Book Club: Abba's Child by Brennan Manning
Hi Everyone,
It's been a few weeks since we ended Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton, and I think it's about time we started up our next book. In the future, we could pick a title by group consensus or what have you, but right now, one I've been dying to go through with a group is Abba's Child by Brennan Manning. No free downloads this time. Used copies run as low as 2 dollars. It's fairly popular as well, so you'd probably be able to find it in a library, if it came right down to it.
We had some solid discussions with Orthodoxy, but I'll be the first to admit it was quite heady and quite dense. This book, not so much, but in many ways it is more powerful. It has this way of cutting straight to the heart; evidence of hard-earned wisdom and intimacy with Christ. It's also a much more approachable read.
From the back cover:
Is an impostor robbing you of God’s love? Many Christians have bought into the lie that we are worthy of God’s love only when our lives are going well. If our families are happy or our jobs are meaningful, life is a success. But when life begins to fall through the cracks and embarrassing sins threaten to reveal our less-than-perfect identity, we scramble to keep up a good front to present to the world––and God. We cower and hide until we can rearrange the mask of perfection and look good again. Sadly, it is then that we wonder why we lack intimate relationships and a passionate faith. Yet all this time God is calling us to take the mask off and come openly to Him. God longs for us to know in the depth of our being that He loves us and accepts us as we are. When we are our true selves, we can finally claim our identity as God’s child-Abba’s child-and experience His pure pleasure in who we are. Brennan Manning encourages readers to let go of the impostor lifestyle and freely accept our belovedness as a child of the heavenly Father. In Him there is life, our passion is rekindled, and our union with Him is His greatest pleasure.
I've already read this book; thus, I feel ready to begin fostering discussion around it. We'll be discussing it much in the same format as last time - chapter by chapter.
Does everyone think they can obtain a copy to begin reading by Thursday, the 26th, in preparation for the Chapter 1 discussion on Thursday, the 3rd?
Posted Apr 18, 2012, 12:38 AM UTC · edited