Thursday, May 24, 2007

The Ragamuffin Gospel

Today I decided to read through my favorite book, The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning. It focuses on salvation as something humans cannot attain, but as a free gift from God through His grace alone and denied to no one, not even the ragamuffins, or the "poor in spirit;" those who have nothing significant to their names but the grace of God. Here are my favorite quotes from the first three chapters:

"When I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes. I believe and I doubt, I hope and get discouraged, I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good, I feel guilty about not feeling guilty. I am trusting and suspiscious. I am honest and I still play games. Aristotle said I am a rational animal; I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer" (26).

"...we have been given so much: eyes to see and hands to touch, a mind to shape ideas, and a heart to beat with love. We have the power to believe where others deny, to hope where others despair, to love where others hurt. This and so much more is sheer gift; it is not reward for our faithfulness, our generous disposition, or our heroic life of prayer. Even our fidelity is a gift"
(27).

"In essence, there is only one thing God asks of us -- that we be men and women of prayer, people who live close to God, people for whom God is everything and for whom God is enough. That is the root of peace. We have that peace when the gracious God is all we seek. When we start seeking something besides Him, we lose it" (46).

"The gospel portrait of Jesus is that of a person who cherished life and especially other people as loving gifts from the Father's hand" (61).

"Perhaps the real dichotomy in the Christian community today is not between conservatives and liberals or creationists and evolutionists but between the awake and the asleep" (70).

II Corinthians 12:9 - "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."

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