All is grace

One of my 30 things was to buy someone a random present. I did this recently which was fun and the present I bought for a friend was All is grace because I know Brennan Manning is one of her favourite people. I also bought it for another friend for their birthday. My 'random present friend' chatted to me at church this morning with tears in her eyes and said that she read it in one sitting. His story deeply, deeply moved her.

You see there are tons of people who talk about the gospel, the Bible and the church and the 'this' and the 'that' and other peoples 'this's' and 'that's' but they forget to talk about grace or worse still experience it. Some people (you know 'some people') say Manning hasn't got it all worked out quite right (which is quite possibly true) but to be honest he is in good company there because nor have I and nor have you although we may be on the way :)

As it happens, someone else also came up to me yesterday to tell me they are reading 'What's so amazing about grace?' and exclaimed "It's amazing!" I know grace is completely amazing and Yancey's book is too and I would medicate everyone reading it at least once a year to keep their hearts soft and demeanour un-brittle.  My church complain to me on the odd occasion because I speak about grace really quite a bit-in fact boringly often. I do this because it took me so long to grasp it and I pray daily that I continue to grasp it. D L Moody once said, "A man can no more take in a supply of grace for the future than he can eat enough for the next six months, or take sufficient air into his lungs at one time to sustain life for a week. We must draw upon God's boundless store of grace from day to day, as we need it." Brennan Manning is a man who has clearly encountered grace too and drawn on it often- so often perhaps that it offends some.  If you want a book you might read in one sitting this may be it.

You might also like to listen to this called 'A Counter-culture of Grace'.