Brennan Manning

CAFO2024

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Sometimes, you can go back. Almost.

This time, it was the Christian Alliance for Orphans (or CAFO) conference held at Brentwood Baptist Church. It was basically 13 years after the first time I volunteered for a CAFO conference.

I truly believe that if you are pro-life, you are pro-adoption and pro-fostering. The best way to show that we care for unborn babies is to keep caring for them once they’re born, especially if they’re born into unfortunate circumstances.

One of the few upsides of being unemployed is that I now have the free time to volunteer. I can be a part of something that’s bigger than me and make a difference (and possibly turn it into a career down the road). While that last part isn’t exactly super realistic, it’s not impossible.

One of my favorite parts so far is seeing the incredible diversity of the people who are attending. It’s like a small taste of heaven where there will be people from every tribe, tongue, ethnicity, race, and nation represented and bound together in worship to Jesus.

I’ve heard that one of the best ways to deal with stress/trauma/grief is to go and do for others. One of the best kinds of therapy is to serve others as a way of taking your mind off your own world for a bit. I’m not saying every single person is 100% ready nor that serving will make all your problems magically go away, but it does give a bit of perspective to step outside of yourself for a bit.

For me, the motivation is partly to recapture some of the magic from last time. I also believe in what CAFO is doing around the world. I also can’t think of a better way to spend my time.

This is not a humble brag about how great and selfless I am, but really a shameless plug for CAFO and an encouragement for you to go and find a place to serve not to get anything out of it but because of the joy of serving and most of all because God is worth it.

What God Gives

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I would love clarity, answers, and above all a road map. Although I’m not quite in Job’s shoes in terms of tragic losses, I sometimes can relate to His questions of God’s silence and hiddenness.

But what I often forget (and what Job eventually learned) was that God doesn’t so much give answers as He gives Himself. In the long run, that’s better. After all, I’m not always the best at asking the right questions or focusing on the right things.

Right answers and clear thinking and even a five-year plan without God’s immediate presence do me no good. I’d screw it up or try to subvert the process to get to the end quicker. And as I’ve learned sin is taking my own shortcut to God’s promises and/or trying to get God’s provisions apart from God.

So much of what God wants from me in this season means slowing down and really seeping in each day instead of wanting to rush on to the next big event or the next holiday. Lately, I’ve been actually hungering for the Word of God instead of reading it as part of my rote routine.

I think God gets us all to a point where we have to lean on Him and learn from Him for as long as it takes to get us weaned from ourselves and our own self-help. He puts us in a season where all our theoretical head knowledge about God becomes lived-out experience and love for God. Basically, we find out what “Jesus loves me, this I know” really means.

Take your time, God. As much as I really would love to have clarity and answers and a detailed plan for my life, what I need right now is You. Just You.

Burdens

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I wonder how many of us are carrying secret burdens because we have this mentality of “I don’t want to be a burden to anyone else” and “I have to bear this alone.”

I do think that’s one of the negative consequences of this kind of Lone Ranger/ pull yourself up by your own bootstraps kind of individualized American Christianity. Not only is it okay to share your burdens, it’s actually commanded both bear one another’s burdens.

That means you occasionally take someone else’s burden. Also, that means that another sometimes takes your burden. It works both ways. Not only are you making your own life harder by bearing unnecessary burdens but you also deprive someone else of the joy of fulfilling God’s command in that way.

That’s the most tangible way we have of showing our love for each other. And oh, by the way, how we love each other is the greatest witness to the saving power of Christ and the gospel that we have. The early Church turned the known world upside down by how they loved each other. Also by how they loved their neighbors but mainly by their sacrificial love for each other.

My prayer is that churches become places where we can unburden and find rest, not a place where more burdens are added. Part of it starts with the Church but part of it starts with you and I being willing to share our burden and let it be known that we’re struggling instead of the pat answer of “I’m fine” whenever anyone asks how we’re doing.

I think when I let you share my burden and you share mine, we learn a little more of what it means when Jesus bore all our burdens to Calvary. We understand more of what it means about His yoke is easy to carry and His burden is light. And the world sees a love that it simply cannot resist.

Every Breath for His Glory

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“Our Lord and master, redeemer and savior, come and take complete possession of us. We are your right; but you must take by force what you have purchased, or you will never have it. By your strong arms, the arms must be those of love, you will capture our willful, wayward spirit. Come and divide the spoil with the strong in us, we pray. Take every faculty and use it, overpower and sanctify it. Help us to employ every moment of our time for you; may we breathe out every breath to your honor. We feel that there is still unconquered territory in our nature. Subdue, Lord, we beg you, our corruptions; cast them out, and in our spirit rule and conquer. Set up your eternal throne in us.
Amen” (Charles Spurgeon).

I think that’s my prayer for tonight. It’s not enough to surrender to Jesus once and for all. There must be a daily dying to self and a daily carrying of the cross. Sometimes, God has to break through to us before we can have a breakthrough in us. Sometimes, I don’t need a polite God who only knocks but a God who knocks down the door and storms in to radically rearrange my priorities and desires until they match His.

God, my life and my will and my body are yours. Do what you will in me.

Amen.

Who’s Trash?

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I recently ran across a Facebook post where someone was calling Elon Musk a piece of trash. I’m not about to defend Mr. Musk since I don’t really know much about him or what he stands for. I do know that it’s easier to point fingers at other people than look in the mirror (and I’m probably the first one to be guilty of that).

I’ve read my Bible, and I’m pretty sure that Elon Musk and Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are all made in the image of God. All bear the imago dei and Jesus died for every single one of them. If that’s trash, then Jesus died for trash. If that’s trash, then God made trash and I suppose that would make God trash (which He is obviously not).

That’s the worst part about elections. People can get very self-righteous and feel it’s okay to speak contemptibly about anyone who is on the “other” side of the political spectrum. Aldus Huxley said, “To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior ‘righteous indignation’ — this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats.”

But that is not the way of Jesus. Remember He loved His enemies. He died for His enemies. He forgave His enemies while they were in the very act of murdering Him. And that’s the standard if you call yourself a follower of Jesus.

I’ve been around long enough to know that there are no political solutions to spiritual problems. No elected official can right what’s wrong with this country? No bill or amendment or vote can legislate spiritually dead people into life. Only Jesus can do that.

I have to guard against becoming pharisaical in seeing other peoples’ flaws and overlooking my own. I can very easily become judgmental and forget that the very foundation of my faith is the grace by which I’m saved.

So who’s trash? In the eyes of God, no one. No one is beyond redemption. No one is too far gone to save. Ask the Apostle Paul, once a terrorist against Christians and later the biggest advocate for the gospel. The gospel is for everyone.

Do Not Be Surprised

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“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;

13 but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation. 1 Peter 4:12-13

3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;

4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;

5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Romans 5:3-5

Commentary:

The Purpose of Our Trials

In the midst of our struggles, we may feel overwhelmed, but God will carry us through.

September 10, 2024

1 Peter 4:12-13

Some believers like to portray their life as ideal and carefree. But in reality, being a Christian isn’t easy. In fact, sometimes we’ll experience trials that truly test our faith and ability to trust in God.

In today’s passage, Peter refers to times of testing as a ‘fiery ordeal.’ He says we shouldn’t be surprised when adversity comes. It’s important to remember that God has a purpose for our difficulties and will see us through them (Romans 5:3-5). Here are some of the goals He may have for painful experiences:

At times the Lord uses hardship to cleanse us. Trials drive us to Him. And as we focus on God, we’re increasingly able to see things from His perspective.

A difficulty in our life may be the Lord’s way of testing us. He could be trying our faith, endurance, or devotion to Him.

God uses suffering to demonstrate His power to sustain us. When He brings us through challenging times, He glorifies Himself. In turn, this encourages others, because they have witnessed God’s sustaining power in our life.

Ultimately, hardships strengthen our testimony. In the midst of our struggles, we might feel overwhelmed and discouraged. But once the storm has passed, we can often look back and see the Lord’s providential hand carrying us through” (Charles Stanley).

When Did We?

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“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’” (Matthew 25:37-40, NIV).

I was watching a video podcast called 1 Degree of Andy on YouTube where he and the guest made an interesting comment on the parable of the sheep and the goats. Those sheep will hear Jesus say that they ministered to Him when they fed the hungry and gave the thirsty something to drink and so on, and they will reply, “When did we do that?”

In one sense, they’re ministering to Jesus by serving the least of these. But also in another sense, their greatest moments of service will be when the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing, which is to say they won’t be aware of the magnitude of what’s happening.

So many times, we think people will remember us for the big dramatic moments where we saw hundreds come to faith in Christ or we spoke to multitudes. But so often, the times when we made the biggest impact will be the ones we don’t remember at all.

It will be like someone comes up to you and says, “Remember when . . .” and you will have to be reminded. They will say that what you said or did in that moment changed their life forever but you had no idea.

To me, the perfect kind of serving and ministering is a lot like C. S. Lewis’ idea of the perfect worship service. We won’t remember what the songs were or what the sermon was about because we will have been so focused on God that we noticed nothing else. When we are making a true Kingdom impact is when we’re so focused on Jesus that we don’t notice anything else except serving Him in that moment.

That should give us hope. We may have blessed others without realizing it just as there are surely times we have been blessed by those who were unaware. It’s probably so we won’t get puffed up and lose focus. Otherwise, we might try to serve out of our own strength (and fail miserably) rather than out of the overflow of God’s love for us.

We Remember 23 Years Later

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I can’t believe it’s been 23 years since 9/11. It blows my mind that people in college weren’t alive on that day in 2001. In a lot of ways, that day feels like yesterday with how vivid my memories are.

I still remember my boss calling me into his office on that day. I had no idea why and thought for a minute I’d done something wrong or forgotten something. But when I walked into his office and saw the TV, I knew something was up.

No one knew what was going on when that first plane hit the Twin Towers. I think everyone was in shock from seeing images of a plane crashing into a skyscraper. But when the second plane hit, suddenly I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. So did everyone else.

In the words of the Alan Jackson song, that’s the day the world stopped turning. Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives and if not for the brave efforts of so many of our firefighters and police, many more people could have died.

It was the day when everything changed. Airports and flying were never the same after that day. One beautiful part was seeing unity and cooperation on 9/12 that we’ve rarely seen before or since. And I distinctly recall a lot of churches were full that next Sunday.

It’s one of those moments like when JFK was assassinated. Everyone who was alive and old enough to remember can tell you where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. It’s a flashbulb memory that’s indelibly marked in a lot of brains.

The best way to honor those who died that day is to not forget what happened. We need to pray nothing like that ever happens again. We who call upon the name of the Lord need to repent and return to seeking God’s kingdom instead of trying to build our own political kingdom. We need to get back to the Great Commission and being the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We remember still.

Interceding for Our Enemies

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“In prayer we go to our enemies, to stand at their side. We are with them, near them, for them before God. Jesus does not promise us that the enemy we love, we bless, to whom we do good, will not abuse and persecute us. They will do so. But even in doing so, they cannot harm and conquer us if we take this last step to them in intercessory prayer. Now we are taking up their neediness and poverty, their being guilty and lost, and interceding for them before God. We are doing for them in vicarious representative action what they cannot do for themselves. Every insult from our enemy will only bind us closer to God and to our enemy. Every persecution can only serve to bring the enemy closer to reconciliation with God, to make love more unconquerable.

How does love become unconquerable? By never asking what the enemy is doing to it, and only asking what Jesus has done. Loving one’s enemies leads disciples to the way of the cross and into communion with the crucified one” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).

It’s gotten so bad in this current cultural climate that we can’t abide dissenting views. We’ve gone past the point where we used to be able to debate and listen rationally to opposing viewpoints. Now anyone who disagrees with me must not only be wrong and ignorant but evil. We have turned our social media into echo chambers where we only allow voices that say the same things we say and agree with.

But that’s not the way of Jesus at all. His way is interceding for enemies. Remember that Jesus forgave His own enemies while they were in the very act of murdering Him. He prayed for the very ones who drove the nails into His wrists and feet (and the ones who shouted the loudest for Him to be crucified).

In this election season, it’s easy to turn it into us versus them and to turn “them” off so that we can have peace. But again, that’s not the way of Jesus. We are to pray for our very enemies the way Jesus prayed (and still prays) for us. We are to love them the same way Jesus loved (and still loves) us.

Is it easy? No. Is it possible? Humanly speaking, no, but only through the resurrection power of Jesus in us. Only through daily dependence and renewal by Jesus. Only by the grace that saved us in the first place.

You could pray for your enemies like you would want someone to whom you were an enemy to pray for you. And believe me, everyone has enemies. No matter how nice or accommodating you might be, you still have enemies.

Above all, remember that we all were once God’s enemies. And what did He do? He sent Jesus who loved us first before we ever loved Him, loved us best by dying for us, and loved us everlastingly from the foundation of the world until forever.

Sneak Preview

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These last two or so days have been glorious. They’ve almost felt like fall, even though autumn doesn’t officially start for two weeks.

Some call it false fall, one of the nine seasons we have here in Tennessee. It gets your hopes up for an early autumn but dashes them again with the return of hot weather.

I prefer to think of days like this as a sort of sneak preview of coming attractions — in this case, fall. It’s not a harbinger of fall’s arrival, but a kind of glimpse of what it will feel like in a month or so.

I’ve lived here long enough to know how it works. The season of fall may start in two weeks, but the fall weather comes later. There’s that ol’ false fall, then Indian Summer, then another false start for autumn, then more warm, then actual fall.

The lone bad news is that I will have to put away my Hawaiian shirts for a bit. The good news is that I can finally dig the flannel out of my closet and actually think about wearing it and not sweating to death. Plus, there are all the smells and sounds and sights that come with autumn — provided all the leaves don’t fall off first from it being so dry lately.

Last but not least is Halloween. Spooky season is coming and I can’t wait!