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!

This is a new feature on the blog.  Usually on Mondays, I get caught up on my favorite podcasts.  This usually results in a lot of tweeting on that day.  However, if you are at work and not checking Twitter during that time, you might miss some of the great truth being shared by others.  So, I am sharing some of best tweets from the previous week which include great wisdom and truth.   "Christianity consists primarily not in what we do for God but in what God does for us..."  @brennanmanning The Christian faith spreads best not through force but through fascination. @shaneclaiborne  What will we have to say before the bar of God’s judgment? Only one thing. Christ died in my place. -Alistair Begg via @Gospel_project  The irony of legalism is that it doesn't actually make people want to work harder, it makes them want to give up. @BuckParsons  My job is to preach Christ every week not wean you off of Christ to something else...

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...

I have often wanted to read a book by Brennan Manning.  I have had the book, The Ragamuffin Gospel , for many years but it has not made it to my "reading list."  This past week, I started reading it. It offers a good perspective on the gospel.  Here are some quotes from the first three chapters of the book: The institutional church has become a wounder of the healers rather than a healer of the wounded. All that is good is ours not by right but by the sheer bounty of a gracious God. Grace is the active expression of his love. Our experience of God's unconditional love must be shaped by the Scriptures. Love is a far better stimulus than threat or pressure. . .In terms of spiritual growth the faith-conviction that God accepts me as I am is a tremendous help to become better. For experiencing God's love in Jesus Christ means experiencing that one has been unreservedly accepted, approved, and infinitely loved, that one can and should accept oneself and one...

Below are the books I am currently reading.  How about you?  What books are you reading right now?