Faith That is Alive and Growing
Now, I'm no "fan" of Brennan Manning. In fact, his name really turns me off. I know, that's shallow but I don't know what to do about it. However, I have read one of his books, Abba's Child, and really liked it. Below is an excerpt from another one of his books "The Ragamuffin Gospel" (again, the name makes me want to smash things). It starts off a little shady but gets into the concept of growing faith. The conclusion is that faith is always growing...I think I've been pruned recently but I agree with the growing faith comment.
"Faith means you want God and want to want nothing else. When God's love is taken for granted, we paint Him into a corner and rob Him of the opportunity to love us in a new and surprising way, and faith begins to shrivel and shrink. When I become so spiritually advanced that Abba is old hat, then the Father has been had, Jesus has been tamed, the Spirit has been corralled and the...fire has been extinguished...To be Christian, faith has to be new, that is alive and growing. It cannot be static, finished, settled...when I conclude that I can now cope with the awful love of God I have headed for the shallows to avoid the deeps."
Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel
"Faith means you want God and want to want nothing else. When God's love is taken for granted, we paint Him into a corner and rob Him of the opportunity to love us in a new and surprising way, and faith begins to shrivel and shrink. When I become so spiritually advanced that Abba is old hat, then the Father has been had, Jesus has been tamed, the Spirit has been corralled and the...fire has been extinguished...To be Christian, faith has to be new, that is alive and growing. It cannot be static, finished, settled...when I conclude that I can now cope with the awful love of God I have headed for the shallows to avoid the deeps."
Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel
posted by Scott at 9:10 AM
5 Comments:
Hi Scott and thanks for dropping by Cyclelicious. I followed your comment here and I'm reading through your blog entries.
I had always thought the church should do better marketing, then I joined a church a few years ago that thought the same thing. "Finally!" I thought, "A church that gets it!"
Except it doesn't work, not in any way that's meaningful. Like you've noted in some of your other blog posts, the church is not a business and shouldn't really be operated like one.
I tend to have an arrogant/superior attitude toward others, but something I've learned over the years is that we're all "Stupid Church People." Even if you throw out the congregation to create a fellowship of us four and no more, you still have your personal flaws to deal with. The church takes all comers, the shallow, the creepy, the weirdos, the mentally ill, the hurt, the depressed, the suicidal, the unorganized, the professionals, the rich, and poor, the educated and ignorant.
Hey Fritz,
Thanks for looking around. Your comment:
The church takes all comers, the shallow, the creepy, the weirdos, the mentally ill, the hurt, the depressed, the suicidal, the unorganized, the professionals, the rich, and poor, the educated and ignorant.
is very insightful. It's the shallow, creepy, weirdos that bother me the most...I think I can identify with the rest. I guess this is my biggest hang up with the church, that there are some people there who use it for there own gain while others go on hurting. Perhaps a church wide bike ride would heal us all...I know it does wonders for my state of mind.
Again, thanks for swinging by.
Faith is such a big thing on posts these days and I enjoy this piece from Manning. Faith has to be alive in order for us to get to know God in these days and times.
I have come to see faith as something that seeks to recognize what God is doing in these times. I have noticed that a lot of doctrine puts 'God in a box' or 'makes Him in our image'...this coming from people that claim exhaustive knowledge about God (it's a little worrysome). I think we need to keep on admitting that we want to know God but what we do know is merely shades of His huge character.
Societyvs,
We're playing the same tune again and I like it. Perhaps it's my committment to lifelong learning but I love the questioning nature and growth perspective that my faith has taken. I'd hate to ever think that I could ever have it figured out...though, there are times when a little more confidence in my belief would be nice...
BTW, what's up with the Northvus site???
not sure about the NorthVU's site, I'll have to check on that.
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