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The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out | 
 enlarge | Author: Brennan Manning
Publisher: Multnomah Books
Category: Book
List Price: $13.99
Buy New: $8.16
You Save: $5.83 (42%)
New (43) Collectible (1) from $8.16
Avg. Customer Rating:  138 reviews
Sales Rank: 5273
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 1590525027
Dewey Decimal Number: 248
EAN: 9781590525029
ASIN: 1590525027
Publication Date: June 28, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW
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| Also Available In:
| • | Audio CD - The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-up, and Burnt Out | | • | Audio CD - The Ragamuffin Gospel | | • | Hardcover - The Ragamuffin Gospel | | • | Paperback - The ragamuffin Gospel: Good news for the bedraggled, beat-up, and burnt out | | • | Paperback - The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out | | • | Paperback - The Ragamuffin Gospel | | • | Kindle Edition - The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out | | • | Audio CD - Ragamuffin Gospel | | • | Paperback - The Ragamuffin Gospel (Authentic Classics) | | • | Paperback - Ragamuffin Gospel: Embracing the Unconditional Love of God | | • | Paperback - Ragamuffin Gospel | | • | Paperback - The Ragamuffin Gospel Visual Edition: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out |
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Amazon.com Review
Brennan Manning wrote The Ragamuffin Gospel "for the bedraggled, beat-up, and burnt-out," the marginalized folks to whom Jesus ministered: the children, the ill, the tax collectors, the women. In other words, the ragamuffins. Manning understands better than most that behind our facades of order and self-assurance are inadequacies that can find healing only in Jesus. While the powerful and religious elite challenged him, Jesus embraced and healed and fed the needs of the ragamuffins. Jesus delivered love, healing, and, most of all, grace. Grace is defined as "the freely given and unmerited favor and love of God." But, as Manning points out, we have "twisted the gospel of grace into religious bondage and distorted the image of God into an eternal, small-minded bookkeeper." In reality, God offers us grace immeasurable. Brennan Manning gently encourages us to embrace that grace in the face of our greatest needs. And Manning certainly knows whereof he speaks, having taken a journey from priesthood and academic achievement through a collapse into alcoholism. Manning came face to face with his need, finally abandoning himself to grace. And he invites us now to join him in a life of grace. Manning is without doubt one of the most eloquent writers on the subject of grace because he openly shares his own pain and struggle to help readers deal with failure and inadequacy. And he sweetly challenges them to do the same. --Patricia Klein
Product Description
A Furious Love Is Hot on Your Trail!
Many believers feel stunted in their Christian growth. We beat ourselves up over our failures and, in the process, pull away from God because we subconsciously believe He tallies our defects and hangs His head in disappointment. In this newly repackaged edition?now with full appendix, study questions, and the author’s own epilogue, “Ragamuffin Ten Years Later,” Brennan Manning reminds us that nothing could be further from the truth. The Father beckons us to Himself with a “furious love” that burns brightly and constantly. Only when we truly embrace God’s grace can we bask in the joy of a gospel that enfolds the most needy of His flock?the “ragamuffins.”
Are you bedraggled, beat-up, burnt-out?
Most of us believe in God’s grace?in theory. But somehow we can’t seem to apply it in our daily lives. We continue to see Him as a small-minded bookkeeper, tallying our failures and successes on a score sheet.
Yet God gives us His grace, willingly, no matter what we’ve done. We come to Him as ragamuffins?dirty, bedraggled, and beat-up. And when we sit at His feet, He smiles upon us, the chosen objects of His “furious love.”
Brennan Manning ’s now-classic meditation on grace and what it takes to access it?simple honesty?has changed thousands of lives. Now with a Ragamuffin’s thirty-day spiritual journey guide, it will change yours, too.
Starburst:
Includes New 30-Day
Spiritual Journey Guide
****
“ Brennan Manning does a masterful job of blowing the dust off of shop-worn theology and allowing God’s grace to do what only God’s grace can do?amaze.”
Max Lucado
Bestselling author of The Gift for All People
“I found deep comfort in realizing that Jesus loves even me, a ragamuffin, just as I am.”
Michael Card
Musician, recording artist, and author of A Violent Grace
“This is a zestful and accurate portrayal that tells us unmistakably that the gospel is good, dazzlingly good.”
Eugene Peterson
Author of The Message
Story Behind the Book
The world assigns value to people using measurable standards. Someone is a successful student if she receives As. Someone is a strong athlete if he runs five miles a day. The Lord, however, knows nothing of standards. The Ragamuffin Gospel was inspired by Brennan Manning after he discovered firsthand what it means to live by grace instead of performance. His words bring new life and sweet refreshment to Christians who are tired of never measuring up.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 133 more reviews...
 A kiss of grace October 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have just finished rereading Brennan Mannings book The Ragamuffin Gospel. I first read this book about five years ago, when I first accepted Christ and began my tenure at S.F.A. I didn't realize how much of this book shaped my spiritual formation.
After growing up in a very legalistic, works based church the simple yet profound message of grace rattles my core. Throughout the book Manning shakes you with gentle words and gripping stories out of your legalistic mindset.
Rich Mullins, who gives a testimony at the beginning of the book puts it this way:
"It did what the gospel can't help but do: It broke the mere "moralistic religiosity" in my life and revived a deeper acceptance that had long ago withered in me."
To begin the book, Manning says that the Church today, "accepts grace in theory, but denies it in practice." He then goes on to give example after example of ways in which grace has been shown to him and how he has attempted to show grace to others. For some reason, the numerous examples never detract from the read. Stories of the mentally handicapped Amish kid who kisses Manning on the lips to the crooked smile wife whose husband contorts his lips to kiss her capture the way in which we should see grace.
It's hard for us to accept grace, show grace, whatever, that's not new, but The Ragamuffin Gospel certainly sheds fresh and timeless light on the subject, with practical ways to display grace to fellow ragamuffins. I not only recommend this book to everyone, but also encourage all fellow believers to read this book at least once in their lifetime. I consider it a classic.
A Must Read for Every True Christian September 14, 2008
The sometimes subtle, sometimes bold message of this book is GRACE. The simple word we throw around with such ease and lack of thought or understanding. A word few of us truly grasp. This book reveals, explains, supports and exemplifies the Grace of our Mighty God and Savior Jesus Christ as no other I have read.
If you have struggled with trying to live up to some sort of unattainable "righteous" Christian standard, if you have been on the receiving end of anything BUT grace from the Church, this book will be a healing balm to your spiritual wounds and it will enable you to learn to walk in true grace instead of white-knuckling it with a Christian facade.
Get it. Read it. Soak it up. You will be so glad you did!
 A Word of Grace for Church Folks July 26, 2008
I have been a fan of Rich Mullins, the Christian singer and songwriter, for a long time. I only discovered later that Mullins named his Ragamuffin Band in honor of Brennan Manning's book. After reading the book (including a testimony by Rich Mullins) I realize that the author and the musician are kindred spirits.
In an afterword, Brennan Manning claims that his book has led to his criticism. His detractors have clucked that Manning is "a heretic, schismatic, universalist, and cockeyed optimist." Frankly, he has committed only one sin which has been the proclamation of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. One critic claims that he has "out-Luthered Luther." In a world of Christian books which promote spiritual laws, principles, and action plans, a book on God's grace is extremely refreshing.
We are saved by God's grace alone. Accepting that grace leads to lives of gratitude and humility. The enemy of grace is the self-satisfied. These folks can be satisfied with their own righteousness or even their own sin. Relying on the love found in Jesus Christ leads to lives of gratitude and humility. When we reject the nominal for the deeper, we begin to follow God's calling in our lives.
Although Manning has disagreements with the Roman Catholic church (he is a former priest), he is greatly influenced by its history and teaching. He also is influenced by the twelve step program of Alcoholics Anonymous. The book is filled with great illustrations from church history, literature, and his personal experiences. The appeal he makes to his readers is passionate. He makes strides to show the goodness of the gospel. He plays especially on the emotions of the reader. He also intends the book to be read devotionally. One of the last chapters actually has prayer exercises for the reader.
I loved the book. Of course, I am not a hostile audience. I know that my life depends on the manna of God's grace. To the person just beginning in faith, I don't know if I would recommend this book. Manning understands himself simply as a redeemed sinner, but many ragamuffins that I know would still feel out of place here. They would probably long for the earthiness and colorful language of Anne Lamott. Whether intentional or not, Manning's audience appears to be church folks who finally get it. They realize that they are really ragamuffins in the hands of a merciful God.
Finally, the book is a bit dated. Some of the illustrations which were current in the 1980s when the book was written don't read well in 2008. Nonetheless, I heartily recommend this book.
An Excellent Read July 10, 2008
Brennan Manning discusses the love of God in a very personal way. The key word here is "personal." He does not spend time analyzing the original terms or the background of passages referring to the love of God. Instead, he works to help the reader understand the love of God in a sense that is meaningful. Not to discount the value of a good word study, but if I were to sit and explain to my son that I love him because of physiological happenings in my brain that make me experience a euphoria that in turn compels me to treat him with care, that would mean absolutely nothing to him. On the other hand, if I were to show him regularly that I love him simply because he is my son, that would mean a great deal more. God has done this in the giving of His Son and in blessing us continually.
Manning shows why we should live our lives in the fact that the Gospel is about love. Jesus preached it, and the apostles after him preached it. Too often we try to start a Christian life with work. This can be destructive if one does not fully realize, as much as is humanly possible, the scope of God's love for us. Someone can start their walk with Christ not understanding this and slowly fall away. If one serves God out of a sense of obligation rather than out of a sense of joy, the fire that was once bright may fade away.
Manning admits that some might consider his book one-sided. "Brennan goes on and on about Abba, Jesus, radical grace, compassion, and the furious love of God, but says little about morality." I got a sense of this, but as I read I realized that writing in this fashion was needed to help the reader fully comprehend the depth of God's love.
The book had a profound affect on me, and I think this affect would have been lessened had he qualified everything with phrases like, "You've got to work hard. God wants you to be totally obedient." One of Manning's major positions is that God loves us no matter what we do, and in order to help us see that, Manning need not dwell on the fact that we must be obedient. Everyone knows this; even the unfaithful. What some don't realize, even faithful Christians, is that God loves us unconditionally. We may not believe we think this way, but our behavior says differently sometimes.
We often work our fingers to the bone hoping to win God's favor more and more. Manning illustrates how this cannot be done. He refers to the story of the prodigal son and how the father did not say, "You better get to work if I'm going to forgive you." As Jesus was illustrating, our relationship with God is the same in that He is always ready to forgive us no matter what. Obedience is necessary and Manning does not disregard this fact. He simply works to help the reader see that God already loves us and by serving Him from that vantage point, our Christian lives can be filled with the joy our Father originally intended.
Great Visuals, Saturated, High Impact July 1, 2008
Pros: Fantastic photographic visuals, choices of layout, high impact layout, cuts right to the chase and meat.
Cons: (maybe just my luck with a bad copy) binding immediately fell apart; advertisements for this production don't tell you this is a 10% version of the original book (only the best lines are set to great photography layout), so if you're looking for the full text don't buy this one.
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