"Do you believe that God is for you?"
Still reading Rob Bell's book, What We Talk About When We Talk About God. This excerpt I post below really touched me because it's so not what I learned about God growing up - my God wasn't "for me", he was at best ignoring me and at worst out to get me, because I wasn't and never would be good enough. Here's the excerpt (pp. 127 - 137) ...
***** ***** *****
Do you believe that God is for you?
Do you believe that God's desire is that you flourish, thrive, shine?
Do you believe God wants you to be everything you could possibly be as you become more and more and more your true self?
I do.
[...]
Gospel is the shocking, provocative, revolutionary, subversive, counterintuitive good news that in your moments of greatest despair, failure, sin, weakness, losing, failing, frustration, inability, helplessness, wandering, and falling short, God meets you there - right there - right exactly there - in that place, and announces, I am on your side.
Gospel insists that God doesn’t wait for us to get ourselves polished, shined, proper, and without blemish. God comes to us and meets us and blesses us while we are still in the middle of the mess we created.
Gospel isn’t us getting it together so that we can have God’s favor; gospel is us finding God exactly in the moment of our greatest not-togetherness.
Gospel is grace, and grace is a gift. You don’t earn a gift; you simply receive it. You don’t make it happen; you wake up to what has already happened.
Gospel isn’t doing enough good to be worthy; it’s your eyes being opened to your unworthiness and to Jesus’s insistence that that was never the way it worked in the first place.
Being a good person, then, naturally flows not from trying to get on God’s good side but from your realization that God has been on your side the whole time.
Gospel calls you to a major change in thinking, a giant shift in understanding, a massive leap in how you see yourself, otherwise, you’re stuck in the same old points program, trying to earn what is already yours.
***** ***** *****
***** ***** *****
Do you believe that God is for you?
Do you believe that God's desire is that you flourish, thrive, shine?
Do you believe God wants you to be everything you could possibly be as you become more and more and more your true self?
I do.
[...]
Gospel is the shocking, provocative, revolutionary, subversive, counterintuitive good news that in your moments of greatest despair, failure, sin, weakness, losing, failing, frustration, inability, helplessness, wandering, and falling short, God meets you there - right there - right exactly there - in that place, and announces, I am on your side.
Gospel insists that God doesn’t wait for us to get ourselves polished, shined, proper, and without blemish. God comes to us and meets us and blesses us while we are still in the middle of the mess we created.
Gospel isn’t us getting it together so that we can have God’s favor; gospel is us finding God exactly in the moment of our greatest not-togetherness.
Gospel is grace, and grace is a gift. You don’t earn a gift; you simply receive it. You don’t make it happen; you wake up to what has already happened.
Gospel isn’t doing enough good to be worthy; it’s your eyes being opened to your unworthiness and to Jesus’s insistence that that was never the way it worked in the first place.
Being a good person, then, naturally flows not from trying to get on God’s good side but from your realization that God has been on your side the whole time.
Gospel calls you to a major change in thinking, a giant shift in understanding, a massive leap in how you see yourself, otherwise, you’re stuck in the same old points program, trying to earn what is already yours.
***** ***** *****
posted by crystal | 1:03 PM
4 Comments:
(((Do you believe that God is for you?
Do you believe that God's desire is that you flourish, thrive, shine?
Do you believe God wants you to be everything you could possibly be as you become more and more and more your true self?
I do.)))
Don't YA ever be the same kind of fool Crystal cause these Two per cent, "I" mean, sent age cells of Victor' "ONE" soul and Jesus who are nothing butt little retardo if they think that we 98% gods will someday be last and never will we gods accept and/or believe that this "Jesus" was ever a god like we, we are NOW!
Crystal, we've done a LOT to help these cells of Victor and long story short, these 2% spiritual cells are trying to rub U>S (usual sinners) the wrong WAY by insisting that this "HOLY SPIRIT" is just as powerful as "HIS FATHER" who is "ONE" with this "Jesus" NOW.
Enough is enough! Right Crystal? Some of these imaginary cells of Victor keep telling U>S that we're no more important than Dandy Lions and Victor keeps telling U>S gods that he'll treat all of U>S like them if we ever matter, "I" mean materialize and try to take over his MILKY WAY. Crystal, "I" know that YA LUV U>S so can't YA tell Victor that his so called Jesus have no right to destroy Lions and can't YA call Victor's heart of heart http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQyJ1Mn_16k and tell him that we 98% godly cells really have nothing against Victor's feminine cells and "I" only say this if they exist like his so called Jesus does NOW?
As a matter of spiritual reality fact, be "IT" known that we wish that this Jesus was really for real cause we luv "IT" when he told humanity to do as we alien say but not as we do. Hey! Why are humans not listening to this Jesus and listening to U>S gods NOW and.....
End YA say sinner vic?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMxsdZ7PYW8
YES Victor butt what do your feminine godly cells say about "IT" all NOW?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W9zQD8KYew
Go Figure!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf5UfOuvQHQ
Peace
Wow! Thank you for posting this Crystal! Just the reminder I needed today :)
Hi Dyan :)
DO YOU BELIEVE WHAT YOU PROCLAIM?
Many believers proclaim certain things that they believe to be factual, but do their actions comport with their assertions?
Example number one: Many claim that the 1611 version of the King James Bible is the only accurate English translation of the Bible. The problem is the original 1611 King James Bible contained 80 books. The 14 books of the apocrypha were included in the original 1611 King James Version. The so-called 1611 King James Bible found in most book stores is actually the 1769 King James Version with the 14 apocryphal books removed.
King James only advocates do not read the original 1611 King James Bible.
Example number two: Faith only believers deny that water baptism is not essential in order to become saved. They discredit what Jesus said in Mark 16:16 "...and is baptized will be saved," by saying that because some of the earliest manuscripts did not have Mark 16:9-20, therefore Mark 16:16 should not be included in the Bible.
If they really believe that Mark 16:9-20 should not be in the Bible, then they should take scissors and cut it out of their Bibles. Does this happen? I doubt that it does.
Example number three: More than a few who deny the water baptism is for the forgiveness of sins say that Acts 2:38 has been mistranslated. They state that the Greek "eis" translated for the forgiveness of sins should have been translated because of the forgiveness of sins. I know of no translation that translates "eis" as because of, in Acts 2:38. I have checked out 60+ translations.
If men believe the Greek "eis" in Acts 2:38 should have been translated as because of, then they should take a black maker and blot out for and write in because of. Does this happen? I would guess it does not.
DO MEN REALLY BELIEVE WHAT THEY PROCLAIM TO BE TRUE?
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