The Ragamuffin Gospel
Brennan Manning
This book together with a later book by Brennan Manning called "Ruthless Trust", are the tools God used to bring me face to face with the ways in which I had failed to believe and receive God's love for me, and how I had failed to trust Him to take care of me. They put me on a path that is continuing to revolutionize my walk with God, and to change my entire approach to life. Steph, my wife, also testifies that "The Ragamuffin Gospel" had a tremendous impact on her walk with God.
What's so special about this book? Many things. I think the author presses home many issues that deal deeply with our faith (and often to our unbelief, or at least our failure to receive the entire Good News that is in Jesus Christ). He focuses a lot on God's grace versus our performance. He speaks boldly about our freedom in Christ. He presses each one of us hard on whether deep inside, at a gut level, do we really believe that God is deeply in love with us. And he challenges us on whether we believe God can be trusted with our lives.
This book inspired some of the ideas in John Eldredge's immensely popular "Wild at Heart", especially in regard to pointing out the "posers" in us. That is, the false images of ourselves that we project to others so that we might impress them, and to hide the real persons that we are. Manning challenges us to be real and to rid ourselves of masks that inhibit intimacy with God and with others, and ultimately keep us from being fulfilled.
If you read only one book (besides the Bible) as a Christian, this is the one that I would recommend.
Surprisingly inexpensive from CBD...
|