THE PROBLEM With ROB BELL´s GOSPEL

THE PROBLEM With ROB BELL´s GOSPEL
by J. Lee Grady

The controversial author says evangelical Christians are too narrow.
But didn´t Jesus tell us to follow the narrow path?

When former evangelical pastor Rob Bell published his bombshell
book Love Wins in 2011, his Michigan megachurch reportedly lost
3,000 members. They scattered quickly because Bell questioned
the existence of a literal hell. His point was that Christians need
to develop a nicer message with a lot less judgment. But his
solution was to throw out 2,000 years of Christian theological tradition.

Then last month, Bell made a more stunning announcement from
a pulpit in California. He told people gathered at Grace Cathedral,
an Episcopal church in San Francisco, that he supports same-
sex marriage. His primary reason, he said, was that culture has
changed and we need to adapt.

"I am for fidelity," Bell said. "I am for love, whether it´s a man and
a woman, a woman and a woman, a man and a man ... This is
the world that we are living in, and we need to affirm people
wherever they are."

I can appreciate Bell´s desire to affirm people. And I agree that
some Christians come off sounding unbelievably harsh when we
talk about homosexuality. But Bell didn´t have anything affirming
to say to the evangelical Christians who were his support base
during the early years of his ministry. He trashed us. And he
was judgmental about it.

Describing evangelicals, Bell predicted our doom in his March 17
remarks: "We are witnessing the death of a particular subculture
that doesn´t work. I think there is a very narrow, politically
intertwined, culturally ghettoized, evangelical subculture that was
told, `We´re gonna change the thing,´ and they haven´t. And they
actually have turned away lots of people."

If Bell wants to come off as affirming and non-judgmental, he should
use kinder words when describing a group of Christians who make
up an estimated 30 percent of the U.S. population. Bell seems to
be saying: "I´m right, and you evangelicals are irrelevant." He´s
ready to officiate at our funeral.

In response, I offer three points:

1. It´s actually OK to be narrow. Bell accuses us of being narrow.
But wasn´t it Jesus who told us the way to salvation is narrow? He
said: "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the
way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who
enter through it" (Matt. 7:13, NASB). Besides the fact that Jesus
refers to hell in that passage, He also says we have to be narrow
to avoid it.

Righteousness requires limitations. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees
for being judgmental on one hand, yet He drew lines and demanded
holiness on the other. We can´t be like Jesus, nor can we
demonstrate true love, if we affirm every lifestyle and embrace
every behavior.

2. Our subculture is not dying. The denominations that are losing
the most members today are actually the mainline groups that
have lost their commitment to the Bible. I´m in a different church
almost every week in this country (mostly charismatic or
Pentecostal), and I see vibrant faith, growing congregations and
the emergence of multiethnic leaders.

(And speaking of multiethnic, some of the most conservative
Christians in America are immigrants from Africa, Asia and Latin
America. Does Bell think they are irrelevant? They are the real
future of our movement. Bell is out of touch if he thinks
evangelicalism is just a bunch of old, white, Republican guys.)

3. We do need to change our attitude. I will agree with Bell that
there is a segment of evangelicalism that is too politicized. We
misrepresent Jesus when we label Him a Republican or a Democrat.
He is neither. And we alienate people from Jesus when all we do
is pontificate about what we are against.

It is very possible that gay marriage will become the law of the
land in this country, just as the Supreme Court sanctioned abortion
in 1973. Just because our government legalized the killing of an
unborn baby does not mean I have to support that choice personally.
But I do have to show love and extend Christ´s forgiveness to a
woman who has aborted her child. Yelling at her or condemning
her will not bring her to faith in Jesus.

In the same way, we are called to show love and respect to gay
people. I don´t have to agree with a person´s lifestyle to love them.
Jesus showed amazing compassion to the woman caught in
adultery-and He rebuked the religious bullies who wanted to
stone her. But when they put down their rocks and walked away,
He told her: "I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin
no more" (John 8:11, emphasis added).

Jesus was totally comfortable using the word sin when He showed
love to a person. And that´s the part of Jesus´ gospel that Rob
Bell ignores.

-PLEASE COMMENT on this topic at the following website-

http://www.revivalschool.com/

-Source-

http://www.charismamag.com/blogs/fire-in-my-bones/17266

An Unusual Word

An UNUSUAL WORD
by David Wilkerson

Recently the Holy Spirit gave me an unusual word, one that I did
not want to hear! He said, "You are bound to a very limited vision
of the Lord´s ocean of tender, loving mercies. You have endured
much guilt, condemnation and fear because you have not allowed
the Holy Spirit to reveal the vastness of My forgiving, healing,
reconciling mercies. You do not know Me for My tenderness!"

God showed me that this is a root cause for many giving up and
falling away. When sin strikes-when Satan comes in like a flood,
when you fall into some old habit or sin-the devil creates a
bondage. First, the guilt comes flooding in, then fear fills your
heart. A sense of total failure and helplessness overwhelms your
soul. At this point, most believers run out of grace-because
their view of God´s mercy is so limited.

Satan comes to you and says, "You´ve reached your limit. You´ve
confessed your sin time after time. There is no way God will forgive
you now, because you´ve sinned against the light. If you return
and confess once more, you´ll turn around and sin all over again.
So quit now!"

The devil does not want you to see God´s ocean of mercy; he
wants you to see only a trickle! Because of our ignorance of the
forgiving, restoring power of Christ´s love, we are destroyed. We
run out of mercy for ourselves because we are horribly bound
by a limited vision. Our eyes have not yet been opened to the
endless mercies of our tender Father! We are so bound by a
false, limited view of His mercies, we find it almost impossible
to believe or accept what James said: "[We] have seen the end
of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful (full of compassion), and
of tender mercy" (James 5:11).

This verse means, "God is easily crushed by our troubles and
hurts. He feels our pain and our failures, and He is kind and
compassionate to us. He loved us even when we were His
enemy. Even when we offend Him, He is quick to help, restore
and forgive us."

The word mercy means "kind and compassionate treatment of
an offender under one's power." God has the power to damn us
to hell every time we sin; He has us under His control and can
do with us as He pleases. And it pleases His tender heart to
be compassionate, loving and kind toward those who have failed
Him the most.

-PLEASE COMMENT on this article at the following website-

http://www.revivalschool.com/

Great Quotes

More GREAT QUOTES
-Sermonindex.

"If the Lord tarries, there may yet be a grass-roots awakening that
will overflow all sectarian barriers. There are a host of good people...
who long for a visitation from heaven in old-time power. The kindling
wood is scattered all round in all the churches. May God help us
to rake off the ashes, uncover the live coals and may He blow
upon us with the breath of His Spirit!"
-Vance Havner

"I would say without any hesitation that the most urgent need in
the Christian Church today is true preaching."
-Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones

"When a preacher is called from God, his sermon will be like a
baptism of truth."
-Howard Spring

"The evangelist who preaches for eternity is never great on numbers.
He is not apt to count hundreds of converts where there is no
restitution, no confession..."
-E.M. Bounds.

"When the Gospel was preached in these first ages of the Church, it
was revealed to the hearts and consciences of sinners with great
power. They deferred not their repentance one day."
-Thomas Reade

"Destitute of the Fire of God, nothing else counts; possessing
Fire, nothing else matters."
-Samuel Chadwick

Others May, You Cannot

OTHERS MAY; YOU CANNOT
-Author Unknown.

IF God has called you to be really like Jesus He will draw you into
a life of crucifixion and humility, and put upon you such demands
of obedience, that you will not be able to follow other people, or
measure yourself by other Christians, and in many ways He will
seem to let other people do things which He will not let you do.

Other Christians and ministers who seem very religious and useful,
may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out
their plans, but you cannot do it, and if you attempt it, you will
meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you
sorely penitent.

Others may boast of themselves, of their work, of their successes,
of their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any
such thing, and if you begin it, He will lead you into some deep
mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.

Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, or may have
a legacy left to them, but it is likely God will keep you poor,
because He wants you to have something far better than gold,
namely, a helpless dependence upon Him, that He may have the
privilege of supplying your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury.

The Lord may let others be honored and put forward, and keep
you hidden in obscurity, because He wants to produce some
choice fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be
produced in the shade.  He may let others be great, but keep you
small.  He may let others do a work for Him and get the credit for
it, but He will make you work and toil on without knowing how
much you are doing; and then to make your work still more
precious He may let others get credit for the work which you have
done, and thus make YOUR REWARD TEN Times GREATER
When JESUS COMES.

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you, with a jealous love,
and will rebuke you for little words and feelings or for wasting your
time, which other Christians never feel distressed over.  SO make
up your mind that God is an Infinitely Sovereign Being, and has a
right to do as He pleases with His own.  He may not explain to
you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in His dealings
with you, but if you absolutely sell yourself to be His love slave,
He will wrap you up in Jealous Love, and bestow upon you many
blessings which come only to those who are in the inner circle.

Settle it forever, then that you are to DEAL DIRECTLY WITH
THE HOLY SPIRIT, and that He is to have the privilege of tying
your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes, in ways
that He does not seem to use with others.  Now, when you are
so possessed with the living God that you are, in your secret
heart, pleased and delighted over this PECULIAR, PERSONAL,
PRIVATE, JEALOUS GUARDIANSHIP and MANAGEMENT OF
the HOLY SPIRIT OVER YOUR LIFE, then you will have found
the vestibule of Heaven.

WHEN YOU ARE forgotten, neglected, or purposefully set at
naught, and you smile inwardly, glorying in the insult or the
oversight, because thereby you are counted worthy to suffer with
Christ, THAT IS VICTORY.

WHEN YOUR GOOD is evil spoken of, when your wishes are
crossed, when your taste is offended, when your advise is
disregarded, when your opinions are ridiculed, and you take it
all in patient, loving silence, THAT IS VICTORY.

WHEN YOU ARE content with any food, raiment, climate,
society, solitude,or any interruption by the will of God, THAT
IS VICTORY.

The Power of The Holy Spirit

THE POWER of THE HOLY GHOST
by David Wilkerson

Those who were headed for the Upper Room loved Jesus dearly.
They were compassionate, self-sacrificing, soul-loving. But they
were not yet qualified to be His witnesses. It takes more than a
love for Jesus and a compassion for souls to qualify you as His witness.

They had been taught in the school of Christ. They had healed
the sick, cast out demons, and performed miracles. They had
seen Jesus clothed in His eternal glory on the Mount.

They had been nearby when He sweat drops of blood as He prayed
and then they had seen Him hanging on the cross. They had seen
Him resurrected, viewed the empty tomb, eaten with Him, and
talked with Him in His glorified body. They had even seen Him
ascend into heaven! Yet they still were not ready to witness of Him.

Why couldn´t Peter go to those milling crowds in Jerusalem and
immediately testify to His resurrection? Hadn´t he witnessed that
event firsthand? It seems he could have preached, "Jesus is alive!
He ascended into heaven! Repent!"

Peter makes a powerful statement to the chief priests: "And we
are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Spirit,
whom God hath given to them that obey him" (Acts 5:32).

Through the words of the Holy Spirit speaking through Peter, the
priests "were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them"
(Acts 5:33). The Holy Spirit also had spoken through Peter on
the day of Pentecost, and all who heard "were pricked in their
heart" (Acts 2:37).

Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, preached to the religious
leaders: "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears,
ye do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do
ye. . . . When they heard these things, they were cut to the
heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth" (Acts 7:51, 54).

When you emerge from seeking God, full of the Holy Spirit, you
will be able to stand with boldness before fellow workers, family,
anyone, and your witness will provoke one of two reactions. They
will either cry out, "What must I do to be saved?" or they will want
to kill you! You will speak a word that cuts to the heart. The
difference is found in the power of the Holy Spirit.

-Source-

http://www.worldchallenge.org/en/node/21608

"COOL" CHRISTIANITY

"COOL" CHRISTIANITY - Entertained to Death??
by Andrew Strom
 In 1993, the well-known evangelical preacher John MacArthur put out a book entitled 'Ashamed of the Gospel' (subtitled, "When the church becomes like the world"). Obviously, because it was written by a known Conservative, many modern leaders may have found it easy to bypass this book's insights and warnings. But when I read it, I found it an incisive and devastating expose of much that is now occurring in Christendom. In it, MacArthur writes: "Traditional methodology - most noticably preaching - is being discarded or downplayed in favor of newer means, such as drama, dance, comedy, variety, side-show histrionics, pop-psychology, and other entertainment forms... In the past half-decade, some of America's largest evangelical churches have employed worldly gimmicks like slapstick, vaudeville, wrestling exhibitions and even mock striptease to spice up their Sunday meetings. No brand of horseplay, it seems, is too outrageous to be brought into the sanctuary. Burlesque is fast becoming the liturgy of the pragmatic church."

In many churches today, it is seemingly no longer 'positive' enough (in the modern TV-marketing sense of the word) to emphasise the cross, deep repentance, holiness, "death to self" and all the other meaty elements of basic Christianity which the New Testament emphasises again and again. And so we change everything (even the very essence of the gospel itself) to fit the spirit of the age in which we live.

 "People don't want to hear about all that negative 'sin' stuff any more," we reason. "We'd better preach things that win them over in a positive, modern way." Thus, the epidemic of preachers who seem to sound more and more like TV commercials every week: "Come to Jesus, He will make you happy, He will fulfill the desires of your heart, He will comfort you, He will satisfy you, etc, etc.

" There is almost no difference here to the sentiments expressed in your average toothpaste commercial, but the most alarming thing of all is that many preachers seemingly wouldn't care even if there was. They cannot see what an enormous effect this 'marketing' approach is having on the very nature and content of the gospel they preach, and thus on the lives of the Christians all around them. Their attitude often seems to be:- 'Whatever brings them in the door is OK by me.' This is the very attitude that has led to what I believe is a crisis of colossal proportions amongst today's Christian youth.

As I have said, today much of this error is flooding into the church under the guise of "relevance". In the name of 'relevance' we are rushing around desperately trying to make our music "cool" and our leadership style "cool" and our gospel "cool" and our youth events "cool", etc, etc,- all in an effort to attract the world on it's own terms. None of this is of God at all. It relies almost entirely on the 'arm of the flesh'. It is really nothing less than worldliness and compromise in a new and very subtle (yet deadly) form. Instead of "holier than thou", it seems like we are now expected to be "cooler than thou". Our whole effort is aimed at proving to the world that Christianity is just as cool, just as much shallow fun, just as much of a party, as the world has to offer. And so, to prove all this, we have to entertain and entertain and entertain. We feel we have to become just like the world, in order to impress the world on it's own terms. Thus, we now need to be seen in fashionable (or better- still, 'hip' or alternative) clothes. And our youth events become an excuse for a "party". And our presentations become entertaining multi-media extravaganzas. All in an effort to equal or "out-cool" the world. (Which is why you now see 'moshing' heads, slam-dancing and stage-diving at our youth concerts - matching the world on it's own mindless, hedonistic terms. "Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God"). Like I said, cool pride, worldliness and rebellion - all in the name of "relevance". JUST LIKE the WORLD in EVERY SENSE. Does this sound like God to you?

Speaking of the huge Christian Greenbelt Festival held regularly in England, musician John Allen stated: "It seems undeniable that most of the audience is there simply to enjoy the music, not to think hard about anything; and there is a real danger of the emergence of the 'Greenbelt Christian', the semi-converted, shallowly committed teenager whose Christianity means little more than that he enjoys festival-going." What a tremendously significant statement! And the tragic fact is, that such 'Greenbelt Christians' are now found in their multiplied thousands right around the globe. For it is not just the large festivals that have succumbed to this spirit of entertainment. We now find this 'entertain-them-at- all-costs' approach everywhere, from local church youth groups right up to large regional gatherings. This spirit has pervaded everything, particularly those areas in the church that are connected with young people. In fact, it has become increasingly rare to find gatherings of Christian youth now in which these attitudes do not prevail.

What we are actually doing by trying to make our Christianity more worldly, is placing it at a great disadvantage. We are stripping it of the things that historically have made the Christian faith so appealing and powerful. I am also convinced that more than any- thing else, today's jaded youth will respond to a CHALLENGE. In fact, I am convinced that the greater the challenge, the more interest and the greater level of discipleship there will be. What today's "amused-to-death" young people need desperately is a cause worth fighting and dying for - a cause that calls them to deny themselves and to live a life of radical obedience to God. Jesus Christ is that cause. And if we don't provide such a challenge to today's jaded generation, then don't be surprised if some much darker cause arises to steal their allegiance. In many ways, today's youth, raised for much of their lives in a spiritual and moral vacuum, are truly ripe for the picking. And the devil knows this very well. If we are not willing to provide the youth with a cause worth dying for, then he surely will.

There has always been a 'social' aspect to the Western church that has attracted a certain 'club' membership. But this is different. This is an epidemic, and it is being encouraged right from the very top down. Many pastors and youth leaders have concluded that it is best to give the young people what they seem to want, just so they can get the numbers in the door. And the problem is growing worse, not better. Unless something drastic is done, all I can personally see on the horizon is years and years of such continual shallowness that we end up with churches full of people who desire little else but 'ear-tickling', entertainment and crowd-pleasing (rather than God-pleasing) "worship". In actual fact, this is already a total reality on such a massive scale in today's Western church, that it begs the question of whether true, historic Christianity can even survive much longer without being utterly swamped by the prevailing hedonism and selfishness. Despite what we are being told, things really are that serious. True, historic Christianity is in terrible danger on many fronts. Unless something dramatic occurs, I see only years of increasing lukewarmness, shallowness and compromise ahead.

Surely the lament of Jesus found in Mt 15:8 is just as applicable today as it was then: "This people draw nigh to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." Where are those amongst today's youth ministries who will stand up and be counted for the Lord and His truth in our day?

Great Quotes

More GREAT QUOTES
-Sermonindex

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far
one can go."
-T.S. Eliot

"A revival of real praying would produce a spiritual revolution."
-E.M. Bounds

"All it takes to make a preacher is a sermon - but it takes an altar
to make a man of God." - B.H. Clendennen

"I must honestly declare my conviction that, since the days of the
Reformation, there never has been so much profession of religion
without practice, so much talking about God without walking with
Him, so much hearing God's words without doing them..."
- JC Ryle.

"Tell the Israelites, 'You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go
with you even for a moment, I might destroy you. Now take off your
ornaments and I will decide what to do with you.'" - Jehovah

"The one thing we learn from history is that we don't learn from
history." - Leonard Ravenhill