Tuesday, June 29, 2010

"Velvet Elvis"-DAY ELEVEN

Here is my interpretation of Chapter Six of "Velvet Elvis":

There are Christians out there that struggle with certain sins and temptations. The problem is that even though they realize they're sinners saved by grace, they let the fact that they're sinners make them feel like they'll never be able to overcome it. Since they feel weighed down and hopeless, they'll keep falling prey to the same sins.

I'm just as guilty of this as anybody else! It's a struggle all of us face. As Christians, we need to realize that when we gave our lives to Jesus, we put off the old sinful nature and try our best to become more like him. He is making us into a new creation, and we have to be able to let him do his job. We're not going to get things right 100 percent of the time, but we have to rely on the grace and mercy we receive from Jesus, start again, and try not to get wrapped up in the sin that entangles us.

Each human being is given a choice of which kind of life they want to lead. They can choose to follow God or reject him...it's that simple. All human beings are offered the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. It's all a matter of whether we accept it or not. Listen to how Rob Bell describes this choice.

"Heaven is full of forgiven people. Hell is full of forgiven people. Heaven is full of people God loves, whom Jesus died for. Hell is full of forgiven people God loves, whom Jesus died for. The difference is how we choose to live, which story we choose to live in, which version of reality we trust. Ours or God's."

Basically, what Bell is saying here is the difference between people in Heaven and people in Hell all comes down to whether or not they accepted the forgiveness and salvation that was offered to them. The ones in Hell (as Bell puts it) chose a reality of their own making instead of God's.

Rick Warren has said that life on Earth is a dress rehearsal for eternity. That kept popping into my head as Bell talked about Heaven and Hell being present realities.

"For Jesus, heaven and hell were present realities. Ways of living we can enter into here and now. He talked very little of the life beyond this one because he understood that the life beyond this one is a continuation of the kinds of choices we make here and now. For Jesus, the question wasn't, how do I get into Heaven? but how do I bring heaven here? The question wasn't, how do I get in there? But how do I get there, here?"

Think about the times you've turned on the TV and seen footage of the damage left behind by various disasters (the flooding in Nashville, the earthquake in Haiti, the rubble left behind after a suicide bombing in Iraq). This is Hell on earth. Bell says there's also Hell on earth where poverty, injustice, and suffering exist. As Christians, we need to fight these things because that's what Jesus would want us to do.

When we do acts of kindness as a representative of Jesus, we are bringing Heaven to earth. Think about the times you may have mowed a yard for someone who couldn't do it themselves. How about a time when you helped in an extensive home repair project? If you've done it to the least of these, you've done it for Jesus, and you have brought Heaven to earth.

Life on earth is a dress rehearsal for eternity. If you bring Heaven to earth by believing in Jesus and being the best witness that you can possibly be, you will be with Him for eternity in a new Heaven and a new Earth (Revelation 20-21).

(One more chapter to go!! Thanks for reading!)

Friday, June 11, 2010

"Velvet Elvis"-DAY TEN

Today, I'm covering Chapter 5 of "Velvet Elvis".

This was probably one of the easiest chapters to read because Bell uses this chapter to describe how Jewish children were raised and related it to how Jesus ran his ministry.

The Jewish education system went like this:

-The first level was called "Bet Sefer" ("House of the Book"). Starting at the age of 6, all children were required to learn "The Torah" (the name given to the first 5 books of the Bible; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). They were expected to have "The Torah" memorized by the age of 10.

-The second level was called "Bet Talmud" ("House of Learning"). This would last from age 10 to 14. Students would memorize the rest of the Hebrew scriptures. The top students would have the ENTIRE Old Testament memorized. Anyone who didn't go to this level of education would learn the family trade.

-The third level was called "Bet Midrash" ("House of Study"). A student would choose a rabbi they wanted to follow and be one of his disciples (or "talmidim"). The rabbi would question the student on how much knowledge he had of the scriptures to see if the student had what it took to be a rabbi. He would either accept the student as his disciple or tell him to go home and learn the family trade. He only wanted the best of the best.

Think for a moment about what happens during that third level of education, especially the point about the rabbi only wanting the best of the best as his disciples.

Who did Jesus chose to be his disciples?? FISHERMEN!!! These were people probably not considered to be "the best of the best", but Jesus chose them as his disciples. Jesus saw their potential. He knew what they could be when everyone else couldn't see it.

Check out this quote from Rob Bell: "A rabbi would only pick a disciple who he thought could actually do what he was doing. Notice how many places in the accounts of Jesus' life he gets frustrated with his disciples. Because they are incapable? No, because of how capable they are. He sees what they could be and could do, and when they fall short, it provokes him to no end. It isn't their failure that's the problem; it's their greatness. They don't realize what they are capable of."

With all my sins and screw ups I commit on a daily basis, I'm glad Jesus chose me anyway. I didn't have to be "the best of the best". I just have to try and be as much like him as possible.

Thanks for reading!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

"Velvet Elvis"-DAY NINE

"People who are starting churches, or want to someday, often ask me when I knew it was time to do it. And I actually have a coherent answer: I knew it was time when I no longer cared if it was successful."

The above statement made by Rob Bell had to be one of my favorite quotes of Chapter 4 of "Velvet Elvis". In this chapter, he opens up a lot about how Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan got its start, along with the successes and pitfalls that went with it. I really appreciated his openness in this chapter.

Bell says the idea for planting a church started when his family was living in Los Angeles. They visited a church they heard about called Christian Assembly. It turned out to be an extremely rewarding experience.

"It was like nothing I had experienced before. This community was exploding with creativity and life-it was like people woke up on Sunday morning and asked themselves, 'What would I like to do today more than anything else? How about going to a church service?' I could not get my mind around this at first. This concept was so new and fresh-people who gathered because they wanted to."

While attending Christian Assembly on a regular basis, Bell concluded that this was the church should be about...a group of people desperate to experience God...a group of people who wanted to connect and grow closer to God without all the fluff and hype. Using this idea, Bell planted a church with his wife Kristin.

Bell describes the shock at having over 1,000 people attend the first service at Mars Hill with NO promotion. Over the next couple of years, the congregation grew to over 10,000 people. They eventually had to purchase an abandoned mall to fit all the people in.

Unfortunately, the more the church grew, Bell started to feel overwhelmed. It felt like he had to be a "superpastor" and please as many people as possible. It got to the point where he hid in a storage closet between services one Sunday and didn't want to continue!

He decided he needed to get help and find out what the source of the problem was. He started seeing a therapist with his wife. The therapist told him, "Your job is the relentless pursuit of who God has made you to be. And anything else you do is sin and you need to repent of it." It was at that point Bell realized that he was trying too hard to please other people instead of working on who God made him to be.

I repeat...I admire his honesty!!

Bell applies his story to our lives, because all of us deal with something like this. "I meet so many people who have superwhatever rattling around in their head. They have this person they are convinced they are supposed to be, and their superwhatever is killing them. They have this image they picked up over the years of how they are supposed to look and act and work and play and talk, and it's like a voice that never stops shouting in their ear. And the only way to not be killed by it is to shoot first. Yes, that is what I meant to write. You have to kill your superwhatever. And you have to do it right now. Because your superwhatever will rob you of today and tomorrow and the next day until you take it out back and end its life."

Bell refers to the story in Luke 8:43-48 about the woman who had an illness for 12 years and touched Jesus' cloak to be healed. Jesus told her to go in peace. Bell says that most of us think peace means an "absence of conflict", but there's much more to it than that.

"Shalom is the presence of the goodness of God. It's the presence of the wholeness, completeness. So when Jesus tells the woman to go in peace, he is placing the blessing of God on ALL of her. Not just her physical body. He is blessing her with God's presence on her entire being. And this is because for Jesus, salvation is holistic in nature. For Jesus, being saved or reconciled to God involves far more than just the saving of your physical body or soul-it involves all of you. God's desire is for us to live in harmony with him-body, soul, spirit, mind, emotions-every inch of our being."

The bottom line is Jesus wants to heal us of what is ailing us...not just physical healing, but spiritual as well. In order for us to be healed, we need to be willing to open up to Him about the junk in our lives and let Him restore us.

Thanks for reading!