The Ragamuffin Gospel

I'm reading a new book, "The Ragamuffin Gospel" written by Brennan Manning. I have only read the first 20 pages and I already love the book. My Aunt Anna let me borrow it, and recommended I read it. In the introduction Manning wrote: "The Ragamuffin Gospel was written for the bedraggled, beat-up, and burnt-out." We have all been there, or will be there one day. I guess so far what I've gleaned is something I have thought a lot about in my adult life which has not been very long. We Christians tend to let others and the secular world control us. Even I am to blame for this. We believe what the world says about us, yet all the while we still somehow hold our Bible tight in our grip (maybe) containing words of truth about us that we would like to believe, and we basically tell God He's lying to us. Here is how Manning puts it in his book:

"We are overcome by the ordinariness of life, by daily duties done over and over again.
we secretly admit the call of Jesus is too demanding, that surrender to the Spirit is
beyond our reach. We start acting like everyone else. Life takes on a joyless, empty
quality. We begin to resemble the leading character in Eugene O'Neill's play
The Great God Brown: 'Why am I afraid to dance, I who love music and rhythm, and
grace, and song, and laughter? Why am I afraid to live, I who love life and the beauty
of flesh and living colors of the earth and sky and sea? Why am I afraid to love, I who
love love?'"

Our approach to life should be very different from how the world takes on life. We are to approach life with boldness, because our life is a gift.
In fact, just last night I deactivated my Facebook account. Why? Because I kinda consider myself a non-conformist. It was disrupting my life both, spiritually, physically, and emotionally. it's a long story why, but I just did it, and so far I haven't missed it.

God loves us a lot, I think it would literally kill us if we knew the deep love God has for us. He has a lot of Grace too. So even though we don't believe Him at times when He tells us His most intimate thoughts about us, He still loves us, and shows grace. Beautiful stuff.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
Ecclesiastes 3:11

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