Rob Bell Affirms Practicing Homosexuals As Authentic Christians

During a Livestream Q/A, Rob Bell is asked to comment on the negativity  christians demonstrate  toward the gay community. Bell’s answer is simply predictable.

Below is an excerpt of the Q/A posted over at  Apprising Ministries.  But even better,  click on the Apprising site below and scroll down to the video so you can  to actually watch  Rob Bell respond to the question in his own words. His body language is quite interesting. 

Please notice Bell never compassionately shares the gospel in any shape,form or fashion. He remains absolutely silent about Christ salvific work that provides grace based repentance unto redemptive life  transformation. 

Nope, Ole Bell just can’t manage to articulate anything of biblical revelation as the answer to  fallen man’s human condition.

To that I say,”Anathema!”

rgh

Man in audience: On a more serious note. You’re here in West Hollywood.

Bell: Yes.

Man: [Kind of] the epicenter center of the gay community in southern California.

Bell: Yes. Yeah.

Man: A lot of the words that Christians have for us have been very negative.

Bell: Yeah.

Man: What do you think about that?

Bell: Yeah. Thank you for asking that. We’re here in West Hollywood, epicenter of a lot of gay culture and you’re asking—some people are gay (pause) and you’re our brothers and you’re our sisters, and we love you.

We love you. (audience applauds) And it’s really, really, really, important that we’re clear. I had a good friend—when I was in my teens—who was gay. And hadn’t told anybody. An’ I was the first person he told.

And (pause) probably the most loving, generous, holy—one of the most—he was extraordinary, is extraordinary. But at an early age I was like, some people are gay; an’ God loves them just like God loves me.

And they’re passionate disciples of Jesus, just like I’m trying to be. So, let’s all get together and try to do something about the truly big problems in our world; that I believe Jesus would us to band together, and tackle together.

So there you go.

http://apprising.org/2012/07/26/rob-bell-comes-out-gay-affirming/

Top Five Regrets Of The Dying

Patient (Photo credit: Kimberly Mahr)

For many years , an Australian nurse has given hospice care to dying patients during the final stages of their lives.

Over the 12 weeks, Bonnie Ware says she witnessed patients gaining phenomenal clarity as death approached.

Patients were asked if they would do things differently or if they had regrets.Five commonalities continually surfaced:

1. “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”Bonnie notes that most people felt they wasted their healthy youths, and were remorseful for not taking advantage of the things they were able to do.

2. “I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.” Ware says she heard this from every male patient she nursed. 

3. “ I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.” Patients became ill from anger they had from unexpressed feelings. Many had suppressed these emotions in order to keep peace with others. This resulted in illnesses related to bitterness and resentment. 

4. “I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.” Many patients regretted losing touch with good friends, who they were unable to track down and contact in their final days.Everyone misses friends when they are dying.

5. “I wish that I had let myself be happier.” Many failed to realize that being happy was their choice.They chose to remain stuck in old patterns and habits.

http://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2012/february/2022012.html

http://www.lovelyish.com/759285836/nurse-records-top-5-regrets-of-the-dying/

Judge Me By The Enemies I’ve Made

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It is often said,”You can judge the character of a man by his friends.” How true that is.  But there is balancing side to that quote.  You can also judge the courage of a man by the quality of the enemies he makes. 

 

Seem farfetched? Simply consider the  life of Christ. He was fiercely hated by the Pharisees, Sadducees,and the Scribes. All of whom were religious leaders of his day.

 

It was Jesus himself who said to his followers,” if they have hated me, they will also hate you.” 

  Amazing!!  The more we act and speak like Christ, the more religious enemies will  show themselves.

 

 With that promise in mind, here are some awesome quotes that I personally subscribe to:

 * I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made………………………………………………………………… [Franklin D. Roosevelt]

* You shall judge a man by his foes as well as by his friends………………………………………………………..[Joseph Conrad]   

* A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household……………………………………………………..[Jesus Christ]

* So have I now become your enemy for telling you the truth?…………………………………………………….[Apostle Paul]

* Love and pray for your enemies……………………………………………………………………………………………[Jesus Christ]

 * Do you consider your reputation well served? Perhaps its time to choose a better class of enemy.

* Choose your friends carefully. Your enemies will choose you.

* You have enemies ? Good! That means you’ve stood up for something.

http://www.coolnsmart.com/enemy_quotes/

Speak With Conviction and Passion!

 Ambiguity wrapped in pseudo humility is  the new “preaching” virtue. Moral clarity,passionate certitude and propositional truth are christianly out of vogue. The doctrine of   ”sacramental personality” has so permeated the church,  ministers intentionally avoid the  evidentiary nature of  speaking from the source of Holy Spirit power accompanied by deep conviction. [1 thess 1:5]

Teampyro nailed it back in ’09 and this video I saw over at Resurgence puts it in perspective  for today!

rgh

“The visible church is overrun with bad preachers and weak-willed people who are convinced that the very epitome of humility is never to state anything with too much conviction.”

“Everything nowadays is supposed to be carefully qualified with lots of ambiguous expressions and weasel-words like ‘perhaps,’ or ‘possibly,’ or ‘It seems to me . . . ’ or ‘maybe.’ Everything (including the gospel itself) gets prefaced with, ‘I could be wrong, but to the best of my knowledge this seems reasonable—although I know other people see it differently, so I don’t want to be dogmatic.’”

 

http://antagoniz.com/2009/11/09/convictional-certitude/

http://teampyro.blogspot.com/

10 Reasons Ministry and Sissies Are A Bad Mix

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“SBC Voices” tells it like it is! Realism vs Idealism. My own soul resounded with a hearty AMEN!Ministerial vocation isn’t for sissies, the weak of heart or the uncharactered.

rgh

“The blessings of ministry far outweigh the realities below; however, ministry is definitely not easy…If you enter pastoral ministry…”

10… Not everyone will like you.
  9… You will make people angry regardless how godly you handle yourself; it comes with the position.
  8… You will feel like a failure often; and when you do appear to succeed, the fruit that is produced cannot be accredited to you. God alone gives the increase. Thus, there is little “sense of accomplishment in ministry” that you may be accustomed to in other vocations.
7… You will fight legalism and liberalism, along with laziness, ignorance, tradition, and opposition.
6…  Not everyone will respond positively to your preaching, teaching, or leadership. You will bring people to tears with the same sermon: one in joy, another in anger (I have done this).
5… You will be criticized, rarely to your face, and frequently behind your back. This criticism will come from those that appear to love you, those that obviously do not like you, and pastors and Christians that barely know you.
4… You will think about quitting yearly or monthly, if not weekly or even daily.
3… You will be persecuted for preaching the truth, mostly from your brothers and sisters in the pews.
2… You will feel very lonely on a consistent basis, feeling like no one truly knows you or cares how you feel, because you do not want to burden your family, and trust-worthy peers are few and far in-between. Because of the “super-Christian” myth accredited to pastors literally, you will find it extremely difficult to disclose your deep thoughts and feelings to others. Thus, you will struggle with loneliness.
1… You will probably pastor a church that is barely growing (if at all), is opposed to change, doesn’t pay well, has seen pastors come and go, doesn’t respect the position as biblically as they should, doesn’t understand what the Bible says a pastor’s or a church’s jobs are, and will only follow you when they agree with you (thus, they’ll really only follow themselves).

related posts: http://redeemedministers.blogspot.com/2011/04/26-qualifications-for-minister.html

http://sbcvoices.com/10-reasons-why-sissies-and-pastoral-ministry-are-a-bad-mix

Conversational Curse?

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Dr Al Mohler cogently articulates  what is at stake in his masterful response to Brian McClarens ”to weak for the task” attempt to defend Rob Bell. The contrast is clear according to Mohlers polemic. This isn’t a third tier gray area. Somebody stands under the Pauline anathema for preaching a “counterfeit gospel”. Finally!

Mohlers summary:

“We are talking about two rival understandings of the Gospel here — two very different understandings of theology, Gospel, Bible, doctrine, and the totality of the Christian faith. Both sides in this controversy understand what is at stake.”

http://www.albertmohler.com/2011/03/23/a-theological-conversation-worth-having-a-response-to-brian-mclaren/

 

What Is Biblical Repentance?

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Mark Dever makes the point that a healthy church is marked by a biblical understanding of conversion. He quotes the 1833 New Hampshire confession of faith to define repentance as a grace-based sacred duty . It is robust, precise, and very powerful!

rgh

“We believe that Repentance and Faith are sacred duties, and also inseparable graces, wrought in our souls by the regenerating Spirit of God; whereby, being deeply convinced of our guilt, danger, and helplessness, and of the way of salvation by Christ, we turn to God with unfeigned contrition, confession, and supplication for mercy;at the same time heartily receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our Prophet, Priest, and King, and relying on him alone as the only and all-sufficient Saviour.”

http://www.amazon.com/What-Healthy-Church-IX-Marks

http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/creeds/nh_conf.htm#8

Doctrinal Priorities For The New Year!

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J.C. Ryle reminds us that some biblical truths are so foundational to the faith, they must therefore be re-affirmed and re-established ogoingly in the hearts and lives of God’s covenant people.

 As we prepare to enter 2011, it would behoove us to hear Ryle’s clarion call for these essential doctrines.

rgh

 

 #1: The Total Corruption of the Human Nature

“The corruption of human nature is no slight thing. It is no partial, skin-deep disease, but a radical and universal corruption of man’s will, intellect, affections, and conscience. We are not merely poor and pitiable sinners in God’s sight: we are guilty sinners; we are blameworthy sinners: we deserve justly God’s wrath and God’s condemnation. I believe there are very few errors and false doctrines of which the beginning may not be traced up to unsound views about the corruption of human nature. Wrong views of a disease will always bring with them wrong views of the remedy. Wrong views of the corruption of human nature will always carry with them wrong views of the grand treatment and cure of that corruption.”

#2: The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible

“Let us boldly maintain, in the face of all the opposition, that the whole of the Bible is given by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that all is inspired completely, not one part more than another, and that there is an entire gulf between the Word of God and any other book in the world. We need not be afraid of difficulties in the way of the doctrine of absolute inspiration. There may be many things about it far too high for us to comprehend: it is a miracle, and all miracles are necessarily mysterious. But if we are not to believe anything until we can entirely explain it, there are very few things indeed that we shall believe. We need not be afraid of all the assaults that criticism brings to bear upon the Bible. From the days of the apostles the Word of the Lord has been incessantly ‘tried,’ and has never failed to come forth as gold, uninjured and spotless.”

#3: The Atonement and Priestly Office of Christ

“We must boldly maintain that the death of our Lord on the cross was no common death. It was not the death of one who died only as a martyr. It was not the death of one who only died to give us a mighty example of self-sacrifice and self-denial. The death of Christ was an offering up to God of Christ’s own body and blood, to make satisfaction for man’s sin and transgression. It was a sacrifice and appeasement; a sacrifice typified in every offering of the Mosaic law, a sacrifice of the mightiest influence on all mankind. Without the shedding of that blood there could not be, there never was to be, any remission of sin.”

#4: The Work of God in the Holy Spirit

“Let us settle it in our minds that His work is no uncertain invisible operation on the heart: and that where He is, He is not hidden, not unfelt, not unobserved. We do not believe that the dew, when it falls, cannot be felt, or that where there is life in a man it cannot be seen and observed by his breath. So is it with the influence of the Holy Spirit. No man has any right to lay claim to it, except its fruits and its experimental effects can be seen in his life. Where He is, there will ever be a new creation, and a new man. Where He is, there will ever be new knowledge, new faith, new holiness, new fruits in the life, in the family, in the world, in the Church. And where these new things are not to be seen we may well say, with confidence, there is no work of the Holy Spirit.”

~ J..C. Ryle

Erik Kowalker @ http://jcrylequotes.com/2010/12/26/4-great-doctrines-to-always-keep-in-mind

The Real Absence of Christ In The Sacraments?

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Is it  Catholic Literalism, Reformed Covenantalism, or Baptistic Symbolism? Whatever your faith tradition, Michael F. Bird over at Biblioblog Euangelion makes an insightful statement concerning Baptist belief.

This is also a good place for me to recommend one of the finest books I have ever read on the Subject: Given for You: Reclaiming Calvin’s Doctrine of the Lord’s Supper by Keith Mathison.

rgh

“I often joke about the Baptist view of the sacraments as teaching a doctrine of “real absence,” i.e., wherever Jesus is, he’s nowhere near the bread and wine. In fact, it is probably better if he doesn’t even come to our communion service, because if he did ever come too close to the bread or the wine, we might end up turning Catholic.”

http://www.euangelizomai.blogspot.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Given-You-Reclaiming-Calvins-Doctrine/dp/087552186X

Following Zaccheus To Jesus

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“He that desires to give proof that he is a believer, should walk in the steps of Zaccheus. Like him, let him thoroughly renounce the sins which have formerly most easily beset him. Like him, let him follow the Christian graces which he has formerly most habitually neglected. In any case, a believer should so live that all may know that he is a believer.

Faith that does not purify the heart and life, is not faith at all. Grace that cannot be seen, like light – and tasted, like salt, is not grace, but hypocrisy. The man who professes to know Christ and trust Him, while he cleaves to sin and the world, is going down to hell with a lie in his right hand.

The heart that has really tasted the grace of Christ, will instinctively hate sin.”

~ J.C. Ryle ~

http://jcrylequotes.com/2010/06/28/are-you-a-christian-then-prove-it

http://reformedquotesfellowship.wordpress.com/