was going to ride the biggest wave on his boogie board which he carried everywhere. Then they would come find us to ask, “Aren’t we ready yet?” and “Can we go now?”
Waiting is so hard.
Finally, everyone lathered in sunscreen, towels accounted for, flip-flops on, we headed for the door. I did a head count and found that Eva was not among us. I called for her. “Eva, let’s go swim in the osen! Eva?” There was no response. I walked through the condo and finally found her naked in the master bathroom trying to get into the tub.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Mmm, take a baff, Daddy,” she said.
“What about the ocean?”
My daughter, tired of waiting, and upon seeing the bathtub, forgot about the ocean. She was more than willing to trade the ocean she had not experienced for the familiarity of the tub.
Suddenly my Father spoke to my heart and said, “Jason, the promises I have for you are the size of the ocean. Don’t get distracted by bathtubs.”
The moral of this story? Not all water is created equal. Don’t let the bathtub distract you. Gods promises are as big as the ocean. His promises are astounding; a greater works adventure, a one of a kind expression of His love revealed to and through us.
I pray grace and hope as you lean into your ocean promises. And may the world be forever changed because of your faith.
The Promise: Who Do You Say That I Am
Peter is one of my favorite fellas from the Bible.
I can often find my story in his. He was a favorite of Jesus as well. Peter often gets a bad rap for his impulsive, headstrong, and occasional disastrous conclusions, but I love him for his ardent and fierce trust. I love him because he wasn’t afraid to risk, to try, even if he got it wrong.
I imagine him as that confident kid in high school you wanted to hang out with, at least until the cops came. He was the cool kid who drove the muscle car way too fast; it was awesome until he crashed it into a tree stump while doing donuts in
Peter was a pioneer, a revolutionary, and wasn’t afraid to go first. He let everyone else know it could be done, albeit, better and with more style. Peter encouraged and empowered following generations into believing.
There is this one story where Peter shows us the way into our future through his own radical discovery of his. He found his promise in the discovery of the Promise Giver, and in so doing showed us the keys to discover ours.
Jesus, walking one day with His disciples, asked a question, “Who do you say I am?” And Peter rushed in, “You’re the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus responded to Peter, “You didn’t get that answer out of books or from teachers. My Father in heaven, God Himself, let you in on this secret of who I really am” (Matt. 16:17 MSG).
Now here’s the deal: everywhere Jesus went, every breath He ever took, every smile and tear, everything He did, every word He spoke, was meant to do one thing—reveal God as Father. Jesus told the disciples continually that He came to show us the Father. He said, “If you really know Me, you will know My Father as well” (John 14:7), and “I am in the Father and the Father is in Me” (John 14:11). So I imagine Jesus was thrilled with Peter’s statement as it was directly from Father God.
Peter looked at Jesus and met the Father. He got it!
After Jesus let Peter know where his revelation came from, He continued with a personal enlightening message from the Father: “And now I’m going to tell you who you are, really are. You are Peter, a rock. This is the rock on which I will put together My church, a church so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out” (Matt. 16:18-19 MSG).
Can you imagine this scene? Peter, while describing Jesus, meets Father God and is then given his promise. Peter discovered his promise through the discovery of the Promise Giver. But Jesus wasn’t finished:
“And that’s not all. You will have complete and free access to God’s kingdom, keys to open any and every door: no more barriers between heaven and earth, earth and heaven. A yes on earth is yes in heaven. A no on earth is no in heaven” (Matthew 16:19 MSG).
These verses absolutely astound me. Not only is Peter given his promise in the form of his identity, but he is then given his promise in the form of his inheritance as a son of God. It was as if Jesus were saying, “Peter, as you keep your eyes on Me, you will discover there are no barriers, no measurable limits to My promises—all impossibilities become possibilities. When you keep your eyes on Me, you won’t live chasing an ever-elusive promise, you will live smack in the middle it. When you see Me, you can see your true self, and all the promises I have given you. And these promises will powerfully transform you, the lives around you, and the lives to come.”
This story tells us that if we want to know who we are, if we want to know what we are called to do, if we want to know what we have access to, if we want to know and live smack in the middle of our promise, then we must keep our eyes on the Promise Giver. One revelation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit brings more clarity regarding
I’m not suggesting Bible study and good messages aren’t valuable, I’m simply noting they should always lead to Jesus and reveal the Father. It’s an encounter with God that reveals our promise and releases the keys to personal and then worldwide transformation.
Peter had many more bumbling adventures after he received his promise from the Father. He continued to display what getting it wrong looked like. However, he also continued to believe and trust, and he kept his eyes on Jesus and a yes in his heart. Along the way, his vision of Jesus became clearer and he continued to be transformed.
Many years after Jesus had risen and ascended, “people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by” (Acts 5:15). Peter’s shadow had authority to heal. The same Peter who got it wrong so many times before discovered a believing that led to a personal transformation that ended up changing the world.
I haven’t always fully known what my promise looks like, I haven’t always been able to describe it, but I am learning, and I think it’s a little like “God’s kingdom, keys to open any and every door: no more barriers between heaven and earth, earth and heaven. A yes on earth is yes in heaven. A no on earth is no in heaven” (Matt. 16:19 MSG).
I am discovering that if I’m willing to surrender—my heart for His—I get to engage and experience all His heart offers. I think that’s what untamed living is all about—coalescing my promise with His purpose, His love.
I believe we all have a one-of-a-kind promise from God: His Kingdom of heaven birthed within us. This promise is unique to every individual, is discovered in a revelation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and lives in our hearts. And His promises are greater than anything we could ask for or even imagine. His promises are invitations to believe, step out, risk, trust, and fail; to discover Jesus, be transformed, and walk in the authority of heaven.
“Who do you say that I am?” Jesus is still asking us this question today. It’s an extended hand to take an untamed adventure, to live a world-changing faith.
This is an excerpt from my new book Untamed, A Fools Guide to Surrendered Faith.
A Warning and an Invitation: By Allen Arnold
For months I prayed,
and wondered, and talked with Karen about who I should ask to write the forward to my new book, Untamed, A Fools Guide to Surrendered Faith. Even though we have yet to meet face to face, Allen Arnold was the person I kept coming back to. I was thrilled when he said yes. Years ago, Allen, a complete stranger at the time, tracked me down just to encourage me. “It’s a really good book,” he said over the phone. You see, my new book, Untamed, is a revised edition of my first book, Surrendered & Untamed. Allen had found my first book in a church bookstore. Then he did something rarely done at the time, he bought it.
In our first brief conversation, I knew Allen and I were chasing after the same thing – the wild God stories. The ones filled with adventure, and faith, and risk, and trust, and miracles and… We want to capture the story, we want to share the journey. We want to partner with the Storyteller in a way that encourages and empowers sons and daughters to live the greater works life Jesus promised.
Allen is an amazing storyteller, a good writer and a catalyst for many other storytellers who wish to be good writers. Over the last few years, Allen and I have developed a friendship. I have grown to trust his insights and am thankful for his gifting and grace. He has been so encouraging to me and I am incredibly honored in how he has helped to introduce my new book.
I’m looking forward to the day we share stories, face to face, over strong coffee…
Forward by Allen Arnold
I know this may look like an ordinary book…but it really should come with a warning label in bold letters that says: Untamed will disrupt your world in the best of ways.
My friend Jason Clark is your warrior poet-storyteller for this not-safe yet good journey. Though I’ve not yet met him, I feel a deep bond. Primarily because his life and words have drawn me exponentially closer to God’s heart. Okay, that and the fact that we share a love of strong coffee, spicy food, and 80’s television shows.
My copy of Untamed is dog-eared, tear-stained, and almost completely highlighted in neon orange. The first time I finished the book, I felt I’d been simultaneously struck by lightning, embraced in a lover’s touch, and feasted at God’s banquet table. The stories stretched my faith, quickened my pulse, and increased my hunger to live a far more untamed and reckless life for God.
Perhaps most, Jason helped me grow in my understanding of what it means to live as a son of God. The thought that my Father has rescued me not just for service and productivity but for presence and intimacy…well, that changes everything. As Jason says, “It’s personal friendship with our Creator that satisfies our souls and makes us whole.”
This book is also an intimate invitation that should come signed with these handwritten words: Untamed will disrupt your world in the best of ways.
God first led me to this book when I wasn’t looking for it. He somehow did the same for you. I think it’s because God knows once we experience untamed intimacy with Him, we’ll never be satisfied with small dreams, safe faith, and simple prayers. That is the invitation.
The world may call this approach to living reckless and foolish. But really now, is there any better kind of fool to be?
—Allen Arnold, Ransomed Heart Ministries
Untamed, A Fools Guide to Surrendered Faith, released this week! You can check it out on my website and buy it where books are sold. It captures some of my wild God stories and I pray it encourages and empowers you in yours.
Allen Arnold loves the epic adventure God has set before him. From the mountains of Colorado, he leads Content & Resources for Ransomed Heart Ministries (led by John Eldredge). Before that, he spent 20 years in Christian Publishing – overseeing the development of more than 500 novels as founder and Publisher of Thomas Nelson Fiction. He was awarded the ACFW Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. But that doesn’t really describe the man. Allen savors time with his family, craves the beach, drinks salsa by the glass, is hooked on the TV series “Once Upon a Time” and is passionate about helping storytellers tell better stories from an awakened heart.
My Interview On 100 Huntley Street
100 Huntley Street is Canada’s longest running daily talk show.
They tell stories of people who have had life-changing encounters with God – whether they be world leaders, celebrities, sports figures or everyday people and late last year I got to go on the show.
I remember the show as a boy growing up in Canada. In fact, my grandparents bought their first and only TV so they could watch 100 Huntley Street. So it was an honor and fun experience to be asked to come on the show. Normally it airs live, but the night before my interview we had a crazy rain storm that killed the studio power. They had a generator that basically kept the lights and cameras on the morning I arrived but we couldn’t go live. So they taped my interview with Moira Brown and it just aired Monday of this week.
It’s kinda fun to watch it and realize that I don’t look as nervous as I felt and that my words actually made sense. It was so my heart that Gods love would be revealed.
He Loves Me Best / S&U Message
I spoke this week at our new home church, Crossroads.
We are loving being the family pastors here! It’s a new season for the Clark’s and as I get my legs under me I will write more. But for now, it was sure fun to start the new year delving into His always good love!
The title of my message was “He loves me best!” I hope to post it here in the coming days. For a quick synopsis, check out this film that was shot last year to help promote my book Surrendered & Untamed.
Lord bless and may this new year be full of joy!
Surrendered and Untamed: Book Review
S&U Review by Glynn Young – Faith, Fiction, Friends
Faith has been described as a journey, a challenge, a life, a lifetime, a pilgrimage, a battle, and a lot more things as well, but I’ve never heard it described quite as Jason Clark describes it in Surrendered and Untamed: A Field Guide for the Vagabond Believer. Jumping off a cliff. Skydiving. Death. “Only dead men can experience the resurrection, baby!” Financial death. You and your family are down to your last $200 – and you give it to someone you don’t know who has an emergency room bill. Skiing down a suicide slope with the wrong ski on. Talking to God, and God talking to you. Audibly. And a lot.
What is this? It’s faith like I’ve rarely seen it, experienced it, lived it. It is what Clark, a speaker, writer, musician and a lot of other things, too, says we are called to do and to be – that we fully experience God’s character and love and joy. Surrendered and untamed. And Clark is a Canadian. Aren’t Canadians supposed to be calm?
Using a combination of Biblical and personal stories, Clark embarks upon a wild ride, a wild ride called faith. This isn’t John Eldredge and Wild at Heart; far from it. This is a call to be whom we are designed to be, to live our faith as God wants us to live it. You want to say whoa! Slow down! Get real for a minute. And Clark replies: “I can’t explain all of this from a realist perspective; it’s just not there. I’m afraid realism is living in the kingdom of man. While realism can often appear to be to be practical, respectable, and wise, it’s simply unbelief…Believing is living in the kingdom of God…The thinking mind is never to replace the believing heart.”
Clark proceeds to walk the reader through a process of understanding, and the more you read, the more you understand what he’s saying and doing. He’s telling us that God wants us and desires us to live a good story, the point of which is the end: “The end of the story is the joy of greater intimacy with God. It’s the surrendered and untamed existence that God has called all of us to live.”
This is exhilarating and terrifying stuff. Exactly! Clark would say, it’s terrifying and exhilarating because that’s what God is, and that’s the life he wants us to live. Surrendered and Untamed is a crazy book. Crazy good.
Glynn Young – Faith, Fiction, Friends To purchase Surrendered and Untamed, A Field Guide for the Vagabond Believer on Amazon click HERE
Look Up & Let Go
Grand Central Station. Spring, 1993. late afternoon.
“I’m here,” I thought.
“Don’t look up and don’t let go of your bag,” raced through my head.
I was beginning my new life as an adult. After a 16-hour Greyhound bus ride, I’d arrived to meet my new employer in the greatest city in world history. At least, that’s what I’ve been told by New Yorkers since. I had been hired to be a roadie for one of the worlds greatest trumpet players ever, at least that’s what I’ve been told Doc Severinson said – Trumpeter for the Johnny Carson show.
The station felt dirty… “Well not really dirty, just old,” I thought as I headed out to the street.
“Don’t look up and don’t let go of your bag.”
I had twenty-nine dollars and thirty-one cents in my pocket. I had started out with thirty but had bought a Recess Peanut butter Cup at one of the stops. It had been a nice touch to the apple and peanut butter and jelly sandwich my mom had packed for me.
My folks didn’t have any money and this was before credit card debt was a way of life, so I had just enough to buy the twenty dollar ticket back to Rochester NY if my ride didn’t show.
“Don’t look up and don’t let go of your bag.”
Everyone was heading up and out. I joined the flow and stepped out onto Park Ave. I was 18 years old and had never been alone in a city of any size.
“Don’t look up and don’t let go of your bag.”
The fear was real but contained.
I found a pay phone and instead of using more of my precious capital, I called my parents collect. “I’m here.” Moms first question was “Is an adult there to pick you up?” “No mom, but I think I will try to hail a cab and go to the hotel and see if I can find them,” I said bravely.
My mom had wanted me to immediately buy a return ticket and catch the next Greyhound home. But that would have ended my new life. This was NYC and I wasn’t ready to call it quits and get back on a bus for home.
“Don’t look up and don’t let go of your bag…”
“Don’t look up and don’t let go of your bag.” That was the last piece of advice my Dad said in my ear as he hugged me goodbye. I clutched my bag and kept my eyes forward, determined not to look up, determined to hail a cab, determined to get myself to my new employer’s Hotel, the Marriott Marquis right on Times Square. The map my dad and I had looked at before I left showed the Hotel to be only four blocks from Grand Central Station, so this was do-able.
The street was filled bumper to bumper with yellow cabs. I had only the movies as a reference. I worked up the nerve and started toward the street timidly waiving my arm. No cabs stopped. There is nothing timid about NYC. While I stood there contemplating my next move, I noticed I was looking up…
When I brought my focus back to street level, I was startled to discover an older fella had invaded my personal space. He was maybe in his mid-40s. His hair was wiry and mostly grey, he had a distinct unpleasant body odor but what most stood out was the patchwork of bandages that lined the insides of both arms.
“Where are you going?” He asked. He was missing a front tooth.
I nodded, “I’m fine sir, thanks.”
He leaned closer, “Need a cab?”
I just wanted him to go away. “I’m fine, thanks.”
“Where are you going,” he asked bluntly.
I shouldn’t have looked up I thought and then, because of my good upbringing, I answered the question. “ I am staying at the Marriott Marquis on Times Square.”
“I know where that is – it’s close. You don’t need a cab. Five bucks and I’ll take you there.”
Before I could agree he snatched my bag out of my hand and started across the street.” “Don’t look up and don’t let go of your bag,” I thought one last time as I followed the man who had taken my bag. I began praying fervently. “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.”
“Once upon a time…” I followed a guy through the streets of NY, was yelled at by a couple fellas, cursed at by another fella I bumped into, taken to the wrong hotel, told it was the right hotel, cursed at again – this time by a cabbie – and finally delivered to the correct Hotel where eventually I met a mythic trumpet player and his crew, was led through the bowels of Madison Square Gardens while the National Democratic Convention for Bill Clinton was winding down, witnessed the gay pride parade and then flown off in a personal King Air to begin my grand adventure as an adult.
This was the beginning of my journey into adulthood and also the beginning of a spiritual journal. One in which I have had to learn just the opposite of my dad’s directions – Keep your eyes up and let go of your bags. Or, Look up, let go.
Once upon a time I looked up and let go, and as Robert Frost, the greatest poet ever known to mankind, at least to my 11th grade English teacher, once wrote: “that has made all the difference.”