Brennan Manning

In Place of Joy

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“For many, Christmas is no longer the day to celebrate the mystery of the birth of God among us, the God hidden in the wounds of humanity. It is no longer the day of the child, awaited with prayer and repentance, contemplated with watchful attentiveness, and remembered in liturgical solemnity, joyful song, and peaceful family meals. Instead, Christmas has become a time when companies send elaborate gifts to their clients to thank them for their business, when post offices work overtime to process an overload of greeting cards, when immense amounts of money are spent on food and drink, and socializing becomes a full-time activity. There are trees, decorated streets, sweet tunes in the supermarkets, and children saying to their parents: ‘I want this and I want that.’ The shallow happiness of busy people often fills the place meant to experience the deep, lasting joy of Emmanuel, God-with-us” (Henri Nouwen).

It seems strange for me to be posting a Christmas blog on January 7, the day after the Epiphany. But if you think about it, it makes sense. At least to me it does.

When you focus on all the wrong parts of Christmas, like the buying and getting, the wrapping and decorating, the parties and the food, then at some point it has to end. But when Christmas becomes the arrival of Emmanuel, then it never ends because Emmanuel has not left us nor will He ever.

I love all the other stuff. But it gets weird if the Christmas tree is still up and decorated in July. But I think the idea of treating others with kindness or giving to the less fortunate or being Jesus with skin on never gets old. That can be 24/7/365.

Above all, the greatest gift of Christmas is one that we can give to anybody anytime we share the hope of salvation in Jesus with anyone who hasn’t heard it before or who needs to hear it again for the 300th time. That’s the only part that we get to take with us to heaven — those who will go with us because we were faithful to share the good news.

The Way of Jesus

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What is the way of Jesus? What are those who follow Him called to be and to do?

The answer is simple. Repent and forgive.

Self-righteous finger pointing has no place in the Kingdom of God. Neither does condemning those who sin differently than I do. While we are called to speak in love against people when their actions don’t match their faith, neither you nor I get the right to judge their motives or intentions. Neither you nor I get to decide

Jesus never said, “You make sure everyone else is living right.”

What He said was, “You live right,” or better yet, “You repent. You seek to serve the least of these. You be holy.”

The Kingdom of God isn’t about a political party or platform. It’s not an ideology, either left or right, conservative or liberal.

It’s about the God’s love breaking into the world, one heart at a time.

You might say to Jesus, “But what about these people over there not doing right? What about those people flaunting their freedoms over and above any responsibility?”

Jesus says to you, “But what about you? You repent. You make peace and live in peace with others as much as it’s in your power to do so.

At the end of the day, the question to you and me will be how well we loved. How well we served and ministered to the least of them. How well we made visible the invisible grace of God.

Jesus also said to forgive.

That becomes possible when you and I understand that the kind of inhumanity and evil we’re capable of apart from the grace of God. Also, we need to embrace the fact that those we deem our enemies are still created in the image of God and loved by God.

When we grasp how much we’re forgiven by God, we can in turn forgive others.

“One of their religion scholars spoke for them, posing a question they hoped would show him up: ‘Teacher, which command in God’s Law is the most important?’ Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.'”

Epiphany Eve

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That’s the paradox of Christmas — that God, the Maker and Sustainer, was for a time homeless so that all who waited for and longed for His appearing can be at home and find their home in Him. I love that God became one of us so that we could become like Him and be made into the image of His Son, Jesus.

Thank You, God, for Your sacrifice that I could know You and know eternal and abundant life that I never deserved but that You freely give through Your Son Jesus Christ. Amen.

Prayer Request

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I don’t normally do this kind of thing, but I’m requesting prayer for myself on here. I’m asking each and every one of you to join me in prayer for God to lead me to a career where I can not only earn a living but also make a difference in the world.

I’ve been praying and believing in God for a job, but I think sometimes there’s mighty power when God’s people join together to agree on something in Jesus’ name. I’m thanking God in advance for His provision because I know that God has provided for me in every season through every kind of circumstance.

I’m claiming and believing the promises of God.

“Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?” (Romans 8:32, NTL).

“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20, NLT).

“And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for” (1 John 5:14-15, NLT).

Thank you in advance for your prayers. I will update when God answers and I am still believing for good things from God. He is still good and worthy of my worship, no matter what.

Above all, I choose to pray the prayer that never fails: God, Your will be done. Amen.

Here I Am

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“Now it was after these things that God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham.”

‘Hineni,’ he said (Genesis 22:1, TLV).

I learned a new Hebrew word today. I’m reading through the Tree of Life Version of the Bible. It’s a Messianic Jewish translation that often will insert Hebrew words instead of translating them. Also, it refers to Yeshua rather than Jesus when talking about the Messiah.

Hineni simply means “Here I am.”

But according to all that I have learned, it’s more than stating a geographical location. In this passage, God didn’t need to know where Abraham was. What Abraham was saying in that one word response was, “I am available and willing, no matter what.”

In this case, God was calling Abraham to take his only son, Isaac, and offer him as a sacrifice. Abraham was completely ready to obey even though he believed God’s promise about making a nation through his offspring. He somehow knew God could still fulfill His word.

Later on, we see that the Angel of the Lord stopped Abraham from going through with the deed. After He calls to Abraham, again Abraham responds with “Hineni.”

Once more, Abraham was instantly willing and able to do whatever God commanded. He didn’t need to think it over or figure out how it made sense before he could act. He simply acted.

Also, the word is used for Isaiah when God asked who could He send and who would go for Him to preach His message to wayward Israel. Again, Isaiah said “Hineni – here I am. Send me.”

May that be the posture of our hearts. Lord, whatever and whenever You call, I’m ready. My answer is Yes before You even ask the question. Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening. Amen.

A Prayer for Sunday

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“Lord, look with great grace, we pray, upon the slaves of sin that are present here this morning; break their chains. Save this people. We know there are some in this congregation who are currently “poisoned by bitterness and bound by wickedness” (Acts 8:23). Move, divine Spirit, over this audience, and fetch out from among us those who do not know God, that they may know themselves and their God this day. Make this to be a profitable, soul-winning Sunday, one of the high days on which heaven’s bells shall ring out more sweetly than ever, because many and many a prodigal child has come back to the Father’s house to make the Father glad.
Amen” (Charles Spurgeon).

I usually try to pray every Sunday for my church. I typically pray that God would make our hearts good soil for God’s word to go deep and produce a harvest. I also pray that if there’s anyone sitting in the rows during the service that doesn’t have a saving faith in Jesus that they would come to know Jesus as Savior and Lord.

I’m not typing all that to humble brag. I’m simply being obedient. Who knows? Maybe God would have saved someone anyway, but I know the Bible says that we have not because we ask not (to put it in super King James English).

Are you praying for your church? Are you praying for God to move in your services? With all the talent in most churches, it can be so easy to preplan and program every service down to the second and leave no room for the Holy Spirit to move. We can run an entire Sunday off of our own agendas and abilities and charisma and not even be aware that God was not present because we never invited Him in.

It’s always a good idea to pray for lost people to come to Christ in your church services. It’s never wrong to pray for reconciliation of families and marriages, for the calling of people to the ministry and missions, for God to bring revival to your church, your city, and the world.

Lord, move in every place where we assemble to worship. Don’t let us get by on our strength alone but bring us to the place where we’re dependent on You for anything good that happens this Sunday. Speak, Lord, for Your servants are listening.

Memories About Ghosts

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Do you ever see a photograph and wish you could go back in time and be a fly on the wall for the moment that the picture was taken? You’d see the people alive again, their faces animated and their voices long silenced speaking again.

I know it would probably mess up the space-time continuum thingy big time, but I’d love to go back and capture some of those moments with a really high-end camera (or at least my cell phone). I love seeing the old Polaroids, but sometimes it gets harder to make out the faces or really see the expressions on people’s faces. Sometimes, I forget what the people I loved look like and it would be really nice to remember again.

But then I remember that a Great Reunion is coming. That’s what Revelation talks about when it says that Jesus will come back and take us to a place with no more crying or pain, where He personally will wipe away every tear from our eyes. I imagine at that point it will be tears of joy over seeing loved ones alive and whole.

I don’t know what people will look like in heaven. I’ve heard that we will all be in the prime of life. Perhaps we will all be what we looked like when we were 33 because that’s the age when Jesus made His ultimate sacrifice for us. Maybe we will look young but with eyes that reflect a lifetime of wisdom. All I know is that Jesus will be there, and because of what He did, we will know each other and we will above all know Him whom we have only seen up to that point through eyes of faith.

Until then, I have grainy Polaroids and a Bible and a fait that believes without seeing. But then one day, my faith will be made sight.

Waiting in 2026

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“Wait on the Lord, wait quietly, wait trustingly. He holds every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year in His hands. Thank Him in advance for what the future holds, for He is already there” (Elisabeth Elliot).

I sometimes forget that God is not like me. He is not bound by time nor controlled by it. He exists completely outside of any notion of time. That means that He is still in the past where I messed up. He is in my present with all of its worries and concerns. And He is already in the future, going before me in whatever lies ahead of me.

He will still be there when I get there. That to me means more than any good news or unexpected blessing. The fact that I don’t have to wake up tomorrow wondering how I’m going to figure out all the ins and outs of my life is hugely relieving. God is there. He knows.

A word I have chosen for 2026 is waiting. Not in the sense of waiting passively like waiting by the phone for a call. But waiting actively. Waiting expectantly. Waiting while I prepare the fields to receive rain in advance of a mighty harvest.

God, we wait for You knowing that our future is secure in nail-scarred hands. Thank You that we never go where You have not already been. Amen.

Ring Out, Wild Bells (from In Memoriam)

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“Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be” (Lord Alfred Tennyson).

Happy New Year! May 2026 be your best year yet!

On the Sixth Day of Christmas

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The older I get, the less Christmas is about stuff. I remember when all I could think about on Christmas Eve was opening all those presents. It was even more important to me than food (and that’s really saying something).

But it seems lately, I really cherish the people more than the presents. Really, of all the gifts I ever received, I probably still have 1%. What I have more than anything I unwrapped are memories. I have pictures in my mind of all the people that I’d see every Christmas. A lot of those aren’t here anymore, but their memories still are.

Of course, the greatest gift I still have is my salvation. That is one present that grows sweeter as I grow older. Most gifts didn’t hold my interest for very long. It saddens me to think that a lot of them ended up in a closet or in a yard sale or donated to Goodwill after people went through all that trouble to pick them out for me. But that’s how this earthly life is in a lot of ways.

This year, I’m thankful for all my family and friends. I’m thankful for my church family and what we’re doing in our new building. I’m thankful for a roof over my head and clothes on my back and good meals set before me. I am very blessed, even if I didn’t get one single solitary present for Christmas (and believe me, I did).

Christmas is more than packages and decorations and tinsel and parties. Christmas is the people around you and the love between you. Christmas is how God saw lost sheep away from the fold and became the Good Shepherd to find us and lead us back home. Christmas is Jesus.