The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out Paperback – June 28, 2005

On my way to Israel, a life-changing trip I decided to re-read a life-changing book.Without pretense or exaggeration, The Ragamuffin Gospel kept me a Christ-follower. In the pantheon of books that have influenced my life it goes simply: The Bible, Mere Christianity, the Ragamuffin Gospel.It is with the strongest words and deepest pleas I ask everyone to read this book. If you are a believer, you need this. If you are thinking of walking away from Jesus, you need this, if you left because the Church hurt you or those you love, you need this, and if you think you know the Gospel and aren’t blown away by it daily…you desperately need this book.Who is this book for? I’ll let Brennan explain:“This book is not for the super-spiritual. It is not for the muscular Christians who have made John Wayne, and not Jesus, their hero. It is not for academics who would imprison Jesus in the ivory tower of exegesis. It is not for the noisy, feel-good folks who manipulate Christianity into naked appeal to emotion. It is not for hooded mystics who want magic in their religion. It is not for Alleluia Christians who live only on the mountaintop and have never visited the valley of desolation. It is not for the fearless and tearless…It is for the bedraggled, beat-up, and burnt-out. It is for the sorely burdened who are still shifting the heavy suitcase from one hand to the other…It is for inconsistent, unsteady disciples whose cheese is falling off their cracker. It is for poor, weak, sinful men and women with hereditary faults and limited talents. It is for earthen vessels who shuffle along on feet of clay…The Ragamuffin Gospel is a book I wrote for myself, and anyone who has grown weary and discouraged along the way.”Brennan Manning, was a Korean War veteran, former Franciscan priest, and ex-alcoholic. Describing himself he once said, “Aristotle said I am a rational animal; I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer.”It is one of the most quotable books in Christendom and if we dared cling to just a few of the Biblical principles espoused here we would have a revolution of the heart, soul and world as we know it. It helped me understand that if I feel completely at home in this world, I haven’t understood the gospel fully.As a Christian I say I believe in God, that’s kind of essential but believing that He loves me immediately as I am and not some future good version of me is life altering.“There is an essential connection between experiencing God, loving God, and trusting God. You will trust God only as much as you love him. And you will love him to the extent you have touched him, rather that he has touched you.”The book is a love letter to those who feel unloved, unseen, unknown. Failures of both the moral and religious ilk who can’t possibly crawl any higher from the pit our brokenness has left us in.“My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.”Grace means so much to those who understand how undeserving of it we are. The lie of modern Christianity is you are pretty good, you just need Jesus to clean up a few areas. We are not projects in need of fixing, we are sinners in need of salvation. Salvation undeserved, unearnable and unfathomable. We, I, as a pastor do a disservice to the Gospel Jesus proclaimed when I preach anything less.“The North American Church is at a critical juncture. The gospel of grace is being confused and compromised by silence, seduction, and outright subversion. The vitality of the faith is being jeopardized. The lying slogans of the fixers who carry religion like a sword of judgment pile up with impunity. Let ragamuffins everywhere gather as a confessing Church to cry out in protest. Revoke the licenses of religious leaders who falsify the idea of God. Sentence them to three years in solitude with the Bible as their only companion.”Left to my own devices, I am more capable of sin than I ever imagined. And yet, Jesus is better at forgiving than I am at sinning. Manning, ever the architect of beautiful prose on God’s character writes, “I could more easily contain Niagara Falls in a teacup than I can comprehend the wild, uncontainable love of God.”The Ragamuffin Gospel is you are a failure. That God doesn’t love or use or seek out perfect or good people because there are none. The Ragamuffin Gospel is that inspite of that truth, BECAUSE of that truth Jesus did for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He continues to love us when we fail to love Him. He sees out innate human sinfulness and offers us love we did not merit and can never pay back.I could write for hours on Brennan Manning’s insight, I’ll leave you with quotes I hope challenge your faith, destroy your self esteem and lead you to the one who is not interested in platitudes to soothe your shortcomings, but healing the guilt, pain and fear they’ve left you with. He does that in the only way the Gospel says that is possible, by giving you Himself. Let that, decimate your pride, religiosity and drive you in awestruck spendor to the feet of the God of the Universe who knows all your sin; but calls you by your name.“The confessing church of American Ragamuffins needs to join Magdalene and Peter in witnessing that Christianity is not primarily a moral code but a grace-laden mystery; it is not essentially a philosophy of love but a love affair; it is not keeping rules with clenched fists but receiving a gift with open hands.”5/5. Must read for everyone.“The temptation of the age is to look good without being good.”“To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark. In admitting my shadow side I learn who I am and what God's grace means. As Thomas Merton put it, "A saint is not someone who is good but who experiences the goodness of God."“The gospel of grace nullifies our adulation of televangelists, charismatic superstars, and local church heroes. It obliterates the two-class citizenship theory operative in many American churches. For grace proclaims the awesome truth that all is gift. All that is good is ours not by right but by the sheer bounty of a gracious God. While there is much we may have earned--our degree and our salary, our home and garden, a Miller Lite and a good night's sleep--all this is possible only because we have been given so much: life itself, eyes to see and hands to touch, a mind to shape ideas, and a heart to beat with love. We have been given God in our souls and Christ in our flesh. We have the power to believe where others deny, to hope where others despair, to love where others hurt. This and so much more is sheer gift; it is not reward for our faithfulness, our generous disposition, or our heroic life of prayer. Even our fidelity is a gift, "If we but turn to God," said St. Augustine, "that itself is a gift of God."“How I treat a brother or sister from day to day, how I react to the sin-scarred wino on the street, how I respond to interruptions from people I dislike, how I deal with normal people in their normal confusion on a normal day may be a better indication of my reverence for life than the antiabortion sticker on the bumper of my car.”“Do you believe that the God of Jesus loves you beyond worthiness and unworthiness, beyond fidelity and infidelity—that he loves you in the morning sun and in the evening rain—that he loves you when your intellect denies it, your emotions refuse it, your whole being rejects it. Do you believe that God loves without condition or reservation and loves you this moment as you are and not as you should be.”“Honesty is such a precious commodity that it is seldom found in the world or church. Honesty requires the truthfulness to admit the attachment and addictions that control our attention, dominate our consciousness, and function as false gods. I can be addicted to vodka or to being nice, to marijuana or being loved, to cocaine or being right, to gambling or relationships, to golf or gossiping. Perhaps my addiction is food, performance, money, popularity, power, revenge, reading, television, tobacco, weight, or winning. When we give anything more priority than we give to God, we commit idolatry. Thus we all commit idolatry countless times every day.”

The introduction tells it all. But, in short, it is grace - undeserved merit and love."For those who feel their lives are a grave disappointment to God, it requires enormous trust and reckless, raging confidence to accept that the love of Jesus Christ knows no shadow of alteration or change."If it doesn't get your fire going, your wood's wet.

I am so happy to have found this audiobook. It is not new, but the message is timeless; that God's love knows no bounds for us, and He accepts us all no matter what!I will definitely be listening again and again, while taking notes.

MORE PEOPLE should read this book! This author purposely and effectively explains Jesus’ view of the real gospel of Jesus Christ.

This is one of my favorite books. I met Brennan once at a conference and had him sign my copy to me personally. I hold onto it and cherish it. I often buy copies and give them away. One of my top ten books for Christian discipleship, especially for those desperately needing to understand God's grace.

A very chatty style of writing that enthuses us to rediscover the loving Father as opposed to the legalist, disciplinerian & authoritarian God picture, that has left many of us still in the blocks, struggling with condemnation and frozen ideas of who God is. Brennan presents us with a loving, grace-filled, compassionate and caring God with a furious love for each one of us, compelling us forward in the race with freedom and forgiveness. Many of Brennan's own side-tracks and failures, flavour the pages as he readily shares his struggles with addiction, loss and self hate, yet finding the arms of a loving Father.An easy read and a very encouraging view of the Christian life, available to all!

Read pages 13-14, "A WORD BEFORE" to see if this book is for you!If it turns out it is. Then read on and your life will not be the same. It is about Grace and the EVERLASTING LOVE OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS!No one does it better than Brennan Manning! GOD BLESS YOU!

If you think you are too much of a sinner for God to love you, this book will set you straight! Well written and I like the personal stories the author shares!