Random Observations from
The Ragamuffin Gospel Book
©2012, Chantelle Thomas-Henderson
One of my favorite books of all times is The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning.
There’s a story behind the bottles in this photo. I found it on the web and added Mannings quote underneath it. It’s a photo of vintage bottles from Woodrow Wilson's wine cellar which he asked Congress to transport from the White House prior to the end of his presidency. Because “ This move required special permission from Congress because the transportation of alcohol was considered illegal under the new laws.”
Let’s just say he was planning for the future. Don’t we all? Especially when we think we will loose something or we feel threatened. A job. A move. Money. A relationship, the ending of a marriage. Education. You get the point. It’s human nature for us to want to “stay in front of” things that may happen, to be in control of what may come. It’s a false form of self preservation. We want to be prepared just in case. The thing is, rarely do those things that we fear will actually happen. We try avoid pain and suffering all together at the expense of living the life you are meant to live-fully trusting God and His plans for us. Proverbs 16:9 says, “A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps." It’s clear that no matter what our plans are, God already has one for us that we can’t control. The most life changing thing you can do is surrender all to Him. Lay it all at the foot of the cross.
The wording underneath the photo at the top is an excerpt from The Ragamuffin Gospel book which echoes the word grace. It’s like a stone you throw into the water and it has the ripple effect. Those of us who understand the power of grace will get it, as well as those who are yet to encounter His grace.
Mr. Brennan penned:
“The Reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism, a whole cellarful of fifteen-hundred-year-old, two-hundred-proof grace-of bottle after bottle of pure distillate of Scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God saves us single-handedly. The word of the gospel-after all those centuries of trying to lift yourself into heaven by worrying about the perfection your bootstraps-suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home before they started…Grace has to be drunk straight: no water, no ice, and certainly no ginger ale; neither goodness, nor badness, nor flowers that bloom in the spring of super spirituality could be allowed to enter into the case.” - Brennan Manning – The Ragamuffin Gospel
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