Team Rob or John?
Now you can wear your opinion in the recent Rob Bell controversy. I don’t know whether this is hilarious or sad. Click here to order a shirt.
Now you can wear your opinion in the recent Rob Bell controversy. I don’t know whether this is hilarious or sad. Click here to order a shirt.
Sir Rabindranath Tagore
I’ll give you a heads up in advance. This post is longer than normal so if you are skimming for a soundbite you may want to stop here. If you’re still interested, pull up a chair and engage your mind for a few moments.
You may or may not be aware of the American Church Politics that go on from time to time. It’s mostly petty and always damaging. One group or another is quick to tell all of their people why they should boycott some other influential Christian or ministry. The last time I engaged in the drama was when they were boycotting Paul Young’s book The Shack.
This time it’s a new book from Rob Bell called Love Wins. While Rob isn’t new to the conspiracy limelight it does appear he’s outdone himself this time. Check out this promo video for the book (and don’t miss this… it isn’t even out yet).
With today’s technology a good way to get a grasp on the situation is to see what is being said on Twitter. To help you see a glimpse of the gravity of the reactions let me highlight a few tweets for you that caught my attention. Keep in mind that one of the things this particular group doing the attacking has become known for is criticizing books they haven’t read. It was a topic of much discussion regarding The Shack as I referenced earlier.
My wife and I live in an area that doesn’t have much for fine dining near us. Other than a good sushi place there isn’t much that we frequent around us. So we were a bit surprised when one of our friends recommended Salerno’s Pizzeria that is very close to us. We’ve driven by it numerous times. And each time I think that it isn’t a place I’d like. The location looks obscure and having the word “pizzeria” makes me think of some casual lunch place. But we decided to trust our friends and give it a shot.
Immediately I was a bit shocked when we arrived and had a 20 minute wait. This is a place in a strip mall that doesn’t appear to be a big attraction. But the food was unbelievable! As we were savoring each dish we noticed how much the other customers were raving about the experience and how much the employees seemed to enjoy their jobs.
But the kicker was meeting Debbie. (more…)
It’s been an interesting thought process as I’ve been wrestling through that T.S. Eliot quote I referenced in part 1 of this series.
The irony is that doing the right things can sometimes push you farther away from God. That’s why motive matters. It can also lead you closer to Him, but that is what we’d expect. But I think most of us would be shocked to think of doing something good and the end result being a greater separation between us and God. As Tim Keller put it in his book about the story of the Prodigal Sons:
“If, like the elder brother, you seek to control God through your obedience, then all your morality is just a way to use God to make him give you the things in life you really want.†Tim Keller, Prodigal God
