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reading velvet elvis

this past week i read through velvet elvis by rob bell. i actually started it a few months ago and it got put aside, but last weekend i picked it up and started again. i could hardly put it down!!! some of you out there have read it already, others have heard about it, and others are trying to figure out why i cared about a velvet elvis!!!

this really has nothing to do with elvis...but everything to do with living for Christ. like all books i read; i take some and leave some thoughts. this one was quite a challenge. a friend of mine described it as a look at how to make christianity relative to this generation. she didn't seem to totally agree with that and although i see where she comes from, this book totally put it in perspective.

bell goes to great lengths to pick apart the scriptures and explain them for that time period. phrases that i didn't really get are in there b/c it relates to the jewish customs of the days. when he would say something it clicked with them. when i tell someone to take up the cross and follow Christ or that His yoke is light they look at me with a puzzling look. especially if they were not raised in any kind of church life. what is a yoke? and the cross really holds no hold on value to them.

so, yes, while i believe the bible is real and is good for today because, well it is, we do need to find ways to express Christ to the world today in a way that makes sense to them. there were several passages that just hit me hard, but i'd like to share one that i think is too good to not share. here, bell has been talking about God's call to serve others and suffering:
To be this kind of person - the kind who selflessly serves - takes everything a person has. It is difficult. It is demanding. And we often find ourselves going against the flow of those around us. Which is why we are reclaiming the simple fact that Jesus said the way is narrow. We are honest about this, especially to our friends who wouldn't say they are Christians. Very few people in our world are offering anything worth dying for. Most of the messages we receive are about how to make life easier. The call of Jesus goes the other direction; it's about making our lives more difficult. It is going out of our way to be more generous and disciplined and loving and free. It is refusing to become numb to and check out of this broken, fractured world.

i pray i never become numb to or check out of this broken world, but serve wholeheartedly the people whom God loves.

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