Today's post is a review of the "NIV Ragamuffin Bible" by none other than my best friend Jackie. It's a great review and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
A
couple of weeks ago I was at Natasha’s house letting her dog out when I
noticed she had a Bible I had never seen before in her kitchen. I
picked it up glanced at it, put it back down and made a mental note to
ask her about it. The Bible was called, “NIV Ragamuffin Bible” with a
quote at the bottom that read, “Meditations For The Bedraggled, Beat-Up
& Brokenhearted”.
Here’s a little back
store on me...about 3 years ago I was introduced to a book called, “The
Ragamuffin Gospel” by Brennan Manning. This book changed my spiritual
life in a way no other book has. It rocked my existence in my perceived
Christianity on a level I didn’t know existed. This book I speak of
wasn’t written for the “super spiritual or “muscular Christians” it was
written for the “bedraggled, beat-up & burnt out” which is exactly
what I was and to this day still am but on a slightly different level.
You see I found a book that mainly focused on God’s grace and love and
that didn’t scare the life out of me. Brennan Manning was as fallible as
a person could be but even through his abandonment of the priesthood
and his constant struggle with alcoholism, he strived to show the world
God’s LOVE. This man is conservative by no means. In fact I feel like
most people in the conservative church would argue most of his points
viciously. Most of you reading this also know that I have a soft spot
for addicts and those who can’t fend for themselves. This book was my
brother Kenny’s favorite book. I am SO grateful that I was able to read
this book while he was still alive so we could have numerous
conversations about it.
Now back to the book I
am supposed to be doing the review on (sorry I am long winded). When I
asked Natasha about the NIV Bible she said she was supposed to review it
and then she got to keep it. She later asked if I would read through it
and review it for her so here we are. I basically skipped through the
Bible and pulled out different passages that have hit me for specific
reasons either in a good way or bad. First of all this reads just like
an NIV but each book and chapter have an excerpt from one of Brennan
Manning’s books. Me being me I started in Revelation and worked
backwards because I am weird and I rarely ever do anything normal.
Revelation 21 1:4
The
Apostle John is describing basically the end of days. He is describing
the “New Jerusalem” coming down out of heaven and God’s dwelling place
being amongst his people. Verse 4, “He will wipe every tear from their
eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the
old order of things has passed away”. This is something as a Christian I
long for. Brennan’s excerpt about this is, “The deeper we grow in the
Spirit of Jesus Christ , the poorer we become – the more we realize that
everything in life is a gift. The tenor of our lives becomes one of
humble and joyful thanksgiving. Awareness of our poverty and ineptitude
causes us to rejoice in the gift of being called out of darkness into
the wondrous light”.
John 13:1-17
Jesus
washes his Disciples feet. This in my opinion is one of the most
powerful stories in the Bible. It is Jesus’ way of teaching his
Disciples to be humble and recognize we are all equal, that no one
person is greater than the next. What is so powerful to me is he does
this knowing he is about to be crucified and he sets that reality on the
shelf to have a teaching moment with his Disciples.
Brennan,
“What a shocking reversal of our culture’s priorities and values! To
prefer to be the servant rather than the lord of the household, to
merrily taunt the gods of power, prestige, honor and recognition, to
refuse to take oneself seriously, to live without gloom by the lackey’s
agenda; these are the attitudes and actions that bear the stamp of
authentic discipleship. In effect, Jesus said: Blessed are you if you
love to be unknown and regarded as nothing. All things being equal, to
prefer contempt to honor, to prefer ridicule to praise, to prefer
humiliation to glory – those are formulas of greatness in the new Israel
of God.”
Jeremiah 29:1-13
My
favorite Bible verses of all time is verse 11. “For I know the plans I
have for you” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm
you, plans to give you hope and a future.” While this is my favorite
verse I have a love hate relationship with this verse because when times
are hard you look at this and think, what is going on?!?!
Brennan,
“In most of our lives we have the impression the world has done us
considerable harm and comparatively little good. Yet if the Abba of
Jesus loves us, if he pursues us as a tremendous Lover who is dying (in
his Son) to be with us, then we are committed to the notion that his
world, the work of his hands, is out to do us good.
Let
me reiterate this is a normal everyday New International Version of the
Bible. It does however have some very humbling and yet at times very in
your face excerpts from the many different books written by Brennan
Manning. IF you are an extremely conservative Christian this is probably
not the Bible for you. IF you are the type of Christian who Jesus
himself would probably come sit with at the dinner table because you are
pathetically broken and humbly seeking some sort of guidance and peace
this Bible is for YOU!!
No comments:
Post a Comment