daddy4ms

For the rest of 2018, I will be sharing books I recommend because they are some of my favorites.  New Book Friday will resume in January. Enjoy!

I purchased The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning over 10 years ago and read it for the first time this year.  What a great reminder of the good news of the gospel and grace!  Below are several quotes from the final chapters of the book: Every form of sin and its consequences, sickness and disease of every kind, drug addiction, alcoholism, broken relationships, insecurity, hatred, lust, pride, envy, jealousy, cancer, bone disease, arthritis, and on and on were experienced and carried by "a thing despised and rejected by men" (Isaiah 53:3) who knew the nadir of an agony such as no one has ever dreamed. "In other words, God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself, not holding men's faults against them, and he has entrusted to us the good news that they are reconciled" (2 Corinthians 5:19). Jesus Christ nailed to the wood has carried our pain into the peace of grace. He has made peace through the blood of His cross (Colossians 1:20) The moment the...

Here are some great thoughts from Brennan Manning from The Ragamuffin Gospel: The blood of the Lamb points to the truth of grace: what we cannot do for ourselves, God has done for us. 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 foremost characteristic of living by grace is trust in the redeeming work of Christ.  The Father is not justice and the Son love. The Father is justice and love; the Son is love and justice. Jesus brings good news about the Father, not bad news. the poor is spirit perceive that religion experience and mystical highs are not the goal of authentic prayer, rather the goal is communion with God. It is only through grace that any of us c...