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A Furious Love Is Hot on Your Trail! Many believers feel stunted in their Christian growth. We beat ourselves up over our failures and, in the process, pull away from God because we subconsciously believe He tallies our defects and hangs His head in disappointment. In this newly repackaged edition--now with full appendix, study questions, and the author's own epilogue, ""Ragamuffin" Ten Years Later," Brennan Manning reminds us that nothing could be further from the truth. The Father beckons us to Himself with a "furious love" that burns brightly and constantly. Only when we truly embrace God's grace can we bask in the joy of a gospel that enfolds the most needy of His flock--the "ragamuffins." Are you bedraggled, beat-up, burnt-out? Most of us believe in God's grace--in theory. But somehow we can't seem to apply it in our daily lives. We continue to see Him as a small-minded bookkeeper, tallying our failures and successes on a score sheet. Yet God gives us His grace, willingly, no matter what we've done. We come to Him as ragamuffins--dirty, bedraggled, and beat-up. And when we sit at His feet, He smiles upon us, the chosen objects of His "furious love." Brennan Manning 's now-classic meditation on grace and what it takes to access it--simple honesty--has changed thousands of lives. Now with a Ragamuffin's thirty-day spiritual journey guide, it will change yours, too.
Publication Year: 2000
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"But where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more."
Romans 5:20
disclaimer: i will not be rating this book, as i have not rated any other religious books, because i don't feel comfortable rating the range of someone else's beliefs based on my own views of the world and the Word itself.
i have this friend i really admire.
my friend hasn't been religious for a very long time. his family was always religious, but he wasn't. he says he was scared. he was scared that God wouldn't accept him, wouldn't love him, because he had learned God acted that way. he has learned, through other people, through other eyes, that he would be rejected and casted away.
he can't believe it nowadays.
he can't believe the way people drove him away from the loving God who would quell all of his worries and hold him whenever he needed comfort. he can't believe the time he spent away from God when he could have been close.
but he is so, so grateful that he's close now. i don't think he spends all that much time thinking about what he's lost. i'm so proud to watch him spend all his free time celebrating what he's gained.
i'm saying this now because this book reminded of him in every possible way. it also reminded me of several other friends, and family members, and i'm glad to say it even reminded me of me. this was such an easily relatable book, so easy to put yourself in the author's shoes, that it felt like he was talking to me personally. i have to say i think this is my favorite religious book yet.
the special thing about the ragamuffin Gospel is the way it delivers the message that, yes, we have to repent, but no, we can't allow ourselves to repent through fear, and we can't allow ourselves to forget repentance comes even more greatly to us when we are overcome by God's love. when we want to be better because He loves us that much, and all we want is to somehow pay Him back. even if only with a little gesture. even if only with our own flawed ways to love.
"Once you come to experience the love of Jesus Christ, nothing else in the world will seem beautiful or desirable."
i've recommended several religious books here before, but i would recommend this one the most. it reminded of "Gentle and Lowly", and despite not having made me cry the way Gentle and Lowly did, it was a meaningful experience i would wish on literally anyone. believer or not.
"And God answers, That's what you don't know. You don't know how much I love you. The moment you think you understand is the moment you do not understand. I am God, not man. Your words are glib. My words are written in the blood of My only Son. [...]
Did you kow that every time you tell Me you love Me, I say thank you?"
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