5.00 am Saturday, Jan 22, 2011
Though the Scriptures insist on God's initiative in the work of salvation... our spirituality often starts with self, not God. Personal responsibility has replaced personal response. We talk about acquiring a virtue as if it were a skill that can be attained, like good handwriting or a well-groomed golf swing... (pg 17).
The saved sinner is prostrate in adoration, lost in wonder and praise. She knows repentance is not what we do in order to earn forgiveness; it is what we do because we have been forgiven. It serves as an expression of gratitude rather than an effort to earn forgiveness. Thus the sequence of forgiveness and then repentance, rather than repentance and then forgiveness, is crucial for understanding the gospel of grace. (pg 75).
Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel, Multnomah Books, Colorado Springs, 2005.
This is a book I'm reading now... I found that last paragraph particularly enlightening. I know I have a long standing tendancy to feel I have to earn God's love, somehow or another - this book is reminding me that God loves and delights in ragamuffins and sinners. They are the ones he likes to sit at the table and eat a meal with. So I don't have to worry about 'being good enough'. I can just be me... and God loves me.
I hope I can learn that in my heart as well as in my head!
There have been some challenging days recently -
But I'm still here, and still learning...
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