I just wanted to take some time to share my thoughts from the book I’ve been reading, “The Ragamuffin Gospel” by Brennan Manning.“The Evil One is the great illusionist. He varnishes the truth and encourages dishonesty. ‘If we say we have no sin in us, we are deceiving ourselves and refusing to admit the truth.’ (1 John 1:8) Satan prompts us to give importance to what has no importance. He clothes trivia with glitter and seduces us away from what is real. He causes us to live in a world of delusion, unreality, and shadows.”
How many of us have currently live in this illusion? I know I have for years. We seek comfort, sercurity, and happiness from the things of this world. For many of us we find sercurtiy in the material things we have or the money we make. For others we seek fulfillment in the college lifestyle: drinking, partying, friends, the opposite sex. Still some of us find satifaction in obedience to the religious laws (the do’s and do not’s) of our time without an intimate relationship with Christ. Whatever it may be, we have bought into the lies that Satan has so cleverly placed in front of us. We live in this illusion everyday of our lives. What we need is the FREEDOM that Jesus died for!
“When will we acknowledge that we don’t have it all together and happily accept the gift of grace? When will we grasp the thrilling truth of Paul: ‘We acknowledge that what makes a man righteous is not obedience to the Law, but faith in Jesus Christ’ (Galatians 2:16)?”
There is certainly nothing that we can do, good or bad, to disrupt the love of our Father. His love never fails…ever…it’s is without condition. Likewise, His grace is abundant. It covers all our sin…past, present, and future. It is by His grace through faith that we are saved. It is not something we earn, and it is not something we can lose. His grace is incredibly beautiful, and I am certain the more you or I grow in that grace, the more magnificant it becomes.
So many of us have learned how to act like the good little Christian. We know what to do or what not to do. We know what to say. But we lack the pure, intimate relationship with Christ that is so vital. T.S. Eliot says, “the greatest sin is to do the right thing for the wrong reason.” I know that my motives have been impure time and time again, but as I grow in my relationship with Christ His desires, passions, and perspective are becoming my own. It is such an amazing thing to know Christ intimately. Without Him, we can not live a life of true fulfillment or satisfaction. If we were honest with ourselves, we would know this to be true.
Honesty is exactly what we need. We must be brutally honest with ourselves. We must evaluate our daily lives. In what do we find fulfillment, security, hope, joy, and peace? If it is not Christ alone, we need to adjust somethings. Manning says, “Honesty simply asks if we are open, willing, and able to acknowledge this truth. Honesty brings an end to pretense through a candid acknowledgement of our fragile humanity. It is always unpleasant, and usually painful, and that is why I am not good at it. But to stand in the truth before God and one another has a unique reward. It is the reward which a sense of reality always brings. I know something extremely precious. I am in touch with myself as I am. My tendency to play the pseudo-messiah is torpedoed.”
Do we truly believe that Jesus Christ died for us? Do you believe Christ died for YOU, the individual? Do we believe that God is good? Do you believe that His love is unconditional and never fails? Ask yourself these questions. If your answer is YES, we must begin living in the grace and freedom of our salvation. We must let Christ unmask us. We must live our lives as a LIVING SACRIFICE to our Savior. He is our Comforter, our Healer, our Provider, our Guide, our loving Father. He is always more than enough!
“Lord Jesus, we are silly sheep who have dared to stand before You and try to bribe You with our preposterous portfolios. Suddenly we have come to our senses. We are sorry and ask You to forgive us. Give us the grace to admit we are ragamuffins, to embrace our brokenness, to celebrate Your mercy when we are at our weakest, to rely on Your mercy no matter what we do. Dear Jesus, gift us to stop grandstanding and trying to get attention, to do the truth quietly without display, to let the dishonesties in our lives fade away, to accept our limitations, to cling to the gospel of grace, and to delight in Your love. Amen.”
* All quotes were taking from Brennan Manning’s book “The Ragamuffin Gospel” chapter 7 pgs. 122-139
