396 Quotes by Rob Bell

The scorecard is rooted in resentment, and the space between you is highly responsive to resentment. The scorecard is lethal because its rooted in fear – fear that we’re on our own, that we’re not going to be taken care of, that we’re not going to get what we need... In order to get rid of scorecard, you have to choose to act in love instead of fear. To get rid of your scorecard, someone has to move toward the other first.

To elevate abstract doctrines and dogmas over living, breathing, embodied experiences of God’s love and grace, then, is going the wrong direction. It’s taking flesh and turning it back into words.

That may sound a big vague, but what has struck me in city after city is that despite our differences and diversity, there’s a common humanity we all share. In many ways we’re all searching and longing for the same things...

What’s disturbing, then, is when people talk more about hell after this life than they do about hell here and now. As a Christian I want to do what I can to resist hell coming to earth: poverty, injustice, suffering – they’re all hells on earth and as Christians we oppose them with all of our energies.

What the gospel does is confront our version of our story with God’s version of our story. It is a brutally honest, exuberantly liberating story, and it is good news. It begins with the sure and certain truth that we are loved. That in spite of whatever has gone horribly wrong deep in our hearts and has spread to every corner of the world, in spite of our sins, failures, rebellion, and hard hearts, in spite of what’s been done to us or what we’ve done, God has made peace with us.

Great artists know that it isn’t just about what you add; sometimes the most important work is knowing what to take away. Removing clutter, excess, all the superfluous elements – and finding out in the process what’s been in there the whole time.

The interactions I have are with people who are very kind and very grateful and they say very overwhelming things to me. Somebody who doesn’t like what I do or doesn’t understand it, then it wasn’t for them.

The vibrant, real historic Christian faith is very wide and leaves lots and lots of room for varying perspectives. It’s very diverse and wide, that’s part of it’s strength, life and vibrancy.

Once again, God has a purpose. A desire. A goal. And God never stops pursuing it. Jesus tells a series of parables in Luke 15 about a woman who loses a coin, a shepherd who loses a sheep, and a father who loses a son. The stories aren’t ultimately about things and people being lost; the stories are about things and people being found. The God that Jesus teaches us about doesn’t give up until everything that was lost is found. This God simply doesn’t give up. Ever.