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Oh my! And what a story it is....

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A Gracious Reading of Rob Bell

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The Journey So Far The controversy rages on over Rob Bell's upcoming new book. No matter what happens now, this controversy has effectively guaranteed that 'everyone who is anyone' will need to read this book. Either to find out what is wrong and bash it, or because someone we generally disagree with also disagrees with the book so it has to be good stuff! Then, because 'everyone' is reading it, people like me will 'have to' read it to. After all, I am a pastor, and if many of my people are reading and being influenced by a book, don't I need to know what is going on as well?  Or so the reasoning will go... and perhaps I will read it, who knows. In the meantime, none of this will stop me from continuing to join this fray which I probably ought to have stayed out of in the first place. Onwards, Christian... :) The Latest Salvo The latest salvo has been fired by DeYoung  claiming that not only do we not need to talk with Bell but, more importantly, it...
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A Pastor's Word: Silence

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Silence.  I think of the servant watching Rebekah intently, waiting to see if his mission is a success.  I think of the darkness of the ninth plague; I wonder if there was silence. I think of the Canaanite woman crying for help and Jesus not saying a word.  I think of the disciples in the storm as they find that Jesus is asleep. Were they speechless? I think of Jesus in the Garden, his friends all asleep, his prayers rising as his sweat falls.  Or the three hours of darkness while Jesus hung on the cross. Was there silence then? I think of the silences I have experienced.  The brief pause, the in-drawn breathe, that stretches into an imaginary eternity, when I asked the woman I love to marry me and she had yet to answer.  That moment of silence before our baby cried for the first time.  The first rays of sun hitting the side of the mountain, when I realized I couldn't hear the highway anymore. The pause in the wind...
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"Those who follow Christ grieve more over the sin of their offenders than over the loss or offense to themselves. And they do this that they may recall those offenders from their sin rather than avenge the wrongs they themselves have suffered. Therefore they put off the form of their own righteousness and put on the form of those others, praying for their persecutors, blessing those who curse, doing good to the evil-doers, preparing to pay the penalty and make satisfaction for their very enemies that they may be saved. This is the gospel and the example of Christ." - Martin Luther (Quoted by Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge, pg. 161-162)
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