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The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out Kindle Edition

by Brennan Manning (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 3,432 ratings
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“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

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.

Includes a 30-Day Spiritual Journey Guide!
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  1. Print length
    274 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Multnomah
  5. Publication date
    August 19, 2008
  6. File size
    1277 KB
  7. Page Flip
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Editorial Reviews

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

Review

“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

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B001E2NXDO
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Multnomah (August 19, 2008)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 19, 2008
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1277 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 274 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 3,432 ratings

About the author

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Brennan Manning

Brennan Manning

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Brennan Manning is a writer and speaker who leads spiritual retreats for people of all ages and backgrounds. He is the author of more than ten books, including Abba's Child , Ruthless Trust , The Ragamuffin Gospel , and Posers, Fakers, and Wannabes. A resident of New Orleans, he travels extensively in the U.S. and abroad to share the good news of the unconditional love of God.

Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
4.8 out of 5
3,432 global ratings
Local Ragamuffin Visits Men's Bible Study... WOW!
5 Stars
Local Ragamuffin Visits Men's Bible Study... WOW!
The Ragamuffin Gospel impacts lives... Brennan Manning delivers an amazing and captivating spiritual journey!If you need a jolt or a boost to your spiritual journey/FAITH, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of The Ragamuffin Gospel... I promise, you won't regret your investment and you will be proud you did!
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Top reviews from the United States

lovebooks
5.0 out of 5 stars Faithful, tender & compelling
Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2024
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This book is grounded in the “reckless Love” of God, who shamelessly falls over Godself to run toward us even when we have been the wasteful, sinful, prideful Prodigal…never even letting us get the words “I’m sorry” out before we are wrapped in parental love. It’s a comforting book full of of wisdom and gems. I’ll return to it often.
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Elizabeth Mello
5.0 out of 5 stars Simply amazing books
Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2024
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Father Brennan's books are life changing. Highly recommend.
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Tim
5.0 out of 5 stars Life changing in every way
Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2022
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On my way to Israel, a life-changing trip I decided to re-read a life-changing book.

Without pretense or exaggeration, The Ragamuffin Gospel kept me a Christ-follower. In the pantheon of books that have influenced my life it goes simply: The Bible, Mere Christianity, the Ragamuffin Gospel.
It is with the strongest words and deepest pleas I ask everyone to read this book. If you are a believer, you need this. If you are thinking of walking away from Jesus, you need this, if you left because the Church hurt you or those you love, you need this, and if you think you know the Gospel and aren’t blown away by it daily…you desperately need this book.

Who is this book for? I’ll let Brennan explain:
“This book is not for the super-spiritual. It is not for the muscular Christians who have made John Wayne, and not Jesus, their hero. It is not for academics who would imprison Jesus in the ivory tower of exegesis. It is not for the noisy, feel-good folks who manipulate Christianity into naked appeal to emotion. It is not for hooded mystics who want magic in their religion. It is not for Alleluia Christians who live only on the mountaintop and have never visited the valley of desolation. It is not for the fearless and tearless…It is for the bedraggled, beat-up, and burnt-out. It is for the sorely burdened who are still shifting the heavy suitcase from one hand to the other…It is for inconsistent, unsteady disciples whose cheese is falling off their cracker. It is for poor, weak, sinful men and women with hereditary faults and limited talents. It is for earthen vessels who shuffle along on feet of clay…The Ragamuffin Gospel is a book I wrote for myself, and anyone who has grown weary and discouraged along the way.”

Brennan Manning, was a Korean War veteran, former Franciscan priest, and ex-alcoholic. Describing himself he once said, “Aristotle said I am a rational animal; I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer.”
It is one of the most quotable books in Christendom and if we dared cling to just a few of the Biblical principles espoused here we would have a revolution of the heart, soul and world as we know it. It helped me understand that if I feel completely at home in this world, I haven’t understood the gospel fully.
As a Christian I say I believe in God, that’s kind of essential but believing that He loves me immediately as I am and not some future good version of me is life altering.

“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.”

The book is a love letter to those who feel unloved, unseen, unknown. Failures of both the moral and religious ilk who can’t possibly crawl any higher from the pit our brokenness has left us in.
“My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.”

Grace means so much to those who understand how undeserving of it we are. The lie of modern Christianity is you are pretty good, you just need Jesus to clean up a few areas. We are not projects in need of fixing, we are sinners in need of salvation. Salvation undeserved, unearnable and unfathomable. We, I, as a pastor do a disservice to the Gospel Jesus proclaimed when I preach anything less.

“The North American Church is at a critical juncture. The gospel of grace is being confused and compromised by silence, seduction, and outright subversion. The vitality of the faith is being jeopardized. The lying slogans of the fixers who carry religion like a sword of judgment pile up with impunity. Let ragamuffins everywhere gather as a confessing Church to cry out in protest. Revoke the licenses of religious leaders who falsify the idea of God. Sentence them to three years in solitude with the Bible as their only companion.”
Left to my own devices, I am more capable of sin than I ever imagined. And yet, Jesus is better at forgiving than I am at sinning. Manning, ever the architect of beautiful prose on God’s character writes, “I could more easily contain Niagara Falls in a teacup than I can comprehend the wild, uncontainable love of God.”

The Ragamuffin Gospel is you are a failure. That God doesn’t love or use or seek out perfect or good people because there are none. The Ragamuffin Gospel is that inspite of that truth, BECAUSE of that truth Jesus did for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He continues to love us when we fail to love Him. He sees out innate human sinfulness and offers us love we did not merit and can never pay back.

I could write for hours on Brennan Manning’s insight, I’ll leave you with quotes I hope challenge your faith, destroy your self esteem and lead you to the one who is not interested in platitudes to soothe your shortcomings, but healing the guilt, pain and fear they’ve left you with. He does that in the only way the Gospel says that is possible, by giving you Himself. Let that, decimate your pride, religiosity and drive you in awestruck spendor to the feet of the God of the Universe who knows all your sin; but calls you by your name.

“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.”

5/5. Must read for everyone.

“The temptation of the age is to look good without being good.”
“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. As Thomas Merton put it, "A saint is not someone who is good but who experiences the goodness of God."
“The gospel of grace nullifies our adulation of televangelists, charismatic superstars, and local church heroes. It obliterates the two-class citizenship theory operative in many American churches. For grace proclaims the awesome truth that all is gift. All that is good is ours not by right but by the sheer bounty of a gracious God. While there is much we may have earned--our degree and our salary, our home and garden, a Miller Lite and a good night's sleep--all this is possible only because we have been given so much: life itself, eyes to see and hands to touch, a mind to shape ideas, and a heart to beat with love. We have been given God in our souls and Christ in our flesh. We have the power to believe where others deny, to hope where others despair, to love where others hurt. This and so much more is sheer gift; it is not reward for our faithfulness, our generous disposition, or our heroic life of prayer. Even our fidelity is a gift, "If we but turn to God," said St. Augustine, "that itself is a gift of God."
“How I treat a brother or sister from day to day, how I react to the sin-scarred wino on the street, how I respond to interruptions from people I dislike, how I deal with normal people in their normal confusion on a normal day may be a better indication of my reverence for life than the antiabortion sticker on the bumper of my car.”
“Do you believe that the God of Jesus loves you beyond worthiness and unworthiness, beyond fidelity and infidelity—that he loves you in the morning sun and in the evening rain—that he loves you when your intellect denies it, your emotions refuse it, your whole being rejects it. Do you believe that God loves without condition or reservation and loves you this moment as you are and not as you should be.”
“Honesty is such a precious commodity that it is seldom found in the world or church. Honesty requires the truthfulness to admit the attachment and addictions that control our attention, dominate our consciousness, and function as false gods. I can be addicted to vodka or to being nice, to marijuana or being loved, to cocaine or being right, to gambling or relationships, to golf or gossiping. Perhaps my addiction is food, performance, money, popularity, power, revenge, reading, television, tobacco, weight, or winning. When we give anything more priority than we give to God, we commit idolatry. Thus we all commit idolatry countless times every day.”
65 people found this helpful
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RVLady
5.0 out of 5 stars This book helped me to realize that I was looking at God all wrong.
Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2021
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Growing up in church and among well meaning Christians, it was always beat into my mind about how God hates this or that, or this or that will send you to hell. I felt that I was always in trouble with God. After a while, I just kind of gave up and thought I'd never measure up to the perfection that was expected of me.
And then I read this book.
I realized that I nor anyone else can measure up to the incorrect and demanding standards of a judgmental view of Christianity. I could never keep up with all the laws and rules.

God wants us to be who He created us to be. Becoming a Christian does not mean giving up who you are and becoming some stoic bore (unless that is who you were to begin with). Christianity is not about the scholars and the religious lawmakers, judges and jurors. (although they are loved as well).
It is much more simple than that. It is about the simple fact that we are loved by a God who will love us no matter how undeserving we feel. If we simply love God, and love others as we love ourselves, all else falls into place.
Reading this book will help you to realize that God's love is not one of anger and punishment, but of forgiveness, grace and mercy.
Jesus was judged for the people that he hung out with. Drunks, prostitutes', liars, thieves, homeless etc...He didn't care what they did. He cared about who they are. In fact, it was the overtly religious people of the day that sent him to the cross.
This book examines Christianity from a viewpoint of pure love and grace; not laws and rules.
It will free your heart and mind. I highly recommend
25 people found this helpful
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Michelle Seeders
5.0 out of 5 stars Life Changing!
Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2024
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A book that pours out the precious grace of our Abba!
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UncleW
4.0 out of 5 stars Good reading for an Atheist/Agnostic
Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2023
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I do quite a bit of biblical study, trying to find the Wisdom of Jesus. This calls out our human imperfections and helps make peace with that
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Lauren Carnes
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read!
Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2024
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Great read for anyone who is wanting to learn from a different perspective! I bought this for my bible study and I would recommend this to anyone!
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Top reviews from other countries

Malcolm Kobak
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most impactful books I’ve read in a long time
Reviewed in Canada on October 19, 2023
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Highly recommend
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Frankie S
5.0 out of 5 stars Wow a must read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 31, 2021
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This book is one of the best reads I've had in a long time. It speaks of the love and grace that the Father has for each of His children. It is well written and draws the reader in. A must read for any Christian
One person found this helpful
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otoli
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome read
Reviewed in India on March 11, 2020
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Beautifully written book for the lost, frustrated and bewildered soul.
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Ken Johns
5.0 out of 5 stars A Book that really touches the Heart
Reviewed in Germany on July 5, 2014
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This is one of those rare books that was written about personal faith, without complication, threats, or eternal damnation. The simple message is that God loves us all even though we might be serial offenders to his word, and every time he will forgive and welcome us back.
One person found this helpful
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Ian Booth
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Australia on July 29, 2016
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Very refreshing look at the Gospel and what the "Good News" is all about !
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