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Authentic Christianity should lead to maturity, personality, and reality. It should fashion whole men and women living lives of love and communion.
Brennan Manning -
Let us be bold enough to ask ourselves as Christians whether the Church of the Lord Jesus in the United States has anything to say to our nation and its ideologies of materialism, possessiveness, and the worship of financial security. Are we courageous enough to be a sign of contradiction to consumerism through our living faith in Jesus Christ? Are we committed enough to his gospel to become a countercurrent to the drift?
Brennan Manning
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We miss Jesus' point entirely when we use His words as weapons against others.
Brennan Manning -
As we come to grips with our own selfishness and stupidity, we make friends with the impostor and accept that we are impoverished and broken and realize that, if we were not, we would be God. The art of gentleness toward ourselves leads to being gentle with others -- and is a natural prerequisite for our presence to God in prayer.
Brennan Manning -
There is the "you" that people see and then there is the "rest of you". Take some time and craft a picture of the "rest of you." This could be a drawing, in words, even a song. Just remember that the chances are good it will be full of paradox and contradictions.
Brennan Manning -
While the impostor draws his identity from past achievements and the adulation of others, the true self claims identity in its belovedness. We encounter God in the ordinariness of life: not in the search for spiritual highs and extraordinary, mystical experiences but in our simple presence in life.
Brennan Manning -
There is a beautiful transparency to honest disciples who never wear a false face and do not pretend to be anything but who they are.
Brennan Manning -
If asked whether I am finally letting God love me, just as I am, I would answer, 'No, but I'm trying.
Brennan Manning
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The first step in faith is to stop thinking about God at the time of prayer.
Brennan Manning -
One of my realizations in such an earthy atmosphere was that many of the burning theological issues in the church were neither burning nor theological.
Brennan Manning -
Do the truth quietly without display.
Brennan Manning -
Be daring enough to be different, humble enough to make mistakes, wild enough to be burnt in the fire of love, real enough to make others see how phony you are.
Brennan Manning -
There is an extraordinary power in storytelling that stirs the imagination and makes an indelible impression on the mind.
Brennan Manning -
Grace is sufficient even though we huff and puff with all our might to try and find something or someone that it cannot cover. Grace is enough...
Brennan Manning
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The ragamuffin gospel says we can't lose, because we have nothing to lose.
Brennan Manning -
At Sunday worship, as in every dimension of our existence, many of us pretend to believe we are sinners. Consequently, all we can do is pretend we have been forgiven. As a result, our whole spiritual life is pseudo-repentance and pseudo-bliss.
Brennan Manning -
Without exposure to potential failure, there is no risk.
Brennan Manning -
We are enveloped in peace, whether or not we feel ourselves to be at peace. By that I mean the peace that passes understanding is not a subjective sensation of peace; if we are in Christ, we are in peace even when we feel no peace.
Brennan Manning -
We must go out into a desert of some kind your backyard will do and come into a personal experience of the awesome love of God.
Brennan Manning -
Faith will become vision, hope will become possession, but the love of Jesus Christ that is stronger than death endures forever. In the end, it is the only thing you can hang onto.
Brennan Manning
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The story goes that a public sinner was excommunicated and forbidden entry to the church. He took his woes to God. 'They won't let me in, Lord, because I am a sinner.' 'What are you complaining about?' said God. 'They won't let Me in either.
Brennan Manning -
The Christian with depth is the person who has failed and who has learned to live with it.
Brennan Manning