So I've been doing a lot of reading, writing, thinking the past couple of days. I borrowed this amazing book called "The Ragamuffin Gospel" by Brennan Manning and basically it is blowing me away.
Here's an excerpt that I wanted to share.
On the back of the book it says "Gods Grace- Too Graphic for Words"...
and seriously...this stuff is good.
"Because salvation is by grace through faith, I believe that among the countless number of people standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands (see Rev. 7:9), I shall see the prostitute from the Kit-Kat ranch in Carson city, Nevada, who tearfully told me she could find no other employment to support her 2-year-old son. I shall see the woman who had an abortion and is haunted by guilt and remorese but did the best she could faced with grueling alternatives; the businessman besieged with debt who sold his integrity in a series of desperate transactions; the insecure clergyman addicted to being liked, who never challenged his people from the pulpit and longed for unconditional love; the sexually abused teen molested by his father and now selling his body on the street, who, as he falls asleep each night after his last "trick", whispers the name of the unkown God he learned about in Sunday school; the deathbed convert who for decades had his cake and ate it, broke every law of God and man, wallowed in lust and raped the earth.
'But how?' we ask.
Then the voice says, 'They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.'
There they are. There we are- the multitude who so wanted to be faithful, who at times got defeated, soiled by life, and bested by trials, wearing the bloodied garments of life's tribulations, but through it all clung to the faith.
My friends, if this is not good news to you, you have never understood the gospel of grace."
Seriously.
Sweet.
