I was rocked recently as I was reading a classic work in the church by Brennan Manning on grace. As I seek to plant churches or pastor churches or whatever God has for me, I am reminded that He will not lead me somewhere I am not willing to go and in return I cannot lead others to go where I have not been.
Scholars, conferences, blogs, and other’s religious views should shape us…but many people seem to ONLY follow someone else’s Jesus and someone else’s Spirit. How about you? Read on…
“The Word we study has to be the word we pray. My personal experience of the relentless tenderness of God came not from exegesis, theologians, and spiritual writers, but from sitting still in the presence of the living Word and beseeching Him to help me understand with my head and heart His written Word. Sheer scholarship alone cannot reveal to us the gospel of grace. We must never allow the authority of books, institutions, or leaders to replace the authority of KNOWING Jesus Christ personally and directly. When the religious views of others interpose between us and the primary experience of Jesus as the Christ, we become unconvinced and unpersuasive travel agents handing out our brochures to places we have never visited.” [--Ragamuffin Gospel pp.45-46, Brennan Manning]
Lord, take me to the places you want me to take others…make me still, quiet, and dead to the world around me, but alive in your Spirit. Show ME your truth, your ways and your character, and fill others around me who help me on the journey with your light alone.
