Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.
The story goes that a public sinner was excommunicated and forbidden entry to the church. He took his woes to God. ‘They won’t let me in, Lord, because I am a sinner.”What are you complaining about?’ said God. ‘They won’t let Me in either.
we unwittingly project onto God our own attitudes and feelings toward ourselves… But we cannot assume that He feels about us the way we feel about ourselves — unless we love ourselves compassionately, intensely, and freely.
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.
Our identity rests in God’s relentless tenderness for us revealed in Jesus Christ.
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.
Ragamuffins are simple, direct and honest. Their speech is unaffected. They are slow to claim, “God told me…” As they make their way through the world, they bear wordless, prophetic witness.
Silent solitude makes true speech possible and personal. If I am not in touch with my own belovedness, then I cannot touch the sacredness of others. If I am estranged from myself, I am likewise a stranger to others.
Our hearts of stone become hearts of flesh when we learn where the outcast weeps.
In Love’s service, only wounded soldiers can serve.
For me the most radical demand of Christian faith lies in summoning the courage to say yes to the present risenness of Jesus Christ.
To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark. In admitting my shadow side I learn who I am and what God’s grace means.
Real freedom is freedom from the opinions of others. Above all, freedom from your opinions about yourself.
I have been seized by the power of a great affection.
Those who have the disease called Jesus will never be cured.
In my experience, self-hatred is the dominant malaise crippling Christians and stifling their growth in the Holy Spirit.
We can only sense ourselves and our world valued and cherished by God when we feel valued and cherished by others ‘.
* Recognize that God is with you.* Acknowledge God knows what He’s doing.* Search for God’s will: the path He desires you to take in life.* Consider what God did for you when He sent Jesus to die on the cross (forgiveness and righteousness)
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.
There is an essential connection between experiencing God, loving God, and trusting God. You will trust God only as much as you love him. And you will love him to the extent you have touched him, rather that he has touched you.
On one level, a roomful of men is always a dangerous thing. Competition is usually in the air, so the potential for violence is always nearby.
The gospel declares that no matter how dutiful or prayerful we are, we can’t save ourselves. What Jesus did was sufficient.
The unwounded life bears no resemblance to the Rabbi.
The life of Jesus suggests that to be like Abba is to show compassion. Donald Gray expresses this: “Jesus reveals in an exceptionally human life what it is to live a divine life, a compassionate life.
Assured of your salvation by the unique grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” is the heartbeat of the gospel, joyful liberation from fear of the Final Outcome, a summons to self-acceptance, and freedom for a life of compassion toward others.
Everybody has a vocation to some form of life-work. However, behind that call (and deeper than any call), everybody has a vocation to be a person to be fully and deeply human in Christ Jesus.
Genuine self-acceptance is not derived from the power of positive thinking, mind games or pop psychology. IT IS AN ACT OF FAITH in the God of grace.
The only cure for suffering is to face it head on, grasp it round the neck and use it.
But if I’ve learned anything about the world of grace, it’s that failure is always a chance for a do-over.
Jesus was victorious not because he never flinched, talked back, or questioned, but having flinched, talked back, and questioned, he remained faithful.
And though it is true that the church must always dissociate itself from sin, it can never have any excuse for keeping any sinner at a distance
Stop comparing or boast at your victories. He was referring to enormous vitality and strength of God of Jesus seeking union with us. The living acts of a Christian become somehow the acts of Christ.
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.
The ragamuffin gospel says we can’t lose, because we have nothing to lose.
The temptation of the age is to look good without being good.
The ragamuffin who sees his life as a voyage of discovery and runs the risk of failure has a better feel for faithfulness than the timid man who hides behind the law and never finds out who he is at all.
Ruthless trust ultimately comes down to this: faith in the person of Jesus and hope in his promise.
Suffering, failure, loneliness, sorrow, discouragement, and death will be part of your journey, but the Kingdom of God will conquer all these horrors. No evil can resist grace forever.
Without exposure to potential failure, there is no risk.
By and large, the gospel of grace is neither proclaimed, understood, nor lived.
God loves you unconditionally, as you are and not as you should be, because nobody is as they should be.
Too many Christians are living in a house of fear and not in the house of love.
Childlike surrender and trust, I believe, is the defining spirit of authentic discipleship.
Trust is that rare and priceless treasure that wins us the affection of our heavenly Father.