We Are Capable of Devout Sentiment, but Love?

Often the rhetoric we use to describe our life in Christ bears only a thin resemblance to where we really are.  We boast of what we are giving because it hides what we are withholding.  We allow ourselves to believe that we are capable of love just because we are capable of devout sentiment.

- Brennan Manning, The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus, HarperOne, copyright 2005, page 46

Which Kind of Christian Are You?

Soren Kierkegaard, the father of Christian existentialism, describes two kinds of Christians: those who imitate Jesus Christ and a second, much cheaper brand – those who are content to admire him.

- Brennan Manning, The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus, HarperOne, copyright 2005, page 45

Please Understand, Jesus’ Message is Not One of Reassurance!

When Jesus Christ reveals himself through the gospel, which is active and creative, he calls for a spontaneous response.  His message is not a reassurance to keep right on doing what we’ve been doing, but, writes Edward O’Connor, “a summons to the labor of eliminating from our lives, faithfully and perseveringly, everything in us that is opposed to the work and will of his Holy Spirit for us.

- Brennan Manning, The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus, HarperOne, copyright 2005, page 44

The Author of Hebrews Insists that We Do This

When the author of Hebrews enjoins the reader, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2), he not only gives a simple prescription for Christian transparency but insists on a reappraisal of one’s whole value system, understanding that “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Luke 12:34)

- Brennan Manning, The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus, HarperOne, copyright 2005, page 40

The Cloak that Covers Transparency

Often our preoccupation with the three most basic human desires – security, pleasure and power – is the cloak that covers transparency.  The endless struggle for enough money, good feelings, and prestige yields a rich harvest of worry, frustration, suspicion, anger, jealousy, anxiety, fear and resentment.

- Brennan Manning, The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus, HarperOne, copyright 2005, page 38

Marks of a Joyful Christian

The joyful Christian is one who has retained a sense of awe and wonder before God, one who has existentially experienced membership in a redeemed community.

- Brennan Manning, The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus, HarperOne, copyright 2005, page 35

Bartering Is Not Our Right

Our puny works do not entitle us to barter with God.  Everything depends on God’s good pleasure.

- Brennan Manning, The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus, HarperOne, copyright 2005, page 32

We Make Christianity too Easy and Take Away its Meaning

If we wink at the radical demands of the New Testament in our teaching and ignore the embarrassing implications of the precept of universal love, we make Christianity too easy and take away its meaning.  We become as guilty as the Pharisees, ignoring the weightier matters of the difficult laws of charity, mercy, and faith while observing the positive laws of the church that are meant only as the boundaries of the Christian commitment.

- Brennan Manning, The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus, HarperOne, copyright 2005, page 27

How the New Testament Becomes Relevant

The New Testament is relevant only if we grasp the fundamental meaning of the radical demands of the gospel while at the same time understanding that we can never completely fulfill them.

- Brennan Manning, The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus, HarperOne, copyright 2005, page 25

The Church is Too Poor, Unsure and Unconvinced to Preach the Gospel

The church in all its structures must be a sign of Christ’s love raised up to the poor.  In passing over this painful sentence, the church itself has become poor, as well as too unsure and unconvinced to preach the gospel with clarity and vision, and too childishly attached to the bric-a-brac of honors, the double-talk of diplomacy, the degrading favors of the rich, the idolatry of structures and the price of place.

- Brennan Manning, The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus, HarperOne, copyright 2005, page 23