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. Brennan Manning More Quotes by Brennan Manning More Quotes From Brennan Manning The deepest desire of our hearts is for union for God. God created us for union with himself. This is the original purpose of our lives. Brennan Manning purpose desire heart The Good News of the gospel of grace cries out: We are all, equally, privileged but unentitled beggars at the door of God's mercy! Brennan Manning news grace doors Tragedy is that our attention centers on what people are not, rather than on what they are and who they might become. Brennan Manning tragedy attention people Authentic faith leads us to treat others with unconditional seriousness and to a loving reverence for the mystery of the human personality. Authentic Christianity should lead to maturity, personality, and reality. It should fashion whole men and women living lives of love and communion. False, manhandled religion produces the opposite effect. Whenever religion shows contempt or disregards the rights of persons, even under the noblest pretexts, it draws us away from reality and God. Brennan Manning live-life fashion reality We should be astonished at the goodness of God, stunned that He should bother to call us by name, our mouths wide open at His love, bewildered that at this very moment we are standing on holy ground. Brennan Manning holy-ground mouths names For those who feel their lives are a grave disappointment to God, it requires enormous trust and reckless, raging confidence to accept that the love of Jesus Christ knows no shadow of alteration or change. When Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy burdened," He assumed we would grow weary, discouraged, and disheartened along the way. These words are a touching testimony to the genuine humanness of Jesus. He had no romantic notion of the cost of discipleship. He knew that following Him was as unsentimental as duty, as demanding as love. Brennan Manning disappointment love jesus May all your expectations be frustrated, may all your plans be thwarted, may all your desires be withered into nothingness, that you may experience the powerlessness and poverty of a child and sing and dance in the love of God who is the Father, Son and Spirit. Brennan Manning father children son 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 backyards desert kind Faithfulness requires the courage to risk everything on Jesus, the willingness to keep growing, and the readiness to risk failure throughout our lives. Brennan Manning growing risk jesus Jesus comes for sinners, for those outcast...and those caught up in squalid choices and failed dreams. Brennan Manning choices dream jesus Leadership in the church is not entrusted to successful fund raisers, brilliant biblical scholars, administrative geniuses, or spellbinding preachers...but to those who have been laid waste by a consuming passion for Christ - passionate men and women for whom privilege and power are trivial compared to knowing and loving Jesus. Brennan Manning biblical passion jesus Ruthless trust ultimately comes down to this: faith in the person of Jesus and hope in his promise. Brennan Manning ruthless promise jesus We even refuse to be our true self with God- and then wonder why we lack intimacy with him. Brennan Manning intimacy self wonder The outstretched arms of Jesus exclude no one, not the drunk in the doorway, the panhandler on the street, gays and lesbians in their isolation, the most selfish and ungrateful in their cocoons, the most unjust of employers and the most overweening of snobs. The love of Christ embraces all without exception. Brennan Manning selfish gay jesus I am deeply distressed by what I only can call in our Christian culture the idolatry of the Scriptures. For many Christians, the Bible is not a pointer to God but God himself... God cannot be confined within the covers of a leather-bound book. I develop a nasty rash around people who speak as if mere scrutiny of its pages will reveal precisely how God thinks and precisely what God wants. Brennan Manning christian book thinking The confessing church of American Ragamuffins needs to join Magdalene and Peter in witnessing that Christianity is not primarily a moral code but a grace-laden mystery; it is not essentially a philosophy of love but a love affair; it is not keeping rules with clenched fists but receiving a gift with open hands. Brennan Manning grace philosophy hands The sorrow of God lies in our fear of Him, our fear of life, and our fear of ourselves. He anguishes over our self-absorption and self-sufficiency... God's sorrow lies in our refusal to approach Him when we sinned and failed. Brennan Manning self fear lying In a futile attempt to erase our past, we deprive the community of our healing gift. If we conceal our wounds out of fear and shame, our inner darkness can neither be illuminated nor become a light for others. Brennan Manning light healing past Jesus reveals a God who does not demand but who gives; who does not oppress but who raises up; who does not wound but who heals; who does not condemn but forgives. Brennan Manning doe giving jesus I am wonderfully content with a God who does not deal with me as my sins deserve. Brennan Manning deals sin doe
