Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence (Jesus Calling (R))

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This is not a far cry from a practice known as “automatic writing” which Wikipedia describes as “an alleged psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. With 365 devotions, this padded hardcover edition is a favorite for its small size and is a perfect fit on a nightstand or in a travel bag. Her words have resonated with people from all walks of life, and the global impact of her work is unparalleled.

Nowhere in Scripture do we find Jesus (or his Father) speaking like this: “When your Joy in Me meets My Joy in you, there are fireworks of heavenly ecstasy. As the calendar turns from December to January and as 2023 gives way to 2024, a new year is laid out before us. Nelson is involved in an expansive new marketing campaign that involves a new web site and daily radio devotionals.Michael Horton addresses this one well: “According to the Reformation stream of evangelicalism, God speaks to us in his Word (the arrow pointing down from God to us) and we speak to him in prayer (the arrow directed up to God). The book offers readers a 365-day personal spiritual journey intended to help the reader experience a deeper relationship with Jesus. I mean, Jesus’ words to Sarah are literally packaged into a devotional, so that we can do our devotionals from them every day. Even the December readings focus on a general presence of Jesus in our hearts and daily lives, without anchoring it in Jesus’s person and work in history.

Intimacy with the Bible comes by slow, meditative reading that focuses on small portions—deep study of books, chapters, and verses. The way to walk through demanding days is to grip My hand tightly and stay in close communication with Me. Far and away the most troubling aspect of the book is its very premise—that Sarah Young hears from Jesus and then dutifully brings his messages to her readers.Words that have made her increasingly aware of His presence and allowed her to enjoy His peace (italics mine). Notice that her solution to addressing the desire for Jesus’ Presence and Peace is not Scripture or any other means of grace, but the very messages she provides in her book. In 1977, Sarah and Stephen joined World Presbyterian Missions, which in 1983 merged into Mission to the World (MTW), the global missions-sending agency of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). According to publisher Thomas Nelson, it “continues to grow in units sold each year since it was released [and] has surpassed 15 million copies sold.

Even as she struggled with her own physical health, and battled cancer, she continued the ministry of these daily prayers.In those few sentences she sets up unnecessary competition between her revelation and what we are told of the Bible in 2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. The book is written in the voice of Jesus Christ speaking directly to the reader and thereby claiming new revelation from God. By fabricating the spiritual discipline of listening and elevating it to the first place, she generates confusion about the disciplines that God does prescribe for Christians. You have Me beside you and My Spirit within you, so no set of circumstances is too much for you to handle. It can’t be denied: The Jesus of Sarah Young sounds suspiciously like a twenty-first century, Western, middle-aged woman.

From 1987 to 1991, Sarah and Stephen were on loan to Mission to North America, working with the Westminster Japanese Church in Atlanta, Georgia. I immediately understood that it was prominent in my life and immediately began to take steps to address it.While this is not necessarily an unbiblical or inappropriate message, it hardly matches the thrust of the Bible which always pushes toward or flows from the gospel of Jesus Christ.