One Year... With My Love

One year ago today was my first night out at the apartment of my love! I can not believe it. It has gone by so fast but at the same time it has been a LONG year! At times he frustrates me so much I can't stand it (like even today) but in the end I love him dearly! He is probably the most important person in my life! Without him I wouldn't know what to do and nobody could ever take his place... People ask when I am getting married and I have no plans to right now... But I do love him and one day think I would love to... When we are both ready if I get that lucky. I have discovered the "ideal man" does not exhist. Even the greatest man will still frustrate you and upset you sometimes, but if you love him it is worth it. And he will always be himself! You can't have unrealistic expectations. Chad has proven to be one I can love and trust. I know I can always go to him for support whether together or apart in all of life's trials. He strengthens my faith when I have none & he teaches me patience. I love you so much Chad and look forward to more life adventures with you...

RAYE

Sex God

I am very behind on my book blogs so I am not going to write a really long blog on my April book "Sex God" by Rob Bell. I am also going to say less because I do not want to review too much. I want to say enough that you read the book, and you should. This was probably my least favourite Rob Bell book though. I did not think it was bad, and I agrees with most of his points, it was just- weird! Some key points Rob Bell makes is "This is always about that." He says we can only talk about God or sex for so long before we talk about the other because they are connected. The book explored many connections between sex and God, and speaks of God being sexual. It was nice reading a Christian book on sex that was not about sexual abstinence. The book discusses sex as a connection and how meaningless hookups can be less sexual that a person connecting to another person through relationship without sex, because sex was designed for connection. The book also discusses Love. The book tells of how we can choose to love others or accept or reject anothers love. The book talks of love and ache and how they are universal because God feels the same emotions in relation to us- Sex and God and Love- all connected. The book says the love of God is more than rules; it compels us to love others. And when we don't feel loved we don't need to give ourselves away to feel love. We already carry the agape love of God with us always. Rob Bell also says men who sleep with many women give themselves the idea of being a man without having to be one. The book also discussed sex in the ancient world as being marriage and if you had sex you were considdered married. It even told how raped women would have to marry their raper, or he would pay a virgin price for her anyway. The book concluded that a couple who does too much too soon rarely endures the test of time and we must persue intamacy. Being naked. Seeing all of a person for who they are and taking it in. Do as God does when he looks at us, cos sex is the closest a human to human relationship can be in the right context. The closest intamacy to God & human... Cos sex and God are connected. This is about that. My rating: 4 Stars!

RAYE

JESUS WANTS TO SAVE CHRISTIANS: A MANIFESTO OF THE CHURCH IN EXILE

Here is the promised blog from February on JESUS WANTS TO SAVE CHRISTIANS: A MANIFESTO OF THE CHURCH IN EXILE by Rob Bell. Sorry it has taken forever for me to write. Even as I sit here I am not entirely sure of what I have to say about this book, but I will try to make it not as long as my Velvet Elvis blog as not to discourage you all to read what I have to say. As always, this is just a few of Bell's points and some of my thoughts, of course to get the whole point, you will need to read the book for yourself. I am also writing this blog as I download music so excuse me if it seams a little choppy. I hope to edit the final blog if it is not too long to make it sound good, and that the grammar is not as awful as Velvet Elvis. So here it is... and remember to read the book for yourself :)

Air Puffers and Rubber Gloves

Terrorism has become such a problem that in some airports when going through security you have to walk through a sort of thing that puffs air at you. Rob Bell says he finds it hard to believe the world will be any safer with a burst of air being shot at select people as they pass through security, yet the government has spent millions on this. Rob Bell does not think this is a new sort of problem though... He takes it back to the first family. Cain kills Abel and afterwards goes and settles east of Eden (East of where he is supposed to be). And that has been where humanity has stayed since. Bell argues that terrorists "realise that whatever they might do next, it would be nowhere near as destructive as what we are already doing to ourselves" (p17). He highlights his point of the whole book in this beginning section: "Something about how we relate to eachother has been lost. Something is not right with the world." (pg 17). Bell argues that Jesus has made peace with the world through the resurrection, not through our weapons of war but through a naked man hanging and bleeding on a cross. But if this is true, why are we as humans living as if nothing ever happened and living east of Eden? What has been lost? He says to understand we must return to the first book of the Bible: Exodus!

The Cry of The Opressed

Of course in the actual Bible Genesis is the first book, but many scholars see Exodus as the first book of the Bible because it is where the real story begins: liberation from Egypt. The key point that Rob Bell makes in this section is that "God always hears the cry of the opressed" (pg. 23). God allowed for his people to suffer in Egypt so that they could be transformed into the people he intended to be his people. He argues what moments in our lives change us the most? "Periods of transformation, times when your eyes are opened, decisions you made that affected the rest of your life. How many of them came when you reached the end of your rope?" (pg 23). Acknowledging our opression is the first step in the process of liberation. What had started with two people and some fruit led to murder in one family and was now bringing destruction to the entire planet: an anti-kingdom. (And if you count the Noah story, the whole earth already had been destroyed with the exception of one family). In this story, Egypt is an anti-kingdom. Bell explains an anti-kingdom is what happens when sin becomes structured and embedded in society (pg 27). After a huge ordeal with God using a number of miracles through Moses, Pharroah finally lets the Israelites go... That is not the end of the story though; it is there God takes his people to Sinai. It is at Sinai that God breaks the scilence and speaks to a group of people for the first time since Eden. "This moment at Sinai is about the reversal of the consequences of Eden" (pg 29). Here God invites his people to become priests: show the world who this God is and what he is like. Bell argues that "God needs a body. God needs flesh and blood. God needs bones and skin... not just so Pharoah will know but so that all of humanity will know" (pg 31). When sin goes unchequed (regardless of where) it leads to dehumanising places. God wants to creat a HOLY nation... not one based on greed, violence or abusive power, but on compassion, justice and caring for our neighbour. The God of the Israelites is a god who is "fundementally defined by action on behalf of the opressed" (pg 32). God delievers the ten commandments at Sinai and uses these as the points to tell his people what is vital for an authentic community. It is God's desire his people will go bring exodus to the weak just as he brought it to them in their weakness because he ALWAYS hears the cry of the opressed. But did they keep the covenant? Bell now takes us to Jerusalem generations later to answer that question. God gives a bunch of wealth, power, and influence to Solomon that he would use it on behalf of the poor, weak, and suffering. Instead Solomon is building a temple using slaves. The opressed have now become the opressors. The Israelites are now found again East of Eden. Solomon is building a kingdom of comfort and now Jerusalem is the new Egypt. Solomon is the new Pharroah. Only this new anti-kingdom is not just systemic evils, it is a failure with the turning of ones heart. Solomon has gone against God and God always hears the cry of the opressed. So what is it known as when "still have the power, wealth and influence, and yet in some profound way you've blown it because you've forgotten why you were given it in the first place. The word is exile. Exile is when you forget your story... exile is about the state of your soul" (pg 44). While some have a surplus, others are being neglected. "God is patient but also pragmatic. God has a plan. God cares about the suffering of the world and will not allow the indifference of his people to stand in the way of his plans to relieve that suffering" (pg 47). God sends prophets, but Israel does not listen. It is then that everything falls apart, the temple is destroyed, many are killed, and the survivors are taken to a foreign land called Babylon to be servants... SLAVES!! The Israelites are once in a foreign land as slaves... Sound like Egypt?

Get Down On Your Harps

The Israelites had wealth, influence, and peace but they lost it when they became opressors. God always hears the cry of the opressed. Crying out reminds us of our dependance and weeping leads us to reconnect with God. "It's when we're fully present in our pain, when we're willing to sit in our tears, that we're ready to imagine a different kind of tomorrow... Push a person to the limits of suffering, and they just might become a revolutionary" (pg 54). But to get there what would bring the Israelites back to this place? What would change them back to who God had intended them to be? They needed another exodus! God them speaks through Isaiah telling about this exodus he is going to bring. God wants to forget all of these "former things" and move forward, but the new Egypt his people are in now is a different kind of Egypt. The kind of Egypt they are in is the kind that causes people to hurt, abuse, and exploit eachother from a warpped heart. The reason behind their opression resides in every human heart: violence, sin & death. We are all born into this Egypt and we all need an exodus out of it. When Isaiah speaks in his prophesy, "he speaks of liberation from anything that opresses anybody anywhere" (pg 57). Rob Bell describes an exodus as "something you do, something you're caught up in, somewhere you're going, something you join because you don't want to stay where you are" (pg 58). This new exodus is said that it is going to be universal. God was moving from a particular group of people to the universal mankind. But for this new exodus to work the people would have to re-visit Sinai because the whole heartache began there. Sinai was like a marriage that never lasted past the ceremony. God promised that IF the Israelites fully obeyed and were trully faithful THEN he would make them a kingdom of priests and a holy nation... but the covenant was broken... Their exile was the consequence of their nations infidelity. It was at this time the profets began to repaint the image of grace. Since the first marriage didn't work there would need to be a new one, a re-marriage, because the first had fallen SO short of what God had wanted. The covenent centred around a way for God to relate to humans, and the first covenant revealed how unfaithful people could be. There needed to be a fundemental change in the way God and people related for this to work. In the new marriage God would take truth and put it "in their minds and write it on their hearts" (pg 66). God was going to etch the truth so deeply into the very core of his people that they would naturally do the right thing. The danger though is once we get where God wants us, we will forget where we have been. Truth and Peace will be this new Jerusalem, and there will be a temple big enough for the whole world to worship in. The prophest also promise love. In this new Jerusalem, our worst enemy will become our brothers and sisters in peace. Everything will relate to everything else in a new way; they will rest together. "No vision was too large, no dream too big, no hope too beyond what would happen in the new exodus" (pg 67). Moses had led the first Exodus but who would lead this second one? The leader they needed was not another Moses but something to do with Solomon, because he is where it all went wrong! The leader to this new exodus would have to be a son of David, but a new son who used his power purely and properly. Isaiah called him the "Prince of Peace" because he would uphold justice and rightousness forever... But he would also be called a servant and proclaim good news to the poor. A servant who will act wisely... Pretty soon the prophets predictions grew and expanded. This new forever was not a new dimension to God's people... They had heard it in Genesis when God told the serpant "he will crush your head"... but this new exodus was for everyone no matter where they found themselves. And that is how the Hebrew scriptures ended. With suspended promises yet to see answers... In the New Testement we see them come alive!!

David's Other Son

The nation of Israel just isn't what it used to be. The Israel there was during the first century was one of occupation, oppression, shame, and humilliation. The Israelites were home, yet still in a sort of exile. The number 430 is significant here... The Israelites had been slaves in Eqypt 430 years before they were freed and it was 430 years in Jerusalem while still in exile. It is after these 430 years of Exile in Israel that Jesus is born. The gospels begin by quoting Isaiah and announcing the new exodus. Jesus is God. He hears the beggars cry and the cry of the Canaanites. God always hears the Cry of the Opressed. Just saying the name of Jesus drags up all the pain, suffering and unfulfilled promises in the first century. This new son of David was leading Israel into a remarriage with God. Jesus says "I am the Way" which is an exodus term. "Jesus speaks of a new kingdom as he shows what it is like to be human in this new reality. He heals the sick, gives sight to the blind, helps the lame walk... showing what a new humanity would look like. Jesus is a servant who uses his power in the service of compassion and love- Thats what a servant does" (pg 82). The writers of the Gospels want first-century Israel to connect what Jesus is doing with the beginning of creation (Genesis). From the first creation out of chaos, Jesus enters chaos to bring a new creation. Jesus is bringing liberation for everyone everywhere and ultimately for everything everywhere for all time. The work of Jesus will lead to a renewal of all things. God is doing something new and big through Jesus. What we see in the very beginning of Genesis is the picture we see through the rest of history: the misuse of power always leads to the escelation of violence. Bloodshed has been with human beings from the beginning. Jesus had to absorb this exile... and all of its bloodshed and suffering to really put an end to it all since it had been with humans from the beginning of time. This is not just an exile from Israel, but from Eden. Ever since Cain moved East of Eden, that is where humanity has always been. The entire cosmos is in a sort of exile like Egypt. Everything is drifting east. From the beginning, creation has needed another Adam; an Adam who would not give into temptation, but one who could crush the serpant. But this could only happen if the serpant crusher survived death. The people in the time of Jesus could read, study, and discuss scripture their whole lives and yet still miss the central message. These same people could follow, learn from him, and drop everything to be his disciples, yet return hom after his death thinking he failed... Because thats exactly what his disciples did. And even after walking with a stranger for hours down the road, they still miss who the stranger really is... because they were walking with Jesus.

Genital-Free Africans

The story of the early church is ultimatly the story of the movement away from Jerusalem. Jesus says "If it happens in Jerusalem, it will be impossible for it to stay in Jerusalem." Philip, a small town Jewish man, meets a Eunuch heading home to Ethiopia in Africa. The eunuch wants to know about Jesus so he asks Philip questions. To Philip this man is from the ends of the earth. The whole world is returning to God for the first time since the first people asked God who he was. It was during Pentecost while remembering Sinai that tongues of fire came upon God's people seperating them and enabling them to speak in other tongues as they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Some people said the rebirth of Sinai was result of the disciples having too much wine... Where do people drink wine? Weddings! "God's desires for humanity are thriving" (pg 99). "If technology and power and resources are not handled with great care and wisdom, all of humanity will suffer" (pg 100). Baptism gives us a picture of exodus. The eunuch wants to be baptised when he sees whater and asks what could be standing in his way. According to Old Testament law that Philip was brought up on, a lot of things! So what do you do when your religion isn't big enough for God? Let us take a look at Paul: "He's Jewish, born and raised in Cilicia, trained in Jerusalem, fluent in Greek, versed in the customs of Moses, schooled in the philosophers and poets of the day- He's as global as they come" (pg 103). To Paul there are two Pervasive realities in which humanity exists: 1) The old condition of darkness, sin and slavery 2) The new reality of light forgiveness & freedom. Paul is against the religious rituals that replace freedom and the liberation bought through Christ. "When people are manipulated with guilt and fear, when they are told that if they don't do certain things they'll be illegitamate, judged, condemned, sent to hell forever- thats violence" (pg 104-5). Regardless of the Bible passage used or quoted, its 1) destructive, & 2) the misuse of power. The central way of Jesus is serving which is the loving use of whatever power you possess for the good of one another. Before Jesus, people like Philip and Peter and the disciples were forbidden to associate or even visit with a Gentile. But now everything is changing. You now can even say to an African eunuch by the side of the road "I will baptise you" which is what Philip does. This African is also travelling by chariot (like Pharroah had). The eunuch is a man with wealth and power, and this man has just said yes to Jesus! But many Israelites still don't get it. They want to Take back Israel in the name of their founding fathers. "Jesus is inviting them to participate in a reality so liberating and compelling that Jerusalem can't contain it. The disciples can't fathom something that new and transcendent... For them, blessing is about favouritism" (pg 110). Sometimes it takes us a little pain to get us to do the right thing. Now that the eunuch is returning to Africa, the wealth of the nations are entrusted to a Jesus follower. This new movement he is part of is ruled by generosity, compassion & sharing. This is a holistic movement that affects all areas of their lives. The book of Acts is a story of movement, motion, and progress. "Because no one city, no one religion, no one perspective, no one worldview can contain it" (pg 113). God's desire at Sinai was that everybody would worship him by serving each other. If The church gets converted the whole world will follow. Jesus welcomed anyone who came to see him! "All: That's who Jesus is for" (pg 115).

Swollen-Bellied Black Babies, Soccer Mums on Prozac, & The Mark of The Beast

"America will fail. She will fail compleatly among the countries. And another country will rise and take America's place. America will lose because her behaviour is not the behaviour of a great nation" (pg 118). America went from a few colonies to a superpower in less than 200 years. People come to America looking for life, love and happiness and they find it. It is hard to find a place in the world where Americans are not doing some form of good. These things should be celebrated and honoured, but is is possible to be with Jesus everyday and still miss who he really is. America is an empire. The Bible has a lot to say about empires. The Bible is an "oppression narritive." "Without careful study and reflection, and humility, it may be possible to miss central themes of the scriptures" (pg. 121). What is trure to empires like Egypt and Jerusalem is true to empires like America! Empires will naturally accumulate wealth and resources. America makes up 5% of the world's population and this 5% controls one fifth of the total world's wealth. Every seven seconds, somewhere in the world a child under 5 dies of hunger, while Americans throw away 14% of the food we purchase. Half the world lives on less than $2 a day while the averege American teenager spends nearly $150 each week. When studying the world through travel, study, or statistics like this, it can lead to guilt which isn't helpful. What is helpful? Honnesty! Awareness! Knowledge! The Blessings and abundance of America can turn into burdens and curses. This blessing we recieve is going to bring tremendous temptation to forget the God who provided it. "This is how you remember God: you bless those who need it the most in the same way that God blessed you when you needed it most" (pg 124). It is God who gives us the ability to produce wealth. The luxeries we have can begin to seam like necessities if we are not careful. Entitlement convinces us that certain this we have are deserved.The USA uses 25% of the oil in the world while only having 3% of its reserves. This is a problem! For muslims, the three most holy cities are Jerusalem, Medina, and Mecca. Mecca and Medina are both in Saudi Arabia where the largest oil reserve in the world is located (the second largest being in Iraq). "More and more is being spent to preserve and protect the more and more that is being accumulated, and that, of course, requires more and more resources, which, of course, need to be protected and preserved with more and more" (pg 127). The USA accounts for 48% of global military spending: In 2008, the USA spent more on defense than the next forty-five countries combined!!! The USA has built military bases on land considered holy by a significant percentage of the world's population. "Empires accumulate. Accumulation gives birth to entitlement, entitlement demands preservation, preservation has consequences & consequences are burden... The temptation in an ever-expanding empire is to fail to hear the cries of those who haven't directly benefited from the abundance the empire has been blessed with" (pgs 128-9). We must be careful not to become indifferent to the cries of those among us. The Roman empire often said "peace through victory" but it was not peace, it was destruction and death. The saying "Peace through victory" would depend on if you were on the winning or losing side. "If the system works for you, it is hard to understand the perspective of people who have the boot of the system on their neck" (pg 130). Followers of Christ miss the central point of the Bible? Can it happen? Well it happened both in the first century AND it happens today! Part of this has been due to EMPIRES!! If you want to control someone, you need to control their money! In Revelation John speaks of the mark of the beast. This mark speaks of all the ways humans misuse power to accumulate and stockpile while others suffer and starve. This mark is the anti-kingdom. It is dangerous to ignore the meaning of revelation in its first-century context and only pay attention to it in the context of future events. Churches around the world do not allow for luxuries like a youth pastor while the building the congregation meets in is in need of a roof. Any surplus the church may have is needed to spend on needs that are staring them in the face such as providing food etc because people are dying. Many Christians around the world would stand in awe over the kind of blessings churches in America have been given. What happened to people sharing their posessions? What about Jesus telling a man to sell everything he owned? "How do children of the empire understand the Savious who was killed BY AN EMPIRE?!?" (pg 137). "How do they fathom that half the world is too poor to feed its kids when their church just spend two years raising money to build an addition to their building?... Your only hope, of course, is to remind him or her that there is blood on the doorposts of the universe" (pg 138).

Blood on The Doorposts of The Universe

We need to realise that unless we have an exodus, nothing will ever change & tomorrow will be just like today. Within our opression and cry out for an exodus, God comes to do something. For Israel, "the symbol of revolution is a lamb... a lamb is sacrificed for every household" (pg 143). This lamb redemmed the first born of each household who was to be a representative for each family. if the first born was saved, they all were. "Israel is God's firstborn. And through Israel, God's intention is to show the world what God is like. God wants to redeem all of humanity through the firstborn son Israel" (pg 144). The prophets painted the picture that all of humanity was is a form of exile and trhat this new exodus was for all of creation to come home through the redemption that came through one man. But God would have to deal with sin in an entire new way. God's firstborn out of his firstborn would have to take the burden of the exile of Israel but also the rest of the world.This lamb would have to be a man who did not take the path of violence but of sacrifice. Jesus is the lamb, but a different kind of lamb: God's firstborn. Right before Jesus is betrayed he has a passover meal saying "this is my body... this is my blood..." The firstborn will not be spared. This time Jesus' death brings a new exodus. He is the firstborn out of all of God's creation. We are told in scripture to remember Jesus and be thankful for his sacrifice. God has made peace with all of humanity through the Eucharist. When Paul speaks of this new life with Christ, he is speaking of it being something far deeper than before... it is a whole new way for us to live. Paul was inspired to write the epistles. "If someone is inspired, which means life has been breathed into them, then somebody else had life breathed out of them" (pg 149). "The church is a living Eucharist, because followers of Christ are living Eucharists" (pg 150). According to writer Anne Lamott, the most powerful sermon there is is two words: Me Too! Because when someone can look you in the face in the midst of struggle and understand that they are or have been there we identify. And that can save you. "The power of the Eucharist comes from its weakness not its strength" (pg. 152). When the Eucharist actually grasps what it feels for God to give his firstborn son and say me too we feel, rejoyce, and suffer with the world. Rob Bell states that God is the centre and the closer you get to the centre the closer you get to God... A church is where peace has been made... People who previously had nothing in common discover that the only thing they now have in common is the one thing that matters (pg 153-4). We are living in a world where one couple has a million dollars and another does not have enough for dinner. As these people sit down and engage with one another, they begin to feel what the others feel and the dividing wall of hostility crumbles. It becomes dangerous when a church becomes known for being hip and trendy. God did not design this new humanity to be a trend. When everyone becomes the same and nobody bothers to take their own perspectives, and nobody streaches or opens up, the new humanity is in trouble. "The new humanity defies trends and demographics and the latest market research" (pg 157). The church is not a product we buy! "The way of Jesus is the path od descent. Its about our death. Its our willingness to join the world in its suffering, its our participation in the new humanity, its our weakness calling out to others in weakness" (pg 158). When we go to church we need a new way to measure a good vs a bad sermon: "The measure of a sermon is not whether it affirms what you already believe. It is not a product to be consumed and then evaluated according to how good it was or if it was pleasing or enjoyable... it is to remind, instruct, and inspire people about being the Eucharist in the worlds they live in" (pg 159). These gatherings are ultimatly only the beginning of the faith, because being Christ to the world is about what we are doing out there in the world we serve. Church = People in the end... People who live a certain way in the world. It all comes down to breaking and pouring ourselves out into the world we live in. "By making threatsabout how they are going to impose their beliefs on others turns so many people away from Jesus" (pg 161). By doing this, followers are speaking words of Ceasar, not of God. This real Exodus however is the ultimate picture of Salvation. How are we taught to keep the grace of God alive in us? Remember the poor! "When you love unconditionally, you will be reminded of the God who loves unconditionally" (pg 162). When we forget the exodus, the poor, and the church forgets what it is like to be enslaved, we forget who we are, because we forget the grace of God. We were made for much more: The Eucharist! Where there is always hope for the poor & rich!! If we could spend a trillion dollars on a war, what else could we spend a trillion dollars on? The Eucharist is about empowering the powerless to make life better for themselves. The act of loving the poor is fulfilling our hope. The church is not a building because no building will ever be big enough to contain the kind of Grace it stands for. God is about giving a good gift to bring healing to a new world. "A church is an orginisation that exists for the benefit of its nonmembers... This blessing extends even to our enemies" (pg 166). The Eucharist today would be God's dream for the world... But our buildings, our Churches are not big enough... Remember in Genesis where Cain asks God if he is his brothers keeper after his blood is crying out from the ground? The chruch would respond to Cain by saying "actually... you are." "It's about the freeing of human concience to expirence the total acceptance of God, and it is about human community and its right and longing to be free. It is the way to a universal religion adequate to the challenge of saving human community and the ultimate renewal of all things. The church is the living, breathing, life-giving, system-confronting, empire-subverting picture of the new humanity... The church is God's gift. For the World. Because there is blood on the doorposts of the universe" (pg 169).

Broken and Poured

Salvation is what happens when we call out to God from the Egypt of our lives: Addiction, suicidal thoughts, anger, rage, prejudice, hate, envy, lust, racism, ego, dishonesty... we could all make our lists. Even the antireligious people affirm that there is something seriously wrong with the world. So what arte we to do with our blessings that we have recieved? Sometimes our exile can be so subtle that we do not even realise we are in one until it is too late. But when we cry out, we expirence a rebirth. Jesus wants to save the church from an exile of being irrelevant. Every exodus begins with a cry and someone else hearing. When we are the ones who hear the cry, we are with God. We listen... then Go! This will involve risk, conversations with people nothing like us, questions and criticism, and perhaps rejection from people who have not heard what we heard. "Its about doing the next right thing, being open to whatever it means for us to be a Eucharist, right here, right now, with what God has given us today" (pg 177). This new humanity is not about saying "someone else" but its stepping up and taking the risk, and any possible suffering or joy. It all comes to being captiveted by a great cause- one that is so massive and so compelling that you would sell everything you have to be a part of it" (pg 178). If we can not find God in our own opression, we can always find him in the opression of others. Jesus wants to save us from making his good news about another world instead of this one. He wants to save us from making the gospel messege a simple transaction about the removal of sin. He wants to save us from religiously sanctioned dispair (the kind that doesn't believe the world can get better). The Bible begins with Abels blood crying out from the ground and ends with God whiping away every tear. "The church confronts the religiously sanctioned despair of so many who follow Christ but have settled for a life of exile... (Eucharist) we do this in rememberance of Jesus because it changes us, it humbles us, it brings us together" (pg 180). What is when Jesus said "do this" at the last supper he was actually talking about the whole way of life? The "do this" is part of our lives when we are part of the Eucharist. "Because when we do this in rememberance of him, the world will never be the same; we will never be the same. Now that's a manifesto!" (pg 181).

My Thoughts (or more of them anyway):

I found this book quite relatable, though it was more scholar like than Velvet Elvis... There were many more Biblical refrences than the book I read in January, but I would still reccommend this book to just about anyone in PARTICULAR those who are already Christian or go to church (regardless of your religion). I found this book relatable through my own patterns of exile in my own life and the things I have gone through in the past few months. I have found that the points are true that when we choose to not remember those in need we slip back into an exile and miss the new humanity. I found that the relation to Biblical text had a distinct parallel to much of the western countries (USA, UK, CANADA etc) in their present exile. I have seen that since the publishing of this book (I think it was in 2008) Bell's prediction of the state of the United States has come true and that another empire (China) is taking power. The western World is slipping into a depression and all of Bells points are crucial to stopping it. We need to recognise this exile and call out to God not only in our own lives but for the state of our churches, governments and nations. We need to remember where we were and embrace the new humanity...

Sorry this blog was supposed to be posted in like, February!! haha!! It is now April, & it turned out much longer than I thought, but still, pick up the book and read it. I hope you liked the blog. I have to start working on my March book blog when I can (no internet, so relying on free WIFI hotspots)... and still in the moving process so PRETTY BUSY!!! With that, work, finding a new job, etc.... So keep a lookout for my late blog on my March Book: "Drops Like Stars: A Few Thoughts on Creativity and Suffering" by Rob Bell. I also have a book for April I have yet to start having time to read but WILL read it and the blog for that might be up in May!! My March book blog shouldn't take as long because the book itself was MUCH shorter... Like it took me an hour to read. HAHAHA... Well yeah, sorry it took forever... Hope you all enjoyed a bit of a summary/my thoughts, and will all go to the book store to buy a copy...

RAYE

VELVET ELVIS

Here it is, the Blog I promised on Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. I would just like to start with if you have not read this book yet, you really have to get a copy because it is fantastic!! I am just going to share some of my favourite points Bell made in his book along with some refrences, interesting points, my opinons... etc. If you do not agree, I do not care to hear you argue your opinon, try to change my opinon, argue your theology etc, cos quite frankly I have had enough Christians in my life try to tell me what to believe. It is quite annoying. I do not need someone who cares to try to shove their beliefs down my throat so keep that in mind if you feel you need to comment like that... I will probably ignore you... In fact this book was crucial in helping me recover from damage I have expirenced from the church in my life thus far... after lifing a couple years in the Bible Belt I can honnestly say I have been disgusted by much of the church. My good mate Brad has been reccommending this book to me since 2007 and I finally read it. All I can say is I should have read it sooner!! Its really good. Regardless of your religious beliefs you should pick it up & read it. Bell tells us what the church SHOULD be doing, and a lot of history etc to help us understand it. The book is really titled Velvet Elvis: Repainting The Christian Faith. If you are a Christian, or just a person who is not a Christian because you dont like the Christians you meet or what the church "is" this book is for you... I believe it really gives us a true glimpse on what it should be like... The kind of church I want to be a part of & the type of Christian I would want to be... Regardless of what you believe tho u should pick it up :) The book is an easy read & is broken up into seven movements just as I will break up my info on it so it is easy to read... Now that you know some of my background, these are a few of my thoughts...

Velvet Elvis

One of Rob Bells opening points sets the stage for the rest of his book: "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 ants us to be" (pg 11).

Movement One- JUMP

Rob Bell makes an interesting point that whatever your religion is, no matter who you are, Everybody follos somebody. Even if we insist we are an individual, we got our ideas from somewhere... Thus we all follow SOMEBODY!! As Christians, we are to follow Jesus because we believe his way is "the depth of reality" (pg 21). By this I understand Rob Bell to mean by living the way of Jesus one gains a better understanding of the world, how it works, and the ay things are. Rob Bell explains faith to be like a trampoline you jump on. You invite others to join you to jump as well because you enjoy it. A trampoline is powered by springs (these are our beliefs or theology). Bell says we can take one spring out of the faith and examine & question it for what it is (example was Jesus really born of a virgin)... Rob Bell believes by faith being a trampoline we can examine each individual thing while we still jump and our faith does not fall apart. If faith was like a brick wall of fundamentals, take out one brick & evenything falls apart. Springs are flexible, and if we are really trying to understand the Bible we will always leave with more questions... Rob Bell argued that too many Christians these days are too busy trying to convince people they are wrong & always defend their beliefs. Bell argued "You rarely defend the things you love. You enjoy them and tell others about them and invite others to join them with you" (pg 27). He argued to be a Christian you don't need to know anything about the springs to persue the way (pg 34). Even if someone is not a Christian that does not mean they have the entire picture wrong either. The last big point Rob Bell made in his first movement was that Christianity should bring us joy. He argues how it is possible to believe all the right things and be miserable (pg 35). "Joy doesn't rule out suffering, difficulty, and struggle. In fact, taking Jesus seriously almost guarentees our lives will be difficult!!" (pg 35). How many Christians do you know would say that trying to convert or persuade someone?!?

Overall my favourite part of this movement was the discussion of the springs. I know oh so many people that if you take away one aspect of their faith they would have to reevaluate their entire beliefs on that one thing... Bell simply argues we need a Jesus big enough and flexible enough like a spring to handle our questions and that if one spring is removed, we would still be able to jump!!

Movement Two- YOKE

"What is interesting to me is that the phrase 'personal relationship' isn't found anywhere in the Bible" (pg 43). I found this quote to be one of the ones that stood out the most in the book. Before living in the Bible Belt, I honnestly had not heard the phrase personal relationship before while at church. In fact the more I heard people say you need to pray a specific prayer to ask Jesus into your heart, the more disgusted I became... Shouldn't me knowing I believe & saying I believe be enough?!? Why was this suddenly a "rule" to be a Christian. I always felt the Bible was best understood when I was in a group Bible study while in secondary school, and Rob Bell made the point that the Bible was not originally written for people to read on their own but in groups (pg 53). The Epistles were written to groups or people such as Corinthians, Thessalonians, Romans, etc. Another point Bell made was "the more people insist they are just taking the Bible for what it says, the more skeptical I get" (pg 44). Bell does affirm however God has spoken & the rest is just commentary. But how are we to say we are the ones taking the Bible for what it says? One can make the Bible say almost anything they want it to. "When you hear people say they are going to tell you what the Bible means, it is not true. They are telling you what they think it means" (pg 54). He gave a little insight to inturpreting scripture. The underlining point to inturpretation however was "action was always the goal (pg 57). Rob Bell went into some history then to help explain scripture inturpretation. Back in the day, Rabbis ways of teaching their disciples was how to be like them. Jesus was a Rabbi, so ultimatly his teachings were how to be like him. Rob Bell argued that the Word is alive because it HAPPENS. It is our story. Just like Moses & the Israelites crying out for deleverance from Eqypt thousands of years ago, we still today cry out for delieverance in our daily life from things. Rob Bell also stressed the importance of the context "to grab a few lines of Jesus and drop them down on someone 2,000 years later without first entering into the world in which they first appeared is lethal to the life and vitality and truth of the Bible" (pg 63). Rabbis & Jesus intrepreted scripture using the context and outside knowledge of the scriptures meaning to do something known as Binding & Loosing in which they would apply the context and see how to carry out the scripture in their lives. As disciples of Jesus we are given the power to bind and loosen for ourselves & get our own inturpretations. We are not to simply blindly listen to what someone tells us the Bible "means because they may or may not be correct. "When people say all we need is the Bible its simply not true" (pg 68). I agree with Rob Bell strongly in this statement. When we thing about it, we are not reading the original scriptures most often when we read the Bible since they were written in Hebrew, Greek & Aramaic, and many of us do not know these languages. First we need the tools to learn these languages or enough of them to decide what we thing the scriptures are presenting. Then we need more tools aside from the Bible to put ourselves into the right historical context since none of us are currently living in the Biblical times. After we believe we have an understanding of this, we need to see how we can apply this to our lives because action is ALWAYS the goal. And we can not trust someone else knos all of this context etc that they claim they do, we have to learn it for OURSELVES!!! Perhaps one of our biggest problems in the Church today is too few Christians reading the Bible and trying to understand it in this way... and far too many taking anothers word for it!!

Movement Three- TRUE

So what is this BIG DEAL about Christianity anyway? Bell Argued "it isn't just concerts and surfing and the high points, and it isn't just those beautiful moments in the midst of the everyday mudane; it is also in the tragic and the gut-wrenching moments when we can not escape the simple factthat there is way more going on around us than we realise" (pg 75). Have you ever felt like there was something bigger going on & you just couldn't tell what it was?!? That this world is so intercretly woven together in a specific ay that it seams hard to explain? Rob Bell states that "it is God's world and God made it and God owns it and God is present everywhere in it" (pg 77). God does not "show up to our Bible study, or our church event, our prayer meeting, or whatever it may be... God doesn't intervine... WE are the ones who show up, God is and was always there. Because of this Bell makes perhaps one of my favourite points in his book: ANYONE can speak truth... Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Athiest... ANYONE. "As a Christian, I am free to clain the good, the true, the holy, wherever and whenever I find it (pg 80). Rob Bell argues that Christianity is not the only truth out there. For example in Turkey the muslims do not build their houses all at once so they build parts at a time when they can afford to because they believe it is bad to have debt. Rob Bell argued that just because these people were not Christian did not mean they did not believe in something GOOD!! We need to claim something good when we hear it as our own no matter who said it, Christian or not a Christian. Rob Bell also argued that not all "Christian" things are good meaning Christian music, propaganda etc... An artist may praise Jesus in their songs but on the side live a life far from what is considered GOOD, while a non Christian singer may be just the opposite. One of my favourite lines in the book was Christian is a great noun and a poor adjective. It really is... Because all things in this world is God's and God is all places, it is impossible for a Christian to have a secular job! God intends to use us regardless of our profession if we seek to do good and do it for God. I hated going to a Christian school where it sometimes seamed that those wanting to be a pastor or minister of some kind or a missionary were seen as above those in a business related degree or something. We all have different purposes in life. We also all have different beliefs. it is important for us to think for ourselves and claim thruth wherever we see it. We need to believe in a Big Jesus to be able to accept everything we hear in church is not alays truth, and sometimes what we hear OUTSIDE of church IS truth! Rob Bell made the point that God is everywhere on this earth & its all his. He couldn't be more right. That is why it is disgusting when people who are involved in "missions" argue that they are going to bring Jesus someplace... How can you bring God someplace he already is? Rob Bell claimed that Tour Guide may be a better term then missionary because they SHOW you a God who is already there among you... and even if you were to CARRY God, he is a big God... thats a pretty heavy load to carry :) Rob Bell finished movement with 3 ponts I liked on page 92:

1) My friends are resonating with Jesus whether they realise it or not

2) If it is real, then it is showing us God

3) Wherever you jind those (Passion, Love, Exhilleration) you are finding God!

Movement Four- TASSLES

Rabbis all wore a specail garment which had tassels on them. Because Jesus as a Rabbi he would be wearing one of these. Does anyone recall the Bible story where a woman had been bleeding for many years reached out and touched Jesus' tassle and as healed and made new through her faith? This is not a story directly of Jesus saving her "soul" so to speak but she was looking for a physical healing. It is true Jesus saves souls, but that is not the point of it... "salvation is holistic in nature. For Jesus, being reconciled to God involves far more than just the saving of your physical body or your soul- it involves all of you" (pg 107). Rob Bell continues to say "The point of the cross isn't forgiveness. Forgiveness leads to something much bigger: restoration. God isn't just interested in the covering of our sins; God wants to make us into the people we were originally created to be" (pg 108). In a way I would like to put it however is not only does God want to make us into people who will presue "his will for our lives" as I heard so many times in the Bible belt, but perhaps he wants to make it so that regardless of what bad circumstances we have had with people, with the church, or with life in general that they do not control our actions or our thoughts in becoming the people who we are. What if we saw these points as ways we could better impact the world around us... not to be defined by this world (if you were raped, if you are rich or in poverty, etc) but what is we let God make us in who we were meant to be that we could feel we lived a life of deep purpose?!? With my thoughts on this track, it is easy to agree with Bell's point "approaches that deal solely with not sinning alays fail" (pg 108). Rob Bell also believes that "It is possible to be saved and not be a healthy, whole, life-giving person. It is possible for the cross to have done something for a person but not in them (pg 110). "It is possible to be a good Christian and go to church services and sing the right songs and jump through the right hoops and never let Jesus heal your soul" (pg 118). How many of us today have been hurt in our lives? ALL OF US!! None of us are exempt. The sad thing is many of us "forgive and forget" when the incident still subconciously impacts us years and years and years to come; regardless of our religious beliefs. We need to drag it all up in order to fully heal from it all and it takes time!! We need to be like Job who was relentless in his persuit of God. Rob Bell came to the conclusion that very few ever let Jesus truly heal their souls, and perhaps that could be a meaning to what Jesus meant when he said the way is narrow. What were the conclusions Rob Bell made to what we can do to move beyond this focus only on Jesus saving you from sin cycle etc. Rob Bell left Movement Four with 2 main conclusions on page 120:

1) The system has to be changed. It has to be destroyed and replaced not with another system but with an entirely new way of life.

2) Very few people actually live from their heart. Very few live connected with their soul.

Movement Five- DUST

Jesus himself is the very word of God. Jesus claimed to be the ay the truth and the life, but what does this mean historically? In biblical times, Jews believed the Torah as the way the truth and the life. The law was so central to the Jewish way of life that young boys by the age of ten would have the entire Torah memorised in Hebrew: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy!! I have read these books of the Bible and I can imagine memorising them to be no easy task. If an ten year old boy can do it, someday I want to memorise the entire Torah in Hebrew as well!! Of the boys that memorised the Torah, the more gifted of those went on to memorise the rest of the Tennach (known as the old testament) by the age of thirteen!! Of these boys the best of the best would try to become Rabbis because the Rabbi was the most respected of the men in town. Those who were no longer in the process of their studies had begun the family trade. The remaining best of the best would be questioned by the Rabbi to see if the Rabbi thought he could become like him. If the Rabbi was sure of this young teenagers abilities he would allow him to become his disciple, and if not he would return home to learn the family trade. If the young man were to become disciples of a Rabbi, the Rabbi would teach them his yoke. He thought he could be like him. The disciple would leave his friends and family and give up his life to follow the Rabbi. Disciples were to show a true level of devotion to their Rabbi. Jesus was a Rabbi & one can find it very interesting when they see his choosing of his disciples. Jesus chose fisherman for his disciples, what is this significant of? Jesus chooses the not good enoughs!! Because of this I can never doubt that Jesus does not think I can be like him... He chooses everyone and even those who are not good enough!! But to be a disciple we must commit ourselves. In the Biblical times a disciple would follow his Rabbi everywher because he would never want to miss a thing, even if it meant folloing him in the desart for days getting covered in dust. "If you are a disciple, you have committed your entire life to being like your Rabbi" (pg 133). I Christian has to remember this, and I think at times it gets difficult, but the thing that relieves pressure in wondering if we can be like Jesus is that Jesus chose us as the not good enoughs. He chooses everybody. Rob Bell makes his point that God believes people are capable of amazing things. I agree we all are capable of amazing things be we rich or poor or clever or thick... Our abilities do not make us who we are... Our choices do!!

Movement Six- NEW

Is there really no such thing as a bad church? I would argue that there is such a thing... I would argue that there are bad churches, bad Christians, and bad pastors!! Rob Bell argued that it is possible for religious leaders to get in the way of people entering the kingdom of God. I would have to agree. I once attended a church that the pastor alays voiced his opinon and said if you did not agree with his exact theology, you were a sinner and going to hell. In fact one Sunday when there was a snowstorm and many did not attend church, my mum went and when attendance was low the pastor commented about how those who did not come were sinners and were going to Hell. Sin is deffinatly an issue in the world, but as a Christian it should not the main focus or direction of the church... We have been made NEW and that is what Rob Bell discussed in movement six. When we are in Christ we are made new... we are not who we ere by any means anymore. Rob Bell tells us how our old self will still on occasion try to rear its ugly head in our lives, but we are not that person. We need to die to that nature everyday because when we are in Christ we are given a new nature and we have to believe it and claim it. "It is not that we are now perfect or that we will no longer struggle. Or that the old person won't come back from time to time. It's that this new ay of life involves constant, conscious decision to keep dying to the old so that we can live in the new" (pg 140). Rob Bell presented that If we are in Christ... God's view of me is Christ... And God views Christ as perfect. What does that mean for me? God views me as perfect! We escentially are HOLY!! Colossians 3:12 tells us we are Holy! "The issue is my learning who this person is who God keeps insisting that I already am" (pg 141). That is what we are looking to learn when we study the scriptures and attend Church as a Christian. That is why Rob Bell argues that shame has no place in the Christian expirence. "Beating others up about who they are and what they are not is going in the wrong direction" (pg 142). I personally can relate to this. I have had many expirences in the church where other Christians I may have met once or twice try to tell me how I should live or try to tell others how they sould live "I don't think its in God's will for you to do this" or "If you don't believe/do/think the same as me you are sinning and going to hell" or "I don't think God wants you listening to that secular song" or the most rediculous I have heard "If you dont pray before taking a dump on the toilet, you are sinning. You have to see if its in God's will for you to go first..." Through all of these expirences I had actually gotten disgusted with the church and left it for a while, but because of God I am back. It really buggs me when Christians use the excuse to hold one another accountable to judge other people. It makes it seam like someone needs to sort out their life before they are accepted by the Church or Christians which is not true! In fact becoming a Christian is a process as long as you are confessing your faith and are willing to learn for yourself and inturpret scriptures etc. Rob Bell made a few points on pg 144 we should remember:

1) The point isn't my failure; it is God's success in remaking me into the person he originally intended me to be.

2) Christians are people LEARNING who they are in Christ

3) When we see religious communities spending most of their time trying to convince people not to sin, we are seeing a community that has missed the point.

If the point is not sin then what is the point of being a Christian. Rob Bell suggests (and I agree) that the purpose of Christians is to bring heaven to earth. When we see poverty, famine, and other injustices on earth we refer to those as hell. As a Christian we are to be like Christ and to try to eliminate those from the earth. Heaven and Hell are not just where you go when you die but they are present realities! "This new kind of life in him is not about escaping this world but about making it a better place, here and now" (pg 148). One of the worst sins we can do as Christians is to not be generous. The man who was not generous is one of the few people in the Bible who it specifically mentions goes to Hell when he dies. What does that tell us? As Christians "the goal is not escaping this world but making this world the kind of place that God can come to" (pg 150). Whether or not you are a Christian, you already are who God created you to be. But how do we REALLY fully embrace this? "We can only find it when we give up the search, when we surrender, when we trust" (pg 151). We are exactly who we are supposed to be. We just need to surrender to God who we are and live our new life with him that he has already given us. We are already new in Christ, we just need to start believing it and living it... Not sin focused but by bringing heaven to earth through the simple things. It won't alays be easy, but it will deffinatly be worth it that we all may expirence that new life! :)

Movement Seven- GOOD

For Movement Seven to begin, let us start with how the Bible began when God created the earth. God created the Garden of Eden where the first original sin took place. There is an interesting connection here to the conquering of sin by Jesus. Jesus rose from the dead in a garden, was placed in a garden tomb, and after he rose when he saw his mother Mary weeping in the garden when his body was "missing" she mistakes him for the gardener. This is more than coincidence. There are a number of parallels between the old and new testaments that Rob Bell brings to our attention in the final movement of his book. In order for sin to be ended, God had sin overcome in the same way in entered the world (in a garden!!) Lets take a look back to the garden of Eden: When God created thje earth, he gave creation the power to grow and multiply telling Adam to care for it. Rob Bell argues because of this, litter and polution are spiritual issues (pg 158). When God created the Garden of Eden, it as GOOD... it was not perfect, but with its potential to develop it has the chance of becoming perfect. The early Christians spoke of God coming to earth at the end of time, not about us leaving to go someplace else. God claimed when Jesus would come there would be a renewal of all things, not just human souls. Creation moaned when sin entered the world because that was not how it was supposed to be! The return of Christ is to bring the whole picture back together as God intended it to be. In Revelation we have a picture of a city. If a garden is tended and cared for, Rob Bell tells us that it eventually becomes a city. Maybe we need to look back at bringing heaven to earth and seeing ho we can spread some love among all of Gods people. If you take all of the sin and death out of the Bible we are left with four chapters Genesis 1&2 and Revelations 21&22. A garden... and then a city... Another significant parallel.

The first Christians were counter-cultural. Paul was the first person in all of human history to state that all people were equal (male or female, slave or free). In Paul's day the idea of all people being seen as equal was revolutionary. Today we often say that all are equal, but the church I believe rarely acts that way. The church should take Pauls words and apply them to day. (homosexual or straight- clean or a stoner- prostitutes and virgins- Christians Athiests Muslims and everyone in between from all cultures). It is the duty of a Christian to love like Christ but so many we know do not, or if they love, they have an adgenda: all they really want is to convert someone... THAT IS NOT REALLY LOVE IS IT?!? More Christians are trying to persuade those who do not believe that the resurrection was real than anything else... could that be missing the point?!? OF COURSE!! The Early Christians you never found trying to persuade someone that the resurrection was real. There are of course a couple reasons for this: 1) Those who were around to expirence the resurection were all still alive and 2) Everyone back in the days of the early church claimed their God rose from the dead... even the ceasars and Ceasar Augustus!!

So what is the whole point of evangelism if we are not converting people? God chose each and every one of us to bless others. "It is our turn to rediscover the beautiful, dangerous, compelling idea that a group of people, surrendered to God and to eachother, really can change the world" (pg 164). God doesnt bless ony Christians, but he blesses Athiests, Muslims, Hindus... it does not matter. If God blessed only Christians... I do not believe many Christians would actually feel the need to be a Christian. God blesses everyone and so should we! If the church (which exhists to serve others) stops serving, it loses its heart... A church that does not serve has missed the mark. "Serving people is the only way their perceptions are ever going to change... it is so toxic for the Gospel when Christians picket and boycot and complain about how bad the world is. This behaviour doesn' help. It makes it worse" (pg. 166). Instead of pointing out there is a problem over and over why not take action? The point of understanding the Bible always has action as the goal remember? Why not serve those and fix how the world is bad rawther than complain all of the time about it!! If the Gospel is not good news for EVERYBODY than it is not good news for ANYBODY!! (pg. 167). "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 on display... the church must stop thinking about everybody primarily in categories of in or out, saved or not, believer or nonbeliever... "God shows no favouritism." So We don't either... Christian community has sent the message that we love people and build relationships in order to convert them to the Christian faith. So there is an agenda. When there is an agenda it really isn't love is it? WE HAVE TO REDISCOVER LOVE, PERIOD. LOVE THAT LOVES BECAUSE IT IS WHAT JESUS TOLD US TO DO" (pg 167). Those who change the world do not need to draw attention to themselves. It can be simple and heart-felt. We can change the world by meeting peoples most basic needs... Like Rob Bell put "Jesus loves you, here's a toaster"... Its not like we have to do something even major that transforms a million lives... The lives of a few would still be changing the world. "Ultimately our gift to the world around us is hope. Not blind hope that pretends everything is fine and refuses to acknowledge how things are. But the kind of hope that comes from staring pain and suffering right in the eyes and refusing to believe that is all there is" (pg 170). We need to give this world not our "religion" but something real that they desperatly need.

"The church is like a double-edged sword. When it's good when it's on, when it's right, it's like nothing on earth. A group of people committed to selflessly serving and loving the world around them? Great. But when it's bad, all that potential gets turned the other way" (pg. 172). I have expirenced my fair share of what i believe to be the best of the best and the worst of the worst as far as churches and Christians go. What I ask you is what can be changed? To all of the Christians reading this, what can you do to better serve those around you without an agenda. No matter what we do, some people will just never CONVERT and we need to accept that. So love them anyway. If you are not a Christian, regardless of what your bleiefs are, what can the Church do in your opinon to serve you better, to serve the world better? To seam more compelling that it would not be looked upon by some with disgust?!? What could be done to better serve others, and what is getting in the way that can be stopped? It Is all something to think about no matter who you are.

I actually really enjoyed reading Velvet Elvis and I would reccommend it to anybody. It is a very simple read. If you enjoyed some of my points I made, you really should read the whole thing... If you did not like it, pick it up and read it to critisise thoroughly for yourself. After all God has spoken, the rest is just commentary!! :)

Sorry it took so long for me to post this, but as you can see by the length of the blog, it did take me a very long time to write it. I actually had to save drafts of this blog over a few days in order to actually finish it, but it was worth it. It was a really good book and has really helped me through many issues I have encountered with the church over the last few years. If you are in the same place as I was I can not urge you enough to pick up this book... It will really help you out :) After compleating this book I have officially marked off the first thing from my list of things I wanted to accomplish before returning to school. I hope to read a book every month this year and post a blog on it as well (some may be long and others may be short and I do not think they will ALL be Christian books). My book for February is called JESUS WANTS TO SAVE CHRISTIANS: A MANIFESTO OF THE CHURCH IN EXILE by Rob Bell. Stay tuned and I will hopefully have that blog posted at the end of February. I also hope to post tidbits of the different Bible studies I have done when I complete each study so stay tuned for my Stepping Up study by Beth Moore. I hope you enjoyed reading some of my thoughts on Velvet Elvis regardless of your religious beliefs. I hope you all have a good rest of your week.

Blessings,

RAYE