"Abba, a colloquial form of address used by little children toward their father and best translated Papa or Daddy, opened up the possibility of undreamed-of, unheard-of intimacy with God... Indeed, intimacy is one of the greatest treasures Jesus has brought us."
Peter Van Breemen, Called by Name
"Abba. The over tones of this small word will always escape us. Yet in it we sense the intense intimacy of Jesus with his Father. We touch the heart of his faith. We come to understand the mind of Christ."
"The parables of divine mercy -- the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son--are all rooted in Jesus' own experience of the Father. He speaks in light of this reality. These stories were intended not only to defend his notorious conduct with sinners, but to startle his critics by cracking though their conventional ways of thinking about God. Jesus skewered his opponents with words to this effect, 'The harlots who have no imagined righteousness to protect will be dancing into the Kingdom while you have your alleged virtue burned out of you! Hear me well: I have come to announce the dawn of a new age, an era of incredible generosity. Allow yourselves to be captivated by the joy and the wonder at the surpassing greatness of my Father's love for the lost; set it over against your own joyless, loveless, thankless, and self-righteous lives. Let go of your circumscribed notion of morality. Cease from your loveless ways. Celebrate the homecoming of the lost and rejoice in my Father's munificence.'"
"The proclamation of the kingdom was born from the urgency in the heart of Jesus. It was crucial that he bring the Good News of the gospel of grace; if only people could realize their own belovedness, their lives would be transformed and a new kingdom would spring into being."
"You and I not only are invited but actually called to enter into this warm and liberating experience of God as Abba. In Romans 8, Paul is explicit: 'You have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba, Father!"(Romans 8:15 NASB). We are privileged to share in the intimacy of Jesus with his Father. We are called to live and to celebrate the same freedom that made Jesus so attractive and authentic."
Brennan Manning, The Signature of Jesus
