Friday an acquaintance mentioned that she was listening to a sermon via the internet given at a church she respects. The topic was Sarah Young, the author of Jesus Calling. I was given a copy of this book back in Christmas 2012. I used it a bit as a devotional, but found it too repetitive and also off-putting to have someone phrasing thoughts as direct from Jesus.
More than a year ago, I read an evaluation of the book by Tom Challies, a blog I read fairly often. He proposed that this is not a good book for Christians to use.
Apparently, my acquaintance also heard in this sermon that one should beware Sarah Young. I did not realize that the inspiration for Sarah Young’s writing was a book titled God Calling. The problems with that book are described here. Whether or not you agree with these criticisms, you should not accept that because many Christians use Jesus Calling, this devotional is appropriate or good for you. You need to think through the evaluations and pray about you decision.
I thought it very telling that the publisher has greatly modified the introduction of the book to remove mention of channeling messages from Jesus and also removed Mrs. Young’s glowing comments about God Calling and how reading that book inspired her to take up her own practice. The above references will fill in some of the background that was removed.
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