Brennan Manning Quotes
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In my experience, self-hatred is the dominant malaise crippling Christians and stifling their growth in the Holy Spirit.
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Tragedy is that our attention centers on what people are not, rather than on what they are and who they might become.
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The conversation of most middle-class Americans, we are told, revolves around consumption: what to buy, what was just bought, where to eat, the price of the neighbor's house, what's on sale this week, our clothes or someone else's, the best car on the market this year, where to spend a vacation. Apparently we can't stop eating, shopping, or consuming. Success is measured not in terms of love, wisdom, and maturity but by the size of one's pile of possessions.
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Silent solitude makes true speech possible and personal. If I am not in touch with my own belovedness, then I cannot touch the sacredness of others. If I am estranged from myself, I am likewise a stranger to others.
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God is loving us - you and me - this moment, just as we are and not as we should be.
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The forgiveness of God is gratuitous liberation from guilt. Paradoxically, the conviction of personal sinfulness becomes the occasion of encounter with the merciful love of the redeeming God. "There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner repenting..." (Luke 15:7). In his brokenness, the repentant prodigal knew an intimacy with his father that his sinless, self-righteous brother would never know.
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In human beings, love is a quality, a high-prized virtue; in God, love is His identity.
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Our huffing and puffing to impress God, our scrambling for brownie points, our thrashing about trying to fix ourselves while hiding our pettiness and wallowing in guilt are nauseating to God and are a flat denial of the gospel of grace.
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The fierce words of Jesus addressed to the Pharisees of His day stretch across the bands of time. Today they are directed not only to fallen televangelists but to each of us. We miss Jesus' point entirely when we use His words as weapons against others. They are to be taken personally by each of us. This is the form and shape of Christian Pharisaism in our time. Hypocrisy is not hte prerogative of people in high places. The most impoverished among us is capable of it. Hypocrisy is the natural expression of what is meanest in us all.
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May all your expectations be frustrated, may all your plans be thwarted, may all your desires be withered into nothingness, that you may experience the powerlessness and poverty of a child and sing and dance in the love of God who is the Father, Son and Spirit.
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Ruthless trust ultimately comes down to this: faith in the person of Jesus and hope in his promise.
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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.
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God is a kooky God who can scarcely bear to be without us.
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Our culture says that ruthless competition is the key to success. Jesus says that ruthless compassion is the purpose of our journey.
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The only kind of love that helps anyone grow is unconditional love.
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I asked for wonder, and He gave it to me.
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Trust is our gift back to God, and he finds it so enchanting that Jesus died for love of it.
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The ragamuffin gospel says we can't lose, because we have nothing to lose.
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By and large, the gospel of grace is neither proclaimed, understood, nor lived.
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Only reckless confidence in a Source greater than ourselves can empower us to forgive the woulds inflicted by others.
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Our identity rests in God's relentless tenderness for us revealed in Jesus Christ.
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Stop comparing or boast at your victories. He was referring to enormous vitality and strength of God of Jesus seeking union with us. The living acts of a Christian become somehow the acts of Christ.
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The Christian with depth is the person who has failed and who has learned to live with it.
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Without exposure to potential failure, there is no risk.