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None Of Us Has Ever Seen A Motive. Therefore, We Don't Know We Can't Do Anything More Than Suspect What Inspires The Action Of Another. For This Good And Valid Reason, We're Told Not To Judge. Tragedy Is That Our Attention Centers On What People Are Not, Rather Than On What They Are And Who They Might Become.

-Brennan Manning

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None Of Us Has

Brennan Manning

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None Of Us Has Ever Seen A Motive. Therefore, We Don't Know We Can't Do Anything More Than Suspect What Inspires The Action Of Another. For This Good And Valid Reason, We're Told Not To Judge. Tragedy Is That Our Attention Centers On What People Are Not, Rather Than On What They Are And Who They Might Become.

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We Have Been Given God In Our Souls And Christ In Our Flesh. We Have The Power To Believe Where Others Deny, To Hope Where Others Despair, To Love Where Others Hurt.

I Could More Easily Contain Niagara Falls In A Teacup Than I Can Comprehend The Wild, Uncontainable Love Of God.

One Of My Realizations In Such An Earthy Atmosphere Was That Many Of The Burning Theological Issues In The Church Were Neither Burning Nor Theological.

Christianity Happens When Men And Women Accept With Unwavering Trust That Their Sins Have Been Not Only Forgiven, But Forgotten, Washed Away In The Blood Of The Lamb. Thus, My Friend Archbishop Joe Reia Says, "a Sad Christian Is A Phony Christian, And A Guilty Christian Is No Christian At All.

For Those Who Feel Their Lives Are A Grave Disappointment To God, It Requires Enormous Trust And Reckless, Raging Confidence To Accept That The Love Of Jesus Christ Knows No Shadow Of Alteration Or Change. When Jesus Said, "come To Me, All You Who Labor And Are Heavy Burdened," He Assumed We Would Grow Weary, Discouraged, And Disheartened Along The Way. These Words Are A Touching Testimony To The Genuine Humanness Of Jesus. He Had No Romantic Notion Of The Cost Of Discipleship. He Knew That Following Him Was As Unsentimental As Duty, As Demanding As Love.

If Asked Whether I Am Finally Letting God Love Me, Just As I Am, I Would Answer, 'no, But I'm Trying.

Anyone We Come In Contact With, We Either Offer Them Life, Or We Drain Them.

Everybody Has A Vocation To Some Form Of Life-work. However, Behind That Call (and Deeper Than Any Call), Everybody Has A Vocation To Be A Person To Be Fully And Deeply Human In Christ Jesus.

Leadership In The Church Is Not Entrusted To Successful Fund Raisers, Brilliant Biblical Scholars, Administrative Geniuses, Or Spellbinding Preachers...but To Those Who Have Been Laid Waste By A Consuming Passion For Christ - Passionate Men And Women For Whom Privilege And Power Are Trivial Compared To Knowing And Loving Jesus.

We Must Be Ready To Allow Ourselves To Be Interrupted By God... It Is A Strange Fact That Christians And Even Ministers Frequently Consider Their Work So Important And Urgent That They Will Allow Nothing To Disturb Them. They Think They Are Doing God A Service In This But Actually They Are Disdaining God's "crooked But Straight Path". It Is Part Of The Discipline Of Humility That We Must Not Spare Our Hand Where It Can Perform Service And That We Do Not Assume That Our Schedule Is Our Own To Manage, But Allow It To Be Arranged By God.

How I Treat A Brother Or Sister From Day To Day, How I React To The Sin-scarred Wino On The Street, How I Respond To Interruptions From People I Dislike, How I Deal With Normal People In Their Normal Confusion On A Normal Day May Be A Better Indication Of My Reverence For Life Than The Antiabortion Sticker On The Bumper Of My Car.

We Miss Jesus' Point Entirely When We Use His Words As Weapons Against Others.

Too Many Christians Are Living In A House Of Fear And Not In The House Of Love.

Authentic Faith Leads Us To Treat Others With Unconditional Seriousness And To A Loving Reverence For The Mystery Of The Human Personality. Authentic Christianity Should Lead To Maturity, Personality, And Reality. It Should Fashion Whole Men And Women Living Lives Of Love And Communion. False, Manhandled Religion Produces The Opposite Effect. Whenever Religion Shows Contempt Or Disregards The Rights Of Persons, Even Under The Noblest Pretexts, It Draws Us Away From Reality And God.

Letting Ourselves Be Loved By God Is More Important Than Loving God.

The Story Goes That A Public Sinner Was Excommunicated And Forbidden Entry To The Church. He Took His Woes To God. 'they Won't Let Me In, Lord, Because I Am A Sinner.' 'what Are You Complaining About?' Said God. 'they Won't Let Me In Either.

This Is The God Of The Gospel Of Grace. A God Who, Out Of Love For Us, Sent The Only Son He Ever Had Wrapped In Our Skin. He Learned How To Walk, Stumbled And Fell, Cried For His Milk, Sweated Blood In The Night, Was Lashed With A Whip And Showered With Spit, Was Fixed To A Cross, And Died Whispering Forgiveness On Us All.

Hope Knows That If Great Trials Are Avoided Great Deeds Remain Undone And The Possibility Of Growth Into Greatness Of Soul Is Aborted.

The Kingdom Is Not An Exclusive, Well-trimmed Suburb With Snobbish Rules About Who Can Live There. No, It Is For A Larger, Homelier, Less Self-conscious Caste Of People Who Understand They Are Sinners Because They Have Experienced The Yaw And Pitch Of Moral Struggle.

The Saved Sinner Is Prostrate In Adoration, Lost In Wonder And Praise. He Knows Repentance Is Not What We Do In Order To Earn Forgiveness; It Is What We Do Because We Have Been Forgiven. It Serves As An Expression Of Gratitude Rather Than An Effort To Earn Forgiveness. Thus The Sequence Of Forgiveness And Then Repentance, Rather Than Repentance And Then Forgiveness, Is Crucial For Understanding The Gospel Of Grace.

The Gospel Of Grace Nullifies Our Adulation Of Televangelists, Charismatic Superstars, And Local Church Heroes. It Obliterates The Two-class Citizenship Theory Operative In Many American Churches. For Grace Proclaims The Awesome Truth That All Is Gift. All That Is Good Is Ours, Not By Right, But By The Sheer Bounty Of A Gracious God.

On The Last Day, Jesus Will Look Us Over Not For Medals, Diplomas, Or Honors, But For Scars.

Jesus Comes For Sinners, For Those Outcast...and Those Caught Up In Squalid Choices And Failed Dreams.

In Every Encounter We Either Give Life Or We Drain It; There Is No Neutral Exchange.

Words Of Wisdom

The Engaged Mind, Illuminated By Truth, Awakens Awareness; The Engaged Heart, Affected By Love, Awakens Passion. May I Say Once More - This Essential Energy Of The Soul Is Not An Ecstatic Trance, High Emotion Or A Sanguine Stance Toward Life: It Is A Fierce Longing For God, An Unyielding Resolve To Live In And Out Of Our Belovedness. - Pg. 152

Only Reckless Confidence In A Source Greater Than Ourselves Can Empower Us To Forgive The Woulds Inflicted By Others.

By And Large, The Gospel Of Grace Is Neither Proclaimed, Understood, Nor Lived.

The Deeper We Grow In The Spirit Of Jesus Christ, The Poorer We Become - The More We Realize That Everything In Life Is A Gift. The Tenor Of Our Lives Becomes One Of Humble And Joyful Thanksgiving. Awareness Of Our Poverty And Ineptitude Causes Us To Rejoice In The Gift Of Being Called Out Of Darkness Into Wondrous Light And Translated Into The Kingdom Of God's Beloved Son.

Jesus Says. "acknowledge And Accept Who I Want To Be For You: A Savior Of Boundless Compassion, Infinite Patience, Unbearable Forgiveness, And Love That Keeps No Score Of Wrongs. Quit Projecting Onto Me Your Own Feelings About Yourself. At This Moment Your Life Is A Bruised Reed And I Will Not Crush It, A Smoldering Wick And I Will Not Quench It. You Are In A Safe Place." Brennan Manning. Abba's Child: The Cry Of The Heart For Intimate Belonging

No Man Can Adequately Reach And Explain A Single Word Of God With All His Words

That Which Is Denied Cannot Be Healed.

Faith Will Become Vision, Hope Will Become Possession, But The Love Of Jesus Christ That Is Stronger Than Death Endures Forever. In The End, It Is The Only Thing You Can Hang Onto.

Justification By Grace Through Faith' Is The Theologian's Learned Phrase For What Chesterton Once Called 'the Furious Love Of G-d.' He Is Not Moody Or Capricious; He Knows No Seasons Of Change. He Has A Single Relentless Stance Toward Us: He Loves Us. He Is The Only G-d Man Has Ever Heard Of Who Loves Sinners. False Gods- The Gods Of Human Manufacturing- Despise Sinners, But The Father Of (yeshua) Loves All, No Matter What They Do.

Faith Means Wanting God And Wanting To Want Nothing Else.

Put Bluntly, The American Church Today Accepts Grace In Theory But Denies It In Practice. We Say We Believe That The Fundamental Structure Of Reality Is Grace, Not Works - But Our Lives Refute Our Faith.

Whenever I Allow Anything But Tenderness And Compassion To Dictate My Response To Life--be It Self-righteous Anger, Moralizing, Defensiveness, The Pressing Need To Change Others...i Am Alienated From My True Self. My Identity As Abba's Child [a Child Of God] Becomes Ambiguous, Tentative And Confused

Prayer Is First And Foremost An Act Of Love

I Knew There Was Only One Place To Go. I Sank Down Into The Center Of My Soul, Grew Still, And Listened To The Rabbi's Heartbeat.

To Affirm A Person Is To See The Good In Them That They Cannot See In Themselves And To Repeat It In Spite Of Appearances To The Contrary. Please, This Is Not Some Pollyanna Optimism That Is Blind To The Reality Of Evil, But Rather Like A Fine Radar System That Is Tuned In To The True, The Good, And The Beautiful.

Being The Beloved Is Our Identity, The Core Of Our Existence. It Is Not Merely A Lofty Thought, An Inspiring Idea, Or One Name Among Many. It Is The Name By Which God Knows Us And The Way He Relates To Us

For Ragamuffins, God's Name Is Mercy. We See Our Darkness As A Prized Possession Because It Drives Us Into The Heart Of God. Without Mercy Our Darkness Would Plunge Us Into Despair - For Some, Self-destruction. Time Alone With God Reveals The Unfathomable Depths Of The Poverty Of The Spirit. We Are So Poor That Even Our Poverty Is Not Our Own: It Belongs To The Mysterium Tremendum Of A Loving God.

The Anything-goes Passiveness Of The Religious And Political Left Is Matched By The Preachy Moralism Of The Religious And Political Right. The Person Who Uncritically Embraces Any Party Line Is Guilty Of An Idolatrous Surrender Of Her Core Identity As Abba's Child. Neither Liberal Fairy Dust Nor Conservative Hardball Addresses Our Ragged Human Dignity.

There Is An Extraordinary Power In Storytelling That Stirs The Imagination And Makes An Indelible Impression On The Mind.

The Only Kind Of Love That Helps Anyone Grow Is Unconditional Love.

Unconditional Love

For Several Centuries, The Celtic Church Of Ireland Was Spared The Greek Dualism Of Matter And Spirit. They Regarded The World With The Clear Vision Of Faith. When A Young Celtic Monk Saw His Cat Catch A Salmon Swimming In Shallow Water, He Cried, "the Power Of The Lord Is In The Paw Of The Cat!

In Love's Service, Only Wounded Soldiers Can Serve.

When Being Is Divorced From Doing, Pious Thoughts Become An Adequate Substitute For Washing Dirty Feet.

The Loss Of Transcendence Has Left In Its Wake The Flotsam Of Distrustful, Cynical Christians, Angry At A Capricious God, And The Jetsam Of Smug Bibilolatrists Who Claim To Know Precisely What God Is Thinking And Exactly What He Plans To Do.

Jesus Reveals A God Who Does Not Demand But Who Gives; Who Does Not Oppress But Who Raises Up; Who Does Not Wound But Who Heals; Who Does Not Condemn But Forgives.

The Fierce Words Of Jesus Addressed To The Pharisees Of His Day Stretch Across The Bands Of Time. Today They Are Directed Not Only To Fallen Televangelists But To Each Of Us. We Miss Jesus' Point Entirely When We Use His Words As Weapons Against Others. They Are To Be Taken Personally By Each Of Us. This Is The Form And Shape Of Christian Pharisaism In Our Time. Hypocrisy Is Not Hte Prerogative Of People In High Places. The Most Impoverished Among Us Is Capable Of It. Hypocrisy Is The Natural Expression Of What Is Meanest In Us All.

The Life Of Jesus Suggests That To Be Like Abba Is To Show Compassion.

Those Who Have The Disease Called Jesus Will Never Be Cured.

Our Huffing And Puffing To Impress God, Our Scrambling For Brownie Points, Our Thrashing About Trying To Fix Ourselves While Hiding Our Pettiness And Wallowing In Guilt Are Nauseating To God And Are A Flat Denial Of The Gospel Of Grace.

We Are Made For Christ, And Nothing Less Will Ever Satisfy Us.

At Sunday Worship, As In Every Dimension Of Our Existence, Many Of Us Pretend To Believe We Are Sinners. Consequently, All We Can Do Is Pretend We Have Been Forgiven. As A Result, Our Whole Spiritual Life Is Pseudo-repentance And Pseudo-bliss.

A Saint Is Not Someone Who Is Good But Who Experiences The Goodness Of God.

Goodness Of God

The Confessing Church Of American Ragamuffins Needs To Join Magdalene And Peter In Witnessing That Christianity Is Not Primarily A Moral Code But A Grace-laden Mystery; It Is Not Essentially A Philosophy Of Love But A Love Affair; It Is Not Keeping Rules With Clenched Fists But Receiving A Gift With Open Hands.

* Recognize That God Is With You. * Acknowledge God Knows What He's Doing. * Search For God's Will: The Path He Desires You To Take In Life. * Consider What God Did For You When He Sent Jesus To Die On The Cross (forgiveness And Righteousness)

Troubadours Have Always Been More Important And Influential Than Theologians And Bishops

In Essence, There Is Only One Thing God Asks Of Us - That We Be Men And Women Of Prayer, 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.

I Want Neither A Terrorist Spirituality That Keeps Me In A Perpetual State Of Fright About Being In Right Relationship With My Heavenly Father Nor A Sappy Spirituality That Portrays God As Such A Benign Teddy Bear That There Is No Aberrant Behavior Or Desire Of Mine That He Will Not Condone. I Want A Relationship With The Abba Of Jesus, Who Is Infinitely Compassionate With My Brokenness And At The Same Time An Awesome, Incomprehensible, And Unwieldy Mystery.

The Ragamuffin Rabble Are The Unsung Assembly Of Saved Sinners Who Are Little In Their Own Sight, Conscious Of Their Brokenness And Powerlessness Before God, And Who Cast Themselves On His Mercy. Startled By The Extravagant Love Of God, They Do Not Require Success, Fame, Wealth, Or Power To Validate Their Worth. Their Spirit Transcends All Distinctions Between The Powerful And Powerless, Educated And Illiterate, Billionaires And Bag Ladies, High-tech Geeks And Low-tech Nerds, Males And Females, The Circus And The Sanctuary.

Craving Clarity, We Attempt To Eliminate The Risk Of Trusting God. Fear Of The Unknown Path Stretching Ahead Of Us Destroys Childlike Trust In The Father's Active Goodness And Unrestricted Love.

When We Wallow In Guilt, Remorse, And Shame Over Real Or Imagined Sins Of The Past, We Are Disdaining God's Gift Of Grace.

The Sinners To Whom Jesus Directed His Messianic Ministry Were Not Those Who Skipped Morning Devotions Or Sunday Church. His Ministry Was To Those Whom Society Considered Real Sinners. They Had Done Nothing To Merit Salvation. Yet They Opened Themselves To The Gift That Was Offered Them. On The Other Hand, The Self-righteous Placed Their Trust In The Works Of The Law And Closed Their Hearts To The Message Of Grace.

I Have A Word For You. I Know Your Whole Life Story. I Know Every Skeleton In Your Closet. I Know Every Moment Of Sin, Shame, Dishonesty And Degraded Love That Has Darkened Your Past. Right Now I Know Your Shallow Faith, Your Feeble Prayer Life, Your Inconsistent Discipleship. And My Word Is This: I Dare You To Trust That I Love You Just As You Are, And Not As You Should Be. Because You’re Never Going To Be As You Should Be.

If We Maintain The Open-mindedness Of Children, We Challenge Fixed Ideas And Established Structures, Including Our Own. We Listen To People In Other Denominations And Religions. We Don't Find Demons In Those With Whom We Disagree. We Don't Cozy Up To People Who Mouth Our Jargon. If We Are Open, We Rarely Resort To Either-or: Either Creation Or Evolution, Liberty Or Law, Sacred Or Secular, Beethoven Or Madonna. We Focus On Both-and, Fully Aware That God's Truth Cannot Be Imprisoned In A Small Definition.

There Is An Essential Connection Between Experiencing God, Loving God, And Trusting God. You Will Trust God Only As Much As You Love Him. And You Will Love Him To The Extent You Have Touched Him, Rather That He Has Touched You.

We Even Refuse To Be Our True Self With God- And Then Wonder Why We Lack Intimacy With Him.

Without Exposure To Potential Failure, There Is No Risk.

The Sorrow Of God Lies In Our Fear Of Him, Our Fear Of Life, And Our Fear Of Ourselves. He Anguishes Over Our Self-absorption And Self-sufficiency... God's Sorrow Lies In Our Refusal To Approach Him When We Sinned And Failed.

Rome Is Burning, Jesus Says. Drop Your Fiddle, Change Your Life And Come To Me. Let Go Of The Good Days That Never Were - A Regimented Church You Never Attended, Traditional Virtues You Never Practiced, Legalistic Obedience You Never Honored, And A Sterile Orthodoxy You Never Accepted. The Old Era Is Done. The Decisive Inbreak Of God Has Happened.

The Good News Of The Gospel Of Grace Cries Out: We Are All, Equally, Privileged But Unentitled Beggars At The Door Of God's Mercy!

Whatever We Have Done In The Past, Be It Good Or Evil, Great Or Small, Is Irrelevant To Our Stance Before God Today. It Is Only Now That We Are In The Presence Of God.

We Are Enveloped In Peace, Whether Or Not We Feel Ourselves To Be At Peace. By That I Mean The Peace That Passes Understanding Is Not A Subjective Sensation Of Peace; If We Are In Christ, We Are In Peace Even When We Feel No Peace.

The Most Powerful Thing That Can Happen In The Place Of Prayer Is That You Yourself Become The Prayer. You Leave The Prayer Room Able As Jesus' Hands And Feet On Earth. This Is What It Means To Pray Continually (without Ceasing), To See With The Eyes Of Jesus And To Hear With His Ears With Every Waking Moment.

Trust Is Our Gift Back To God, And He Finds It So Enchanting That Jesus Died For Love Of It

The Unwounded Life Bears No Resemblance To The Rabbi.

For Me The Most Radical Demand Of Christian Faith Lies In Summoning The Courage To Say Yes To The Present Risenness Of Jesus Christ.

The Ragamuffin Gospel Says We Can't Lose, Because We Have Nothing To Lose.

Nothing To Lose

Ragamuffin Gospel

The Word We Study Has To Be The Word We Pray.

Ragamuffin Gospel

The Gospel Declares That No Matter How Dutiful Or Prayerful We Are, We Can't Save Ourselves. What Jesus Did Was Sufficient.

The First Step In Faith Is To Stop Thinking About God At The Time Of Prayer.-

Real Freedom Is Freedom From The Opinions Of Others. Above All, Freedom From Your Opinions About Yourself.

My Deepest Awareness Of Myself Is That I Am Deeply Loved By Jesus Christ And I Have Done Nothing To Earn It Or Deserve It.

And Grace Calls Out, 'you Are Not Just A Disillusioned Old Man Who May Die Soon, A Middle-aged Woman Stuck In A Job And Desperately Wanting To Get Out, A Young Person Feeling The Fire In The Belly Begin To Grow Cold. You May Be Insecure, Inadequate, Mistaken Or Potbellied. Death, Panic, Depression, And Disillusionment May Be Near You. But You Are Not Just That. You Are Accepted.' Never Confuse Your Perception Of Yourself With The Mystery That You Really Are Accepted.

Trust Is That Rare And Priceless Treasure That Wins Us The Affection Of Our Heavenly Father.

Grace Is Sufficient Even Though We Huff And Puff With All Our Might To Try And Find Something Or Someone That It Cannot Cover. Grace Is Enough...

Do You Honestly Believe God Likes You, Not Just Loves You Because Theologically God Has To Love You?

The Conversation Of Most Middle-class Americans, We Are Told, Revolves Around Consumption: What To Buy, What Was Just Bought, Where To Eat, The Price Of The Neighbor's House, What's On Sale This Week, Our Clothes Or Someone Else's, The Best Car On The Market This Year, Where To Spend A Vacation. Apparently We Can't Stop Eating, Shopping, Or Consuming. Success Is Measured Not In Terms Of Love, Wisdom, And Maturity But By The Size Of One's Pile Of Possessions.

There Is A Beautiful Transparency To Honest Disciples Who Never Wear A False Face And Do Not Pretend To Be Anything But Who They Are.

Shame--what Happened When My Mother, The Dragon, Huffed And Puffed And Blew My Self Down.

Be Daring Enough To Be Different, Humble Enough To Make Mistakes, Wild Enough To Be Burnt In The Fire Of Love, Real Enough To Make Others See How Phony You Are.

Live In The Wisdom Of Accepted Tenderness. Tenderness Awakens Within The Security Of Knowing We Are Thoroughly And Sincerely Liked By Someone... Scripture Suggests That The Essence Of The Divine Nature Is Compassion And That The Heart Of God Is Defined By Tenderness.

False Gods - The Gods Of Human Understanding - Despise Sinners, But The Father Of Jesus Loves All, No Matter What They Do. But Of Course This Is Almost Too Incredible For Us To Accept.

To Be Alive Is To Be Broken; To Be Broken Is To Stand In Need Of Grace.

I've Decided That If I Had My Life To Live Over Again, I Would Not Only Climb More Mountains, Swim More Rivers, And Watch More Sunsets; I Wouldn't Only Jettison My Hot Water Bottle, Raincoat, Umbrella, Parachute, And Raft; I Would Not Only Go Barefoot Earlier In The Spring And Stay Out Later In The Fall; But I Would Devote Not One More Minute To Monitoring My Spiritual Growth. No, Not One.

Our Hearts Of Stone Become Hearts Of Flesh When We Learn Where The Outcast Weeps.

Craving Clarity, We Attempt To Eliminate The Risk Of Trusting God.

The Life Of Jesus Suggests That To Be Like Abba Is To Show Compassion. Donald Gray Expresses This: "jesus Reveals In An Exceptionally Human Life What It Is To Live A Divine Life, A Compassionate Life.

The Secret Of The Mystery Is: God Is Always Greater. No Matter How Great We Think Him To Be, His Love Is Always Greater.

When Absolute Control And Rigid Obedience Pose As Love Within The Family And The Local Faith-community , We Produce Trained Cowards Rather Than Christian Persons.

The Way Of Trust Is A Movement Into Obscurity, Into The Undefined, Into Ambiguity, Not Into Some Predetermined, Clearly Delineated Plan For The Future. The Next Step Discloses Itself Only Out Of A Discernment Of God Acting In The Desert Of The Present Moment. The Reality Of Naked Trust Is The Life Of The Pilgrim Who Leaves What Is Nailed Down, Obvious, And Secure, And Walks Into The Unknown Without Any Rational Explanation To Justify The Decision Or Guarantee The Future. Why? Because God Has Signaled The Movement And Offered It His Presence And His Promise.

God Is A Kooky God Who Can Scarcely Bear To Be Without Us.

Ragamuffin Gospel

The Ancient Spiritual Tradition Is That God Gives Himself Fully To Us In Silence And Solitude.

I Believe That The Real Difference In The American Church Is Not Between Conservatives And Liberals, Fundamentalists And Charismatics, Nor Between Republicans And Democrats. The Real Difference Is Between The Aware And The Unaware.

God Loves Us As We Are...not As We Ought To Be. Because We Are Never Going To Be As We Ought To Be." --brennan Manning

The Spirituality Of Wonder Knows The World Is Charged With Grace, That While Sin And War, Disease And Death Are Terribly Real, God's Loving Presence And Power In Our Midst Are Even More Real.

Disease And Death

Faithfulness Requires The Courage To Risk Everything On Jesus, The Willingness To Keep Growing, And The Readiness To Risk Failure Throughout Our Lives.

The Outstretched Arms Of Jesus Exclude No One, Not The Drunk In The Doorway, The Panhandler On The Street, Gays And Lesbians In Their Isolation, The Most Selfish And Ungrateful In Their Cocoons, The Most Unjust Of Employers And The Most Overweening Of Snobs. The Love Of Christ Embraces All Without Exception.

Our Identity Rests In God's Relentless Tenderness For Us Revealed In Jesus Christ.

To Live By Grace Means To Acknowledge My Whole Life Story, The Light Side And The Dark. In Admitting My Shadow Side I Learn Who I Am And What God's Grace Means.

Jesus Hung Out With Ragamuffins.

Lord, When I Feel That What I'm Doing Is Insignificant And Unimportant, Help Me To Remember That Everything I Do Is Significant And Important In Your Eyes, Because You Love Me And You Put Me Here, And No One Else Can Do What I Am Doing In Exactly The Way I Do It.

Without Fear I Can Acknowledge That The Authentic Christian Tension Is Not Between Life And Death, But Between Life And Life.

The Temptation Of The Age Is To Look Good Without Being Good.

What Makes A Genius? The Ability To See. To See What? The Butterfly In A Caterpillar, The Eagle In An Egg, The Saint In A Selfish Person, Life In Death, Unity In Separation, God In The Human And Human In God And Suffering As The Form In Which The Incomprehensibility Of God Himself Appears.

While The Impostor Draws His Identity From Past Achievements And The Adulation Of Others, The True Self Claims Identity In Its Belovedness. We Encounter God In The Ordinariness Of Life: Not In The Search For Spiritual Highs And Extraordinary, Mystical Experiences But In Our Simple Presence In Life.

[jesus] Matters Because Of What He Brought And What He Still Brings To Ordinary Human Beings, Living Their Ordinary Lives And Coping Daily With Their Surroundings. He Promises Wholeness For Their Lives. In Sharing Our Weaknesses He Gives Us Strength And And Imparts Through His Companionship A Life That Has The Quality Of Eternity." (dallas Willard In Ruthless Trust - Brennan Manning)

In Human Beings, Love Is A Quality, A High-prized Virtue; In God, Love Is His Identity.

The Trouble With Our Ideals Is That If We Live Up To All Of Them, We Become Impossible To Live With.

Jesus Was Victorious Not Because He Never Flinched, Talked Back, Or Questioned, But Having Flinched, Talked Back, And Questioned, He Remained Faithful.

The Way You Are With Others Every Day, Regardless Of Their Status, Is The True Test Of Faith.

A Trusting Heart Is Forgiven And, In Turn, Forgives.

The Christ Within Who Is Our Hope Of Glory Is Not A Matter Of Theological Debate Or Philosophical Speculation. He Is Not A Hobby, A Part-time Project, A Good Theme For A Book, Or A Last Resort When All Human Effort Fails. He Is Our Life, The Most Real Fact About Us. He Is The Power And Wisdom Of God Dwelling Within Us.

All I Have Learned Through Trial And Error Is To Stay Alert And Aware, Especially God Smiling @ Our Silliness.

Trial And Error

I You Think You've Done It, Then You're Wrong. Because You're Not Finished Until You Have Achieved Everything That You Never Thought You Could.

God Loves You Unconditionally, As You Are And Not As You Should Be, Because Nobody Is As They Should Be.

The Ragamuffin Who Sees His Life As A Voyage Of Discovery And Runs The Risk Of Failure Has A Better Feel For Faithfulness Than The Timid Man Who Hides Behind The Law And Never Finds Out Who He Is At All.

The Love Of Christ Embraces All Without Exception. Fire Of Love, Crazy Over What You Have Made. Oh, Divine Madman. (prayer Of Catherine Siena) Simply Do The Next Thing In Love. I Have No Sense Of Myself Apart From You. Quia Amasti Me, Fecisti Me Amabilem. (in Loving Me, You Made Me Lovable.)

Stop Comparing Or Boast At Your Victories. He Was Referring To Enormous Vitality And Strength Of God Of Jesus Seeking Union With Us. The Living Acts Of A Christian Become Somehow The Acts Of Christ.

May All Your Expectations Be Frustrated, May All Your Plans Be Thwarted, May All Your Desires Be Withered Into Nothingness, That You May Experience The Powerlessness And Poverty Of A Child And Sing And Dance In The Love Of God Who Is The Father, Son And Spirit.

I Am Wonderfully Content With A God Who Does Not Deal With Me As My Sins Deserve.

The Dominant Characteristic Of An Authentic Spiritual Life Is The Gratitude That Flows From Trust — Not Only For All The Gifts That I Receive From God, But Gratitude For All The Suffering. Because In That Purifying Experience, Suffering Has Often Been The Shortest Path To Intimacy With God.

Ruthless Trust Ultimately Comes Down To This: Faith In The Person Of Jesus And Hope In His Promise.

What Makes The Kingdom Come Is Heartfelt Compassion: A Way Of Tenderness That Knows No Frontiers, No Labels, No Compartmentalizing, And No Sectarian Divisions.

How Glorious The Splendor Of A Human Heart That Trusts That It Is Loved!

Nevertheless, The Central Affirmation Of The Reformation Stands: Through No Merit Of Ours, But By His Mercy, We Have Been Restored To A Right Relationship With God Through The Life, Death, And Resurrection Of His Beloved Son. This Is The Good News, The Gospel Of Grace

Sheer Scholarship Alone Cannot Reveal To Us The Gospel Of Grace. We Must Never Allow The Authority Of Books, Institutions, Or Leaders To Replace The Authority Of Knowing Jesus Christ Personally And Directly. When The Religious Views Of Others Interpose Between Us And The Primary Experience Of Jesus As The Christ, We Become Unconvicted And Unpersuasive Travel Agents Handing Out Brochures To Places We Have Never Visited.

Sin And Forgiveness And Falling And Getting Back Up And Losing The Pearl Of Great Price In The Couch Cushions But Then Finding It Again, And Again, And Again? Those Are The Stumbling Steps To Becoming Real, The Only Script That's Really Worth Following In This World Or The One That's Coming.

Getting Back Up

We Unwittingly Project Onto God Our Own Attitudes And Feelings Toward Ourselves... But We Cannot Assume That He Feels About Us The Way We Feel About Ourselves -- Unless We Love Ourselves Compassionately, Intensely, And Freely.

A Ragamuffin Knows He's Only A Beggar At The Door Of God's Mercy.

Today On Planet Earth, May You Experience The Wonder And Beauty Of Yourself As Abba’s Child And Temple Of The Holy Spirit Through Jesus Christ

The North American Church Is At A Critical Juncture. The Gospel Of Grace Is Being Confused And Compromised By Silence, Seduction, And Outright Subversion. The Vitality Of The Faith Is Being Jeopardized. The Lying Slogans Of The Fixers Who Carry Religion Like A Sword Of Judgment Pile Up With Impunity. Let Ragamuffins Everywhere Gather As A Confessing Church To Cry Out In Protest. Revoke The Licenses Of Religious Leaders Who Falsify The Idea Of God. Sentence Them To Three Years In Solitude With The Bible As Their Only Companion.

We Are Not Cowed Into Timidity By Death And Life. Were We Forced To Rely On Our Own Shabby Resources We Would Be Pitiful People In Deed. But The Awareness Of Christ's Present Risenness Persuades Us That We Are Buoyed Up And Carried On By A Life Greater Than Our Own.

God Is Loving Us - You And Me - This Moment, Just As We Are And Not As We Should Be.

The Beauty Of The Ragamuffin Gospel Lies In The Insight It Offers Into Jesus: The Essential Tenderness Of His Heart, His Way Of Looking At The World, His Mode Of Relating To You And Me. 'if You Really Want To Understand A Man, Don't Just Listen To What He Says, But Watch What He Does.

The Dominant Characteristic Of An Authentic Spiritual Life Is The Gratitude That Flows From Trust

I Have Been Seized By The Power Of A Great Affection.

You Will Trust God To The Degree You Know You Are Loved By Him.

Our Culture Says That Ruthless Competition Is The Key To Success. Jesus Says That Ruthless Compassion Is The Purpose Of Our Journey.

Childlike In Faith Means The Daily Acknowledgment Of Utter Dependence And That I Owe My Life And Being To Another.

We Must Go Out Into A Desert Of Some Kind (your Backyard Will Do) And Come Into A Personal Experience Of The Awesome Love Of God.

In My Experience, Self-hatred Is The Dominant Malaise Crippling Christians And Stifling Their Growth In The Holy Spirit.

Though It Is True That The Church Must Always Dissociate Itself From Sin, It Can Never Have Any Excuse For Keeping Any Sinner At A Distance.

Quia Amasti Me, Fecisti Me Amabilem. (in Loving Me, You Made Me Lovable.)

Define Yourself Radically As One Beloved By God. This Is The True Self. Every Other Identity Is Illusion. God's Love For You And His Choice Of You Constitute Your Worth. Accept That, And Let It Become The Most Important Thing In Your Life.

Childlike Surrender And Trust, I Believe, Is The Defining Spirit Of Authentic Discipleship.

The Ragamuffin Gospel Reveals That Jesus Forgives Sins, Including The Sins Of The Flesh; That He Is Comfortable With Sinners Who Remember How To Show Compassion; But That He Cannot And Will Not Have A Relationship With Pretenders In The Spirit.

If In Our Hearts We Really Don't Believe That God Loves Us As We Are, If We Are Still Tainted By The Lie That We Can Do Something To Make God Love Us More, We Are Rejecting The Message Of The Cross.

When A Man Or Woman Is Truly Honest, It Is Virtually Impossible To Insult Them Personally.

Silent Solitude Makes True Speech Possible And Personal. If I Am Not In Touch With My Own Belovedness, Then I Cannot Touch The Sacredness Of Others. If I Am Estranged From Myself, I Am Likewise A Stranger To Others.

The Litmus Test Of Our Love For God Is Our Love Of Neighbor.

In Explaining The Growth Of His Faith, Psychiatrist Gerald May Writes, "i Know That God Is Loving And That God’s Loving Is Trustworthy. I Know This Directly, Through The Experience Of My Life. There Have Been Plenty Of Times Of Doubt, Especially When I Used To Believe That Trusting God's Goodness Meant I Would Not Be Hurt. But Having Been Hurt Quite A Bit, I Know God's Goodness Goes Deeper Than All Pleasure And Pain It Embraces Them Both." Ruthless Trust, Pg 22

God Not Only Loves Me As I Am, But Also Knows Me As I Am. Because Of This I Don't Need To Apply Spiritual Cosmetics To Make Myself Presentable To Him. I Can Accept Ownership Of My Poverty And Powerlessness And Neediness.

Choose A Single, Sacred Word Or Phrase That Captures Something Of The Flavor Of Your Intimate Relationship With God. A Word Such As Jesus, Abba, Peace, God Or A Phrase Such As "abba, I Belong To You." . . . Without Moving Your Lips, Repeat The Sacred Word Inwardly, Slowly, And Often.

Intimate Relationships

The Noonday Devil Of The Christian Life Is The Temptation To Lose The Inner Self While Preserving The Shell Of Edifying Behavior. Suddenly I Discover That I Am Ministering To Aids Victims To Enhance My Resume. I Find I Renounced Ice Cream For Lent To Lose Five Excess Pounds... I Have Fallen Victim To What T.s. Eliot Calls The Greatest Sin: To Do The Right Thing For The Wrong Reason.

The Gospel Will Persuade No One Unless It Has So Convicted Us That We Are Transformed By It.

Suffering, Failure, Loneliness, Sorrow, Discouragement, And Death Will Be Part Of Your Journey, But The Kingdom Of God Will Conquer All These Horrors. No Evil Can Resist Grace Forever.

To Lend Each Other A Hand When We're Falling, Perhaps That's The Only Work That Matters In The End.

Jesus Comes Not For The Super-spiritual But For The Wobbly And The Weak-kneed Who Know They Don’t Have It All Together, And Who Are Not Too Proud To Accept The Handout Of Amazing Grace.

Reality, Truth, And Jesus Christ Are Incredibly Open-ended

It Is For The Inconsistent, Unsteady Disciples Whose Cheese Is Falling Off Their Cracker.

Assured Of Your Salvation By The Unique Grace Of Our Lord Jesus Christ" Is The Heartbeat Of The Gospel, Joyful Liberation From Fear Of The Final Outcome, A Summons To Self-acceptance, And Freedom For A Life Of Compassion Toward Others.

Ragamuffins Are Simple, Direct And Honest. Their Speech Is Unaffected. They Are Slow To Claim, "god Told Me..." As They Make Their Way Through The World, They Bear Wordless, Prophetic Witness.

I Asked For Wonder, And He Gave It To Me.

To Ignore, Repress, Or Dismiss Our Feelings Is To Fail To Listen To The Stirrings Of The Spirit Within Our Emotional Life. Jesus Listened. In John's Gospel We Are Told That Jesus Was Moved With The Deepest Emotions (11:33)... The Gospel Portrait Of The Beloved Child Of Abba Is That Of A Man Exquisitely Attuned To His Emotions And Uninhibited In Expressing Them. The Son Of Man Did Not Scorn Of Reject Feelings As Fickle And Unreliable. They Were Sensitive Antennae To Which He Listened Carefully And Through Which He Perceived The Will Of His Father For Congruent Speech And Action.

A Man Doesn't Grow Old Because He Has Lived A Certain Number Of Years. A Man Grows Old When He Deserts His Ideal. The Years May Wrinkle His Skin, But Deserting His Ideal Wrinkles His Soul.

God Is Enough. That Is The Root Of Peace. When We Start Seeking Something Besides Him, We Lose It.

Creation Discloses A Power That Baffles Our Minds And Beggars Our Speech. We Are Enamored And Enchanted By God's Power. We Stutter And Stammer About God's Holiness. We Tremble Before God's Majesty... And Yet, We Grow Squeamish And Skittish Before God's Love.

All That Is Good Is Ours Not By Right But By The Sheer Bounty Of A Gracious God

Grace Abounds In Contemporary Movies, Books, Novels, Films And Music. If God Is Not In The Whirlwind, He May Be In A Woody Allen Film, Or A Bruce Springsteen Concert. Most People Understand Imagery And Symbol Better Than Doctrine And Dogma. Images Touch Hearts And Awaken Imaginations. One Theologian Suggested That Springsteen's 'tunnel Of Love' Album, In Which He Symbolically Sings Of Sin, Death, Despair And Redemption, Is More Important For Catholics Than The Pope's Last Visit When He Spoke Of Morality Only In Doctrinal Propositions.

The God Who Exacts The Last Drop Of Blood From His Son So That His Just Anger, Evoked By Sin, May Be Appeased, Is Not The God Revealed By And In Jesus Christ. And If He Is Not The God Of Jesus, He Does Not Exist.

Let Us Be Bold Enough To Ask Ourselves As Christians Whether The Church Of The Lord Jesus In The United States Has Anything To Say To Our Nation And Its Ideologies Of Materialism, Possessiveness, And The Worship Of Financial Security. Are We Courageous Enough To Be A Sign Of Contradiction To Consumerism Through Our Living Faith In Jesus Christ? Are We Committed Enough To His Gospel To Become A Countercurrent To The Drift?

The Men And Women Who Are Truly Filled With Light Are Those Who Have Gazed Deeply Into The Darkness Of Their Own Imperfect Existence.

Tragedy Is That Our Attention Centers On What People Are Not, Rather Than On What They Are And Who They Might Become.

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 Suspicious. 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.

In A Futile Attempt To Erase Our Past, We Deprive The Community Of Our Healing Gift. If We Conceal Our Wounds Out Of Fear And Shame, Our Inner Darkness Can Neither Be Illuminated Nor Become A Light For Others.

The Forgiveness Of God Is Gratuitous Liberation From Guilt. Paradoxically, The Conviction Of Personal Sinfulness Becomes The Occasion Of Encounter With The Merciful Love Of The Redeeming God. "there Will Be More Rejoicing In Heaven Over One Sinner Repenting..." (luke 15:7). In His Brokenness, The Repentant Prodigal Knew An Intimacy With His Father That His Sinless, Self-righteous Brother Would Never Know.

Genuine Self-acceptance Is Not Derived From The Power Of Positive Thinking, Mind Games Or Pop Psychology. It Is An Act Of Faith In The God Of Grace.

Positive Thinking

My Trust In God Flows Out Of The Experience Of His Loving Me, Day In And Day Out, Whether The Day Is Stormy Or Fair, Whether I'm Sick Or In Good Health, Whether I'm In A State Of Grace Or Disgrace. He Comes To Me Where I Live And Loves Me As I Am.

Won't The Awareness God Loves Us No Matter What Lead To Spiritual Laziness And Moral Laxity? Theoretically, This Seems A Reasonable Fear, But In Reality The Opposite Is True. . . . The More Rooted We Are In The Love Of God, The More Generously We Will Live Our Faith.

The Greatest Single Cause Of Atheism In The World Today Is Christians, Who Acknowledge Jesus With Their Lips And Walk Out The Door, And Deny Him By Their Lifestyle. That Is What An Unbelieving World Simply Finds Unbelievable.

Acknowledge Him

Do You Believe That The God Of Jesus Loves You Beyond Worthiness And Unworthiness, Beyond Fidelity And Infidelity—that He Loves You In The Morning Sun And In The Evening Rain—that He Loves You When Your Intellect Denies It, Your Emotions Refuse It, Your Whole Being Rejects It. Do You Believe That God Loves Without Condition Or Reservation And Loves You This Moment As You Are And Not As You Should Be.

The Christian With Depth Is The Person Who Has Failed And Who Has Learned To Live With It.

Experience Has Taught Me That I Connect Best With Others When I Connect With The Core Of Myself. When I Allow God To Liberate Me From Unhealthy Dependence On People, I Listen More Attentively, Love More Unselfishly, And Am More Compassionate And Playful. I Take Myself Less Seriously, Become Aware That The Breath Of The Father Is On My Face.

There Is The "you" That People See And Then There Is The "rest Of You". Take Some Time And Craft A Picture Of The "rest Of You." This Could Be A Drawing, In Words, Even A Song. Just Remember That The Chances Are Good It Will Be Full Of Paradox And Contradictions.

Don't Try To Understand It. You Won't Succeed. Don't Try To See It. You Can't. Try To Live It, And You Will Be Living Out Of The Center.

Charles De Foucauld, The Found Of The Little Brothers Of Jesus, Wrote A Single Sentence That's Ahad A Profound Impact On My Life. He Said, "the One Thing We Owe Absolutely To God Is Never To Be Afraid Of Anything." Never To Be Afraid Of Anything, Even Death, Which, After All, Is But That Final Breakthrough Into The Open, Waiting, Outstretched Arms Of Abba.

Christianity Doesn’t Deny The Reality Of Suffering And Evil… Our Hope… Is Not Based On The Idea That We Are Going To Be Free Of Pain And Suffering. Rather, It Is Based On The Conviction That We Will Triumph Over Suffering.

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