The Ragamuffin Gospel

O.K., let’s see a show of hands of all the Ragamuffins out there. That’s a lot. My hand is also raised.

Has a book ever made such a major impact on you that you desperately wanted to share it with your friends? Well, The Ragamuffin Gospel affected me in such a way. I have given away many copies so others can hear its uplifting message.

Written by Brennan Manning, the core message of The Ragamuffin Gospel is that we come to the Lord as ragamuffins; dirty, bedraggled and beat up. And even so, through His amazing love and grace, our sins will be forgiven if we turn from them and accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Again, we look to the cross. What Jesus did for us was sufficient.

The following are excerpts from The Ragamuffin Gospel:

Jesus sat down at table with anyone who wanted to be present, including those who were banished from decent homes. In the sharing of a meal they received consideration instead of the expected condemnation. A merciful acquittal instead of a hasty verdict of guilty. Amazing grace instead of universal disgrace. Here is a very practical demonstration of the law of grace – a new chance in life.

The Ragamuffin Gospel was written for the sorely burdened who are still shifting the heavy suitcase from one hand to the other.

It is for the wobbly and weak-kneed who know they don’t have it all together and are too proud to accept the handout of amazing grace.

It is for inconsistent, unsteady disciples whose cheese is falling off their cracker.

The child of God knows that the graced life calls him or her to live on a cold and windy mountain, not on the flattened plain of reasonable, middle of the road religion.

If a random sampling of 1000 American Christians were taken today, the majority would define faith as belief in the existence of God. In earlier times it did not take faith to believe that God existed-almost everybody took that for granted. Rather, faith had to do with one’s relationship with God. The difference between faith as “belief in something that may or may not exist” and faith as “trusting in God” is enormous. The First is a matter of the head, the second a matter of the heart. The first can leave us unchanged; the second intrinsically brings change.

Pick up a copy of this uplifting and inspiring book. Hopefully it will bless your life and strengthen your walk.