Manning Quotes

"In contrast to the domesticated, feel-good Jesus of TV evangelism, who is committed to our financial prosperity, the Christ of John's gospel who has made His home in us invites us to walk with Him daily in humble service even unto death. We may have acquired graduate degrees; we may have mastered biblical principles; we may hold roles of secular and spiritual leadership; and we may have authored books on Christian maturity; and our wits may have been sharpened on the Carborundum [abrasive] wheel of the world. So much the better if they have elicited raw faith, so much the worse for those on the inside track who dismiss union, fusion, and symbiosis [with God] as merely sophisticated metaphors not to be taken literally." (73)

"Words, like anything else used too often, soon depreciate in value, lose their edge, and cease to bite into our lives." (74)

"The revolutionary thinking that God loves me as I am and not as I should be requires radical rethinking and profound emotional readjustment." (75)

"Jesus said you are to love one another as I have loved you, a love that will possibly lead to the bloody, anguished gift of yourself; a love that forgives seventy times seven, that keeps no score of wrongdoing. Jesus said this, this love, is the one criterion, the sole norm, the standard of discipleship in the New Israel of God. He said you're going to be identified as His disciples, not because of your church-going, Bible-toting, or song-singing. No, you'll be identified as His by one sign only: the deep and delicate respect for one another, the cordial love impregnated with reverence for the sacred dimension of the human personality because of the mysterious substitution of Christ for the Christian." (86)

"The apostle Paul may have understood the mind of Jesus better than anyone who ever lived. He sums up his whole understanding of the message of Jesus in Galatians 5:6 when he writes, 'the only thing that matters is the faith that expresses itself in love.' According to Paul's criterion for greatness in the New Israel of God, the person who is most Christlike, closest to the heart of Abba, is not the one who spends the most time in prayer. It's not the one who has the most PhDs. It's not the one who has the most responsibility entrusted to his care. It's not the pastor of the biggest megachurch. No, it's the one who loves the most. That's not my opinion. Those are the words in Galatians 5 that will judge us." (87-8) 

[ Quoted from The Furious Longing of God ]