Brennan Manning

Thankful for Grace

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“O God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, we hope in thy Word. There we see thee, not on a fearful throne of judgment, but on a throne of grace, waiting to be gracious, and exalted in mercy. There we hear thee saying, not ‘Depart ye cursed,’ but ‘Look unto me and be ye saved, for I am God and there is none else.'”

I’m thankful for that throne of grace. I know I deserve the fearful throne of judgment. If I’m honest, there’s no way I could hope in a million years for mercy. If I got what I deserved, I’d hear the words “Depart ye cursed.” But I hear the words “Look unto me and be ye saved, for I am God and there is none else.”

The question isn’t why aren’t there more ways to be saved than through Jesus. The question is why do I get to be saved at all, considering what I’ve done and what thoughts go through my mind and who I could be apart from the very grace of God.

The question isn’t why bad things happen to good people, because we know there aren’t any good people who have never sinned. As R. C. Sproul once said, bad things happened to a good man only once because He volunteered for it. He chose the nails. He chose the cross. That’s why I can be declared righteous.

I remember people used to say things like “If anyone deserves to get into heaven, it’s . . .” fill in the blank with any upstanding citizen. But truthfully no one deserves to get into heaven. Not one. Not you. Not me. None. Only Jesus deserves to be in heaven, but He left His throne for the likes of you and me so we could get there, not by our own efforts but by His own shed blood.

I’m thankful that salvation belongs not to the strong or the fast or to the intelligent or the clever. Salvation belongs to those who humbly repent and place their faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord. That’s it.

Implicit Trust

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“If a man will resign himself in implicit trust to the Lord Jesus, he will find that He leads the wayfaring soul into the green pastures and beside the still waters, so that even when he goes hrough the dark valley of the shadow of some staggering episode, he will fear no evil. Nothing in life or death, time or eternity, can stagger a soul from the certainty of the Way, for one moment” (Oswald Chambers, Run Today’s Race).

That’s what I want — implicit trust in Jesus, no matter what. Lately, I find that my faith comes and goes like the ocean tides advancing and retreating, rising and ebbing. One moment, I am calm and collected and the next I am inwardly freaking out. Too often, my faith is too tied in to my emotions.

But the true saint of God has a steady faith. Or at least he or she is moving toward one. The hindrance to the necessary resignation of the soul to the ways of the Lord is the illusion of control that we cling to. The more I think I somehow can help God out or speed up His timeline, the more inclined I am to fret and worry.

I still love Corrie ten Boom’s imagery of staying on the train that’s going through a dark tunnel. Of course, you don’t leap off the train in the middle of the tunnel. You sit still and trust the engineer. But in the midst of life’s dark passages, it’s easy to want to go AWOL on God. But what’s the alternative? Lostness and the dark?

Lord, grow my faith. Help me to take my tiny mustard seed faith and put it in Your hands so that I can rest in Your promises and plans for me. Help me to know with my whole being that You are still working all things together for my good. Amen.

The Cactus and the Worm

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I thought this was so beautifully written. I hope it speaks to your heart the way it spoke to mine:

“I asked the Lord for a bunch of fresh flowers 
but instead he gave me an ugly cactus with many thorns.

I asked the Lord for some beautiful butterflies 
but instead he gave me many ugly and dreadful worms.

I was threatened,
I was disappointed. 
I mourned.

But after many days, 
suddenly,
I saw the cactus bloom
with many beautiful flowers.

And those worms
became beautiful butterflies 
flying in the Spring wind.

God’s way is the best way” (Dr Chun-Ming Kao, Taiwan).

We don’t often appreciate the gifts we have when we focus on what we lack. Often, it’s only when we look back that we see how much better God’s gift was than whatever we were chasing after that we thought we couldn’t live without.

Got Any Mustard?

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It was weird. I remember the commercial well. A guy is sitting in a fancy car at a red light. Someone pulls up next to him and asks, “Pardon me. Do you have any Grey Poupon?”

For those who weren’t alive in the late 1900s, Grey Poupon was a bougie brand of mustard that as I remember was a bit on the spicy side. It wasn’t your ordinary yellow mustard that you inevitably get all over your shirt whenever you have a hot dog at any sporting event.

It’s funny how a meme can conjure up a million memories. Suddenly, I remember that scene from Wayne’s World where they spoof the commercial. It’s hard to believe that the movie and the mustard commercial both happened well over 30 years ago.

Now I feel really old and I really want some mustard.

Another Good Prayer

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“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:14–15, NIV).

“Dear Father in heaven, we thank you that your voice reaches our hearts and that we can say with joy, ‘We belong to you. We too are yours.’ We want to lead lives that show we belong to you, never allowing ourselves to be sidetracked, never again giving way to pettiness, always drawing strength from the power of Jesus Christ. Protect our household. Watch over each of us. Protect us all on our way. O mighty God, be with us in the many dangers that surround us, and grant that we may always be joyful because our names are recorded in heaven. Amen” (Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt).

Lord, help us always to be true salt and light to the world in which we live. May our words and actions always be seasoned with grace and may we be guides to those who are lost and seeking to find their way home. Help us always to have a reason for the hope we have in You and always to be prepared to give a defense for what we believe, speaking the truth in love. Amen.

A Good Prayer

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“Almighty and everlasting God,
you are always more ready to hear than we to pray,
and to give more than we either desire or deserve:

Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy,
forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid,
and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask,

except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.
Amen”

Sometimes, you don’t have the words to pray. Hopefully, this prayer can be useful if you can’t think of what to say. I’ve always fallen back on liturgical and written prayers at times when my mind was a blank.

I love the idea of praying words that faithful saints have spoken through the decades, knowing we speak to the God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

The Valley of Vision

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“Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,
Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see Thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold Thy glory. 
Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, 
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.
Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells, 
and the deeper the wells the brighter Thy stars shine;
let me find Thy light in my darkness,
Thy life in my death,
Thy joy in my sorrow,
Thy grace in my sin,
Thy riches in my poverty,
Thy glory in my valley” (Taken from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions, edited by Arthur Bennett).

I heard this read from the pulpit at a church I attended today and thought it was as powerful as the first time I read it in The Valley of Vision. Man, those Puritans could pray. There’s something about praying the same words that faithful saints have offered up to God down the generations, even with all the thees and thous.

I hope that you and I can take these words and make them our own prayer to God that He might be glorified in and through us, no matter what. May whatever valley we find ourselves in be transformed into a valley of the vision of God’s glory. Amen and amen.

The Process of Holiness

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“We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to be battered into the shape of the vision to be used by God? The beatings will always come in the most common, everyday ways and through common, everyday people. This means living the realities of our lives in the light of the vision until the truth of the vision is actually realized in us” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).

I’m sure you’ve heard of the song about how everyone wants to go to heaven but no one wants to die, right? Well, this one’s called “Everyone Wants to be Holy, but No One Wants to Pay the Price for It.”

Not quite as catchy. But most believers want to be like Jesus. At least most say they do, including me. But far fewer are willing to do what it takes. More accurately, far less are willing to submit to the process that God uses to shape us into holy people.

The process looks a lot like taking a block of stone and chiseling it into Michelangelo’s David. Or when a silversmith purifies silver by sticking it into red-hot flames. Or when God puts hard circumstances and unkind people into our lives to teach us perseverance and patience.

I want to be used by God, but I’m less keen on being battered into shape for it. I’d rather skip right to the usefulness part and skip all the unpleasant part about God molding me into somebody useful.

A lot of it has to do with perspective. The way I look at the interruptions, delays, inconveniences, and hardships in my life says a lot about where my maturity level is. If I see them as hindrances, then maybe I need to grow up a little more. If I see them as the hand of God shaping and guiding me toward a greater purpose, then I’m getting closer to becoming who God created me to be in the first place.

“I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am” (Philippians 4:11-13, The Message).

My Favorite Ending

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“And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before” (C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle).

That’s what I think heaven will be like. It won’t be the same old same old. It will keep getting better. We won’t just sing the same old songs about God. I believe that there’s so much to learn about an infinite God that we will still be learning new attributes to His character and singing new songs throughout eternity.

Sometimes I envy those who have gone to glory because their faith has now been made sight. They behold with their eyes what they had prayed about and sang about and wrote about and longed for with all their might. I know for me it’s just up the road and around the bend a bit. Whatever happens from here, heaven will be so amazing that whatever I go through to get there will have been worth it.

And Jesus will be there. As much as I long to see those I love who have gone before me, none comes close to the longing in my heart to behold my Savior face to face and hopefully hear the words “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

I Want to Live in a Book

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This may prove that I’m in dire needs of increased medication, but I really want to live in a book right now. Currently, I’m reading These High Green Hills by Jan Karon, book 3 of the Mitford series, and I really wish there was a real Mitford so I could move there.

Think of an updated version of Mayberry or even Stars Hollow (for the post-2000s crowd). I’d eat at the Main Street Grill, pick up a book or two at Happy Endings bookstore, and hang out with some of the locals.

The best part of revisiting a book is that you can slip back into that world. It really is like going back to a favorite vacation spot. You know what to expect. You know what’s there. But still something might still sneak up and surprise you that you hadn’t noticed before.

I like books that I can visualize in my head and see myself living in that world. Another writer who has written books I want to live in is Charles Martin. He’s the one that kinda made me want to like on a houseboat. But probably not for very long. I might get a bit seasick.

Books are the best when you can escape into another world and not have to pay for airplane tickets or hotel reservations. You can be right where you are at home or in the car (hopefully with an audiobook if you’re driving) and be in a completely different place in your mind. That’s what I love about reading a good book of fiction.