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I Live With The Understanding That Truth Is Bigger Than Any Religion And The World Is God's And Everything In It.
-Rob Bell
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I Live With The

Rob Bell
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I Live With The Understanding That Truth Is Bigger Than Any Religion And The World Is God's And Everything In It.

Understanding the Quote: "i live with the understanding that truth is bigger than any religion..."

This quote by Rob Bell reflects deeply on the theme of understanding. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Understanding, World, Truth Is, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Rob Bell interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Rob Bell

Rob Bell is celebrated for insightful thoughts on understanding and world. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Understanding
World
Truth Is
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When People Use The Word Hell, What Do They Mean? They Mean A Place, An Event, A Situation Absent Of How God Desires Things To Be. Famine, Debt, Oppression, Loneliness, Despair, Death, Slaughter--they Are All Hell On Earth. Jesus' Desire For His Followers Is That They Live In Such A Way That They Bring Heaven To Earth. What's Disturbing Is When People Talk More About Hell After This Life Than They Do About Hell Here And Now. As A Christian, I Want To Do What I Can To Resist Hell Coming To Earth.
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I Actually Think There Is Hell Because We See Hell Every Day.
Thinking
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The Peace We Are Offered Is Not A Peace That Is Free From Tragedy, Illness, Bankruptcy, Divorce, Depression, Or Heartache. It Is Peace Rooted In The Trust That The Life Jesus Gives Us Is Deeper, Wider, Stronger, And More Enduring Than Whatever Our Current Circumstances Are, Because All We See Is Not All There Is And The Last Word About Us And Our Struggle Has Not Yet Been Spoken.
Jesus
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You Want People Who Are Both Great Fans And Supporters And Believers Of Your Work And People Who Are Also Ruthlessly Honest. People Who Will Tell You The Truth About It. Over The Years I've Picked Up Some Friends And I Know Who To Show What To And They'll Give Me The Proper Read.
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Christian' Makes A Poor Adjective
Christian
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I'm Interested In Painting The Most Beautifully Compelling Pictures And Images And Metaphors And Stories And Explanations Possible That Will Put Jesus In Language For A World That Desperately Needs To Hear It.
Jesus
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I Got Into Pastoring Because Of The Art Form. I Started A Church, But I Felt The Art Form Needed To Be Freed For All People. A Particular Religion Over Others Was Never Interesting To Me. I Wanted To Talk To People About What It Means To Be Alive And What It Means To Be Human.
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Mean
People
The Cross Is God Taking On Flesh And Blood And Saying, Me Too.
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Blood
Flesh
Do We Get What We Want? Yes, We Get What We Want. God Is That Loving. If We Want Isolation, Despair, And The Right To Be Our Own God, God Graciously Grants Us That Option. If We Insist On Using Our God-given Pwer To Make The World In Our Image, God Allows Us That Freedom; We Have The Kind Of License To Do That.that's How Love Works. It Cant Be Forced, Manipulated, Or Coerced. It Always Leaves Room For The Other To Decide. God Says Yes, We Can Have What We Want, Because Love Wins.
Winning
Yes We Can
Despair
I Get Ideas About Things I Want To Make And Then I Throw Myself Into It With Everything I Have.
Ideas
Want
If We Are Serious About Loving Someone, We Have To Surrender All The Desires Within Us To Manipulate The Relationship.
Loving Someone
Desire
Serious
Something Is Profoundly Wrong And We Are Desperate For Justice, For Restoration And For Somebody Somewhere To Do Something About This.
Justice
Restoration
Desperate
We Can Choose The Way Of Compassion, The Way Of Forgiveness, The Way Of Generosity. Or We Can Choose Other Paths And Those Have Very Real Consequences In The World. This Is Absolutely Crucial.
Real
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Atoms Are A Relationship Of Energy. You Are A Relationship Of Energy Interacting With Another Person Who Is Another Complex Relationship Of Energy. We All Exchange More Than Words With Each Other. . . We Are Made Of The Same Substance As Rocks And Stars. .. We Are An Exotic Cocktail Living On This Planet. .. We Live In This Universe Which Is A Self-transcending Reality
Stars
Reality
Rocks
Love Frees Us To Embrace All Of Our History, The History In Which All Things Are Being Made New.
Embrace
Made
All Things
You Can Be Living In A Big House, Driving A Nice Car, Going On Exotic Vacations And Still Be Empty Inside, Crippled With Fear And Dread.
Nice
Vacation
Car
You Turn The Light On, You Get All Kinds Of Bugs.
Light
Bugs
Kind
Agape Doesn't Love Somebody Because They're Worthy. Agape Makes Them Worthy By The Strength And Power Of Its Love. Agape Doesn't Love Somebody Because They're Beautiful. Agape Loves In Such A Way That It Makes Them Beautiful.
Beautiful
Way
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That Breath That You Just Took, That's A Gift!
Breaths
This Is Misguided And Toxic And Ultimately Subverts The Contagious Spread Of Jesus' Message Of Love, Peace, Forgiveness And Joy That Our World Desperately Needs To Hear.
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The Bible Itself Is A Book That Constantly Must Be Wrestled With And Re-interpreted. ... Bible Interpretation Is Colored By Historical Context, The Reader's Bias And Current Realities. The More You Study The Bible, The More Questions It Raises. It Is Not Possible To Simply Do What The Bible Says.
Book
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Historical
If Anybody Didn't Have A Messiah Complex, It Was Jesus.
Jesus
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Love Demands Freedom. It Always Has, And It Always Will. We Are Free To Resist, Reject, And Rebel Against God's Ways For Us. We Can Have All The Hell We Want.
Rebel
Demand
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The Historical Orthodox Christian Faith Is Extremely Wide And Diverse.
Christian
Historical
Orthodox
Often The People Most Concerned About Others Going To Hell When They Die Seem Less Concerned With The Hells On Earth Right Now, While The People Most Concerned With The Hells On Earth Right Now Seem The Least Concerned About Hell After Death.
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There's Way Too Much Wonder And Mystery All Around Us To Not Stay Open To More That's Going On Here. You Can Wake Up, And Sense And Feel And Taste And Hear A Whole World Right Here Within This One, Right Here In This Breath You're About To Take.
Wake Up
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Too Much
For Many People, God Is Primitive, Behind, Trying To Drag Everything Back To Some Prehistoric Era As Opposed To Spirit, Force, Love, Drawing Us Into A Better Future, Which To Me Is - That Story Has Done Something In Me And I've Seen It Do Things In Other People.
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No One Has The Last Word Other Than God.
Lasts
Last Words
Your Job Is The Relentless Pursuit Of Who God Made You To Be. And Anything Else You Do Is Sin And You Need To Repent Of It.
Jobs
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What You Believe About The Future Shapes, Informs, And Determines How You Live Now.
Believe
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The Ancient Hebrews Had A Word For This Awareness Of The Importance Of Things. They Called It Kavod. Kavod Originally Was A Business Term, Referring To The Heaviness Of Something, Which Was Crucial In Weights And Measures And The Maintaining Of Fairness In Transactions. Over Time The Word Began To Take On A More Figurative Meaning, Referring To The Importance And Significance Of Something.
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Jesus Is Bigger Than Any One Religion. He Didn't Come To Start A New Religion, And He Continually Disrupted Whatever Conventions Or Systems Or Establishments That Existed In His Day. He Will Always Transcend Whatever Cages And Labels Are Created To Contain And Name Him, Especially The One Called "christianity.
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It Is Trusting That I Am Loved. That I Always Have Been. That I Always Will Be. I Don't Have To Do Anything. I Don't Have To Prove Anything, Or Achieve Anything, Or Accomplish One More Thing. That, Exactly As I Am, I Am Totally Accepted, Forgiven, And There Is Nothing I Could Ever Do To Lose This Acceptance.
Acceptance
Accepted
Achieve
And This Reality Extends Beyond This Life. 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.
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The Vibrant, Real Historic Christian Faith Is Very Wide And Leaves Lots And Lots Of Room For Varying Perspectives. It's Very Diverse And Wide, That's Part Of It's Strength, Life And Vibrancy.
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When We Get To What Happens When We Die, We Don't Have Any Video Footage. So Let's At Least Be Honest That We Are Speculating, Because We Are.
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Missions Then Is Less About The Transportation Of God From One Place To Another And More About The Identification Of A God Who Is Already There [...] You See God Where Others Don't. And Then You Point Him Out. So The Issue Isn't So Much Taking Jesus To People Who Don't Have Him, But Going To A Place And Pointing Out To The People The Creative, Life-giving God Who Is Already Present In Their Midst.
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I Thought That Christian Was A Noun, A Person Looking For Authenticity. I Never Understood That Idea That A Band Could Be Christian Or Something Could Be Christian. But It Just Can Be And Is.
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The Danger Is That In Reaction To Abuses And Distortions Of An Idea, We'll Reject It Completely. And In The Process Miss Out On The Good Of It, The Worth Of It, The Truth Of It.
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This Is Why For Thousands Of Years Christians Have Found The Cross To Be So Central To Life. It Speaks To Us Of God's Suffering, God's Pain, God's Broken Heart. It's God Making The First Move And Then Waiting For Our Response.
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Many Of The Most Significant Moments In Our Lives Come Not Because It All Went Right But Because It All Fell Apart
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The Modern World Has Created Airports And Hospitals And Put 10,000 Songs In Our Pocket. It Has Built Gleaming Buildings And Computers And Advances And Innovations That Blow Our Minds. But We Have Soul, And Spirit, And Consciousness, And The Modern World Hasn't Done So Well At Helping Us Name And Understand What It Means To Be Thriving And Fully Alive With A Full Heart.
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Two Of The Most Powerful Words You Can Hear Someone Say Are ‘me Too.’
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Two
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The Interactions I Have Are With People Who Are Very Kind And Very Grateful And They Say Very Overwhelming Things To Me. Somebody Who Doesn't Like What I Do Or Doesn't Understand It, Then It Wasn't For Them.
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There's Nothing Wrong With Possessions; It's Just That They Have Value To Us Only When We Use Them, Engage Them, And Enjoy Them. They're Nouns That Mean Something Only In Conjunction With Verbs. That's Why Wealth Is So Dangerous: If You're Not Careful You Can Easily End Up With A Garage Full Of Nouns.
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God Then Makes People Whom He Puts Right In The Middle Of All This Loaded Creation. Commanding Them To Care For Creation, To Manage It, To Lovingly Use It, To Creatively Order It... They Are Environmentalists. Being Deeply Connected With Their Environment Is Who They Are. For Them To Be Anything Else Or To Deny Their Divine Responsibility To Care For All That God Has Made Would Be To Deny Something That Is At The Core Of Their Existence. This Is Why Litter And Pollution Are Spiritual Issues.
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For Many, 'desire' Is A Bad Word, Something We're Supposed To 'give Up For God.' That Kind Of Thinking Can Be Really Destructive Because It Teaches People To Deny Their Hearts, Their True Selves.
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Freedom Is Not Having Everything We Crave, It's Being Able To Go Without The Things We Crave And Being Ok With It.
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Some Communities Don't Permit Open, Honest Inquiry About The Things That Matter Most. Lots Of People Have Voiced A Concern, Expressed A Doubt, Or Raised A Question, Only To Be Told By Their Family, Church, Friends, Or Tribe: "we Don't Discuss Those Things Here." I Believe The Discussion Itself Is Divine. Abraham Does His Best To Bargain With God, Most Of The Book Of Job Consists Of Arguments By Job And His Friends About The Deepest Questions Of Human Suffering, God Is Practically On Trial In The Book Of Lamentations, And Jesus Responds To Almost Every Question He's Asked With...a Question.
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Doctrine Is A Wonderful Servant And A Horrible Master.
Doctrine
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Masters
I Do A Meet And Greet After Every Show In Which I Tell The Audience That I Would Love To Thank Every Single One Of Them For Coming. Which A Lot Of People Take Me Up On! So I Get To Meet Hundreds And Hundreds Of People Every Night, Night After Night.
Night
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Take Me
For A Lot Of People In Our World Today, God Has Become About Believing The Right Stuff So You Don't Get In Trouble.
Believe
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I Believe God Gives People The Right To Say No, To Resist, To Refuse, To Reject, To Cling To Their Sins, To Cling To Their Version Of Their Story.
Believe
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Look At The Size Of The Universe And Look At What We're Discovering About String Theory. There's A Wide-eyed Sense Of We're Just Getting Started Here.
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The Thought Of The Word Church And The Word Marketing In The Same Sentence Makes Me Sick.
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Marketing
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You Can Set Your Intention To Better Understand Your Soul, Your Spirit, Through Daily Practices Like Prayer, Yoga And Meditation, Etc.
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Yoga
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God Has Spoken, And Everything Else Is Commentary.
Commentary
It Often Takes Suffering And Lost In Order To Remind Us Of How Precious Life Is.
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Order
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I'm Very Comfortable In A Room With Thousands Of People.
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Rooms
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Everybody Is Following Somebody. Everybody Has Faith In Something And Somebody. We Are All Believers.
Have Faith
Believer
Following
It Is Better To Be Fully Present And Rested And Engaged For One Thing Than Rushed, Distracted, And Scattered For Ten.
Distracted
Engaged
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Our Tendency In The Midst Of Suffering Is To Turn On God. To Get Angry And Bitter And Shake Our Fist At The Sky And Say, "god, You Don't Know What It's Like! You Don't Understand! You Have No Idea What I'm Going Through. You Don't Have A Clue How Much This Hurts." The Cross Is God's Way Of Taking Away All Of Our Accusations, Excuses, And Arguments. The Cross Is God Taking On Flesh And Blood And Saying, "me Too.
Hurt
Blood
Sky
Hope. People Want Hope. We Crave Hope. We Long For Hope. Hope Has Been Present Since The Very Beginning. And Almost In The Worst Situations Of Human History, You Often Find The Greatest Amount Of Hope. The Very Nature Of The Situation, The Way Stepped-on People Created Within Them Even More Hope Than When Things Were Going Fine. Hope Has Always Been Around.
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Long
People
To Say It Again, Eternal Life Is Less About A Kind Of Time That Starts When We Die, And More About A Quality And Vitality Of Life Now In Connection To God. Eternal Life Doesn't Start When We Die; It Starts Now. It's Not About A Life That Begins At Death; It's About Experiencing The Kind Of Life Now That Can Endure And Survive Even Death.
Quality
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I Think The Church Needs – I Think This Is The World We Are Living In And We Need To Affirm People Wherever They Are.
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People
Church
[the Bible] Has To Be Interpreted. And If It Isn’t Interpreted, Then It Can’t Be Put Into Action. So If We Are Serious About Following God, Then We Have To Interpret The Bible. It Is Not Possible To Simply Do What The Bible Says. We Must First Make Decisions About What It Means At This Time, In This Place, For These People.
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People
Decision
Christian Is A Great Noun And A Poor Adjective
Christian
Adjectives
Nouns
If The Gospel Isn't Good News For Everybody, Then It Isn't Good News For Anybody.
News
Good News
Ifs
Your Life Is A Gift. Before Anything Else Can Be Said About You, For Some Reason The Universe (or God, Or Being, Or Force, Or Reality, Or Whatever You Name It) Chose To Give You Life.
Reality
Names
Giving
Celebrity Seems Totally At Odds With Authentic Community And Honest, Real Sorts Of Relationships.
Real
Odds
Community
I Am For Marriage. I Am For Fidelity. I Am For Love, Whether It's A Man And Woman, A Woman And A Woman, A Man And A Man. I Think The Ship Has Sailed And I Think The Church Needs -- I Think This Is The World We Are Living In And We Need To Affirm People Wherever They Are.
Men
Thinking
People
I Would Hope That Wherever I Go I Bring Good News - That's What That Word Means, Right? It Began With The First Followers Of Jesus Taking A Roman Military Propaganda Term And Co-opting It For Their Own Subversive Purposes, Insisting That The World Isn't Made Better Through Coercive Military Violence But Through Sacrificial Love. How Great Is That!? Unfortunately This Word Has Been Hijacked In Several Years For Other Purposes But No Worries, We're Taking It Back.
Jesus
Military
Mean
Your Life Is A Gift And How You Respond To It - What You Do With It Matters. That's Where I Start.
Matter
Life Is
Life Is A Gift
The Resurrection Confronts Our World With Wonder, Mystery, And Miracles.
Our World
Miracle
Mystery
The Bible Tells A Story. A Story That Isn’t Over. A Story That Is Still Being Told. A Story That We Have A Part To Play In.
Play
Stories
Stills
It's Absolutely Crucial That We Come Face To Face With The Power Of Our Choices.
Choices
Faces
Crucial
I Feel Like I've Gotten An Extraordinary Opportunity To Experience A Sort Of Collective Humanity. If You Hug Many People In Such A Short Period Of Days You Pick Up On A Communal Energy, Almost Like Feeling A Giant Heartbeat That Everyone Is Beating Together.
Opportunity
People
Feelings
My Parents Were Both Very Intellectually Honest, Straightforward, And For Them, Faith Meant That You Were Fully Engaged.
Parent
Honest
Straightforward
The Life You Want Begins By Embracing The Life You Have.
Inspiring
Want
I Believe That God Is With You, That There Is A Presence. I Believe This God Is For You. I Don't Think The Universe Is A Cold, Dead Place That Is Indifferent.
Believe
Thinking
Cold
Whether We Are Reading The Bible For The First Time Or Standing In A Field In Israel Next To A Historian And An Archaeologist And A Scholar, The Bible Meets Us Where We Are. That Is What Truth Does
Reading
Israel
Doe
Fear Wants Us To Become Obsessed With Some Event Or Person In The Future, A Year, A Month, Even A Day. It Also Wants Us To Look Backwards Not At Our Successes, But Our Short-comings And Our Failures. Fear Losses It's Grip When We Stay In The Now.
Loss
Years
Events
I Embrace The Term 'evangelical,' If By That We Mean A Belief That We Together Can Actually Work For Change In The World, Caring For The Environment, Extending To The Poor Generosity And Kindness, A Hopeful Outlook. That's A Beautiful Sort Of Thing.
Beautiful
Kindness
Mean
One Truth Is That Suffering Raises Profound Questions With The Universe. The Other Truth Is That Grace, Gift And Generosity Also Raise Profound Questions.
Inspiring
Generosity
Profound
To Elevate Abstract Doctrines And Dogmas Over Living, Breathing, Embodied Experiences Of God's Love And Grace, Then, Is Going The Wrong Direction. It's Taking Flesh And Turning It Back Into Words.
Breathing
Grace
Doctrine
Many People Confuse Religion With God And Walk Away From Them Both. The Point Isn't Christianity, The Point Is Being A Christian.
Christian
People
Christianity
It Takes Quite A Spine To Turn The Other Cheek. It Takes Phenomenal Fortitude To Love Your Enemy. It Takes Firm Resolve To Pray For Those Who Persecute You. (with Reference To Matthew 5)
Enemy
Praying
Fortitude
When Someone Sets Out To Be Controversial Or Provocative Or Shocking As An End In Itself, I Don't Think That's A Noble Goal.
Thinking
Goal
Noble
Creating And Sharing Beautiful Things Has Provided Me With The Inspiration That We Can Do Things We Never Thought We Could Do And That We Will Get To See Wonderful Things We Never Thought We Would See.
Beautiful
Inspiration
Creating
Jesus Is God's Way Of Refusing To Give Up His Dream For The World.
Dream
Jesus
Giving Up
God Gives Us What We Want. For People Who Want Nothing To Do With Peace, Joy, Reconciliation And Peace... God Will Give You What You Want. I See People Make Unbelievably Destructive Choices.
Giving
People
Joy
Many People Need A New Rewiring Of Their Heart And Mind.
Heart
People
Mind
We Often Rush Through The Experiences That Have The Greatest Shift.
Inspiring
Sociologically, Large Groups Of People Don't Generally Have Massive Changes In Their Belief Instantaneously.
People
Large Groups
Belief
Questions Are Not Scary. What Is Scary Is When People Don’t Have Any. What Is Tragic Is Faith That Has No Room For Them.
People
Scary
Rooms
Because With Every Action, Comment, Conversation, We Have The Choice To Invite Heaven Or Hell To Earth.
Christian
Religious
Choices
My Experience As A Pastor Is Lots Of People Have Really Toxic, Dangerous, Psychologically Devastating Images Of God In Their Head, Images Of A God Who's Not Good.
People
Toxic
Pastor
The First Word About You Is That You Received This Life.
Inspiring
Firsts
This Life
What Does Happen Constantly With All Kinds Of People I Meet Is They Say "i Had This Encounter With Jesus, Can You Help Me Understand It..." The Labels, More Than Ever, Simply Aren't Big Enough To Contain What The Cosmic Christ Is Up To In The World.
Jesus
People
Labels
A Lot Of Christians Have Been Taught A Story That Begins In Chapter 3 Of Genesis, Instead Of Chapter 1. If Your Story Doesn't Begin In The Beginning, But Begins In Chapter 3, Then It Starts With Sin, And So The Story Becomes About Dealing With The Sin Problem. So Jesus Is Seen As Primarily Dealing With Our Sins.
Christian
Jesus
Stories
We Need To Return To The Simplicity That God Is Love.
Simplicity
Needs
Return
The Best Team Does Not Always Win, It's The Team That Plays The Best.
Team
Winning
Play
The Christian Faith Is Mysterious To The Core. It Is About Things And Beings That Ultimately Can't Be Put Into Words. Language Fails. And If We Do Definitively Put God Into Words, We Have At That Very Moment Made God Something God Is Not.
Christian
Mysterious
Language
If Your Faith Is Threatened By Something That's True, Then It Wasn't Much Of A Faith To Begin With, Was It?
Threatened
Ifs
Grace Is When You Know You're Loved Exactly As You Are.
Grace
Knows
We Live In A World Where We Have Friends, Neighbors, Brothers, Sisters, Aunts, Uncles, People We Journey With For Years Who Are Gay. And We Need To Love, Affirm And All Of Us Together Work On The Real Problems That We Have In The World.
Brother
Uncles
Real
I Have Been Told That I Need To Believe In Jesus. Which Is A Good Thing. But What I Am Learning Is That Jesus Believes In Me.
Jesus
Believe
Needs
We Live In The Midst Of A Creation That Is Groaning.
Creation
Midst
Groaning
The Lesson That Has Been Hardest For Me To Learn: There Is Nothing To Prove.
Lessons
Hardest
Prove
Suffering Is Traumatic And Awful And We Get Angry And We Shake Our Fists At The Heavens And We Vent And Rage And Weep. But In The Process We Discover A New Tomorrow, One We Never Would Have Imagined Otherwise.
Heaven
Suffering
Awful
The Life That You Want Begins The Moment You Embrace The Life You Have Because All Of It Is A Miracle.
Inspiring
Miracle
Want
To Make It Really Clear And Simple, Let's Call This Movement Across History We See In Passages Like The Ones We Just Looked At From Exodus And Deuteronomy Clicks. What We See Is God Meeting People At The Click They're At, And Then Drawing Them Forward.when They're At F, God Calls Them To G.when We're At L, God Calls Us To M.and If We're Way Back There At A, God Meets Us Way Back There At A And Does What God Always Does: Invites Us Forward To B.
Simple
Drawing
People
Before Anything Else, You Have Received Breath - The Gift Of Life Itself. The First Word About You Is Gift.
Firsts
Gifts Of Life
Breaths
What's Interesting Is, If You Take The Scientists And The Theologians, The Really Good Ones, They End Up Both Filled With This Wide-eyed Sense Of Wonder And Awe About Look At This World We Live In.
Interesting
Looks
World
We All Want To Make A Difference, To Live In Peace, To Have Joy Each Morning That We Get To Live This Day And See What It Brings.
Morning
Differences
Joy
Every Generation Has To Ask Difficult Questions About What Does It Mean To Follow Jesus.
Jesus
Mean
Difficult Questions
I Believe Our World Desperately Needs Good News.
Believe
Our World
Needs
My Experience Is That Lots Of People Go To Church, Sing The Songs, Tell The Story, Etc But Have Profound Ambivalence About God.
Song
Profound
People
A Good Sermon Is Going To Disturb The Comfortable And Comfort The Disturbed. It Inspires You. It Provokes You. It Should Make Your Soul Soar.
Inspire
Soul
Comfort
What We Do Comes Out Of Who We Believe We Are.
Believe
Salvation Is The Entire Universe Being Brought Back Into Harmony With Its Maker.
Harmony
Salvation
Makers
People Received, Affirmed And Experienced Grace In Many Different Forms.
People
Grace
Different
Well, I Affirm Orthodox Christian Faith. I Affirm The Nicene Creed. I Don't Think I'm Doing Anything Terribly New.
Christian
Thinking
Creeds
At The Center Of The Christian Tradition Since The First Church Have Been A Number Who Insist That History Is Not Tragic, Hell Is Not Forever, And Love, In The End, Wins And All Will Be Reconciled To God.
Christian
Winning
Numbers
Love Is What God Is, Love Is Why Jesus Came, And Love Is Why He Continues To Come, Year After Year To Person After Person...may You Experience This Vast, Expansive, Infinite, Indestructible Love That Has Been Yours All Along. May You Discover That This Love Is As Wide As The Sky And As Small As The Cracks In Your Heart No One Else Knows About, And May You Know, Deep In Your Bones, That Love Wins.
Jesus
Heart
Winning
We Shape Our God, And Then Our God Shapes Us.
Shapes
You're Here, You're Breathing, You Are The Recipient Of An Extraordinary Act Of Generosity Called Life.
Breathing
Generosity
Extraordinary
When Someone Wrongs Us, We Rarely (if Ever) Want To Do The Same Thing Back. Why? Because We Want To Do Something More Harmful. Likewise, When Someone Insults Us, Our Instinct Is To Search For Words That Will Be More Insulting.revenge Always Escalates.
Revenge
Insulting
Want
I Believe That God Is Love. I Believe That Jesus Came To Show Us This Love, To Give Us This Love, To Teach Us About This Love, So That We Could Live In This Love And Extend It To Others.
Jesus
Believe
Giving
Swords Appear Strong, But They're Actually Quite Weak. Jesus Appears Weak, But He's Actually Quite Strong.
Jesus
Strong
Weak
When The Lab Rats Hear The Bell Ringing, They Freeze. That's What Fear Does To You - Fear Stops You Dead In Your Tracks. Fear Can Keep You From Harm, But Fear Can Also Rob You Of Your Potential. Fear Can Rob You Of An Experience. Fear Can Rob You Of Happiness. Fear Can Rob You Of Real Life... Darkness Has A Way Of Scaring Us.
Fear
Real
Track
When I Talk About The God Who Is With Us, For Us, And Ahead Of Us, I'm Talking About Our Facing That Which Most Terrifies Us About Ourselves, Embracing It And Fearing It No Longer, Refusing To Allow It To Exist Separate From The Rest Of Our Being, Resting Assured That We Are Loved And We Belong And We Are Going To Be Just Fine.
Talking
Fine
Assured
Enjoy Mystery And Speculation, But Don't Drift Into Dogma.
Dogma
Mystery
Enjoy
In One Of The Accounts Of Jesus's Death We Read That The Curtain In The Temple Of God-the One That Kept People Out Of The Holiest Place Of God's Presence-ripped.one New Testament Writer Said That This Ripping Was A Picture Of How, Because Of Jesus, We Can Have New, Direct Access To God.a Beautiful Idea.but The Curtain Ripping Also Means That God Comes Out, That God Is No Longer Confined To The Temple As God Was Previously.
Beautiful
Jesus
Mean
Like A Mirror, God Appears To Be More And More A Reflection Of Whoever It Is That Happens To Be Talking About God At The Moment.
Reflection
Mirrors
Talking
To Be Honest With You, I Am Passionate About All The People Out There Who Want To Know Jesus, They Want To Know God, And They Are Sick Of A System That Is Hung Up On A Bunch Of Things That Have Nothing To Do With The Love Of God.
Jesus
People
Sick
I Am For Marriage. I Am For Fidelity. I Am For Love, Whether It's A Man And Woman, A Woman And A Woman, A Man And A Man.
Men
Men And Women
Fidelity
Opening Up Your Soul To Someone, Letting Them Into Your Spirit, Thoughts, Fears, Future, Hopes, Dreams ... That Is Being Naked.
Dream
Opening Up
Soul
What We Believe About Heaven And Hell Is Incredibly Important Because It Exposes What We Believe About Who God Is And What God Is Like.
Believe
Heaven
Important
God Is Bigger Than The Christian Faith.
Christian
Bigger
Christian Faith
I Like To Say That I Practice Militant Mysticism. I'm Really Absolutely Sure Of Some Things That I Don't Quite Know.
Practice
Knows
Militant
I Would Say That The Powerful, Revolutionary Thing About Jesus' Message Is That He Says, 'what Do You Do With The People That Aren't Like You? What Do You Do With The Other? What Do You Do With The Person That's Hardest To Love?' . . . That's The Measure Of A Good Religion, Is - You Can Love The People Who Are Just Like You; That's Kind Of Easy. So What Jesus Does Is Takes The Question And Talks About Fruit. He's Interested In What You Actually Produce. And That's A Different Discussion. How Do We Love The People In The World That Are Least Like Us?
Jesus
Powerful
People
We're Rediscovering Christianity As An Eastern Religion, As A Way Of Life.
Way
Christianity
Eastern
When You Forgive Somebody, When You Are Generous, When You Withhold Judgment, When You Love And When You Stand Up To Injustice, You Are, In That Moment, Bringing Heaven To Earth.
Love
Inspirational
Forgiveness
It's As If Thomas Kinkade And Dante Were At A Party, And One Turned To The Other Sometime After Midnight And Uttered That Classic Line "you Know, We Really Should Work Together Sometime.
Party
Working Together
Midnight
There Are Moments When We Have To Return To Our Roots.
Roots
Return
Moments
It Often Appears That Those Who Talk The Most About Going To Heaven When You Die Talk The Least About Bringing Heaven To Earth Right Now, As Jesus Taught Us To Pray: 'your Will Be Done On Earth As It Is In Heaven.' At The Same Time, It Often Appears That Those Who Talk The Most About Relieving Suffering Now Talk The Least About Heaven When We Die.
Jesus
Taught Us
Heaven
What If Tomorrow Someone Digs Up Definitive Proof That Jesus Had A Real, Earthly, Biological Father Named Larry, And Archeologists Find Larry's Tomb And Do Dna Samples And Prove Beyond A Shadow Of A Doubt That The Virgin Birth Was Just A Bit Of Mythologizing The Gospel Writers Threw In To Appeal To The Followers Of The Mithra And Dionysian Religious Cults That Were Hugely Popular At The Time Of Jesus, Whose Gods Had Virgin Births? Could You Still Be A Christian? Is The Way Of Jesus Still The Best Possible Way To Live?
Christian
Religious
Jesus
Why Blame The Dark For Being Dark? It Is Far More Helpful To Ask Why The Light Isn’t As Bright As It Could Be.
Dark
Light
Deep Thought
When We Deny The Spiritual Dimension To Our Existence, We End Up Living Like Animals. And When We Deny The Physical, Sexual Dimension To Our Existence, We End Up Living Like Angels. And Both Ways Are Destructive, Because God Made Us Human.
Spiritual
Angel
Animal
What Is God Like? Because Millions And Millions Of People Were Taught That The Primary Message - The Center Of The Gospel Of Jesus - Is That God Is Going To Send You To Hell, Unless You Believe In Jesus. And So, What Gets, Subtlely, Sort Of Caught And Taught Is That Jesus Rescues You From God. But What Kind Of God Is That; That We Would Need To Be Rescued From This God? How Could That God Ever Be Good; How Could That God Ever Be Trusted? And How Could That Ever Be Good News.
Jesus
Believe
People
Resurrection Is A Belief And Hope In Restoring This World.
World
Belief
Resurrection
That May Sound A Big Vague, But What Has Struck Me In City After City Is That Despite Our Differences And Diversity, There's A Common Humanity We All Share. In Many Ways We're All Searching And Longing For The Same Things.
Cities
Differences
Common Humanity
Culture Is Already There And The Church Will Continue To Be Even More Irrelevant When It Quotes Letters From Two Thousand Years Ago As Their Best Defense. When You Have In Front Of You Flesh And Blood People Who Are Your Brothers And Sisters, Aunts And Uncles, Co-workers And Neighbors And They Love Each Other And They Just Want To Go Through Life With Someone.
Brother
Uncles
Aunt
And A Lot Of Times, The Religious Discussion Is Almost A Masquerade For The Real Question, Is What Stories That We Tell Ourselves And That We Tell Each Other And What Convictions And Beliefs Actually Have The Capacity To Make Us The Kind Of People Who Together Can Make The World The Kind Of World We All Want It To Be?
Religious
Real
People
I Live With The Understanding That Truth Is Bigger Than Any Religion And The World Is God's And Everything In It.
Understanding
World
Truth Is
One Of The Oldest Aches In The Bones Of Humanity Is Loneliness. I Mean It's One Of The Things That Goes Way Back; Loneliness Is Not Good For The World. And So, Whoever You Are, Gay Or Straight, It Is Totally Normal, Natural, And Healthy To Want Somebody To Go Through Life With. It's Central To Our Humanity.
Loneliness
Mean
Gay
The World Is Desperately In Need Of People Who Will Break Themselves Open And Pour Themselves Out For The Reconciliation Of All Things- That's What The World Needs.
People
Needs
World
When The Female Voice Is Repressed And Stifled, The Entire Community Can Easily Find Themselves Cut Off From The Sacred Feminine, Depriving Themselves Of The Full Image Of God.
Cutting
Voice
Sacred Feminine
To Me Some Of The Greatest Writing Is When Somebody Puts Something In Words That You Felt And Experienced And You Go, That's It.
Writing
Felt
I Have Met Countless People Who Call Themselves Christians Who Don't Appear To Have Any Living Breathing Vibrant Connection With The Resurrected Christ And I've Met Countless People From Every Religious Background Including Atheists That Tell Me Of Their Very Personal And Real Experiences Of The Living Christ. I Don't Have People Asking Me Why They Should Believe Something - That's Starting Off On The Wrong Foot To Say The Least.
Christian
Religious
Atheist
You Can Be Very Religious And Invoke The Name Of God And Be Able To Quote Lots Of Verses And Be Well Versed In Complicated Theological Systems And Yet Not Be A Person Who Sees. It’s One Thing To Sing About God And Recite Quotes About God And Invoke God’s Name; It’s Another Be Aware Of The Presence In Every Taste, Touch, Sound, And Embrace. With Jesus, What We See Again And Again Is That It’s Never Just A Person, Or Just A Meal, Or Just An Event, Because There’s Always More Going On Just Below The Surface.
Religious
Jesus
Names
We Need A Childlike Trust That God Is Good... Ultimately We Are Ok. That Is A Simple, Beautiful Pure Thing That Can Be Complicated Ferociously By All Sorts Of Intellectual Categories.
Beautiful
Simple
Intellectual
If There's Any Place Where You Would Express Your Deepest Doubts, It Would Be Church.
Doubt
Church
Would Be
When Isaiah Predicted That Spears Would Become Pruning Hooks, That's A Reference To Cultivating. Pruning And Trimming And Growing And Paying Close Attention To The Plants And Whether They're Getting Enough Water And If Their Roots Are Deep Enough. Soil Under The Fingernails, Grapes Being Trampled Under Bare Feet, Fingers Sticky From Handling Fresh Fruit. It's That Green Stripe You Get Around The Sole Of Your Shoes When You Mow The Lawn. Life In The Age To Come. Earthy.
Shoes
Roots
Feet
The Joy Is In The Creation. So I've Never Had A Target Audience, It's Always Been About Being True To The Work As It Emerges.
Target Audience
Joy
Creation
It's Absurd And Quite Tragic The Way People Have Managed To Pit Science Against Faith. They Aren't In Conflict At All - They're Long Lost Dance Partners. I Don't Divide The World Up Into Christians And Other People - We Are All Human Beings, Brothers And Sisters, And We Embrace Truth Wherever We Find It, Whether That's In A Lab, A Field Or A Cathedral. Because Sometimes You Need A Scientist And Sometimes You Need A Poet.
Christian
Brother
Long
Being A Pastor For 20 Years I Realized That The Labels, Agnostic, Atheist, Believer, Everybody's Human And Everybody Wants To Know What Kind Of Universe We're Living In, And Everybody's Living According To A Story.
Atheist
Years
Want
If This Understanding Of The Good News Of Jesus Prevailed Among Christians, The Belief That Jesus’s Message Is About How To Get Somewhere Else, You Could Possibly End Up With A World In Which Millions Of People Were Starving, Thirsty, And Poor; The Earth Was Being Exploited And Polluted; Disease And Despair Were Everywhere; And Christians Weren’t Known For Doing Much About It. If It Got Bad Enough, You Might Even Have People Rejecting Jesus Because Of How His Followers Lived. That Would Be Tragic.
Christian
Jesus
Somewhere Else
My Interest Is In What's True, Where Is The Life, Where Is The Heart And What Inspires.
Heart
Inspire
Interest
People Have A View Of A God Who Is Terrible That They Can't Even Imagine Being Loving Or Wanting Anything To Do With.
Views
People
Imagine
If It Is True, If It Is Beautiful, If It Is Honorable, If It Is Right, Then Claim It. Because It Is From God. And You Belong To God.
Beautiful
Claims
Honorable
On The Sabbath- We Are Reminded That We Are Not Human Doings, But Human Beings.
Sabbath
Doings
Humans
I Think That At The Core Of Faith Is Trust.
Thinking
Core
It Is Such A Letdown To Rise From The Dead And Have Your Friends Not Recognize You.
Letdowns
The Great German Scholar Helmut Thielicke Once Said That A Person Who Speaks To This Hour’s Need Will Always Be Skirting The Edge Of Heresy, But Only The Person Who Risks Those Heresies Can Gain The Truth.
Risk
Needs
Gains
The Moment God Is Figured Out With Nice Neat Lines And Definitions, We Are No Longer Dealing With God.
God
Faith
Jesus
Any Time Someone Makes You Feel Guilty About How You Are Living, That Is Part Of The Old System (pre-christ).
Guilty
Christ
Feels
The Hardness Of The Human Heart Makes No Sense.
Heart
Hardness
Humans
Faith Can Take Many Different Forms And Expressions.
Expression
Different
Form
This Breath, And This Moment, And This Life Is A Gift And We Are All In This Together. We All Have Countless Choices Every Day To Close Down Or Stand Up Straight And Open Up, And Take A Big Breath And Say Yes To The Gift.
Choices
Together
Life Is
Many In The Modern World Fell For The Myth That We're Living In A Static, Fixed, Flat Reality Of Just Material Things.
Reality
World
Modern
I Think That Grace And Love Always Rattle People.
Thinking
People
Grace
So This Is Reality, This Forgiveness, This Reconciliation, Is True For Everybody. Paul Insisted That When Jesus Died On The Cross, He Was Reconciling "all Things, In Heaven And On Earth, To God." All Things, Everywhere. ...this Reality Then Isn't Something We Make Come True About Ourselves By Doing Something. It Is Already True. Our Choice Is To Live In This New Reality Or Cling To A Reality Of Our Own Making.
Jesus
Reality
Choices
The Fundamental Story Arc Of The Bible Is God Is Passionate About Rescuing This World, Restoring It, Renewing It.
Stories
Passionate
Fundamentals
As A Pastor, You Get Invited Into The Most Poignant Moments Of People's Lives. Whether It's A Wedding Or A Funeral Or A Hospital Visit, You Get Invited Into The Center Of The Event, Whether Or Not You Know The People.
Visits You
People
Funeral
We Embrace Truth Wherever We Find It From Whoever Says It However We Come Across It. It's A Big Beautiful Exotic Heartbreaking Mysterious World We Live In And It's Our Home And We Get To Explore And Learn And Affirm Truth Wherever We Find It.
Beautiful
Home
Heartbreaking
If The Gospel Isn't Good News For Everybody, Then It Isn't Good News For Anybody. And This Is Because The Most Powerful Things Happen When The Church Surrenders Its Desire To Convert People And Convince Them To Join. It Is When The Church Gives Itself Away In Radical Acts Of Service And Compassion, Expecting Nothing In Return, That The Way Of Jesus Is Most Vividly Put On Display.
Jesus
Powerful
Compassion
Love Is Giving Up Control. It’s Surrendering The Desire To Control The Other Person. The Two—love And Controlling Power Over The Other Person—are Mutually Exclusive. If We Are Serious About Loving Someone, We Have To Surrender All The Desires Within Us To Manipulate The Relationship.
Sex
Giving Up
Love Is
Times Change. God Doesn’t, But Times Do. We Learn And Grow, And The World Around Us Shifts, And The Christian Faith Is Alive Only When It Is Listening, Morphing, Innovating, Letting Go Of Whatever Has Gotten In The Way Of Jesus And Embracing Whatever Will Help Us Be More And More The People God Wants Us To Be.
Change
God
Faith
Take Faith, For Example. For Many People In Our World, The Opposite Of Faith Is Doubt. The Goal, Then, Within This Understanding, Is To Eliminate Doubt. But Faith And Doubt Aren't Opposites. Doubt Is Often A Sign That Your Faith Has A Pulse, That It's Alive And Well And Exploring And Searching. Faith And Doubt Aren't Opposites, They Are, It Turns Out, Excellent Dance Partners.
Our World
Opposites
People
I Think What's Happened In The Modern World, There's A Lot Of People That Sound Very Smart And It's Very Compelling And Alluring, But It Leaves You Empty.
Smart
Thinking
People
The Cross Is Gods Way Of Taking Away All Of Our Accusations, Excuses, And Arguments.
Jesus
Way
Argument
Suffering, It Turns Out, Demands Profound Imagination. A New Future Has To Be Conjured Up Because The Old Future Isn't There Anymore.
Profound
Imagination
Suffering
The Fact That We Are Loved And Accepted And Forgiven In Spite Of Everything We Have Done Is Simply Too Good To Be True.
Done
Facts
Too Good To Be True
Your Deepest, Darkest Sins And Your Shameful Secrets Are Simply Irrelevant When It Comes To The Counterintuitive, Ecstatic Announcement Of The Gospel. So Are Your Goodness, Your Rightness, Your Church Attendance, And All Of The Wise, Moral, Mature Decisions You Have Made And Actions You Have Taken.
Wise
Taken
Decision
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