My Response to Rob Bell's Controversial New Book:

Acts 4:12
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.

Rob Bell is a Pastor and author from Grand Rapids, MI.  He's authored and produced numerous books and DVDs.  I, for one, am a huge fan of his Nooma DVD series.  So, what got this Pastor stuck in a controversy that's gone so far as to label him a "heretic" by some Christians?

In his new book, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived:

"Bell raises questions about a central tenet for some evangelicals: that only saved Christians will avoid the fiery depths of hell. Bell argues that many people are turned off by overly harsh ideas of God and urges Christians to focus more on improving conditions on Earth than worrying about the afterlife."

The article from the Detroit Free Press explains it further by saying:

'"On the issue of whether Gandhi is in hell, Bell's conclusions are unclear. But he allows for the idea that non-Christians might be able to embrace Jesus after they die, or that they might have experienced Jesus unknowingly.

But overall, "these are areas of speculation, and when people build doctrines and dogmas on speculation, that's not, as a Christian, our calling. And we can cause untold heartache and destruction when we do that."

And so, Bell says, the focus should be to improve "all the hells on Earth right now, from genocide to rape to abuse to financial scams."'

Needless to say, this perspective has many Christians in a rage...and I don't blame them.  One one hand, I'm feeling a bit similar when I think it through...but on the other hand, there is a part of me that understands what he's trying to say.   There is a part of me that has thought these same thoughts- I just didn't have the guts to say them out loud.

You see, I agree with the great need for LOVE to be the central thing on which our lives our based.  Jesus says it Himself.  The two greatest commandments are based on this concept...love God and love others.  He's right in saying that so many of us are so caught up in the afterlife...that we forget to live life TODAY.  In the here and now.

There is a phrase that says: "Don't be so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good"...and that phrase carries a little truth.  It always breaks my heart to see the "side of the road" Christians with their "REPENT OR GO TO HELL" signs...so focused on the afterlife that they are doing more damage then good.  But on the other hand, it's believing in the joy that is to come that should motivate us to live a life of love here and now. 

So at the end of the day here's my conclusion about all of this Rob Bell stuff: It doesn't really matter.

First of all, you and I as Christians should stop being so opinionated, debating every passing thing and having judgments on all things spoken.  Rather...let's focus on our own lives first.  Jesus reminds us to fix our own lives first, before we attempt to speak into the lives of others.   Easier said than done, Jesus.  It's scary getting to the nitty-gritty of who we really are...and so much easier to focus our efforts on others.

Secondly, no matter what our beliefs or speculations- whether or not the "Mahatma Ghandis" are going to end up in heaven or hell...it never hurts us to always assume the worst. 

What I mean by that is that we should never assume the people we know and love are in a relationship with Jesus.  Whether Mormon, or Buddhist, or none of the above...what will it hurt for us to show the love of Jesus?  What will it hurt for us to share the truth that has changed our lives?  The unknown should always cause us to live more passionately rather than sedate us. 

Love should always breed more love.  And that love, no matter our underlying theology, is what really speaks the loudest.  God's Spirit is powerful and alive...and it will do in hearts what we could never do.  That we have to believe. 

So at the end of the day, no matter what your response to this guy and his thoughts...in all that you say and do...make sure you are loving more today than you did yesterday.  Make sure you are sharing Christ more fervently than ever before.  Make sure you are reflecting Jesus to this lost, hurting, and broken world.  Make sure to love. Love.  Love.

"By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

That, my friends, is the only legitimate response. 

Is that you, Jesus?

John 4:25-26
 ²⁵ The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
 ²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

I was just reflecting on this passage about Jesus and his conversation with the Samaritan woman.   It struck me when I read the last two verses of the dialogue that all this time this woman was speaking with the Messiah and she didn't have a clue.

Here was the one she had been waiting for, here was the Answer to the questions she had.  Yet, so caught up in the tasks of the day...that Jesus went unnoticed.  Just another day.  Just another list of chores.  Just another man.  

I think about the scriptures and how apt humans are to miss Him.   Looking for fire when He came in the whisper.  Distracted by doubt when the embodiment of Faith was walking right beside them.  Waiting for a miracle, when the Miracle Maker was right there waiting to make their dreams come true.  Listening for His voice, though He had been calling our name the entire time.  


It's easy to miss Him, isn't it?  It's easy to go throughout our day, our weeks...and our lives without ever catching a glimpse of Him when He shows up.  We are so blinded by our own expectations of how He should make Himself known that sometimes we don't even recognize Him in our lives.  It's easy to find ourselves wondering- "Is that you, Jesus?"  

But thankfully, we serve a God who will not allow us to get in the way of His love.  We serve a God who will do whatever it takes in order to teach us to recognize Him.  He is relentless in his pursuit of our hearts - whether it takes the roar of a burning bush...or the sacrifice of His very life...

Take a moment today to look for Him.  Take a moment to recognize His presence in your life.  Take a moment to hear the beautiful words that He declares through all the madness and clutter of our lives: I, who speak to you, am He. 

 

What Does Jesus Thirst For?

 

 

[A gracious thank you to Father Nathan, serving as a Monk at the Community of Saint John, for taking the time to share with us what Jesus is teaching him during this season of Lent]

 

John 19:28

 And Jesus said, "I thirst."

The thirst of Jesus  as recorded here surely refers to the thirst he suffered as one crucified.  After all, many experts have written on the deep and insatiable thirst a crucified man would undergo.  

 

However, since Christ did nothing in vain, and the Holy Spirit willed this particular cry of thirst to be written, "For our salvation," (Jn. 20:31), perhaps we need to listen to his thirst from a deeper perspective.

The thirst of Christ on the Cross is prefigured by the other place where he refers to his thirst -- John 4.  In his dialogue with the Samaritan woman, Jesus' thirst, revealed to the Samaritan, is actually a thirst for her Faith, more than for water.  

 

Jesus thirsts for an opening, the opening of her heart to Him and His salvation, more than for physical water. Indeed, the gift He comes to bring satisfies for a lifetime, whereas the water she comes to draw will leave her thirsty again.  

When he speaks, "I thirst," again, this time from the Cross.  We may legitimately ask, "For what do you thirst, Jesus?"  What will He answer us?  What could He possibly desire upon the Cross more than our salvation, our love, our adoration for His Father?  

 

To respond to Jesus' thirst means to give Jesus to drink from our own hearts, by offering ourselves as "living sacrifices" (Rom. 12) to God under the upward motion of the Holy Spirit.  Indeed, to offer God the "new wine" (Jn. 2) of an adoration "in spirit and in truth" (Jn. 4) by the members of His body, fully inflamed by the love of the heart of the Son for the Father (Jn 15), is the glory of the Son.  

 

May we slake His thirst this Lent and always.  Let us pray!

Father Nathan

www.communityofstjohn.com

www.soaringforwisdom.com

www.marianfaithnetwork.com

www.saintjohnsummerconference.com

A Familiar Enemy:

John 7:5
For even his own brothers did not believe in him. 

There is something to be said about the dangerous reality of this verse.   The truth is, Jesus' own brothers did not grasp the miracle of who He was.  They ate, slept, played and lived together day in and day out.  But eventually, the familiarity of who He was began to set in...and the glory of who He was never birthed in their lives.

I don't know about you, but that's a sobering reality in my life as well.  Sometimes the familiarity trumps the glory. 

It's easy to live my life and get used to the awe and wonder of who Jesus is.  It's easy to take for granted His presence each and every single day, getting so comfortable with that truth that I never take the time to truly soak it in, to truly experience Him.

For me and you, the most dangerous enemy of our passion is familiarity.  It's an enemy whose mission is clear: "Take nothing from your victim, cause him only to take everything for granted."  It's an enemy that sneaks up on us without making a noise, leaving no hint of it's approach.  Leaving no trace that it came, until it has permeated every part of our lives...leaving behind the symptoms of apathy, doubt, and disbelief.

May you never grow so accustomed to your faith that you allow the seeds of familiarity to take root in your heart.  May you learn to wake up every morning and recognize His mercies as new.   May you be refreshed and reacquainted with His glory this season of Lent.

Why the Catholics have it Right (this time)...

Matthew 6:16-18
    ¹⁶ “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ¹⁷ But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, ¹⁸ so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Let me be honest.  This is my first year to participate in Lent.  For me, this season of the year has never been that big-a-deal.  I remember in high school viewing Lent as a thing that "the Catholics" did.  My friends would come into class with some sort of dirt smeared on their foreheads, and then I would know Lent had began.


I mean, I always looked at my Catholic friends and felt sorry for them for all the things they had to do and the particular ways they had to do them.  I was grateful to be a part of a faith with very little "rules and regulations", a faith based on the principles of love and relationship.  And to be honest, I'm still grateful.


But one thing I'm realizing is this: we "evangelicals" have it too easy.  WAY too easy.  We've overcompensated so much in fear of entering into tradition and rituals that we have forgotten that maintaining a relationship with God requires some labor.  We get lost in the privilege of grace and forget that we are called to work out our faith with "fear and trembling".   What I believe that God means by that is this: put a little work into it! 


We tend to put our faith in "cruise-control" mode and neglect the spiritual disciplines that are involved in really experiencing God to the fullest.  


I've been reminded of my tendency to "cruise" through my faith as I've been going through Richard Foster's Book called Celebration of Discipline.  He takes 12 disciplines that have been foundational in the pursuit of our relationship with God and unfolds each one.


Coincidentally, (though there really is no such thing as a coincidence), my chapter on the discipline of Fasting coincides with this season of Lent.  And boy, has it been good.


Through my reading, I've been reminded of my need to work out my faith. 

This fast has been beneficial in so many ways.  But one thing in particular is that it has taught me to clear unnecessary coping mechanisms from my life.  The things I tend to run to when I am stressed, overwhelmed, and bored...are no longer available.

I'm left with me, myself, and my raw emotions.  Nowhere to run.  Nowhere to hide.  Nothing to numb.  I used to say that "oh....I'm just grumpy because I'm hungry....tired....thirsty..." whatever.  But now that these certain things have been purged from my life I come face to face with the reality that I am angry, miserable, and discontent....because of the things I have inside of my heart.  


There are no more excuses.  


In fasting, we come face to face with who we are.  In fasting, the things that have been clogging up our time, attention, and emotion are no longer given the authority to numb us.  In fasting, all of the things we have been trying to hide finally make their way to the surface...


And our gracious God takes His nail-pierced hand, and skims them away.  


This season of Lent is teaching me a lot about myself.  It's allowing me to see myself in a way that I haven't had the ability to see before, when my vision was clouded.  I am sad, silly and ignorant.   But in turn, it's taught me so much about my God.  

He's always known I was this sad, silly, and ignorant...yet, He loves me still.  That is beautiful to me. 


Happy Lent.  


PS. To all my Catholic friends...all my love and respect.  Don't knock the title of this post...it was just to get you reading ;)  See....it worked. 

Put Your Hands in the Air....

Psalm 63:3-4
³ Because your love is better than life,
   my lips will glorify you.
⁴ I will praise you as long as I live,
   and in your name I will lift up my hands. 

Last week my husband and I attended a Chris Tomlin concert.  It was an incredible night of worship.  During the concert, speaker Louie Giglio gave an uplifting talk about worship.  The following is my attempt to summarize his words into my own.  


He started off by discussing this concept of "raising your hands" to God during worship.  Some people write it off by saying it's a denominational thing.  "The charismatics raise their hands in church..."

He went on to explain that, no....it's not a matter of denomination.  It's a "human thing".  Louie gave examples all across the world of people, from Christians to Buddhists to none of the above, raising their hands as an act of being "human".

Sporting events...Concerts...Religious Ceremonies...all across our world, humanity raises it's hands as an act of expressing emotion.  Something inside that can no longer be held in.  Something that needs to be released. 

Louie then went on to explain three reasons why we raise our hands:

1.  Surrender:  The First thing that comes to my mind is the phrase "You're under arrest".  If you think about it, the act of surrender seems to always include hands raised to heaven.  In a sense we are saying, "I give up...I am submitting to you".  How many of us need to raise our hands in surrender?  How many of us have chosen to do things our way time and time again?  It's time to give in.  It's time to surrender.

2.  Celebration: People all over the world lift their hands to celebrate.  From dancing to music concerts to football games.  It's easy to raise our hands for Penn State football...but we shy away from letting our emotions celebrate the love of our God.  It's okay to let it out.  Take some time to celebrate who God is and what He has done in your life.

3.  Desperation:  Maybe you don't feel like you can celebrate.  Maybe your life is at a difficult place right now, and you feel the sting of desperation each and every single day.  You are at the end of your rope with no where else to turn.  You're hoping for a miracle.  Today, raise your hands to God in desperation.  Remind yourself that when all else fails, He is your hope...your last hope.  And those who hope in the Lord will not be let down. 

Don't ever let your "dignity" get in the way of allowing your heart and body to worship the way they were meant to.  No matter where your heart is today...take some time to raise your hands in worship of a God who deserves it. 

A Spirit of Lent all Year Long:

Matthew 26:39

“My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.  Yet not as I will, but as you will.

The Gospels give a graphic account of the agony and desperation Jesus felt as he faced going to the cross.  What must have made it incredibly difficult is that he knew everything that was going to happen (John 18:4). 

According to Matthew 26:38 he said to 3 of his closest followers, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.”  He asked them to “pray and keep watch with me”.  Then he prayed in desperation.  As Luke 22:44 says, “Being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood.”  

Talk about intense prayer.  In the Matthew account it says he prayed 3 times what is quoted above.  "Not as I will, but as You will".  How incredible.  When faced with the hardest circumstance conceivable he yielded his will to his Father and subjected himself to the worst kind of treatment imaginable—being mocked, beaten, humiliated and then crucified.  All because he loved us so deeply that he was willing to give all of himself up for our redemption.

I don’t mean to dwell on the gruesome, but during this season of Lent I am always gripped with all that Jesus was willing to do- all that was required of him- to provide my redemption.  

Fortunately, the suffering did not have the last word.  Death and the grave couldn’t hold him or keep him.  He rose victorious and triumphant over death and the grave.  All for us.  Consequently, I am delivered from the penalty I would have coming because of my sin.  Because he has overcome, so can I.  I can live victoriously and as a follower of Jesus reap the blessing of a purposeful, substantive, and meaningful life now and at the same time enjoy the hope of eternity to come.

In this season of Lent, I am amazed all over again with all that Jesus was willing to do for me—all that he was willing to give up (his very life)!  

And I am convicted with the need to give up my all for him.  I hope it’s not a cop out, but I don’t usually give up anything in particular during this time.  However. this year I have set a goal of losing 5 lbs.  It seems trivial, but it is something I need to do.  

What I really want to also do is give myself completely up for him all year.  It’s a continual struggle.  If I’m honest, too often I tend to do what I want or try to get my way.  Then I’m reminded of Jesus words, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”  (Luke 9:23)  

Thank God for his grace because I fail often.  Yet at the same time I pray continually to keep my heart submitted to him and yielded to his purpose and will.  This is my goal now and always. 

Pastor Omar Zook

Pastor Zook is the Pastor for Pastoral Care at the Evangelical Free Church of Hershey.