Brennan Manning Quotes
Ruthless trust ultimately comes down to this: faith in the person of Jesus and hope in his promise.
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.
If in our hearts we really don't believe that God loves us as we are, if we are still tainted by the lie that we can do something to make God love us more, we are rejecting the message of the cross.
The gospel will persuade no one unless it has so convicted us that we are transformed by it.
When our inner child is not nurtured and nourished, our minds gradually close to new ideas, unprofitable commitments and the surprises of the Spirit.
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...
Ragamuffins are simple, direct and honest. Their speech is unaffected. They are slow to claim, "God told me..." As they make their way through the world, they bear wordless, prophetic witness.
When we wallow in guilt, remorse, and shame over real or imagined sins of the past, we are disdaining God's gift of grace.
The trouble with our ideals is that if we live up to all of them, we become impossible to live with.
Real freedom is freedom from the opinions of others. Above all, freedom from your opinions about yourself.
I have been seized by the power of a great affection.
Everybody has a vocation to some form of life-work. However, behind that call (and deeper than any call), everybody has a vocation to be a person to be fully and deeply human in Christ Jesus.
Trust is that rare and priceless treasure that wins us the affection of our heavenly Father.
The men and women who are truly filled with light are those who have gazed deeply into the darkness of their own imperfect existence.
In my experience, self-hatred is the dominant malaise crippling Christians and stifling their growth in the Holy Spirit.
God is loving us - you and me - this moment, just as we are and not as we should be.
Troubadours have always been more important and influential than theologians and bishops
The way you are with others every day, regardless of their status, is the true test of faith.
I knew there was only one place to go. I sank down into the center of my soul, grew still, and listened to the Rabbi's heartbeat.
Those who have the disease called Jesus will never be cured.
The ragamuffin gospel says we can't lose, because we have nothing to lose.
What makes the Kingdom come is heartfelt compassion: a way of tenderness that knows no frontiers, no labels, no compartmentalizing, and no sectarian divisions.
On the last day, Jesus will look us over not for medals, diplomas, or honors, but for scars.
The dominant characteristic of an authentic spiritual life is the gratitude that flows from trust
Without fear I can acknowledge that the authentic Christian tension is not between life and death, but between life and life.
Do you honestly believe God likes you, not just loves you because theologically God has to love you?
Childlike in faith means the daily acknowledgment of utter dependence and that I owe my life and being to another.
The unwounded life bears no resemblance to the Rabbi.
Jesus was victorious not because he never flinched, talked back, or questioned, but having flinched, talked back, and questioned, he remained faithful.
A man doesn't grow old because he has lived a certain number of years. A man grows old when he deserts his ideal. The years may wrinkle his skin, but deserting his ideal wrinkles his soul.
In human beings, love is a quality, a high-prized virtue; in God, love is His identity.
If asked whether I am finally letting God love me, just as I am, I would answer, 'No, but I'm trying.
Accepting the reality of our sinfulness means accepting our authentic self. Judas could not face his shadow; Peter could. The latter befriended the impostor within; the former raged against him.
It is for the inconsistent, unsteady disciples whose cheese is falling off their cracker.
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.
Trust is our gift back to God, and he finds it so enchanting that Jesus died for love of it
Don't try to understand it. You won't succeed. Don't try to see it. You can't. Try to live it, and you will be living out of the center.
Only reckless confidence in a Source greater than ourselves can empower us to forgive the woulds inflicted by others.
All I have learned through trial and error is to stay alert and aware, especially God smiling @ our silliness.
