THE FURIOUS LOVE OF GOD!
Today I invite you to read, contemplate and read again the following two paragraphs from Brennan Manning’s classic, The Ragamuffin Gospel:
Paragraph #1: “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 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. He knew that physical pain, the loss of loved ones, failure, loneliness, rejection, abandonment, and betrayal would sap our spirits; that the day would come when faith would no longer offer any drive, reassurance, or comfort; that prayer would lack any sense of reality or progress; that we would echo the cry of Teresa of Avila: ‘Lord, if this is the way you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few!’”
Paragraph #2: “Here is revelation bright as the evening star: Jesus comes for sinners, for those as outcast as tax collectors and for those caught up in squalid choices and failed dreams. He comes for corporate executives, street people, superstars, farmers, hookers, addicts, IRS agents, AIDS victims, and even used car salesmen. Jesus not only talks with these people but dines with them – fully aware that His table fellowship with sinners will raise the eyebrows of religious bureaucrats…and their rejection of the gospel of grace.”
To know Jesus came for us is one thing, accepting what Chesterton calls “the furious love of God” is another! What kind of God loves sinners? Our God!
I so much want to pursue this God who pursues me even when I misappropriate and misunderstand His actions! I so much want to pursue this God who loves me furiously even when I doubt Him! Oh, my!
GOD IS GOOD! Mr. Steve
No comments:
Post a Comment