My brother Patrick gave this quick read me. You can get through the 136 pages in one sitting if you’d like but I think it’s a book that’s best consumed in spurts with time to mull over Brennan Manning’s meditation on God’s love for us. Truthfully, the author’s writing style isn’t my favorite--it’s flowery and over the top at times--but despite my purely personal opinion the book has heft and a message that’s powerful in its simplicity: God loves you in a very personal way that’s filled with madness, desire, and joy. In particular, I appreciated his exposition on Zephaniah 3:17:
The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
A pastor and friend shared that verse with me after Emily and I had gone through two miscarriages and we found out we were pregnant again (with a baby who would turn out to be Betty). During that year (2012), we found out we’d been chosen to adopt a newborn baby (Macee) and 7 months later Betty was born. This verse crushed me. Emily and I had been through such a dark valley with losing two babies and had questioned so much and then God broke through with such extravagance and abundance, such prodigal love. Such a special verse for me.
This book likely has a message for any reader, most importantly this: “Our religion never begins with what we do for God. It always starts with what God has done for us.”
See our 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 Reading Lists.
Key Quotes:
21 “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.” Song of Solomon 7:10 (good verse to pray every day)
31 “Abba, I belong to you.” Prayer of meditation and repetition.
46 “The love of God is madness” (or folly) chanted during French Easter services as “L’amour de Dieu est folie.”
76 “Christians find it easier to believe that God exists than that God loves them.” -Basil Hume
77 “In human beings, love is a quality, a high-prized virtue; in God, love is an identity.” thus--God is love.
126 “Our religion never begins with what we do for God. It always starts with what God has done for us.”
For further study:
23 Zephaniah 3:17 God dances for joy because of you. The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you,but will rejoice over you with singing.” (NIV) The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing. (ESV)
64 Thomas Brodie commentary on Gospel of John https://www.amazon.com/Gospel-According-John-Theological-Commentary/dp/0195118111
Key Takeaways:
22 The author’s hope for you is that you shift from a “I should pray” mentality to a “I must pray mentality.”
29 the idea of fury with regard God’s love and longing is that of intense energy
38 The foundation of God’s furious longing is love
51 Song of Solomon 2:10-14 is what a French scholar believes God said to Jesus as he was dying on the cross:
My beloved speaks and says to me:
“Arise, my love, my beautiful one,
and come away,
11 for behold, the winter is past;
the rain is over and gone.
12 The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of singing[d] has come,
and the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree ripens its figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my beautiful one,
and come away.
14 O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
in the crannies of the cliff,
let me see your face,
let me hear your voice,
for your voice is sweet,
and your face is lovely.
56 When a leprous illiterate woman heard the voice of God as she lay dying, she told Manning that God said this to her:
Come now, my love. My lovely one, come.
For you, the winter has passed, the
Snows are over and gone, the flowers
Appear in the land, the season of
Joyful songs has come.
The cooing of the turtledove
Is heard in our land.
Come now, my love. My Yolanda, come.
Let me see your face. And let me hear
Your voice, for your voice is sweet
And your face is beautiful.
Come now, my love, my lovely one,
Come.
62 Manning makes the point/conclusion that there is no division of God’s love--he loves us just as much as he loves Jesus! This is a powerful truth that must shift our outlook in life and with regard to our own self-worth and value. (John 17:22-25)
68 God doesn’t want a relationship with us. He wants UNION--he wants oneness!
88 Manning argues that Jesus’ entire message can be summed up in Galatians 5:6: “the only thing that matters is the faith that expresses itself in love.” Being Christlike, being most like God means “loving the most.”
93 Beautiful example in the book of a boy named Larry Malaney, whose father modeling Christ’ furious love, loved him so publicly and overwhelmingly that it changed the whole direction of his life.
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