Something is Radically Wrong
Excerpts from The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
"Though lip service is paid to the gospel of grace, many Christians live as if it is only personal discipline and self denial that will mold the perfect me. The emphasis is on what I do rather than on what God is doing. In this curious process God is a benign old spectator in the bleachers who cheers when I show up for morning (or night) quiet time. ...Our eyes are not on God. ...We believe that we can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps- indeed we can do it ourselves." "Sooner or later we are confronted with the painful truth of our own inadequacy and insufficiency. Our security is shattered and our bootstraps are cut. Once the fervor has passed, weakness and infidelity appear. We discover our inability to add even a single inch to our spiritual stature..." Something is Radically Wrong
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The Furious Love of God "...He is not moody or capricious; He knows no seasons of change. He has a single relentless stance towards us: He loves us. He is the only God man has ever heard of who loves sinners. ...Through no merit of ours, but by His mercy, we have been restored to a right relationship with God through the life, death, and ressurection of His beloved Son." This is the Good News, the gospel of grace. Matthew 9:9-13
"Though lip service is paid to the gospel of grace, many Christians live as if it is only personal discipline and self denial that will mold the perfect me. The emphasis is on what I do rather than on what God is doing. In this curious process God is a benign old spectator in the bleachers who cheers when I show up for morning (or night) quiet time. ...Our eyes are not on God. ...We believe that we can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps- indeed we can do it ourselves." "Sooner or later we are confronted with the painful truth of our own inadequacy and insufficiency. Our security is shattered and our bootstraps are cut. Once the fervor has passed, weakness and infidelity appear. We discover our inability to add even a single inch to our spiritual stature..." Something is Radically Wrong
-------------------
The Furious Love of God "...He is not moody or capricious; He knows no seasons of change. He has a single relentless stance towards us: He loves us. He is the only God man has ever heard of who loves sinners. ...Through no merit of ours, but by His mercy, we have been restored to a right relationship with God through the life, death, and ressurection of His beloved Son." This is the Good News, the gospel of grace. Matthew 9:9-13
The Calling of Matthew
9As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
10While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
12On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'[a] For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
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