Most Helpful Customer Reviews
112 of 114 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Relaxing in grace does _not_ meen embracing sin, November 9, 1999
By A Customer
To the disappointed reader in Boston: I'm sorry you finished this book with the notion that Brennan is condoning sin. I disagree completely; I believe that Brennan challenges us to move past regret and shame, and to move forward to seeking God's love again, eschewing sin in the process. The more you love God, the more you will _want_ to be free from sin to please Him. The important part of that statement is that love comes first. The goal of a Christian should NOT be to eliminate sin from one's life. Rather, it is to learn to love Christ more and more, and seek out his transforming power in your life. In doing so, sin becomes less desirable as your desires begin to match His; and your strength to resist sin becomes greater, as He lends you more and more of His own. If you focus on your sin, you succeed neither in eliminating it nor truly feeling God's love. If you focus on the love, you will succeed in both with abundance. Yes, there are times when we must take active steps to change our lifestyle, our habits, our actions, our words, our thoughts---but again, the question you must ask is, "where is my focus? Is it on God or on my performance?" For everyone who was raised in a performance-oriented household or church, I dare you to read this book, and then tell me: would you _want_ to sin if you could really believe in your heart that God loves you _that_ much, _that_ unconditionally?
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62 of 65 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Grace for a Skeptic, May 6, 2001
I opened the cover to this book, filled with a lot of skepticism. I was pretty certain that I was about to endure 200+ pages of hollow, feel good, Christian cheerleading. The title put me off more than anything else. 'Ragamuffin' is a word I associated with old ladies who had weathered the Great Depression -- the same old ladies (sweet though they were) who, with their toughness, scared me when I was a little kid in the 1960s. 'You look like a complete ragamuffin,' they would say as we stumbled in from a day playing in the woods. What?? I had NO idea what Raggedy-Ann dolls and muffins had to do with how I looked! Even as a grown adult, I have kept a dislike for the term that Manning likes to use to describe so many of us. But, as I turned the pages of the book on a train ride from New York to Boston this winter, I found that sometimes the message is greater than the aesthetics of language. This book is a wonderful reminder of God's Grace. Much more than cheerleading, this book highlights a mistake we often make in our understanding of God...and corrects it. Sometimes it is so easy to feel that we are not good enough, or that we must somehow 'earn' our place in the heart of God. But Brennan Manning reminds us that this is not the way of God. The One Who Loves Us accepts and Loves us just the way we are...as <cringe> ragamuffins. (If you don't know what that means -- read the book. You?ll be glad you did.)
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44 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Gospel pure and undefiled, June 26, 2000
By A Customer
I read the original version of this book over 4 years ago and it changed my life. I am so excited to see this book reissued. The message of Manning's book is The Gospel, pure and undefiled...God loves you, no strings attached. Not only does God love you but He is pleased with you and His saving grace is always there for you. The book helped me out greatly because I was in a spiritually abusive situation at the time I read this it and it helped me to realize that there was nothing I could do to earn God's love. Many Christians accept God's Grace freely when they first dedicate their lives to Him. They then spend the rest of their spiritual walk trying earn that love and forgiveness (which we can never do). Brother Manning's book is a refreshing Oasis in a Christian world full of works-oriented deserts. Even if you think you completely understand what Grace and Love are all about there will be something for you in this book. This book will challenge the very way you look at God. Included in this book is a foreward by Contemporary Christian Music giant, Michael W. Smith, plus a 10 year's after update by Manning, a study guide. If you have yet to read this book, what are you waiting for? If you read this book a long time ago, now is the time to re-read it.
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